There are times when I feel like I totally rock this Mommy thing. In fact, I mostly feel like that.
Well with the exception of how my child refuses to sleep anywhere but in our bed, and I feel like we've totally effed up any chance of her sleeping through the night in her crib, and am pretty sure she will be happiest sleeping between Mommy and Daddy until she's like 22. And other then when I have to cut her bangs. (I do NOT rock at that!) And other then when I shamefully, with my head hung low, sneak NessQuick powder into her milk sippy in a desperate attempt to get her to consume some calcium seeing as she's decided she no longer has an interest in bottles, and refuses to drink regular milk from her cup, and I don't know what else to do.
But other then those instances, I think I'm pretty good at this gig.
And then, I start reading all these recent mommy blogs, with the Public Service Announcements, about all the Christmas toys they HATE and how they will shove/throw/jam said hated toys in not very nice places of anyone who gifts these "horrible" toys to their children. Some of these "horrific" toys are things I've seen (and maybe even purchased as Christmas gifts for Growly Bear!) and thought were super cool and fun looking! But, I haven't had to have them in my home indefinitely... So what the hell do I know?
And so now, I'm wondering, have I just set my self up for a disastrous and annoying Christmas morning by buying Growly Bear toys that require some assembly/have on-off switches/make noise/use batteries/have small'ish parts that can get lost or go missing or get stepped on? Maybe I don't rock at the Mommy gift giving thing! Maybe this is one of the times that the fact that I'm a "new mom" will be blatantly obvious and I'll be hiding in my bedroom, crying and pulling my hair out, drinking wine, wishing I'd listened to the other mommy bloggers, and willing all the stupid new toys to just die! Or maybe (and this is what I'm hoping) I'm just a super cool mom who has as much fun as Growly Bear does playing with all the new fun toys!
Guess we'll see if I'm as cool as I like to think I am, or if I'm drunk and oblivious by noon on Boxing Day.
Love and Hugs

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Today was my favorite kidna day.
Well, except for the fact that Growly Bear is brutally teething right now. (Still? Again?!) And the fact that she has yet another cold! (They joys of regularly participating in play groups!) And that she's in the exact kinda mood that you would expect from a teething 18 month old with a cold. That part wasn't so wonderful.
But between crying fits, freak outs, meltdowns, and snot bubbles, the parts that were great, were that it was a cold, super dark day. (Yay for all the dust doggies not being too visible! We've talked about this before.) And that I had the woodstove going, and crackling nicely in the background all afternoon. We had cuddle time, and wrapped Christmas gifts. Watched far too much tree house, and vegged on the couch. It was awesome. Other then her feeling terrible.
Growly Bear has been demanding "pi'sa" (pizza) and "cake-cups" all day. Seeing as she's refusing to eat almost everything right now, I decided to play along, and hopefully distract her from feeling so poopy for a while, and we had a nice little afternoon in the kitchen.
I realized as we were making the pizza dough, that as she was demanding cake-cups. she was actually pointing to my cookie jars. I made an executive decision to nix the cake-cups, and make cookies instead. I think it was the right move!

And so, I'm including our super tasty new cookies recipe for you tonight.
Enjoy!
Love and Hugs

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter butter, softened
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  

Directions:

1. Mix together the butter, egg, and confectioners' sugar. Stir in vanilla, salt, baking soda and flour. Mix well.
2. Roll dough into 1 inch in diameter balls. Roll in sugar, and place on greased cookie sheet. Press down with a glass bottom dipped in sugar. Can sprinkle decorative sprinkles on if you'd like.
   
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 10 minutes or just until edges are turning golden. Let cool slightly before removing from the cookie sheet.

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I know nothing about sports. At all. Ok, well that's a lie, I know a little about Hockey, I am after all a Canadian chick! But that's as far as my sports knowledge (and interest!) goes.
We were invited to a friends house to for a Grey Cup party yesterday. I'm somewhat reluctant to admit I had to google what the hell the Grey Cup was. (Turns out it's football for anyone as clueless as I am).
Even though I know nothing about football, I AM good at eating and drinking beer, so I figured this party still sounded like a helluva lotta fun, and I was totally down for it.
We were asked to bring our beverage of choice, and a snack food. I figured this was a great opportunity to pull out my extremely fattening, calorie laden, delicious Layered Hot Wing dip that only comes out about once every 3 years when I decide I really don't need to fit into my jeans after all. And considering I've been longing for it lately, this was the perfect opportunity!
I posted a photo of it on my Facebook page yesterday, and got tons of emails and comments requesting the recipe. And almost everyone at the party asked for the recipe as well. So, here it is!
Put on your fat pants, and enjoy!
Love and Hugs

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cream cheese
• 1 cup Hot Wing Sauce (I like Franks Red Hot Sauce)
  
• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 chicken breasts, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups prepared Cheese Chive and Bacon Dip
• 1 cup grated cheddar

Directions:
Cook, cool, and shred 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts. (I like to boil/steam mine)
Spread cream cheese on the bottom of a pie plate
Combine Hot Wing Sauce and butter in a saucepan, and wisk until melted
Remove from heat, and stir in shredded chicken
Spoon saucy chicken mixture over cream cheese
Spread Cheese, Chive and Bacon dip over saucy chicken (you can also use ranch, or blue cheese if you'd prefer)
Sprinkle with cheese
Bake at 350 for about 25 mins, or until hot and bubbly and delicious
Serve with butter crackers (like Ritz, or Topables) and/or chips
Enjoy!

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Merry One Month Till Christmas Everyone!!!!
In case you missed the memo, I LOVE Christmas. I love all things Christmas! Food, Music. Decorations. Parties and Socializing. Gifts. And of course, Movies!
To help you all get into the spirit with me, I thought I would share my top 10 most favorite Christmas movies! I watch these movies every single year, and love love love them all.
In no particular order, here we go!
Favorites 1, 2, and 3: The Santa Clause Trilogy

Favorites 4 and 5: The Grinch and How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Favorite 6: A Christmas Story

Favorite 7: National Lampoon Christmas Vacation

Favorite 8: The Family Man

Favorite 9: Christmas with the Kranks

Favorite 10: Elf

Of course, the best way to enjoy these movies is cozy by the Christmas tree, with delicious drinks and treats! So, I've included a great quick and easy treat recipe. Not necessarily a Christmas recipe, but it's made from things I almost always have on hand, and it's super tasty. You all know I don't usually like things from a box, but this is one of the exceptions to that rule.
Enjoy!
Love and Hugs

Ingredients:

• 2 x White Cake Mixes, prepared as directed, EXCEPT - add the rind from 2 oranges to the batter, and use the juice from both oranges as part of the "water" that they call for on the box. I just squeeze the juice into a measuring cup, and top of the remainder of called for liquid with water. I also add my real Mexican vanilla always.
  
• 2 x 1L containers of Whipping Cream, whipped, with sugar and vanilla to taste.
• 2 x 600g bags frozen strawberries, thawed and sliced

Directions:

Prepare the cake mixes, bake in 2 9x13 baking dishes for instructed amount of time on the box. Cool completely. (I usually make these the night before if I know I'm going to be serving this). Before assembling, cube cake into 3 inch square chunks so that it will fit nicely in the bowl you are using.
About 4 hours before serving, assemble:
In the bottom of large bowl, arrange half the cake chunks
Scatter half of the strawberries over the cake
Spread half the whipping cream on top
Repeat layers one more time
Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerated until you're ready to serve
Enjoy!

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So, it's dawned on me. I may be taking this whole hunkering down, getting ready for Christmas, hibernation thing a little to far.
Yesterday, Growly Bear was getting down off the couch, and she grabbed my leg for support. My pant leg had come up, and just bare skin was showing. As she slid her little arm down my leg, she suddenly snatched it back, and yelled "Owie Mommy! Wow! What's that?"
Apparently my prickles attacked her...
Clearly it's time to break out the shaver!
Wonder if I could get away with saying I'm just doing my part to support Movember...?
Love and Hugs

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As we've discussed before, I wish I was a crafty mommy. I've been saving all these wicked looking projects on Pinterest in case I at some point find the time to try some of them out. So far that hasn't happened.
Between being a mommy, a wife, playschool 2 days a week, work 3 times a week, many social obligations, and studying everywhere in between, there's hardly enough time to complete the necessary tasks, let alone any time left over for extras.
So, in hopes that some of you might have time to create awesomeness, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ideas with you I've been saving.
At the top of my list is salt dough ornaments!

Next, I LOVE these little guys, and would love to have a collection of them.

Also, topping the cute sale, are these:

Growly Bear is a little too young this year I think, but next year these would be great!

How fun is this for busy little people! Maybe it would even help keep them away from the real deal... at least momentarily.

And finally, a super cute idea for gift tags!

If any of you busy mommas out there have time to create, send me your pics! I'd love to see your masterpieces.
One thing I do always seem to find time to create is goodies, so here's my latest Christmas Cookie recipe to share with you all.
Love and hugs

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup good quality mini chocolate chips (optional)
  
• Additional sugar for rolling
  

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips if using.
Refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.
Roll into 1-in. balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-12 minutes or until puffy, lightly browned, and cracked. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks.

Note: Can use 4.5 teaspoons of Gingerbread Spice instead of the individual spices

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So, I've been studying like crazy. Every spare moment (aka, when Growly Bear is sleeping) I've had a date with my books. I've discovered a couple helpful study techniques that I thought I would share:

1. You learn more when you use pretty pens. It make your boring notes look, well, less boring!
2. Earplugs are your friend. My husband likes to watch TV in the evening. I do my studying in the living room. I'm easily distracted. Bad combo!
3. Speaking of being easily distracted, it's also a good idea to put away the BlackBerry... That's probably the single hardest thing for me to do!
4. It's also helpful to get your sweet husband to quiz you using your flash cards, even though they are made up mostly of big long legal terms that he doesn't know how to pronounce properly. It's super cute.
   
5. Cookies and milk make great brain food! For realz! I'm sure they increase brain power.

That's about all I've come up with so far... hopefully it's enough for me to pass my big scary test on December 4th!
I'll share my latest favorite brain-food cookie recipe, which just happens to be a Christmas cookie!
Love and Hugs

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup white
• 1 tsp real Mexican vanilla
• 3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt - set aside.
In a medium bowl cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, and then stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Roll, or scoop dough into walnut sized balls, and place on greased cookie sheet.
Flatten slightly, and bake for 15-20 mins until light and golden.
Remove from sheet to cool on wire rack.
Stores well at room temp in cookie jar or tin.

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Merry Christmas everyone!
That's right, we're in full Christmas swing in our house.
Unfortunately, my camera has taken this as it's opportunity to pack it in, and will now only take fugly, out of focus pictures about 80% of the time. Maybe I'll ask Santa for a new one... Too bad Santa and I had agreed not to do gifts this year due to our Mexican Extravaganza Vacation we will be leaving on 4 days after Christmas! Woo hoo!
Last weekend I had the girls come over and help me decorate our beautiful brand new tree that I bought in August when we were at our Family Reunion, and have been DYING to put up ever since!
Not that you can tell from the crappy picture up top, but it's beautiful! And Growly Bear is being unbelievably good about not un-decorating the bottom 3 feet. She's mostly just fascinated by the gifts underneath. She's been "helping" me wrap gifts, and then watching me put them under the tree. She promptly goes over, and picks up whatever I just placed under, and brings it back to me. The entire thing is very strange for her, but she's doing her best to help me in her own little way. It's pretty adorable.
Anywho, I mostly just popped in to share my, (well it's actually Barefoot Contessa's) delicious recipe for Chocolate Cup-Cakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting. I made them for our tree decorating party, and I must say, they go perfectly with copious quantities of wine and girl talk.
I'll leave you with a couple photos of our decorations, and the delicious recipe.
Love and Hugs!

Cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 extra-large eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
  
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup good cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 18 cupcake pans with paper liners.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the milk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.
Divide the batter among the cupcake pans, filling about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

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After yesterday's post, I'm happy to report:
Today was an awesome day! A great day! A pretty much perfect day! And then the kitchen sink got plugged...
Growly Bear started Playschool today! This is a pretty big deal for a couple reasons. First off, she's never been left with anyone other then my mom and dad, and once, an Auntie.
At Playschool, the idea is that I take here there. And I drop her off with a snack. And then I leave.... We're still working on that last part. I stayed and played today. I will next week too. We'll see how it goes the week after that.
The other reason this is a pretty big deal (and this is super cool) is becasue Growly Bear's Playschool teacher was MY Playschool teacher! It's the same building. Some of the same awesome toys which I remember fondly (think a cool, custom made, colorful kids play kitchen area, and a pull down bed, and a rice table, and colorful steps that you sit on to sing songs and hear stories!). And best of all, the same awesome teacher! It's pretty amazing watching my baby girl sit up on those colorful steps with all her friends enjoying puppets and songs and leaning new things.
Growly Bear even got her very own little cubby!

We had a good laugh leaving Playschool today too. As we walked out of the building, I saw my Nana, (Growly Bear's Great Nana), sitting in her car waiting to see how the first day went! As we started to walk towards her car, I heard my mom's voice (even though I hadn't seen her!) call "What are you doing here?" to which my Nana replied back to her, "What are YOU doing here?". Turns out, my mom was parked on the other side of my car waiting for us too! They both just "happened" to be in the neighborhood, oblivious that the other one was too, and both decided to stop to see how the first day went. We had a good little laugh as I recapped our awesome morning.
Lunchtime went well. Nap time went well. Studying went well. We decided to do a little baking when Growly Bear woke up and she announced that she wanted "cake cups" a.k.a Cupcakes.
Usually she just watches me cook for afar, but today I thought she might like to help. She sure did!

Clearly, it was a perfect day!
And then I went to wash the dishes. And I discovered the drain wouldn't drain.
Luckily my handy man hubby came home right about then!

It's incidents like this that I'm so happy I'm just a "helpless" woman who doesn't know a thing about plumbing!
I don't really know what went down, but after dinner there was a  lot of swearing coming from the kitchen, a plunger in the sink, followed by a phone call to a friend, the sound of beers being opened once the friend got there, some hideously disgustingly rusty dirty thing called a "snake" on the middle of my kitchen floor, some more swearing, then then a while later a report that we had a working kitchen sink again! Woo-hoo!
Needless to say, my kitchen has now been Mr. Cleaned within an inch of it's life, smells fresh and clean, and has a sink that drains super fast! Yay handy man husband, and yay handy man husbands friend!
While all this was going on in my kitchen, Growly Bear and I cuddled up in the big bed (away from the swear words!), and watched cartoons and cuddled. So even with the small glitch in there, it still was the perfect day.
I've included the recipe for our delicious Cake-Cups, which were suppose to have Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and sprinkles, but I decided not to make any more dirty dishes when I wasn't able to clean the ones I currently had! They were pretty fantastic just the way they were though!
Hope everyone had a fantastic day too!
Love and Hugs Everyone!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups brown sugar
  
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
  
• 1 cup butter, softened
  
• 2/3 cup full fat sour cream
• 2 tsp real vanilla
  
• 4 eggs
  
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 30 muffin tins with liners
  
• In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, butter, sour cream, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 of the way full
  
• Bake for 20 mins, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from tins, and cool on wire racks before removing from cans or pans.

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So, it's been one of those days. It started out as one of those days. And it appears it will be ending as one of those days.
My day started at 8:00am with me putting apple juice in my first cup of coffee rather then creamo. I shook my head, laughed at myself, and thought that maybe it wouldn't be too noticeable. It was, after all, only a splash. Perhaps I could just add the creamo on top, stir it up, and it would still be fine. So I did just that and took a big drink. I was wrong. It tasted like mold. So much for that idea! Bleh.
The next could hours of the day went smoothly with a great big breaky for Growly Bear, and a nice hot shower for me while she played happily in her crib.
10:00am my day got frustrating! I took Growly Bear out to the truck to go to play school, to discover (remember!) that my hubby had switched the car seat from his truck back to my Explorer. Ok. No big deal. I got her buckled in, and went in the house to trade keys.
Except I couldn't find my keys! Anywhere! After 20 minutes of ripping the house apart looking for them, while running back and forth, in the torrential downpour I might add, to check on Growly Bear, and a crabby phone call to my hubby asking where the &$#@ there were seeing as HE was the last one who drove my vehicle, I gave up. Unbuckled her, and brought her, and all the things that go along with her, back in the house.
Just as we were getting unloaded I realized there was oooooone place I hadn't looked... In her lunch bag, which I had packed up yesterday with a snack. I vaguely remembered something about keys as I started at it from across the room. Yup! There they were!
So, we got packed back up, went back to the car, got re-buckled, and headed to play school. Better late then never!
The next couple hours went well! She got to play with friends, while I registered her for the play school class (that start TOMORROW!) that I actually drop her off, and go do my own thing for a couple of hours! Totally bittersweet and mixed emotions about that, but I know it will be good for us both!
Then we did a enormous grocery shop to replenish the pantry, fridge, and freezer after our Earthquake weekend tow weekends ago, and hurricane weekend this past weekend! Luckily, that also went well.
When we came home, Growly Bear was "helping" me unload the groceries, like she always does. I ran back to our walk in pantry for a minute to put away some canned goods, and it wasn't until much too late that I realized she was being much too quiet it the kitchen.
I had the mommy intuition, sinking stomach feeling as I raced out of the pantry, and into the kitchen, and discovered her poking her finger into a package of raw, ground hamburger, and squeezing it in her little chubby hands so that it squirted out between her fingers, before placing it on the floor beside her, and patting it down with the palm of her hand.
I beyond freaked! My only thought was that I was hoping she was "just" playing with it, and not eating it! There was no time to take photos of the actual "incident" but here's a shots of the aftermath:

After getting her, and the floor cleaned up, it was lunch time. She was too tired, and not in much of a mood to eat. So I got some yogurt and ham into her, and decided it was nap time.
Despite being beyond tired, she decided it actually wasn't nap time, and screamed her little head off until she puked. I know what you're thinking, and no, it wasn't due to possible stomach upset due to the raw meat incident. This is just a special Growly Bear thing which has been happening frequently at bed time lately as she's fighting going to sleep. But on this special occasion, I got to experience it nap time as well! Yay me! I'm praying that it's just a phase related to teething that will pass!
Needless to say, I'm off duty for a while once Growly Bear's daddy gets home tonight. I think I need a stiff drink and a hot bath.
I'm off to make dinner now. Hopefully I can get through that without inflicting some horrible flesh wound or marring scar upon myself!
Hope everyone else is having an easier day then us,
Love and Hugs

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