My favorite Titan

Thanks to my husband, I am a huge Tennessee Titan fan. Their former QB, Steve McNair, was found shot dead in a condo in Nashville.

RIP Steve. The NFL world is indeed mourning your passing.

If I had my jersey with your name/number on it with me in Cardston, I'd wear it for you today.

Still in Cardston, Raymond, Magrath, Lethbridge...er...Southern Alberta AND Bad Mommy Awards part 2

I'm still down south in Alberta. I'm loving how much time my kids get to spend with their grandma and aunties! I'm sporting a pretty cool tan too, as I'm always outside!

Here are some pics from the famous Raymond Canada Day Parade, and Cardston's Party in the Park for Canada Day.







Bad Mommy - do not let your kid stand up in a stroller, he will fall out and land on his head on the pavement. Possibly in front of 500 or so spectactors at the Raymond Parade!


"Trevor! Throw me Candy TREVOR!!!" Yeah - not even a nod. We aren't friends anymore.


"Anthony, can you be cute please?" - He thinks cute means make any face you want, as long we you are tilting your head to the side, it passes as cute. Good thing he's cute anyway.





I don't know anything about the "shriners" are they are religion, or some Masonic type man club? Either way, I laugh at their little cars.


Anthony and Debster doing the Cha-Cha slide...they were so cute!



2 hours later we watched the Canada Day fireworks, and it was so awesome to spend that time with Anthony and see his face light up with excitement. He had a good day.

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.

My Super Duper long Happy Birthday Lliam complete with Pictures over 1 year, post! Happy Birthday my boy!

It was May 2008 when I was at the end of my pregnancy rope with Lliam. It was hot outside, I had body parts swelling up that I could not control, and I had a huge belly. Ahh, the joys of pregnancy. This post is dedicated to my Little Lliam. 1 year!



Just hours old.




I made this cute video of all my pictures set to music....and it just wasn't compatible with Blogger, or You Tube, or whatever. Stupid Windows movie maker!
So now you get all the pics on here.




Was he ever this small and weird looking? LOL Yes he was!




Ahh the milky mouth. I miss the smallness of him.




He TOTALLY looks like a Jensen here!!!




Just learning how to sit up, I was still propping him up until he was 6 months old.




See? Still propping. Lliam did things in his own due time.




These little bouncy activity things, are the best things ever!!!




Lliam loves pizza...even now. He can gobble up a whole slice without even thinking about it.




Lliam and Auntie Schmaff...isn't she just gorgeous?




Lliam has mastered the rolling over, and army crawling. My boy is starting to grow up!




Lliam and Virgil, doin' their thang. Just being cute at 10 months.




Every time I see this picture all I can see is his drool...*shudder** sorry folks.




And here's the star of this post....THE BIRTHDAY BOY!!!!




He's almost outgrown his bouncy thing.




Just chillin' with grammy on the stairs. For his birthday we had family and food and fun. No games really, as Lliam is just too young for those kind of parties. I just wanted my family there to celebrate this happy day. Isn't he just so darn cute?!




I wanted in on a pic too!




The sisters, the ma, and the nephew...awwww!




Holy Hannah! Peanut Butter and chocolate cupcakes for the birthday boy! Dang, these were amazing with Vanilla ice cream!




Pics of the festivities....the house got a little messy...that's ok right?




My brother, just chillin.




My other gorgeous sister, holding Lliam.




Appearantly I'm a huge poser, so they are making fun of me! Laugh it up girls!





He had no clue what to do with it...so no messy pictures here. Sorry.

The day was perfect! I had a great time, and Lliam was a great baby. Now he's graduating into toddler-hood. He's standing on his own, and learning how to walk. WOAH...didn't he just learn how to crawl like last month?!

On monday, my father (who didn't attend his birthday party on sunday) treated us to Chuck E Cheese. The food is still pretty yuckie, and the animatronic mice still creep me out. We earned Anthony about 1450 tickets to trade in for a cool toy at the end of the night. Lliam loved being able to crawl around wherever he wanted to. That place makes it so secure, that no one can escape with your kids! Love it!

Anyway...today I took Lliam in for his 12 month immunizations....he did not do well. He's a fighter and made it really hard for me to hold him still....poor kid. He's napping now, and should feel fine in a couple days.

That's all for now folks...enjoy the long long long over due post!