SAMM- Thai Peanut Butter Stir Fry!

So this week I'm linking up with Michelle for "Share A Meal Monday". So here is one of my most favorite meals EVER! I got the recipe from one of my girlfriends back in BC. It has become a staple in our home. The ingredients are bizarre but it believe me you have got to try it!

Thai Peanut Butter Stir Fry
1/4 Peanut butter
1/2 cup catalina salad dressing
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp apple juice
2 tsp soya sauce
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tsp ginger
Vegetables: broccoli, red pepper, onion, carrots, mushrooms, snap peas, etc
Chicken breast: 3-4

Combine above ingredients (excluding chicken & veggies) and heat over medium heat stirring constantly. Dice chicken and fry in pan or wok with salt and pepper and oil if desired. Set chicken aside and place cut veggies and approximately 1/2 cup of water in a wok or pan, place lid over and let steam. When veggies are cooked, add chicken and pour sauce over top; mix well. Serve over rice.

Serves 6.

The Y

So I have finally started using my membership at the Y. Only took me 10 months to do it :P. I've been going to their classes in the morning. I hate it soooooo much but in a really good way. The first couple weeks it took everything within me to walk up the stairs. I've been going since August 3-4 times a week and I'm starting to actually feel in shape again. The really wonderful part is I've lost 11 lbs and 5 inches! YAY me! Only another 10 to go and I'll weigh the same I did when I got married. If anyone is considering taking some classes at the Y I have a few I would recommend. The first one is the Bosu Blast. Wowzers... the class uses a bosu ball (yoga ball cut in half and put on a platform) so it works on your balance, cardio as well as your core! Another one that I absolutely hate love is the Cardio Box. It's a cardio boxing class and is also great on the abs. My last favorite ones are the interval ones. I like these because every 60-90 seconds you are doing something different. So much easier to keep doing squats when you know there's only 10 seconds left and then it's onto a well smaller muscle. :O) Anyone have any exercising secrets?

Honey

Brighton Has been telling us for the past little while that when he grows up he not only wants to be a dentist like daddy, but that he wants to have a Honey too. I was trying to explain to him that one day he would have a honey and that he would be a Daddy and that would make me a Grandpa. He didn't like that And told me that I was just Daddy and that he was Just Brighton. I tried a different tactic, and told him that when he gets a Honey that they would have babies. He looked up at me and very seriously told me that he would never have babies, he would only have "Big Boys" to which Paige replied..."oh, your poor Honey!"
-Andrew

Sooo........

ANDREW GOT INTO DENTAL SCHOOL! I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet! We found out about a month ago now. It was a Friday and we both had been working so when we got home I started making dinner and Andrew checked his email. Hahaha... yes normally he does actually help me. He had a email from the University of Manitoba but he thought it was just something about his grade appeal so he didn't read it right away. Finally he checked it and read the first line and he jumped up, the computer chair went flying, there were a couple crashes and he screamed something not in English. I knew exactly what was going on and ran down the hall. It was an incredible moment. We both felt so relieved, and SOOOO excited! Finally we are in!!! All that hard work has paid off! But I really think the hard work is just about to start. I'm so proud his dedication to building our future. I have an incredible husband! I love you Andrew!

Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diapers... yes really and I love them! I think what threw me over the edge was the fact that we were almost spending $100/ month on diapers and pull-ups. I love my kids but there had to be a cheaper alternative. I started researching cloth diapering... I remember some of my siblings wearing the flannel diaper with the cover and I was expecting it to be quite the same. Cloth diapers are not the same today... THEY ARE BETTER!!! There are pocket diapers, All in ones, and many more to suit your baby's needs. I watched lots of reviews of diapers and decided I really liked the bum genius pocket diaper that is also a one size. I didn't want to have small, medium and large diapers.... and seriously who would if they could have all of them in one diaper. I went out and bought 1 Bum genius cloth diaper for $25. Ridiculously expensive hey! Once I got home though I was looking at this diaper and realized how insanely easy it would be to make it. I had a little trouble finding a PUL that had a bit of give. All I could find was a diaper liner. The trouble with the diaper lining material was it didn't seem that durable, and had no flexibility what so whatever. After calling many fabrics stores in Winnipeg (there are tons here!!! yay)I found a store that said they may have it down in their basement. Thankfully I brought my hubby along to decode fabric names. He found me some fabric that was basically a rubberized polyester. We bought the other supplies and went home and I started sewing. I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out and it really hasn't even phased Lydia. An extra load of laundry a day hasn't really phased me either. I'm still buying disposable diapers for when we are out... it makes my life a bit less complicated! We go through the disposable a lot slower now though... what would have lasted us maybe 2 weeks we've been using for 2 months. Brighton is sleeping through the night dry so I don't even need to buy pull ups anymore! It's been over a month and he's only had two accidents! What an amzing lil guy I have! I am loving spending less money, going "green", and that Lydia's bum has never looked cuter! hehehe :O)

Lydie Lou

Here's a couple things Lydia has done this past month:
1) Developed a love for "pretties" (as she calls them). Whether it's necklaces, clips, or these adorable beaded socks my mom made, if she sees them she's gotta have them. Sometimes all of them. The other day I was just getting out of the shower and heard a little voice outside the door. It was of course Lydia pleading for help with her socks. She had gotten into her sock drawer and taken out all her socks then divided the non beaded ones from the regular boring ones and then brought all the beaded ones to me. She could barely contain herself as I was putting them on. As soon as I finished she jumped up and started running around the house... it makes the beads click together. So cute!

2) For the past couple weeks she's been taking her diaper off and I put her on the potty once and Brighton has been talking to her about how he goes potty. It's quite hilarious! Any way we were at church and Lydia says to me "Pappi", I thought she was trying to say puppy. I smelt something and took her out to change her. We went to the mothers room and I took her diaper off and there was nothing. Lydia then says "No. Pappi". I finally got it then and rushed to the bathroom and SHE WENT PEE. YAY!
3) Manners. This is something that is really important to me so a while back I started teaching Lydia to say "Thank-you". She now says it and it is seriously THE CUTEST thing ever. It's totally in her favor though because I keep giving her stuff so she says it again! Hahaha.
4) Love. So Brighton is pretty attached to his lil sister and isn't too fond of her going down for a nap. I spend a good majority of the time trying to distract him from their bedroom. Before they go to sleep every once in a while I'll put both of them in Lydia's crib to cuddle while I sing/ read to them. One night after I had sang to them I heard a little voice in the monitor. Saying something over and over. I went it there and Brighton was passed out but Lydia was in her crib trying to get Brighton to wake up saying "ton-ton" over and over. It was so cute and I love that they love each other so much!

I love you "little green machine"!

So a while back I received a "little green machine" for mothers day. I absolutely LOVE it. I have a micro suede couch that I worked my butt off to get and my children had pretty much destroyed it. I thought well can it get any worse and I tried the machine on it. I only went over it once and it looks BRAND NEW. I'm so happy! Now I won't be harboring any bad feelings towards my wonderful little monkeys and I have a nice clean couch again!

The sunshine is here and we are LOVING IT!

There is something about Spring that just gets me so excited! I think even more so now that I live in Winnipeg where it is Winter for half of the year. Sick I know! So now that Spring is here we are loving it! Going to the park and going for bike rides. Brighton has even mastered riding his tricycle. Lydia is very jealous and gets a little frustrated that her legs aren't quite long enough. Today we even pulled out the kiddie pool and played in there and got some sun. I have tan lines... well burn lines. But it's gonna turn into a tan though (well hopefully!). Another reason we are excited is because as of tomorrow at 5pm school is done for Andrew and we get to spend the next 4 months as a normal family. Well as normal as we can get. Plans for the summer? Enjoy our backyard, head over to BC to visit family, and make Brighton and Lydia bunk beds. Yes we have a garage now so Andrew and I are going to make bunk beds! We have been following www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com Here is the bunk bed I want to make. Seriously check out her site she has some amazing stuff on there and all the plans as well.

Easter Photos

So back at Easter Andrew and I decided to do a little photo shoot of our babes. I think it's a general rule now if we take over a hundred pictures we will most likely get one good one. Or at least that's what we do and hope for the best. Maybe one day we will get enough airmiles to get a good camera. I think we're half way there now. Only another 4 years to go... hahaha. Any tips on getting your children to stay in the same room that your taking pictures in? I wish we had gotten pictures or a video of the Easter egg hunt we did. Brighton knew exactly what was going on and was so excited. Lydia however after we showed her what was in the plastics eggs starting shaking in excitement. So hilarious!

ROADKILL RESCUE

So I've been following this blog Infarrantly creative, cuz she just has so much cute stuff for agound the house, projects to do...you know the stuff none of us regular people have time for. She's got this roadkill rescue contest thingy so I figured I'd get mine in there.
Unfortunately I didn't get a good before picture. This chair was andrew's grandpa's it's probabaly at least 40-50 years old and actually Laz-y-Boy brand, and we were given it when we got married. It was not the prettiest chair, but when I was nursing it was the best!!! So, since I loved the chair I decided to make it work with our nursery.

This took so much work, and as far as anyone knows I have vowed never to do it again, a couch would be way easier, and the original upholstery had millions (I'm not exaggerating) of stapples in it. It took weeks to get them all out. But I loved what I ended up with. We even lost a hinge for the back, for reclining, and we found and awesome furniture store that had about 10 of them and they replaced them for free. I bought the fabric on sale in Utah, and got the white stain at Ikea, we also had to sand off hundreds of layers of varnish, so don't every ask me to help you with one of these. Still all in all it was well worth it. We even found a few more of Grandpa Greens stray Peanuts in it!! haha

Enjoy the journey!

When we moved and got new family photos done I had to do some rearranging. It left a spot open and I put up a little plaque that was cute but just didn't go. Then for Christmas I got a "Silhouette" machine. Which I'm totally in love with! Any way this gift got me thinking about this space and a much needed change. After weeks of looking for the right paper and colors I finally found what I was looking for at Michaels. Tip: When looking through their paper look on both sides! So I cut a board into a square and painted it then modpodged my paper on. I used my silhouette machine to cut out the letters. Then a bit more modge podge and TA-DAA... my wall is complete! I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Disneyworld

We took the kids to Disneyworld this last week with paiges family, and here are some pictures

Twinkle Twinkle Lightning McQueen

Tonight Paige is at an enrichment night, so I had the kids to myself. I figured I'd try and get them to bed early and surprisingly it worked. They've both been in bed for about 20 minutes now and not even a peep, and it's only now just 7:00. Anyways, Paige and I are trying to do something different every night before we go to bed, some nights we play games, some nights we play piano, or sing, or read, and other nights they just go straight to bed. We find it a lot easier than sticking to a routine, because some nights we just can pull off the same thing over and over. Tonight I opted for books. After reading 3 books to them, Lydy was getting fussy, so i decided it was time for bed. I changed them, got Lydy her bottle, and then put them both to bed. Neither of them even fought with me. Then, since it was still early I thought I'd ask brighton if he wanted to sing a song. And my little composer pulled one out of his hat and just started singing away:

"Twinkle twinkle Lightning McQueen,
Lightning McQueen where you are?
Lightning McQueen where you are?
Lightning McQueen where you are?
Up Above the world so Fast!
Like a like a oh so Happy!
Lightning McQueen Oh so fast!
Lightning McQueen oh so fast!"
(The last line was very "Hey Jude" being repeated over and over even after I had gotten my hugs and kisses and left the room!)

If that wasn't just the cutest.  Speaking of the cutest...I've got another thing to post...

Yeah, I'm that lame...

I was just looking at this site; K i'd better explain, I wanted to know what a word meant, so I looked it up at wiktionary.org, and then it showed Anagrams for the word. So I figured, "I bet some one has made a site that does that." So I looked up this site http://wordsmith.org/anagram/ and tried my name. I found out that I can get Ninja out of my name, but also that I couldn't make any cool phrases with the word Ninja, Just "Ninja Word Whiner" and "Win Her Ninja Word." When I dropped any name, I lost ninja, so there was nothing cool from Andrew John, or John Irwin, or Andrew Irwin, however, almost giving up, I decided to just try Andrew...and the last option I was given.... "Aw Nerd!" 
I decided it ws probably time to pack it in and go study...Dang.

Wired!!

So, last night we went to the baptism for M.J. St. Clair in our ward. After the baptism they had refreshments had Brighton got into a little too many. On the way home since we hadn't had dinner we stopped at Wendy's and picked up some food. As we sat around the table at home, Paige and Lydia began to play a game with a Burger wrapper, where they would pull it away from each other. Brighton enjoyed watching, and laughed hysterically until he couldn't breath. Eventually he couldn't take it any more and had to join in.  I too, joined the game, and it resulted in me and Brighton chasing each other around the house.  Near the end of all this it was about 9:30 (they normally go to bed around 7:30)  and Brighton and Lydia were strung out beyond all reason.  Getting them to bed was not without considerable difficulty.

 

Once brighton was in his pajamas, the sugar-high-induced-party continued in full. With Mommy pretending to be frighted of the mean Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle that had appeared in our living room. to brighton this was the best.

Roar

 

"Don't worry it's me Brighton!" is what he would tell us after we screamed.

After a long day....

In the past month Brighton and Lydia have started playing together! They chase each other around the house, plays cars, dolls, play behind the couch (definetly one of the favourites) and cuddle together while watching a movie. Andrew and I LOVE this new friendship they have! It's so fun to just watch them interact. Brighton is definetly the protective older brother. He brings her bottles and kisses her when she gets hurt and makes sure that she is never to close to the TV screen. This past sunday they were chasing each other around and behind the couch. Andrew went to go check on them and he found Lyddie playing behind the couch and Brighton asleep!

Keeping everyone updated.

Hey all! So we thought we'd try out this blog idea!

We had a great Christmas, our first just our little family. It was great and alot of fun starting our own traditions! Brighton loves tents so we slept in a tent in our basement on Christmas eve! He absolutely loved it! We watched Christmas movies and had some delicious food! Christmas day Andrew and I cooked our first Turkey together and we didn't even burn it! WOW!!! We had 6 missionaries come over to our house for dinner. I was a little nervous about this but it turned out good and we had alot of fun eating and playing board games. The kids were spoiled rotten by their Grandparents and Aunty Sandy and Uncle Gord. They pretty much had a playroom makeover on Christmas!

Lydia loves this tea set!


Rockstar!

Dolls= Happy Lyddie

Christmas Eve in our tent.

Lydia loves taquitos!


Next was Lydia first Birthday! We can't believe how old this little girl of ours is! How time flies! She loved opening her presents and Brighton did a great job at letting her do it by herself!

Presents!!

Brighton and Lyddie cuddling while watching a show.