Jack-O-Lanterns & Sassy Cake

It was my birthday yesterday. 27 big ones... Or, as Ramie likes to call it 'Old Balls'. Like the last couple of years, there really is no official plan for the day. Basically, we have cake and whoever shows up on the doorstep joins us in celebrating-- It works out great! Among the dropper-byers... Dustin, Dad, his wife Alicia and James' friend Dave from work and his wife Shanna (lovely american girl). The festivities yesterday included dinner, coffee & pumpkin carving. Loooove pumpkin carving!! I ended-up being too busy to get my own pumpkin carved so you'll have to check back in later for that (It'll be nothing short of fantastic and will certainly out-do the cinderella carving from last year... Oh yes, it will). It was a great night. These 27 years of my life so far, have been blessed... And I'm just really grateful to have the awesomeness of the best, most loving family and friends a girl could ask for.

Love you all! XOXO

Officially a Hockey Mom!!

Today was Aaron's first ever Timbits hockey practise!!! Unfortun-atly, a good friend of James' had passed away earlier this week and we were set to attend his funeral this morning, so good ol' Uncle George went in our place (Thanks George! ;). I'm thrilled to report he had a blast! He walked off the ice sweaty as ever and with a smile from ear-to-ear! My sweet-as-sugar niece, Sierra, took these photos and video of Aaron for us (And thanks Sierra!! ;). Keep your eye open for #28!!! Future Oiler?!

New Hobby Alert!!

Bracelets. I was channel surfing a few weeks back when I happened to stumble upon the 'Tori and Dean Inn Love' reality show. I'm not much of a fan but that's neither here or there... What I noticed was these charming little bracelets Tori was wearing with her kids names on them. I immediatly decided this was something I must have and therefor set to work planning how I was going to execute this idea. Before the day was done, I had whipped myself up a couple of cute bracelets that were virtually one-of-a-kind and undeniably fashion forward! Oh, and it doesn't stop there. Even Kirsten is rockin' an uber-trendy MOWGLI bracelet.

Want one? !

Twinkling Stars

It's official. The Christmas lights............... are out. Every year, my ridiculously kind and generous neighbor, Mr. D, gets the lights out and up before the weather officially turns. You never can predict when that'll be here in Alberta. Anyhow, usually just before Halloween. I know some may be thinking it's way too early for that, but in his defence (and mine) we do get to point and laugh at the other neighbors putting theirs up in minus 20 degree weather. I did my part by keeping good company and he strung them up. I can feel the Christmas warm-tinglies already!

**FYI- We don't turn them on just yet. We're not that nerdy....

A Walk In the Park

The Cooking Bug

Over these past two weeks I seemed to have caught the cooking bug. I don't think I've ever done so much thought-out and planned cooking/ baking in my life, and I'm loving it. It must have to do with the chillier weather... Ava seems to have caught the same bug as me! She was busy making her baby and myself eggs and sausage this morning. I found a few pretty successful casseroles off the internet so if anyone's in need of some new recipes, let me know!

Top 10 Things to Be Thankful For (In regards to today's Thanksgiving dinner)

1. Family, of course! Goes without saying- Must be mentioned!

2. Answering the phone with 'Gobble gobble!'. Not sure when else you'd be able to get away with that...

3. A fridge full of leftovers. Yay! Easy fixin's for lunch tomorrow, and all week! (Poor James...).

4. Snowglobe-like snow. Many would complain that it's just too early for that-- But today, it was perfect.

5. Cute kids. Ours are the only grandkids on my mom's side of the family. It'd be a pretty dry party without some crazy kids running around! Can't wait for more- Kirst, Dust?

6. Cross-eyed pictures with my husband. They've not only grown on me, but I've come to expect them. Must have one for every occasion...

7. The Pope's Nose (For those of you who don't know what that is, tee hee, just message me and I'll fill you in ; ) Provides limitless laughter.

8. Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake

9. Layers. Desserts, shirts... Good things come in layers (It was brought to my attention my whole family was dressed in stripes and both desserts I brought were in layers as well: Seven Layer Jello & Four Layer Cake).

10. Oilers Hockey. It just wouldn't seem like a traditional Thanksgiving without some sort of sports game to watch after the feast.

Those are my top ten Thanksgiving Delights for 2009. Feel free to add your own highlights to the list!!

Halloweens Past

The kids and I started our hunt for Hallo-ween costumes yester-day. Amazing-ly, we manag-ed to finish Aaron's costume (minus the turtle-neck and long johns he's going to need) and were able to gather a few pieces for Ava's, as well. I thought it would be fun to take a look at our costumes from past Halloweens!!

SCA Pride!

Aaron had his first field trip the other day with his kinder-garten class. They re-commend having your child wear their SCA Eagles t-shirt as to keep better track of the kids while out on excursions. I just had to share a pic of Aaron in his 'cause he just looks so dang cute! (And grown-up, sniff....)

I had the pleasure of having my Grandpa Grundy over last week. Other than the year we lived in Manitoba, I can count on one hand the number of visits we've had over the years. The last time I had the chance to see him was at my Grandma's funeral over 2 years ago, so it was nice to see him under different circumstances. It was a very short visit, to say the least, but these opportunities only come along once in a blue moon so it really was something to treasure. The kids got a chance to have a bit of a visit with him; we talked horses, looked at win pictures-- all that great stuff. I'm glad we had the chance to connect again and hopefully in the near future, we can make the trip out to see the rest of the family in Manitoba.