Musical Monday: Bruno Mars - Count on me

I like this song.

It makes me smile.

I couldn't find a video I liked of it though as anything I could find was a live performance with girls screaming and singing off tune, so you'll have to settle for this umm... fabulous (?) pose of his while you listen to the song.

Happy Monday!

January Books

I've always been a big reader.

When I was in high school I would spend about 2 hours in Chapters at least once a week just puttering around, looking through books, making wish lists and buying the ones I would read that week.

After Zac was born I didn't read much for that first year.

About a month before we had Eli I panicked a bit thinking I wouldn't have the chance to read ever again. I read about 10 books in one month (!), then had Eli and didn't read anything for the last 21 months!

One of my goals for 2011 is to read more and take more time for myself. Lucky for me, one of the things I love to do for myself is read! So I get a two for one when I read.

This month I went a little crazy with the reading though. It seems once I start I just can't stop, so I thought I'd share the 5 books I've read as I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them!

Casting About

Hubby bought me this book for Christmas and I must say, he did very well!

In short, Casting About is a story about a young married couple, in the first year of their marriage. He has a daughter from a previous relationship and she comes to live with them. The story is about the love that develops between Monica (the main character) and this little girl.

The Hunger Games Series

The series takes place in the future, in the ruins of North America. The area is run by "The Capital", a harsh government, which is surrounded by 12 districts. In order to keep the districts in line The Capital forces each district to send 1 boy and 1 girl, between the ages of 12 and 18, to fight on live TV to the death. The last kid standing is the winner.

I'm not going to include descriptions of the second and third book as it could spoil things, so if you're interested Catching Fire is the second book and Mockingjay is the final book.

I LOVED this series. LOVED IT!!! I read all three books in 3 days, I could not put any of them down! Seriously, SO good! And such an easy read.

You can read some of the book here if you're interested, you just need to click on the picture of the book.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

It took me a bit longer to get into this book then the others and I had an easy time pacing myself through it.

The story is based around the lives of the women who participate in a... Friday Night Knitting Club!!! bet ya didn't see that one comin' eh?

It's sweet, you get to see past scars heal in some characters, new love develop in others. New adventures for some and loss for all. It may not sound like much, but I really enjoyed it once I got going.

What are some of your favourite books?

The nearest book store to us is 3.5 hours away by car so I order most of mine online. Any suggestions are MORE than welcome!!

Bath Time Shaving Cream "Paint"

My mother in law gave me this wonderful book for Christmas and I am loving it!!

One of the crafts that it shares is for bath time shaving cream paint and I couldn't wait to try it out!

The boys had so much fun with it and seriously, it couldn't be easier to make!!

Put some shaving cream in a few bowls and add a drop of food colouring and mix it all up!

I used the water based food colourings as they tend to stain a bit less, if they are going to stain at all.

I tried out a little area on the wall surrounding the tub a few nights before I let the boys loose incase there was any stainage and I would strongly encourage you to do the same if you are going to try these. I had no problem though and the boys loved it!!

Embrace the Camera - Me and Zac!!

Yesterday Zac asked me to take some pictures of us while Eli was having his nap.

I said why not and we wandered off into his room to try our hand at using the timer on the camera.

We had some troubles with the timer, I will admit...

I can't tell you how long we held these smiles before the timer went, I'm impressed Zac's still looking amused to be honest!

This picture was a bit of surprise from the timer... although you'd never be able to tell based on his enthusiasm!

Brownies

This is the last time I'm going to mention that I had a birthday... I promise!

However I had to share the recipe for the best brownies I have ever had!!!

I've never been one for birthday cake for myself. Honestly I can't remember the last time I choose to have a birthday cake in celebration of me. Usually I have a birthday pie.

This year though, after great internal debate, I decided I wanted moist, gooey, mocha brownies.

And let me just say, they did not disappoint!!

You should make these.

You should make these right now actually...

I'm not kidding... if you have the stuff, go make these!!

Mocha Brownies

1 cup flour

1 tbsp instant espresso powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp cocoa powder

8oz semisweet chocolate squares (8 squares)

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine together first 4 ingerdients and set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter over a double boiler in a large bowl. Once melted take off the heat and stir in sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each one.

Fold in flour mixture and while some flour still remains add in chocolate chips. Stir to combine.

Spread into a prepared 9x13 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until set but a few crumbs stick to tester when inserted.

They also keep really well in the freezer. I've been pulling them out through out the week to make for some wonderful moments

and they've tasted just as good as they did when they first came out of the oven!!

Snow Days

We've been getting buried with snow the last couple of days and I am loving it!!

It let up some yesterday afternoon and I was able to take the boys out to play. No pictures though I'm afraid, truth be told, they weren't nearly as excited about it as I had hoped.

Eli's not too sure about snow because it's cold and he can't help but continually doing face plants into it! And Zac's just not a fan of the cold wind that tends to come along with the snow.

I'm loving this weather!

Something about being covered in snow and unable to leave the house just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!!

Musical Monday: Adele - Rolling in the Deep

This has to be my favourite song at the moment...

I just can't get enough of it!