Waxed Autumn Leaves

I've always loved Autumn and the colourful leaves have always been my favourite part. I've read about and seen photos of waxed leaves before and have always wanted to make some of my own.

Well, today I finally did! I already had the beeswax on hand that I bought from Freidrich's and I definitely had a yardful of fallen leaves so Ally and I browsed online on how to do it and we went for it!

It was fun, super easy to do and they smell so yummy!

We gathered our leaves

 We melted our beeswax.

 After pouring the melted beeswax into a plastic lined bowl, we dipped a leaf to coat both sides.

Let the excess wax drip off and let dry on wax paper.

 Once they were dry, I hung them from floss.

 And hung them on the windows!



No More Tears!

You know what the worst thing about cutting onions is? The burning eyes and tears. I finally found a way to cut onions without having to leave the room every few seconds: peel them all, cut in half and soak in cold water!

It works, give it a try. Your eyes will thank you! :)

Little Miss Sophie is 9 months old!

She's officially been out longer than she's been in!

At 9 months, Sophie:
~ is starting to wave.
~ loves to give kisses.
~ starting to dance to music. (so cute btw!)
~ is starting to become mischevious. She loves to do things that she knows she shouldn't do... and loves to watch me when she's doing something she knows she shouldn't do!
~ loves her brother and sister. Particularly loves pulling Parky's hair when he's sleeping.
~ is starting to nap in her crib in Parker's room. I also lay her in her crib at night but when bring her into our bed when she wakes up once we've gone to bed.
~ still nurses quite a bit at night. Even more so lately but I think its because she's so busy during the day and doesn't nurse much so she makes up for it at night.
~ weighs 19.7lbs
~ eats pretty much everything we do but nothing consistent. Eating is more of a fun thing to do and we offer her bits of food at the table to occupy her while we eat.
~ cruises around furniture.
~ crawls so fast now on hands and knees.
~ starting to feel seperation anxiety when I leave her sight.

Her personality is really starting to show, she loves to get a reaction out of us, loves to laugh but I can also tell she's going to have a bit of a temper. She can get so mad for such a little thing, take something away from her and look out! She's also so much more adventerous and "brave" than my other two were. Parker's always been very cautious and Sophie is his opposite. I have a feeling she'll be getting them both in a lot of trouble when they're older! All in all, we just love her so much and can't imagine our family without our little Sophers!

Three Crazy Love Filled Years

Three years ago today, my husband and I got married. I can't believe it's only been 3 years since so much has happened in that short time: like having two babies!

We went out for a fantastic dinner at The Mahle House tonight. Every Wednesday they do what they call "Adventerous Wednesdays" which is a 5 course meal that's Chef's choice. I'll make a seperate blog entry about the yummy food because it really does deserve it's own post. Plus I'm too full to do anything but veg on the sofa.

We decided to not go all out and buy each other big gifts as we can't afford it and we'd like to focus more on us and our relationship rather than the gifts. But we did do a little something gift wise: Dave got me a new wallet which I really needed and I made up a 50s style tie for him (think Mad Men). He's been wanting one forever but I couldnt' find one already made so I just took a cool looking ready made tie and made it narrower as 50s ties are. He likes it so I'm happy!

I was going through my emails tonight and was reading a folder I labelled "love" which has all of mine and Dave's first emails in it. *sigh*... Man, I was crazy about him from the get go!
We met through an online dating service so at first most of our emails were through the dating website but our first official email to each other was:

"Kim
I'll call you on sunday. Monday will be fun...I might watch Rain man to get some tips on" how to impress kim on a date" but maybe I'll just be me. Glad you feel better! Talk soon. Dave"

Reading this makes me laugh at the inside joke we had going from the beginning (Rain Man was in reference to a man I had gone out on a few dates with just before "meeting" Dave) and I remember all the butterflies I got everytime I'd talk to him, see him or even just email him.

Upside down Caramel Apple Muffins

Yummy, right? I made these last night after the little ones went to bed. They were gone by 9am this morning, that's how good they were!

A friend on facebook linked me to this recipe from The New York Times. I changed the recipe a bit to make them gluten free. Here's what I did:

Upside-down Caramel Apple Muffins

Apple topping:
3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt

Muffin batter:
2 cups Pamela's Baking Mix (you could use your own blend of gf flours, I just happened to have this mix in my cupboard.)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

~Preheat oven to 350C
~Cook the apple topping ingredients in a skillet until apples are tender, about 15 minutes. Divide evenly among 12 greased muffin tins.
~In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
~In a seperate bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients.
~Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Spoon over apple mixture.
~Bake in oven for about 20-22 minutes.
~Let cool 5 minutes in muffin tin, then turn over onto plate.
~Serve warm or room temperature.

NOTES: If you're using a mix like Pamela's as I did, then there's no need for xantham gum, salt or baking powder as those ingredients are already in the mix. If you use your own blend of flour as I usually do, be sure to add 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tbls baking powder and 1/2 tsp xantham gum.

Pumpkin Patch fun

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Monday, we took our two youngest children to McNab's Farm. We've been going every year since moving back to Nanaimo and it was especially exciting this year to bring Sophie for her first visit. Ally was at home not feeling very well so it wasn't as great a trip as it could have been but we're planning on going with just her for an evening corn maze trip.

Every Autumn, McNab's has a themed corn maze (this year it was in the shape of an Inukshuk to commemerate the Olympics) as well as a hayride to the pumpkin patch. We had a week of rain so it was very mucky which actually added to the fun, although Dave nor I were dressed properly for all the mud!

Parker loved it, I think he could have spent the entire day going back and forth on the hay ride. Definitely his favourite part! Sophie enjoyed herself too, although she was getting pretty fussy by the end of our visit which we now know is because she has come down with a cold and has cut two top teeth. Poor bug!

I'm looking forward to going back at night to do the corn maze with Ally, flashlights and all!

Sophie's Waldorf Doll

I've decided to try my hand at making Sophie a Waldorf doll for Christmas. I've wanted to make one for a while but was intimidated by the process, it looks so hard! But I went ahead and ordered some basic supplies from Maple Rose, a natural toy and supply shop in Nelson. This shop is great, the supplies arrived within 3 days which is flippin' amazing, imo!

There's tons of tutorials out there on how to make waldorf dolls, some have better written tutorial, some have better photos. For me, I used a combination of several online tutorials.

So far, I've been working on her head. Here's some pics, the first is a front view of her face, the second a side view. I still need to make a nose and then cover the head in doll skin before moving on to the body.

Menu Board

I came across this tutorial on Little Birdie Secrets and I had to make one! Up until now I've been using a old dry erase board from the dollar store that was pretty stained and ugly.

But not anymore....

All you need is a picture frame (I used 8x10), a sheet of scrapbook paper in your favourite design, sticky letters if you have atrocious writing like me, a dry erase marker and some heavy duty magnet tape. I bought all my supplies at the dollar store and spent less than $5!

Jumping on the Chia Bandwagon

Everyone's been talking and blogging about chia seeds lately. They're the new "superfood". Chia seeds are much like flax seeds but you don't need to grind them in order for the nutrition to be released and they're super duper nutritious for you too. After reading I swear like 5 blog posts in a row from various people, I had to give them a try.
I bought a package from Island Naturals here in Nanaimo, a big bag of white chia for about $9. I first tried chia as a drink with cold water and lemon. It was alright... it's supposedly really hydrating.
Today I made chia pudding which is surprisingly really yummy! I found a recipe for chocolate chia pudding but I've been on a matcha kick lately I thought I'd try replacing the chocolate milk for matcha. I liked it and Parker liked it so I'm thinking we'll be makign this often!

Matcha Chia Pudding
3 tbls. chia seeds
1 cup milk of choice (I used almond)
1 tsp. matcha green tea powder
1 tsp. sweetener (optional, I used agave)
coconut flakes (the chocolate chia recipe I found suggested this on top but I didn't have any)

Whisk matcha and milk together until smooth, add sweetener. While mixing, add chia seeds. Let sit covered in fridge for about an hour. You may need to mix it periodically. Sprinkle coconut flakes on top and enjoy!