Fun with Friends!

Evan and I got to spend lots of time with friends over the last two days. Yesterday we went for lunch, a walk and ice cream with Shawna and Kohen. We walked along the river near downtown to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having in Calgary. Then we went to Lics for ice cream. Yummy! Even Evan and Kohen got in a few licks. Here's some pics of us enjoying our ice creams.

Today Diana and Daniel came for a visit. They are moving into a new house so Daniel stayed with us for a while so that Diana could finish cleaning at there old house. We had a great time. He was with us for lunch as well. It was cute to have both boys in their respective high chairs with their mouths open like little birds. After Diana got back the big kids (us) got to eat & then we went for a walk. The walk was not as long as yesterdays because it's pretty hot out today. Here's some pics of Evan and Daniel.

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Indian Cocunut-Curry Chicken with Chopped Apples

This recipe ROCKS! It is lower fat & tastes great. I ate leftovers twice (this is quite good for me b/c I don't really like most leftovers).

Indian Appleous 500
from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry

• 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2 1/4 lbs/1 kg), each thigh cut in half


• 1 cup chopped onion


• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper


• 2 tsp minced garlic


• 1 1/2 Tbsp grated gingerroot


• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder


• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder


• 1/2 tsp tumeric


• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1 can (14 oz/398 ml) light coconut milk


• 1/4 cup mango chutney


• grated zest of one lemon


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1 cup peeled, cored, and chopped Golden Delicious apples - Cut into 1 inch pieces


• 1/2 cup frozen peas


• 2 Tbsp minched fresh cilantro

Spray a large, deep non-stick skillet (with lid) with cooking spray & place over medium high heat. Add chicken & cook until both sides are lightly browned. About 2 minutes per side. Remove chicken and keep warm

Add onions, red pepper and garlic to the skillet. Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften. Add gingerroot, curry powder, chili powder, tumeric and cinnamon. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add coconut milk, mango chutney, lemon zest and salt. Mix well. Stir in chicken pieces and apples. Cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Add peas and cilantro. Simmer uncovered for 5 more minutes.

Serve hot with rice.

Makes 6 servings

Recipe Notes: Okay, I think this makes more like 5 servings but I may not have had exactly 12 chicken thighs so that could be the difference. Also, I didn't have fresh cilantro so I didn't add it. This recipe is spicy without being to hot. Even if you don't normally like spicy food, I would give this a try. You just might like it....because it is YUMMY.

As always, check out Shan's blog to see what else is cooking this Wednesday.

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Soooo Big!

Evan is growing up so fast. He still isn't doing the normal crawl but he still gets around pretty well. He loves to stand up & dance around. He has such a funny little personality & he looks so much like my dad it is SCARY! Here's a little video of some of his antics. Warning dial up users: I doubt this will work very well/speedily for you.

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Channelling Olivia Newton John

Evan loves his baby legs (aka leg warmers). They keep his legs warm without him having to have pants on. Dewey says they make him look like Olivia Newton John. What do you think?

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Crappy Weather

It has been raining since Tuesday and I am TIRED OF IT! It's supposed to be summer-ish (or at least spring-ish) but here it is cold and rainy. I am soooo ready for summer to be here!

Evan is quickly adding to his mouth full of teeth. He now has 4 teeth on top and 2 on bottom. Unfortunately, he has been in a lot of teething pain. Well, he'll be over it in the next year or two, right? :)

Hope you're having a great weekend!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - One Dish Beef Stroganoff

I wasn't going to have a "What's Cooking Wednesday" entry this week but I didn't have anything planned for dinner. I found this recipe in a magazine & it turned out great. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. Doh!

One Dish Beef Stroganoff
by Campbell's

• 3/4 lb boneless beef sirloin grilling steak, cut into strips
• 1 large onion, halved & sliced
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 cups Beef Broth (Campbell's reduced sodium broth)
• 1 cup water
• 1 can Low Fat Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
• 2 1/2 cups uncooked fusilli or medium spiral egg noodles
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 1 Tbsp wocestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup light sour cream or plain yogurt

1. Cook beef in non-stick skillet at medium-high heat until browned, stirring often. Remove beef; reduce heat to medium. Add onion and mushrooms to pan and cook for 3 minutes (I cooked them for more like 5 minutes). Stir into beef.
2. Combine broth, water and soup in skillet. Heat to a boil. Add pasta. Cook at gentle boil until pasta is just tender (al dente), stiring often.
3. Stir in peas, worcestershire sauce and pepper. Simmer for 3 minutes.
4. Return beef mixture to skillet, stir in sour cream and heat through.

Serves 5.

Recipe Notes: Next time I make this I will use ground beef or turkey instead of the steak. The steak was tasty but you didn't get beef in every bite so I think the ground meat would be better. I used lots more peas than called for in the recipe so that we would get more veggies. Dewey LOVED this recipe & we will definitely be making it again.

As always, go visit Shan to see what else is cooking this Wednesday.

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We're Back!

Well, we were actually back yesterday but I was too busy/tired to post. Camping with 3 kids can really wear you out! This weekend was our first camping trip with our new camper. It was AWESOME! It is a hybrid trailer that is hard sided with two tent trailer-esque pop outs. It makes it very roomy inside. Will and Nicole also have bunkbeds in the back. There were 18 of us in all on this camping trip. We went to Dinosaur Trail RV park in Drumheller, AB. We liked the campground alot b/c where we were was nicely treed & very quiet (warning...there are sites in this campground that are NOT like this. If you camp there ask to make sure your site has trees). It was quite amazing that it was so quiet b/c there were LOTS of campers & everyone had kids.

Evan was a great little camper. He had a bit of a meltdown the first night but after that he was okay. We brought his white noise maker which helped us all sleep better. Will and Nicole had a blast b/c there were two other kids in our group that were their same age. That makes all the difference! On the way home they asked if Ben and Madeleine could go on all our camping trips. I'm not sure that will work out but we promised we would invite them & see what happens.

We hope to make lots more camping trips this summer (gotta get our money's worth on that trailer!). Here's some pictures from this weekend. Hope your May long weekend was great as well!

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I know, I know....

I said I would be posting everyday BUT this weekend I will be away from the computer. I'm not sure how I'll handle it. I may go into withdrawal. I will be back and posting on Monday, though, hopefully with some nice new pictures.

Dewey made it home safe and sound. Today we did a plethora of errands to get ready for camping this weekend. Dewey also had to go in to work for part of the day today (poor guy).

Speaking of work....I am officially going back to work on July 2nd. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I will be fine once I'm back but I'll be a bit sad (and nuerotic) until then.

Happy Long Weekend, everyone!

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I Never Knew....

how boring my life was until I tried to blog every day. Evan and I met Shawna and Kohen for lunch today at the Lazy Loaf and Kettle. The food was good as always. We went super early so that we could find a place to park. This is yet another place in Calgary with little to no parking & lots of customers. After that we went on a walk & to Shopper's to pick up a package. Fun times!

The best news is that Dewey is due back tonight. After more than a week, I will be very glad he is home.

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Ready....

for my hubby to come home. Only one more day (he gets home late tomorrow night). I'm also ready for the weekend. I made a big trip to Superstore today to get ready for camping. Who knew that you would need so much STUFF. I am using what I can of what we already have but I try to keep our house cleaned out of things we don't use. Therefore, we don't really have a second one of things to put in the camper (like measuring cups, pans, cutting boards, etc). Hopefully I've got most of it covered, though, so we will be done spending on that kind of thing for awhile.

Evan is still feeling yucky....here's hoping that this is almost over!

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Happy Monday!

Okay....don't tell anybody but I'm kinda trying to get in the habit of blogging everyday. What does that mean? Well.... for me it means I can catch up to the Fairy Blogmother's awe inspiring number of posts...for you it means more (possibly boring) posts for you to read. Cheers all around! :)

Evan and I had an eventful day including a psuedo shopping trip to Ikea and a trip to the bank. I say "psuedo shopping" because I still have not realized that everything takes at least 2 or 3 times longer than I think it will when I have Evan with me. I left the house 2 hours before my appointment at the bank with the plan to shop at Ikea & grab some lunch. So we got to Ikea and I headed straight for the restaurant. Marginal food for me & little to no food for Evan still took over half an hour! We only had 20 minutes before we had to leave which any Ikea shopper knows is NOT enough time to actually purchase anything. So we left. I told myself that we would go back after the appointment to buy something (anything really) but, alas, it was not to be. Evan got sleepy and threatened a meltdown so we went home instead. Oh well. I can buy cheap Swedish stuff on another day. :)

On another Evan note....he seems to be on the mend. I think it was a 24 hour bug. He's still not 100% but that could be because of a cold or teething. Who knows. Hopefully he will be all better before the big camping trip this weekend. It's supposed to be 25°C!!!!!!!! Hopefully I didn't jinx it (oh, and btw, that's 80°F for our American readers).

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Happy Mother's Day!

Today is my first Mother's Day with Evan. We sort of celebrated Mother's Day last year with Will and Nicole but I would be lying if I said it wasn't different. I love them both dearly and they love me but I'm not their mom. Having Evan has been wonderful. It is the hardest, most rewarding thing I've ever done.

I'm a bit sad this Mother's Day because Dewey isn't here and Evan is a bit under the weather. He seems to be on the mend, though.

All the ups and all the downs....I'm just happy to be a Mommy!

Happy Mother's Day!

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Yuck!

Poor Evan! He is quite sick today. He has pooped out of his diaper twice and puked twice. I feel so very bad for him. Dewey is away so it's all me so I hope I don't catch whatever he has. Keep us in your thoughts & cross your fingers that he gets better soon!

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Jeez!

It's May 8th & it's snowing. Need I say more? Not loving Canada right now!

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Crawling

Evan has started "crawling". I put quotes b/c I'm not sure you can actually call what he's doing crawling. It's more like shimmying...dragging....wiggling....creeping...something. Just not really crawling. Well, what ever it's called, it's new. He is getting pretty fast too. I'm sure the real deal will be happening soon enough. I will have to start baby proofing soon. Yikes!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Blueberry Pancakes

These are the best blueberry pancakes EVER!


Blueberry Pancakes
from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book
1 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornmeal
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 beaten egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp cooking oil
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and set aside.

In another medium mixing bowl combine the egg, buttermilk and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just unitl moistened (better should be lumpy). Gently fold in berries.

For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter on a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are golden, turning to second side when pancakes have bubbly surface and edges are slightly dry. Serve warm.

Makes 8 to 10 (4-inch) pancakes.

Recipe Notes: These are YUMMY. The cornmeal and cinnamon really make these different from other blueberry pancakes. I usually make 1 1/2 X this recipe if there are 4 of us b/c often one recipe is not enough. When I do that, I use 2 eggs instead of trying to figure out how much 1/2 an egg is. Also, if you don't have buttermilk you can use sour milk. To make 1 cup of sour milk place 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar in a glass measuring cup; add enough milk to make 1 cup total liquid. Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes before using it in your recipe.

Don't forget to check out what else is cooking this Wednesday over at Shan's blog.

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Teeth!

Just letting you know that my little piranha is up to 5 teeth now. He only had his two bottom teeth for the longest but last week he got 3 top teeth. He could actually have more but he's taken to biting my finger really hard if I try to get in there to feel around. He's been a bit fussy which I'm sure is also thanks to the teething. Hopefully we're done for a while (but I doubt it).

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Happy Birthday, Nicole!

We've had quite the birthday weekend! Today is Nicole's 8th birthday. We are celebrating with dinner at Boston Pizza with her mom & their family. She says she doesn't feel much older but she's glad she's 8.

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Happy Birthday, Kate!

Yesterday was Evan's friend Kate's 1st birthday. We went to her house for a barbeque. Much fun was had by all....especially Kate. She was really into her birthday cake...literally.

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