I've been "Twilight"ed

Well I have heard ALL about these books, but never read them...until I purchased them while in Regina.

They were SOOO good!!! I loved reading them (and yes I am finished them ALL!)

Having so much fun.

This little rascal had too much fun playing with this one box all day. It kept him occupied, so who am i to complain , right?!!

Unhappy

I really have no explanation unto why I am unhappy I just simply AM!

Am I unhappy b/c:
I am dealing with 9 little puppies?
Or perhaps its b/c of those puppies mom (that always has to wake them up and then leave them to whine)
Or perhaps its the fact that there is about a million unfinished projects in this house?
Or maybe just b/c this house is too small for 10 dogs and 4 humans?
Or better yet maybe b/c no matter how much I clean my house smells like dog poo?
Or maybe that I get no support from my husband?
Or even that my husband is a slob and no matter how many talks we have he doesn't improve?
Or maybe cause my kids don't seem to know how to pick up after themselves?
Or the extreme weather conditions that make me wish I lived in florida?
Or maybe some of the stuck up people that live in this town?

Or maybe that both my computers are not working at the moment and I am forced to write this blog on my blackberry?

OR maybe my rag is coming soon and I am just emotional and taking everything w
WAY too personal.

Regardless those are my complaints and I am just plain unhappy today!

Regular blogging will commence when I get one of the two computers fixed!

I have ONE thing to be happy bout today my beautiful sis' birthday. Have a good one dahlin

Books books and more books

When I went to Regina, to FINALLY get my block heater installed, I purchased a bunch of books. I have some reading ahead of me!!!

Don't leave me...

It's like this puppy was afraid his food was going to get up and run away from him. He slept right beside the dish.

Cute cute cute!!! Little fatty!

Xmas Tree

Back in December, I had to drive my dad to the airport in Minot. As you may, or may not, remember we had to spend the night b/c his flight left at 4 AM.

It was nice, Jared was already off work for Christmas so I got to go down with no kids. It was a nice little over night trip. I enjoyed lounging in the hot tub and just relaxing.

Anyways, that was a little off topic. The meaning for this blog is...at the hotel we stayed at they had THE most beautiful Christmas Tree in their lobby.

It was BIG and sprayed WHITE and just gorgeous. I want to do something like that some year....



I am not sure this pic even shows just how beautiful that tree was. I loved it!

PS--The reason this post is JUST coming now is that my dad just emailed the pic to me!

Just playin'

Last night I made my family do a little photo project. I REALLY wanna do this photo outside, and with a bigger group, it would look SO cool.

But you get the idea here: Unless I can take a better pic soon, I am sending this photo in for my class assignment.

Photo Happy.

Last night and today, I kind of went Camera happy... I am telling myself I want more pics b/c I want to have our life documented. And in this day and age, how can a person NOT take tons of pics..it's so cheap. You just have to remember to pick up the camera. And so I've been trying...

Hoar Frost is so beautiful, thus me not being able to resist taking a pic of it this morning!


Aren't they just adorable??


Self Portrait--I've seen so many people do this, but I had never gotten around to doing it, and since I am taking my photography course I thought it was suiting..


100% cute???
Ya I'd say so!!

Delissio?? I think not

No my friends, this was even BETTER.

Usually home made pizzas get made by Jared or WITH Jared.

But I did it on my own(well not completely--see below)..and man was it DELISH!!

It was half meat pizza and half chicken alfredo pizza. Both were so so so good. Did I already say they were DELISH!!!????



The kids had a lot of fun helping make it!! And were really proud of it!

Let's go FISHING!!

well not literally...

This post is just for ERIKA! She brought it to my attention that I've never really mentioned the fact that we have fishies.

Most of our fish have died, probably from neglect.

But we still have 4 fish (sorry not sure what kind they are) and 2 suckers.

Puzzled ??!!

For Christmas my kiddos got numourous puzzles and they LOVE them. Even Paige (who isn't quite 3 yet) loves them. It's really good b/c it makes them concentrate and is a really good learning tool!

So , that seemed like a good photo op.

WHY???

Why must batteries die? Can't they just last forever??

Just as I finally decide WHAT I can take a pic of for my blog today...My camera battery dies. BLAH.

I will not disappoint though. Tomorrow I will have TWO pics, that's right TWO!

Quick Update:

Paige is talking away and growing up at a UBER fast rate. I am busy potty training her right now. It's going...OK. haha she is a very strong willed girl. I was going to get her dressed this mornign, getting her clothes out of her dresser...she seen this and went and got one of the last diapers she has left. I just said oh NO NO NO..needless to say she wasn't too happy.

Dominic is little Mr. Attitude as per usual. He likes to skate but wants to do whatever he wants, not what the class is doing. The nice thing about his bad behaviour at this rate...is that he LOVES school so much, that we just have to say to him " if you want to go to school you have to be good"

Jared is back to work, after almost a full month off (b/c of Christmas and our 2 holidays that we booked off).

I am busy trying to organize every corner of my house right now. It's going good. Today I cleaned the fish tank. Which was disgusting, sad to say but it's been neglected I haven't cleaned that thing since we got it, not thoroughly like that anyways.

Tomorrow I don't know how much I will accomplish. Coffee, then Dom's pre-k, then skating, then supper, then bedtime. I don't usually accomplish much on these days. But I have 2 cupboards BEGGING for some attention, so we'll see!!

What's She Eating??

On the Menu tonight (after looking through almost every cookbook) was Apple Maple Chicken. I got the recipe from my weight watchers cookbook.

It was SO simple to make...




I made a couple alterations to the recipe but this is how to make it.

Combine 1 cup of apple juice
1/2 cup brown sugar.
1/3 cup maple syrup.
1 hard apple cut into wedges.
1/2 tsp Thyme.

Bring all ingredients to a boil, and boil for about 8 minutes.

Brush both sides of the chicken with the liquid. Put in pan. Cook for about 15 min. Flip and pour remaining liquid onto chicken (leave apples out). Cook until Chicken is cooked (about 1/2 hr more).

It was so simple...and so frickin yummy. I served it with Uncle Ben's rice and Green beans.

When making meals in my house I have a lot of things to account.
1. will my kids like it
2. will my husband like it
3. is it healthy
4. do i have all the ingredients for the recipe??

This meal passed with FLYING colors. The kids (even Dominic the picky one) were asking for seconds!!!

Mother-puppy-hood

Now that our holidays are over, our 9 little puppies have came home from Gramma's house (along with their mom).

They are over 2 weeks old already!! Hard to believe. They are going like crazy. And in just 6 weeks they will be ready to go to good homes!!

Here's the details on them:
9 puppies--6 female, 3 male
All black. One has a very small light patch on it's chest.
Golden Retreiver/ Black Lab cross
They will be ready to go towards the end of February.

Here is one of the nine:



If you , or anyone you know, want one let us know, as these will get spoken for very fast. We already have 3 potential homes for 3 of them.

Outdoors

Yesterday and today we got to enjoy some nice weather. So I got busy shoveling, and the kids played in the snow.
This is the first year since we have had this house, that we have even had to shovel. We have had to dust off our steps..but nothing like this year. It's a good work out (shoveling), so I guess I can't complain about doing it.
And the kids absoultely love having mountains of snow to play in. We were going to build a snow fort today. But it was a little windy, and the wind was chilly. Oh well, hopefully we'll have another couple nice days yet to make some forts!

What's she Eating???

Tonight, I started out cooking one thing and then changed into another haha.

The plan was to make a chicken casserole. Half way through I changed my mind and made a chicken stirfry.

I started out by grilling the chicken (cut into thin strips), I added about 1/3 cup of water, salt , pepper and a little bit of madras curry.

I then set it aside and sauteed the Green Giant, Japanese Mix, veggies in about 1/4 cup Chicken broth, maybe even less. When they were starting thawing out I added oyster sauce (in my opinion oyster sauce is a MUST for stirfry's --I love it). I then added the chicken and a bit more oyster sauce.

I served it over fusilli pasta , for a change over our usual rice.

Welcome.....home???

Sometimes I wonder how we call this place home. With the brutally cold temperatures mostly!! It makes going outdoors almost unbearable. And if the cold weather wasn't enough of a welcome home, we arrived home to about 2 ft of snow in our driveway. Our poor quad, that never made it's way to the garage, now has about 3 or more ft of snow on it.




We sure missed the kids while we were gone, so even though coming home meant facing bitter coldness, it also meant we got to see our little ones again!! They had such a great Christmas vacation. Getting to spend alone time with both sets of grandparents.

It sure is nice to be home, and honestly I think we brought a little heat with us!! As yesterday got all the way up to -1!!!

CANADA I RETURN

Besides the DEEP FREEZE type temperatures....I am so glad to be home, I will recommence blogging tomorrow with pics and all my 14 posts for January. However, I suppose by tomorrow I need to do 15...argghh.

Well after a long flight home, plus a 45 min drive after that...I am going to bed. I will do my bestest bestest to get ALL caught up tomorrow...I will at least do ONE blog. But ya know, fellow bloggers, my kids miss me too...so hang in there!!

Departure

After 7 days in paradise , the time came to say goodbye to:

the ocean
the luxurious sand
the swim up bar
the 30 above weather
the not so great food
mai-tai's

And we headed back to Canada to be welcomed by -30 weather, with a windchill that made it feel like -45. EEK

Here's Heidi, Cara and I before leaving our resort.

The Dark Side

On our way to Scuba Dive we had to drive through Punta Cana & Romana... and We decided that these pics should be titled the "dark side" ...with the MAJOR pollution, really unlike ANYTHING I have ever seen before, to the poor terrible buildings.

Ya know , the funny thing is...the houses are total crap, there is very few that are even decent...but everyone is still wearing nice jeans, with belts and all the accessories. It makes you wonder....

Scuba Diving

I really wanted to try scuba diving while we were on Vacay. And I got to do just that!! It was SO worth it, and we saw so many different kinds of fish and coral. It was really beautiful. I am getting a copy of the video and will post it once I receive it.

Scuba Diving was so much more than just that. We got to see the beautiful Caribbean sea and swim in it, we got to see a cruise ship (which I've never seen before), and just to see things you wouldn't normally see.

It was well worth the adventure.

You can have it, and eat it too!!

Cara and I spent a lot of time together on this trip. Our husbands (well my husband, and her fiancee--they get marriend in August) got along so well, and we did too.

Here she is, proving that you can have your cake and eat it too!!

Wedding Day

Heidi & Derek Emperingham. These photos were taken by the photographer they hired for the day. He did an awesome job, I really liked some of the poses he chose!! It was a wonderful day!!

Party Boat

On Friday the group of us rented a party boat! It was such a blast. We got to snorkel, listen to music & dance on the boat, & head out to an area mid-ocean that was only waist deep !! It was so fun!!

Here are some pics from the day!

Dominican

Some pics of our hotel room. A pic of Heidi and her mom. And a pic of the swim up bar, it was pretty neat. I had never experienced a swim up bar before.