Happy anniversary, Calvin!

Photo by Lee Anne Havens  

I am so grateful to be celebrating 5 years of marriage to my sweetheart, Calvin. I can't imagine having a more thoughtful, generous, kind and loving partner. Our wedding day is such a happy memory for me; picture this: snow and wind outside, the cozy warmth of love and friendship inside old rock buildings in a little town surrounded by mountains, live music, good food, dancing....it was just SO much fun!

And marriage has been SO fun. I'm especially grateful this year to be celebrating for the first time with our little boy who is crawling around as I write!

Thank you, Calvin for being my truest friend and my one true love:) ❤️❤️❤️

A simple lunch

After a beautiful walk on the trails and quick trip to the library, Gus and I came home starving for lunch.

I got him settled in his chair with a few snacks and whisked together three eggs with a splash of buttermilk (I prefer cream but didn't have any on hand) and salt and pepper. I cooked a big omelette (with feta) for us to share and got some water boiling. Guys- I like boiled vegetables now! It's all Tamar Adler's fault! She is the author of the book, "An Everlasting Meal", where among other things, she extols the virtues of cooking with boiling water. I eat so much more cauliflower and broccoli since my boiling conversion because it's so much faster than roasting and I dislike raw crudités. I salt the water as Tamar would like you to and I prefer boiling medium size spears for about 4 minutes. The tough crunch is gone but they aren't mushy. Also- salt your eggs and veggies directly and I had a lemon on hand so I micro-planed some lemon zest over it all. It was so satisfying and felt so good for my body too. Broccoli is the original kale, don't you think? And I like it way better than kale even though I don't mind kale that much. Gus gobbled it up too! 

My baby got a hair cut!

Gus' hair has been growing like a weed! I loved his little curls but Calvin was concerned he looked wild and wanted to get a cut:) 

We scheduled an appointmwnt with my friend and the week leading up to it, I snapped way too many pictures of his long locks:)

Finally it was time to say goodbye to his baby hair:(

We got to Ashley's with Gus' favourite video cued up on our phone (Taylor Swift's "shake it off") and Ashley suggested Calvin get his hair done first so Gus could watch and get more comfortable. Then it was Gussy's turn!

Those curls!!!

But I can't deny he looks equally adorable with his short cut!

And when we got home, he seemed very pleased with the results!

 

Valentine's Cookies!

After church today, we decided to bake some Valentine's Day sweets to bring to some friends. I used one of our favorite cookie recipes from 101cookbooks.com I cut out the cookies with a heart shaped cookie cutter and added sprinkles! 

Unfortunately they tasted a little crazy because I foolishly mixed the dough in my bosch after making bread and didn't wash away all the yeast! Also, I ran out of mint extract and didn't want to run to the store. They defintely looked better than they tasted BUT if the recipe is followed, they are delicious:)

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

So I love bread but I hate how hard it is to find 100% whole wheat bread that doesn't have raisin juice or honey or sugar of some kind. The recipes I've tried at home all call for sweetener as well. But then I remembered I used to make dough professionally (at Lil Baci in Toronto:) !! And the recipe we used was simple: a (secret) blend of flours, fresh yeast, olive oil, water and salt. I looked up online to make sure I got the right proportions and set out to make my own whole wheat bread recipe. I'm happy with it because it is very easy. It is best fresh or as toast. Also, it saves quite a bit of money to bake your own and it feels healthier. Plus it doesn't require any extra ingredients that I wouldn't have normally. I bought a package of yeast from Costco and I store it in the freezer. I don't think I will need to buy yeast again for at least 5 years:) Here is the recipe:

2 tsp yeast

1 3/8 cup warm water

3 TB olive oil

3 TB flax meal (or flour if you don't have it)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

In your mixer place the yeast and water, mix lightly and let stand 5 minutes. 

Next add the olive oil, then the flour and last the salt. In my Bosch, I mix it with a dough hook for 5 minutes on level two. Then I remove the hook, put the lid on my mixing bowl and let it proof for at least 30 minutes. I'm not fussy about this...if I'm busy I let it sit much longer. Then I punch it down and knead it into a loaf shape and place in a greased bread pan. I put the pan on top of my oven while I preheat to 350. Let the dough proof again for 20-30 minutes. 

Bake for 30 minutes. Eat a piece warm out of the oven with butter and jam!! 

Gus' first Valentine's Day!

Friday the 13th, Gus brought a long stemmed red rose and some Vday cookies to his babysitter, Eden:)  Calvin and I went to the Broadway Cinema downtown and saw a French film starring Marion Cotillard. It was a good night out for us.

Saturday, the 14, Gus and I went to his tots swim class! He loves the pool after the initial shock of getting in wears off! His little chin was shivering by the end but it was pretty cute! Here he is after swimming with his birth class buddies, Jack and Lincoln.

We came home, Gus had a bath and a nap with wet hair and woke up like this:

Perfect and natural Mohawk

Then Calvin and Gus went out and came home with a bunch of Valentine's gifts for me!!!

Calvin was going to buy red roses but Gus insisted on pink- true story! I love them!!

Little photo shoot happened afterwards:

Went to Stella's grill in Murray with the Pattersons but took a family selfie in the parking lot first:

After dinner we went to the Karaoke cafe with the Pattersons, Smiths and Farrs and had a blast! Pattersons performed their now classic duet of "Barbie Girl" by Aqua! Calvin performed his craziest version of "kiss" by Prince. The crowd went wild! And Gus was such a sweet, good sport! His eyes were glued on the performers while he sat in our laps:) here's a crazy picture to prove it.

The karaoke cafe has some scary local artwork on display:

All in all, a very fun Valentine's weekend!

Weekend with cousins

Gus gets so excited when we have friends and family over. This weekend, Rachel and the kids came to stay with us and it was great to see all the tiny cousins interact. Baby Atticus is super handsome:

We had a few of Calvin and Rachel's cousins over for supper on Friday night. I made chili and an enormous corn bread:

Hannah with Atti:

Rachel, Rosy, and Millie!

Saturday we walked to the park and tried to get pictures of all three kids with their grandma Carol toques. We were semi-successful: 

Family selfie:

It was such a bright, winter day!!

Cutest bedhead award goes to Rosy!

Gus was so tired after everyone left this morning that in the middle of a nap he woke up and then snuggled in and slept an extra hour!