Top 12 favorite 2012 moments

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

This year has been pretty amazing! I love looking back and reminding myself of all the great memories I've made. It's amazing what you can do within a year.


1. The hubs and I started off the year celebrating our 4 year dating anniversary.

2. I got our my first brand new car!

3. We went tubing for the first time at Big White. Then went skiing. First time for me in over 10 years! The mountains are a lot bigger in the West... That's all I'm sayin.

4. I celebrated my birthday in April. I don't exactly fly anywhere during the year so I look forward to events like birthdays. It's a time when friends come together and the drinks start flowing..

5. June was particularly the best month for me... Three things happened.
The first being my amazing camping trip with Bron that looked like this the entire weekend. Only Bron can make camping in the rain super fun and exciting!

6. When I came home from camping, I was unsually hot. Almost a week later I took my first pregnancy test. Want to scare your husband almost to death? Call him while he's away for work crying your eyes out telling him there's a line... he won't have a clue what you're talking about.
I took a few to be sure.

7. A couple of days after the cry fest, we drove 6 hours to Post Falls, Idaho! We brought Bron along for the weekend since it was her birthday. My husband entered a long drive competition which meant water/theme park time for us. She introduced me to Funnel Cake and I got to bring home some Trix. Happy dance. We're hoping to go back in 2013 as long as they host the competition again.



8. In August, my hubby and I celebrated our 1 year marriage anniversary!

 

9. Marce Lips was born in September. I've been blogging for 3 months, off and on, and I love it. There are some pretty amazing people out there.

10. I volunteered with the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation for their First Annual Kelowna Red Dress Event in November. We raised $22,000 that night and I met a new friend... a mama-to-be who actually gave birth yesterday! Congrats M!

 

11. Christmas 2012. What a great Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for.  

 

 

12. Getting my iPad. Nuff said.

 

 



I'm sure looking forward to tonight! Great friends, food, and games.

2013 is going to bring amazing things!

Happy New Years! Be safe, have fun, and smile lots!

xo

Sunday Social - Last of 2012

1. Favorite New Years Eve you’ve had before
I would have to say 2011. We were surrounded by friends, ate lots of yummy food - including 10lbs of crab legs,  played games, and drank lots. My friends will never forget the "I'm allergic to champagne" comment either. Let me explain:

a. I drank champagne and started to lose my voice. They laughed.

b. I had a lot of alcohol in my system by that point.

Good times. 

Lori, Me, Bron

Love these girls!

2. Are you doing anything for NYE this year and if so what?

We are going to Lori's house this year. It will be pretty tame on my part since I'm pregnant. Should be interesting. We're going to play Cranium and my new game: The Game of Things! Love it!

3. Name a book we should all read come January?

50 Shades of Grey. So. Awesome.

4. What are your new years resolutions?

I love clean slates but I usually forget about my resolutions after the first week.
2013 is going to be a life changing year.
I'm going to focus on the same things I've already been working on while adding new things so I'm going to print this and put it on my wall.

New

• Budget - Starting January 1st, budget is key since my pay is slashed in half due to mat leave.
• Labour - Don't pass out from pain. Hey, that's a huge goal for me. 
• Motherhood - Work on being the best mom I can be.
• Patience - Learn patience.
• Focus - Focus on the baby, my marriage, and myself. So important.
• Food/Cooking - Learn how to cook and try new foods... like vegetables.
• Travel - Spend more time visiting family/friends. Luckily the majority of people are within an 8 hour drive.
• Friends - Work on friendships. Things are changing and friendships will change.

Old

• Get healthier - Emotionally, mentally, and physically. Continue to work on my anxiety.
• Communicate - Better communication with people; be less defensive and more outgoing.
• Organize - Organize and de-clutter my life.
• Creativity - Explore my creativity. Find new hobbies; blog/writing/painting etc.
• Happiness - Work on authentic happinesss.
• Lower expectations - I have a really bad habbit of setting unrealistic expectations.
• Give and take - It's surprising how unbalanced this can be.
• Appreciate - Show more appreciation to those around me.
• Focus - Focus on the little things that matter.



Glymm Bag - December

The final Glymm Bag of 2012!

And I loved it!

I mean look at this beautiful gold bag!

 

Let's see what's inside...

 

 

 1. LashEm False Lashes - $5.00 Full Size

Of course I got excited when I saw the lashes!

I have very long lashes that I love but these add that extra bit of volume for special occasions. 

 

2. Glamorous Cosmetics Lipstick - $9.50 Full Size

I'm not a fan of lipstick. I've said it before, you need lips to wear it. 

It's not too bad though and it smells like baby powder to me. Pregnancy sense of smell I guess.

Kudos for the full size tube. 

 

3. SunCoat Nail Polish - $9.99 Full Size

Glymm really seems to be pushing the nail polish lately which is something I can't complain about.

I love nail polish. This one is a bit dark for me but I do like it.

I just wish I could take better pictures of it!

 

 

4. LashEm Eyelash & Brow Enhancing Serum - Sample size 4.2ml

$70 Full Size

Completely useless to me. I don't like these products; whether they work or not.

I'll never use it and I would never pay $70 for something like this. 

 

5. COUPONS

- I love the $10 gift card from Glymm.

 

- The $20 gift card from Panty by Post seemed like a fun/unique idea at first.

The problem? It's subscription based.

There is the option of buying 1 at $25 which is a rip off to me (the gift card makes it $5)

I can go to La Senza or Victoria Secret and buy beautiful panties for less than $25 and I would have the convinience of picking them out myself and not waiting for them to be mailed. 

 

The bag, lashes, nail polish, and $10 coupon make this bag a 4.5/5 for me!

I'm just happy there was no perfume in it.

 

If you want to sign up to Glymm, go HERE

There are 4 options:

 

Monthly subscription (cancel at anytime - which is what I have)

6 month subscription

1 year subscription

Gift subscription - 3-6-9-12 months

 

Glymm.com is a world leading beauty and cosmetics website dedicated to making your life more beautiful.  For $12/month, you can order a Glymm Box containing a carefully curated selection of 4-5 deluxe beauty samples delivered directly to your door.  Order your Glymm Box today!

 

 

 

 

Christmas Time

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Yep. I'm a little behind.

What can I say? Life has been busy.

 

Some updates...

 

Baby - Almost 31 weeks

Baby H has been going through some growth spurts lately.

He likes to kick my ribs and nestle under there.

It's very odd when I feel like I'm going to squish him when I sit down!

 

I've had some cramps off and on for a couple of days but I'm assuming it's growth spurts.

I've had a couple other new symptoms but that's for That Just Happened Thursday!

I'm afraid to step on the scale so I'm going to wait until my Jan 3rd appointment.

It's not my fault the baby wanted chocolate and turkey over the holidays.

 

 

Food

Speaking of turkey. My brother made the best dinners I've had in years. 

Ham dinner on Christmas Eve and Turkey dinner on Christmas Day.

So. Delicious.

Best scalloped potatoes ever. Yum.

 

Family & Christmas

This Christmas was one of my favorites so far.

It's nice having family around for Christmas.

This was the first Christmas my mother, brother, and I have shared since I was a kid.

Kids 

My niece was completely happy with her gifts. Ok.. happy doesn't describe it.

We got her a Justin Bieber pillow case and blanket.

Two words: Bieber Fever. 

Need I say more?

 

My nephew loved his Beyblade arena.

 

My littlest nephew loved his Jake and some Pirate thingy bathtub boat.

 

I love watching kids open their presents!

 

My Christmas

I also love receiving presents.

This year's best gift goes to...

My loving and amazing hubby for THIS!!

 

 

I'm in love!

So much fun.

As you can tell from the picture, we did some cooking.

We made homemade pizza and lasagna from one of my favorite apps - All Recipes!

Mmm.

 

What a great Christmas.

Now onto the New Year!

 

Monday Happiness

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

I love sharing video's that make me smile.
Today I'm bringing you 3 video's from YouTube that I absolutely love.
They are based on cuteness, music/holiday, and art.
 

I've mentioned my kitties before so there should be no surprise why I love the first video.
The amount of trust he has with them is amazing!

 

 

The second video is one for the holidays and from 1998!

 

 

Let's finish it off with a "WTF" art video I found last week since I love anything artsy.

Absolutely... ridiculously... awesome.

 

 

Which one's your favorite?

 

 

 

Sunday Social Time!!

This Weeks Questions:

1. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Chocolate fudge Crunch, Nestle Triple Tornado (Kids cones at Eastside Mario's), or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.. ohhh or Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake.. Mmmm. I like ice cream. Hard to choose one!

2. What is your favorite smell?
Pi by Givenchy. My husband wears it all the time. Sooo good. That and fresh bread. Mmmm.

3. What is your favorite TV commercial? (Past or Present)
Old spice and Pedigree hehe

 

4. What is your favorite day of the week?
Sundays! My day to relax, shop, get stuff done, or laze around the house.

5. What is your favorite way to waste time?
 Pinterest, Facebook, celebrity gossip sites.. usually anything on the internet.

6. What is your favorite article of clothing? (Feel free to show a picture)
Socks. I love socks.
I really don't enjoy anything right now since barely anything fits... 30 weeks pregnant, kind of expected that though!

Paleo: Olive, garlic & lemon chicken

Some facts about me and cooking:

• I don't exactly like to cook. My tastebuds hate me. That makes it very difficult when I can't sample what I'm cooking.
• My idea of cooking is spaghetti, 4 cheese sauce, and pickles on top because it takes 9 minutes from start to finish.
• I can cook if I really want to. Meaning, I can cook when I'm trying to impress my hubby.
• If it were up to me I would hire a personal chef... tomorrow. Can I throw in a house cleaner too? One day Marci. One day.

Either way, I'm trying to "expand my horizons" as they say. I normally dislike chicken so this was a big step for me.

This is a chicken recipe I tried that turned pretty good despite the fact that it didn't turn out like the picture. This is probably a good time to mention that I may skip over instructions or miss things. I always tend to add more lemon. Note: Do not add more lemon.

Why do recipe pictures always lie by the way?

How it's suppose to look

Paleo Diet Lifestyle

 

How it turned out

Uhhh???

 

*Remember Paleo is eating clean. No refined sugar. No dairy. No grains. 

The ingredients can be substituted for non paleo foods if you wish.*
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter (or ghee), tallow, coconut oil or poultry fat; we used coconut oil
• 1/2 lb black olives (kalamata), cut in half; we excluded this
• 8 chicken thighs, with bones and skin;
• 3 cups onions, sliced thin;
• 30 gloves garlic, minced and smashed almost to a paste;
• 1/2 cup lemon juice;
• 2 extra lemons, thickly sliced (remove seeds with the tip of a knife);
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock;
• A bunch of picked thyme leaves;
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;

Technique

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
2. Melt the first 1/4 cup fat in a large and hot pan and brown the chicken pieces on all sides. It will take about 6 minutes total. Set the chicken aside. May have forgotten the whole browning part here.
3. Cook the onions until soft, about 3 minutes, and make sure to scrape all the delicious chicken bits off the pan while doing so.
4. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute, until fragrant. You can season with salt and pepper at this point.
5. Add the chicken stock, thyme and lemon juice and return the chicken thighs to the pan, skin side up.
6. Bring to a simmer and put the pan, covered, in the hot oven for about 20 minutes. Just noticed it said oven, oops.
7. Remove the lid, add the halved olives as well as the lemon slices and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes uncovered.
8. Serve the chicken with the olive, garlic and lemon sauce as well as with some of the lemon slices.

ENJOY!!!