Merry Christmas!!!

It was so wonderful to spend the day with family! I love our families and I'm so happy to be blessed with such a heritage on all sides!

We enjoyed our Christmas so much, kicking it off by getting a new family member!!! Harry proposed to Sarah, so come April 27, 2012 we will have another sister!!!! Hooray! We are beyond excited to have Sarah in the family (well, officially- she's been part of it for WAY longer!)

Christmas day was wonderful on Sunday- it was so nice to attend sacrament meeting and be able to sing Christmas hymns and worship our Savior. We were also spoiled rotten, which was fun :) 

The best part of Christmas this year was we started a new tradition. First thing in the morning, we spent a few minutes talking about the best gift we were ever given, our Savior Jesus Christ. We talked about why we give gifts on Christmas and we each wrote down a gift to give our Savior. Brook was very attentive and I was really proud of her to be able to focus on the real reason for Christmas when all manner of surprises and gifts awaited her downstairs. It was a special moment for our family and I look forward to doing it every year from now on.

I hope all your Christmases were wonderful as well :)

Love to all!

P.S. Didn't bring the right camera equipment, so I will have to add photos later!

4 Days People....

4 MORE DAYS!

Blogs

I just spent about an hour (in which I should have been sleeping) re-reading several of my friends and my own old blog posts. I love how they capture the memories of fun and happy times in the past. Those are the most fun to remember anyway. It also makes me feel like I'm not as huge of a loser as I feel like I am sometimes- I accomplish things.... randomly. It makes me want to make my future days "noteworthy" or "blogworthy" I guess, so I can look back 3 years from now and see how far I've come and remember the good times. Cuz they're always good times. I'm really rambling now- that's what I get for doing this late at night :)

Anyway, I'm bustin out Christmas gifts left and right, even though I promised my sister I wouldn't get all caught up in making a bunch of stuff and missing out on everyday chances to play with my girls and make Christmastime memories.... I've still got 20 days left! We can get to those memories just as soon as I get done with my list.... which may or may not be 12 pages long...

Sick

My poor kiddos have been sick this weekend. We are missing church today so we don't spread the flu to our ward- I'm pretty sad- my favorite meetings are in December when we get to sing Christmas hymns and focus on the Savior and his birth and life. Brook and I are going to make the nativity from the Friend today to help make up for it. I just love this season!

Except for the sick part :)

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Decorating for Christmas

It just really brings the Spirit of Christmas into my home. I love it. I have started collecting Nativity sets because they really speak to me. I love how beautiful and unique they all are. It's so neat to see the artist's interpretation of the Holy family. 

This is my newest acquisition- Merry Christmas to me from my mother in law!

Thanks Mom! I love it!

 My very first Nativity- given to me by my big sis Jen

 Just a sweet little one I got a steal of a deal on

This is all I have so far- I hope over the years to add to it a little bit at a time.

Hope you get to decorate for Christmas soon too!

Happy Thanksgiving

From all of us Turkeys in Colorado!

  Brook's Turkey

Ellie's Turkey

Last Wednesday Baking Day, Which Happened On Thursday- Apple Pie

This is my Grandma, Trudy Smith's Apple Pie recipe... it's the best one in the world. 

And it turns out perfect every time!

Pie Crust: 

2 cups Flour

1 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

3-5 Tbsp. Water

Mix ingredients until dough forms. Split in half. Roll out between two sheets of saran wrap to fit your pie dish.

Apple Pie Filling:

5-7 Apples (Golden Delicious are best!)

1 cup Sugar

3 Tbsp Flour

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Peel, core, and slice apples. Mix with remaining ingredients. Place into pie dish. Put a few pats of butter on top. Cover with vented pie crust.

Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes. Then bake at 350 for an additional 40 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or room temperature with cool whip and a slice of cheddar cheese.

Random IPhone Pics

Pink fountain in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness....

Brook was ECSTATIC:

It did this:

So we did this:

And Ben bought this:

 Just kidding. But he should have. It was amazing.
I'm just sayin.

 Ben's other Halloween costume-

Regis has a tradition of themed dressing up

I know, they're all identical- you can't tell them apart 

Ben is in the back left side-
the only one in purple suspenders....

 A trip to Chuck E Cheese:

 My ever-good-looking hubby with some classmates

Won't he be such a dish when he's done!

Also, a shout out to my lil sis Heather! Congrats on your new baby! Can't wait to meet him!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!

Snow

 

Wednesday Baking Day- FAIL!

So Brook and I made this pumpkin bread for our baking day today. We were supposed to make pumpkin pie, but I didn't have any evaporated milk because I used it all up for nachos.... anyway. So we mixed it up, put it in the pans, baked it for an hour, took it out- it was BEAUTIFUL! And it smelled AMAZING. We were so excited to eat it. So ten minutes later, I cut into it, expecting beauty and deliciousness.... totally not cooked. Completely wet inside. How I could insert a toothpick OVER 5 TIMES and have it come out clean I know not. So I shoved it rather angrily back into the oven... but it was no use. Never cooked. Went totally flat. Was horrible. Brook still ate some of it and loved it, but I threw most of it out and I am angry about it. I hate baking fails.

So what I'm still trying to figure out is why it didn't bake properly- is it the altitude or a crappy oven?
Yesterday we made leaf placemats- they kinda failed too. The leaves are turning all brown, even though I covered the placemats in contact paper.... sad.

Try again next week? We'll see....

Happy Halloween!

 The beautiful Rapunzel

 The Lovable Pascal

 Mr Pumpkin Face

 Fleshy Fingers

 Monster Eyeballs

 Portrait of a Monster (my favorite by far!!!)

 The spread

Our Halloween party turned out pretty fun. The girls were showered with candy in a great neighborhood- they both got more than one full size candy bar! And NO nasty peanut butter taffy things- remember those? Gross. Anyway, it was a great night!

 Rapunzel, Mother Gothel, Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert), and Pascal

 Jenna was Waldo and Sam was looking for her. :)

Wednesday Baking Day- Spiderwebs