My Valentine...

 

Making these 'Valentine's for Rae's Kindergarten friends

 

 

21

We had the 1st of the Bro and Sis in law's 21st Birthday Celebrations (the 2nd one being in Vegas in April!) this past weekend in Regina

 

 

The bro doing 'Edward Fortyhands' at the hotel before the bar

K with the jello shot 'cupcakes' I made

 

Happy 21st Birthday you two!



Day 7...

Day 7

Rae found a ladybug at her house
and brought it with her to Grandma and Grandpas
for supper


:)

Day 6...

Day 6

Rae being a DIVA

:)

Day 4...

Day 4

I FINALLY got to move back into my room
(there was water damage that led to mold... not good!)
I bought myself a new lamp
and it only took me 4 episodes of How I Met Your Mother
to put it together

:)

Day 3...

Day 3

LATE night Board Meeting at work
Pulled into the driveway just after 10:30

Day 2...

Day 2

Rae made herself a bed on the floor of
my room so she could watch Scooby Doo

:)

Day 1...

Day 1

Mama Bear cooked a turkey on New Years Day
and we celebrated the New Year with the Fam and Grams
and tried out some of the new games from Christmas

:)

Halloween...

Halloween cupcakes for my staff

:)

Spring or Fall?

As I went to leave for work this morning

I spotted these popping up in the driveway

:)

Welcoming Adeline...

I attended the baby shower of a good friend

yesterday to welcome the arrival of her baby girl, Adeline

The girls who organised the shower did such a great job with the decorations

The onesie name banner was adorable!

I got an idea off of Pinterest for some Cupcake Onesies

and put my own little spin on them

I'll be posting a tutorial of my spin soon

Cute personalized favours

This picture was taken on the day I met her, when she was just one day old

My camera decided to die at the Shower before I could get a photo of her :(

McBaby...

Toni recently got herself a new ride

and I couldn't resist taking these sweet photos of McBaby

trying out the headphones for the DVD player

for the 1st time

:)

Kindergarten...

I don't know where the last 5 years have gone

but somehow I blinked

and this little girl grew up

and started Kindergarten :(

Hank's Birthday Surprise

My Fat Cat, Hank, surprised me with a birthday gift :)

He also gave me a card of some cats meowing Happy Birthday to Me

He's a keeper :)

Side Note: My Mother is insane :)

24 on the 24th...

Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Meeee, Happy Birthday to ME!

Me at 24...

1. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up
2. I'm scared to death of turning 25...
3. Las Vegas is my favorite vacation spot
4. I am a bad, bad blogger.... but I will work on it
5. I can't go a full day without checking Facebook
6. I can't stop biting my nails... help!
7. I am sooo ready to own my own home
8. I LOVE cheesecake and Margaritas
9. I am attempting to grow my hair longer than it was in High School... not an easy feat
10. I am "Mom" to a fat cat named Hank
11. I love to bake but don't like to eat much sweets
12. Potato chips are my weakness :(
13. I have 6 tattoos with plans for many, many more
14. I am a bad, bad scrapbooker... I couldn't even keep up with Project Life
15. I want a 'fancy' camera
16. My family and friends mean the world to me
17. I want to own a bakery/coffee shoppe
18. Next on my list of places to go is New York City
19. Currently my favorite tv shows are How I Met Your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, and Vampire Diaries
20. I recently discovered a new love for Starbucks Tazo Passion Tea Lemonades...Mmmm
21. I believe in ghosts
22. I could spend all day browsing blogs
23. I can't stand unpainted toe nails
24. I LOVE making lists

:)

Appreciate...

Today is Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day in Saskatchewan!

I had every intention of whipping up some Martha Stewart chocolate cupcakes complete with delicious cream cheese frosting last night to give to the staff at work...

however...

I ended up with a Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge cake mix and a container of white frosting that may have been just a teensy bit past the expiration date...

The 1st snag in my plan to be the next Martha Stewart was the hour that I spent booking a vacation to Vegas in August... the second one I will be taking this summer... and the 5th in the last 3 years

(A very impromptu decision that was discussed on the car ride to work that morning and finalized by that night)...

and then what seemed like hours of poking, prodding, pinching, and absolutely victimizing a poor 4 1/2 year old child...

4 1/2 year old girls are not meant to wear foundation, or eyeliner, or eyeshadow, or mascara, or blush, or lipliner, or lipstick...

But this 4 1/2 year old girl had very specific instructions from her dance studio as to how her make-up was to be done for her dance photos today..

So she got all made up

(and resembled a cross between Amy Winehouse and Snooki)

You would not believe how hard it is to put eyeliner on a 4 1/2 year old

Stage Mamas we are not...

So after all the tears and a dozen pictures of her all made up with her costume on

It was finally time for me to be Martha Stewart

BUT at 10:30 at night I was not feeling very Martha Stewart-y

So I grabbed the box of cake mix and had 24 cupcakes cooking in a matter of minutes

And since my cupcakes were thrown together so quickly I decided 'hey, why not still make the delicious cream cheese frosting myself?!'

So I went about preparing the delicious cream cheese frosting

I had this fabulous idea to make these Martha Stewart cupcakes

(because apple cupcakes for educators? Genius!!)

BUT

Who knew that the only way to get white frosting red is to use gel food coloring? Gel food coloring?! Never even heard of it! (Side note: Apparently the cook at my work knew as she told me of a local place that I can find said food coloring!)

So...

My delicious cream cheese frosting was a beautiful, bright... pink!

and no matter what I did it became brighter and brighter... pink!

And apples are NOT pink!

and since in a very un-Martha Stewart-y move I had added the coloring to the entire bowl of frosting instead of testing the color first...

I was hooped

Until I discovered a dusty container of white frosting on the baking shelf, pushed all the way to the back.. with an expiry date just slighty past due

So I experimented with different food coloring and finally got a shade that resembled an apple red..

Hallelujah!

My vision of these cute apple cupcakes that were absolutely perfect for ECE Appreciation Day

was finally fulfilled!...

And then I sat down and reflected on how hard it really was to make pre-packaged cupcakes

and.....

all of my plans of being the next Martha Stewart flew right out the window...

Troy...

While driving home from work one night

I pulled out my Nook and started doing a crossword*

One of the questions was about Greek mythology

and it had me and Kels both stumped

We were pondering what we knew about Greek mythology (obviously not much)

which led to this conversation about the movie Troy

Kels: "What's the name of the guy that stole Helen of Troy?"

Me: "Orlando Bloom"

...

I did go to College. I swear

:)

*Disclaimer: I was not the one driving... I may paint my nails and drive but haven't mastered being able to read and drive... yet

Watch the ice break...

Today was a 'snow day' for me

The highways were pure ice
and I didn't want to chance
driving the 50 minute drive to work

So I got to spend a lazy day at home
:)

Melting in the sun...

In the past week it has went
from -45 with wind chill to 0 degrees

The weather today was absolutely GORGEOUS
BUT I am a little concerned
about how the Highways are going to
be for my commute to work during
the next couple of days

The good thing about the weather is that I FINALLY
have some motivation to get things done
I think I tend to get a little bit of the 'winter blues'
but this nice weather seems to have upped my spirits a little

I managed to start AND finish reading my book
for book club that is TOMORROW night
(I am the Queen of procrastination!)

Did FOUR loads of laundry
(see what I mean?!)

AND

Gave Gretchen a bath that left her gleaming...

AND the days only half over

:)

Movie night...

I saw this movie at the theatre
and have been waiting for it
to come out on DVD
so that I could watch it with Rae

Grandma and Grandpa picked it up for her
while they were in E-town
and we watched it together as a family
And of course a movie night wouldn't be
complete without popcorn
:)

A little piece of heaven...

Thanks to my Tassimo
I can now enjoy Starbucks
without having to drive 2 hours for it

Both Starbucks AND a Tim's Iced Capp in one day?!
Heaven...
:)

Good ol' hockey game...

We spent the afternoon
at the local rink
watching my 'nephew' and cousin
play hockey

This picture actually shows the
other team scoring a goal
But in my defense it was freeezing!
and I didn't want to have my hands
out of my mittens for too long
trying to get another picture

:)

Camera tricks...

I got an AMAZING boxing week deal
on my new camera
I am super excited for some of the
features of this camera
Such as being able to take it underwater
AND out in the snow
without having to worry that it will get damaged

I waited
and waited
and waited

and FINALLY
it arrived in the mail today
:)

The ghost inside...

I LOVE lazy days in bed watching TV
and that is exactly how I spent my last
day of holidays during Christmas vacation

I can only do so much Ghost Whisperer at a time
or I start getting paranoid about everything
and convince myself that there are
ghosts everywhere

:)

Shopping list...

Just thought I would share some
more of my finds
from our trip to the city


Christmas Tree from Pier 1 Imports
LOVE that place
just not the price tags ;)

I LOVE Christmas
and
I LOVE Starbucks

So this purchase was
pretty much a no brainer

Words cannot even explain
how much in love I am
with this Christmas ornament

I am obsessed with
zebra print right now
so even with the hefty pricetag
this was a must have

:)

Caramel...

Kirstin, McBaby and I
headed into the city today for
some last minute Christmas shopping

and of course a trip to
the city wouldn't be complete
without a stop at Starbucks

I got to enjoy my 2nd
Caramel Brule Latte
of the Holiday Season

What more could a girl ask for?!
:)

Go Team Go...

My Mother would tell you I'm a hoarder
She tells me all the time I belong on the show
I beg to differ
I will admit that once upon a time
I had a really hard time letting go of even the smallest things
BUT within the last couple of years I have definitely
cut down on the clutter and learned to let go of things
I've been holding on to my pom-poms for ten or so years now
They've moved with me 5 times
and each time I packed or unpacked them I told myself to get rid of them
but for some reason I just couldn't seem to let go
Finally the day came where I couldn't make any more excuses for holding on to them
So now all I have left is this picture..
Oh, and course a few strings of the pom-poms for my scrapbook
Go Knights! :)

Like It's Her Birthday...

Kirstin turned the big 2-5

and I ( being the awesome sister I am)
brought her home an ice cream cake from DQ (her fav)

She may be the 1 out of our family who is the least into football
but I just couldn't pass this cake up
:)

Chicken Fried...

I made this delicious Chicken Stirfry as one of my

last meals before I moved out of my apartment
It was so simple and so delicious
It's definitely a 'keeper' for my recipe book
:)

Easter Is...

I found a bunch of cute and simple Easter art projects
and of course I had to try them ALL out with my group

:)

I drew an Easter egg on a piece of white finger paper
and let the kids paint them however they wanted
This one was my favorite
(shhh don't tell anybody!)

These were made by cutting Easter egg shapes on contact paper
We used crushed egg shells from last years dyed Easter eggs,
placed them in between two sheets of contact paper
and tada! an Easter sun catcher

These are so stinking adorable
and make a great cover to an Easter card for someone special!

This Addiction...

Looks like she's inherited her
Auntie's addiction to Starbucks
:)

Easter Bunny...

I gave these little gifts to my group at Easter...
so inexpensive and yet they don't look super cheap
All was bought at Dollarama for about $8
and I was able to make 13 of them
:)

Tattoo...

My newest (and definitely not last) tattoo

The top flower is an Alberta Wild Rose
and the bottom flower is a Prairie Lily
The two flowers represent my two homes,
Alberta and Saskatchewan
I was born and raised in Saskatchewan
but have very strong roots in Alberta
My father was born and raised in Alberta
and most of the Mathison side of my family still resides there
I also spent two years living in Alberta
so my heart belongs to both Provinces

The words are in Latin and are the Provincial mottos
for Saskatchewan and Alberta

Fortis et Liber translates into Strong and Free
&
Multis e Gentibus Vires translates into From Many Peoples Strength

:)

Welcome to the Bushwakker...

Another Halloween spent in Regina
on the 'Halloween Howler' Pub Crawl
and a million more memories made

:)

Introducing...

Introducing...

Fuzzy, Luna, and Skittles

Luna was born on August 16 and
Fuzzy and Skittles were born on August 17

Luna is my absolute favourite out of the three,
but unfortunately my Dad has already called dibs on her
:)

The happy happy birthday song...

Yesterday was Audie-Rae's 1st 2nd
3rd birthday party!

She got absolutely, positively spoiled (as per usual!)

I got her a 'Hannah Hannah' t-shirt, two other t-shirts, Mr. Dress-up DVD's, and a Barbie and accessories

BUT the funny thing is I also got her a 'Hannah Hannah' card... the kind that you can record a message on and then plays a song....

And it was her favourite 'present'... she was running around screaming in excitement about it and completely gave up on opening the rest of her presents until we had to drag her away from it...

To think I could have saved a ton of money and only given her a $12 card

:)