{Girls Being Girly}

"Christy...can you come up here for a minute? And grab the camera?"

And this is what I walked into......

I. LOVE. My. Girls.

:: Just cause ::

:: A Quick Trip ::

Trevor was gone working for his mom and I thought it would be fun to make a trip over to check out the show, visit Trev and surprise Grammie and Auntie.

We managed to pull of a great surprise and although it was a very early morning and a very long day, it was so worth it and I had such a great day shopping with Auntie Megan.

We were at the show for four hours and Denay spent the whole time at the booth, mostly eating pudding and "helping" daddy stock the freezer.

I worked four shows last year and being there definitely made me wish I could have been able to work this year. Some of the ideas and products that people were showing just blew my mind.....and my tummy :)

A Shower For Paisley

A few weeks ago, three very special friends of mine threw a lovely shower for Paisley and I. We played some super fun games (sculpting babies from play-doh was my favourite), Paisley got a gorgeous diaper cake, lovingly made by my dear Kerry and the girls got me a gift certificate for a 45 minute massage (booked for Tuesday and I can't WAIT).

Paisley was snuggled many times over.....

And we snacked on the always oh-so-yummy Cake By Alana.

Thank you SO much Kerry, Natalie and Megan for the perfect shower and for blessing Paisley and I, and to all the ladies who came loved on us!

It's Ma Birfday!

Early in the month, we met my parents and a group of our friends at a restuarant to eat....cause it was my birthday. We had a great time laughing and chowing down on ice cream cake.....

Yeah, this would be Denay licking her ice cream plate clean. I swear I have no idea where she gets that from!

Thanks hubby, friends and family for loving me!

{Besties}

These pictures are from way back in the middle of November and were taken by my sister-in-law of the kids on a cool sunny afternoon.

Love this one!

It's amazing the bond that these three have, considering how little they are able to see each other.

It's so wonderful!

:: Staff Party 2010 ::

NOTE: My catching-up post are going to come very unorganized and scattered....bear with me :)

The first weekend of December, Trev and I kissed our princesses goodbye and headed up to Parksville for his yearly, all-island-stores staff party at the Tigh-Na-Mara.

Since we arrived with a few hours to spare before heading to dinner, we decided to take a dip in their renown mineral pool that is apparently supposed to detoxify your body. We stayed for a good hour, switching between the pool and hot tub until we were well cooked. I enjoyed a super hot and quiet shower under a rainfall shower head and we still had time to relax in our room before getting ready.

The party, was a PARTY. After a great dinner, they moved onto some presentations and prize draws (that I missed because I was in the room pumping.....oh, the joys) and then onto dancing. We managed to make off with a bread maker (which is, as I type, mixing dough for homemade cinnamon buns for Christmas morning)

And did we DANCE.

Pretty sure we partied like it was 1999.....or 1989.....who cares, it was fun.

Thanks for the great time #29!

Yeesh.

It's either feast or famine around here.

I am here.....and I know at least one person misses me (thanks Michelle!).

Ahhh, December.

BUSY.

But I'm going to catch up.

Soon.

A Look Back.....

I was burning a CD of photos from my mother-in-law's computer on the weekend and came across this shot from the 25th of October.....me at 39 weeks pregnant, a week and a day before I had Paisley.....

How time flies.

{Double Hippin' It}

Get it?

It's the mom version of "double-fistin' it"....

No?

Alrighty then.

These are mostly for two g-parents that we miss dearly.....

:: The MaC girls all ready for church, one on each hip ::

:: Princess Paisley looking lovely in purple ::

:: Denay helped me take these on Monday......my super-smiley baby girl ::

We had our (big tear) very last midwife visit on Monday. Miss Paisley is 10lbs 8oz at seven weeks old and is 22 1/4 inches long. She is 2oz heavier than Denay and 3/4 of an inch longer 10 days earlier. She goes in for her first round of shots at exactly two months on Wednesday and I'm so interested to see the comparison between the two.

She can completely hold her head up now and has found her hand and almost her thumb! She absolutely loves to be talked to and cooed at often fusses when she isn't being paid attention to. She wakes once in 12 hours and right now we are working on getting her to bed earlier. She's going down at 10:00pm and waking up around 6:00 or 6:30, nursing and then sleeps until 10:00am but it would be so nice to have a little down time in the evening and not have to go to bed as soon as she does.

I can't believe it's already almost been two months!

Snowflakes Keep Falling On My Head....

Yeppers, winter is here and it is relentless. Apparently my entire town thought that we were going to skip winter this year and decided not to bother thinking about snow tires until two days before it was supposed to snow so my dear husband has worked an extra 30 hours of overtime in the last eight works days.....this tends to make for a very tired daddy and a very overwhelmed and irritable mommy.

But, I digress.....there certainly won't be much complaining going on when the paycheck arrives.

Anyways, on Saturday morning we woke up to a (warning, cliche coming) winter wonderland. It started on Friday night and by the morning we had a good three inches. And even though it should have been Trev's day off, the "unwritten" rule is that if it snows on your day off, you go to work. So I made plans to hang out at my mom's all day cause the last thing I wanted to do was spend another 12 hour day alone.

:: This was Friday night (after my mom came and picked me up at home cause I was without a vehicle) and we stopped at Starbucks for a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha (y.u.m.m.y.) and got Denay a kids Hot Cocoa....her very first Starbucks ::

:: We were all set to leave on Friday and she decided she didn't want to so I ran home and grabbed the bedtime essentials and came back the next morning with Paisley and armed with all the playtime-in-the-snow essentials out we went!

I didn't take her out in the snow last year. Being so small, all the snow gear was so cumbersome she could hardly move so it was fun taking her out for the first time.

She mostly just wanted to walk around and grab the snow with her mitten and after a half hour just wanted to come inside.

I have to say that it was very cool seeing and experiencing it through her eyes. She is so full of wonder and awe at the things that I glance over without a second thought.

Oh, to be two again.

:: Paisley Joy's Arrival ::

Many, many thanks to Rosanne of Pink and Blue for so beautifully capturing sweet Paisley's birth.

You Might Be A Mom......

I've been working on this for a while....I would love to hear some of your "momisms".....

• if your daily "uniform" consists primarily of sweats and slippers


• if you consider a good day one where you don't wind up with some sort of bodily fluid on you



• if you've ever had a shower and dried off, only to find the tops of your feet still wet.....and then realize you're leaking

• if you can find goldfish crackers in pretty much any room in your house

• if you can do virtually everything one-handed

• if you've ever gotten the reminder call about your dentist appointment and gotten excited about having an hour to sit quietly

• if you have ever scooped poop out of the bathtub

• if you have ever given yourself a high-five and a pat on the back.....just for getting out of the house

• if you have a froggie, ducky, bunny, doggie or kitty (or any other animal) hooded towel in your house

• if you consider a trip to the grocery store a good time and use it as a way to get some adult interaction and exercise

• if you spend two hours getting ready for a 30 minute outing

• if you have ever fought to get the plastic plug out of an electrical socket

• if you have ever gotten a hickey on your bicep because baby was that hungry

• if your laundry basket has ever gone from empty to full....in six hours

• if you've every caught yourself sucking on a soother

• you know what let-down is and wince just hearing the word

• if you've ever had to ditch an full grocery cart in the middle of the store to deal with some sort of a breakdown

Hats off to all you moms out there!

Lately.....

Just some goings on as of late.....

Life with two beautiful girls.

{(It Got Me To Thinking)}

On Monday, after a feed and being up for two hours, Paisley made it quite clear that there was nothing else she needed but to sleep.

I was busy feeding Denay and getting her ready for her nap, so I let her cry for a bit hoping it would tire her more so sleep would come more easily.

I got Denay all settled, got Paisley's room all ready with music and cozied up in my rocking chair. I put her in the cradle position and snuggled her up with the soother in her mouth. We sat and rocked and she fought.

She fought and fought and fought.

She would take the soother, her eyes would close and I could feel her body relax in my arms. She would sleep quietly for a few minutes and then begin to stir and wake and then would cry and squirm and resist the soother.

She would struggle again for a while and then eventually give in.....over and over......for almost an hour.

As I sat and rocked her, sung to her and prayed over her, it got me to thinking.

It got me to thinking about how I am like that sometimes with God.

He takes me in His arms when I cry, knowing that all I need is to rest in Him.

Never tiring, He cradles me and rocks me, trying to get me to accept His love and allow it to soothe me.

I finally settle, give up and relax into Him.

I abide with Him for a while, being content just to be with Him and allow him to love me, bless me and give me all that I need.

Only to get a little of all He has for me, feel a little better, a little rested and think that I've gotten all I need. And I start to fight again, wanting to rebel and do it on my own, thinking that I don't need anymore of Him or thinking that I don't deserve it.

I struggle and become more and more exhausted and weary, but still I fight.

But eventually I give in again, falling back into Him, realizing again that all I need is Him and remembering that I can't go it alone.

Remembering that he never gets frustrated with my fighting, but only holds me firm to Him, sings over me and rejoices in me.

Having Paisley has reminded me again, that for how much I love my girls, His love is truly unconditional.

He loves me as much and infinitely more than I love them....and I think I love them a whole lot.

It got me to thinking what a remarkable and wonderful God I serve.

It reminded me again that as much as He is God, He is eternal, He is without blemish or stain....He is my Father, my Abba, my Daddy.

And He. loves. me.

::: Mid-Week Getaway :::

Trev swapped a shift at work last week so Tuesday night, with not a minute to spare, we were off to the ferry for visit to our mainland family.

We literally made the boat with seconds to spare but being mid-week, there weren't very many other passengers and we enjoyed a quiet and fun ride.

Paisley's official first-ferry-ride pictures....

We were mainly there to celebrate my sister-in-law's big 30th birthday but all wrapped in there were my nephew's 3rd and my brother-in-law's 30-somthing and mine (early) as well.
This was an extra special visit as well because it was Paisley's first time meeting her Uncle's Paul and Jordie and her Auntie Lindsey.

We had a lovely brunch, complete with ice cream pie for a mid-afternoon snack.....I spent a whole day shopping (baby-free) with my MIL......and was even able to go to a mother & daughter night and mingle with some lovely ladies!

We're still in recovery mode but it was such a fun trip!

{To The Next 30}

This is Shawna.

She is my sister-in-law.

She is woman.

She is daughter.

She is wife.

She is mother.

She is friend.

She is 30.

Happy Birthday Shawna!

I Love Ya....

(post and more photos to come)

{Chicken Stuffed Zucchini}

Back quite a few months ago, while visiting my in laws, I sort of stole a magazine.

When I say stole, I mean I found it in the bathroom and asked (told) my MIL that I was going to take it home. It was a Better Homes and Gardens special edition, packed with lots of easy recipes and since then I've been trying to try different ones.

I am a zucchini lover.....I. Love. Zucchini.

So when I flipped a page and saw a recipe for Chicken Stuffed Zucchini, "Yep", I said to myself, "Gotta try that".

So last week I did.

I'm not big on actually following quantities when it comes to recipes so I'll do my best to recite this well!

I used three zucchinis (it called for four, but there's only two of us eating) and boiled them for five minutes in a large sauce pan. Remove and cool.

I used two medium sized chicken breasts (cut into small pieces), a handful of finely diced onions and one and a bit Roma tomatoes. Combine together and cook through.
Take your sort-of-cool boiled zucchini and....... ......cut lengthwise down the center. Then scoop out the guts, leaving about a 1/4 of an inch of thickness. Scoop chicken mixture into the hollows...... .....sprinkle with Parmesan cheese...... .....and bake at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted. EAT!

I had had "one of those days" the day I made them and totally and completely forgot to make a side dish for them :) I think some yummy brown rice or mashed potatoes would have been perfect.

I'm going to try and start posting more recipes up on here.....let me know if you try something out that you like!

A Fairy Princess & The Cutest Bunny EVER

I'll just come right out and say it.....I'm not a big fan of Halloween.

I'm not anti-Halloween but watching people get into the Halloween "spirit" by hanging creepy, spooky and down-right gory decorations from their front doors really doesn't make me want to have any part in it. We also discovered that Denay is very perceptive and started to be very aware of the goulies and ghosts and zombies and motion activated witches in the grocery stores that cackle when you walk by. She would repeat over and over "I okay mummy, I okay" or "We no go into scary story mummy". But our church puts on a great event called Trunk-or-Treat where people bring their cars and decorate their trunks in kid-friendly themes. The kids go trunk to trunk and do their trick-or-treating in a very safe, well lit place with no traffic or spooky decorations.

Denay was a little reserved at first but after a few cars she realized that all she had to do was say "trick-or-treat" and she'd get candy put in her bag. It was much fun after that!

My good friend lent us a cute bunny snuggly that we put Paisley in.....she slept the whole time.
We are allowing Denay to have one piece of candy a day and mom and dad are making sure to help her out too!

Berry, Berry, Berry.....Good

Back in the middle of October, we celebrated my mom's birthday. My dad was planning to do dinner and I thought I would help out and make dessert. So I phoned my mamma to glean some ideas for what she might like, to which she responded, "Cheesecake".

Alright, cheesecake, I can do that.

The day of her birthday I got up alone with the girls, fed them and put Paisley back in our bedroom, to keeping sleeping with daddy, and with my shopping list in hand went to get the ingredients I would need.

I got home around 11:30am and took a better look at the recipe, and having never made a cheesecake before, didn't realize that it needed to be refrigerated for at least six hours......and dinner was at 5:00.

I actually managed to whip everything together and get it chilling by 12:00.

I think I can say it went over pretty well.....even with Denay.

Sunday was my dad's birthday and he asked for the same thing. This time, I took pictures.....

Berry Berry Berry Cheesecake

I didn't have quite enough graham cracker crumbs for the crust this time around so I used some oats and brown sugar. It was a little bit more crumbly but still oh-so yummy.

Between the four of us we ate half of it and I made sure to leave the other half with my parents.....because considering we bought two boxes of Halloween candy and only got three trick-or-treaters, the last thing I need is more sweets in my house!

Dear Grammie & Auntie S*,

Paisley and I just wanted to write to say that we miss you lots and lots and we know you miss us too so we asked mommy to take some pictures of us and put them up on her blog so you can see us.

Paisley is doing so great and is growing so big! I think she's going to be much bigger than me. Mommy and daddy are always trying to get her to smile now but she makes them work really hard before she does it.

Yesterday, before we got changed out of our pretty Sunday dresses, mommy squashed us on the couch together and took some pictures. Paisley mostly cried but mommy got a couple good shots.

Mommy got me all dressed up in a pretty costume last night and she says she'll put pictures on her blog as soon as she can so you can see them.
We can't wait to see you soon.

Please tell Grampy and Tucker and my cousins that we really love them too.

Oh, and mommy said to tell you that I slept in my bed two nights in a row without my bed rail and didn't even fall out!

Anyways, it's time for me to nap now so I love you and maybe we can try to Skype soon.

*blows kisses*

{A Must Try}

How many of you like bananas?
How many of you always need bananas in the house?

How many of you, who answered yes to the above questions, wind up with oodles overripe bananas on their counter cause they bought too many and consequently wind up with bucket loads of said overripe bananas in their freezer that they then have to use up in some sort of baking?

(my apologies to my high school English teacher for that horrible run-on sentence)

Anyone?

No?

.....just me then.......ummm, alright.....that's cool.

I'm going to write this post anyways.

My husband loves to have baking in the house so I've been making a focused effort to keep the glass cake stand in the kitchen filled with yummy sweets for his lunch. I've also been trying to delve into new recipes. If I've got bananas to use up, it's always been mini banana muffins but on Wednesday when we were down to our last Chocolate Oatmeal cookie, I thought about trying to find a cookie recipe with banana in it.

The reviews on a couple I found were mixed but I definitely wanted to find out for myself......and I'm so glad I did.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (mouthful hey?)

3/4 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 beaten egg
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 3/4 c. rolled oats
1 c. mashed banana (the riper the better)
1 pkg. chocolate chips (I just threw in a few handfuls)
1/2 c. shredded coconut (optional)

Cream together shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat until smooth. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, spices. Add to moist mixture. Mix well. Add remaining ingredients one at a time, mixing thoroughly.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough 1 1/2 inches apart on foil covered cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Store in tightly covered container. Makes around 4 dozen cookies.

Yummy.

I thought I had totally overcooked one full sheet but the bananas keep the cookie moist and even though they are really brown, they are still soft and taste great!

Coming Soon: my adventures in cheesecake!

::: A Dad And An Opa :::

......And not just any Opa, the greatest Opa......

{Happy Birthday Dad}
We love you so very much and are so very grateful for you and all you are to our family!

:: It's My Blog & I'll Brag If I Want To ::

This is my husband.

We've been married for four and a half years.

He is amazing.

I don't say that lightly.

Why, you ask, is he so amazing?

Let me count the ways.....

~He loves me and cherishes me

~He adores his daughters....like, really REALLY loves them

~He provides for us and takes much pride in the work he does, even on days when he doesn't want to be there

He is supportive and giving and always thinks about me over himself and constantly encourages me to make time to spend with friends~He got up with Paisley and I every night feed for the first week and a half after she was born and watched movies on the laptop with me so I wouldn't be alone

~He offers to take the girls out in the evening so I can have a little bit of alone time

~He loves me even when he gets home from work and I'm still in my jammies and have absolutely nothing planned for dinner....and he offers to make pancakes

~If he could choose to be anywhere, it would be at home

~He is a true gentleman not only to myself but to all the women in his life (and I know lots of people that read this blog that can affirm this)

~He is a true partner and companion in our parenting journey and chooses to be very involved in his daughter's lives
~He doesn't mind spending hours on end in the evening walking and bouncing and keeping Paisley awake and happy so she sleeps well at night

~He appreciates all the work I do at home just as much as I appreciate the work he does outside the home, and thanks me every day for the routine chores I do

~He helps around the house.....laundry, cleaning, dishes, bathing the girls, taking out the garbage.....you name it, he does it

~He blesses me each and every day and since I'm the one with the blog, I can say that:

1. NO. I love YOU more.

2. NO. I am the luckiest one.

3. NO. I don't deserve all YOU do for me.

I could go on.....but, I think you can get the idea.

{compared}

{Denay at 3-4 weeks old}

{Paisley at almost 4 weeks}

(The picture on the far right is my dad's favourite outfit that I used to wear......"cupcake")

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