My trip to Cardston...so far.

I'm here in Cardston for a few days. I came down to help with the monthly bake sale me and the sisters have together to help earn our way to Vegas in October. So far, we've earned $760 from the 3 bake sales we've had. Not bad for selling cookies and pies! Thank you Cardston for having a sweet tooth. During this particular bake sale, we decided that our kids weren't the best entertainers for the customers. I took them on an adventure around Cardston instead. While the sisters were selling baked goods at the Farmer's Market, I took 3 kids down the "big hill" in Cardston, we walked to Lion's Park, and played for a bit.



Cousin Will just posing for the camera.



Again, smiling for the camera.



Smiling with a Cheesy poof.



Evidence of the cheesy poof smile, and child abuse. Can you spot the bruises and broken nose? He was a bad bad boy this week. JK, he knows that he shouldn't head butt his cousin for fun, because that = NO FUN.

Yesterday was a beautiful day outside. I woke up early to work out, and then we drove out to Waterton area to clean a brand new house. Check it out.



I love living in the city, but nothing really beats cooking in this HUGE LOG CABIN...this was just the middle floor. There is a loft, AND a huge 1st floor. This is a cabin my Uncle built, and we were doing the dust/leftover crap from building, clean up.



I also love being able to see a scene from "Wild America" play out in my front yard.


All of THIS for a the basement low price of one millioni dollars.



Someone sure is lucky out there to have this as their summer cabin!

I'll be posting more as I go...but here is what the first 2 days have been like.

Firefighters in Kindergarten

Yesterday was a highly entertaining day.

Anthony is on his 2nd round of swimming lessons. Its very basic st uff. Can you put your whole head in the water, blow bubbles, etc. Anthony is such a small kid, that the other kids in his class tower over him. He is still wearing his swimming trunks from when he was one year old! No kidding. I helped him get over a few trust issues with his instructor, so hopefully by next class he'll be able to jump in to the pool while holding the really really cute 16-yr old instructor's hands. Tee hee....he is the only kid that makes lip rings look hawt! ok, moving on....


We got home, I made a snack and then we were on our way to Anthony's orientation for Kindergarten. He's so excited! I'm so excited.

I've been preparing him for 2 years for Kindergarten. We practice letters, numbers, colors, shapes, adding, subtracting, and reading 3-4 letter words. He's a pretty smart kid. The teachers were so warm and welcoming. I got to know some of the other parents, and it seems to be a very exciting year ahead. While we were enjoying our tour of the school, the fire alarm goes off. Judging the look on the teachers faces, this was not a planned fire drill. PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING PEOPLE!! Seriously, everyone just stood there. Once the parents and children realized it wasn't a drill (which you should still get your hind parts out of the building anyway) we were all piling out the front doors and onto the lawn outside.



On our way down the hall, we noticed a single mom yelling at her two kids, while the fire alarm switch was pulled ALL THE WAY DOWN. Now that's going to suck to get that $500 from the fire department. It was very exciting for Anthony to hear the sirens in the distance get louder and louder, and when they pulled up and jumped out, ready for an emergency, my heart lept.


I don't know why, but I tear up whenever I witness something with Anthony for his first time! Like seeing a steam engine for the first time at Heritage Park, or driving downtown to see the skyscrapers. My heart just skips a beat. The firemen stormed the building and found that there was no danger, that it was just a "woopsies", we were able to get on with our night.

It was pushing 8:30pm before we ever got out of there. It was a long night, but it was perfect. Anthony just can't wait to start school. I think he'll do very well, and its a new and fun chapter he gets to start in just 10 weeks!

Today, we went for a great bike ride. I've been trying to teach him how to ride a bike for 2 years. Its been a long process. But he's now getting it! YAY. Here is a funny/boring/embarassing video of our "test"

We were supposed to ride to the park and back to the house WITHOUT stopping, or he wouldn't get his toy he picked out from Walmart (A sponge-bob square pants lego set....Don't ask, we don't even watch the show!)

Trying new things out.

So lately, I've been trying a few things out. It has been snowy and cold up here in Calgary this past week, so I've had to resort to youtube for entertainment. While I was getting my daily dose of laughter and learning how to stuff sausage by hand, I came across "how to bake bread using your food storage" and "how to make your own pasta" videos. Oh boy....!!!

I made a few purchases from good ol' Ebay for a few of my experiments. I bought the food grinder attachment

for the Kitchen-Aid Mixer, and while I was at it, I might as well buy the pasta press attachment

for the food grinder.

What a good investment!! I did some research about how to do use some of this stuff. Look out for my very own "how to video on youtube...'How to make your own pasta with the pasta press attachemnt" there wasn't one at all on youtube, and that place has everything!!! The dinner was super easy to make, it was like $2.00 in ingredients, and it was so fun! Do you remember those playdough sets, you squish the dough out through some presses, and it looks like funny hair or pasta?

Yep, that's pretty much how it looked, as it was coming out of the press. So fun, and filling, and so good. It tastes much better than dried pasta from the store.

I have also been spending my time over at my favorite food storage site and learned how to make home made bread that tastes like store bought bread! woah!

Check out the video on how to make this amazing bread!


then go to part 2 of the video here:

It only took me 7 minutes to prepare this bread!! No kidding! So easy, and it worked. It actually worked in my kitchen-aid like a charm. Normally I end up adding like 10 cups of flour just to make it not sticky...and this worked!!! TRY IT!!!!!!!

Pretty much anything from Crystal from this site, is amazing! I love learning how to make her Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls! They were fan-friggin-tastic!

Well, ta ta for now folks, I'm off to put my bread in the oven.

The Wii has been put away for the summer!

Can you believe it, its actually summertime?!!! Yes, its true. I am outside planting, watering my lawn, filling up the kiddie pool, weeding and teaching Anthony how to ride his bike (he's had for 2 years and has NEVER taken it for a ride) For this purpose, have I turned off the Wii for the summer. What a great decision! Summertime is the best time to be a kid. They should be out chasing ice cream trucks, going to the park, climbing trees, jumping on a trampoline, eating a freezee or slurpee, camping etc. I want my kids to have a normal childhood.

So I'm going to be working out a daily fun schedule for the kids.

This weekend I'm going down to Lethbridge/Coaldale to visit my sister. I'm so excited about it. We are going fishing! I bought my first fishing license (thanks, Walmart) and I am bringing my brand new fishing rod and reel I got last summer. YAY!!! Maybe that will make a good blog entry, but for now, I'm just excited about it.

For the last week, I've been doing a workout program called Slim in 6. So far so good. I'm really not impressed with my regression of weightloss. I've gained 5-10lbs back since I've started my weightloss journey after Lliam was born. AH! Not cool!! I'm on the 2nd phase of the workouts, no they are getting longer and harder, and incorporating weight lifting...yay my favorite part! I've had success with it before, I lost 8 lbs in the 6 week program. So I'm hoping for a similar effect. Its mostly a leg-blasting workout, and that's a huge problem area for me. If I see some spectacular results, I'll even post before and after photos. My before pictures actually scare me. I am in such denial that my body has gotten THAT outta shape, and fat. Oh dear.

I took Anthony to the park yesterday, and helped him learn how to ride his bike. When we got to the park, we were the only ones there, and we decided to play "chase me" game. We chase each other all over the playground. Only, the difference is, that I can barely move with agility anymore. I can't even hang on the monkey bars for 5 seconds, let alone move along the bars.
Its going to be a long process...but entirely worth it.