huh...

When I was online yesterday, my pic was on the main page of the site, now it's here:

http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/shop/item.ihtml?idx=532

I don't know what happened.

Oh well.

Simply amazing...

Is what this is!

http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/

So Bens sister is a totally amazing artist. She scrapbooks like a pro (well she is a pro) and takes pictures like a pro (which she also a pro at). If you are a faithful reader of my Blog, you would have seen this picture of us posted a while back. Anyway, Rebecca, being the total Pro she is, sent this picture into Simple Scrapbooks and gues what?? They put us on the cover of their Jan/Feb issue!! So Rebecca has her work publisehd all the time, but this is the first time I've been on the cover of a major magazine. Now let me explain how cool this is for me. Simple scrapbooks is sold in stores throughout the world...you can buy them basically anywhere you are. So it is cool. What's also very cool is that I'd always wanted to be on the cover of a magazine, but since I have no realy talents and I'm definitely not built like a model (dang the short genes), I really had now hope. So, now that I'm sort of like Paris Hilton and famous for no reason, you can all say you knew me back when.

Ok, I know it's not as cool for some of my readers...especially the ones who have been in magazines before, but any time I'm compared to Paris Hilton, is a fun day in my books (even if I'm the one making the comparison.

Pure Entertainment

So, now for some more entertainment from my oh so exciting life. I've been pretty busy lately...but I think that's all relative. I'm sure one day I'll look back on these days and either mock myself for thinking life was busy or say a quick gratitude prayer that my life isn't as crazy anymore. I'll let you know when that day comes and what the verdict is. So this last week has been full of family, work events and lots of COLD weather.

So last weekend Ben and I went shopping with Nate for some new Furniture. We have ordered the Couch and Loveseat and once it gets here we will decide on whether we want the chair and ottoman too. All I can say though it that Leather is awesome! I don't have any kids yet, but I do know that when they spit up on the couch all I'll have to do is wipe it off. From what I hear, once you've had leather with kids you'll never go back. I'd have to say I agree, especially after last weekend with Marcus we were glad our truck is all leather. He was really good for a two year olf but the apple juice and cookies mushed into the seat cleaned up very nicely.

So anyway, on Friday Ben and I went to a friends house and we had a big "settlers" game. This is an awesome game!! I'd only played twice before that, but my strategy was getting pretty intense by the last game. And if you know me, I'm an intense gamer. Intense to the point that I'm not allowed to play most of our games cause I just start scrapin' with everyone...needless to say, I'll probably be banned from Settlers very soon.

Then on Sunday we went to Nate and Tans for a big Family dinner after Stake Conference. It was great cause Becc and Jar were actually there. Their church normally starts at 3:30 so they can never come for family dinner. Can you believe it? 3:30 pm???? That bites. Anyway, we had tons of fun just hanging out and chatting. I had mom's camera most the day so I don't have very many pictures. But I do have one of this:

Which Becc, Yuka and myself worked very hard on. Once it was ready we dropped it off to Jeff downstairs and said that we were just waiting on him now, cause we'd already decided we want Yuka to be our sister. So we're hoping and praying he got the not so subtle hint!Here's one of Jeff and Yuka! She's too cute to not want in the family!

Anyway, after mom and dad and Sarah (who has Mono...the poor girl) left; and after Becc and Jared and the kids left we pulled out this game:

And we played and played until the game ran out of Questions. It was a lot of fun, and it was surprising to see how much useless knoweldge our family has. I think all of us together have more useless knowledge than any other family I know. It's definitely something to be proud of!

Anyway, here's the final pic of the Blog...Ben and I. I know there are better ones out there...but this is all I had. Looking at this picture just makes me feel sorry for my future kids, they're going to be miniture!! Those poor underweight kids. Oh well, too bad for them.

Follow Up Pics...

Ok, so as requested, here are some pics from Fabulous Friday! I have to explain; when we showed up at Becc's ward (after a 45 min drive) they informed us that the craft we'd signed up for wasn't available...someone had cut the boards to the wrong size. Thanks for the warning. Anyway, they are going to re-cut the boards so we can do them on our own. So instead we did these little stencil things...they're ok. Not really my style, and definitely not the colours I decorate my house in for Christmas, but they work. I'm still going to do the "Wise Men Still Seek Him" board soon and I will post pictures once it's done.



Here's the Families are forever board I was talking about in the other post. Sorry for the strange picture. I was trying to find some natural light in my house to take this picture and all I could find was this little strip in the Kitchen. It works good enough.



So Yesterday Ben and I took Marcus for the day (Nate was working, and Tan was sick and couldn't quite do the 8 week old and 23 month old thing at the same time). We were so happy though, cause we love (love.love.love.love)Marcus so much, we'd almost pay to take him for the day (almost). Anyway, he drove all over the city with us while we looked for some new furniture for our home. We've decided a leather set will be perfect for when we have kids. Puke is soooo much easier to clean off of Leather than Fabric. So we are on the prowl for the perfect couch. Anyway, after our shopping trip (unsuccessful I must say), we took Marcus to our Ward Party. It was a Mexican Themed night with dancing and music and lots of yummy food. Although, someone should have warned me about the toothpicks in the deep fried stuff...they really hurt on the way down. Anyway, at the end of the night, all the "mom's" got roses. I have this beautiful rose that I let Marcus hold for two seconds while I strapped him into his carseat and he totally destroyed it! Seriously, two seconds! So we let him play with the stem while I held the rose for him to give to his mom. He had lots of fun with the "sword". Here he is hitting Ben's head with it...


And here he is telling me to leave him alone...cause really it's completely unfair of me to expect he be gentle with a spikey rose stem. I'm a mean, mean person.

Anyway, Marcus was really so good all day long and so cute. We can't wait until Tan's sick again!

About time...

I posted again hey? So my life is really just so boring that I don't have anything cool to post about (i.e. no pics of kids yet, so I have a totally lame life). Anyway, this last weekend Ben and I headed down to Raymond for Carson's 2nd Birthday. I can't believe he's 2 already. I remember when he was born and we went to visit him with our little girly gift. He was supposed to be a girl and we didn't find out he was a boy until it was too late and I couldn't return the gift. Needless to say, he never wore the outfit we got him. So the same weekend Carson turned 2, Chris proposed to his Girlfriend (now Fiance) Lauren. She's a really sweet girl and I'm so excited that she's going to be part of the family. They're getting married in January which will make for a beautiful winter wedding. The McCance's obviously have a thing with winter weddings, Rebecca & Randall got married in January, Ben and I in February and now Chris and Lauren in January. Anyway, that's about as interesting as my life gets.

So, here's a picture of Lauren, Emily (the four year old) grabbed my camera for a few minutes and took a few pictures - this was one of them. She's going to be a talented photographer just like her mom!

Here's Emily helping Carson open his gift from us...he wasn't too interested in opening it himself because the bag was plain and boring...unlike everyone else's exciting bags!

Here's Carson playing with the dinosaur we got him...note that it's a boy toy!! We didn't get it wrong this time.

And finally, Carson playing with his car....he is such a boy! How could anyone have thought otherwise!

Anyway, this weekend I'm heading up to Becc's ward for her "Fabulous Friday". We are going to make a board with vinyl letters that says "Wise Men still Seek him". It's a Christmas decoration. I'll post a pic once it's done cause it's going to be so pretty. Have you seen these boards before? I just made one that has our last name on it and then on top it says "Families are Forever". It's also very nice. Anyway, I don't know if my life can get any more boring. So I apologize if you were reading my BLOG hoping for something interesting or exciting...you're just not going to get it here.

Halloween Party!

So Becc seriously needs to become a party planner. She is sooooo good at it. Anyway on Saturday night she had us (and about 30 other friends) to her Halloween party, there was tons of food, tons of decorations, a D.J. and most importantly lots of costumes. It was fun to get all dressed up and dance all night long...I won't have to work out for at least a week now. Anyway, here are pictures of the couples:

Jeff and Yuka (Some old fashioned costume)

Ben and I (Peter Pan and Captain Hook...someone didn't want to go all out)
Nate and Tan (Little Bo Peep and her sheep - can you say whipped?)

Becc and Jared (Cat Women and Joker)

Anyway, that's pretty much all we've been up to lately. Just a lot of work and a few party's here and there. I know, our life is so boring.

Party Time!!!

Today I had one of the those bittersweet moments everyone talks about. This one was more bitter than sweet...but it's still all ok. I'll explain.

This morning I woke up to this: Now if you really (I mean really) know me, then you'd understand that the snow was not the bitter part of the day...it was the sweet! So I love love love love to snowboard!!!. At the end of last season (which was a reduced season for obvious reasons) I packed up all my equipment (including my sweet new Burton board) knowing that it would be a few years before it saw the snow again. It was a sad day, but I was planning on another winter pregnancy, so I knew I could give up the snow for a year. So this morning, although I was excited to see all the snow and kind of pumped that snowboarding season starts in 12 days, I was kind of sad that I actually get to go this year. Going Snowboarding at all this season means I'm not pregnant again and means that I just have to wait even longer (and it's already been over a year since we first got pregnant)...it seems like a long time. Ughhh. So anyway, that's the bittersweet story for the day. So if any of you want to go snowboarding this year, I'm obviously free to go with you!!!

So onto lighter topics. This week was kind of an exciting week ...Sarah turned 18 and had a big Halloween/Birthday party, Becc had a BIG Halloween party, and I found the perfect pair of Peter Pan shoes. This is the reason why I love that my mom's a Pack Rat; we found these shoes in her box of old shoes from her younger years. They are seriously awesome!

I also put together the cutest Peter Pan costume, I think I'm going to be Peter Pan every year now...it was so fun!
So here's a picture of the Birthday Girl - Sarah! (a.k.a. Felicity Shagwell from Austin Powers) and her nice Old Mand Friend - Jordan.

Anyway, it looks like none of my pictures are uploading properly so I'm stuck with the Four Picasa lets me use. I'll post another thread of the pictures from Becc's Party.

October 15th....

Today is Pregnancy & Infant Loss awareness day. I don't think this date is recognized in Canada, but from what I understand it's an official date of some sort in the States. Anyway, I think it's really important to remember the loss that so many of us experience, but is so often dismissed because of fear and lack of understanding. If you know anyone who has recently lost a baby please reach out to them and let them know how much you care. It's really so important to know that others care.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of posts, I've just been soooooooo busy lately. Busy enough that I haven't made it to my computer for almost a week now, and if any of you know me, that's a big sacrifice. Anyway, the last few weeks have been full of things like:

1. My Birthday - It turned 23 this year and it was an awesome Birthday. Ben and I went to the Olive Garden and had a nice quiet dinner for two. Then, Ben surprised me and pulled out one of these http://www.apple.com/ipod/gallery/ . This was to replace our other one that got stolen - and it more than replaces it, cause it's totally awesome.
2. Thanksgiving - we have two huge thanksgiving dinners. One with Ben's family and one with mine. While making my family's dinner, my mom and I realized that there wasn't enough room in the oven for the Turkey, the potato casserole, the sweet potatoes and the Ham. So we decided to get Ben (the handy man) to cut the Ham in half so it would all fit. It sounds like a nice thing to do, but it was pure humour because Ben used his work Saw (Don't worry he put a fresh blade on). How much more white trash can we be??
3. Jeff's Birthday - the big Brother turned 32 this year!!!
4. Alexander's baby blessing - He' seriously such a sweetie. Tan watch out...I may just try and steal him one of these days.
5. Jeff's call to the Bar - another really neat experience. We were all just so proud of him and all he's accomplished. You should have heard the intro they gave him - he sounded like this super smart, super amazing person; which I know he is, but to me he's still just my Brother. I guess he's just my amazing big brother.
6. A weekend sleepover at Becc's with all the grandkids and some extras - Tan and I went to Becc's while the men were out of town. I had so much fun, but for some strange reason I was soooooo tired by the end. Seriously, those kids are B-U-S-Y! But you just can't help but love them - like I said earlier, watch out, I might just steal one of them someday.
7. A garage pad - Ben's been working on getting our garage in and before the garage comes we need a garage pad. So he borrowed a bob-cat and went to work. Him and a friend of his and a few extra hands prepped our back yard and his friends back yard for the pad(s). Then in the next few weeks the pad will get poured and then it's on to the construction of the garage itself. The joys of having a handy man for a husband.

Anyway, that's sort of all we've been up to. Sorry for the lack of pics. Sometimes you just forget your camera.

Do you recognize...

This city??

It's Montreal!!! Now why would I have pictures of Montreal? Because I just went there this last week. Last Wednesday my boss came into my office and asked if I wanted to go to Montreal for a conference, she apologized because it was really last minute, but there was an opening they needed to fill and they wanted to know if I would go - on the company of course. So without even thinking about it I said "YES, of course I'll go, need you even ask?" My boss then went on to tell me that it wasn't as much of a business trip but more of a retreat, and to top it all off we were staying here (Fairmont Queen Elizabeth) and I was allowed to bring a Guest. So of course my first thought was Ben. Of course I'd bring my husband, who would be crazy enough not to bring their husband to Montreal? So I called him and invited him on this all expenses paid holiday, obviously I wasn't convincing enough because he said he couldn't go. I should understand though: he runs his own business, it's really new and he's really (really -really) busy right now. He just can't leave his clients without heat and water when he promised it a week ago. I really understood. So I then tried to think of who would really enjoy a city like Montreal and I quickly thought of this person:

My Mom of course!! She's just the type of person you would want to take to Montreal. She speaks French, she appreciates the architectural beauty of old cities and she can shop for hours (cause really, that's what Montreal's all about). So she agreed and we flew out together bright and early Sunday Morning prepared for a fun week. The conference started out with a welcoming reception at Le Parquet, which was a very modern building built around some very old traditional Montreal buildings. There was so much good food there that I was sick by the end of the night. The next day, we spent the morning in classes. Now this might sound boring to some of you, but it was really sooooo interesting. Then with the Afternoon free, Mom and I went shopping. Let me tell you, shopping in Montreal is quite an experience. We shopped all up and down Sainte Catherine Street, which is basically the central shopping district, a place where all the stores want to be. So we definitely saw the best of the best. Then on Monday night we went to a Caban a Sucre party up on Mount Royal. The view of Montreal was breathtaking from the top of this "Mountain", just stunning (check out my pic at the top of this post). The party was fun too, especially the lumberjack competition:

Tuesday was activity day and we could choose from tons of amazing things to do (golfing, spa, race car driving, white water rafting etc.) but of course I chose the shopping tour. Our tour guide took us all through downtown Montreal and we shopped our little hearts out. Montreal has this amazing underground shopping centre. There are at least 2 levels of shopping completely underground, hence the name "the underground city". It was so fascinating because just when you thought you were done shopping, there would be another whole underground level that needed to be explored. We also checked out the traditional Montreal stores like Simons, and Ogilvy which were very fun!

Then Tuesday afternoon we went on a bus tour of Montreal and saw lots of neat things like the Biodome, the Botanical gardens, the site of the 1976 Olympics etc. Oh and we stopped and took pictures of the St. Josephs Oratory, which is supposedly really famous (I'm not that cultured though so I have not idea how famous)

We saw lots of really neat stuff. But the best part was when the tour was done and we went for dinner at Reuben's for their famous smoked meat sandwich. Can you say delicious??? It was heavenly.

So Wednesday was another day of classes which we skipped for a good cause: Shopping! I just NEEDED to make it to H&M which is much more important that networking and making business contacts, right? Anyway, us poor Western Canadians are seriously so deprived because this store Rocks!! Then after our shopping spree we went back to the Hotel to get ready for our Masquerade ball at Windsor station. We got all dolled out. Here's a picture of the night. Although we all had our masks, there was a lady there that thought we needed hats too (hence the crazy hats on our heads).

Anyway, I'm sure this is just super long and boring for all of you so I'll wrap it up. Our last day (Thursday) was spent in Old Montreal where we got to see all the old (really old) buildings from when Montreal was originally built hundreds of years ago. It was seriously so beautiful.

The best part of it all was when we were walking back to our hotel and you could see this great mix of old traditional structures right next to new modern buildings. This was neat, especially since it's now a rule that any renovations of old buildings must maintain the orignal exterior so as not to lose any more history. We won't be seeing many more "new" buildings in Montreal and it will maintain it's current charm.

Anyway, that was the trip. I hope you enjoyed my novel!! I know it was long, but I'm just so excited that I got to go to Montreal on my company and even more excited that I got to bring my mom. It was really neat to see one of the first areas in Canada that was settled and all the great Canadian history that Montreal holds. Canada's a pretty cool country, eh?

I cook...

Not Bake.

So yesterday, while Ben was busy outfitting his new work van, I was busy outfitting our countertops with all sorts of baking. I had big plans in mind. Well as it turns out the countertops weren't exactly 'outfitted' by the end of the day. I blame the garbage can, which being the greedy monster he is, ate most of my baking. I'll explain:

My first attempt at the mini chocolate chip banana muffin recipe resulted in flat and very dense muffins (hockey puck material). I guess I forgot the Baking Powder. So I tried again and was careful to remember the baking powder. But, since I'm still in training it's no surprise that I put a bit too much batter in the muffin tins. As you can see they looked sort of like muffins on steroids. Then finally, as the saying goes, "third times a charm", I managed to perfect the recipe - at least I think. The muffins were delicious and wonderful, mmmmmmmm. Anyone want the recipe?




So, if you think the "Third Try" muffins look good, why don't you stop by my house on Saturday at 11AM for a little taste? Oh, and while you're here, (WARNING, shameless promotion coming up) you should have a look at the Shade Clothing party I'm hosting. The clothes are awesome and the food will be great (that is if I can convince Becc to bring some cinnamon buns). Anyways, I hope to see you there! Call me if you need directions.

Favourite Pictures

So, I'm definitely not a photographer or anything, but I just had to post these two pics cause Marcus is sooooooo cute in them. He seriously has so much personality - I love it! The first one's him laughing at Ben, I think all Ben's doing is give him the old 'shifty eye' look. Something about it made Marcus go crazy, he was laughing for so long!



This one's just another example of how cute he is. He's just so sweet.

 

Zoo Time

These last few weeks have been pretty busy around here - I'm hoping things start to slow down soon. But regardless, here are some pics from the Zoo a few weeks ago. We went with the McCance grandchildren and had tons of fun. The kids were cute and I think they really liked all the animals - although Carson did sleep through half the trip. Emily got to do everything, serioulsy everything. She played at the park, looked at all the animals, fed the Giraffe, went on the train ride and most importantly ate some sweet icecream. I have to admit, I was a bit jealous of the whole Giraffe thing, I never got to feed any animals when I was little. The day was lots of fun and very tiring. I think that had something to do with Carsons 7 AM wakeup call. But it was all worth it because we love those kids so much!!! Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Baby Alexander

Alexander Kenneth is here!!! We're all so excited that Tan finally had the baby and that Marcus can finally see his new baby brother, cause we all know he was so excited (j/k). He is so cute!! The funny thing is, he doesn't look like Marcus, yet Marcus is so cute too. Anyway, Tan looks great, Alexanders perfect, Marcus hasn't noticed and Nates a great dad (well Tan's a great mom too).

Here are some pics (I didn't take any of these, and since they were emailed to me the qaulity is a bit low - but the cameraman is great!!)

In the Hospital

Baby and Dad (Nate)

Marcus checking him out

Me and Alexander

Sarah, Matthew and Alexander

Grandpa and his Grandsons (except Marcus - where is he?)

Tan (the Mom), Becc and Alexander