Girls are awesome!

Sugar and spice and everything nice….. that is what girls are made of… J

I'm sure boys are great fun but girls are fabulous in pink. They like clothes, shopping, going out to lunch, they notice cute shoes, adore having their nails done, and truly believe you can never ware too much pink. They also love to dig for worms, enjoy dirt, and recognize the awesomeness of power tools (even if they are loud & not pink).

 

The modern girl is awesome.
She likes dirt, tools, and building things.
She likes pink, shopping and dressing up in princess gowns and coveralls for those dirty jobs.
She just digs with pink polka dot shovels, has bows on her coveralls, and keeps her tools in a beaded handbag.  
My girls fascinate me. The idea that tools don't come in pink is ridiculous to them. So is the idea that there are things they can't do because they are girls. They teach me things every day and our adventure together is still just beginning.

made me think

I read a wonderful post today by one Miss Elle.
It was a post that made me smile, a soul deep smile.

She was talking about that moment when you relies that you are no longer "you" but a new "mother" version of yourself.

I loved that moment.
The moments when you miss watching grown up programing but wouldn't give up the snuggles and giggles on the couch watching something animated for anything in the world.

Coffee shops, happy hour, carefree shopping, and many more things suddenly don't have the same siren call they once did.

When we first started talking about more babies, i was scared.
My girls are big enough that i was getting that "me" time back. I didn't know what i was giving up with my girls. I also didn't know what i was getting.

Now I'm eager to finish our remodeling projects and get pregnant again. The snuggles, kisses, hugs, drawings, story time, well everything really even when they drive me crazy; that's my siren call now.

it's been awhile, let me catch you up

Things are moving along at a pretty good clip here. Still can't believe that it's almost August but we have been busy getting things done.

The rehab project for the garage is complete. New roof, fixed siding, new man door, new garage door, and the roof no longer dips. Yeah!

The Playroom is no longer in the formal dining room attached to the living room. Half has been relocated to the old dining room and the other half is in the basement.

The basement is no longer piled floor to hip and I'll admit in some places ceiling with our junk. All of the garage stuff has been relocated to, well the garage. Several boxes have been gone thru majority of contents tossed out and repacked in one box. This has left room to pack up all the miscellaneous baby gear that was taking over the basement. The end result is that i have a wonderful space to sew in. Eric has a cabinet to keep all of his computer stuff in and a work from home desk that holds our home server. The girls now have their own TV area and some toys in their "own space" in the house. I still have more to do down there but the end goal is in sight.
The kitchen: well we have torn up the floor, the hardwood goes thru out the kitchen :) and is in great shape! Eric tore down the pantry wall, redid all the electrical including installing two new outlets and two light switches, and hung the drywall. He is starting on the next wall tomorrow. It's the one with my stove so I'll be BBQing for awhile, but it'll be worth it.

When we haven't been doing that stuff we celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary. The girls did the SHOCK dance camp and performed at halftime. We have been going to SHOCK games. We celebrated several birthdays and a few anniversaries. We enjoyed the 4Th of July festivities. Sundays at the lake. Afternoons at the pool. Kaitlyn lost another tooth. And we of course have been enjoying our Movie Nights in the backyard.

In August we will still be full steam ahead on the kitchen. We have two weddings Scott's and Danica's. One May Boys weekend. And school shopping to do.

Wish us luck!

tooth fairy

My baby lost her first tooth today.

It was a happy, exciting, nagging reminder that she is no longer a baby.
I relish these milestones of hers.

I also hate these milestone.
They are reminders that in a few short months time, i will have to share her with the world. I fully admit i don't like sharing. She's mine, enough said.

She is a sensitive, smart, brilliant, intelligent, funny, charming, methodical, loquacious little girl whom i adore more each day. She can reason her way into or out of anything she puts her mind to. I may say no five times, maybe even ten, what ever the objection she will find a way around it. She has been doing this since before she learned to speak. At five and a half she has gotten frighteningly good at it. "dinner is in the crock pot, the table is set, both parents are home, it is windy but not dark or cold or rainy, sissy & i have our coat and shoes on, May we go fly a kite?"
If in years to come she does not go into a field of work that uses her innate skills at argument I'll be shocked.

Tonight I will place a dollar and some gum into a tooth shaped pillow. I will squeal with delight as she shows me her treasures in the morning. I will hug her and snuggle her and ponder the tooth fairy with her, tomorrow will be a great day.

pictures to come

Almost ready for the road trip to Utah!
In my endeavors to prepare i have emptied the memory card on the camera. I hate to admit it's been way to long since i have done that. I copied some 400 pictures to the home server Yikes!
Anyway, if i have done my prep work well very little to get done tomorrow before we leave. So hopefully a proper blog post on my Chocolate Easter creations and many many uploads to flickr.
Have a happy day everyone.
-me
PS: we are going to Utah for two graduations. So very proud of Stephen & Joshua!! So very happy to share in this moment with them!
PPS: Baby brother Josh finished 5th in the country at Nationals for Hockey!!! Super proud of him too! We didn't get to go but we watched online! thank goodness for streaming video!

Easter Prep

Easter is rapidly approaching and my chocolate endeavors have been going great.
I have all the chocolate candies made for our various family members.
I have one complete solid 3D chocolate bunny made for the girls. One more of those to make along with a handful of other chocolates for the girls. I have to make these last because i can eat them. It's really easy for me to resist things that make me sick. But lots of chocolate that is safe for me to eat, is in danger near me.
I currently have one soy free & dairy free & peanut free bunny hardening in the fridge now. For my soy free sister. Playing with the rice milk based, milk chocolate has been fun. I think if i ever get around to making "holiday themed treats for folks with allergies" to sell, i would use this rice milk chocolate product.
Currently looking at vegan hot cross bun recipes.
They are a classic Easter treat for my family. The things mom has bought at the store the last few years, the dog won't eat. So I have been pondering making some.
I found this one and i think I'll have to try them out. http://jennsrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/02/hot-cross-buns.html
Happy Egg Hunting if i don't see you before Easter.
-Kat

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays

So the past three weekends have been a blur of birthday fun.
Weekend one: March 6th, my older sister's birthday. We had dinner at the casino, we gambled a bit (i blew $5 on the penny slots and had fun), we then ventured to the dueling piano bar. Oh my goodness did we have fun. It was funny, and we (as in the whole bar) sang at the top of our lungs to all the songs, oh and did i mention the 20 something year old totally grinding with my mom. Needless to say a fun night.
Weekend two: March 12th, pre St.Patrick's day festivities and a van full of hawkers come to town to house hunt. With 3-4 more kids than usual I had a blast doing what ever. I think i ate to much McDonald's, ran/chased kids in the park, and played on the slide to name a few. We also had a Birthday Party with said out of town Hawkers for my darling Samantha and little miss Miriam. Cake, pin the tiaras on the princess, pizza, and presents we partied it up good! And as an added Bonus my baby brother won the State Hockey tournament and now will be playing in nationals! Can I get a whoop whoop!
Weekend three: March 20th, Samantha, Mya, and Jack's actual day of birth. The girls and i went shopping while waiting for dad to come home, then we went out to dinner at Rock City (yum), picked up an ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry's (double yum), then headed home for cake and presents. Super fun day for our little family. On Sunday we had a birthday party with the Vance's and family friends at Chuck E Cheese for my darling Samantha and miss Mya. the girls love Chuck E Cheese. Then on Monday we went out to celebrate Michael's 60th Birthday. We went out to the casino again for the buffet. We all wore "over the hill" buttons & I made him an "old fart cup", an "over the hill" sash, a birthday horn, oh and he had a button too. Then we gambled in the Casino. 60 must be a lucky birthday Dani won $203, Jason won $100, Eric won $150, Mom doubled her money, Kristina came out even, and i had a blast!
Well that's what we have been up to. Celebrating the life of our family members.

easter candy

On the easter candy to do list

bird nest candies
http://www.wilton.com/idea/Bird-Nest-Candies

bunny jelly bean baskets
http://www.wilton.com/idea/Bunny-Jelly-Bean-Basket

and some kind of traditional chocolate bunny


Maybe when i get this candy thing figured out more quickly than the night before the holiday i can make and sell my darling little dairy and peanut free candies.

ethnic

It's not until you are a fully grown up adult and wanting to cook things from your childhood that the reality of how ethnic your upbringing was hits you.
In my teen years I was aware that there was quirky things about my family that other folks didn't do. It was generally only around the holidays that I noticed these things. I figured it was just our family traditions and thought nothing more about it.
In my twenty's I noticed several other things and again just shook my head at the differences. I figured it was the Canadian mixed with Southern that created it's own interesting mix of what ever it was, that was uniquely my family.
Now on the eve of my thirtieth birthday i just have to admit that I had an extremely ethnic upbringing. Now ethnic may not be the term you would think of seeing my all Caucasian family, but ethnic it was. It was not American. It was British by way of Canada. Yes there was a decent helping of southern mixed in. But if you take the time to look real close, most traditional Southern anything is classic English with more flavor.
I grew up eating Shepperd's pie, toad in the hole, pork sausages with fried or mashed potatoes and onions smothered in gravy (bangers and mash), pasties, meat in gravy on toast, sitting down for tea, cucumber sandwiches, tomato sandwiches, butter tarts, mince meat tarts, and so many other things. That list doesn't even take into account Christmas crackers, boccie ball, curling or any other Canadian thing that we do.
We might have looked all American from the outside but we most certainly were not. I suppose it makes sense, of my four brothers and sisters only one is American born. My older sister who shares my father, was born in the US. We were both born in the Ozarks. My parents were high school sweet hearts. Later when my Canadian born mother remarried it was to another Canadian. Both of them Canadians only three to four generations off the boat from England. How could they help but raise us up in a Canadian way. It's their heritage that they shared with us. They might not have intended our household to be so ethnic, but it was in all the little Canadian things that they do that made it our home.
So thank you mom and mike for my Canadian quirks and thank you dad because my husband teases me often that my southern is showing.

22 days and counting

I have been focusing on how old Kaitlyn is and how big she is and how much she can do and how in just a few months she will be starting full day kindergarten. I will admit that on occasion i have even pouted about this.
I have wondered why I have been focused on this so much. Why I have pouted and moped about the "march of time" concerning my oldest.
Well today i think i have come to the root of the problem.
I have been avoiding the fact that my youngest will be turning 4 in 22 days. That she is already the size of a 5 year old. And that any of the last remnants of baby and toddler hood have left long ago. She has been a full fledged preschooler since her third birthday and maybe a little before it.
I do believe that i have been focused on the lesser of the two issues in my "mommy no longer has any babies" issue. I enjoy these now older children and relish in the freedom that them being older brings and yet some part of me revolts at the very idea that i have no babies. My girls are definitely not babies. My girls are not toddlers. My girls are on the very top end of preschooler. Geesh if Kaitlyn's birthday had been 6 weeks sooner she would be almost done with Kindergarten. They are smart, capable, independent, with very strong senses of self young ladies. They make me proud every day.
Oh, i admit I'm selfish. It's me that's not ready to share their wonderfulness with the world. They are poised and ready to skip, hop, and jump into the next stage in life. The stage where you get a best friend and are attached at the hip till at least the 4th grade. It's when I get pushed to the back seat instead of the passenger seat. I didn't like being kicked out of the drivers seat either. Darling Husband keeps telling me I'm still in the car. I know he's trying to cheer me up, but that just reminds me that one day I won't be in the car at all. One day far sooner than I'll want I'll have to get out of the car and yes I'll blubber like a big baby when I do.

Valentine's Chocolates

This was the end result of my chocolate making fun. There were two of these darling little boxes for my two darling little girls on valentines day. I only have the one picture due to battery failure on the camera and the speed that little girls can eat chocolates. The finished boxes were two layers with the rose lollipop on top with one additional marshmallow lip. The bottom layer that you can see here had two lips filled with marshmallows, three cherry filled hearts, two blueberry roses, and two almond butter balls. It was so wonderful to see my girls carefully pick which chocolate to eat next and to see the joy on their faces from having an entire box of different chocolate candies. I am already thinking big for Easter. I am hoping that this year they will get their first chocolate bunnies.

week 23 already

My girls are working on their weekly math work sheets as i finish up the sewing on the critters they will be stuffing very soon. I am multi-tasking as usual, stitch stitch instruct, stitch stitch instruct. As I read the instructions on comparing tall and short, Samantha shouts out "this stop sign is tallest, mom momma stop is an s s s "S" word." Kaitlyn not to be out done by her little sister quickly points out that sign is also an "S" word. I am thrilled that they love learning and poke myself with the needle, as my brain takes a moment to bask in momma pride. The phrase "multi-tasking can be dangerous" floats through my head as a suck on my now bleeding finger.
Band-aid in place the girls have moved on to a cut and paste project. An astronaut who is catching stars. Although this page has very little coloring the cutting of 10 tiny starts will keep them busy for awhile.
It's some where between the spontaneous rhyming game, the speed and the quality of the cutting, the guessing of tomorrows possible science lesson and project, and brainstorming of possible "S" food to cook when it hits me like a ton of bricks. Oh My Goodness We are on S Week! The school year is more than 1/2 over. We are on week 23 of a 38 week program. And my little experiment into home schooling has been wonderful, fun and very successful.
I am writing this as both girls happily stuff their stuffed animals chatting away and continuing to discuss possibilities of their "S" themed science lesson. We are making Snow from a kit i picked up, it's a surprise though. Surprises are a part of "S" week fun.

update update, chocolate & preschool

on the chocolate front...
I have mastered the nut butter to chocolate ratio in a nut butter cup. they how ever do not look very pretty. to be honest they look like lumps of poo. Kaitlyn has however given them the official thumbs up and requested several more.
I however still have not made any caramel. i need to make sweetened condensed milk from soy milk and buy some arrowroot. The condensed milk looks easy enough to make but haven't bothered to yet since i have forgotten to buy arrowroot for 3 trips to the store.
If i can make a decent caramel, twix bars are in the future. mounds bars are also on the to-do list. Of the chocolates that i have made so far the fruit filled hearts are my favorite with marshmallow lips coming in second. The almond butter cups are good but almond butter is NOT peanut butter and well peanut butter is better. Although i am tempted to make peanut butter cups, with Kaitlyn the risk is not worth it.
in the preschool universe....
"P" week was sooooo much fun. We painted. We made Puppets. We did Pattern blocks. We made Play dough. We ate pizza and made pirogies. Anyway P week was a blast. I was worried that "Q" week would be dull. What fun things to do start with Q? Well i found i science lesson on Quick sand, it was so much fun. In fact we will be making quicksand again for S week so we can compare and contrast sand and quicksand. Super neat stuff quicksand. We also made quilt blocks. They were fun but not as cool as quicksand. Today we have started "R" week. In my web browsing for spring planting and then fun R things to do, I am sure i am now on the the FBI's watch list. i started the day with fertilizer, poly tunnels and polyurethane coverings, composting mixes, how to hide fertilizer or compost bins, gardening in plane site, home made rockets, rocket fuel, fuel for the home made rocket. well you can see how maybe those searches might have put up a red flag some where. If i can't come up with a preschool level rocket experiment, we will stick to recycling, rescue responders and (if i can locate a prism) rainbows. Not that rainbows aren't cool, it's just not a rocket.
Well I had better go. Laundry is calling and i really need to get some sewing done.

chocolate candies

I have been making chocolates today.
I was good and didn't sample my creations as i was making them. Once they were made is a different story. Here at almost 1 in the morning I have eaten far far to many.
They turned out very pretty. Little chocolate hearts and chocolate lips filled with fruit or marshmallows. Oh and they taste even better than they look. Yummy!
Well maybe they don't taste very good. My point of reference is a little skewed. Finding dairy free chocolate candy is very hard to do. And generally if you do find some, the chocolate tastes so bad you wish you hadn't found any at all. So they taste really really really good to me. Husband keeps sneaking them out of the kitchen so they can't be to bad.
With some effort i have made good tasting peanut butter cup filling out of almond butter. So tomorrow I will be making almond butter cups. If you thought finding dairy free chocolate candy was hard..... finding peanut & dairy free chocolate candy is almost impossible.
So I have given up looking!
I want my kids to eat candy like every other kid out there!
So I am making it my-self!
I have found a caramel recipe with favorable reviews. If the almond butter cups go well caramel hearts are next. Then maybe twix bars. Who knows I just might figure out how to make nougat after that.

Feeling like there is target painted on me.
Feeling that no matter how much I dance around, the winds of change will find me.
Realizing that I painted the target on myself and wishing the wind would blow faster.

We bought a Wii

After years of a video gaming system free house. We now have one!

back story:
I banished video games to the cold basement after Kaitlyn was born. The sounds of people being killed woke her from her nap repeatedly. She was a very hard child to get to fall asleep and I was very sleep deprived. I believe I might have inferred to darling husband that severe bodily harm would come to him if video games ever bother child or me again, severe bodily harm. Anyway I didn't see or hear or have an a-wall husband due to video games ever again. Now back to my story.

I had been looking into a video gaming system for awhile. Darling Husband was hesitant, he still vividly remembered hormonal, sleep deprived wife, that had banished video games. I pointed out that before the children came we played video games together all the time. We used to invite people over and have video game playing parties with multiple consoles all hooked together. (yes we are geeky, we like sci-fi stuff too, including star trek)
After a few minuets when Eric remembered these things, his eyes lit up, "The x-box 360 looks so cool and the games...... oh Kat that would be awesome lets go get one right now!" I felt bad, but I had to crush that little ray of hope. I said that whatever we got the girls had to be able to play. And none of the... well they can play this one game, while the other 20 they can't be in the room for buisness.
A little crest fallen Eric looked at me and said, "So you want a Wii? I can work with that. Can we go get it right now?"

1 Wii, 1 extra regular controller, 2 motion plus controllers, a zapper, a balance board, a memory card, and a hard drive later..... we own a Wii.
The girls love it! Eric loves it! I really enjoy all the old school games and I love the Wii fit Plus. Oh and I love battling my hubby after the girls go to bed. Some times I win, Sometimes he wins, every time we have fun. And who would have guessed that a video game would get me to do yoga. Well not me.

questions

Is it time to have another baby?
So I have been on the pro baby band wagon for the last 2 years. Since shortly before Samantha's second birthday. She will be 4 years old this march.
Now my darling husband often humored my pro baby status, but wasn't willing to give it the go ahead. His standard answer was, "let's talk again in 6 months."
He is now on the pro baby #3 bandwagon. And since I always said 2 or 4 kids, he's also on board of the baby #4 bandwagon.
I have suddenly jumped off the pro baby bandwagon. I didn't jump into the "No baby" bandwagon. I'm just on the ground walking and watching the wagons drive off into the distance.

The girls are mostly self sufficient. Yes, they still need me, but less and less. Mostly my help is for safety reasons, not because they can't or don't want to do it on their own. I have time for "Me time" because of this new independence. Me time is awesome. I missed it.
Being pregnant was a very unpleasant experience. Wonderful yes, but down right miserable for 9 months. Do I really want to do that again?
Infants need to be fed every 2 hours and changed every 2 hours, 24 hours a day. Sleep is a wonderful thing. I missed sleep too. For the first time in 6 years I sleep through the night, unless someone is sick. Do I really want to wait another six years for sleep?

Now that hubby is giving the go ahead, I'm not sure I have the courage to jump in the water.

Yes, I want another baby. No, I don't feel done having children. I long to feel full with life, even when that life is bruising my ribs. My arms ache to hold another baby. My heart longs to love this new person.

But I truly feel the weight of that commitment this time. And to be honest..... it scares the crap out of me.

I was a crafty lady this year in preparation for the holidays.

I made chocolates.
I made super hero capes.
I made magnets.
I made felt food.

I had so very much fun making. I enjoyed it in a spiritual fulfilling sort of way. There is something so special about taking one thing and creating it into something else.

I finished with plenty of time to enjoy our very busy holiday schedule. Oh and a very busy holiday schedule we did have.

Just wondering what I will do now.

my thoughtful girls

My darling girls gave me the most thoughtful gifts for Christmas.

Samantha gave me,
picked out while shopping with dad much to his dismay-
a large white board type calender with a notes section at the bottom. I was using a small magnetic calender and having to write all my notes directly on the fridge. Now I no longer have to write on the fridge.
picked out by herself at Santa express-
a teddy bear. I didn't have a snuggle buddy, this fact really bothered Sam, so she fixed it.

Kaitlyn gave me,
picked out with dad again much to his dismay-
a pair of soft fuzzy socks, just like the ones Kaitlyn has that i always say "oh i wish i had a pair of soft fuzzy socks just like you". now i do.
picked out by herself at the Santa express-
A necklace. A pretty necklace for a pretty mama, she told me. Eric was very bummed by this because he walked the girls around the jewelery counter many times but they would not change their mind from the calender and socks.

I just have the smartest most thoughtful children. I am truly blessed.