The Cake is Revealed!

So finally, I can share with you the big surprise cake I had been eagerly putting together for tonight's party. Hee, behold! The burger cake!!! Yes, a little creepy to think about eating, but it was completely cake, icing and gummy candies. The mustard and ketchup icing was the kicker for most. Its tricky getting the color right for ketchup, in case you are wondering, use red and yellow food coloring, since its more or an orange-red. The lettuce was the gummy candies, rolled out and cut. It was yummy and everyone enjoyed it. Huzzah!


Thankfully Nana had some candles since I totally forgot ours. My brain sure is on autopilot these days. Duh.


Got our taxes back from Jo and amazingly we are getting a small refund when we thought for sure we would be paying because of the extra freelance Ken has from the States. So that was nice, and we will repay them with a dinner of ribs come May when tax time is done. Woot.

Yesterday, it was a rainy day and quite miserable in the morning. However, my internal clock woke me up at 8am and I was shocked to see Ken still asleep beside me. I said,'honey its 8am!' He glanced up and then realized what I said and jumped up in the air. The bus he takes is at 10 after 8am, so needless to say he was in panic mode. I told him just get ready and I would drive him to the loop so we could beat the bus. I grabbed sleeping Ariel and ran out to the car. Pulled out and Ken came running out with his bag and got in. When we got to the corner where he usually catches the bus, it was just arriving, so we had lots of time to beat it to the loop. Ariel at that point had woken up and was like 'what is going on?' Needless to say, I got an egg McMuffin on the way home, figured I deserved it. Haha. Just call me Super Wife!

We got home and both of us were really out of it then. I had been up twice in the night so I really could have used the sleep in, but oh well. We watched cartoons and then realized it was nearly 11am. I went upstairs to work on the computer and our photo files kept crashing. Ugh. I was kinda freaking out as they had been acting up for quite a while, so I called Mike to get recommendations for an external drive. Following which, Ariel and I went to London Drugs and picked up one. Took a good hour to transfer the files to it, but once it was finished and I deleted several large things that were quite old, the computer was happy and didn't crash, yay!

That evening I dropped Ariel off at Dad and Rita's and met Ken at the Boot for Brenda's big 40th birthday bash. It was lots of fun and the hours just slipped by quickly. I had awesome fajitas for dinner, yummy. In fact I ate so much I was pretty pretty sore. Haha. Being overstuffed and having ligament pains, soooooooo uncomfortable. Blah.


The cute decor Julie had set up for the party, complete with Brenda 'fun facts' and cheesy old pictures, haha.


After 10pm when we finally had gotten out the door, my cel rang. Dad said Ariel was ready to come home. (Rita had gone to bed, so part of the entertainment was gone, haha) She had gotten her boots and coat on and was waiting by the door, awe. Kinda makes me feel better since she practically pushed me out the door and said 'Bye bye Mommy. You go now!' when I dropped her off. She was happy to see us and was full of hugs and kisses.

Well, its a VERY busy week. So lots to report as it all goes down. Hope you all had a good weekend. I am off to put the remainder of the burger cake away, hee.

Post Delayed Due to Blah

Yes, I promised my belly pic yesterday, but when my regular blogging time rolled around, I was hanging out in the bathroom with my good friend potty. Ugh, long story short, I skipped my afternoon pills thinking I was ok and didn't need them, and was sadly mistaken. The result was tossing my cookies and laying in bed for 2 hours to settle my head and tummy. Ugh. I was able to eat dinner, although I was pretty scared for awhile it would be back to haunt me. I took my evening pill a tad early to help and it seemed to work. I have learned my lesson... the hard way. Blah!

So Wednesday was pretty quiet... in fact I can barely recall what happened during it. Oh, I remember getting my pregnancy newsletter via email telling me my baby was the size of a baked potato. Hmmm, that got me wanting a baked potato pretty badly. Haha. Here is my belly pic, excuse my lack of make up. I realized of course after I took the picture. Oh well.


Oh I remember now... we had a huge customs bill surprise! Ken's mom had ordered Ariel a cute outfit and had is shipped directly to us, not knowing that UPS tends to have huge brokerage fees. Let me say in the end with tax, duty and brokerage... it was $54! That was HALF of what she spent on the outfit alone! Good gravy! I emailed her to tell her what happened and she was shocked and frustrated as I am sure she would be. She emailed the company and they ended up getting a gift certificate to their store, which I am surprised about. Not many places are so giving with these sorts of things, but maybe in this economy they don't want to lose customers they have. Ken's mom was kind enough to offer to pay the 'fees' but I still feel bad she had to do that after the lovely gift. Ariel loves the outfit, especially the matching purse.


Thursday was far more exciting, as Brenda came early to collect Ariel to take her with her other day care kids to the bird sanctuary. Ariel was pumped to go and waved goodbye without a care in the world. I then had until 2pm to do anything I wanted! With the laundry already done the previous night by my wonderful hubby, I was free to play! I walked down to the shops to get the banking stuff done and pick up some lunch meat for Ken. On the way back I stopped at the Thrift shop since I never get to go in. I found the best surprise, and quickly scooped it up for the $3 price tag. Stay tuned later in the post to see what it was, hee.

After dropping off the item at home, I realized I forgot to get the thread I needed at the quilt shop, so ran down to get it. I totally lost track of the days, and was surprised to see Stella. Right, its Thursday. Haha. Had a visit and then when lunchtime came, Kara showed up to eat with her mom. The shop suddenly got very busy, so Kara and I got some sushi (don't worry, no raw stuff) and had a yummy lunch and got to chat.

It was finally 2pm and I drove to pick up Ariel who was in no rush to leave. Poor girl cried most of the way home. She sure has a blast with Brenda and the kids. However, the surprise I had waiting at home soon made the tears disappear. There waiting for princess was her pal Big Bird!


She was totally taken with him and when I put the tape in the back (he came with 2 stories and books) she was in LOVE! His eyes still move, but the mouth doesn't move anymore which is a bummer, but what do you expect for $3? Didn't matter much, since she sat on the couch following along as Bird talked to her. After listening to the books several times, she watched Arthur with him. Best friends, awww.


Ken came home and was just as much in love with him as Ariel. Who is the bigger kid? At that point I had already been sick and was just feeling better enough to eat dinner. Soup and scones were yummy and I was very content, although still feeling slightly queasy.

Today was breakfast with Dad and Rita in the morning. Following that we visited the fat ducks, who were running up the path to see us.


Once returning to the house, Ariel and I ended up tagging along with them on their trip to Costco as I had been itching to go and get Pinocchio that Ken needed for his work. Also picked up Bolt for Ariel's Easter basket and I got Twilight, yeah I am a dork, deal with it. Frankly I was more interested in the behind the scenes stuff, and its good to have mindless movies to watch with knowing Ken will be going out of town a few times in the next few months.

Then we had an awesome lunch of Chinese food at one of Dad's favorite spots. It was super cheap and soooooooooo good. We brought home the leftovers for Ken, aren't we nice. Haha.


In the afternoon I baked the cakes up for my special top secret cake for Dad's party on Sunday. In the five minutes that it took me to go upstairs before Ken came home, Ariel managed to take several large bites out of my hard work!!! I have huge mice apparently. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Thankfully I still have time, but I am not pleased with Ariel at the moment. She knew not to touch them, but did anyways... needless to say there is some big timeouts and talking happening. Ah the joy of the 2 year old. Oh my poor cake, it was looking so nice... know it looks more like swiss cheese.


I will post the top secret cake pictures on Sunday night so stayed tune for that... that is if I can keep a certain kid out of my stuff. Ha!

Ooooh Scones!

Howdy folks! Tis a Tuesday afternoon and my munchkin is getting her afternoon tv fix and that means its blog time! Woot. Tomorrow I will be 17 weeks pregnant, yay, almost half way. Expect the belly picture to happen on Thursday since I will be child free - Brenda called and offered to take her off my hands for a few hours, and I am very excited. I think I may just sleep, ahhh... and some laundry, since its practically impossible to do with Ariel here. Speaking of my little accident prone chicky, she is healing well. I managed to get a look at her mouth and saw she had ripped the little piece of skin that comes up from the front teeth to the gum/lip area. Ouch, no wonder there was so much blood. Its looking good, and Ariel said it wasn't that sore.


I'm listening to Lindsey Buckingham's 'Go Insane' at the moment. Totally stoked its on the set list for the Fleetwood Mac concert. I even found someone who taped it from an earlier show and posted it on You Tube. Love it! I think I will be posting clips until the concert, just to make the wait easier.



So yesterday I found I was feeling good and decided to bake a few batches of scones to throw in the freezer. I was calling them biscuits originally, but Ariel informed me she didn't want them because they are for dogs.... haha, yeah, so scones it is. Ariel was my special helper, or more so watcher since she wasn't about to get her hands dirty. Haha. When they were in the oven, Ariel and her gator watched over them.


They came out and oh the smell was heaven. We let them cool and I bagged them up and into the freezer they went for when we have soup... except for a few Ariel and I snacked on that didn't fit in the bags. Haha. They are perfect with homemade blackberry jam... oooh.


Here is the recipe, enjoy!

Currant Scones

2 1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter(cubed)
1/2 cup currants
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg beaten

Preheat oven to 425° Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter to dry mix (I use my hands) until well blended. Add buttermilk and gently stir till its a sticky dough. With floured hands, knead gently a few times and pat into a round about 2cm thick. Cut out scones with cutter and brush with egg. Bake for 12-15 minutes and cool on a rack.

After the kitchen was clean, I was pretty tired, think it took more out of me than I thought. So I crashed on the couch while Ariel quietly played... or more so dumped every toy bucket in the living room. Blah.

Today we spent the morning at home and set up our Easter decor. Usually I am faster getting it out, but everything is really slow this year. Haha, wonder why? I also tried setting things up differently this year, just to change it up. Got the Easter tree up and Ariel was very taken with it. 'Ohhh, its so beautiful mommy.' Ariel loves using the word beautiful at the moment.


The Resurrection eggs that you may remember from last year. I am still trying to find the book that went with it, as it didn't go back in the Easter box for some reason. Hmmm.


More cute stuff, the egg is a salt and pepper shaker Stella gave me last year, hee.


After the decorating was done, Ariel and I played with her Word Whammer. She is starting to get how the game is played, and it entertained us both for quite some time.


Well, I am starving and there are leftovers tonight, which means I can eat early! Off to find some spaghetti. Woot! I leave you with this funny cartoon I saw today... ok, funny to me. I REALLY don't understand Twitter. I don't mind people who do, but now they are 'tweeting' on tv shows, telling me I can follow them online. Ummm, no thanks.

"Twouble with Twitter" sous-titré

And We All Fall Down...

...well, just Ariel. This morning after a lovely church service, Ariel was running and took a nose dive into the carpet. Ugh, Ken came to find me with a 'duck lipped' toddler crying with blood down both of them. Ugh. Made for a dramatic ride home since Ariel kept crying and yet would repeat out loud 'I'm ok, I'm ok.' Poor thing. After a change of clothes, a few minutes with the 'Mr Bump' gel pack and some hugs, Ariel was back to herself. Although, she will be sporting the bruising for a few days, things ended well. How many times has she split her lip? More than I can count on my hand, and we still have all the teeth (knock on wood). We are thankful that she is alright, and figured she was in God's house so he takes care of those who visit. Haha.


Before the spill, we enjoyed listening to a guest speaker, who we both found very moving and thought provoking. We also got to sing 'The Lorica' which is fast becoming one of my new favs during worship. Roy played the version his wife recorded on her own album during the offering and I came home and downloaded it from itunes, love it! If you want to hear a snippet, click here. Steve Bell just recorded it to his new album too, so no doubt I will get that one at some point too. Haha. I was thinking it be a great song to sing at this new baby's dedication service. Just my wheels turning.

After having a skype chat with Ken's family in Michigan in the afternoon, we went out for a walk to the store for some bread for dinner. I really hope this weather is a sign of spring coming soon. It was so lovely and bright, ahhhh. The breeze kept it still a bit on the cold side, but I'd take cold over rain these days. While out I picked up some secret ingredients for my special birthday cake I am making my Dad for his little family dinner we are doing next weekend. Since my Dad now reads my blog I can't spill the beans, so all I will say is that the item was green gum drops.... oooh, what could she be doing? Stay tuned for more clues and a final reveal on Sunday night! Brew ha ha, evil am I!

After dinner Irene came by to pick up some dvds we burnt of Graeme and Kalia's video we made, and we got her to give us a second opinion of the bruising we noticed on Ariel's nose. While cleaning Ariel up after her meal, I saw the one side of Ariel's nose was rather blue and purple. I wasn't sure if it was just an after effect of her fall or if she had done more damage to her nose than we thought. She concluded that it didn't seem broken, so that saved us several hours at the ER. Yay. Ariel was in good spirits regardless even asking Irene, 'what's your name.' A new phrase I haven't heard her say before. Very cute.

Now Ken and Ariel are downstairs watching Monster's Inc. Its her first time seeing it, and her laughing it just killing me. Ken has been eager to start movie nights with her and now that she sits for a whole film, the time has come! Huzzah!

While Ken was teaching his part time classes yesterday, Ariel and I enjoyed a walk into town. The bakery gave her a balloon when we stopped in for a treat and she was beyond thrilled. We came home and she had a private party, haha.


Anyone notice the Fleetwood Mac concert ticker is now under 2 months! WOOT! Its getting closer and I have been watching footage from the shows they have already preformed on this tour via You Tube. I even found the set list and I am even more excited!!! I hope I can get Ariel a concert t-shirt, since she doesn't get to join us. A 3rd generation Mac fan in the making.

Friday morning we had breakfast with my Dad and Rita. It was a miserable morning of rain so we couldn't go visit the ducks. Rita had to go pick up her granddaughter, so we all went to McDonalds for lunch. Ariel got a frog toy with her meal and named him, Kermit. What else would a frog's name in our house be called?

While coming home I saw my old art teacher in the parking lot and didn't even bother to yell and say hi. Why you ask, because I looked like a dog's breakfast. It was that moment that I realized that I need to really put some effort into my appearance, as hard as it is when I feel as gross as I do. So I did my hair, added make up and over the past 2 days I have gotten so many complements. I guess I did look half dead. Haha. I still look super tired, but at least I look more like the old me, just with a big ol' baby belly.


So I am trying to get my week organized, have some things that have been on my 'to do' list too long, so maybe I will get them taken care of. One thing I have been meaning to do is upload these funny videos Ken took of Ariel singing. She gets so excited that the words don't make a whole lot of sense at times, but I am sure you get basic idea of what she is singing... at least I hope you do. Haha.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If your wondering about the last one, she is singing 3 different verses she learned at dance class, but they are coming out all the same, except the actions. What a girl!

Also, welcome to the new readers that found us during the blog party this week! Please leave a note saying you came by, we enjoy meeting new friends.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009!

Welcome here, and thanks for stopping by. Please have some rainbow jell-o, cuz there is always room for jell-o!


My name is Jay and I am a stay at home wife and mommy. I am married to my sweetie Ken, and we will celebrate our 8th anniversary this summer. Our daughter Ariel is just over 2 and a half, and is the sunshine in our lives. We are also expecting another miracle at the end of the summer! Please take a moment to vote if you think it will be a boy or girl! We will be finding out the sex on April 21st, so come back again to see if you guessed right.


Ariel is a total girly girl. She is into dance and clothes, so not like me at all. However, I have totally embraced it and love every moment. If I would let her, I am sure she would be blogging already too. Haha.


One thing I did get hooked on was Gymboree, and Ariel can't wait to do fashion shows to share her new duds. Last year at the party I shared a little video of Ariel in her gymbo, and I thought it be fun to do again. So here is the past year, and a look back at how much my little girl has grown.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I am really into crafts and sewing projects. My latest one I am unveiling the final product today for you all. Its Ariel's new cupcake quilt I designed for her new big girl room. I finished hand sewing the binding and saved showing it for today. Now I am designing a matching pillow sham to go with it.


Well, I am sure you all have many other parties to get to, so have a good time! Stop by to visit anytime, we are glad to have you.

16 Weeks

I am going to keep this short since I am feeling really crappy at the moment. I think I over did it this morning taking Ariel to the pool. Just feeling worn down and tired. Ugh. Don't worry, you'll get a full exciting blog on Friday for the blog party, so it will make up for my lack of posting the past few days.

Not a whole lot to say. Its been pretty mellow the past few days. I have been getting to bed early since I feel drained at the end of the day. It has allowed Ariel and I to watch some movies together in bed, and that is always fun. We watched Enchanted last night, such a good film.

One very exciting big of news, April 21st we have our big ultrasound appointment to find out if baby is a boy or girl!!! So get your votes in to the poll. Looking forward to announcing not only the gender but the name of our little bean. Yay!!!

Like I mentioned, we went swimming this morning and ended up running into my old work friend Heidi and her daughter Alli. She too is pregnant again, due a few weeks before me, gosh something has been in the water around here, everyone one is pregnant and due withing weeks of each other. Craziness.

Yesterday Ariel got a surprise in the mail, this new Gap 'My Little Pony' retro shirt! I won this on a contest someone was doing on my Gymbofriends message board. Ariel was beyond thrilled and yelled 'PONIES' when she saw the shirt. Momma's little girl is a pony fan, like I was, hee.


We also wore green yesterday for St Patrick's Day and ate Lucky Charms cereal. Yeah, I was really creative this year. Haha, sorry, no brain power during this time. Ariel and Ken didn't seem to mind, and happily gobbled down the sugary treat.

Well, that is all I can type at the moment. My headache is coming on full force, thank goodness Ken will be home soon. Save me oh husband of mine.... your queen is crumbling. Blah.