SPOOOOOOKY

Loving the beautiful weather!!!

WOW. Today in Three Hills its plus 20 out... I am a happy girl. Went to do my errands in my flip flops and a t-shirt. How awesome is that? Today and tomorrow is determined to be really nice and then the temperature plunges and I mean plunges... this time next week we are apparently getting snow! Today we are going to enjoy some Mediterranean Chicken, Foccacia bread with oil and vinegar, Greek salad and grilled asparagus... and I'm going to make it all on the BBQ grill! YAAAAYYYYY. We are thinking that this is the last time before the cold really hits us that we are going to be using the grill :( Hope you are all getting some beautiful fall weather where ever you are!! :)

How Autumnal

autumnal is my new favorite word so I had to use it in the title. So, the blustering has stopped and the weather is allot warmer without the icy winds blowing in your face (although its still awfully cold out) Today I went to pick out pumpkins with two of the guys who live in our suite downstairs (Jo-Ben and one of the other guys from downstairs were at work so we picked theirs out for them) We got some pretty awesome pumpkins, brought them home & hosed them off. After dinner and the pumpkins had dried we brought them in, covered the kitchen table with garbage bags and started the carving! I LOVE pumpkin carving... I don't really remember doing it growing up, we probably did because my mom wasn't opposed to that kinda thing but I just don't have any vivid memories of it... I guess kids and knives don't really mix. I do remember doing traditional things during other holidays like dyeing Easter eggs and sleeping under the Christmas tree with my sister and I do have Halloween memories of trickortreeting and going to the harvest party at church but no pumpkin carving memories. We ALWAYS dressed up and always as either a cowboy or a clown... every year. too funny. I think we wore that pink and blue clown costume until it just was so small on us it looked absolutely ridiculous. We lived in an area with not many kids and lots of elderly people which was awesome because there was always LOTS of candy given out and the omas and opas bought things like full sized chocolate bars and cans of pop. Anyways, we carved pumpkins tonight with 'our boys' from downstairs and had so much fun. My husband carved the coolest pumpkin that looks like the face of a wearwolf, I carved a silly scary face and the boys carved "scary faces". It was really funny when the images in their minds didn't exactly turn out on the pumpkin. I think they all look really great and looking at them I can totally tell who's is who's so I thought that was really neat. Its fun having the guys from downstairs to do stuff like that with because they are such funny guys and since they are all like 10 years younger that Jo-Ben they always watch what he does or ask him what to do. He loves it and I think its so funny. So the pumpkins got carved and I made the BEST roasted seeds ever. I thought that I would make three different flavors so I washed and dried the pumpkin seeds and then covered them with a bit of oil, then I split them up into three bowls and made one spicy with salt & pepper and lots of Cayenne pepper. The second batch I made with salt & pepper, Cinnamon, cardamom and ginger powder. The third batch I kept simple and just made with seasoning salt and pepper. We roasted them all in the same pan but in their own separate groups and I was planning on serving them in three separate bowls but then around the middle of roasting I found that I needed to stir the seeds up so the bottoms wouldn't burn and we decided to just mix them all together because it was too hard to keep them seperate. So we mixed them all up and when they were done poured them into one big bowl. They ended up being FANTASTIC! We salted them more once they were in the bowl too because pumpkin seeds need a surprising amount of seasoning to make them taste good. We hung out and had Jo-Ben's special caramel lattes and roasted pumpkin seeds and admired our pumpkins! It was a fun fall night. I cant wait to hand out candy at my own house for the first time ever. I have already decorated our front door with some stick on things and a plant by our front door with fake spider webs and glow in the dark spiders and have the candy in a bowl ready to go! I don't think I'm going to dress up or anything but I thought it would be fun to cook some spaghetti and peel some grapes to make kids touch "brains and eyeballs" before they get a candy. muwahahahah. we will see if that actually happens but I think I'm ready for those trick or treaters none the less. The battery in our camera died today so I didn't get any pics of the carving ordeal but I will take some of them outside tomorrow night. I'm also thinking of inviting some friends over and having a chili and games night this weekend, I thought that would be a fun fall tradition to start. :) Anyways, that was my day hope you all had a great autumnal day! I'm off to watch The Hills :)

Saturdays continued...

So, after I wrote my post I settled into the couch with my blanket to watch a movie/nap and as I was dozing off I was looking out the window that the couch faces and all of a sudden, I kid you not, I see the (very heavy) plastic cover for our patio furniture fly by our second story window like a big gray blob... I ran out to the back deck thinking our whole patio set had flown off the deck but it was there so I ran out the front door to see where the patio cover had landed and thankfully it was just in our neighbors yard... I got the boys who are renting from us downstairs to go and get it for me as I can hardly lift the thing myself when its NOT blowing 40 km/hr winds... so yeah, its blustery to say the least... and poor Jo-Ben was working outside shooting pipelines all afternoon. Heres hoping that our shingles don't blow off or our bbq doesnt fly off the deck or somthing... yikes!

Saturdays

There is just something about Saturdays that I love... especially when Jo-Ben is home. Saturdays are just so laxadazy, sleeping in, lazing around, I love it. Now, don't get me wrong, lately I have been "sleeping in" just about every day... I don't know what it is but this baby doesn't let me sleep soundly at night... I usually only get to sleep around 3 am weather I plop into bed at 11, 1 whatever and for some reason I am awake every hour on the hour until about 6 am so unless I sleep in till noon I don't get any sort of rest. I read that in your 5th month the baby is the most active at night and that's why some people don't feel it moving and during the day when you are walking or moving around it often rocks the baby to sleep but I guess I am a light sleeper because if the baby is most active at night its definitely waking me up. I have only felt the baby as a light flutter, no big kicks or jabs yet but yeah, its mostly night time movement I think. Anyways, Saturdays just have some kind of quality about them that I love... today we slept in, Jo-Ben watched some soccer and I made brunch (bacon, eggs and toast & coffee of course) we just hung out all morning. Jo-Ben is off to work this afternoon and I am so glad that I get to stay indoors today... it is a BLUSTERY day... there is even snow blowing around on and off... feels like a good day to stay wrapped up in a blanket with my pup. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

my bump today

This is my cute lil pup... I couldn't resist when I saw this sweater in the store...






And the most adorable owl pumpkins that I have ever seen on marthastewart.com

Enjoy!

just life stuff

First of all, thanks to everyone for all of the well wishes in the form of blogger comments, emails and Facebook comments. I am overwhelmed. Thanks so much.

Yesterday was a busy day so today I am just relaxing around the house. Yesterday I woke up pretty early (for me anyways... that means before 10am) I made brunch for my hubby (who was home for the morning) and I. We hung out and watched some TV, had some lattes and just enjoyed the morning. After noon I headed out to do grocery shopping, go to the accountant, do banking, and to the post office, oh I also bought a doggie sweater for my fur baby... its so cute! I found it at the hardware store and it was only 15 dollars so I couldn't resist and I think Joey actually likes wearing it too- bonus! I will have to take pics but its too windy outside today. I made my first meal with my crock pot, I don't know why I have never used it before I guess because its just Jo-Ben and I usually and a huge crock pot full of food doesn't make any sense to me but I made a small roast in it and it turned out beautifully. It was a recipe that I got from a friend, she simply uses a packet of onion soup mix, a packet of brown gravy and a couple of cups of 7-up... I know it sounds strange but it makes the most amazing tender roast. We had it with mashed potatoes and my favorite spinach salad with mushrooms, red onions and hard boiled eggs & a creamy poppy seed dressing. We didn't eat till about 8 because I didn't get the crock pot started till the afternoon but it was sure worth the wait. And Jo-Ben was sure excited to get roast beef sandwiches in his lunch today. While I waited for the roast I did 3 loads of laundry... why do I let it pile up like that?!

So since I had such a busy day yesterday I am taking it easy today... I am not the energizer bunny that I used to be. This baby really takes a great deal of my energy... sleep is my best friend lately. Today my only goal is to get dinner on the table for my main squeeze, he has 3 jobs to work at today so he wont be back till late tonight and I am going to make roasted chicken with apples and leaks, found the recipe in this months Real Simple magazine and it looks like comfort food to me so hopefully it warms him up and makes him happy! I am so glad that I am not feeling as sick as I was for the first 4 months, I can finally cook again! I have actually been spending time over the porcelain throne this month which didn't happen in my first trimester- I FELT horrible during the first trimester but never actually got physically sick but this month I have been feeling great (except for that nasty cold/flu I had) but getting sick... pregnancy is so weird.

I watched Martha Stewart today and I love that show but don't usually think that any of her crafts are worth attempting but she made these burlap place mats today and they are so cute and really easy so I just might attempt them. Its on her web site today www.marthastewart.com in the middle of the page 1/2 way down under the television section. I wish that they had a picture of them, oh I just clicked on the link and it is actually labeled as napkins but I don't know about you, I wouldn't want to use a burlap napkin... I think that they look like cute place mats.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great day! Ciao :)

We are pleased to announce....

This is my baby...

And this is me! (on Thanksgiving Monday)

So yeah, I have been a very bad blogger for the past few months because I've been SO sick... this little guy or gal is sure an active little one and my body has been put through the ringer because if it. I wasn't sick or nearly this exhausted with the first two pregnancies so its a very good sign that the baby is growing and doing well. The ultra sound pics are from today, we had our second ultra sound and our Dr. thinks that I am about 17 weeks along and I am due in the beginning of April. The ultra sound pics are pretty bad because my Dr.s machine is a jalopy and doesn't print off pictures so we took some of the screen with our digital camera. We are planning on getting a 4D ultra sound in Calgary within the next couple of weeks. We are thrilled and I am so excited to be able to announce this to all of you!

THANKSGIVING!!

We had a great thanksgiving weekend. Even though we didn't get to spend any time with family we got to spend lots of time with many friends. We thought Jo-Ben would have to work all weekend but it ended up that he got Monday off so we hosted a big thanksgiving feast at our house. It was my first time making a turkey and I was VERY nervous but it turned out juicy, tender and fabulous. I didn't even have to call my mom for help! (although she did give me all of her tips the day before) I also made fluffy mashed roasted garlic potatoes, green bean casserole, maple glazed carrots, stuffing and the usual homemade gravy and cranberry sauce. A few friends brought a salad and buns and our friend jeff even made a pumpkin pie from scratch, I was quite impressed... he told me about how he did it roasting the pumpkin and making the homemade pie crust... a little more ambitious than Ive ever been... I bought my pumkin pie from the iga! :) Dinner and desert was great and afterwards we had our usual Barkey favorite- a game of Farkle! Farkle is the exact same game as nooscht for all of you Mennos out there. I always thought that Farkle was just a name that the crazy Barkeys made up for the game but last year I was in Wal-Mart and I actually found a cup that looked like a yhatzee cup but it said FARKLE! on it and had 6 dice, the instrucitons and everthing... I thought it was funny so I bought it. Jo-Ben and I have made up a few of our own house rules while include the 'farkle glasses' They are the nose and mustache glasses that I bought for a joke a while back but if anyone farkles with all 6 dice on the very first turn we make them wear the farkle glasses till the next person farkles with all 6 dice... its a god time... untill you have to wear the farkle glasses. Its our favorite game to play when people come over to visit so we played with our dinner guests THEN we had another group of friends stop by and we played another round... all in all we had 15 people over for Thanksgiving yesterday. It was lots of fun. :)

Today Im just chilling out at home, relaxing... Jo-Ben had a tooth pulled this morning so hes not feeling so hot and cant really eat anything so I'm racking my brain trying to think of what to make him for dinner. Poor guy. He had a tooth with 3 cracks in it so everytime he ate anything cold or hot it seeped into the cracks and hit the nerve. The Dr. said that he could do a root canal and cap it for 2000 dollars or pull it for 200... Jo-Ben decided to get it pulled. yikes!

I was SO sick last week with a nasty viral infection and ear infection so I was pretty much out of commission for a whole week... I'm still coughing and have a little bit of a runny nose but doing MUCH better. I can finally breathe through borth nostrils so that is what I was thankfull for yesterday :)

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Red Deer, my friend Lindsay is going to a hair school out there and she has hooked me up with a sr student to get some highlights for cheap and I'm also going to get a pedicure at the aesthetics school next door. Can't wait. I havent had my hair done since my sisters wedding in the begining of July so I am in dire need for a touch up...my roots are starting to look a little Sarah Jessica Parkerish.

Anyways, here are some pics from last night. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving surrounded by many family and friends!

Lindsay was the first one to don the farkle glasses!

Lane was reluctant but wore the glasses too

Then it was Karianne's turn!

by the end of the night Joey was pooped... he had a comfy lap to hang out on

my center piece

Jo-Ben took pics of me with my very first home made turkey! I was so proud... when I was carving it up I was giggling euphoricly!

sleepy joey... looks like he needs his bangs cut!

October pics... of our 'fur baby'

So, we put a shirt and little socks on him... yeah, were 'those people'.

There is a pic of my 10 month old nephew standing up like this holding onto a board and it reminded me of Joey because he stands like this up on the deck when we don't let him down in the yard... we don't have a fance yet so unless we are watching him we don't like him out in the yard... he obviously wants down!

This is how he lays around, I think its so cute :)

Jo-Ben and his little buddy watching soccer. This is how Joey actually laid for a long time.

More pics of him in his shirt and socks. Heeheehee.

wonderful weekend!

This weekend has been a blast. Friday night Jo-Ben and I rented a movie and just chilled out at home, made some nachos and vegged out. Saturday we slept in and then headed out to Calgary to watch the TWU men's soccer team play Calgary. Jo-Ben got to see his coach from way back when who is still coaching the team. He also got to catch up with a couple of guys from Uni that are assistant coaching that Jo-Ben used to play soccer with when they all attended Trinity. After the game we headed out to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Calgary. After an amazing dinner I went out to an Asian market near by and Jo-Ben headed to a new and used sports store to snatch up some hockey gear that he was needing. I found some great Asian food like wasabi and miso soup that we don't ever have at the IGA here in Three Hills. Afterwards we headed out to the Super Store to pick up a few necessities that I needed for our pot luck brunch for Sunday. After shopping we headed out for a Starbucks and out to a movie. We went to see Eagle Eye which turned out to be a really good movie- awesome concept.... very suspenseful. We headed home after the movie and once we got home Jo-Ben watched a movie with the boys who are renting our basement suite while I baked pumpkin spice loaves, banana chocolate chip muffins and prepared a couple of broccoli Cheddar frittatas. We headed to bed quite late and I ended up with a killer headache before my head hit the pillow. Jo-Ben went to church on Sunday morning while I rested my little head, I got up before he got home from church and started to prep for a pot luck brunch that we were hosting at our place. We had about 15 people over and everyone brought something... I made the stuff that I mentioned plus coffee and tea, the boys downstairs brought some awesome chorizzo sausages and OJ, some other friends brought hashbrown potatoes that they fried up with spices and peppers, honey dew and cantaloupe & a big pan of ricecrispie squares with nutella and peanut butter drizzle... it was awesome... we are going to try to do a big pot luck brunch like that every two weeks. I love to have people over but it was really nice to have all of our friends contribute, allot less stress full for moi. This afternoon we are just chilling out and watching football & napping, I am contemplating driving into Red Deer to do some shopping but just looking for the motivation to get off my butt... right now the lazy boy is feeling pretty comfy and I'm enjoying a cuddle with my pup... Hope you are all having a great weekend! :)