Sunday 30 September 2012

Wonderful Weekend.

So our weekend was a wonderful one for sure. Started off with a relaxing Friday night for myself and the kids while hubby went hunting. Saturday we ran some errands in the morning and then we went to an auction sale. You gotta love auction sales! It was in the community where I grew up and functions like this are just an excuse for everyone to come out and visit. Pretty much my whole Dad's side of the family was there and uncles from the Mom's side too. Anyways, the lunch is always a highlight. Often the only reason we go to an auction sale is just to have lunch ha ha. Pies are the biggest attraction on the menu usually :) And they were delish. We went to this sale bc my hubby wanted to buy an older Ford half ton that was for sale. Just for bombing around on back and forth to work and to go hunting in. That way we don't have to use our 3/4 ton diesel so much. So while we were waiting for them to get to the trucks I of course had to check out the housewares and antique things. I found something that I have been looking for for a long time! I am always having to borrow my Grandma's...a fruit press. It is so excellent for making apple sauce with.


I have looked all over and cannot find them anywhere! This one is brand spankin' new and although I thought I had paid too much for it, my Grandma informed me that that was what they cost new. So even though I had kind of regretted going to the sale bc it ended up being a very miserable day (very windy, hot and dusty with two little ones), I was glad I went and scored that!

Then in the evening we headed out to the hills to have a bonfire with some great friends. They are people that I am incredibly Thankful for. We always have so much fun together. I'm glad that we will be a part of each others lives for a long time. Not only do we get together to have a good time but we also work side by side quite often. Whether it's time to process cattle and get them out to pasture or to bring them home, combining, baling or silaging we help each other out a lot. And although by the time we were on the road to go there and wondering why the heck we were going (it was already late, we were all exhausted from our long day and it always seems like so much work to get the kids packed up and out the door!!!), we were both soooo glad we went.

And today was a good family day. We spent some time with Corey's brother, his fiance and their two adorable boys who we have not seen much of lately bc we have all been so busy! It was a gorgeous day out minus the wind :( In the morning we went for a wagon ride with the team and then to Mom and Dads for our waffle Sunday lunch. We napped in the afternoon and had a very lazy rest of the day. Dad came over in the evening and I cheaped out and got Subway for supper. I didn't take as many pictures this wknd as I should have...I wish I had one from the wagon ride to post. I will have to steal one from my mother-in-law.






Now to do a little 'baking' in the kitchen for Corey's lunch tomorrow and then it's off to bed.


These are my favorite go to no bake cookies. They have peanut butter in them and are so yummy. For the recipe go to my Country Cookin' link.

Cheers
Ashley


Friday 28 September 2012

Thursday 27 September 2012

Please excuse the mess, the children are making memories!

A good friend reminded me of this today. Today was just one of those days that felt like a Monday. Both kids always seemed to be crying at the same time as each other (more than usual lol). And to boot, Tanner never napped and Ali hardly did either. Not to mention that my days have been mixed up ALL week! I thought today was Wednesday and had my whole day planned out to be at home. Then I realized that it's actually Thursday and I had planned on hitting up the MCC bag sale in town. Sheesh.

This week I have been hell bent on fall cleaning my house and it in one week all I got accomplished was most of my kitchen and our one whole bathroom! LOL. Tanner only naps about an hour now so that's about all I get of uninterrupted time these days. Till about 10 or 11 at night. Now don't get me wrong... I am by no means a neat freak, in fact I would say I'm the complete opposite! I like to say that my house always looks lived in :) It's comfortable. BUT that doesn't mean I don't believe in cleaning it. All these jobs I have been neglecting and that the bugs have been help making worse have finally caught up to me. My goal is to pretty much clean my house from top to bottom. I do have to readjust my goal for completion though...that is that I have no goal for completion.  Ha ha. The only thing I know I should do sooner than later is washing the outside of my windows before it's too cold to do so.

It's so easy to get caught up in the rush of life and worry about everything that needs to get done. That's why I love this phrase: Excuse the mess, the children are making memories. It is so true because what are we going to remember in 10 or 20 years? The fact that in the fall of 2012 I never washed the living room ceiling? I doubt it. I'm sure that I will remember that I told my son a million times today to stop standing on the plastic deck box to peek over the deck railing at his beloved kitties only to have him ignore me and end up slipping and smoking his face off the railing! And now has a wonderful mark beside one eye. I am also going to remember that our beautiful daughter Ali turned three months old today. Where does the time go? I will also remember that my in-laws came over this evening for tea and we had a wonderful talk about life in general (so that means farming...) and how Thankful I am for the relationship we have with them. I guess being Thankful has been on my mind lots since Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

So when my two year old would like me to play play dough with him, I do! We also read lots of books! So I hope this post helps some people to stop and realize what exactly is important in their life. Everyone has different priorities in life, mine are my kids and husband (Family in a nutshell). Which makes me think of another phrase: Do not live to work, work to live.

Three months old today <3

Something else I think is that no one goes to see their Grandparents enough, us included. I love this picture.

 So everybody, your house is not going anywhere!!!! BUT the kids are.

Good night,
Ashley

Fall days are going fast.

Yesterday was one of the few days we have left to hang out laundry! This is a picture of Ali's 'Tighty Whities'! LOL. I love to hang out laundry but this summer it has been hard to get out the back door with a newborn and a 2 year old.

Cheers!
Ashley


Tuesday 25 September 2012

No-Cook Play Dough

Tanner has been bugging me for new play dough for quite some time now. Green and lello play dough to be exact! ha ha. I wanted to try a new recipe and happened to find a no-cook recipe which is wonderful for me because I tend to over-cook things on a regular basis...I can multitask, just not while cooking! 


We started with the yellow. Of course Tanner had to put all the ingredients in himself!




And then the green.








The finished product!
No-Cook Play Dough

2 cups white flour
4 tbsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup salt
2 cups boiling water
Food coloring (I love to use the gel colors bc they make such vibrant colors compared to the regular food coloring.)
Add sparkles etc. for something different :)
 
Mix all together. As you can see I used my Braun :D I do not hand-mix NOTHING if I don't have to!
 
Good Night!
Ashley
 






Sunday 23 September 2012

Preserving the Past

Old fashioned ways have always fascinated me, I have walked through the old village at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum countless times in awe of the way we used to live. Every day I think of how we all take everything for granted and it's hard not to when don't know any other way.

There is something special about the family I have married into that I have loved from day #1. My in-laws used to be in the PMU and horses have been a part of their life for many years. And for many years my father-in-law has always had a team to drive. I love that my father-in-law loves to drive horses. He does all sorts with his team including feeding cows in the winter, sleigh rides, wagon rides, threshing, baling, raking, plowing, etc. He even has an old manure spreader! How many kids get to grow up with a team in the yard to go sleigh or wagon riding with almost anytime they wish? Not very many nowadays. But my kids will have this privilege and will continue to do so as long as I can have anything to do with it. I am not sure that my husband is a lover of driving, at least not at this point in his life, but I'm sure he will pick up the reins and continue to do so once his father is ready to hand them down.



Today my in-laws group of 'Wagon Train' friends all got together and practiced plowing for the afternoon. Yes I know, you are probably thinking...'Practiced plowing?!!??' But there is quite a science to it believe it or not! Next weekend I believe is the Manitoba Plowing Championships and there are a few of them who are planning on entering. So we ventured down this afternoon to watch. Six teams showed up. We even got the attention of some hutterites driving by and they had to come in and see what we were up to! It was ended by a very delicious supper. I was really ticked at myself because I brought my camera planning on taking everybody's picture individually. I started taking pictures and realized my cameras SD card was still in the computer!!! Bah! And my camera does not even have any internal memory. But there are other people who had cameras there. So when I get a hold of some of their pictures I will add them to this post!

 My father-in-law with Pearl & Blaze.
 A big team of Belgians.
 Heather with Coal & Crusty.

Anyways, this is just one of the many things I love about my husbands family. Once our kids are older, driving horses is something I would love to do more of and learn more about.


Even though they no longer have the PMU, they still breed about 30 draft mares and have 3 studs. This is my favorite colt this year. 





Anyways there is one more little tidbit of my life!
Ashley



Saturday 22 September 2012

Lazy Saturday...

So today it felt really good to be lazy! After a chaotic week of preparing food, corn silaging and gallivanting around the country side visiting, we had a wonderful lazy morning. I have been wanting to create some of these crafts that I have been pinning by the millions on Pinterest lol. So Tanner and I made a turkey since Thanksgiving is just around the corning! One of my favorite holidays.


Not to long ago I want on a craft supply shopping trip to the Dollorama! I could not believe all the stuff you can get for crafts! I was so excited that I even found the little eyeballs ha ha...Yes I know, pretty sad. 


He is quite proud if his turkey :) After lunch today we spent some time outside. Since we got some kittens, Tanner just loves to play with them and they seem to want to live at my doorstep instead of in the barn! So we played with the kitties, picked the tomatoes that the frost missed and had a good walk. It's a beautiful day. Ali really enjoys her stroller.



Tanner has to constantly wear his cowboy hat and play buckin' horsey! It's pretty cute and I need to catch it on the video camera. Anyways, that's all for today. We are off to a wedding after supper. Tanner is going to spend the evening with his Grandma and Grandpa and cousins. Chow for now :)

Thursday 20 September 2012

Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are part of coffee break for the silage crew tomorrow :)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
3 eggs
3 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until light and fluffy. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt by hand until well blended. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for ~ 10 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture! I will try to remember to do that with my recipes.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Hump Day

What a week! and it's only Wednesday...This has been a very busy week so far. We started silaging our corn yesterday which will probably take straight through to Saturday. So that entails Brenda (mother-in-law) and myself to make food all week. Lunch, coffee break and supper. It was my turn to make lunch today so they got homemade baked potato soup, meat buns, tossed salad and chocolate cake. I love this time of the year. Harvest is such a pretty time of year. I love the crisp days, pretty colors on the trees, making meals and baking for everyone who comes to help us reap the benefits of our land. This time of year I especially love to bake and cook.



So back to the beginning of the week! Tanners hair has been in dire need of a haircut...so I decided to tackle it myself! With a electric razor :) My Mom is a hairdresser and usually cuts his hair but we both seem to be so busy lately that when we finally get together that we would rather visit and play with the kids. Anyways, I could not find the guard to put on the razor and I just thought I could do without it. Well it did not turn out so well! Every Mom does this to their kids at least once right?? I'm not the only one, right...? LOL. They say the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is a week...this one will be longer than that!

So that was yesterday! Oh yes, we also went to visit Corey's Grandma. We had not been there in forever and I know she thoroughly enjoyed seeing the kids.

Tanner got to have Rory over for a bit of a play this morning. They play so well together. I'm so glad that they will be growing up together. The rest of our day was not so good. We have had three Jack Russell Terriers for 4-5 years now. Brandy, Rufie and Trooper. Tonight our Rufie dog got run over. He had such a huge personality and we will miss him sooooo much. Honestly he was the favorite out of the three. He was a true Jack, constantly bouncing off the walls! Whenever he wanted in or out he would jump at the door. It would drive me NUTS. Now I miss it and it will be so quiet and boring without him here. He was a wonderful mouse/gopher/mole catcher! Great little hunter. He loved truck rides and his Grandpa would always take pity on him and Trooper and take them in the grain truck or stock trailer! Spoiled brats. Like a said, he will be greatly missed. And we are not sure how we are to explain to our two year old son where he has gone...


Anyways I think that is enough for tonight! Have a great week everybody!

Ashley



Tuesday 18 September 2012

I'm new on here!

So after frequenting a couple of my cousins blogs, they have inspired me to make one myself. It has taken me some time to figure it out...and I still do not have it all figured out! I very often have the need to keep a journal of the events of our life and I feel as though this is the perfect way! I want to be able to share the recipes I have been trying and the crafts and fun things I have planned for our kids. So we will see how this works!

Ashley