Fall Photos 2012

Love my kids, and love these pics!

Eating Healthy!

A friend of mine turned me on to a couple documentaries to watch called "Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead" and "Fork over Knives", what a wake up call to say the least!  Both of these stress the importance of a plant based diet and limiting or omitting all meat.  Joe Cross' documentary (Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead) made me open my eyes to the garbage we fill our faces with everyday.  He appeared on "The Doctors" T.V. show and explained how he lost over 100lb, eliminated the need for all his prescription medication and set his disease into remission.  He is a real inspiration, check this clip out.........

 
The second documentary was "Fork over Knives" and this to was eye opening.  Several doctors were involved in research to see how meat in our diet leads to heart disease, cancer and many other diseases.  Again, all I could say was wow!  Here is a clip from this movie..........

So I decided today to try something new, and start eating healthier.  I headed to my supermarket to the produce department and loaded up on some good healthy stuff.  I'm going to take it slow and try some new foods.  Today for lunch I made myself a fruit smoothie with raspberries, banana, mango and a little coconut milk.

I have never tried coconut milk before but I will definately buy this again. This would be so good on cereal as well.

This is what the finished product looked like..............it looks yummy!  So this is the beginning to a healthier 2012 and new tasty recipes.

Feeling the Winter Blahs!

It's winter here in Michigan and we have NO snow!  I always say if it has to be winter and cold, we must have snow.  We are a family who loves to play outside snowmobiling,skating,sledding etc.  Well this year is not that at all, it has been mild in the 40's and even low 50's.  No snow for Christmas and no sun out there either.  I need to start feeling better and we all need a good pick me up.  Come on winter, show your true temps here in Michigan and send us some snow!  PLEASE

Breakfast with Santa

Today my friend and I took my two kids and her 4 kids to breakfast with Santa.  It's not easy with six little one's but we did it and all the kids had a good time.  After breakfast we went to the Festival of Trees and browsed through all the beautifully decorated trees.

This is Emily and Owen my two children with Santa Claus.

These are my friend Shelley's cute four kids with Santa.

Homemade Halloween Costume

My daughter Emily decided she wanted to be a s'more for Halloween so off to the fabric store we went.  My sister in-law and I made this cute s'more and I think it turned out really well.  My son Super man is hanging out in the wagon waiting to go for candy.

Please disregard my car in the back ground.

It's Almost THANKSGIVING!!

Turkey day in Canada is Monday Oct. 10th............ Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian family and friends and those of you I don't know.

Owen's 1st ER Visit

Owen was playing with the water in the bird bath and pulled the cement bird bath over on himself.  It landed right on top of him and all I could see of him were his little legs.  It landed right across his forehead and oh my goodness did his head swell.  We rushed to ER to have his head checked out.  Owen had a   Cat Scan which was Negative and we went home.  After the initial pain and shock, Owen was a pretty happy little guy.  He was back to normal in no time,  although his forehead looks awfully bruised and swollen still.

Kitchen Remodel - two month mark!

It has been a long hard summer of work, work and more work.  As you may know, my husband and I started a kitchen project mid July and we are just getting the cabinets in now, this is day 2 of cabinet install!  I can hardly wait until they are all in and my kitchen is complete.  I am tired of living out of box's in my kitchen and having to look for everything.  We have never installed cabinets before so it is taking us awhile, but so far so good.  A little tweaking here and there with the cabinets and we are all good.  Hopefully we will have them finished tomorrow so I can call this week for a counter top measurement.  So since last update.......... the stove vent pipe has been removed, old cabinets gone, old lights removed, new lights installed, drywall patched and walls have primer on them. Most cabinets are installed, cabinets on the window wall to come.  Take a look, whatcha think?

Kitchen Update

I know it's been a long time since an update but we have been soooo busy.  We have removed our old utility room and enlarged the kitchen, removed the cupboards and today moved the dishwasher to the other side of the sink.  We also purchased our new gas convection range and fridge.  I love these appliances so much, and they look so pretty.  We are currently living out of box's in the kitchen due to lack of cupboards.  Our next project is to get the lighting and outlets where it needs to go then drywall work.  Cupboards should be finished and ready for delivery in the next 1.5 - 2 weeks, so time is a tickin.  Here are some update pictures on what it looks like so far.

It is a work in progress!!

So as I said earlier, we have been so busy.  My husband is at a new company and has been working 10-12hrs a day 6-7 days a week and we bought  a foreclosed home to fix up and rent to my sister in law.  Ugh!!  It seems everything always happens at the same time.  With patience, hard work, little sleep and team work we will slowly get through all this work ahead of us.

Renovation Time

I have been wanting to remodel my kitchen for a long time, and now is it!  So I will try to share the progress, no matter how long it takes.  Here are some before pictures............

As you can see, the kitchen is very narrow to say the least!

So my husband is tearing down a small storage room that once held the hot water heater and furnace.  (That was the last job, moving them to the garage.)  We will then be able to make the kitchen wider.

This is the storage area that will soon be gone.

This project will probably take us a couple months due to the long work weeks my husband puts in.  In the end we will save a lot of money by doing the work ourselves.

Its Been Soooo Long

I have not been on my blog since the middle of April as you can tell!  I think I was a little bored with it and needed a break.  There has been a lot going on and I will update soon.   I will update soon :)

Precious Bella

These are some pictures of my newest niece. Her name is Bella Grace, and she is soooo cute!

This is my daughter Emily and Bella.

O is for OWEN

Owen is my son who is 2 yrs old.  He is talking so much more lately and my favorite is when he counts.  I started counting 1, 2, 3 and he said "4, 5, 6, chicken".  I think he thinks seven sounds like chicken?  It was so cute and he says this every time he counts, it cracks me.

O-outgoing

W-warmhearted

E-energetic

N-noisy... (at times)

He is so sweet........ I can't imagine life without him.

Love  Mom

I won these awards!

Deirdra from A Storybook World gave me this award, thanks so much!

Angela from Mommy Time Out gave me this award, thanks so much Angela!

As you may already know, this award comes with some rules. Here are the rules:

•Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post. - Done

•Tell us seven things about yourself

•Award fifteen recently discovered new bloggers

•Contact these bloggers and let them know they’ve received their award.

Here are 7 things about me:

1.  I'm a Registered Nurse

2.  I'm a Canadian

3.  I love gardening

4.  I am a wife and mother of 2 children

5.  I'm a christ follower

6.  I like to be in charge!

7.  I love saving money and couponing

I am now going to award 15 bloggers: (not all of you are new, but you are some of my favorites)

Finding My Life In Faith

The Thrifty Military Wife

Scissors and Spatulas and everything in between

The Chatty Mommy

Honey Pie Accessories

Thrifty and Fabuless

What Allies Making Now

Anything Pretty

Bring the Rain

Blog N' Tell

Beloved Mama

Country Radio Mom

Faith Works

Mom A Logues

Waiting In My Wings

Join Me

Join me and listen to this song.  It's one of my favorites.

I is for IRS or Income Tax

Tax season is soon coming to an end, April 15 or 16th I think?  Well I have mine done so I'm safe.  Do you owe the IRS money or are you getting some back?

I believe this is how most people feel, that the government gets too much of our money.

I'm from Canada and paid 15% sales tax on most items, so 6% doesn't seem too bad.





So, do you feel like this?







Or this?

H is for Hillbillies

Warning - you may see pictures of your family members below,  some look like mine! Lol
This is a picture of the most famous "Hillbillies".

The jean overalls are a dead giveaway.  One should never wear these out in public!

See y'all tomorrow!

G is for Gardening

It's almost time here in Michigan to start the growing season.  I LOVE to be outside in the dirt, making my yard look beautiful.  The first day in April that was nice enough to be outside, was last weekend.  We spent all afternoon outside picking gravel from the driveway out of the lawn, splitting and moving my daylillie's and trimming shrubs and trees.  Every year it seems I add more and more flower bed gardens,  can you ever have too many?  Enough talk, now on to some pictures of beautiful flower gardens.

Some lovely spring tulips.

Summer purple cone flower.

The flower of fall to me, is the mum.

And last but not least, the winter garden.




Thanks for stopping by.

F is for Friendship

First off, I forgot to post this yesterday (oops) so I'm posting F and G today.

"An honest answer is the sign of true friendship."
- Proverbs 24:26

"A friend loveth at all times."
- Proverbs 17:17





I will end with the best quote of all........


A good friend is cheaper than therapy.  ~Author Unknown

E is for EMILY

Emily is my 6 yr old daughter, who I love so very much.

E- Energetic

M-Mature

I-Intelligent

L- Lovable

Y-Youthful

She has a great sense of humor and we are so proud of her.