Yay for February!

I'm mostly thrilled because this means we are one month closer to SUMMER!!!!!!!  Oh sunshine and warm weather.... how I have missed you :)

We have been busy at our house enjoying each others company these past few weeks.  Hailey and Ian have been playing up a storm, we have been cooking together and doing our best to get out of the house.  Ian comes to pick us up at any time of the day then we promptly take him back to work so we can have a vehicle.  It has been a huge blessing for my sanity (Hailey's too I am sure) and it only takes a coffee break from Ian's day.  Thank you sweetheart for helping me get out of the house :)

This weekend we pulled out Grandma Ethel's bun recipe to make flapjacks (scones) and buns.  Yummy!  Grandma you have great buns :)  H of course was right in there helping too!

This morning our street was FINALLY ploughed (first time all winter).  We had a good 5-6 inches of packed, bumpy, rutted snow all over the street which wasn't very fun to drive through.  H and I watched for over an hour as the ploughs went past at least a dozen times, along with numerous trucks to be filled with snow.  Just before lunch the digger finally got to the pile in front of our house and we watched excited as it filled the trucks with snow!!!!!  I got so distracted that I forgot to take a picture ;)  Every time a vehicle went past out of sight Hailey said 'go?, go?' with her arms held out.  So cute!

Looking forward to warmer weather each week so that we can go and play outside everyday!  I miss my walks too.

Must get to the BBQ

So as you have seen in this previous post...   it has snowed a TON!  That wasn't even the total accumulation of snow we have gotten since then.  Needless to say I thought our BBQ was LOST FOREVER (ok maybe just till spring).  But of course, me being pregnant, I started really wanting a nice medium rare steak with Montreal Steak Spice, that only Ian can make right!!!!!!

It pursuit of this goal ;) I planned a steak night on our weekly meal plan (created by my dear friend Rhonda).

side note - I have been using this meal plan for many months now (a year maybe?) and I love it.  I had made a set of 'regular use' plans that I would rotate through but I found I would rather make a new menu every week that applied to our schedule and included regular new menu items.

Steak night is TONIGHT!!!!! and I did remember the trouble of the buried BBQ in advance.  I trudged through the untouched knee/waist deep snow in my backyard just to get to the deck.  It was so nice out but I decked out in full snow gear to avoid getting wet from the deep snow.

DISCLAIMER:  Ian advised against me shovelling in 'my condition' but I wanted to try and said I would do what I can!  Ian DOES NOT make his pregnant wife shovel a meter of snow.  He is wonderful and kind and has shovelled 99% of the snow all winter.

I made pretty good progress... it actually cheesed me off that I couldn't finish it all.  In the midst of this snow hauling I looked up at my neighbours deck and was shocked to see not a single spot of snow on it..... NONE... crazy.  They must have kept up with the snowfall so they could BBQ all winter long too :)  So this is what has been done and I am leaving the rest for Ian to finish before he fires up the grill.  Hopefully he can handle it ;)

oh and now we can escape out our back-door in case of emergency.  I am pretty much a hero :)

Late Christmas

I finally got around to getting Hailey a gift with the $ my grandparents sent her for Christmas.  I picked up a doll playpen and a bottle for her baby's that makes sucking noises.  So far she is having more fun playing in the play pen and 'drinking' the bottle then her dolls are!!!!

Thank you Oldefar and Oldemor for the gift :)

It's A........

BABY!!!  We are so excited to be having a baby.  So glad it isn't a horse... that would hurt ;)

Okay, fine... I will tell you what it is....  It's A B..........

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isackson baby girl #2 and we are thrilled!  I was hoping for a little sister for Hailey.  I grew up with 4 sisters and I think they are pretty special and I wanted that for Hailey (well maybe not 4)!  I hope they will grow to love each other and be good friends!  We aren't worried about a son yet as there will be more baby(ies) to come.  At least we hope so.

This is the halfway mark so only 20 more weeks till I get to hold my brand new daughter.  It is so special to know what is growing inside me.  I think it creates a stronger bond as I am able to identify who (if not what) she is.  I will advocate for finding out the gender early any day.... what a sweet surprise.

Tupperware and a Label Maker

My favourite 'tools'!  If anyone broke into my house they would know exactly where to find everything.... of course that would be assuming that they want bins and bins of infant clothing and sentimental memories :)

This order is slightly 'deranged' as my husband has taken a few containers to use as a paint table/ moved things around.  I love that I have 5 empty bins ready to be organized and filled.

Oh the order

Here is my neat and tidy pantry from my clean up last week!  I am trying to tackle a new organization project each week as I follow this blog.

 

I have always been an organized person.  It has become more challenging as my family and our home grows each year but I like the challenge.  It gives me things to do on these crazy cold snow days that leave me stuck inside for DAYS!

I've also attached some recent pictures of our crazy girl!  She is more of a toddler everyday.  It leaves me wondering what I am really 'in for' in the coming years?  Mostly, I am sure, a lot of fun :)

This is supposed to be her 'pretty' smile :)

Water table fun

 I was feeling brave (and not too tired) last week so I pulled out the water table for Hailey to play in.  Of course it was a hit!  She hasn't used it since last fall probably (mainly because it is way easier to clean up outside than inside).  I need to make use of this more often.  What other items have you put in water tables for kids to play with?  I have done pasta noodles and rice.