Swimming!

Yesterday we had fun swimming with cousins and grandparents. We checked out the pool at the new Motel 6 and had a blast splashing away!

Eden, Macy, and Chris

 Grandma and Grandpa, babysitters extraordinaire!

 Mom`s and their babes.

It was fun to meet and play with Alice, such a sweetie.

Underwater Chris!

We are here! We are here!

We are alive and kicking and enjoying a wonderful holiday with Grandma and Grandpa Cutts. Macy and I arrived Dec. 8th and were shortly followed by Aunt Jacquie and Jacob. Macy and Jacob hit it off right away and are becoming best of friends. Jacob is only 2.5 months older than Macy and it is so fun to watch them play and teach eachother tricks (usually not the good kind of tricks either!!)

Chris finished exams (yay!!!) and drove out on Sunday. We are so glad to finally have him with us and are now ready for Christmas. We`ll keep you posted on all of our fun winter adventures!

Wreath Love

I love wreaths, and I even made this one at Super Saturday last weekend. It was pretty easy, despite a pretty bad glue-gun burn. No Pain, No Gain!

So Grateful!

I love being able to celebrate two thanksgivings a year. I really have lots to be grateful for, so why not. Plus, I love turkey dinner. We celebrated our American Thanksgiving last Saturday. We had friends over, ate a delicious meal, and enjoyed a great evening together.

This was my frist time ever making pies (not counting making them with my mom in YW once).

I used the pure lard Tenderflake crust and I think it was a success. The apple and cherry tasted delicious.

Yum! Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potato, cauliflower with white sauce and cheese, carrots, corn, and homemade buns!

Our friends we met in Fort McMurray, Desiree and Dayley (he is half american too).

"Yay for thanksgiving!!"

Macy's Favorite Place

The window on our stairs is the best place to be. You can go up and down the stairs and there is tons to look at out in that big snowy (yes, we finally had snow, but its kind of nice) world!

Reading

I haven't been very good at updating my 'What I'm Reading' but I have been reading some good books lately.

I really enjoyed 'The Help'. I saw the movie first and then read the book and thoroughly enjoyed both. I'm on 'The Son of Neptune' now and so far so good. I only wish that I had re-read the Percy Jackson series and 'The Lost Hero' as I am forgetting a lot of what happened. Must be getting old. Anyway, I'm always looking for good book recommendations, so send yours my way. Thanks!

Trick or Treat

Here's our little pumpkin!

House decorations!

Someone's excited for Halloween!

Snugglin' with Grandma!

Macy and the Pumpkin!

Ghostly Get Together

Last Saturday we had our annual halloween party. We had a full house and although it was a little crazy at times, it was a lot of fun. We had great food, some fun party games, and everyone was in costume!

We worked our costumes around Macy, the Great Pumpkin! Chris was Charlie Brown and I was Peppermint Patty.

Some scary snacks.

It's Halloween tradition to eat a donut on a string as fast as you can!

And wrap your friends up in cheap toliet paper!

Angry Birds!

Love these homemade dinosaurs!

Happy Halloween!

Macy and the Beads!

Running Clinic

Today I went to a free one-on-one running clinic at my gym. It was great! The personal trainer who did it is a runner and triathlete who has done iron-mans! Anyway, I'm doing this post so I can remember what she told me, so don't read this if you are bored about running posts.
First of all she watched me run for about 8 minutes, which was a little weird, but not bad. I was tired from our late soccer game last night (started at 10pm), but I managed. She had lots of pointers to tell me. She recommended I get running shoes (which I knew she would, my cross trainers are about 5 years old and very worn out, actually she said she was suprised I wasn't having any foot problems). Then we went over drills and exercises that would strengthen my core and overall body and help improve my running. She said for long distance runners and triathletes you don't really want to do a lot of resistance training because you don't want to be carrying around a lot of bulky muscle. Instead it is best to do body weight training, like push ups and pull ups. We also did drills with the exercise ball, lunges, and hip flexor exercises. We talked about plylometrics and how they help with that burst of energy you want when you see the finish line. It was so great to find out what I can do to improve running and training. I needed it. And, I was lucky that no one signed up after me, cause a 15 min. slot turned into about 35 mins. Anyway, it has gotten me excited again about my training and exercise, which will help with all the holiday baking I will be consuming in the near future :)
Happy running to you all!

Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm

We had a fun day with Grandma Lamont, Uncle Fraser, Aunt Jenn, Anderson, Henry, and Ruth the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We went to the Prairie Gardens and Adventure Farm in Bon Accord, AB just about 45 minutes north of Edmonton. We went through the petting zoo, shot a pumpkin out of a cannon, explored an army 'tank', played in the hay and made a scarecrow, had a picnic lunch, went through the kids corn maze, and toured the haunted car row. It was lots and lots of fun!

Oh, and we went on a wagon ride. Macy is a little apprehensive about it, sorry I cut off Chris and Granmda's head...it was a bumpy ride!

Checkin' out the army vehicle with the boys. (The beaded necklaces showed you paid admission).

After making our scarecrow. Chris has the head in his hands. I'll have to post another picture of the finished product that is on our front porch.

I kept expecting this guy to move, but it didn't.

This guy moved though, he's an actual person.

Family picture!

Experimental Cooking

A while ago I posted about trying new recipes and making resturaunt worthy meals. Well, I'm still up for trying new recipes, it just seems to take quite sometime between trys. But last week I tried TWO new recipes, and they were both pretty good. One was this Greek Chicken Pasta which turned out great. I've never made a greek recipe before, but it was good, and made good leftovers too.

The second recipe was a Pumpkin Carrot soup. I had been wanting to try a pumpkin soup. I opted for this recipe I found online because it had carrots and other familiar vegetables and spices. It was pretty good. Best eaten as a side, not a whole meal. In fact I think I will serve the leftovers with chicken and rice.

Hopefully it won't be as long before I try another new recipes. Especially since I found a Buffalo Lasagna recipe that I think Chris will love!