Ontario Residents

Today I finally feel like we've become Ontario residents, much to David's sadness. The last thing that we had to do was get our OHIP/ Ontario Health plan cards. You can't apply for this until you've lived in Ontario for a minimum of 3 months. Well, we changed all of our other things over in that time and then 3 months came and went. So we thought it was time to finally get it done. With Sarah's one year dr. apt just around the corner I didn't feel like facing the question of "did you get your OHIP card yet?" without being able to answer yes! It's funny how we can put these things off for so long and then once we actually do them, it seems so quick and simple. So I think that's finally the end of everything we had to do to move to Ontario. I'm already dreading having to change it all again when we move. Oh well, we've got lots of time before we have to think about that.

I got my seed catalogue in the mail today. That along with warmer temperatures has me thinking of a garden and what we're going to do outside. It's really hard to think about how we could fix things up without spending any (or very little) money. I'll keep you posted on what I can figure out.

Oh, I almost forgot, I had another ortho appointment today and it looks like I'm on track to have my braces taken off before we go to BC. I couldn't be happier, part of me is trying not to get my hopes up to high just in case they give me some bad news at the end. Hard to believe I've had them on for nearly two years already. I'm so glad I did it, it hasn't been that bad and time goes by fast (thankfully). I should be braces free for Michael and Rebecca's wedding, yahoo!

Just 5 more days until my mom comes!! Can't wait!!

Here's a couple of pics from David's ice wine adventures. Him and Zac spent yesterday evening bottling up all their precious ice wine. It's quite the process!

And just because...here's our precious sleeping beauty. She had herself all cuddled up in blankets, but I took them off of her for the pic. I was actually trying to wake her up in a way that she would think she was waking up on her own. Her naps have been so long these days, once it hits 12:30 and she's been out for nearly 3 hours I feel like it's best to wake her. I love it when babies sleep with their bums up, this is her classic position.

Playing Fetch

A few days ago I found Keisha's long lost rabbit behind the couch, Keisha was thrilled. She loves it when you throw it and she can run after it. It didn't take Sarah long to figure out what was going on. I think she loves this game just as much as Keisha. Whenever I grab the little brown rabbit to get ready to throw it, Sarah puts her arms in the air as if she's ready to throw something too.

In this clip she seems to think she's throwing the rabbit, but she's actually just dropping it. You can hear her say Keisha once in the clip as well. Our little girl sure does love her dog! The hard part is making sure both Sarah and Keisha know which toys are theirs. For some reason they both have lots of stuffed rabbits, Sarah has four rabbits alone.

A girl and her dog:

Face plant

End of another week

I can't believe it's Sunday night already. This evening we had care group, where we took our turn sharing our "stories." We're enjoying getting to know our new friends better and look forward to sharing life together. As far as weekends go, this was another relaxing one. Thankfully, Sarah is feeling much better and seems fine. I'm still going to make an appointment for her though, just in case.

Church in the morning, back home, Sarah slept, we had lunch, David had a nap in the afternoon while Sarah and I went to Fabricland, then Sarah went back down for a nap while David did homework and I watched Marley and Me, then we all spent some time together then it was care group. Ah...time for a little snack, possibly a show and bedtime.

I've got a few little video clips of you know who that I'll try to post soon. David's been busy working on the computer that I would normally put them on. But tomorrow I should have some time while he's at school. This week we want to get our taxes all figured out as well as work on some scholorship/ bursary applications for school. Time to try to get some free tuition money...we'll see. Anyways, hope you had a good weekend. Just one more week until my mom comes to visit! I can't wait!!

Time Outside

Since I haven't posted anything in the last couple of days I thought I should get a few pictures up. Just not much going on around here. Sarah seemed to be pretty much better from her cold and then the nasty cold came back. Poor girl. I think I'm going to make a doctors appointment for her or take her to a walk in clinic if things don't improve. We have 8 days to get her better before my mom comes to visit. We can't wait!

On the plus side the temperatures have been around 8 to 14 for the last few days. So we've been loving being outside a little more. Yesterday we spent some time working on our front yard. We didn't do much, just some pruning, removing junk on the ground and taking out old not working moon rays. The neighbour kids were helping prune and rake, they're so cute and helpful. Anyways, I can't belive it's Saturday already...again. It seems like the weeks are just flying by. David's got one more assignment to finish up this week and then it's exams. At this rate it will be summer before we know it! Can't wait!

I continue to be amazed at all the adorable clothing and gifts that we recieved for Sarah when she was just born. I'm still pulling out new pieces of clothing for her to wear. I can't belive we still have a whole bin of next size up clothing that she has yet to wear. This little hoodie was from Jamieson and the Kroekers, love it! It's perfect for spring.

Eye Exam

This morning I went for an eye exam. With my benefits expiring very soon this was something that I wanted to squeeze in before it was too late. I found that making an eye appointment is actually something that needs to be done quite a bit ahead of time. So I was finally able to get an appointment for today. The tricky part was that David had to go to school (as he does every day), and without childcare it meant that I had to take Sarah with me.

It was quite a funny experience to have her sitting on my lap while I was reading out the letters, looking through the lenses, etc. She couldn't seem to figure out what was going on. Dark then light then dark again, my face pressed up against the machine, etc.

Since we were already there and Sarah was doing pretty good I thought I would pick out glasses at the same time. A couple of times I put a pair of glasses on and when I looked at her she just laughed (I didn't go with those ones...ha ha). I ended up picking out a pair that are pretty fun looking and very different than my last pair. What's the point of having two normal looking pairs. Within 40 minutes we were in and out, glasses ordered and everything. Not too bad. So now Sarah has experienced her first eye exam, only the exam wasn't for her.

First Fort

What kid doesn't love forts? As kids we would make a fort out of the couch cushions, blankets over the bunk beds or table. I was washing the couch cushions the other day so some of them were on the floor. Sarah had a great time jumping on them, lunging at them and climbing up on the couch. David thought it would be fun to build a little fort around Sarah. Not surprisingly, she loved it!

Herbal Essences Hydralicious Kit: FREE!

This morning, while posting my last blog post, I was surprised to hear a knock at the door. It was the FedEx Company delivering us a parcel. Yahoo! I couldn't wait to cut the tape and see what was inside! It was a cello wrapped package of 3 shampoos and 3 conditioners (all full size, 300 mL bottles). So pretty! This has got to be the best freebie that I've ever received in the mail!

About a month ago I filled out an online survey on matchstick.ca for Herbal Essences. I found the survey through the smart canucks website that I posted about last week. When I filled out the survey I didn't think that I actually had much of a chance of receiving a free shampoo package. I was one of 200 women chosen in Canada to try the different shampoos and spread the word about the products. I never thought I could get so excited about shampoo and conditioner! In three weeks I should be getting an e-mail survey to fill out about how I liked the Hyralicious products. I'll let you know what I think.

One of the other things that I recieved with the package was 20 coupons for totally free bottles of shampoo/ conditioner to share with friends and family. I look forward to handing these out at care group, my moms group and sending some home with my mom to give to family.

A Pretty Paska Ring

Sarah entertaining herself with empty formula tins and a wisk while I prepared the dough.

Knowing that I wasn't going to be getting any of my Oma's paska (Easter bread) this year, I figured it was time to learn how to make my own. Since I love to experiment and try new things I thought I would try one other recipe first and see how it measured up to my Oma's paska.

I got the recipe from a site called Mennonite Girls Can Cook (http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/2009/03/paska-lovellas-recipe.html). I came across the site a couple of months ago when I was looking for another recipe. Anyways, the paska recipe included an orange and lemon, which was different than any other paska that I have had. The verdict was that it tasted great, David loved it! However, it didn't bring back those nostalgic memories of Easter's long ago, we agreed that it was just too different than Oma's. So I've decided to refer to it as Sweet Citrus Bread as to not confuse it with our family's traditional paska. I will indeed be making it again though.

The recipe made enough dough for 4-5 loafs. Well, I only have three loaf pans and didn't feel like making mini loafs in cupcake tins. So I thought I would try to make a bread ring in my bundt pan. I have never seen this before but thought that it could be fun. Well, it turned out beautifully! I will indeed be making paska (or citrus bread) this way again. It was much prettier than a regular loaf and made smaller slices, which were better for serving. Since David and I don't love tons of thick icing, I just put an icing glaze over the bread. I brought the ring to care group where it was much enjoyed. Perhaps next week I will try making Oma's paska.

This morning I gave Sarah a slice to have for herself. Normally we just giver her bits of ours, so she was pretty thrilled to have a slice all to herself.

Thoughts on a Saturday

David's at school again for the day. Boo for having to go to school on Saturday! Sarah is on the mend and doing much better thankfully. David ended up getting a little sick too, but seems to be doing better as well.

We're enjoying days full of sunshine. However, the last couple of days it dropped back down to the -1 to +3 temperatures. It's supposed to warm up again soon which will be nice.

There doesn't seem to be much going on here these days. I feel like we're really just living life one day at a time. It's been nice to enjoy a slower pace and have free days rather than days that are all booked up for us.

With my maternity leave coming to a close on April 1st, the question has been am I going back to work? I'm amazed how often I've been asked this question in the last month or so. It's hard to give a definite answer for this. Obviously I'm not going back to MEI, so that means I have to get hired elsewhere. Due to the issue of childcare, car sharing, and not wanting to work full time, I would ideally like to work one day a week. A neighbour friend that lives a couple of streets over has offered to baby sit in our home one day a week, so this seems like a pretty ideal situation. Now for getting hired. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to apply at a couple of private schools in the area. When I made a couple of calls a few weeks ago to one of the schools they told me that they weren't hiring at the moment. We're just leaving it in God's hands and trusting that something will work out if it's meant to be. The worst case scenario is that I stay home full time with Sarah (which is pretty good) and we have less money. However, working one day a week isn't exactly going to make us rich or anything.

It looks like we're also going to have a change with David as well. We were both excited that he got a Co op position working with Vincor and the wineries in the area. However, that has now almost for sure fallen through. When he originally told them that he needed time off to go to BC for his brother’s wedding they said that was fine and they would make it work. Now they're saying (those from above) that it isn't ok and that in order to have the position he can't have any days off during the four month term (what??) Since missing the wedding is not an option he's declined the position. We were initially pretty disappointed but are feeling better about the situation.

In the next few weeks he needs to confirm a new placement, probably at a local winery. On the plus side of things, the start date and holiday times will most likely be a little more flexible since he won't be working for a major company. So who knows? Time will tell where he'll end up working this spring/ summer.

With the uncertainty of David's work dates and his exam dates it looks like our holiday time at the end of April will be less than we were originally planning. We are currently revising our road trip plan to only include Canada. With the dollar not being great right now as well, we're thinking that it may be best to New York, etc another time. Who knows when?

So as far as updates that's about all we got at the moment. My mom’s coming out for 10 days to visit on April 5. We're so excited to see her and looking forward to spending some quality time together. On June 18 we fly to Abbotsford (don't know when we're coming home yet). Our friends, Jen and Regan, have also booked their tickets to come out our way August 1. They'll be travelling around visiting a bunch of friends, but we're looking forward to the days that we'll get with them. It's great to have things to look forward to! The guest room is ready, all it needs is guests!

It's amazing that Sarah is turning 1 in less just a few weeks! I feel like I should be planning some kind of big first birthday party. But with no family here and limited friends, there's really nothing to plan. Since her birthday falls on Good Friday this year, and we're having Easter dinner with our relatives on Saturday, I thought I would just bring a cake then. Since they're who we would have over anyways, it just makes sense. My mom will be here for her birthday as well, which will be fun. So it will be a low key first birthday.

Anyways, this ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be, but then again I had more time than I thought I would have. Anyways, I hear Sarah starting to wake up so I better go get her and give her lunch. I made a ton of cabbage rolls yesterday for dinner, so we’ve got lots of leftovers for meals today. Have a good weekend!

I think it's so cute when Sarah grabs a book and lays on her stomach to look at it.

Reading with daddy

Chatty

One of the toys that I found at the thrift store the other week was a little phone. It's the Fisher Price dial phone with the eyes on the front, we had a similar one when we were kids. Anyways, Sarah's gotten the hang of putting the reciever up to her ear and will sometimes "talk" or just wait for a response (me talking). We talk to oma, grandma, and her aunties and uncles.

The other day she saw an extra mouse that David and put on the coffee table and decided it was going to be her phone. She was pretty into her little conversation. So cute! I look forward to when she can actually talk on the phone to our family, I'm sure they're looking forward to it as well!

Mission: Get Daddy Sick

Bed head after her nap, rosy cheeks, oh and a cut lip from when she fell on her face yesterday morning. Looking rough!

On Tuesday evening Sarah was suddenly not looking so well. She has a runny nose, cough who knows what else. She's working on a couple of new teeth as well, so being sick could be related or something all on its own. Anyways, whenever she's sick David is determined to not to get sick by doing all that he can to stop the spread of germs. Yesterday it seemed that no matter what he did Sarah was determined to get her germs all over him. Funny for me, not so funny for David. Oh well, at least Sarah had a good time.

Happy In the Car

Yesterday, on our way home from Niagara on the Lake, Sarah was playing peek a boo with her blanket. By the time I got the camera out she decided she was finished. Oh well, here's the idea. Hope you like it Michael! (was a special request) I feel like we video and photograph so much of the little things that Sarah does. There's really no other way for our family/ friends to see our little girl grow up while living so far away.

On another note, we bought our tickets to come out to Abbotsford in June. We're flying out June 18 and arrive at 1:30pm. There was a great seat sale for flights until June 23. Flights to return home were double the price, so as of now we're going to Abby with no flight back. I'll keep checking the flights daily to watch for sales to get us home to Ontario.

Happy St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks Day! All three of us dressed up in green for the day. (This was in COWS)

For the last couple of days we have finally been enjoying some warmer weather and what feels like the beginnings of spring. Plus 13 degrees, bring it on! Finally, some signs of spring!

Little birdies, wish I had the DSLR camera this time.

All the trees here are bare, but still look pretty against the blue sky.

Since the weather was so wonderful and David had most of the day off we wanted to do something outside together. The attractions are pretty much all closed and the parks are still pretty brown. So without any other ideas we headed out for Niagara on the Lake again. This is always a nice walk and it's nice to have things to look at while walking.

We went to Kelseys for lunch to have burgers. Since moving to Ontario we haven't found any amazing burger places. Oh how we miss Red Robin and White Spot. There isn't even any Earls or Milestones here. So instead of waiting until the end of June when we go back to BC, we thought it was time to start looking for a new favourite burger place. Well, it was ok, but no favourite. So the search continues.

Scratching Keisha's belly?

Almost everyday Keisha will lay on her back and want a good belly scratch. Sarah is learning how to do this, but it usually ends up as a time for Sarah to play with Keisha's nips.
Sorry about the wrong side of the video (compliments of David)

Playing Around

On Saturday we spent the evening with Matt, Kristi and kids. Sarah loves exploring their toy room and following around the kids. I continue to be amazed how much she loves being with other little ones. The Lee's were so generous as to send home a little car/ walker and an activity table that their kids had outgrown. These have been Sarah's favourite toys the last couple of days. She just can't seem to get enough of each of them. I will work on getting a better video clip of her pushing around the little car.

We're amazed how much she is growing and changing each day! She waves bye bye (or just in general), shakes her head and says Keisha (in her own way). Every day she stands alone for longer periods of time, sometimes clapping her hands or waving them. Today she took a couple of steps on her own. She loves to point at everything and everyone. Today when we went for a walk she was pointing at the sky half the time and just waving her arms in the air and shrieking(practicing for roller coasters). She has also started this thing where she stands up and lunges forward falling on her stomach. It seems to have started after she figured out she could do this into the pool of balls at our care group leaders house. At home she usually does this on top of us or poor Keisha, she's got no fear! I feel like I have so many things to video, they're just all so hard to get on video. It seems that as soon as I bring out the camera she looks at me and stops. I think it's funny how Keisha always follows Sarah around. It seems that in every video clip of Sarah moving around, Keisha is right beside her.

Saving Money

I think that David and I have always been good at saving money and knowing how to maximize our free stuff. It seems that many of our friends/ family have odd little stories or memories of us and saving money. Lately I have learned a few more tricks. Yahoo!

1. http://www.smartcanucks.ca/

This website is updated daily and gives lots of information on sales, freebies, coupons, contests, etc. I never realized there were so many hard core coupon clipper, freebie watchers out there! This site is great since I usually bring it up once at the end of the day and you can learn of any great deals, sales or new free things. Since getting 'fun' mail is so rare, free stuff is a great way to make getting the mail a little more fun. Last week I got some little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, baby cereal, etc. One thing I'm always careful of is only signing up for free stuff that I actually want, there's so much junk out there. Not to mention, that David brings home enough "free junk" for both of us. www.canadianfreestuff.com/ is also an ok site, however it isn't updated as regularly.

2. http://www.save.ca/

I learned about this site through the above site. Sign up is free and it gives you access to usually about 50 coupons. You select the coupons and then they're mailed to you the following day. I got my first set of coupons within about 3-4 days. Last week they had a coupon for a free pledge multisurface cleaner. Yeah, free is always the best!

3. The other thing that I have been learning is how to best combine coupons with sales. This is something that I never really did before. But if you combine them, it's amazing how cheap you can get some things (practically free). Of course, it's important to only buy what you were going to get in the first place.

Living in a new town and province have forced us to have to learn where all the best shops are, what stores offer the best deals on certain products, etc. Just when we had Abby all figured out, we moved.

As you can see, we haven't changed. We're convinced that no matter how much money we will ever have, we will always be on the look out for a good deal. With my maternity leave coming to a close, the yucky market situation and David's co op not yet started, looking for deals seems to be more important now than ever. I will post more deal info, etc as I come across it. Any great tips or memories in this area?

Sarah in Grand Caymen

Thought I would post a short video clip of Sarah in the sand. It's not at all exciting, nothing happens. But she's cute. This was taken just before we were walking along the beach and she fell asleep in my arms, sleepy girl in the sun.

Crepes

I really don't know what I'm going to do today. David's gone to school for the day and Sarah's been sleeping since 9:30 but shouldbe waking up just before noon (but then goes back to bed around 2:30). I know that I could do some cleaning, but that's not much fun. I've also got a couple of projects that I could finish up. There's really no news to report. David's busy with school and we're at home doing life. The weather is kind of blah, not too warm and not too cold. Not very exciting. So since I have no exciting or very interesting news I thought I would post about my breakfast this morning.

Instead of having my usual breakfast of cereal, yogurt, etc I thought I would make some crepes, since I have the time. Mmmm... I love crepes!

5 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
6 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk

Blend all ingredients except milk together until smooth. Slowly add milk and blend again. Spray a little non stick spray on a pan and heat (medium setting). I use a gravy ladle to put about 1 1/2 spoonfuls on the pan, pick up the pan and move around to make sure the batter covers the pan. Flip when the edges begin to turn golden brown. Just takes a couple of minutes per crepe.

I halfed the recipe (3 eggs) since it was just for me, still made 6 crepes (I couldn't eat them all). I like to have one with swiss cheese inside (reminds me of my time in Switerland). Today I tried one with pineapple cream cheese, one with maple syrup and one with nutella. I'm stuffed.

Anyways, our precious girl seems to be calling me, so I better go. Time to play and chase her around.

Photo Funia

Here's a fun site you may or may not of heard of http://www.photofunia/ It allows you to choose an effect and put your photo in. Kinda fun, I know I have too much time on my hands. You have to shrink your file size, which is really easy to do when you download the program link. I made my files into "large" files which didn't loose the quality and saved "to disk" which is actually just on the computer. Have fun! Here are a few I made.

11 Months

Another month has come and gone. I can't believe Sarah will be 1 in just one month, truly amazing how fast a year can go. I don't feel like there's a lot of new milestones to report this month, rather just growth in all areas.

The one challenge this month has been adjusting feedings. A few weeks ago I was finding that Sarah wasn't taking her 'before bed' bottle very well. But would wake up around 11ish hungry. So we recognized that it was time for a change. After playing with feeding times and amounts we decided to take out a bottle feeding and voila, it worked!

So here's her new daily schedule (all 'ish' times but pretty close):
7:30ish wake up and 180 mL bottle
8:30 breakfast (cereal and fruit)
9:30/10-12 nap
12 lunch (meat and veg, fruit for dessert), water to drink
2ish 180 mLbottle
2:30-4:30 afternoon nap
4:30/5 Dinner (meat and veg), water to drink
7 180 mL bottle and bed

Things continue to be going great. She's a happy, busy little girl. Not walking on her own yet, we think she's just so content with crawling and walking along the furniture and walls. There just doesn't seem to be a need since she can get anywhere she wants...and fast! She likes to play with her toys and look at her books. She's also quite the little babbler. No new words this month, but sometimes it sounds like she's saying Keisha. They continue to be quite the little buddies. This afternoon I put Sarah down for her nap and then saw the door open and heard her gigging. Keisha was in her room playing around on the carpet, they're a couple of clowns together. Sarah's mostly in all 12-18 months clothes now (some 6-12 depending on the brand). We continue to feel so blessed for such a content, happy little girl.

Taking photos of Sarah seems to just be getting more and more difficult. She's always squirming and moving away. Long gone are the days of her sitting nicely while I can take photos of her.