The happenings with the Mulligans

Hello ladies, 

Thank you for keeping up with the blog posts, its a great way to keep in touch with you ladies outside of text messages and Facebook posts. 

The past month has been great, starting with the lovely Christmas vacation spent with family and friends. Quinn and I hosted Christmas this year, which gave me the PERFECT excuse to bake and bake and bake. Let me tell you, with Quinn being gluten free it was easy to make sure none of the Christmas baking went missing…. I mean, not much went missing, I'm allowed to indulge too ;) 

Quinn's parents and sister and her now fiancé came to our house Christmas eve. We has lots of appies and desserts that evening and of course, lots of visiting. The next morning, we opened up our gifts from Quinn's family. It was a nice time to spend together. While opening gifties, I had some gooey cinnamon buns baking in the oven. I have to say, I like this new Martha Stewart thing I have going on. At about noon, Mom and Dad came to our house. We then opened up gifts from them. My dad made me a live edge wood bench for our foyer… it is beautiful. I was very impressed with my dad's skills. He said the wood is very local, he got the wood from McLean's Mill in Port Alberni, BC. I am now very proud to show you when you come to visit. 

After Christmas day, Quinn and I went to Kelowna for one day to attend one of the Kelowna Rockets home games. Quinn does analytics for his team and they have been quite taken with him. Quinn has designed software making it possible to track many components of the hockey game. He has also made it possible for the coaching staff to access from behind the bench, live as the game is being played out. He is loving it, and is doing it with his friend Drake. On this particular day I went with Quinn along for the ride. 

We then went back to the island for New Years. It is always great to catch up with my side of the family too. We had new years this year at Auntie Corrie's in Comox, she has the perfect house for hosting such a big family. 

Since being back at work after Christmas Holiday Quinn and I have been trying to be better at going to the gym. I have brought my gym bag to work with me every day as the gym is 5 blocks from my work. I am able to walk there after work when Quinn is running late…. He only ran late twice this week = I went twice this week. I guess twice is better than not going at all. 

Also this month, Ella and Jon came over to visit. We went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour. It was GREAT. We decided it will be an annual get together! Very inspiring, makes me want to join dance again, but I wouldn't know what level I would be at anymore. 

Last Fall was a big time for me learning how to be a "Master Baker" as Quinn once called me until we both realized, that might not be the best word to call me. So, We are now going with Sous Baker! Quinn thinks the name sous Baker sounds like a woman's name, however it is certainly better than the alternative. 

My new goal is to make amazing Italian food. I have attempted gnocchi (packaged gnocchi pieces, handmade sauce from scratch) and I must say, it tastes great.. I'm making it tonight again. It's so easy, but tastes so good, you wouldn't think it was that easy. I will need to learn how to make gnocchi from scratch, Alysia I know you have mastered this, maybe we could have cooking day soon and make gnocchi from scratch :)  

Hope you girls are doing well. I think about you girls often 

Sending my love, Aalysia

Welcome 2016

Hello Ladies of 2016,

Just realized today that we are one year away from our 10 year reunion. Wild right! We all look a little different now ;) Well anyways happy New Year to you all. Hope everyone is doing well, it was great to see these post the last few days.

Minnesota is all well and good, cold....really cold. Martin is making me look bad by being super busy at work, but doesn't he always. My work is good, as of the 25th I am officially only working at one office Monday to Thursday 8-5pm. I am so grateful to for the first time in my career to be the full time, non temporary, respected, appreciated, oldest (haha), hygienist in the practice. The last few years have been full of all kinds of phases with work life, and I'm glad to say I feel like I've payed my dues and I'm ready for some regular scheduled work life! I can't wait to plan out the next few months in advance!

Some exciting life events in our family, My brother Drew and Tamara are expecting their second baby in mid to end of July. Martin is going to be traveling to Africa in April for a mouth the Mayo Clinic on an international health exchange. I plan to travel to BC in the beginning of April and am looking into a July trip when the baby comes, closer to their next dating ultrasound.

Looking forward to all that the New Year will bring. One of the things I was most proud of last year was getting our wedding photos on the wall and in a book without delay! I'll have to take a better photo of our gallery wall but I wanted to share the link to the book we made on Picaboo with our photographers pictures. So enjoy, will touch base soon with more adventures, recipes and more. Miss you all hope all is well!  


http://www.picaboo.com/?share=9ec6702a0f5c46bfe80db61e1476109b&version=661474&siteID=ViaPreview


<3 K xo

Here's to 2016.

Here's to 2016.
A new year full of new plans, ideas, and hope. Thankful for another year.

I was revisiting my goals for last year - this is something Jon and I do a lot at the start of each year together - and it was so fun to see the things I accomplished and compare them to what I'd like to try this coming year.

Though I didn't quite master recipes each week like Alysia did with her cookies, we did try a bunch of new recipes - basically all the recipes from the Oh, she Glows cookbook. Uh-maze-ing! Some of our favourites include the baked oatmeal, Spa day Bircher Museli, African Peanut Stew, Kale and Lentil soup, Soba Noodle Salad, and the Banana soft serve. Just to name a few. Her second cookbook comes out this year - very excited!

Aalysia & Alysia, you've inspired me to do more baking too, specifically from the Butter cookbook. We'll see if I can muster up enough butter for one specific baked item per month - that's outside of muffins, granola bars and the "regular" cookies.

Though I didn't get on my bike much - my foot was still having a hard time adjusting to that, I did do a lot of hiking in the spring and early summer, which was lovely. We have so many incredible trails around here.
This year, I plan to start trying to incorporate some running into my daily walks, try the bike again, and continue to hike/explore. :) We have started snowshoeing which is a wonderful way to spend the day up the mountain - we love it! So does Tolmie.

To continue learning new things, I tried some different knitting patterns and got a bit more adventurous with my sewing skills. This year, I've registered for a few different knitting classes already: some skill-building classes, as well as a Scandinavian Yoke Sweater class. I am so excited to practice my skills at colour work - the possibilities are endless! :)
Last year, I completed a cross-stitch for my sister for Christmas. This year, I plan to complete the Twelve Days of Christmas for myself to have hanging next year.

There are many other little things I hope to try out this year, but I'll post those as they come around.

I hope you've all had a wonderful start to 2016. Looking forwards to hearing your plans for the year.

Think of each of you daily.
Lots of love.
xo E.