Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Here are some of the highlights of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2008.

Christmas Eve was spent out at my grandma's house in Ashland. She made a delicious meal and the kids had fun opening a few presents from the Great-Grandparents and wrestling! Later that night we were able to read from Luke 2 and Emily told us that she likes Mary because she wore a blue veil. Good to know she's paying attention and all :-).


Christmas morning brought some "pretty amazing" gifts, according to Emily. Christian got a train table from Santa (which is now currently our new coffee table). Emily got a plasma car from Santa. Both kids got some cool new sleds from Grandma and Grandpa Lindseth (which Emily insisted upon opening each gift on top of). We didn't take too many still shots of the morning b/c we were able to capture most of it on our new video camera from Mom and Harvey! It feels great to be able to make some memories!



After we had our own little family time, we drove over to my mom's house, opened up some gifts there and had a very yummy brunch, while listening to Swedish music (a family tradition). One of the Christmas traditions from Cubby's family that we are keeping up with is the making of cinnamon rolls--the recipe I used this year was from another Munch and Mingle and they were sooooo good. I do, however, need a good icing recipe (the one I used was okay, but not up to par with the rolls). Anyone have a good one? Once brunch was over, it was time to head home and collapse! After a good rest, Grandma and Harvey came over for some enchilladas and some more playtime before bedtime!

Whew! It was such a whirlwind of a day, but watching the kids' faces when they first came out on Christmas morning made it all worth it. The "magic" of the Christmas season was seen in their eyes and Cubby and I loved every minute of it!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Baking Days

With this cold and snowy weather, we have been doing some Christmas baking. On Wednesday, Emily and I made Peanut Butter Blossoms...yummy...She helped me mix the ingredients, roll the dough into balls, and then put Hersey kisses on each cookie. This batch makes a TON of cookies and so I was suprised that she stuck with me through it all! And, don't you just love the sight of cookies, all lined up neatly in-a-row??? Delicious AND organized! (Yes, I realize I'm a big nerd.)

Then today, we made some Peppermint Bark. This was the first time I'd tried this, and it turned out to be fun for the kids. Here is what you need:

*hard peppermint candies, crushed (1 lb was too much, next time we'll crush about 1/4 of it)
*1-1 1/2 lbs white chocolate chips
*1 cup puffed rice cereal (aka Rice Crispies)
*1 double boiler (the one pictured is on-loan to me from my mom; it was my grandma's, isn't it cute?!)
*1 little boy (or girl) who likes to use a hammer!

Here is what you do:

Crush candies and set aside. Line cookie sheet with wax paper. Place white chocolate into double boiler and heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth (4-5 min). Remove from heat and stir in cereal.
Pour mixture into lined cookie sheet; use a spatula to spread evenly to 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with desired amount of crushed candy. Cover with wax paper and press candy gently in.
Chill in freezer until firm (about 20-25 min). No more or candy will become soft. Peel off wax paper. Break apart into pieces. Store at room temperature.

I got this recipe from a Munch and Mingle that I'd gone to. There was not a name on the recipe, so I'm not sure who to give credit to. It turned out pretty good (like I said, I think we used too much peppermint) but Christian had a great time crushing them!

Weekend Update

It was yet another busy weekend! Here we go.....

Friday night was our ward's Christmas party, "Christmas Around the World." Emily invited her friend, Nicholas, from preschool. His mom, Julie, came too (his dad stayed home w/his sisters who are younger and needed to be in bed). The kids really had a fun time---whoever brought mac-and-cheese and hotdogs was a genius. I brought some Yaki-soba, a Japanese dish that my brother was sweet enough to go out and shop for me and tell me how to cook it. It's kind of like a Japanese ramen, but with veggies and it is way better.

Anyhow, here are the kids watching the program (notice how Christian is among the "big kids").

And, here is Christian with Anna. I really should devote an entire post to this. He just is so crazy about her--it's so funny. She is sucha' sweetie to play with him and include him in her play.


Saturday rolled around and I got to go out with my friend, Amber, and run a 5k indoors at the fieldhouse on base. Time-wise for me, it wasn't awesome, but, we both had fun and got t-shirts and a goodybag for doing it! (They were doing drawings for ipods and restaurant gift certificates, but we didn't win--bummer!) Anyhow, thanks, Amber, for inviting me along!

Meanwhile...Cubby was helping a family move into their house and my mom and Harvey were playing with the kids. Harvey even had the kids solo for about an hour or so--THANK YOU!!! They had a blast and all of the toys out reflected that!

Saturday afternoon I was able to go out and get my hair done (ahhhhh.....) and that evening, Cubby got to go out with his friends, Roland and Barry, to a Creighton basketball game! (And I am so glad that he got to go!) Cubby needs more "guys nights out". Sure, he plays basketball Tuesday and Thursday nights, but to be able to go out and do something different was, I think, well-deserved!

Sunday came and went with crafts in the morning and church in the afternoon--Christian is adjusting to nursery. He really loves his teachers and only cries for a few minutes when he gets dropped off. I hear that once the food gets passed out, he calms right down. Go figure! He always answers in the affirmative when asked if he had fun in nursery. Hurray!

And that about does it for our weekend update! Oh wait, two more side notes:

1. It is ZERO degrees outside...and windy. It's colder than cold.
2. Our Christmas shopping is done! Now, on to the wrapping and baking!

The Nativity, plus one

Now, which of these little figurines was more-than-likely NOT present on that Holy Night?

Amidst the "Madness"--A (Good) Time Out Needed!

Last week, my friend, Candis, invited us to the Children's Museum. They have a pass that gets friends in too and since Emily begs me to go every other week or so, we were so excited to go! (It also happened to be Taitum's birthday, so we were happy to celebrate with her!)


Emily, Taitum, and Christian had such a good time together! One of their favorite rooms was the "ball room." They found tubes that blast air out of them and had fun making their hair fly. Christian just thought that making a ball float was the coolest!



With everything that has been going on around here lately, it was great just to get out and "play"--everyone, parent and child, definitely needs playtime!

Birthday Madness!

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again...no, not time for Christmas (yet)...it was time for Emily's birthday! She turned four this year and boy-oh-boy, we celebrated! Her birthday was on Monday and we had a family party, complete with just a "few" presents, which she has loved playing with all week long!


Then, this morning was her much-anticipated friend party. We had a Princess Party and all were asked to come dressed as their favorite princess. Emily really wanted to invite ALL of her friends, but because 30 children just wouldn't fit in our house, we had to narrow it down to just five of the little girls (b/c "boys aren't princesses, mommy") that she plays with most often or plays with a lot in preschool.


We colored, danced, and played a few little games before opening presents, eating lunch and cake, and then just letting the girls play a bit. They loved Cubby being any villian and chasing them down the hallway into Emily's room. Their little screams were ear-piercing! Soooo much fun.

I'm so glad it's over though...can I collapse now?!

We Are Thankful...

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend. Cubby stayed home Thursday morning (giving up playing in a Turkey Bowl game) to eat french toast and play with the kids! Whatta' sweet guy.

He also cleaned our oven...a HUGE ordeal if you'd seen the inside of our oven after monkey bread dripping all over the bottom...multiple times. It was so great because instead of having to clean it myself and do a million other household things that I usually have to do, I got to just chill out and watch the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade with Emily and Christian. Such a treat. Incidentally, the Buzz Lightyear balloon was the biggest hit.

After naps, we went over to my mom's house for dinner. She had made all of the "essentials"--turkey, homemade rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes, etc...(I brought a salad and some cookies and my grandma brought some heavenly pies!) Dinner was beautiful, delicious, and, with the two kids, crazy. Emily enjoyed her garlic bread, blue jell-o, and stuffing. Christian devoured his corn-on-the-cob, green beans, and rolls. It was wonderful!

We have so much to be thankful for this season. I am so grateful that Abraham Lincoln recognized that We, as Americans, needed to have a day to give Thanks to the Lord for all of the blessings that He gives to us all year long. Happy Thanksgiving!

Emily, Miss Emily...

Since Emily will be FOUR on Monday, I wanted to do a last "hurrah" to her three-year old days. I'll do two of her likes and one major dislike.

First off, puzzles. Emily really likes puzzles. Here are two of her latest ones. The first has 63 pieces. We got this one a few months ago and she does this one all by herself! The second one has 100 pieces. We got this one on Monday and we do help her "get started" a bit. Still though, 100 pieces? We're thinking that's fairly impressive.




Secondly, Emily and her "slight" obsession with the color blue. Okay, it's just a bit more than slight. She has loved blue since I can remember. Lately, however, I've noticed that some of the blue things in our house (mostly, her toys) have been disappearing. After quiet time today, I go into her room and low and behold, some of the blue items are on her nightstand! All set up. She also has a container full of just blue things. She's a bit of a hoarder, I think. In any case, it's pretty cute.


Finally, the dislike. This is very funny. Emily ABHORS Cheerios. She seriously has a major aversion to them and will avoid a Cheerio at all costs. As a baby, it was not always so. She used to eat them, but then, her sensitive gag reflex would come in and throw them up. Yuck. Ever since, she will yell out "Mom! There's a Cheerio on the floor!" should Christian drop one of his. She also has a super-sniffer nose when it comes to this cereal. She can smell a Cheerio in church, on peoples' breaths, even if no one is eating them and they're up on the counter. It's so bad that she won't even go near a Cheerios box.

Now, being the good parents that we are, do we exploit this? Of course we do! Emily's bedtime antics were so bad at one point that we had to resort to threatening Cheerios. And, mind you, all we had to do was threaten with the BOX. We never had to even take any out. She got so mad about this one night though that she yelled, "This isn't fair!" and got up the courage to kick the box over! Hilarious to say the least. Now, just the mere question, "Do we need to get the Cheerios out?" is usually enough to curb any unruly behavior.

These last three years sure have been fun. Well, fun after the first five months of her life, at least. (I just shudder when I think about that time...) We are just so blessed to have such an amazingly smart and quirky little "big" girl! We love you, Emily!

Love In My Family

Lately, there have been many examples of love shown within our family and I just wanted to make note a few of them that I've noticed. To the reader: this may be a bit sappy...consider yourself warned.

Emily and Cubby have always had one of those great Daddy-Daughter bonds. Tonight, they "made a recipe" together. Actually, Cubby is in-charge of bringing food in tomorrow to work and so he and Emily put the breakfast casserole and monkey bread together tonight. They were dancing and singing to music, Cubby was helping Emily to read and measure out the ingredients, and they were just having such a great time bonding. It was really heart-warming and Emily was just so tickled to be "helping" out so much.

Christian has been so sweet with his kisses and letting Emily give him hugs and kisses (usually he thinks she's trying to tackle him and pushes her away). He and Emily also had a grand-ol' time running around our kitchen-living room loop, roaring like lions (or dragons, or whatever makes those noises). Both got a huge kick out of it and it totally wore them out! Here is a picture of Christian, mid-ROAR!

Finally, Cubby is always showing his love to me (most of the time he's super pesty and thinks that is what I want), but both Monday night and yesterday evening he got it just right.

Sunday night I started to feel a cold coming on...yuck. By Monday at 5:00 I was so tired and didn't even want to heat up left overs for dinner. Cubby came home with pizza and then continued to feed the kids and clean up afterwards while I rested. It was really nice. Not that he doesn't help out and clean up on a very regular basis, but it was just extra special because I was sick and got to rest.

Then, last night, I mentioned to him how good some hot chocolate sounded, not thinking he'd read anything into it; I'm always making comments about stuff that "sounds good" (who doesn't do that?). Next thing I know, he's in the kitchen, and making hot chocolate on the stove, with milk and everything. It was some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had. I just want him to know how much I appreciate all of the "little" things he does--they're not so little to me!

Our family, like many others, has its ups and downs. I just wanted to pause and reflect (and document for future reminders!) some of the ups!

Folder Tag

Well, I've seen a 4th of 4 and a 6th of 6 (fourth picture of fourth folder, sixth picture of sixth folder). I'm going to go for the 5th picture of my 5th folder!



This is Emily in January of 2006. She had just turned one. These were a few of her favorite things: her Dolly, her Wiggles slippers, and her toothbrush.

Anyone who is up for this should play along!

Act Quickly! Free Photo Book from Snapfish!

My friend, Jaimi, sent me this email about a free photo book from Snapfish.com! (You do have to pay for shipping, but hey, nothing's THAT free, right?) Apparently,Oprah did a feature about decluttering your home and this was one of the ideas. It's a $30 value and it would be a great Christmas gift. You have to act quickly though: the offer is only good through Nov. 14th (you have to "claim" your book by then--and make it by the 16th!) Thanks, Jaimi, for the great tip!

Just follow this link for your free book!

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

What Can You Do On Sunday??

'Lots' of stuff!! We had a really fun Sunday today! It was Stake Conference which, we usually try and brave with the kids. However, Cubby kept the kids home because I was singing as part of the choir and since Christian cries (REALLY hard) whenever I go up for just one song, we didn't think he'd do too well with me up there for two hours. Thankfully, it turned into a beautiful morning and since Daddy's so much fun, Emily and Christian have had quite a day! Here are some of the highlights:


"Woody" and "Buzz" made an appearance


"Buzz" loved playing in the leaves!


Emily and Christian got to go on a wagon ride around the block

Then, after going back out for a family walk and coming in for some dinner...


Daddy built Emily a great fort ("cave")



We ate rootbeer floats! (The second video is one that Emily took and, I think it turned out great!)


Finally, the kids were able to fit-in some coloring time. We hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Zucchini Pie

This is a super easy and tasty little recipe from my Gooseberry Patch "Meals in Minutes" cookbook. It's great for those huge zucchini's from your garden (or in our case, our sweet neighbor's garden!).

Zucchini Pie

4 c. zucchini, sliced and quartered
4 eggs
1 c. biscuit baking mix
1 onion, diced
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. oil

Combine all ingredients together in a mixing bowl; spread into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins. Serves 6-8.

Christian, Peter and I loved this. Cubby and Emily did not. Oh well, 3 out of 5 isn't bad!

For Posterity

Well, I'd better document our Halloween, for posterity's sake. It was a beautiful evening--very un-Nebraska at Halloween. (We are known for the Halloween blizzards now and again.) But, it was gorgeous! We picked up Grandma and headed over to a neighborhood with lots' of little kids (Emily had a "scary" encounter with a mummy on a front porch last year and we wanted none of that this year!) Emily had started to fade again and so she rode around in her wagon; she doesn't like candy anyhow and so I don't think she was too upset about riding. Poor girl! (Incidentally, we did go to the doctor's on Saturday and found out what was wrong and got some antibiotics. She is now back to her busy and happy self. Thank goodness for modern medicine!) However, the night wasn't a total wash for her as she's already asking about what I think her friends are going to be for Halloween next year! Christian picked up on what to do pretty quickly and proceded to run from house to house, trying to eat each piece of candy that he'd received from the previous house, before "asking" for some more! I even got him to say "trick-or-treat"! I tried to get it on video, but I didn't catch it quick enough and he was way too busy for a retake. He LOVED Halloween and was a huge sticky mess at the end of the evening.

Week In Review

It has been a fairly eventful week here, despite not being able to go anywhere from Tuesday until today, Friday. Emily has been sick. She's had a fever ranging anywhere from 100-104 all week and so we've been doing a lot of resting, reading, coloring and, the kids' favorite, watching movies. She has finally turned around a bit today, although I'm still keeping up with the Tylenol and Motrin to keep the fever at-bay. I'm hopeful that we'll make it out for some trick-or-treating tonight!

Christian has been a very good boy and I know he's been enjoying the extra video time--although with the help of Peter, my mom, and my sister, either I've been able to take him outside or they have. Yesterday, he got to go to the park with Auntie Erin and Grandma. There was a big Bob Cat out and so he had loads of fun sitting in it and playing "truck". (Pictures were taken, but were not available at the time of posting...I'll have to put them up when I can copy them from Erin.)

Christian has also become interested in trying to use the potty!! Mostly, this consists of sitting for 2 seconds, me pretending to wipe him, he getting to flush the potty, and then we wash hands and clap. I'm just thrilled that at 17 months he's already showing an interest and is starting to understand what we do "in there."

Last night, we also carved our pumpkins! Here are some pictures from the festivities. I'll take some pictures tonight of the finished products when they're all lit up.


Finally, in celebration that Emily was feeling a little bit better, we ventured out to Target this morning! (Well, we also needed some milk, o.j. and some Halloween candy for tonight!) I let the kids dress up in their costumes and they thought that was pretty great. (I wanted to make sure I got some pictures of Emily while she was feeling good just in case she takes a turn and feels crummy again tonight.) Here are a couple of the cute pictures I got before we left.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!!!!

Two Ideas

Idea #1:

Still looking for something to do with all of those apples from this fall?? My sister-in-law, Sara, posted this Apple Bundt recipe on her blog. I decided to try it and it is so yummy! Thanks, Sara!

Ingredients
4 medium apples; cored, peeled, and cut into bite-size pieces
5 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground Cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange(I omitted this)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
powdered sugar

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil and flour 12 cup bundt pan. Mix apple pieces, 5 tablesoons sugar and ground cinnamon in medium bowl. Combine 2 1/2 cups sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, orange juice, orange peel and vanilla extract in a bowl. Whisk to blend. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt in egg mixture. Spoon 1 1/2 cups batter in prepared bundt pan top with half apple mixture. Cover with 1 1/2 cup batter top with remaining apples then batter.

Bake cake until top is brown and tester insert near center comes out with moist crumbs attatched; about 1 hr 30 min. Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes. Run knife around sides to loosen pan. Turn cake out on top of rack. Cool at least 45 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar serve slightly warm or at room temp.


Idea #2:

Do you have a family member who is difficult to "shop" for at Christmastime? My friend, Rosie, asked me to email her pictures of something I have hanging in my hallway because she has such a family member.

As you can see, it is a four-generation type of a picture: myself, my mom, my grandma, and my great-grandma, all at about the same age. The second, obviously, is Cubby's line. The one of me was part of a wedding gift. The one of Cubby was one I had made for his birthday. I couldn't get it exactly like the first because Hobby Lobby, where I had it made, doesn't have an engraving machine like the one where mine was made. Hence, they send out their engravings in plaque form. It still turned out great though. (You can click on the image for a close up view on the engravings and such.)

I just figured that since one person thought it was a neat idea, maybe someone else would like it and want to put something similar together for a special loved one!