Saturday, February 23, 2013

Love Month & Other Things

Valentine's Day came and went. 

And there was a lot of sugar consumed...


BC had it's very first Family Day this year (a week earlier than the rest of the country's Family Day - go figure).  Unfortunately Erik could not participate so it just felt like a long day at home with the kids...

I decided to try to make it fun by baking Valentine's sugar cookies with the kids. But I think the first 1/2 hour of the process was spent fighting over which stool each kid got to stand on, who got to pour the sugar in and who's turn it was to use the mixer...
  
And then there's me watching flour go everywhere and silently reminding myself that it's just flour - we can clean it up later...


After the mixing, it was time for the rolling and cutting.  More mess for sure.  And more drama as the kids fought over the only 2 heart cookie cutters I had.  Silas must've lost interest in the process by the time I took this picture.  Likely sneaking in some screen time in another room...

While Silas napped (I'm so thankful he still does most days) the older kids and I got a head start on the decorating.  Eliminating one child from the equation made this part so much less chaotic...  Other than me reminding the kids every couple of minutes not to lick the knives they were using for spreading (sorry to anyone who shared these cookies with us...)


We used this sugar cookie recipe, which calls for sour cream and makes super soft cookies.

Valentine's came a few days later and we celebrated Love Day as a family...

Pizza was on the menu and I cut them out using my big heart-shaped cookie cutter.  A bit labour-intensive compared to regular pizza...


But worth it.
I think.



Other exciting happenings of this last month included welcoming our newest cousin/nephew to the world.  A few days before Valentine's, Sawyer James was born - the kids were already in their PJs when we got the news but we quickly packed them all up and headed to the hospital to meet him for the first time.
It was fun to explain to the kids that this is how they would meet their new sibling for the first time.  I think they were pretty excited about the idea.

I'm now 17 weeks pregnant and feeling great.  Just... growing.  Up until yesterday I was making do with stretchy leggings and my regular jeans with an elastic band stretching from button to button hole - but the old elastic band trick just wasn't really cutting it anymore.  And when I recently went through my bag of maternity clothes from my previous pregnancies I felt like throwing up a little bit.  Some of those clothes I bought nine years ago.  Needless to say they are just not working for me in 2013.  Erik's mantra this pregnancy has been "We are not buying ANYTHING new for this baby."  But sorry honey, Mama just has to feel somewhat pretty for the next 5 or 6 months - something to counteract the visual of those numbers creeping up on the scale every morning...

Happy Love Month to me!

6 comments:

Adel said...

Ok, I love those heart pizzas! Indie would LOVE them - serious heart addiction!

Anonymous said...

Awesome post Jamie! Yes, baking with kids is always chaotic, but always good memories made!

Anonymous said...

love the flour going everywhere. It's a fun thing to do and what memories to cherish. you also need to cheer yourself up with a few new clothes for 2013 and keep feeling good about yourself. it also helps the kids [+ Erik] so see that even in pregancy mommy is so pretty and special..
Emmy

laura.h said...

Glad you splurged on some new clothes! It's important to feel good :-)
Love your pictures of the kids helping with cookies, and your reminder...."it's just flour". I say that to myself alot :-)

Trev and Rebekah said...

Love the little pizzas. And fun that you can shop for clothes there. There isn't much for great maternity clothes out here. But thankfully I had some of my old maternity clothes sent my way. Sure they are old but at least they are comfortable.

Trev and Rebekah said...

k that recipe for that mango black bean meal made my mouth water. We don't have black beans here and I have been MISSING them.