Fun filled New Years weekend!

This past weekend was lots of fun. Since I have a baby, New Years Eve itself wasn't too eventful. In fact once Gabe went down, I managed to stay up and watch a little TV before falling asleep myself. That is OK with me. I'm not a big stay up until midnight and all that Jazz kinda person anyway. At least not anymore.

On New Years Day, we headed over to my brother and sister-in-laws house where we had THE most divine breakfast. Liz made her mom's Gingerbread Pancakes with Apple Cider Sauce topped with whipped cream...HEAVEN on a plate I have now re-named them. These were out of this world and I have been DREAMING about them ever since. I hope to worm the recipe out of Liz so I can post it. If I were her, I wouldn't share it, it is way too good to share! Then I had made Liz's Sausage and Egg breakfast casserole (also SO SO yummy- will post the recipe), Brian and Shanna provided the beverages and Sandy and Clark brought the yummy fruit. Leading up to New Years Day, us sisters had been excited about planning this married kids and the in-laws only breakfast and it was so much fun. I'm hoping we can keep it a tradition.


After breakfast Liz, Sandy and I headed to Home Depot with the two little boys to choose paint colors for Sandy's soon to be renovated family room. Then it was off to the Bentley house to get cracking on the family room. We got frustrated, laughed and almost cried while we moved furniture, ripped bricks off the old fireplace and attempted to remove a wall paper border that seemed to have permanently afixed itself to the wall. All while the boys sat and watched the big screens at RC Willey while waiting to pick up the new couch. We weren't too impressed! =)

On Friday we had a gentleman come and give us a bid to do some small renovations on our kitchen. Brad and I had bought tile for the kitchen a couple of years ago but just hadn't had the time to install it so we decided it was time to just let someone else do it. There just isn't enough time with school, work and a toddler roaming around. I will post before and after pics when we are done. We are having tile installed, some cabinets lifted and on Saturday Brad took out an outside door which we had in our kitchen and replaced it with a wall. Once all the remodeling is done we will change the paint. It will be so nice to have tile instead of the nasty lino we have now and I am excited to have all new matching baseboards and trim. The old baseboards and trim were anything but matching and were in rough shape. They are starting on the renovations today! Yipeee.

Below is a couple of pics of the old door and now the new wall. I am so proud of Brad for being able to get all of that done in one day all whilst braving the freezing cold weather and having a little helper who at times was not so much of a help. Brad you are amazing!







Even amongst all the drafty maddness of Brad putting in the wall on Saturday, that didn't stop Shanna and I from hitting the kitchen to whip up something yummy. Neither of us was feeling overly inspired so we decided to re-make something I had made the day before (yeah I loved it that much). We made Apple Bars (recipe to follow). They were moist and yummy and even better when paired with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. YUM!




Yesterday I tried a new recipe for dinner, that will now be a staple in the Bentley house. Cheesy Chicken Lasagna. It was mmmmhmmmmm good. (Recipe to follow) I also had the oppurtunity to watch my friend Amber's little boy Jeremy for a while in the afternoon. He is about 7 months old and is such a cute kid. He and Gabe really enjoyed playing together.

Having some fun with Jeremy while Gabe slept