:: Sickos ::

:: That's been me and my family for the last 3.5 days. We have been down and out with this nasty...and I mean NASTY flu! It literally had Paul and I unable to function on Monday. So we called his Mum to help us out, and as any good Mum would she came over and entertained Jacob for us, held Cole, brought us fresh glasses of water and ginger ale, made us soup and heated up the hot packs. This virus is so vile, I kept on asking the good Lord to help me make it through because I felt like I was going to die...I know that sounds a bit dramatic now, but seriously I thought I would just die! ::

:: Thankfully we have a great support system to call on in times of need - I called my friend Lisa. B to bring us by some ginger ale, Gatorade and gravol on Monday morning. I dialed her number not even knowing what time it was, and not really caring either...cause remember I was going to die! ::

:: I was supposed to be working for my Mom's co. on Monday morning so I had to heap all of my work on my brother Jordan's shoulders - thanks Jordan for rising to the task and taking my work for me...if you wouldn't have I probably would have, yep you guessed it....just died! And you wouldn't have wanted that would you!?!?! ::

:: Thanks to Mum, Jordan & Lisa for helping us out - we truly appreciate it! So, so sorry for no "Glorious" Christmas decorating pictures to blog....that's a whole other story, however I will tell you that our tree is up, so is our garland and stockings. Hopefully I will feel well enough tomorrow to post about that whole episode! ::

:: May the Good Lord be with you and I pray that you will dodge this flu virus this season, as I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy (that is if I had one to wish it on!) ::

I think that I am almost caught up on blogging (ha, not even close! I have yet to blog about Coles shower etc...there is always next week!). However I am now off to get ready for a party tonight, I can't wait and I better get myself prepared while all the boys are preoccupied with other things like sleeping....shhhhhhhh ;)

Tomorrow is Christmas Decorating Day at our home...

I will be back with pictures to post of that glorious event!

:: Quiet Times ::

:: Although our home is mostly filled with one particular boy running around and having a gay 'ol time...last night we did have some nice quiet time, and here are the pictures to prove it ::

:: Apparently after dinner last night Jacob decided he wanted to go for a walk...In Daddy's shoes :) ::

:: Boy, this kid can sure make us laugh! ::

:: To our surprise he could actually walk in them!?!?!? ::

:: Auntie Marilyn's Pinwheels ::

:: Last night I wanted to start my baking for Christmas so I thought I would try my Auntie Marilyn's Pinwheels...I have never made them just always enjoyed them at family functions ::

:: Here is the recipe, just in case you want to try them too....they are so yummy! ::

In a small bowl combine:

1/4 cup butter (room temp)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. cayenne (I added more like a 1/2 tsp)

1/2 tsp. paprika

In large bowl combine:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

2 tsp. sugar

3/4 cup grated cheese

1 tbsp. parsley

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

2/3 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients together then with a pastry cutter (or fork as I don't own a pastry cutter) cut in shortening. Make a well and pour in the milk. Stir in the milk until all of the flour has been absorbed.

Split dough into half and put the first half on a well floured...it's quite moist dough so it needs to really be well floured and kneed 3 or 4 times. Roll out into aprox. 10x14 square (if you can) by about a 1/4 inch thick.

Stir your butter mixture well and take half of it and spread it over your rolled out dough. Then just roll it up. It does not have to be perfect, mine was less than perfect and they still turned out fabby!

Slice roll into 1/4 inch thick pieces - I used a serrated knife to do this as the dough was quite soft, I may suggest that you let it chill for an hour or so before cutting it.

Line the pinwheels up on your favorite baking sheet and toss them in the oven for 10-15 minutes @ 425 degrees.

{Follow the above steps for the remainder of the dough and butter}

This recipe yields 50 pinwheels.

:: Here is my little kitchen helper...Paul & Jacob were out playing so Cole ended up helping me in the kitchen :) ::

:: This Morning ::

:: I'd rather be decorating for Christmas but I am off this morning to brave the elements and run a bunch of errands with the boys...sound like fun? Not so much, I think I have 8 stops to make....pray for me ;) ::

:: Brothers ::

:: I've got my brother's amazing camera again so I couldn't resist the chance to take some shots of our boys today ::

:: Jacob ~ 17.5 Months Old ::






:: Cole ~ 2.5 Weeks Old ::

:: Oh what fun they will have together, oh what joy we find in them, oh I can't wait to see what God has in store for each of them...::

:: Cole - Week 2 ::

:: Sorry these pictures are such bad quality - I'm not sure what I did wrong but at any rate here are a few of the newest little lad in our family ::

:: So the other day...::

:: It was Jacob's nap time and so I take him up to his room and give him his sippy cup, tuck him in and proceed to go downstairs to feed Cole ::

:: I heard Jacob cry for a little while and then it stopped so I figured he had fallen asleep - this is what I found when I went to check on him ::

:: This is a strange angle but the door is to the right of the picture, I actually couldn't fit through the door as he was right up against it so these pictures were taken with my hand reaching behind the door -- too funny! ::

:: This is the mess he made of his nicely folded laundry that was on top of his dresser ::

:: As you can see his face was also snuggled right into his clean laundry, like father like son, both of them love the smell of fresh laundry! ::

:: Product I Love ::

:: I know, I know, I haven't been around here much; but what do you expect I have a 2 week old and a 17 month old?!?!? I actually would have been on here more often (just to take a break from my everyday stuff) but I am borrowing my parents camera and while I am I have to go to their place to download the pictures and then send them to myself....so it's not that I'm not documenting our lives on "film" but it's just not handy to download the pictures and thus I have not blogged - who wants to read my blog without pictures to go along??? ::

:: Anyway - I do have pictures to post but I will do that later tonight, right now I want to tell you about a product I LOVE ::

:: As much as I don't like cleaning, I love having a clean house. Well this product makes the whole experience of cleaning that much better. Now, I grew up in a house in which Pine-Sol was used for cleaning floors, washrooms etc. and as I have grown up and am now responsible for my own house I too have adapted using Pine-Sol however I have changed the tradition slightly...I use the Pine-Sol brand but it's Lavender scented. And I LOVE it! It smells similar to the smell of the spa, lavender mixed with eucalyptus and it is heavenly...Paul says it's strong, well yes it is, but it's also a cleaner and a very strong one at that ::

:: So there is my product review - go out and try it. I found mine at Zellers (truth be known, my mom found it for me a Zellers), every time I looked for it at the grocery store or Wal-mart I found an empty shelf. So I'm obviously not the only one that has come to love this new traditional cleaner :) ::

:: It's the purple one in the middle ::