Burk's hidden gift

Would you believe it? My little boy has gone from toddler to teen! He's now 13 years old!!!

When my big sister was visiting us last, she gave me a gift to hide until Burk's birthday.

I thought carefully about where to hide it. Somewhere Burk would never look... and decided to put it in the bottom of our baby's diaper bag. There it was, in almost plain sight to anyone who might check inside there to get something for the baby. A few times I've asked Burk to go get me a diaper from Emma's diaper bag, and he was always in such a rush to get this task overwith that he barely look in there. In fact, he'd usually just reach in the bag and pull anything out that was closest to the top. Now and then I'd asked my 5 year old to help me out by bringing me something out of the bag, and while he was a very good helper he never did get to the bottom of the bag. Now don't get me wrong, my older boy can be an excellent helper when needed, but he has an aversion to diapers or anything related to them. I wonder if it's genetic, and if he get's it from his father? And I wonder if there is a world record for the person who has changed the most diapers? I'm sure it would go to one of the caring ladies who has worked in an orphanage most of her life. But for someone to claim that title they would have to actually keep track of each diaper change... not something I would have the time to do.

Emma's first spoonful!

Time flies, eh? Emma is now 6 and a half months old, and time for
her to start baby food. So my friend came over to watch Emma take
her first taste of baby food. Ok, so she's already tried a Farley's
biscuit to gum on when she was teething, but this was her first spoon-
fed baby cereal. We made it very thin, and didn't give her too much.

She loved it! Hubby took photos while she tried it out. Her first
bite was interesting. She waited for the ta.ste to sink in, then
tried to grab the spoon!

Then she went down for a good nap.... zzzzzZZZZZ

Here are some of the photos.

By the way, I'm STILL not finished my table runner yet, but at least
I did finish the crocheted hand towel.

Two very good friends of mine are coming over on the weekend to help
me do a serious de-cluttering of my house! One to help me sort, the
other gets to play with Emma while we sort through the junk into give-
away and throw-away piles. We try to donate to both Cerebral Palsy
and the Canadian Diabetes foundations on a regular basis through
their clothing pick-up program. It's an easy way to pair down on
your closet - if you can't actually walk through your 'walk-in'
closet, just grab a large garbage bag and start tossing things in
it. Then either drop it off to your local Value Village store, Sally
Ann box, or call for a clothing pick-up. Don't worry if you think
your clothes are out-of-date, anything they can't use will get
recycled or turned into other things through one of their many useful
programs.

Newbie Geocachers

Looking for something fun to do on a budget this summer? Why not try
geocaching!
This outdoor hobby is becoming quite popular, and with a handy
website database, you can participate all over the world.
As most kids like to go treasure hunting, this makes for a great
family adventure, with fresh air and good exercise to boot.

Some people go out and purchase a GPS device specifically for this
purpose, while others just use their iPhone, Blackberry device, or
the GPS on their portable navigation system like TomTom, or Garmin.
From what I've heard from the people I've bumped into on our
adventures, the Garmin is the way to go. I can't tell you how many
times my TomTom has been off course, even though I had just updated
the coordinates or satellite. Mind you, as far as driving directions
go, my TomTom is awesome! We never get lost! But when you are
trying to find a treasure in the middle of the woods, you don't want
to be off by 40 feet, or it makes it exponentially harder to find.
Some caches (treasure) we managed to find even being off course,
though it took several tries. Other times we were spot on.

The last one we went to, we were so far off that the family who hid
it offered to help us find it. I'm glad they did, it was no where
near where we were looking! We had a good time exploring through the
woods. One thing I like about the Kitchener-Waterloo area where we
have been geocaching, is that the other geocachers are very friendly
and helpful. And each forested area we visit seems to have it's own
character, so it's never like going to the same place twice. If you
are into nature walks, bird watching, or any type of nature study
then geocaching would be a great hobby for you to try out.

My kids like to search for new and interesting bugs while we are out,
and we take photos of them to research when we get home.

My Little Artist

This is Evan, my 5 year old. He is so crafty! He will stay up waaay
past bed time inventing craft projects if only his little eyes would
stay open all night.

When he found out that there were no Transformers trading cards, he
decided to solve that problem right away by making his own. He has
folded a paper several times to make it as sturdy as a real card, and
then stapled it (with a child safe stapler) to make sure it stays in
place. He has several of these that he gives me, and others that he
brings to the park to make sure there is enough for anyone else who
is needing some Transformers to play with. His favourite ones are
Optimus Prime, and Megatron. I'm sure these would do perfectly well
for a Flat Stanley project. Maybe I'll look into that..

Emma's first bite

We were at the park with the kids and a friend of mine was sharing her crackers.  I was offered some, and before I could put it in my mouth, Emma reached out and grabbed it with both hands!  I thought, she's just about ready to dolids now, so I let her taste it.  She stuck it in her mouth, and after a few jabs she took the tiniest little bite!  The rest didn't really make it to her tummy, though she did enjoy gumming at it and watching it crumble in her fingers.

dogs on Thursdays

I found this blog from a dishcloth KAL that I had joined back in April.  You wouldn't believe how far behind I am...  anyway, this lady's blog has a dog on the top of her blog that reminds me of mine, so here's the link if you want to see a funny photo.

Daddy's Little Girl

Daddy's Little Girl 

You're the end of the rainbow, my pot of gold,
You're daddy's little girl to have and hold.
A precious gem is what you are,
You're mommy's bright and shining star. 

You're the spirit of Christmas, my star on the tree,
You're the Easter bunny to mommy and me.
You're sugar you're spice, you're everything nice,
And you're daddy's little girl. 

You're the end of the rainbow, my pot of gold,
You're daddy's little girl to have and hold.
A precious gem is what you are,
You're mommy's bright and shining star. 

You're the treasure I cherish so sparkling and bright,
You were touched by the holy and beautiful light.
Like angels that sing a heavenly thing,
And you're daddy's little girl. 

You're the treasure I cherish so sparkling and bright,
You were touched by the holy and beautiful light.
Like angels that sing a heavenly thing,
And you're daddy's little girl. 

Bobby Burke and Horace Gerlach

New Recipe: Puffy Popovers

Puffy Popovers

This recipe I found over on baby center

We like to try new things, and this looked like something simple and fun to try out.  

It's not too different from a basic muffin recipe, but with different proportions.

I'm posting the recipe, incase you might like to try it out sometime yourself.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes

Traditionally served with roast beef, these light, airy popovers are a treat with any roasted food or simply served with hot tea.

Ingredients

2 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus butter for greasing the muffin pan 

3 eggs 

1 1/2 cups milk 

1 1/2 cups flour 

Salt and pepper 

Preparations

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Lightly butter a 12-cup muffin pan. 

In a bowl, whisk the eggs. 

Add the milk and beat well. 

Sift the flour over the mixture (I don't have a sifter, so I fluff up the flour with a spoon before measuring - my Home Ec. teacher taught us this trick in high school and it works fairly well) and stir to create a smooth batter. 

Add 1 tablespoon of the melted butter and the salt and pepper. 

Fill the prepared tins about two-thirds of the way full. 

Drizzle the remaining melted butter over each of the popovers and bake on the middle shelf for 15 minutes. 

Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 15 minutes, or until the popovers are golden brown and puffed up. 

Makes 12 servings 

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knitted baby dress/sweater

Need a nap?

One of my favourite photos.

Our friends gave Emma this udderly adorable moo cow. It's so sweet!
When I was a little baby, my mother used to put a hot water bottle
wrapped in towels next to me, and I'd nudge right up to it.
She said it worked wonders for me. So I tried it with my boys when
they were babies, and it worked. I was always nervous, though, that
the end would come undone and then you'd have hot water leaking near
a baby. I've never heard of it really happening, but you never know...
So this cow is special - it's filled with lavender, and it's
microwave heatable up to two minutes. I find with our microwave,
that it only needs about 45 - 50 seconds to be cuddly warm.
I put it next to Emma when she falls asleep and she snuggles right up
to it! It was so cute when I saw her first grab on to Cuddles' ear,
and she held on to that ear for almost her whole nap!

Now, whenever she gets tired and starts to become fussy, all I have
to do is bring her Cuddles and she calms down so fast, like she knows
it's quiet time.

This cow is so soothing, so amazing! I love it, and I hope we never
lose it.
Maybe I should buy another one just in case... I did that for my
eldest son's stuffed dog, Tracker.
I'd hidden it deep in my closet, to keep it safe. One day, he came
running to me, almost out of breath.
"Mommy! Mommy! Tracker has a brother!!!" He had found the double. I
didn't know what to say. I was thinking, "Oh no. What do I do now?
Do I get 2 more of them, incase we lose these guys?"  We did not, and life went on.  We have since lost the 2 little doggies, but he remembers them fondly, and we did take photos of them for our scrap book.

Smiles Galore

Love those smiles!

My spider boy, with his own home made mask...

my nephew in his cute blue boots...

some of their favourite toys...

ahhhh... what a sweetie!

he can just fit those little legs under the bridge

and there's his daddy - they are playing chase!

ok, so that's not a smile, but such a funny face I had to include!

there's the smile!

and here is my twin sister holder her baby, my adorable nephew!  And her is her husband holding my adorable baby!  They are going to be such good friends, it's too bad my nephews live out of town.  

She's doin it!

After figuring out this week how to grab her own fingers, and knees,
Emma has now figured out how to grab a toy!!!

Ok, so this post was scheduled for the middle of May (the 17th) to be published, but wasn't.  After looking into it, I found out you have to hit the Publish button after post dating a post, not the save button or it will go back into the draft section.  But I'm posting it anyway, since it was so exciting!  Emma is really liking to hold onto things, but is not very good yet at aiming things into her mouth if they are an odd shape.  Poor thing, she bonked herself with a teething toy the other day and wasn't impressed.

Luci's Mudhouse

My boys and I went to Luci's Mudhouse, a.k.a. the Art Studios (I liked their old name better, so I still use it).  They have pre-fired pottery there you can paint, and then pick up after it's been glazed.  The boys each picked out a project, and they helped me make a travel mug with baby Emma's handprint on it.  I've been wanting a new travel mug for awhile now, and one that's not made in China, so this was great! 

Evan made this robot, he calls it his Transformer, and was a little disappointed to find out that it doesn't actually transform.  But he likes it anyways.

This is his robot and the one his little friend made.  We invited 3 other kids to come along with us, so it made for a good field trip.

And here is Burk's shark.  It's actually a secret storage box shark.  The top lifts off for you to hide little things in, like his chore money.  He's saving up to get the Playstation game, Little Big Planet, with that cute little sack boy.  I've downloaded a pattern for one that he would like for me to knit.  I think it's way above my skill level, but a friend has offered to help coach me if I need it.

And here is my new mug!  Emma's hand prints are on either side, within the painted heart shape.  They are a little squishy, but I think it's great!  Evan even painted the inside of it.

Sheltie & mini me sheltie

Here big brother is trying to get the attention of both Levi, and his
little sister. He sure knows how to make her laugh!
But she doesn't know what to make of it when Levi gives the webkinz
dog a shoulder ride.

Emma's new sweater

My mother came by the other day for a visit, something I will miss when she moves to Toronto this summer.  The boys love having her around!  She's only about a 10 minute drive away, and my DS5 knows what her Toyota Highlander looks like - so when we were walking around the block together he saw one and said, "there's Gramma's house!"  I had a hard time convincing him otherwise, as he saw the facts.  If it was her car, it was her house.  No disputing it.  I'll have to drive him over to her place to show him where she lives again, and possibly over to Toyota to show him all the cars they have in a row that are the same, but not all of them belong to Gramma.  What a cutie!

Gramma brought over the most adorable sweater for Emma;  I love baby sweaters!  Emma seems to look cute in anything she wears, but this little sweater reminds me of a princess.  Gramma's neighbours are very experienced knitters, and made 2 dolls for her, and a mouse.  Big brother Evan had decided the tail of the mouse was no good for Emma, so he cut it off!  Good thing he's not opposed to the braids on the dolly, or she's get a buzz cut, so I won't mention her hair to him.  I have to make sure Emma has her blanky when wearing the sweater, though, since she started teething and is constantly putting things in her mouth.  I wouldn't want her to chew apart the fine knitting on the collar, or to chew off a button.

Swiffer wet jet cover pattern

I found this neat pattern for a DIY swiffer cloth.  I think that's an awesome idea!  No more throwing out swiffer cloths.  I like to use my swiffer for light mopping, but feel bad about throwing out the cloths.  This is an environmentally friendly alternative, as you just throw them in the washer when you are done.  Now if only I could find a way to refill their solvent container with more earth friendly cleaning products, but I can't seem to hack into the container without ruining it.

http://ddrbroderick.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-swiffer-wetjet-cover.html

I do have a microfibre mop, but it works so well as a janitor's broom that I don't really use it for mopping.  If I were to buy some more mop heads to have handy, that would work better.  I should put that on my to do list. 

I'm going to see if this is on Ravelry, and que it to my list of things I want to do. I love Ravelry!

...been a little busy

A friend of mine said to me yesterday, 'What happened to your blog?  You haven't posted since...'

I'm not the only one, though.  Some of my blogger friends haven't posted for months, and I wonder what they are up to as well.  So I'll update mine and tell you all how I'm doing.

I am doing well, and have lost most of my pregnancy weight, though I still have some weight to lose that honestly was there before the baby, but people are nice enough to pretend it was gained during pregnancy.  DH had bought a Bowflex home gym that was on sale half price during the winter, and we figured we'd save money by not having to pay our gym memberships anymore.  I We finally got it put up - not by us, of course.  We meant to get to it... but it never happened.  So someone suggested us getting a handyman to put it together, and we found one at great recommendation to us.  He not only put the home gym together, but he allowed our DS12 to be his helper and learn to use some of the tools like the Alan keys and the ratchet.  Then he fixed our eaves trough that had fallen off, and installed the new shower head that was waiting.  Then he came by on another day to put together our swing set that I bought and partially completed last summer (now I like to put things together, but I blame the heat & pregnancy for not finishing that one).  So I'm thrilled now to have so many things finished and in working order!!!

It was almost too good to be true, and our washing machine must have gotten wind of this state of well-being in the house, for it shortly thereafter broke down!  I had of course, fallen slightly behind in my laundry and the laundry room had become Mount Washmore.  I had one load in the dryer, and one in the washer when there started the 'thump-thump-thump-thump' sound that had become accustomed lately.  We were told the drum attachment was started to wear out prematurely (a common problem I was told of GE front loaders recently) due to laundry detergent residue.  You know how they say to use only HE detergents with front loaders?  Well, when I called Tide to ask them (3 years ago) why they didn't have a Cold Water Wash detergent for HE washers,  they said you didn't need one with an HE washer since they were already so efficient.  I still wanted to save more, and use the cold water cycle, so they suggested that I use the regular Cold Water Tide, but use only 1/4 of the recommended use.  So that's what they did.  My DH didn't care for us buying the HE detergents, as he thought it was just a scam for getting people to spend more money for the same amount of loads that the regular detergent would do.

Now we find out that when you use the regular detergent, even at a reduced amount, it leaves a residue on a part of the machine that wears it away, eventually breaking it down.  The cost of the repair for this?  About $600.  Ouch.  And what a good wife I am... I didn't even say, "I told you so" or "you were wrong", nothing of the sort.  I did, however, make him promise to never use regular detergent again on the new washer we will be buying, as we can't afford any more $600 mistakes - I included myself in the blame for that mistake, and I also include Tide for telling me I could use regular detergent but less of it.  But I'm not mad at them, as they have kept my clothes clean for many years.  

So last night hubby and I went on a date night... to the laundry mat.  Baby slept through our whole date.  So this week we are researching and shopping for a new washer that is energy efficient and environmentally responsible (this means most of the parts will be recyclable, and any other features that help contribute to the cause).

Springing to Life!

I can't narrow it down further than this. I love it when my tulips
start coming up! It seems like it lasts for such a short time!
But maybe that's what makes them so special to me... I can only enjoy
them for a drop of time each year.
This is one of my most favourite parts of spring.

So, what's your favourite one?

One of my favourite spring photos is the one that Alaina took of her
flowers last year. She's really good with a camera.

I'll see if I can find the link for it.

P.S. if you're wondering why I'm posting this one so late in the spring, it's because I thought I had already posted it, but found it amung the drafts in my dashboard.  What a shame...