Some things never change

This picture was taken at our wedding, but if I had had a camera with me, I could have gotten a similar shot the other night, minus the tux. And for those of you who were at our reception, or who knew us in our single days, and have been wondering, no, Daddy-o has not forgotten how to dance.

We don't get to dance much these days, other than around the house with the kids (which, as a side point, I've decided is actually a great form of exercise and possibly the only consistant exercise I'm going to get this winter.) But, we were able to go to the MBA Christmas party Wednesday night (thanks again, Matt, for babysitting! You got lucky--it took an hour to get Bugaboo back to sleep after you left, little stinker.) There was a dinner, a show with some great music and very funny acts, and then dessert and dancing.

It was a little bit of an 80's flashback--Madonna, Abba, and yep--Micheal Jackson. I had a lot of people come up to me, shocked by Daddy-o's Michael Jackson impersonation. Now, the spouses being surprised, I can understand. I don't think I've given off any type of vibe that would indicate my husband to be of the crazy dancing variety. But the students should have expected as much. They've watched him dance on a desk in blue pantyhose, pull a hair from his professor's ear, and pretend to wet his pants in front of the class, all in the name of education. So what is a little "Thriller"?

Just one of the many reasons I love this man!

12 Questions of Christmas

Real or artificial tree? Grew up with artificial, have only had real since leaving home (we can't afford an artificial yet--and yes, I know we've spent about the same as a cheap artificial in the last few years, but not all at once and we've enjoyed the smell). BUT, I am really excited to get a pre-lit tree next year--I don't enjoy putting the lights on, but I also don't enjoy the way it looks if you hastily wrap them around so I spend way too much time carefully weaving lights into all the branches of our tree.


Do you like eggnog?Love it--little nutmeg sprinkled on top--YUM! We only buy it once or twice during the holidays--way too many calories in there.

Favorite gift received as a child? Um, I'm really not sure. The one that stands out right now is when I was 8 and got a guinea pig. The funny thing was, I had asked for a hamster and when I saw the cage with this fat, hairy animal in it, I had NO idea what it was and was a little dissappointed, but raising guinea pigs over the next few years turned out to be so much fun--and they are way better pets for a little kid than a hamster.

Do you have a nativity scene? We have 3--two very small ones (one only has Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus in a manger made from popscicle sticks) and then we added the Little People Nativity to our collection this year and it has been a HUGE hit. I love that the kids can play with it. Seemed more logical at this stage in our lives than a big, breakable one, although I'd love one of those some day as well.

Hardest? Easiest person to buy for?The hardest is probably a tie between all the men in my life. My brothers are both pretty much minimalists who say they want nothing. So I try to come up with non-clutter, useful gifts, but with the limited budget we have, it isn't always easy. Especially to make it fun. And Daddy-o--I know there are things he wants, but he has so little free time right now that I am usually at a loss to get something fun for him that he'll actually be able to play with. And even our little Bugaboo is a little hard to shop for because we already have plenty of toys for his age range and we've been determined to not just wrap up all the things they need and we would buy anyway (like clothes, socks, etc. . .) just to have presents under the tree. I figure that I'd rather have Christmas giving about finding something special for that person than giving them a multitude of presents in the name of Christmas.

Easiest--By far, Bean. As our oldest, there is always something we don't have that I know she'd love and she's now old enough to be very clear about her interests. Plus, I'm making a lot of gifts this year and its just easier to make gifts for girls than boys.

Favorite Christmas movie? It's a Wonderful Life. I love the Daddy-o and I both love this movie and have been watching it every year together since before we were married. Makes me cry every time (well, if I can stay awake. For some reason ***cough-kids-cough****, the last couple years I haven't made it to the end)

White lights or colored lights?White lights. And I have to steal this from a friend because her reasoning is right on: No blinking lights anywhere - I love the serenity provided by steady lighting. I chase enough moving things in a day already.

Favorite Christmas song? The classic--Silent Night. It just signifies everything I want Christmas to be. But I also love Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree & Let it Snow (since moving to Utah, the first line of that song gets sung all winter long around here, and if I keep going, Bean always informs me that, "No, Mom! We have some place to go!")


Travel for Christmas or stay home? We switch off every other year--its worked out that way since we got married because we've had a newish baby (1-6 months) every other year. And I have really LOVED how easy its been the years we stay home. But I also love seeing family at the holidays--we switch every other travel year with the two sides of our family, so they really aren't getting much of us--but considering how our Christmases have been, I'm not sure they are all that dissappointed--we're still waiting for the fun Christmas morning with an excited kid instead of a sick exhausted one.

Do you open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?I think we've only opened them Christmas morning, but honestly not sure--growing up we opened the grandparent gifts Christmas eve--not sure why, but we did every year.

Do you tell the Christmas story? Yep--we always read Luke 2 Christmas eve. And this year we are having the fun of acting out the story and telling it each week for Family night. Bean is old enough to get the story and loves riding the donkey/Daddy-o around to look for a place to sleep.

Favorite Christmas tradition: We're still in the process of creating our family traditions (and I guess we always will be--I hope its a holiday that will evolve for our family as we grow).
My favorites from my childhood that we've continued are reading Luke 2 and singing carols on Christmas eve & cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and the best one--giving Christmas boxes to families who needed them--Christmas dinner, sometimes gifts for the kids or even clothes depending on how much the family was struggling at the time. Seriously, my absolute favorite Christmas memory is of watching from behind the bushes as a couple little kids who couldn't be more than 6 answered the door and started excitedly yelling for their mom to come look at all the food they got. I was only about 10 at the time, but that sight was enough for me to realize that THIS was so much better than opening my own presents.

New ones we've started: Buying an ornament for the family as well as one for each kid each year--this way they'll have a small collection when they leave home and its fun to look at what they picked (well, Bean's the only one who has picked one so far, but this years is a BRIGHT pink ball with a smiley face on it). And we buy a new building for our Christmas village each year. Daddy-o and I have both always wanted one of these villages and we're having fun watching it grow--By the time we have very many, we will also have more room to put them. And maybe then we'll add a train! We've also started a tradition in our little family that on Christmas eve, we each write down a gift we're going to try to give our Savior in the upcoming year and place it in an extra stocking which we then open the next year and read what we've tried to do and make a new gift. Looking back on this last year, I've done a HORRIBLE job at my "gift" but I still like the idea and I think it helps us to remember a bit of what we're actually celebrating. And as the kids get older, I want to add more service and random giving to our Christmas traditions--for now, we support Angel trees, occasionally doorbell ditch goodies or small gifts.

Parent's Day

Nope, not time to celebrate parents (and although I normally think that all parents should be celebrated, I haven't been feeling like the most outstanding parent lately, so I think that I'll work on that before the real Parent's Day (AKA Mother's Day) comes around so I feel deserving of the praise.)

BUT, it was parent's day at the Bean's dance school so I was priveledged to see what it is she does each week after I drop her off. And it was fun. If you ever get a chance to watch 12 3 year-old princesses run and jump and twirl--take it! Little girl-hood doesn't get much better than this. And its even better when the teacher gives them a present with a candy cane--pure heaven in Bean's mind.

Yesterday, Bean asked me if I took dance classes when I was young. Nope. And that answer was just beyond her comprehension. I tried to tell her about soccer, voleyball, swimming, and gymnastics. But no dance--didn't make sense to our little ballerina. Maybe I should have--might have helped with the coordination issues I seem to have. Although judging by these 3 year-olds--I'm not sure it would have mattered :)

And the verdict is in!

It's official. Come June, we're heading to Bank of America in Charlotte, NC! Neither of us ever imagined that we'd live on the east coast, but we're pretty excited about the opportunities this job and this move are going to offer. And we've only heard good things about Charlotte.

Of course, at this point, knowing we were going ANYwhere would be a relief because it means we're done with info sessions, resume polishing, interviews, flybacks, and worrying. At least one thing about our future is locked down :) And now Daddy-o might be able to slow down a little for his last semester.

Some of the things we're excited about (besides the obvious of being employeed with a paycheck):

*Housing costs are WAY lower than what we're used to

*Exploring the east coast--D.C., Disney World, all the historic sites up and down the coast

*More temperate weather than good ol' Utah (sounds especially nice this week since everything outside is frozen).

Some things that are less than exciting:

*Eastern time zone. After our summer in Michigan, Daddy-o swore he couldn't handle living in the east because all the national sporting events start way too late, but apparently he got over that.

*The rain--sure, its what makes Charlotte beautiful, but it rains more there than Seattle! It's not supposed to be as gloomy though--I think we'll survive. Plus, they are in a drought right now. Maybe if we're lucky, that will continue as long as we live there (kidding! Sort of.)

*Being so far from all our family--but you all like to travel, right?

So for all of you who've been wanting to plan an east coast trip, we'll have a place for you :) And maybe we'll be able to meet up with all our friends who have already been transplanted.

And, this means that the winner is soybeanlover--DC isn't too far (and you even mentioned Florida, so you've got us sandwiched in there pretty nicely). :)

Way to go, Daddy-o!

"Tis the Season

Seems right that December 1 brought snow. I don't like the cold and the snow gets old after awhile, but there is something about waking up and seeing this out your window.

My favorite was Bean who comes stumbling out of her room around 8 a.m. (we had a REALLY rough night and thank goodness she slept in) saying, "I'm grouchy. Oh! Snow!!!!!!!!" Just took one look out the window to turn her around. Both kids were really excited to get outside and play--we only let them out for a couple minutes because they are both sniffly, but there is no way we could have kept them inside all day.
And then, guess who didn't want to stay inside. Bugaboo can never figure out why we would want to come inside after playing out in the yard. He gets a hat and then heads for the door and calls us, "Ooooooh! Ooooooh!" Luckily lunch distracted him.

Slow days

Hasn't been much to talk about here. Everyone's been a little sick, not sleeping well, its frigid out and we just haven't been doing much of anything. In fact, except for a couple drives to drop things off (which didn't even involve getting out of the car), we haven't left the house since Monday.

But Bean and I did have a fun game of Uno this morning. It was the first time we've used the Uno Attack thing--and lets just say that the first time she pushed the button, Bean thought she was under attack. Those cards really come flying out!

And Bugaboo has gotten really into dressing up. He's definately shown that he is a multi-faceted individual. He'll pull out the dockworker clothes (which actually means he wants to go outside--he knows that's what hats and jackets are for),or just as likely, want to wear a pink tutu and hat. What can I say? He's pretty cute either way. (For the record, DTM, I'm not forcing him to dress as a ballerina boy--he brought those clothes to me. So no angry emails coming my way :)

And now, since I feel like our Thanksgiving trip got slighted, here's a few pictures from last week.

Once we made it to Fresno, we had 4 days to enjoy being OUT of the car. It was great. We read, watched TV, moved the cat, played Uncle J's Wii, chased the cat, baked, went to the zoo, played Doctor with the cat (Anyone read Olivia? Its one of our favorites), and just enjoyed some family downtime.
Baking time. Grandma was sick so everyone chipped in with the baking and cooking. Daddy-o is the pie king anyway and he's passing his secrets on to Bean.
Fresno zoo had changed a lot from what Daddy-o remembered (definately a good thing for the animals, and visitors!) It was the perfect place for just a couple hours of wandering around. And we got lucky--they were feeding most of the animals while we were there--even the tortoises are exciting when they are eating.Bugaboo did NOT like the petting zoo. He'd been so fascinated with the cat all week that we thought he'd love to pet some other animals, but all he wanted to do was run. And I'll admit, the goats were not being particularly friendly, so it was probably much safer that way.
Roadtripping with the kids. We were a bit crazy and decided to just do the whole drive home in one day. Mainly, the 12 hour drive (14 hours in the car) seemed easier than lugging all the things 2 kids require for a night into a motel halfway through--after 9 hours in the car, you'll let them do pretty much anything to keep the peace, including emptying an entire box of tissues.

Although I can't say any of us are fans of getting home at midnight. Oh, and the house was only 47 degrees because we did the environmental (and probably safe) thing of turning off the heat.
Only took 2 days of laundry and shopping for everything to be back to normal. Or, the vegetative state we've been in this week. Guess we have a good excuse for laying low.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Random list of things we're thankful for:



Family--my little nutty family, and our big nutty families as well.



Friends--It's been really fun to see friends this trip--we have them spread to all corners of the world and we're always grateful for any chance to visit.



Good food to eat--this was Bean's first thought. And by good food, she means treats and sweets, but I thought I'd include our delicious thanksgiving dinner in that as well. Smoked turkey--the best! (and the rolls by yours truly turned out pretty good as well.)



Fun things to do--its always good to get in some family time--visiting the zoo, playing games, running around outside, or even just snuggling on the couch for a movie.

Our health. Poor grandma ended up with a stomach bug this week, and we're sorry for her, but so grateful that, knock on wood, our little family is healthy so far. Because as fun as road trips with the two kiddos are, I can't imagine doing 12 hours on Saturday with diarrhea and puking stops.

On the road again. . .

After 12 hours in the car, we made it to San Diego (well, San Diego County--we stayed with friends up in San Marcos). The trip itself was actually one of our best ever, despite being the longest we've ever done with kids. And even better. . .We got to spend the weekend with friends, enjoy beautiful weather, and hang out at the beach. Our friends have kids the same ages as our two--twins Beans age and then a little girl Bugaboo's age, so it was a fun, loud, giggly weekend.
And Bugaboo LOVED the beach. This was his first trip and everything was exciting--the sand, the ocean, the birds stealing our food. He had a great time.
Next leg, Grandma and Grandpa's house! (That 5 hour trip didn't go so well. We showed up with one nearly naked kid, one kid in a second set of clothes, cracker crumbs everywhere and 4 tired, hungry, frustrated people. Glad we're staying put for a few days!

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts

I love it when I have a crafting spree. These projects are actually the accumulation of the last few weeks, but since I haven't been doing as much posting, none of them have made it up here yet.

Here's a couple pictures of the turtle cake from Bugaboo's party.

We always thought Bean's gummy smile looked like a duck-bill so she had a duck cake for her first birthday. Well, Bugaboo has always tucked his lips so he looked a little like a turtle.

Then, my mom, mother-in-law, and I made cupcakes for the family get together the next day since along with the baby blessing, we were celebrating 2 family birthdays. And all the little girls loved them.

And these were for the new baby, just 3 months late, but that's the nice thing about bibs--they use them for a LONG time.

First of the Christmas gifts that I need to get going on. Just have to make sure Bean doesn't see this post since this one is for her--more on these here (thank goodness for craft blogs!):

And of course, some scrapping. These are both for recent challenges on the Baby Whisperer site. I love the inspiration I've found there to do something with all my pictures. Who would have thought that having sleep-challenged children would have led me to so many crafty friends. Now, I probably would actually get more sleep if I hadn't met these ladies since I now have this crafting itch I have to satisfy that eats into bedtime, but I don't think I'd be as happy.

Free-form Lasagna

I found this recipe in the Daily Herald a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to try it while my mom was visiting. I used to always clip out recipes that sounded good, but hardly ever made them (although my brownie recipe is adapted from a newspaper article recipe) so I had made myself quit accumulating the newspaper clippings that were taking over my recipe binder. But I'm glad I cut this one because these were great! And there is another version with roasted tomatoes and pesto that I can't wait to try.

Only warning is this is not a quick mid-week dinner. I only tried it because I had my mom around to help keep the kids out from under my feet.

Free-form Butternut Squash Lasagna

3/4 C flour
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1/2 cup + 3 Tablespoons butter
1 (2 pound) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped rosemary, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine
ground pepper
grated nutmeg
1 cup whole-milk ricotta
grated parmigiano-Reggiano

Make pasta dough with flour and olive oil, add in egg and knead until smooth and shiny (see here if you need instructions for making pasta). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Roll out pasta dough very thin (a 6 on most machines), in approx. 4" wide strips. Cut into squares and dust with flour.

Heat 3 Tbsp. of butter in skillet over medium-high heat. add cubed squash, 1 tsp. rosemary, 1/2 tsp. shallots, and salt to taste. Cook until squash has slightly browned, stirring occasionally, about 5 min. Reduce heat to medium and cook until squash is tender, about 5 more min. Remove squash from pan, add wine to pan and cook over medium-high, scraping the browned bits and reducing the wine to a glaze. Add squash back in and coat with glaze. Season with pepper and light grating of nutmeg.

In a small bowl, beat together the ricotta, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. shallots and pepper and a little nutmeg.

Cook pasta 4 or 5 sheets at a time in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water. Pasta will float to the top when done, about 1-2 min. Remove and drain on a tea towel. Repeat until all pasta is cooked.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/2 cup butter in a skillet over medium heat with 1 tsp. shallots, 1/2 tsp. rosemary.

Place a square of pasta on a greased heat-proof plate (I just used a cake pan because I was too scared to try putting my dishes in the oven) and brush with melted butter. Spoon 1/4 cup ricotta in a low mound in the center. Arrange a loose mound of butternut squash on top. Generously dust with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Place another square of pasta on top. and brush again with the melted butter. Scatter more squash cubes on top and dust again with the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Repeat with 3 more plates. (I actually found that I could do another layer and still had enough to make 5.)

Arrange the plates on a cookie sheet and heat through in the oven for 8-10 min. Serve immediately.

Now, I should have taken a picture of the kitchen after I finished this. Definately glad that there was someone to help me with the dishes that night!!!

Family time

We got to see all the Utah family for baby Chloe's blessing. It's always absolute chaos of the most fun sort when we all get together--10 kids ages 3 months to 9 years makes for a crazy group. And of course, since 10 of the 12 grandkids were all under one roof, we had to try to get a picture (minus the baby). Easier said than done.

Party!

I'm only a week late with these pictures. Things have been very busy, and sleep has not been happening (except the one night this week that Bugaboo randomly decided to sleep all night--never even been close to happening before and hasn't happened in the 2 nights since, but it was a fun surprise). But the birthday boy still deserves to revisit the festivities.

We had both grandmas here with us to celebrate. Lunch of quesadillas and 7-layer dip, and then, of course, cake and ice cream. On par for our kids, he didn't know what to do with the cake and actually looked pretty concerned with the whole thing at one point. But in the end, he decided it was pretty good (and I just had to post this picture of his choice of utensils--the kid LOVES spatulas!) And presents. Such a different experience when there is an big sister who understands what those are all about and isn't so patient. He didn't really get to open any of his own and seemed a little confused about whether he was ever going to get to play with his new toys since they were "borrowed" pretty quickly after coming out of the packaging.

Happy Birthday, Little Man

I stole this idea from my friend, Becky's, blog, but it was just too cute to pass up. Hope you enjoy this look at Bugaboo's first year!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New month

Here we go--only 2 months left of 2007. This year has flown by!

Just a couple updates for now. We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks, but for now, we're still waiting about jobs and where our future location will be. So you still have time to make a guess as to where we'll be living next year if you just go here.

Otherwise, the recap for October--

Bugaboo is walking now, and has another tooth--this only puts him at 3 teeth one day before his first birthday so we still have a LOT of teething to go through this next year. His favorite things right now are baths (he goes over to the bathtub anytime he finds the door open and starts pounding on it and trying to climb in), carrying spoons, forks, knives (only toy ones), pointing at things, EATING (and he likes just about everything we'll give him, but favorite foods are still avocados and bananas and bread or pasta), making noise, pretending to bite or kiss us, and trying to crawl into the street (his new favorite pasttime when we're out in the yard).

Bean is. . .well, she's the Bean. She loves her dance class, loves torturing her brother (who is learning to give it back though, too), loves doing craft projects--drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing. She even wrote her name (I helped with the spelling) on the back of a picture she'd drawn the other day (which was supposed to be for Grandma Linda, but sorry Grandma, I had to keep the first time she wrote her name --we'll draw you another one!) She makes up crazy stories all the time, can be heard singing to her animals when she wakes up in the morning, and has some type of abhorrence of the toilet (makes for a fun race several times a day to see if we can "beat the pee").

Daddy-o is busy at school as always. Not much fun stuff to report there. He did get to make a realistic looking, but luckily non-working, bomb for a project last weekend which he seemed to enjoy way too much.

And I've been doing the same old stuff--trying to get enough sleep, keep the family fed, clean, and happy (or at least not too sad). I've squeezed in some crafting (more pics coming soon), and reading--couple great parenting books that I'm working my way through right now in hopes that I can find a more peaceful way to be a mom (more on those later as well).

I've got my mom here for another week, which is always nice and we have a couple birthdays coming up to celebrate with her, as well as a baby blessing on Daddy-o's side this weekend, so lots of family time (and lots of sugar :))

Oh, and there are new ideas on this blog for fun things to do in November!

Trick or Treat

Little Red had fun trick or treating with the Big Bad Wolf tonight. She was much more into it this year than ever before. Candy is a lot more exciting at this age.