Not Sure how old, the box spring had mold and I lost in a fight with a dog.

I am entering to win a new mattress from this awesome blog I love. I really don't know how old this mattress is. My hubby got it before we were even married. We had a King size mattress handed down, but kept this one just in case. Good thing as the King size got mold, along with the box spring that was supposed to be with this one.

Also before we were even married, this mattress also got into a fight with a dog and lost as you see in the picture (the nice hole circled in green). We are using plywood for the box spring now and we are hoping that it will hold up for a bit yet so we can save for or win a new one.

I would love to win the Tempur-pedic mattress right now as it would be heavenly after having another c-section in a couple days!

Here's hoping, you can vote for ours on the blog! :o)

One Thousand Gifts

It has been a while since I posted one of these. I am still counting and have so much to be grateful for! I am also counting down the days until our newest little 'Gooch' arrives! Only 5 more days and we will meet this little miracle.

We have been busy this past month. The move went so extremely well, we were both amazed at how 'good' God truly is. He was always one step ahead of us every inch of the way. It was truly incredible. We still have had little glitches here and there, but that is to be expected. We still have a lot to get organized as well, but I am learning to let go and just focus on what we have accomplished and what really is important (hard for me as I have this 'nesting' thing going on full bore!).

So over the past few weeks, we have had so much to count:

81. Safe travels and perfect weather for our move.



82. Affordable hotel rooms, when we needed it most.

83. A nice, new place to call home for the year. It is quaint, but nice and affordable for us. Not to mention the neighbourhood is really nice and quiet.

84. Finding a doctor, in the most bizarre, God orchestrated way.

85. Family outings and the love these two have for the outdoors, the beaches, the mountains, and just exploring!



86. A husband who keeps me sane or my sanity in check!



87. Amazing sermons.

88. Reconnecting with friends!

89. Meeting new additions to the family and seeing family we haven't seen in a while.

90. Baby bellies! :o)



91. Seeing my nephews and of course my dear sister again!

92. Knowing that I have a year off with these three. I love being at home with my sweet hearts!



93. Hanging with our friends from Regina in Canmore! We are beyond blessed to have the Paille's in our lives. So many fun times with this family and we are so grateful for the ways they helped us out!

94. A backyard (even if it's small) and the trampoline! They love it and could spend hours on it!

C is for Cookie - long overdue post

I have had this sitting in the 'draft' for a while now and just needed to format and post some pictures. So here it is, our little Princesses birthday!

The theme for Gigi's birthday was Cookie Monster. One of her favourite songs is "C is for Cookie" and she belts it out. It is so cute! She also loves the Cookie Monster Alphabet DVD that we bought and will sing the Alphabet along with Cookie.

I thought I would share a few things that we did for her party, and there were definitely a few things that I would have done differently. Oh well, live and learn.

I made two different types of Cookie Monster cupcakes due to allergies. Genesis is allergic to eggs and I thought it would be challenging to come up with a cake that had no eggs. I almost went out and bought an ice-cream cake. However my friend found this chocolate cake recipe that did not have eggs. I was a little nervous, as most chocolate cakes I have made by scratch are dry, but these turned out amazing! I will share the recipe.

I made 12 eggless chocolate cupcakes and used Oreo's (they don't have eggs in them either) and then I made 12 white cupcakes and used Chips Ahoy cookies. I used buttercream icing and blue gel to make it blue. I also bought the bulk, long unsweetened coconut and used the food gel on it as well to dye it blue. The coconut with the buttercream was really nice! For the eyes I bought white chocolate 'circles' and black icing for the pupils. I had to experiment with the cupcakes to find the best technique. I actually cut a slit in the cupcakes for the cookie, stuck the cookie in and then iced around it. It seemed to work the best.

For the gift bags I found the brown paper gift bags at the dollar store. I made labels that read:

Genesis's birthday is brought to you by the letter G and the number 2. Thanks for celebrating with us (found this on a website).

I also bought bubbles for the gift bags and put new labels on them that read "B is for Bubbles". I re-did all of the water bottle labels as well. They read, "W is for Water, as refreshing as can be."

I made cookies and had the kids decorate cookies when they arrived. I also gave Cookie cutters in their goodie bags and I wanted to do 'cookies in a jar' for each guest, but I ran out of time and ended up loading them up with pre-packaged cookies and candy (something I would have changed).

We found a Cookie Monster pull-string pinata at Bulk Barn on sale. I also filled a jar of cookies and had all of the adults and older kids make their guess. At the end the closest guess took home the jar of cookies.

We ended up having the party inside, rather than outside at the park. It was a little cramped, but we survived. It would have been much easier outside! I know that Genesis had a great time and was so excited for her Cookie Monster birthday and that made everything so worth while. I will admit that I had fun doing the different things and making the cupcakes as well, even though it was pretty time consuming. I am on the look-out for ideas for Zech's birthday now! :o)

Here are a few photos:



Recipe:

Chocolate Snacking Cake

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup warm water

· In mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients; mix thoroughly.

· Add liquid ingredients

· Stir with whisk until blended

· Pour into lightly greased 8 inch square cake pan

· Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until tester comes out clean

We've moved!

It has been a while since I posted because we have been without internet for two weeks now, and without a phone as well. It wasn't a bad thing to be without the internet for this long---kind of a technology cleanse! However, it is a little more stressful when you have just moved, are still trying to get things sorted and settled and need to look something up. John put unlimited web browsing on his phone so we could at least check emails,search addresses, etc. But it is pretty hard on the phone. None the less we have our internet and phone access now--yay (I really missed pinning too--hee)!

The move went well. We were both amazed at how smoothly it went and how God orchestrated so many incredible things and just really took care of us. We are where we are supposed to be for now and that is so evident. We are slowly getting settled and back into a routine. No, we have not unpacked everything and it will be a slow process. We try to do the unpacking, and getting settled business in the mornings and then take the kids to the mountains, beaches, etc. in the afternoon. They love the mountains and the beaches and get to go nuts. Zech also loves having a backyard that he has free reign (although very small) in. Every day he is outside with his swords and lego guns checking things out, getting the bad guys and the bad bugs too! It is nice that he can go out on his own and I don't have to worry and can see him from the kitchen. He is also the loudest kid in this block, so we find ourselves having to tell him to tone his outside voice down a little bit. He is all boy!

I will post pictures and more updates soon.