Proud Moments as a Mommy

Next to being a wife, being a mom is one of the greatest gifts that I have been blessed with in my life. I love it when there are those precious moments that occur that I will never forget. Tonight there was one of those moments...

Kaley was playing with her woof woof and babies and had put them to bed, pulled their covers up and she came running into the kitchen and said "Mommy, I put my woof woof to bed!" I then asked her if she prayed with them before they went to sleep and she had said "No, I better go do that." She leads me into the livingroom and, without my help, she goes up to the bunk bed where she has put them, kneels down, folds her hands, lowers her head and prays for her woof woof and babies. *sniff sniff*

It was so precious! It makes me teary eyed just thinking about it. There is no greater thing that I want to teach my girls, than the importance of prayer and praying for your children. What an awesome and huge responsibility, but worth so much more than manners, academics, housekeeping skills and all the rest.

I pray that our sweet little Kaley continues to have a loving and caring heart and is concerned about the needs of others. To God be the glory!

Baked Bread...yum!

I absolutely love the smell and taste of fresh baked bread!

Much like the cloth diapers and homemade laundry detergent, I am a huge fan of being able to make those much needed items from the comfort of my own home- and making my own bread is just another thing that is so easy to make at home. I don't like to have to run out to the store every few days to pick up the necessities, and it is much easier on the budget to just make what I can at home. Trust me- if I could figure out a way to have our own chickens for eggs and a cow for milking, I would:-) I never really liked shopping before, but since having kids, I REALLY don't like having to go to the store more than I need to.

Considering having the time and the ease of making bread, I found that the easiest and cheapest way of making bread at home is to buy the frozen loaves. It is sooo easy and only costs about $1.20 per loaf. The bag of frozen dough was at first very hard to find and I only found two stores around us that carry it! The brand I buy has 5 frozen loaves and costs around $6.

Whenever we are running low on bread, I just go get a loaf from the freezer in the evening, spray a loaf pan with butter spray, and put in the frozen bread dough.
Then, I just cover it and let it thaw and rise over night.




In the morning, I set the oven to 375 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.



Voila! A loaf of bread ready to eat and a yummy smell of bread to linger throughout the house.


From the prices of bread around us, it is about 1/2 the price of the brand name bread, and about 1/3 less the price of the generic brand. My next step in the process is to use our bread machine to make my own frozen bread dough, which I bet is going to be even cheaper, but for now this works great for us.

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

We had a nice sunny and warm Saturday that was just perfect to go the Pumpkin Patch. You never know what the weather is going to be like in October, so when those nice days come, you have to take advantage of them.

We had taken Kaley last year, but she was still very young and could only do a few of the activities. This year was a lot of fun. Our local pumpkin patch is great because it has a ton of family friendly activities to do and lots of room to run around and play. Kaley had a blast! She rode the tractors, ran through the hay maze, played with the animals and in the water play, BUT her favourite activity was the play structure. Go figure!

We attempted the ride to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins, but she was a bit scared of the whole operation, so we decided not to push it. They had a bunch of pumpkins at the entrance to pick from, so we got some already picked ones. Great day with the family!

Tea and Muffins with the Girls

Kaley has shown a lot of interest lately in wanting to help out in the kitchen. I remember very fondly the times that I spent in the kitchen *helping* out my mom (which by the way mom- you had A LOT of patience!) I must admit, it is hard finding projects to do in the kitchen that aren't too time consuming considering little snuggle bug's time table.

When we do have those small windows of time available, we try to find something fun to do. Kaley loves making muffins and cupcakes and she is able to do most of the work. She pours that muffin mix in the bowl, fills up the measuring cup with water, pours it in the bowl and stirs the egg in. She then LOVES to put the muffin paper into the muffin tins and then fills each one with batter using the ice cream scoop from Pampered Chef. Lots to do for a little girl.

The best part is, she loves to eat them afterwards. We made muffins the other morning and we had a breakfast of muffins, fruit and tea (her tea was a cup of milk, but she drank it out of her coffee cup which made it okay). Chloe joined in the fun and just watched her older sister from her favourite place on the table.

Playtime with Daddy!

The girls *love* to play daddy! Such a special relationship that they have:-)

Birthday Blessings

I realized that in the excitement of our little cuddle bug's arrival, that I missed three important birthdays! My mom, Mark's dad and Mark's mom all had their birthdays at the end of August. It is a great month for celebrations!

We are so fortunate to have such great parents and grandparents for our children. They each have a special place in Kaley's life and the same will be true for Chloe's. May there be many blessings coming your way this year! We love you:-)

God's blessings be upon you
As you continue through life
celebrating yet another year
On this journey with Christ
And as you commit each day
Into the hands of the Lord
May you know His inner peace
And love and grace much more
By M.S. Lowndes

Our baby is 2 months old!

Yesterday, our sweet little baby girl Chloe celebrated her 2 month birthday! My how time flies!!! She has very easily fit right into our family as if she has always been here. She has a sweet, calm, happy disposition and LOVES to cuddle. She watches her older sister Kaley with great anticipation as to what she is going to do next. She carefully takes in everything around her and is trying really hard to talk to us. She has a really strong neck and even tries to stand on your legs when you are holding her, although she hates to have tummy time:-)

We all just love our little "cuddle bug" to pieces and are thankful to God for her. Here are a few pictures to enjoy!