Pumpkin Chocolate Chip!

You just have to ask yourself, is that one big boy or one tiny muffin?

Crickets Chirping...

So imagine, if you will.

I am standing at the front of my classroom. 25 pairs of little eyes, glued to me. They are all eager and listening, for what feels like the first time ever. Everyone is engaged, learning and behaving. There are no silly noises, no tapping pencils, no kids wandering around, no pencils sharpening. Everyone is simply "on". A moment like this doesn't happen too often.

Just as I start to smile and think, "Man, you really have it, don't you Amanda?" a lone student raises his hand.

"Mrs. Hildebrand? Who farted?"

Sigh. The moment - gone.

And normal, daily life in the classroom continues.

Christmas Banquet

Tonight, our church held its annual Christmas banquet. I love how it's done. There are table hosts and each host is responsible for decorating their table. You get such an amazing display and variety of tables. It's so neat to see. This year, I went nuts and Chris and I made a crazy cake display involving styrofoam, lights,fondant, and an army of cute little snowmen.

And now, just because I want proof of it out there, and not because this is a great picture - may I present ME... in a dress!! Who knows when that has happened last?

And me, showing off my little snowman pop. I'm actually going to attempt real cake pops next weekend. Here's hoping they are a cute as these guys!

Quilty McQuilter

Finally finished!

I love this fabric. I bought it from Fabric Shoppe. They have amazing fabrics!

points

- I went to the grand opening of Bloom tonight. It was so thrilling to see someone's dreams come true. Megan's speech talked about how today was her "someday", as in "someday I'll open my own shop." Makes me think a lot about my someday and if my dream of "Cake." will ever become reality. I know that right now it's not in the cards as my kids are too young, but it sure makes me wonder. Bloom is gorgeous and I want to buy everything in that store. If you are ever ordering me flowers, order from Bloom!

- My nose ring has flared up and is really swollen. I'm trying not to play with it. I had hoped it was healed, but I guess not.

- Life today was normal. No cakes to work on and my husband home. I LOVE these days. I took some time for me to actually sit on the couch and watch tv. I sewed Gavin's quilt (almost done). I cleaned. Made me realize how easy life would be if I just said no to cakes!

- My baby is getting so big. He's almost 18 months and growing like a weed. I swear this shirt fit him last week.

- This boy has given us a run for our money lately. He's just been so sick. It doesn't help that his eye teeth are coming in, but he is soooo snotty and feverish and snotty. Plus, he has a gorgeous red rash on his face happening again. Is it teething? Is it from chewing Monkey's bum? Who knows...

But these eyes, paired with the dimples and the "mama", I'm a goner.

- Alright, this was supposed to be longer, but that's all the time I have for now!

Mmm....

Smelly markers are the BEST!

2010 Fam

Here is our sneek peak from our family photoshoot today. You know when you meet someone for the first time and it feels like you knew them forever? That's totally how I was today with Tiff. I'm so excited to see the rest of the pictures!

Randoms

- The time change fairy was good to our house last night. G wakes up every morning, without fail, at 7:30. It's usually pretty much exactly 7:30, so we were expecting a nice wake up call through our baby monitor at 6:30 this morning. Words can't express how happy we were to hear his voice at exactly 7:30 this morning. Hooray for sleeping in!

- I need more flannel sheets - for our bed, and Chelsea's. She's been sneaking into our bed for the past few nights. She looks at me with her sleepy bed head and says, "I just want to snuggle with you both" and I'm a goner. However, we know this is a bad habit, so we've been trying to put a stop to it. Unfortunately, this usually means me crawling out of my nice warm bed, and taking her back to her room. We're thinking if we make her bed a little more cosy, she might be more inclined to stay there. Maybe?

- Saturday was a blur of birthday parties for a friend, icing cupcakes for a fundraiser, and attending that fundraiser. I have some amazingly talented friends. My friend Crystal and her husband Jeff and some others from our church put on a concert and the proceeds went to the International China Concern (I think that's what it is called.) Now, let me tell you a little about my friend Crystal. She. is. amazing. She's one of those girls that you just want to spend time with. She always greets you with a hug and knows the right words to say. She is hilarious in a way that makes you laugh out loud, even hours later. She has a great memory and can pretty much quote any line from any show she's ever watched. She amazes me. We don't get to spend enough time together.

Anyways, this girl has an amazing voice. I was so thrilled to be able to donate 120 cupcakes to the cause and listen to her sing all night long. I sat with tears in my eyes for most of it. So. good.

- I have more to say, but that'll have to wait for another day. It's bed time for me. Here's hoping the time change fairy is good to us again.

End of October

- We celebrated Chris turning 30 (on the 30th no less). The day did not go as planned at all, but I kept reminding him of a couple weeks ago when I surprised him with skydiving, indoor go-kart racing, lunch and a movie in Winnipeg with his friends. We did have a great night eating wings and pizza and playing Settlers of Catan with some very good friends.

- You might remember Chris' surprise birthday cake from last year.

Everyone kept asking how I was going to top that for his 30th birthday. I kept thinking about it on and off all year but luckily, my husband made it easy for me. He wanted a blizzard cake from DQ. Done. Easy-peasy. - On the 30th, a church in Winkler had a carnival for Jesus and our great babysitters took Chelsea. She was a little tired of being Snow White all week, so we switched it up and she went as Belle. She was so excited to wear my tiara from my wedding. That hoop skirt is hard to maneuver!

- We carved pumpkins with Chelsea this year. Gavin was sick, so he was sleeping a lot the day we decided to do it. Chelsea really was having fun, despite how it looks in this picture.

- For Halloween, we had another repeat appearance from the frog and Snow White. Chelsea LOVED trick-or-treating. We went out for an hour and a half as a family, then I came home to put Gavin to sleep and hand out candy. I lost track of how many kids, but it was a lot. I'm sure it had to do with the fact that our neighbours had a haunted house display set up in their garage.
- We didn't have to buy any Halloween costumes this time. I pick up costumes in the summer at garage sales for our dress-up bin downstairs. I think Gavin's frog was $5, the Belle dress was $4 and my sister got the Snow White dress for $0.50.

- And now, it's November. The month of MCC kits and report card writing at work. Add in 8 birthday cakes, 1 smash cake, and 154 cupcakes and it's a recipe for insanity. :P

Thursday's events

Chelsea has been begging me for a long time to get her ears pierced. Every time I wore nice earrings, she would play with them and ask again and again. We had lots of discussions about how getting your ears pierced hurts and whether or not she would be ready. She promised up and down that she was ready.

So, we made the big appointment for Thursday morning. I had been debating whether or not I wanted to get my nose pierced, but I figured it would be a great reward for me for losing 30 pounds. Okay, so I'm only at 28, but I figured I was close enough. :)

We went to McKenna in Morden. I had a long talk with the piercer about the gun vs needle debate and we decided for Chelsea's earlobes, it would be best to use the gun. The problem is, at McKenna, there is only one piercer, so they have to be done one at at time.

Well, my brave girl sat there all by herself, still as a statue when the first earring went in. Four seconds later, the crying/screaming started. Chelsea was done. I tried showing her a mirror, talking about how pretty it looked and how we needed to do the other one, but she said she was quite happy with just one. All she wanted was just one earring.

This went on for about 5 minutes, until I told her that the piercer has to pierce two ears; that's her job. If she doesn't do her job, she'll get into trouble. So, Chelsea climbed on my lap and sat really still, all while crying. But, the second earring went in and she hopped off my lap, declared she was done with me and wanted daddy. Good thing he was just outside. She was as happy as can be, once her tears were wiped away and she was munching on mini eggs, that is.

Then, I got my nose pierced. No crying or mini eggs needed.

The best part is that when I was leaving the salon, Chelsea asked me if the piercer was going to get into trouble because I only got one earring done. :)

This is her "before" shot.

And after. It's hard to get a picture of little studs!

It's been so good healing together. She gently touches my nose and asks if it hurts and if it's healing and we get to clean our piercings together. I love having a daughter!!

I think matching tattoos are next. But no worries, she has to be at least 8 before I'll agree to that.

The princess and the frog

- We went home to my parents' house this weekend. Saturday night we went to a Halloween dance for kids. Chelsea was VERY excited to have a new Snow White dress from Aunty Jen with new shiny black shoes.
- I should have gone to school today to plan my week, but I didn't. I was so tired after our 3.5 hour drive home took close to 5 hours that I decided to skip it. This is the first weekend since school started that I haven't been there for 4-5 hours on the weekend.

- I just got an email from someone asking me why I'm not as smiley as I used to be. That made me really sad. I need to get a handle on why this job is making me so stressful. I'm constantly worrying about work and how to do it better and how to become a better teacher - so much so that it's stressing me out all the time and that's gotta go!

- Hey, in case you were wondering, having a puppy loses it's excitement really fast. The training is coming along, but it's busy with 2 kids. I'm a little tired of the accidents, the jumping up, the nipping.... but at the same time, she's well loved and is great with the kids.

- Friendships are hard for me. I'm a home-body and I like being at home. On those rare nights when I don't have school work to do, cakes to make and decorate, or housework, I like staying home. Friendships take a lot of work and time and sometimes that is hard. But the rewards are definitely worth it. I have such great friends right now and I just want to say thank you ladies. Thank you for loving me for who I am and loving me for where I am right now. I appreciate you.

- And on that note, good night all!

A whole lotta nothin'.

- Quiet blog again, I know, I know. I miss blogging, but I'm not feeling very inspired lately. Thanks for checking to make sure I'm still around!

- I'm settling into a routine with work and kids and cakes and whatnot. I am REALLY trying to make an effort to be there for my kids and not be busy with stuff in the mornings.

- I'm not going to get into it, but work is not the highlight of my day. I'm really struggling with the split grade. I have really high expectations for myself and I don't feel like I'm meeting them, and that is constantly weighing on me, stressing me out.

- I recently was invited out with a new group of girls. It was a lot of fun and it was reassuring to hear after that they thought I was halarious and that we should all hang out again. For some reason in the friendship area I've been so hesitant and unsure of myself. I needed a good boost.

- Chris and I went to a wedding today. Aren't we cute?

P.S. - Isn't that nose just begging to be re-pierced?? I'm really tempted...

My Biff.

I used to hate the phrase "best friend" because I never felt like anyone's best friend. I would cringe when I would read Facebook statuses that said "bff", but now, I can say that this lady is my BFF.

And when my BFF turns 29 for the 4th time, we celebrate!
Pretty pretty toes.We had a lovely relaxing evening at the spa, getting our feet pampered and then spent the rest of the night laughing at peopleofwalmart.com. I know, we're horrible, but best of all, we're good for each other.

MUAH, lady. Happy birthday!!

Family Photo Shoot

My friend Maggie took some family photos for us the other day. They turned out great, considering that it was super windy! Here are some of my favourites!

Pick your battles.

This girl and I seem to be in a struggle every morning. She's very independent and is all about doing things herself.

Right now, we battle over clothes and hair. She wants to choose what she wears and how her hair is done.

Most days, I let her pick her clothes. Most days, she's mismatched or wearing something backwards. I'm okay with this. We've struck a deal. On Wednesdays (preschool) and Sundays (church) I get to choose her outfits.

So, today, being Sunday, I chose her outfit - a cute new sweater (thanks Amanda!), tights and a skirt (because she HATES pants at the moment).

And, because I believe in compromise, she did her own hair.

Just in case you weren't in church today, this is what you missed.

Thank you to all of those in church who encouraged her. She kept telling me, "See mom? Everyone thinks I'm beautiful!"

You are always beautiful, baby girl!