Monday, December 31, 2012

What Christmas Looked Like

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had time with family, time to relax, and time to think about the Baby who came to be Savior of the world; the Savior or you and of me.


We made it to Winnipeg for a few days and had a great time with all my family there.  Mom asked if I had any use for this old sleigh that came as a fancy gift package once upon a time.  I said no, but that we should do a little photo shoot with Nolan before she got rid of it...


I think this one was my favorite!


Have to get a cousin shot!


Fun to see the next littlest one playing with Nolan, and getting a glimpse of what he might be like in a couple of years.


Christmas morning!


Nope - didn't plan that.


Her best reaction may have been when she opened up this onesie - she's been wanting one for a while...


Here are the cousins from Sean's side - we had the Ward family Christmas yesterday out in Balgonie.  Sickness kept some away at the last minute, so we had only six of the 11 cousins.


I think he likes it!


A few family additions to announce!  This shot was taken two years ago; Lynsey found an engagement ring in the pocket of the jacket she got for Christmas, so this year, there is a new Mrs. Ward!


This is the other addition - sweet, hey?  Alexa was born November 13, and we were so disappointed to not get to meet her yesterday.  Hopefully they're all feeling better soon, and hopefully we get to meet her soon, too.


I'll leave you with this one that we used for our Christmas card this year - all the best to you and yours, and may 2013 be a great one!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Merry Christmas!

A quick catch up before I snag a nap - little man was up OFTEN last night.  Forgot that he doesn't need mom to get to sleep after days of holidaying and lots of mom putting him to sleep.  We'll get back on track... This too shall pass.  :)  (It just means that I need to nap so I don't lose it on either child!)

A few highlights:

Doing dishes with a new dishcloth from my sister and having the water turn blue.  Getting new kitchen stuff from two sisters and having them match.  That and new dishes from IKEA = mini kitchen reno!

Calling Nolan to open his gift from Auntie Carla and having him run over and use it as a stool to climb on the couch.

Nephew Zach smitten with Mad-a-den...

Silas and the ugly Christmas sweater.  You wore it so well.

Dave telling the (toy) story of Woody's missing hat on repeat.

A visit to Winnipeg's new IKEA.  (Not so great - wanting to nurse Nolan part way through and finding the awesome family care room at the end of the visit.)

Nolan wearing red & white striped jammies Christmas morning that Zach wore his first Christmas.

Madeline getting to visit with her friends at church as well as a whole day at the cousin's house.

Sean and I getting each other 'just right' tops.

A super pro reflector shield for my camera from Sean.

Madeline's reactions when she opened her footed 'onesie', her bright yellow Aero sweatshirt, and her Beauty & the Beast tickets.  Thanks, family!

Just hanging out with family made the trip to Winnipeg with an 11 month old worth it.  So glad the celebration of our Savior's birth has turned into a tradition where we spend time with those we love, enjoying and gifting each other.


Monday, December 17, 2012

The Social Media Roundup

I've noticed myself making decisions lately where to share what...  I'm not on the computer much, and rarely go on Facebook on my phone (I can't turn off all the silly game notifications and it's a pain to scroll through the junk to find stuff I actually want to see), but I know that's where the most people see stuff, so when I took this photo, that's where I shared it.  It got 46 'likes' - that's maybe the most attention anything I've posted has got other than Nolan's introduction!


Twitter is fun and actually the source of most of my news.  Yesterday Sean and I were mentioned in a tweet by my friend Lori (the one with the orange star, because I 'favorited' it):


We then tried to get Nolan to say Anna, but he's not there yet.  She is 4 1/2 months older, after all.  I showed him the picture I took in the nursery that morning to help him, but he just kissed my phone instead!  They are pretty cute together.  #littlefriends


Twitter also played a role in getting our streetlight fixed...


SaskPower tweeted a link to their site where you can report a burnt out streetlight - I retweeted it to Sean, who replied that he already had reported it... twice.  So SaskPower, seeing this negative publicity, got right on it, replying and promising results, and it did happen - about two weeks later.  I took this from the front window and tweeted that, too.

I shared this photo on facebook on Saturday and got myself a job! 


The longer story: We are often at the soccer facility to watch Madeline play, and there's a Tim Horton's there, which we sometimes make use of.  Tim's doesn't have coffee sleeves, though, and I thought I would make myself one to keep in the diaper bag so we didn't have to get a double cup each time.  I ended up using it for the first time the other day, and posted a pic on Facebook, with the caption "First time using the rad little coffee sleeve I made. It's making me happy." and a friend asked if I could make her some to give as Christmas gifts.  I had been thinking of sewing more of them, but hadn't found time yet... I will post pictures here when they are done, and add them to the shop, too.  Here's a shot from the original photoshoot:


While Facebook and Twitter get their share of attention, my favorite place to share stuff is right here... and as soon as I am done wrapping gifts and baking, I will be back, showing and telling.  I do appreciate you being interested in our lives and in the stuff I post; thanks for coming along for the ride!

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Our Favorite Muffins


According to the date stamp on this well used recipe, this has been a staple in our family since 2002.  Originally from this recipe on allrecipes.com, I only modified to add chocolate chips.  I wanted to print out another copy of the recipe both to get a cleaner copy and to lay it out exactly the way I do it, so I thought I'd share it here with you!


Chocolate Chip Banana Crumb Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter

In a medium bowl, mix together the first four ingredients.
Preheat oven to 375 and spray the muffin tin (or line with papers)
In a large bowl, mix together the second bunch of ingredients.
Mix dry and wet ingredients together and add chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into the muffin cups.
Prep topping by mixing the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl, then cutting in butter till crumbly.  Sprinkle topping on muffin batter.
Bake for 18 - 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!!

Saturday, December 01, 2012

Miscellany

Madeline - Soccer is keeping us going 3 times a week or more; good exercise for her and she's really enjoying being on this team.  This weekend there is a tournament - she had a game at 6 last night (a blowout loss of 8-0!) then went off to youth at the church where they decorated for Christmas.  Today's first game was at 7 am (I'm still not fully awake) and they won 3-1.



Nolan - Clapping, waving, whistling, temper showing, 10 months old.  Loves to knock down towers, carry around Dad's lunch bucket, and play with water in the sink.  Eats his veggies well and loves meat; still eats pureed stuff / applesauce / yogurt, but loves finger food he can manipulate himself.



Scrapbook - I'm keeping Nolan's album up to date & am really loving the way it's turned out.  I have to decide if I want to keep going this way (Project Life style) since my original plan was to do this for his first year.  I may scale it back and do highlights of each month rather than each week - that would still be a treasure, and not ending up needing a whole new bookshelf.

Crafty McCrafterpants - I've had the sewing machine out and have 4 different projects on the go... the back to my big denim quilt, a new I spy quilt (found the free pattern here), bean bags (to use up beans from last year's thanksgiving decorating), and tag blankies (because I saw a great deal on ribbon on this site and thought I'd pick it up for my stash...).  Then there are always more magic bags to sew.  I'm thankful for that little sideline business!

Online Shopping! - I've ordered more stuff from online lately than I ever have before.  Scrapbook paper and ribbon and Christmas presents from Steal Network, fabric and Christmas presents from Etsy, and more Christmas presents from Christianbook.com.  So good to have a few things checked off already, and without having to do any car seat wrestling!


Weather - It's a winter wonderland here.  I heard the other day that we already have more snow here than we did all of last year.