Our grandson arrived on January 12th! If you follow me on facebook, you’re thinking, “we know already!“. I must confess to over-sharing photos (just call me Grammarazzi!), but I can’t help it. It’s either the baby or the cat, and the baby is definitely cuter!

He is a lovely, healthy wee boy, and weighed in at 7lbs 15oz and was 20.5″ in length. His first name is Brian, after my dad. I probably shouldn’t share his last name as he isn’t mine to share (well, not all mine). Although, I wouldn’t mind keeping him. Just saying!

Is there anything sweeter than newborn feet?

Well, maybe a newborn face! He’s just a few hours old here.

I’ve been terrible about my resolutions too! I’ve managed to take a photo a day, except the one day that I didn’t see wee Brian and well there just wasn’t any point. I’ve lapsed with the green smoothies and the week-day blogging, but not all is lost. Today, I made a smoothie today AND wrote a post!

I still haven’t come up with a great ‘G-word’ substitute! I’ll keep you posted.

MK xo

May I introduce you to … the soon to be …

Auntie Georgie and Unkie Sam (he wants Unkie, not uncle). Uncle Sam does sound a bit too American for a Canadian uncle, don’t you think?

Hayley will be induced tomorrow, so our new baby boy will be here SOON!

I’m excited, but the G-word is still doing nothing for me. Mr. MK thinks he might like ‘Pops’, but I can’t think of a good G-word substitute.

What do you think?

Please send my girl your good thoughts tomorrow for a peaceful birth and a healthy baby.

xo MK

So these resolutions I made are hard to keep, even when I want to. I’ve manage to keep two of the three so far. I’ve blogged every week-day (Monday through Friday) and I have also managed to take and upload a photo everyday to Flickr (so much easier using my iPhone 4, than my Nikon). I love my Nikon but really … the iPhone is just way, way, way easier. EASIER!

Sadly, I still forget to take pics while the action is going on and I usually snap something after all the action is finished …

This is Georgia at the ski hill after the racing was long over.

And this is the next day, after the kids had assembled and then started to dissemble for the group photography. What a great bunch of backs our team has.

This chick doesn’t really care, I just care that I took and uploaded a photo. Good, bad, even ugly (me not Georgia), I’ll upload pretty much anything these days.

If you haven’t guessed from the photos, we spent our weekend at the ski hill. Our club held four races over the weekend (it ain’t easy), and it was non-stop ski stuff. I’d barely unpacked from the Christmas vacation, there were no groceries in the house. Unless I wanted a rotten lettuce and cucumber smoothie (I didn’t) there was no ingredients to make my green smoothie and no energy or time to shop for ingredients on both Saturday and Sunday.

The race is finally over, the groceries are bought and a very tasty green smoothie was enjoyed by the whole family. tonight’s concoction –> Green apple, pear, orange, spinach, celery, lime, pineapple, ice and water. It was rather delicious!

I’m back on the wagon!

xo MK

To take the Christmas tree down …

BUT, important news first –> Woot! I’m so Pround of my girl who place 3rd in her time trials today and has now qualified for the Alberta Winter Games.

That said, we’ve been so busy with the holidays and skiing. There are so many things in my world that need done.

This 6/365 picture clearly demonstrates two things:

1. Cats and Christmas trees get along all too well!
2. It’s well past time to take the poor Christmas tree down.

Also note that in all of the chaos that seems to be my life, I forget to take decent photos until it’s way too late and then have to take terrible photos of the benign. Why didn’t I get a picture of my ski racer today? Sheesh!

I did (thanks to my kid who made it for me!) have a smoothie (trying to keep that resolution going) today. I’ll admit it wasn’t green, but it was smoothie and I’m counting it.

Two more days of ski craziness and life returns to normal. Two days off from blogging.

What’s keeping you busy these days?

xo MK

It’s been a really busy holiday season! We’ve had a wonderful time with family and friends. And Although I love the mountains and love to ski …

I’m happy to be home. So is Georgia. She’s playing with all the toys she forgot she received for Christmas and I’m curled up on the sofa watching reality TV.

We have a HUGE weekend ahead of us! Liz is skiing in the Alberta Winter Games qualifiers tomorrow evening. Only the top 5 in our zone make it to the actual games, so keep your fingers crossed for her. Georgia has her first race of the season on Sunday. Will and I are both volunteering all weekend. It’s going to be a long one …

We spent the day skiing in Banff. I love to ski at Sunshine.

The image above was taken as my 3/365 photo. It’s about the tenth time I’ve taken a photo from exactly the same spot. That tree, the rugged terrain. I’ll never tire of trying to capture the beauty of it.

I never ski by that spot without stopping. Do you have a favorite spot outdoors?

I never make resolutions, but 2012 is going to be different!

This year I’ve made not one, but three promises to myself.

I’m going to have a green smoothie every day.

So far, so good.

I’m going to take photo everyday in 2012 and publish to my Flickr account.

So far, so good.

I’m going to blog every week day in 2012.

If this post goes up in the next 8 minutes … so far, so good!

What are your new year’s resolutions?

The kids and I have been making gingerbread houses for years. Probably 7 or 8 years with Elizabeth, Sam and Georgia and I made them with Hayley when she was a wee girl too.

Many, many moons ago I tried making, cutting, baking and assembling my own gingerbread house from scratch. It was a disaster, a first world disaster to be sure, but a disaster none-the-less.

I have, ever since, bought the kits you see in every grocery store and of course Michaels. Most of them are right around the $10 mark, and very easy to assemble.

I used this gingerbread house kit this year to create the house above. It was just $8.99. A steal really.

The kits are cute and all, and if you just buy a kit and nothing else you’ll have created a super cute gingerbread house and more importantly some great memories to go with it for your children.

However, why not take it a step further and use the kit as the base for an even more elaborate creation? For about $10 extra you can create a gingerbread to call your own! Your kids will love you for it.

Here are a few ideas from this year’s model.

This evergreen tree is made by stacking 4 Spearmint Leaf candies. The first 3 were stacked and rotated, the four and top candy was cut in half with the pointed end of the leaf pointing up.

This kit didn’t come with a chimney and every log cabin needs a chimney. You can build one out of Hot Tamales cinnamon candies and frosting. It’s easy … or if you prefer you can use graham wafers and cereal like we did last year.

Sour Whips purchased at Dollarama were used to make the green siding, window interior and even the roof shingles. These candies are similar to Betty Crocker’s Fruit Roll Ups, which were also used along the roof line and around the chimney base.

Logs for the base of the house were made using Rondoletti Cafe Style Cream Wafers (available at Canada Safeway).

Do you ever make a gingerbread house? I’d love to see pictures if you do. I’m always looking for new ideas.

I know that MommyknOws doesn’t start with O, but I also knOw that I’m super excited to be today’s stop on the Secret Agent Josephine Book Tour.

I’ve been a HUGE fan of Secret Agent Josephine‘s blog for many years, because she’s enormously talented, kind (yep, that’s obvious from her posts) and so, so creative. I love creative and she’s has inspired me more than once. Just this summer I was lucky enough to get to know Brenda IRL, and to share a meal and laughs. She even used her creative genius to fashion a hat just for me out of a paper bag. I’d show you the photos, but then I’d have to go into permanent hiding (YEP, that BAD!).

Brenda has illustrated and written three fantastic children’s books.

Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s:

The ABCs burst brilliantly on to the page in this alphabet flash card book by blogger Secret Agent Josephine, a.k.a. Brenda Ponnay. Children will delight in the colorful illustrations and simple text.

Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s are an ideal introduction to the alphabet — kids will love the pictures and parents will appreciate the thoughtful details and eye-catching illustrations.

Secret Agent Josephine’s Colors:

What’s the best way for kids to learn their colors? With a yellow yak, a brown brachiosaurus, and plenty of other wacky animal friends!
Secret Agent Josephine a.k.a. Brenda Ponnay presents her quirky illustrations paired with hilarious captions, sure to engage older children who may already know the difference between red and blue, but can’t wait to see what the next color will bring.

Secret Agent Josephine’s Numbers:

Secret Agent Josephine is willing to reveal the contents of her stealthy, super expanding spy bag–but are you ready?

In this fresh and funny book, Brenda Ponnay, aka Secret Agent Josephine, gets kids counting spy glasses, micro-cameras and more super-secret spy gear. Little ones will love the bright colors and big numbers, older children (and their parents) will delight in the detailed descriptions of the spy paraphernalia

Georgia absolutely adores the ‘Numbers’ book! Her favourite page –> The number 9! We read it (almost) nightly and always find something new and nifty on each page.

***

Today’s Crafty Mission: Spy Eye Cookies

Georgia and I had a ton of fun baking up today’s mission –> Top Secret Spy Eye Cookies! Secret clue may or may not be in the photo above.

Get the top secret instructions here: SPY-COOKIES-INSTRUCTIONS – Destroy after reading (or share with a friend)!

Giveaway!

In honor of her book release, Brenda has generously offered us a letter O print (from her book) to give to you! Please leave a comment below to be entered to win a print. I’ll pick a winner on December 10th and then notify the winner via email.

Thank you Brenda for including MommyKnOws in the book tour; I’m honored!

Now, go buy your copies of these affordable and fun books!

Click here to access Brenda’s Amazon author page with links to all her books in both paper and Kindle versions!

Download from iTunes:

ABCs on iTunes
Colors on iTunes
Numbers on iTunes

Paperback and nook editions of the books at Barnes & Noble

For the next stop on the tour, visit Brenda’s website.

If you haven’t guessed already, I’m NOT one of those moms that minds a scary Halloween costume. Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of Halloween in general and I really don’t like ‘commercial’ costumes at all. I’d rather have a homemade zombie over a Disney princess any day.

I don’t encourage gory, but I absolutely encourage creative costumes made with things around the house and some imagination. It’s Halloween I think spooky is OK.

Zombie make up is really pretty simple!

You’ll need:

Liquid latex
1 ply tissue or toilet paper
Skin coloured foundation
Various shades of grey, brown and pink eyeshadow
Fake blood

If you wake your child up early enough, she’ll even feel a wee bit like a zombie. Excuse the photos … I just used my phone!

Step 1 – using your fingers or large makeup brush smear liquid latex in the areas that you’d like to have look like rotting / zombie flesh. Apply a layer of one ply tissue or toilet paper over top. Gently paint/smear another thin layer of liquid latex over the tissue paper. Allow the tissue and latex to dry for a few minutes.

Don’t be worried if the tissue bunches up a bit or tears. It’ll all work out!

Step 2 – Cover the tissue / latex with skin coloured foundation. Blend it in well to the hairline.

Step 3 – Using a large make-up brush apply grey make-up (I used eye shadow) around the eyes. A little pink around the eyes looks good too. They I used more grey, black and brown eye shadow and applied it to the face especially over the zombie skin. Blend it in really well using a large brush and a very light touch.

Step 4 – next comes the fake blood. Brush it lightly over the zombie skin and then add more to areas you’d like to enhance, like the mouth.

That’s pretty much it. VERY simple! Finishing touched might include zombie contact lenses, teeth paint (green and black), crazy backcombed hair, and ripped up clothing.

Happy Halloween & watch out of Zombies!

MK xo