1st attempt=failure

I posted before about how I was going to try and make cupcakes myself. Well we did just that this last weekend. It didn't go so well.

I have realized that looks can be quite deceiving with cupcakes. They may look good but taste bad. This one doesn't look that great either as I am not very good at the frosting thing yet. So first problem is that the cupcake was supposed to be red velvet but it was brown. Then the tops got kind of crusty and the frosting was not nearly sweet enough. Lastly, they didn't really taste like red velvet. Oh well. I am not giving up. If I have learned anything about cooking/baking it is all about finding the right recipe.
On a happier note: don't you love it when you hear a song that you haven't in a while and forget how much you like it. That happened to me this weekend when Jeff and I were driving and he picked Jenny Lewis to listen to.

There is a little cameo in there by Sarah Silverman. Interestingly, Jenny Lewis started out in acting. Some of you may have seen this movie.

Yup, Troop Beverly Hills. That is Jenny behind Shelly Long. I remember watching this movie. Good times.

Edmonton

So Jeff had another 4 day weekend (2nd one since we have been here) and we decided we needed to take advantage of it time. No more sitting around the house and just running errands on the weekend. We went up on Friday morning and stayed through Saturday night. Edmonton is actually the capital of Alberta and it is about 3 hrs north of us. We mostly decided to go there because they have a temple and it has been a while.

It is one of the smaller temples. It is actually in the parking lot of a Stake Center there. It was weird. It was literally like they just took some of the parking lot space. I was remembering the temple in Halifax and that is basically what they did for that one as well. I wonder if that is what the do for all of the 'mini' temples. Some of you may wonder how we went to the temple with Jane. Well we just had to take turns. It is not ideal but I suppose it works.
Edmonton seemed like a really nice city. It was really green and pretty. Which actually surprised me since Jeff said that people he worked with complained about Edmonton. Saying that they didn't like it an such. You can see that it looks pretty nice.

Well the one thing that Edmonton is known for is the West Edmonton Mall . It was the largest mall in the world for a while, then in North America but now just in Canada. It is quite the place. Rollercoaster, a water park, ice skating rink, and lots of shopping and food. Here are some pics I took of the place.

You don't realize how loud amusement parks really are until they are indoors. Jane didn't like all the noise very much and started to cry.

You can't tell very well but this is a replica of an old ship. It is in an area that has water that they are 'sea life'. It is mostly a little show they do with sea lions every couple of hours.

This is the ship behind Jeff and Jane. She is not looking too happy but was good during our visit. I didn't get a pic of the water park. It was a large wave pool and like 4 or so water slides. It was fun to see and we did end up buying some things at H & M (mostly for Jane). We didn't ride any rides or anything and realized that we just really aren't mall people. So we left after a couple of hours.
We stayed in a hotel downtown. We actually stayed on the 13th floor. Mostly buildings don't even have a 13th floor so it was kind of weird. It had a cool view but Jeff was freaked about getting too close to the windows. He had a sudden phobia of balconies and such since we had Jane :) So besides this we just walked around downtown some and had some good food.  Here are some other pics I took.

Jane loves putting her mouth on skin and blowing. It is really funny. Here she is sucking on my chin. Sadly, there are no funny videos of Jane this weekend. She is not on her A game :)

For the love of food

So as most of you know Jeff and I love to eat. Jeff always jokes that the thing I get the most excited about is food. One of the things that we love to eat is mexican food. We could literally eat tacos or burritos just about every night for dinner. It is a little sad but it is true. We don't do this, though. I always try to mix it up. So when we got up here and couldn't find corn tortillas we were shocked. Seriously, I looked in 4 or 5 different stores and nothing. Crazy. So we searched and searched and finally found a small market that specializes in Mexican fare. Thank goodness for that. We are also on the hunt to find a good mexican restaurant but nothing really yet. (Viva Michoacan)
I am also a sucker for cupcakes. I have been for some time. I remember in high school making a yellow cake mix with chocolate frosting into cupcakes. I would sit and devour 5 or more in one sitting. So I am always on the hunt for good cupcakes. Most of the time when I travel I will find a cupcake place. We got these last weekend.

These cupcakes were good but nothing spectacular. As I sat there eating them, I realized that there has been only one time when I have gotten a cupcake and didn't think I could make it at home. So I made a decision.....no more buying cupcakes for a while. I will just make them. Thanks to Vanessa I have a cupcake cookbook with lots of delicious looking recipes. So new goal: make cupcakes. I will keep you all apprised of how it works out for me. I just love them so much that I couldn't go without them and i keep thinking that I should bake more. I really love to cook but baking hasn't been my thing as much. Jeff has been the baker in the family so far. He makes a mean loaf of bread and some delicious pizza dough.

Does she take after her parents? I think so. The love of food is starting so early.

Here are some pics that I took of her recently. It happened to be a little warmer out so I took advantage.

Behind Jane is the golf course that we live on.

She didn't love being on the grass as much as sitting on the chair. There was a loud machine close by and it was kind of windy. Can you guess where that flower ended up?

A Mom

This past weekend was mothers day and it was my first. Honestly, I didn't feel much different from every other day being a mom. Maybe you are not really supposed to or maybe I will when Jane is older, who knows. Jeff did try to make it a good day for me. He took Jane in the morning so I could sleep some more (Jane has yet to have a good night sleep since we moved here). He does that a lot on the weekends. He cut me up a bunch of fruit for breakfast (best breakfast ever) and he also made me dinner. He got me some flowers and such. He was really great. We should have documented it with some pics but it seems like we really only take pictures of Jane these days.

Speaking of.....Jane had her first experience with 'real food' last week. I was thinking that it could be why she wasn't sleeping well (sadly it made no difference). She loves to eat which she gets from me. She gets so excited whenever she knows I am giving her food and has started to look longingly at the food we have. I have only given her fruit so far. She is a HUGE fan of mangoes (who isn't though). My sister told me about this great thing that is mesh and you put the food inside and they basically suck it out. Here are some pics. 

Look at the light reflected off that bald noggin. 

This one is a little blurry but so dang cute.

This is how excited she gets every time she gets to eat food.

Despite her sleep issues, she is still a pretty happy girl. She has her days but I think she might be teething some as well. That has really been the most exciting things that have happened to us. I know that you all think since we are in a new place that we would have all sorts of cool things to talk about. Well not yet. I know I have blamed the weather for not getting out much but it has also been my own laziness. It does look like that weather is changing here (more on that later). We are really still just doing the normal stuff like going out to eat and watching movies, stuff like that. Jeff has another 4 day weekend coming up soon and we are making some plans for that. 

Ok back to Jane. She loves other babies and kids. She always smiles when she see them. This includes herself in the mirror. If she is upset, inevitably putting her in front of the mirror will calm her down. In this one she sees two babies. 

Oh and yes she is feeling groovy in her tie dye shirt. Not sure where I inherited that from. That is it for now from the great north.