I have started a cooking blog

I have started a cooking blog - it is a work in progress but I love to cook and share good recipes that I have found. I have enjoyed posting these recipes and hope that others are able to enjoy them too.

http://justamatterofthyme.blogspot.com/

Family Pictures

On Tuesday July 20th - Elizabeth Cramner took some beautiful pictures of our family.

Here are a few of my favourite.

Stay at Home Mom

Yesterday was going to be my first day back at work - I cannot imagine how hard it would have been to leave Elly for the whole day and how sad I would be to miss out on all of the adorable things she does. I feel so blessed for this opportunity and although I know it will mean making some sacrifices that we would have not had to make if I had gone back I know that we will never regret this decision. Thank you Jesse for supporting me as a mother and being willing to make these sacrifices with me - I love you.

To celebrate me staying at home Elly and I went to the beach. She hates the sand but was very happy to sit on her blanket and play with her bucket of water.

Happy Birthday Elly

On Wednesday Elly turned ONE!! I cannot believe that the past year has gone by so fast. We had a fun day we went to my parents house in the morning and had Jesse's family over at night - it was a busy day but Elly enjoyed opening more presents and another chance to eat cake.

Magrath Days

This past weekend we were in Magrath for Magrath days. The whole weekend was a lot of fun, we watched the parade went swimming and Elly really enjoyed spending time with her cousins and uncle's. (Sorry all the pictures are not that clear )

Elly's First Birthday

On Saturday July 17th at 4pm we had Elly's First Birthday. The theme was "tiny" for a tiny girl, but it was a big party and big time fun. I was really happy with how everything went but the best part of the whole day was the ELLY TOOK HER FIRST STEPS. She was opening her presents and with everyone watching her she stood up (stood there for a while) and then took about 4 steps on her own - it was so great and I am so proud of her... guess she is not so tiny anymore.

The invitation was the size of a business card with a magnifying glass attached to the outside.

For decorations I made a picture timeline of her first year, a birthday banner and some balloons attached with pink tool around the house and outside.

We served tiny food. Tiny Hamburger and ham and cheese sliders, tiny fruit kabobs, potato salad, tiny pasta salad, tiny bags of chips. For drinks we had pop, juice, water bottles (with fun birthday facts), and pink lemonade; there was also candies, Jelly popcorn and for dessert we have tiny cupcakes and tiny ice cream cones.

All the kids were able to play outside in a fun astro jump (one of our friends was generous enough to bring); we also had lots of bubbles and an inflatable pool of balls.

She got to open lots of great presents.

She had some amazing firsts (first taste of grape pop – thanks Grandmas), first bite of cake, and her first steps.

And all the kids left with a tiny treat bag full of tiny things, and the adults left with some caramel chocolate homemade marshmallow squares (this was a recipe that I made up and was a bit of a flop but they were still really yummy).

Even after such a great party I still can’t believe that Elly will be one (July 28^th). It feels like just yesterday that she was this tiny newborn home from that hospital.

Nothing really

Here are some fun pictures that we have taken lately.Getting ready for church.

Cute new summer clothes from Grandma Voroney.

Publish PostElly helping me vacuum - sometimes she will stand by the vacuum and wait for me to start. She has now learned how to turn it on and off which has made her very excited.

Last week I was really lucky to have Elizabeth Cranmer take some more adorable pictures of Elly – I am really happy with how they turned out. It was a short photo shoot but we received lots of cute pictures.

Almost 11 months old

I have fallen in love with my little girl. I still remember her being placed in my arms for the first time and taking her home and holding her I thought – wow – I never thought I could love someone so much. But I was wrong, the love I felt for Elly then does not come close to how much I lover her now. I have truly been blessed with a little angel who lights up my world with everything she does.Elly will be 11 months old in a week and she is more fun all of the time. She now crawls everywhere as fast as she can and loves to get into everything. She loves to talk! She can now say mom and dad very clearly and if you are listening you will often hear “what’s that”, “uh-oh”, “go”, “hi” and she can almost say “love”. But she always has something to say and if she doesn’t think that you are listening she will just get louder until you are.

She still has gorgeous hair but will usually pull any clip, headband or elastic out before you can go anywhere or take a picture. Her favorite things include helping me vacuum, running around naked, playing tag, being as messy as she can while she eats and playing peek-a-boo.

No-bake Cookies

I love to peanut butter, marshmallows and anything sweet that I can make and clean up in about 10 minutes and this fits all of those.

These Chocolate peanut butter no bake cookies may not be the cutest cookie and they you need to freeze them if you want to hold the whole cookie at once but they are sure yummy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-bake Cookies
2 Cups Sugar
4 Tablespoons Cocoa
½ cup butter
½ cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal
3 cups marshmallows
Parchment paper

In a heavy saucepan bring to boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute. Then add peanut butter, mix well. Then stir in oatmeal and marshmallows (I like to save one cup of marshmallows until the very end so that they are not all melted by the time you have finished mixing). Drop mixture onto a greased sheet of parchment paper – until cooled and hardened (these cookies are usually so soft that you need to freeze them unless you want to eat them with a spoon).

Looks and Brains

Since Elly has started solids almost 3 months ago she has been very picky on what she will eat. I hoped that this would change once she started finger foods but unfortunately she has proved to be even pickier then she was before. She now will not eat anything with a spoon unless she gets to hold it and when that happens all the food ends up on me, the floor or her hair and none in her mouth.

So yesterday I decided I was going to be very sneaky and spread some of her sweet potato on the one thing she will eat – Gerber graduate puffs – well my daughter it too smart for that. She would pick up the puff; look at it and with the other hand take off the sweet potato. And the best part is when I took out the camera because I thought she was being too cute she started to pose and smile.

That’s my girl.

New High Chair

Last week I finally bought Elly a high chair (she normally sits in her bumbo). It was a lot of fun setting it up and she was very excited to try it out, she even tried to read me the instructions – no doubt to tell me the best way to build it.

Hair just like her Grandpa.

When Elly came home from the hospital she had black curly hair – it’s not as black as it used to be but when I leave it after a bath like I did last night you can see it just as curly. Just like her Grandpa’s.

I know she is not a doll.

I know that she is not a doll but sometimes she looks like one and I just love to play with her hair and dress her up in cute clothes.

And most of the time she is so patient and lets me. What a good baby. (the curlers didn't work but she still sure looked cute).