More baking!

You may have guessed by now, but I love baking.....mostly because I love the end results. Christmas is the one time a year I can sort of justify mass amounts of homemade sugared goodies in my house! Mmmmm, the smell that goes along with it is almost as good as the taste. I just finished making my second batch of apple cider caramels, and with any luck they will turn out. I kind of botched mixing the ingredients, but I think I was able to sort it out! Lol, the first batch was perfect though, and I am still doing it all with a broken candy thermometer!

This is where my thermometer freezes EVERY time. It never  goes higher than 210˚!

I also tried making an English toffee recipe. This specific recipe didn't want you to use a candy thermometer, so I thought it would be perfect. Well, it didn't turn into the hard break apart toffee it was supposed to, but it was deliciously chewy, and Mike an I still downed the whole batch. Maybe I will try again, because I really love that crunch.
I also tried a new recipe that I found off Pinterest. These were a total hit! Chocolate Turtle Cookies. I took them to a Christmas party and they were thoroughly enjoyed, and the recipe was requested by many. Mike is already asking me to make more because they didn't last long. I doubled the recipe and used some of the extra dough to stick candy cane kisses into. I love the peppermint chocolate combo too!

I also made a delicious Peanut Butter Toblerone no-bake cheesecake. I made it last year and we loved it, so it made it onto this years baking list. I didn't get a picture of the one I made, but you can check out the recipe and what it looks like here.
I may end up baking another batch or two of cookies, and I will probably give that toffee one more shot, but other that that I am nearing the end of my crazy Christmas baking spree.
I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!! And a Happy New Year!

Third trimester!

So there is a bit of a debate on my dates....nothing serious, as I know a due date is irrelevant.... baby comes when baby comes. But according to my second ultrasound they put my due date at March 3rd, and my doctor is still referring to my dates according to March 8th. So I am somewhere between 27 and 28 weeks. Either way....I have essentially arrived at the third trimester! Leaving it at the latter date, I only have 90 days to go! If I am really lucky it might be less. But more likely it will be more! :) I was late with my others! This one probably won't be any different.....sooooo to update!
- overall I have still been feeling pretty good.
- mild heartburn once in a while, enjoying food a lot again.
- overall weight gain about 8lbs
- only mildly waddling....but I am trying to prevent it! :)
- rolling over in bed is only going to get more difficult from here on out.
- luckily no swelling or weight gain in unwanted places.
- baby is just over 2lbs, and is just going to keep putting on weight.
-we are finally getting closer to choosing a name. We have narrowed things down significantly.
- baby is wiggling lots and starting to push out once in a while and I can feel his head or back or some other hard surface. It hasn't gotten uncomfortable yet though which is nice!
I am excited that I only have about 12 weeks left. I am sure with Christmas and New Years these next few weeks are going to fly by! We are very excited to meet this little guy and so are the kids! Here are some belly shots for this week!

Have to have a little fun! Not too bad for 27-28 weeks!! 

Baking.....

      I am in my groove for Christmas baking! I love this time of year for that! Mmmmmm, homemade goods make me happy. We have done some gingerbread Santas......Mason unfortunately couldn't figure out what they were. Ha ha, his guesses included ninjas and spacemen. Oh we'll, at least they tasted good.

       We also made up some sugar cookies, and I had fun decorating them with a glaze icing that is fun to make cool patterns with. I used this recipe last year and loved it, I still have extra dough and plan on making some more but decorating them differently.

      I should mention that my go to website for recipes these days is ourbestbites.com . I love their website. I have never had a bad recipe off it! The gingerbread cookie recipe can be found here. And the sugar cookie recipe can be found here. They also have lots of different ideas for decorating all your cookies. The glaze/flood icing is also found on their website!
      Though this isn't specifically a Christmas dessert....I made it in the midst of my Christmas baking so it gets entered here. I had a few very over ripe bananas that needed to be used up, and I couldn't resist trying this recipe. The name alone makes it sound irresistible. Caramelized Banana Bread with a Browned Butter Glaze. Ummmm yes, I will take some please! I don't know if you have ever had "browned butter" anything, but it is amazing. I never knew butter could smell so good. This recipe didn't disappoint either. It is nice and moist and rich and the glaze is a perfect extra! The recipe for this can be found here.

I still have lots and lots of recipes that I want to try out. And some favorites from last year. I will for sure be making the Apple Cider caramels that I made last year. And I have a whole stash of recipes on pinterest that I am excited to try! I am sure there will be more posts about it all in the next couple weeks.

Crafting....

So I have been crocheting a lot lately. I have been doing a few other things than hats lately too. But I have been really forgetful/lazy with getting my camera out and I have usually just been taking pictures of things with my iPad. So I will apologize in advance for the poorer quality of photos in this series.The biggest project that I recently finished was the baby quilt for upcoming baby boy!

I have made blankets for my other children, but both of those were denim rag quilts. Without easy access to a fabric store, extra old jeans, and a sewing machine, that blanket was out of the question. But I had lots of yarn, and was happy to do that for now. I would still like to make a rag quilt too, but that can come later.
I tried a new stitch pattern, and really love it. I also tried something new, and not on the pattern, by adding my own border. Overall I am really happy with it.....it took a lot of hours.
I still did a few hats, on specific request. My brother wanted a minion hat for his upcoming baby, and I happened upon some bright yellow yarn for free! Doesn't get any better than that. Once he saw the one he and his wife wanted matching ones too.

Next up mike asked if I could make him a case for his guitar slides. So I whipped this up. It has two pockets, one for his slides, and one for extra strings and his tuner. I loved it so much I decided to alter the dimensions a bit to make a wipes case for the new baby. My last wipes case was really cute, but really girly. This will be cute, but very neutral! I made this pattern up completely, and was really happy with the outcome too, especially since I figured out the button holes. This pattern could very easily be altered for many things.

Though it isn't even started yet, Mason has also requested a new hat. His old one has a much looser stitch and ear flaps, and with the colder weather he has been saying it hasn't been keeping his head warm enough. So that is what is up next on my list!

23 Weeks!

So I thought I would do a quick update on here as to how my pregnancy is going. I am realizing the more kids I have the harder it is going to be to remember the small details of each pregnancy. So some random facts about this pregnancy:
-Other than a bit of nausea at the beginning, luckily with no throwing up, the pregnancy has been pretty good.
-I am over the getting up twice a night to pee......for now....this is probably the best sleep I will be getting for a while.
-I have already had to start dealing with some heartburn, hopefully it doesn't get too much worse....I despise Tums!
-According it my OB/GYN I am a boring patient...but that is a good thing.
-I am 23 weeks now, and according to the Wii (where I normally weigh myself), I have somehow only gained 3 lbs. this is mind boggling to me. I guess this baby is being nice to me and sucking up fat stores from somewhere else!!!! :)
-I haven't had any crazy cravings, usually it will just be one random thing one day, and once I get it I am over it. I have had more food aversions this pregnancy than my other ones. But most of that is over now too.
-I am filling out my maternity clothes, but can still wear a lot of my other clothes, just with elastic bands to help out.
-Doctors appointments are going well and so far everything is looking good!
-Baby is a boy, and he now weighs almost one pound.
And last but not least here is a picture of my growing belly!

23 Weeks

Its a BOY!

So I had my 3rd ultrasound today. It was a long ultrasound compared to the last ones because it was the anatomy scan. And from everything they could see, all is looking well. We were also excited to find out what we were having. We asked the kids that morning what they thought it would be, and in typical fashion, Mason wanted a brother and Aubrey was convinced it was a sister. Even after we left and told her it was a boy, she still insists "no its a GIRL!" We will work on that one!! lol

I should have figured it was a boy, based on how active this baby has been. lol, aren't boys always more busy?? I know Mason was a lot more active in my belly than Aubrey and this little guy is proving to be quite the acrobat too! Now we have the big decision of picking a name.....we can cut out half of them now we know it is a boy. But boy names have always been hard from Mike and I to come up with so we will see how that goes....luckily we still have a few months to figure it out!

 I also plan on keeping some updated photos on here of my belly as it grows. So here is a little recap and  I will add more as the weeks go. We are very excited about the newest addition and are even more excited to meet him now!

Here is me at 12 1/2 weeks. On my birthday. Just starting to show a little.

About 14-15 weeks.

20 weeks

And 20 weeks again....because that is where I am at now! 

Baby # 3!!!!

So as many probably know, we are expecting baby number 3!!!! We are pretty darn excited about this too. This is probably going to feel like the longest pregnancy ever, considering I found out I was pregnant when I was only 3 weeks 2 days(according to my doctors charts). Most don't find out this early. I have had a wonky period for the last year as I talked about in this post.  So trying to decide when to pee on the stick presented a challenge. I could have waited until I missed a period, but I am not a very patient person. So based off my somewhat regular 26 day cycle I took the test a few days early and got a positive reading. My doctor had told me to come in as soon as I found out I was pregnant because it is really difficult to get accepted by OB/GYN's here. If you don't get in before 5-8 weeks, sometimes you're out of luck. My family doctor also sent me for a dating ultrasound because of my irregularity she wanted to be sure on the dates. That's when we found out we were having a frog.....I mean baby, due around March 8th! :)

We had another ultrasound at about 13 weeks to do the nuchal translucency screening to test for downs syndrome. It is a completely optional test, but I was just more excited to see the baby again! Mike said it was jumping and moving around like crazy during the ultrasound which seemed crazy to me because I couldn't feel anything. But everything was looking great and right on track, and we could see that it looked a lot more like a baby this time. Oh they also moved my date up to March 3rd.

I am now 16 1/2 weeks, and into the easy stage of pregnancy, where I really don't feel pregnant just kind of tubby! I am over the morning sickness (thank goodness) which I really shouldn't complain about, I only suffered from nausea this time and no throwing up! I am showing a lot earlier this pregnancy, which I hear happens after your second and third child.  Hopefully baby catches up with my belly soon though! I am also excited and hopeful to start to feel the baby move. I keep telling myself....any day now!

I plan on keeping up with belly pics on here so feel free to check back at my growing belly over the next few months! :)

Bad Night

So one of the "perks" of living in U of T student family housing is the cockroaches. Did I say perks? I meant....one of the most disgusting things ever! I really feel for the most part that we keep our house really clean. I have tried to do everything I can to reduce our chances of getting them too, like making sure there is no cardboard laying around,  keeping food tightly sealed, keeping food messes cleaned and not letting the garbage sit. Sometimes we go a long time without seeing these creepy little crawlers. But sometimes it is out of our control. I would like to blame it on the neighbors....or maybe changing weather, but I really don't think it has anything to do with us. Luckily our building also does regular treatments for said roaches at no cost to us. Not so luckily the treatment we get has no effect on baby cockroaches.....which turn into adult cockroaches. The baby ones we get are a little bit bigger than a fruit fly, and those I can kill easily. It's the big ones, half an inch to an inch that I can't handle....Mike has to kill them, and if Mike isn't around, then one of Mikes big sturdy shoes has to do the job.
So why such a bad night you ask? Because I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee....it happens every night right now, sometimes twice, but that isn't what ruined my night. Nope, what ruined my night was walking into the bathroom to see not one, not even two.....but FOUR cockroaches scurrying around. They were ones that were on their way to being too big for me to kill, and had it been daytime, I would have called Mike, but I was trying to be nice and let him sleep. Now the other thing about cockroaches....they are fast.....and they don't like to die. It was traumatic for me. I did get them, and then flushed them down the toilet to be sure. But when I went to crawl back in bed, I COULD NOT SLEEP! All I could think about was how many more might be in my house at that moment.....I couldn't stop itching either. My restlessness woke up Mike....he tried to comfort me...I was still itchy, and still could not stop thinking about cockroaches crawling all over my kitchen, and bathroom, and maybe even my bedroom.....it was a good solid hour before I drifted into a cockroach dreamland, which obviously wasn't very restful either.
We just got our apartment treated last week.....I might need to call them again.....I need my sleep.....

p.s. did I mention that I HATE cockroaches.

I'm Back!!!!

         Not that I was an exceptionally frequent blogger before, but I was pretty much MIA all summer from this here blog, and now I am back!! I have high hopes to be on here a lot more this coming fall. I have so much to write about. First of all I need to do a catch up and let you know what we did all summer long...there are probably a million pictures to go with that. We have some new exciting news that I will be talking about a lot on here, though I am sure if you have been on Facebook you already know what that is! :) I turned 26 this summer, Mason starts school, Mike is on his VERY LAST YEAR of his schooling(YAY!!!!!!!!!!) and Aubrey cracks me up daily!
        To start.....we have been in Toronto for a year now!!! That seems so crazy to me! A year ago this time we were cluelessly wandering the city trying to figure out where we were and which direction we needed to be going! I can't believe how fast it has gone, we have done so much and made some AMAZING friends and memories! I can't wait to see what else is in store for us over the next 10 months! I will be sure to keep you posted and I promise I will catch you up on everything in the near future!!

Working Mamma

So about 2 weeks ago I started my new job! I LOVE it!! It is so fun for me to be back in a salon doing hair on a really regular basis. As most of you know I have spent the last 4 years only doing hair from my home! While this has been great, it is completely different from being in a salon. I have always loved doing hair, and it kind of amazes me that I still love doing hair this much! Sometimes people get bored of their jobs, I don't see that happening with me as hair styles are always changing.
I work at a salon just across the street from me so it is very quick walk to work. I can sneak home on my lunch breaks and say hi to my AMAZING husband and wonderful kiddos!!!
Mike has taken on the role of stay-at-home dad, and he is kicking butt!!! I come home often to home cooked meals and fresh baked cookies. Not to mention two kids who are beyond excited to see me for once! I am now the novelty! It is a real treat! My boss already knows that I will only be available for full time work this summer. Come Sept. when Mike goes back to school I will drop down to part time hours. Someone has to be here to watch the kids. :)
I think that this has been such a blessing in our lives right now. Mike applied to so many jobs with no luck. I also had several resumes out, and just happened to get a call. By working full time this summer I can build up some cliental who hopefully will come to see me when I work part time. This way I can hopefully make some extra cash throughout the school year too.
Sorry the posts have been almost non-existant lately and also for the shortage of pictures!! Hopefully my next post will be sooner and more exciting! If you live close by....feel free to stop by and get your hair done!!! :)

Hiatus!

It has been a while since I have been on here, and it might be a while still before I have somewhat regular posts again. My beloved computer crashed! :( I am currently using Mikes, but he needs it for a lot of his school work, so I don't get on the internet as often. I can still check my mail and Facebook off of my iTouch, but it would be absolutely ridiculous to try to write a blog post off of it!
I am not sure if my computer will be able to be fixed or not, it is 5 years old and has crashed on us once before. Either way we don't have a lot of extra cash to go and get it fixed or get a new computer or iPad. So for now the posts will be few and far between!
SAD DAY! I miss my computer!
I have a few blog posts that I need to write up, but I am not sure when I will get to them. Hopefully soon! So in the meantime don't forget about me, I will return!!

Aubrey's Two!!

The day has come and gone, and we now have a bubbly 2 year old! She is definitely filling her role of the terrible two's as well. But over all she is the best little girl I could ask for. She is super easy going and generally happy. She loves following her bigger brother around the house and copying everything he does. She is growing up way to fast, she counts to 10 pretty well and also sings her alphabet (even if the letters are a little out of order still :)) She loves to sing songs and dance around the living room in her tutu! She sings the classics like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but also all of mommy and daddy's music!! 

 This is the little bundle we brought home from the hospital 2 years ago. 

This is the little girl that dances around our living room and make us smile!! 

We are so blessed to have her in her life and I can't wait to spend forever with her!!! 

What Do YouThink?

Well what do think? Do you love it? I sure think it is a lot of fun......

Do I miss my long hair.....

To be honest...no I don't miss my long hair....because I still have it! :)

But it is fun being able to play around! I stumbled upon a few pinterest links that show you how to fake a bob. Everybody has their own technique but for me I just sectioned off the top of my hair, did three small braids with the bottom section and pinned those up to my head. Then arranged the top hair with my layers over it to resemble a bob. Easy peezy lemon squeezy!! :)

So what do you think? Does it suit me?

A Whirlwind 3 Weeks!

For the past three weeks we have had my younger brother Jonathan visiting us from back home! It has been such an awesome time and we have really loved having him here. We crammed so many things into this three week period that I am I looking forward to a quiet no plans week, but truly we have had a blast! Jonathan arrived at the airport close to midnight on March 20. The next day we did some much needed haircuts...both Jonathan and Mike are now rocking some true Toronto hair! The next two days we had gorgeous weather and we spent almost all day-both days walking around outside, exploring and showing him where we have been living for the past 7 months.

On the Friday night we went to a Couples night that our ward was having.....we are good friends with all these people and it was really fun to go and play games and some volleyball and

munch on food. It was also a good chance to initiate Jonathan into the ward as many of the

husbands that went are in Young Mens. Jonathan fit really well into our little group of friends

that in many ways has become our family. It made going to church on Sunday a breeze because he already knew so many people. Saturday night I headed to our wards Relief Society anniversary party and then hung around for the Young Womens Broadcast too. It was a nice night away for me and I think it gave Mike and Jonathan some nice "man time". Jonathan has been practicing up on the guitar for the last couple years and him and Mike can play through a few songs together now.

Sunday we went to church and in the afternoon got together with a couple friends and went down to the Harbour Front.

It was a beautiful day as well, and we enjoyed walking along the manmade shoreline.

We fed the ducks, found a few nice places to stop and enjoy the sunshine and watched the planes land and take off from the island airport.

We headed back and enjoyed some lasagna and fresh breadsticks.

It was delicious.

The next week was a really busy week for me. I had 4 haircuts booked as well as two nights booked to go and do my Visiting Teaching. We had another couple friend come over on Wed.

night and the brought us dinner and then we played a few games. Throughout the days we would head out again and do some shopping. I think Jonathan came home with a whole new wardrobe! I am pretty sure he enjoyed all the shopping that Toronto had to offer. He got to know the Eaton Center Mall pretty good too.

Over the weekend of March 31-April 1 we had the opportunity to watch conference. We caught the morning sessions both days but missed the afternoon sessions as we were out and about doing more exploring. Saturday we had our first clear sky/sunny day in a week so we took advantage of it and headed up to the CN tower. This was the first time for Mike and I and the kids as well as Jonathan, so it was a neat experience for all of us. It was fun to look around and

find our house and look out at the massive Lake Ontario.

I was only a little scared to stand on the glass floor and look down. Then I quickly got off, but Mason thought it was the coolest thing ever.

We shelled out the extra cash and headed up to the Sky pod too.

We were glad we did because if we hadn't we probably would have missed out meeting Aaron Grey from the Toronto Raptors. We were being total creepers and trying to get a picture of him, but then went up and asked for the real deal and snapped another one.

He is 7' 0" tall and so he made Jonathan look tiny!It was neat because we went to the Raptors game the following Tuesday night, and it was our "claim to fame" for the night.

We also managed to come home from the game with a new 3D Blueray player that we won for being crazy loud fans!!! (Thanks Jeana!!!)

Wednesday night we headed over to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) and walked around that for a while. There are some amazing pieces of art there and it was really cool to see some of the things they had on display.

Thurs. April 5th, we headed out to a concert at the Mod Club. We were right in front and got to see an awesome concert put on by Ben Howard. It was a little chilly waiting to get in and walking back to the subway, but everything else was awesome! Jonathan said it was the best concert he has ever been too!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were extra great because Mike was home for the whole weekend. He is right at the end of his semester and has been packing in the hours at the library trying to get all his assignments done. But for Easter weekend he took a break and it was wonderful.

Saturday morning we went down to St Lawrence market. National Geographic recently named it to be the number 1 market in all the world. It was PACKED!!! And almost a little overwhelming, but still a neat experience. Mike and I might try to go back another time without the kids so we can enjoy it a little more, instead of being terrified of losing one of them! In the afternoon we had a rocking moustache party...my kids think moustaches are

hilarious! Or as Aubrey calls them "ruhrash"!

Monday night we went bowling with our group of friends in celebration of a few birthdays. It was 10 pin and Mason enjoyed bowling a few balls too. I hadn't been bowling for a LONG time, but still had a lot of fun!

Our last two days we hit up a few more stores and picked up a few last things....hello Bulk Barn....don't we all love you? Well stocked up on candy and new clothes we took Jonathan to the airport Wed. evening. A friend kindly drove us in rush hour traffic and got us there in time. The kids were really sad to see him go and Aubrey was a bit panicked when we "left" without him! She kept saying "Where Jonfin? Where Jonfin??" They had a lot of special cuddle time!!! She misses him a lot! We were so happy he could come and visit with us and we were so lucky to be able to do so many fun things while he was here!!!! It really was a whirlwind 3 weeks!!