This Week's Menu

So obviously I haven't written my weekly menu in about a month. This does not mean that we have not been eating though, cause we have. Especially me. I've gained over 5 pounds SINCE New Year's. Not during Christmas, during the month of January. That my friends, is what I like to call talent.

The only outstanding thing we made during those weeks was homemade French Onion Soup. My awesome husband basically followed this recipe. The only thing we did different was we used a box of beef broth instead of the chicken. We also didn't have bread or gruyere, so we used butter croutons and mozzarella. It was really good, even Kaleb couldn't get enough.

This week's menu is going to look something like this:

Saturday: Pulled pork with oven fries.

Sunday: Chicken legs with home fries and broccoli with cheese sauce. I'll probably do a variation of this recipe for the chicken. 

Monday: Left over pulled pork with salad

Tuesday: Pork chops with rice and bok choy

Wednesday: Some sort of crockpot meal

Thursday: Burritos with Mexican Rice.

Friday: Pizza! (I've been making my dough a little differently lately, and we like it much better. Check out how here.)


I'm thinking it's going to be a delicious week.

Super duper late Wordless Wednesday

Ice Ornaments - Update

I just wanted to share what my outdoor tree looked like once it was all decorated with my Ice Ornaments!

It looked so awesome, even at night when the lights would reflect off of them. Sadly though, last week we had warm weather and I thought they had all melted. Turns out, they just fell off their strings. How do I know you ask? Because the weather was even milder today and with the snow melting, I can see them all lying there!

So next year we'll have to figure out a better way.

For the original post, click here. 

It's a Winter ONEderland

The cupcakes and Kaleb's smash cake

We decided to have Kaleb's First Birthday party while we were back home so that our family would have a chance to come. We also decided on doing a bit of a theme: Winter ONEderland.

Some of the sugar cookies!

It was a nice simple party, however there was a lot of prepping involved!  We cleaned, we baked, we decorated and then we cleaned some more. We made beef barley soup, we cut up veggies and we made sandwiches. We moved the couches to the second floor and we brought in 40 chairs. We baked cupcakes. Eighty-eight chocolate and vanilla bean cupcakes to be exact, most of which were iced by Jason's 15 year old brother (I think he has a future in a cupcake shop). My father-in-law and I also iced I don't know how many sugar cookies. Afterwards we decorated and set up.  For decorations we went all out with snowflakes. My mom bought different types from the dollar store (it was Christmas time after all) so we hung and stuck them everywhere! We didn't stop until 11:30, when we became zombies. 

Hot Chocolate Bar!

Surrounded by gifts!

Saturday was the big day. The morning was spent getting the finishing touches in order. Setting out the beverages, making a huge pot of coffee. Organizing the hot chocolate bar, lunch and cookies and cupcakes. 

For the hot chocolate bar I made a Crockpot Hot Chocolate recipe I found on Pinterest. Instead of using vanilla extract, I used a bean with the seeds scraped in to the mixture, and the 2 leftover beans from making cupcakes. It turned out soooo yummy. For the toppings we used crushed candy canes, chocolate sprinkles, real whipped cream and homemade marshmallows. Tip of the day: when cutting your marshmallows, use icing sugar to coat your knife, then coat the marshmallow pieces to prevent sticking. And by the way, homemade marshmallows are the simplest, yummiest thing ever! 

This picture says it all.

At first he wasn't too sure

Kaleb's party started at noon and went so smoothly. He didn't get his full nap in the morning, so we were very worried how he would do, but he was fantastic. The party was scheduled to be only for 2 hours so we wouldn't wear him out, and it was an excellent decision. We started by letting everyone eat, followed by opening gifts. Once again, he was spoiled! We are so lucky to have such generous family and friends. After the gifts it was cake time. (This time we took the cake out of the fridge the night before.) At first he wasn't so sure about it, then we managed to get him to try a piece, at which point he said yumm and destroyed the cake. He also insisted on sharing with mommy and daddy which was interesting! By the time he was done, he was COVERED in cake. It was awesome!

BirthDay

Today is Kaleb's Birthday, and in honour I though I'd write briefly about his birth and the weeks leading up to it.

My original due date was January 31, but for some reason I knew right from the beginning that I wasn't going to make that far. Sure enough in November my blood pressure began climbing.

High blood pressure (and other things like protein in urine) is not good when pregnant. It's a sign of pre-eclampsia, which left untreated, leads to eclampsia which is really really not good. I'm not a doctor, so I won't go into details but that is the gist of it.

By December, I had full out pre-eclampsia and was being watched closely. I was prescribed blood pressure medicine, followed by being hospitalized the first week of January in an attempt to get my pressure, proteins and swelling down.

In 3 days, I lost something like 7 pounds in water and both the proteins and my blood pressure went down, so I was allowed to go home and told to take it easy. Three days later at my regular OB appointment, we made the decision to induce. Everything was back up again and the BioPhysical profile (special ultrasound) showed that baby was ready. My doctor stripped the membranes and told me to come by in the morning to get Cervadil. That didn't happen, another girl (whom I'm now friends with!) went into labour, meaning the only labour room was occupied.

We would just wait until Wednesday and go in for our scheduled induction. Wednesday finally came and we were up nice and early to be at the hospital for 7:30. I was asked what felt like a bazillion questions, hooked up to the fancy machine that watched contractions, baby's heart beat and my blood pressure (they took my bp every 10 minutes). I was told that what I thought was baby's butt pushing up was actually contractions and they were five minutes apart! Who knew! They got my IV going and started pumping me with Pitocin at 8:30. Everything was fine until they decided to break my water. OUCH. My contractions really picked up then and I gave in and got an epidural. It was highly recommended that I get it, since with every contraction, my bp would shoot through the roof. 


Once the epi took, I was able to relax again, joke with my nurse and watch some TV. My bp went down slightly too. By 4:00 pm, I was 10 cm dilated and we waited until I got the urge to push, which was just over an hour later. Twenty minutes later, at 6:08 p.m. my baby BOY was born! Any mother can tell you this, but there is nothing to compare the feelings you have when they place YOUR baby on your chest. It is so surreal. 

Jason cut the cord and got to hold him, and while I got stitched up, he followed him to the nursery where they weighed him, gave him a shot and checked him out once again. He weighed in at only 6lb 1oz and was 18.5 inches long. He was teeny tiny! Once we were all back in our room, we finally decided on a name: Kaleb. 

One year later, he is somewhere around 23lbs and fiercely independent. And almost everyday I look at him and am amazed. 

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Boy!