My New Favourite Picture

Canmore...

This weekend Jackie and i headed out to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Canmore (Adam stayed behind to work on the deck but joined us for Saturday afternoon and evening).

We had a great time; Jackie impressed everyone with not only her talking but her spitting ability as well.

Flying with Grandpa

The Beach

While in Canmore this weekend we visited Quarry Lake and took Jackie for her first beach and swimming experience.

She did pretty good in the water, not hating it but I don't think it was as much fun as getting a bottle seems to be.

Random Pictures of Cuteness

I know this is not the greatest or cutest picture - but if you looks closely, you can see the tooth

Kisses

Building a Deck

Adam has been hard at work building our deck. Since this is his first deck, he is learning as he goes -this involves a few mistakes, but he is doing great.

Taking a break.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Yes I have helped a little bit on the deck building - mostly my job is Jackie care, but I have been able to help out a bit while she is napping.

Building the deck gave Adam an excuse to buy tools.

Finally... A Fence

Finally, finally, finally! We have a fence. As mentioned earlier we have a corner lot, although we are not on a super busy boulevard, it is still a decently busy street, so having a fenced in yard is dreamy.

We hired a contractor to build our fence, not only was it done in 5 days, it is straight and looks great. Adam and I are both very happy we decided to go this route - it may have cost more money, but since we have such a big yard we have over 200 feet of fencing, 2 man gates and an RV gate, we thought it was worth the money.

Freedom!

Brutis finally gets some off leash time.

We will be putting in the sod after we get home from our summer holidays.

Muffins

To take advantage of the fresh berry season, last week I went on a muffin baking binge. Due to the hot weather we have been having and our lack of air conditioning, I did some of the baking late in the evening and the rest early in the morning.

Below you will find recipes to the two different muffins I made, I made double batches of both, sent a few with Adam to work and froze the rest.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Taken from Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten

¾ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg one at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on the and a cake tester comes out clean.
Yield: 16 muffins

Tri-Berry Muffins

Taken from Barefoot Contessa At Home by Ina Garten

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tbsp ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups milk
2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup fresh raspberries
½ cup diced fresh strawberries
1 ½ cups sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Stir with your hand to be sure the ingredients are combined. In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs and melted butter. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture, pour the wet mixture into the well, and stir until just combined. There will be some lumps but don’t over mix the batter! Add the blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and sugar and stir gently to combine.

Using a 2 ¼ inch ice cream scoop, spoon the batter into the muffin cups to fill the liners. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean and the tops are nicely browned.
Yield: 16 to 18 muffins

I Claim this Mouth in the Name of Incisor!

We have a tooth! One of Jackie's bottom central incisors cut Saturday morning.

We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this one and finally it is here.


We tried to get a picture, but asking a 4 month old to smile and show a tooth is not an easy task.... this is the best I could get!

4 Months Old

The latest stats on our little girl:

Weight:
Birth: 7 pounds 1 ounce
1 month: 9 pounds 11 ounces
2 months: 11 pounds 7 ounces
4 months: 14 pounds 1 ounce

Height:
Birth: 19 1/4 inches
1 month: 21 inches
2 months: 23 inches
4 months: 25 inches

Adam and I are both enjoying her thoroughly right now. She is sleeping through the night, she naps well during the day (3 naps each approx 2 hours long); the time between the naps she is talkative, smiley and fun to spend time with.

She loves the TV and is fascinated with Brutis, she will often stop eating to watch him.

Stampede Breakfast

Wood Group Pressure Control (Adam's company) owns a Chuckwagon that has been outfitted with griddles. It has been used for many years to cook a Stampede Breakfast and also gets loaned out to various organizations.

Since Adam now has a company truck, he gets the privilege of couriering it to all these locations.

Jackie and I headed down to have breakfast and got a few pictures of Adam hard at work.

Adam and Kim (the boss' wife)

Adam, Kim and Horatio

Tough Enough to Wear Pink!

This year the Calgary Stampede kicked off with a Breast Cancer Fundraiser - "Are you tough enough to wear pink?" Well it had almost the whole city wearing pink for the first few days of Stampede. Jackie and I showed our support and proved that we are both tough enough to wear pink!

We went down to Adam's company Stampede Breakfast on Wednesday, we had a great time socializing with some of the staff that came down from Edmonton and a few wives that came to help out.

My New Clothing Line

Many people don’t know about my hidden talent – designing clothing. Well all this time at home with Jackie has given me the opportunity I needed to expand and market my designs.

The Jenny Hill clothing line will be opening it’s first location in just a few days. Check out the new fall line at http://www.jokebyjenny.com/.

Here is a picture of the new store front.

Okay – totally kidding – my friend Karalee was on vacation in Ontario, as they drove through Listowel (a small town near Kitchener / Waterloo) Karalee noticed the store and made her husband turn around so she could snap a picture for me. I absolutely LOVE it!

Happy Birthday Adam!

I sent Adam a bouquet of flowers for his birhtday.

Cookie flowers

Auntie Amy

My little sister Amy is currently living in Ottawa, she came home for a visit and finally got a chance to meet her niece.

Amy and Jackie

Amy and Brutis

Blake and Karen Nadeau - and their little girl Izzy

Jackie and Grandpa Nadeau

Talking with Dad

Our little Lady is quite the talker, Adam is already getting nervous about what this will lead to in 16 years....

The Bus Stop

When we bought our house last spring we were dealing with a very hot Calgary real estate market where the price rises were not being tracked by the month or day - but by the hour instead. Houses would go on the market and sell in less than 12 hours for tens of thousands over the asking price, so when we got the opportunity to buy a spec home with no competition, we took it.

We loved the house design, we loved the fact we are right across the street from a park, and we have a large corner lot, however we did not stop and think about the bus stop.

The bus route came in front of our house turned the corner and stopped right beside our house - right in front of our kitchen window. This would not be a big deal if everyone taking the bus would patiently wait at the stop, but no - they like to stand on our grass, leave excessive amounts of garbage, sometimes I think they try and watch TV through our window, oh and drive Brutis NUTS!

Well, as of Tuesday July 3, the bus stop has moved - instead of turning the corner it now goes straight. Adam and I are super happy, it will be much quieter, Brutis will be spared having to be a super protector, we won't have as much garbage to pick up and hopefully there will be less people cutting across our lawn.

This is where the new stop is - the grass at the bottom is our lawn

The sign change - when I called and asked questions, I was told they put up the "Future Bus Zone" sign to "save the space". Who knows - in a few years we might get the bus back - but I really doubt our community is big enough to support 2 bus lines.

Canada Day Weekend

We had a wonderful Canada Day weekend. Our friends Pieter and Dawn Allan bought an acreage a few months ago just near Medicine Hat and they had a big Canada Day weekend party. There were over 50 people there, at least 10 trailers a few tents and LOTS of kids. Jackie was the youngest but barely, there were 3 babies all within 2 weeks of each other; Adam and I were just thankful to finally be in the parent club, otherwise we would have been one of the only couples with out a child there.

We had a great time, Pieter and Dawn put on a great party! There was a horseshoe tournament, candy scrambles for the kids, a toy piñata, a jumping castle, a pool, snow cone machine, three legged races, golf - closest to the pin, adult egg toss and a poker tournament. If you don’t think that is enough for them to put on for everyone – they fed us all too! Pancakes, Bacon, Coffee, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and a great potluck dinner on Saturday night.

Anyway – we had a great time socializing with friends and making new friends.

And it would not be camping for us if there was not at least some rain – we got a bit Friday evening, but otherwise we had great weather!

Our Trailer

The house - it looks big - actually it is huge!

View 1 of the "trailer park"

View 2

Setting up the Sno-Kone machine - everyone enjoyed a Sno-Kone or two - the kids especially enjoyed a kone of syrup...

Duke taking some kids out to the golf green

Jenny

Brutis - he was a very bad dog, stealing food from kids, a candy from another dog, eating whatever he could find and if that was a container of Jalapeno Pringles - so be it.

The Jumping Castle

The pool, castle and house

Pieter and Adam making breakfast

Canada Day Weekend - horseshoes

Pieter & Dawn organized a great horseshoe tournament, we all had a lot of fun and some of us discovered a hidden talent (not me...).

The spectators

Jenny - look at that form

Adam - a very intense player

Cam with a counter balance (this is actually his 4 month old daughter Charlie)

Pieter