Saturday, December 24, 2011

Holiday Greetings!

Who knew sheep belong on top of livestock and the baby Jesus?
Well, this one will be few words and a few more photos.The Boy has taken great delight in rearranging one of our Nativity scenes.

And here was a bit of an early Christmas gift the Great Aunt and Uncle gave the kids yesterday.  So it had it's inauguration this morning.  Tasty Elmo and Cookie Monster waffles for breakfast!

And, yes, it does print the image of Elmo and Cookie Monster on one side of the waffles!

Here's saying Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year from the Macintyre home.  I'll be going offline for a while, travelling down to see Amma and Grandma and Grandpa.  Hubby has the 26th to the 8th off, so we'll be enjoying some down time :)  Have a safe Holiday!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

pickles

Alright.  I have never been through the "I have got to have dill pickles and ice cream" phase of pregnancy.  This is my fifth one (fourth that's made it to the second trimester) and I have never had odd cravings.

A couple of months ago I couldn't get enough cheese.  But that's good.  It's milk and protein.  Didn't really think too much about it.  But in the last month, we (okay, "I") have gone through a Costco sized jar of pickles and have just put a decent sized dent into another jar (which we only opened 48 hours ago).  I'm not the only pickle monster in the house.  Hubby can usually take them or leave them, the Boy more often than not says "no thank you", but the other two would eat pickles all day if I let them.  I have just been giving them more because I've been eating more.

I don't combine them with ice cream, or cookies, or anything like that.  I eat them by themselves or along with crackers, cheese, and/or garlic coil.  Such a tasty snack.  It's good, though, since they are almost calorie free and have no fat content.  Just cucumber, vinegar, dill, and such.  Mmmmm.  Better get it all in now before the heartburn hits later on in the pregnancy.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas concert pictures



 Here is a glimpse of my Boy on his way into the gym this afternoon for his Kindergarten's Christmas concert.  I am trying to upload the videos I took of the performance, but I hit a brick wall, so I'm going to try again later.


And here he is enjoying a candy cane from the teacher for a job well done.

The Girl really enjoys going into the Boy's classroom.  The chairs are small, and there are so many neat and interesting things just laying around!

But sometimes she needs a little bit of help getting onto the chair properly.

Friday, December 9, 2011

going pink

Well, it had to happen.  Just getting this far into the Mommy career without it is pretty astounding.  The Girl has conjunctivitis.  She woke up yesterday morning with a goopy eye, it seemed to go away a bit, then when she got up from a morning nap, it was back with force.  Got her in to see the doctor, who prescribed some ointment, and it was basically clear this morning.  Then her other eye started.  And is now worse than the first ever got.  So I'm pinning her to the floor three times a day to put cream on both of her eyes.  That's lots of fun. And trying to prevent her from rubbing.

The hardest part isn't, in fact, keeping her fingers away from her eyes.  It's keeping her brothers away from her face.  I really don't want this to spread through the family, although the chances of keeping it contained solely to the Girl are slim.  A mom can hope, right?

The Boy brought home his very first report card this week.  Well, since it's Kindergarten it's more just a progress report.  But it's pretty exciting.  I enjoy hearing how he's developing  and growing, learning to take learning risks and how he's interacting with his classmates.  I know he has a few closer friends (mostly girls) that he plays with after school and looks for on the playground before school starts.  And he seems to get along with most everyone.  There are no behavioural problems and his learning curve is bang on where he should be.

Boy2 is going and going.  He doesn't like to stop, nor does he enjoy slowing down, but that's the way he always has been.  He's very persistent.  Relentless, one might say.  When he has an idea in his head, he will not stop until it's done.  "Mom, let's go play baseball on the Wii."  again and again and again.  Eventually I give in to get him to stop, or I tell him it's no, and if he keeps going, he can go to bed.  If I do the latter one, he'll stop for thirty minutes or so and then start again.  Problem, since I put some gifts under the tree today and all I've been hearing all afternoon is "Can I open a present?  Can I open a present?"  When Daddy came home, he got the same thing :)  Points for persistence!

With the Girl sick and the boys waking up tired (don;t really know why.  They are going to bed at a decent time and stay in bed until a decent hour) it's been an interesting week.  Part of it is the anticipation of the holidays, I know.  The other part is (I think) getting tired of the dark.  The sun gets up later and goes down sooner.  This year they are just paying closer attention to their surroundings, so it's bound to happen.

My morning sickness is mostly gone (thank Heavens!) and I'm into my second trimester now.  I have my routine ultrasound booked for January 9th, and we heard the little heart beat on Monday.  We got all the kids into the little room so they could hear it too.  The first time is so exciting!  The Girl had no idea what the noise was, but the boys were enthralled.  The Boy asked why it was so fast :)  So we told him about heart rates and how larger animals have slower heart rates and smaller ones have faster ones.  Always a teaching moment.

Hubby's been uber busy, but that's normal for this time of year.  Evening meetings, Advent vespers, concerts, new member visits, he's mentioned once or twice that he's considering putting a cot in his office :)  He always managers to get home for a meal or two, though, and when he can't he tries to fit family time in somewhere.  Just over two weeks until Christmas day, and so much to do in the mean time!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

A little bit of baking

So, here's what we did today:  Well, yesterday Hubby fried up lots, and lots, and lots of bacon.  And onion.  Don't forget the onion.

Today I started mixing up dough in my amazing early Christmas gift from Amma.


Then, once the sweet dough has had a chance to double, I took a bunch of dough, and flattened it.  And put a spoonful of fried bacon.


Then I rolled the dough around the bacon, sealed it, and pressed it into a crescent shape.




Then I let them rise again, brush with beaten egg, and put in the oven.  What comes out it SOOOO tasty!  It's called perogs and it is from Latvia which is where my father's parents were born.  Growing up, the smells of bacon and onion frying together would bring me back to my Grandma's house where we'd frequently go for Christmas and Easter (well, when we were living in Ontario), and after we moved to BC, my Mom kept it up.  Now it's my fourth Christmas doing them on my own.  They are a little bigger than the ones Mom does, and they frequently pop open in the oven, but that's likely because I stuff them too full.  I can't help it.  They are so yummy!  And I had some extra dough tonight, so I did cinnamon buns with what was left, so there'll be a treat for breakfast tomorrow!  :)