Chapter Seven – The Big News

That’s right – there’s a bun in that oven! More importantly, there’s a bun in MY oven 😉 I’m so happy I can finally share THE BIG NEWS with all of you! I’m overjoyed to announce that Etienne and I are expecting our third child on April 29, 2018. The upcoming addition to our family brings a whole mix of excitement and anxiety. My life, my days, and my thoughts are all so busy with my two little terrors darling children, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of three!

THREE. I come from a family of five, so in my heart I knew I always wanted three children of my own (siblings are the BEST, right?) but now that I’m smack in the middle of toddler/pre-school-dom it’s feeling fairly daunting! All that being said, I’m so excited to meet this new little person with his/her own personality, who will form our very own family of five!

I have to say, as a food blogger, the past few months have been ROUGH. If you’ve suffered from morning sickness before, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Why do they even call it morning sickness?! It’s definitely more of an “all day long” sickness. Along with that fun little symptom of early pregnancy, I’ve been struggling with nausea’s sidekick, a never-ending list of food aversions. What used to look and sound delicious to me (I’m talking about you, chimichurri pork) became revolting. We’ve basically become vegetarians, even though most vegetables are still tough to stomach…so really, we’re bread-tarians; however, the fog is lifting, and much to my husband’s delight I’m getting back into the kitchen and putting a little more colour (and meat) on our table!

Thankfully, most sweets and cakey, delicious things are still very eye-catching. Whew. I may have eaten three of my cranberry white chocolate donuts in one sitting the other day…

Other than our big news, life has been fairly uneventful. Oscar started a pre-kindergarten program this fall and that has created a whole new routine for us, and some fun one-on-one time with Mr. Wally! I finally mastered my sourdough starter, and have been baking a loaf of the tangy bread at least once a week. It is SO good! We love to break into it while it’s fresh and soak it up with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

As most of you know, we’ve also been battling all sorts of sickness for the past month but I think we’re out of the woods, except for a few lingering coughs! We had a few solid weeks of some major Netflix and snuggly blanket time. It’s definitely that time of year!!

This time of year also brings a billion birthdays. It was Etienne’s birthday on Tuesday and mine is coming up on Monday. I can’t wait to turn 25 again….(hah).

We celebrated my father-in-law’s 65th birthday this past Friday, and luckily Etienne’s sister and her family were home from Kelowna to join in on the festivities – and eat some of this ridiculous cake I made!

I had planned to do a blog post on it, but it didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped. It was delicious, but WAY over the top. Brownie bottom, white chocolate cheesecake middle and a chocolate mousse layer on top. Oh, and pounds of icing in between each layer and all over the cake. Right, and chocolate chips. It was good, but so, SO sweet and just too much. Not what I was going for, but I learned a few baking lessons along the way.

Speaking of baking, my friends and I just completed our Christmas cookie exchange this week and now I’m loaded down with a variety of amazing sweets – it’s so helpful to have a few different kinds of baking on hand for when company stops by, without all of the work! My contribution included my holiday twix bars and some double chocolate peppermint biscotti (post to come next week).

We will find out the gender of our new little peanut next week and I cannot wait!! Having two boys already, I’m hoping for a little bit of pink in my life, but obviously, a healthy baby is all I can really ask for!!

Babies, baking and Christmas bling. I hope your December is full of love and laughter – and a lot of ridiculously indulgent food.

Cheers!

K.