If You've Been Wondering...

why you haven't seen or heard from me in ages, the answer is I'm pregnant! Yay!

The unfortunate reality of my pregnancies is that I become a miserable heap on my bed or couch with a bucket next to me at all times. I think I have gotten dressed once in the last 2 weeks (church was canceled last Sunday). So, it is not that I am avoiding you, I just don't feel like chatting much. I'd rather lay around in agony while Madeline watches innumerable movies and virtually destroys our home with little to no consequences because I just don't have the energy. Did I mention we are excited to add another little bundle of joy to our family? No, really, we are. But if I don't sound that excited when you talk to me, just remember that it is hard to sound excited when you're just doing your best to hold a normal conversation.

Oops! I forgot one...

So this post really belongs in 2008, but the pictures were on Joe's camera so I forgot about them.

Madeline was really excited to make a real gingerbread house this year, and like most kids she had a ball decorating, but most importantly she got to eat TONS of candy!

First, we had to mix the icing...
This is her favorite place in the kitchen. Whenever I am doing anything in there, she has to drag a chair in and stand on it so that she can see. She loves to cook!

After the icing was ready we assembled the house, and then the real fun could begin.

Like I said, LOTS of candy was consumed by this little girl in the making of this gingerbread house.

See what I mean?

Ta da! What a cute gingerbread house.

There was another gingerbread house experience, at our friend's house for Family Home Evening. We used graham crackers for that one, and I would show it too you, but it got eaten before I could even take a picture. That chair sure comes in handy when you need to pull some graham crackers and candy off the counter!

2008 was Great!

Well, maybe not great, since Joe was gone for 10 months of it, but he did come home safely so I'd say it was a success overall.


Our New Year's Eve celebration was tons of fun, even though we waited until the last minute to make plans. Luckily, so did everyone else! We ended up at the Petty's with the Crowther and Bush families. There was food, games, and good conversation. The house was full, with 13 kids and 8 adults (good thing they have a huge house), but the kids were very well-behaved so it was not overwhelming at all. The kids stayed in one room watching movies, and the adults were in the next room playing games.


When midnight was about to hit we turned on the TV to watch the ball drop. We all counted down and then the adults smooched while the kids blew on their party favors that Tamara had passed out. Madeline even made it all the way past midnight!


It was the perfect New Year's celebration. Fun and relaxing, with great friends and good cheer.

Mmm... brownies with ice cream and homemade hot fudge.


10-9-8-7....

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

While I am slightly ashamed about our blatant consumerism during this recession, I justify it by reminding myself that we did also give significant donations to various people in need and food shelters, so maybe we aren't totally evil? Anyway, we love giving gifts! So we had a great Christmas morning.

We don't have any type of mantle so my wonderful friends at Domestic Graffiti crafted this sign for me to hang our stockings. My grandma made my stocking when I was born, and Madeline's grandma made her stocking when she was born. I made Joe's so he could have a matching one with us.

This pretty much wraps up Madeline's favorite surprise from Santa.

When we convinced her to open more presents, she had fun discovering all the other goodies under the tree.

A bag full of princess stuff...

A new baby with 3 outfits (and a crib for her to sleep in)...A Fancy Nancy Dress-Up Game from Grandma...And a Princess Tent (or "house" as she calls it) for her room. This was another favorite.What's this present wrapped in a huge Santa bag?......Oh! It's actually a very compact (but very heavy) hand weight set that I didn't want him to guess. It worked!

Fortunately for me, I was wielding the camera all morning, so there are virtually no shots of me in my just-woke-up-haven't-brushed-my-hair-or-teeth look. Here I am "oooo-ing" over my belgian waffle maker from Joe.

Clearly after we got done opening presents, we had to have waffles for breakfast! They were super yummy (that's for you, Grace). Then we went to Christmas dinner over at the Crowther's, who live just a few blocks from us. Another family from our Christmas Eve dinner was there, and that meal was super yummy too. Thanks for having us over Grace, we had a great time!

Christmas Eve

Christmas is a little different when you live 3,000 miles away from family. Since Joe and I are from the same city, and we both grew up there, we have a lot of family and good friends in one area. I am used to running around from place to place each holiday to see and celebrate with all of our loved ones. It is so fun to see everyone, but it can be exhausting too. I think last year Madeline and I hit 5 places on Christmas Day alone.

This year one thing I was looking forward to was being able to relax and have a slow-paced holiday. We had been invited to a friend's house for dinner on Christmas Day, and that was really all the planning we had done.

When Christmas Eve rolled around, the gifts were mostly wrapped and we were able to spend a fun day together doing whatever we wanted. In the past, my sister-in-law and I have gotten together in December to make elaborate Christmas cookie platters for our friends and family. We had so much fun doing this. We would spend weeks looking through magazines and cookbooks to find delicious recipes, until we settled on about 10-12 that we loved. It took a couple of days to bake double batches of each recipe, but it was a great time together and everyone really enjoyed the results! I missed that this year, and found I didn't have time to do a lot of baking, or my sister-in-law to keep me company, so it just slipped through the cracks.

Christmas Eve I decided to go ahead and make a few cookies just for my neighbors. Everyone loves Peanut Butter Blossoms, so I was going to make those, but then I saw the holiday Peppermint Kisses, so I made chocolate cookies and put those on top instead. They were delish!

Here is a recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies I found at allrecipes.com (one of my favorite sites)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

If you want to add the kisses, just put them on right after they come out of the oven, before transferring to the wire racks.

In the evening we headed over to the Bush's for dinner. There were quite a few people there, so it was great company and good food too. We forgot to take pictures until near the end, so I only got pictures of the Bush family and our friend Christine with her 2 boys, since everyone else had left. We planned to go caroling, but the weather was horrible - really rainy and windy, so we opted to drive around and look at Christmas lights. I noticed there are not nearly as many people here who put up Christmas lights as there are in Washington. I'm not sure if that has to do with all the snow and cold, or the fact that energy costs are about 4 times as high, but it was a little disappointing. Our neighbors have a great tree in their front yard that they put lights on, and it is so gorgeous with the lights and the snow. It is the quintessential outdoor Christmas tree. I love looking at it whenever we are coming and going.

I think Joe likes dogs and children more than adults sometimes. It's what makes him such a great dad.

Madeline really does like Chris a lot, even if this picture doesn't exactly capture that...

Ann read us all some nice Christmas stories.Here is what was left of the group by the time I pulled out my camera. Be sure to click on it to enlarge it, so you can see Emily's "funny face" that her mom encouraged her to make. She is the one sitting next to Madeline.

Ward Christmas Party

I love the Christmas season. If there is one good thing about the cold, snowy winters in New York, it is having a wonderful white Christmas. I adore sitting in my living room, basking in the glow of the tree, listening to relaxing Christmas music. I take pleasure in hanging our handmade stockings, and I love the excitement of gift-giving and gift-receiving.

This year Christmas has been even more fun as Madeline has gotten older and is better able to comprehend what Christmas is all about. Even now, on the 1st, she will tell us that "Jesus is born." Now, before you get all "How sweet, they don't get caught up in the fake department-store-created consumeristic Christmas fiasco," realize that Madeline also LOVES Santa! In fact, she probably asks for him more than she tells us Jesus is born. I mean, Santa = presents! Who can blame her?

We had our ward Christmas party at church, complete with a visit from Santa. Madeline had already been eagerly pointing out all the Santas on display in the stores for weeks (like, since September, you know, when the “Holiday Season” begins at the stores). When Santa came waltzing down the chimney through the door she was so excited. We got in line, and she sat on his lap very quietly and not really smiling until she was handed a candy cane. Just like it was her cue, she got a huge smile on her face, and hopped down. It was so funny – like she pulled one over on Santa. Didn’t have to talk to him, but still got the candy. Being the candy fiend that she is, she ate her candy cane right away, and then begged to sit on his lap again. Well, why not, so we went over, and the exact same scenario repeated. Anything for that candy cane. For several days after this Madeline pleaded to "Go to church. See Santa!"

Oh yes, please notice her beautiful Christmas dress as well. Madeline and Joe picked this out together, and she could not love it any more. A sparkly, furry, gorgeous princess dress. I never took any full body pictures of her in this dress. Maybe I'll have to put it back on her just to get some.

Here we are with some friends waiting to be served by our waitstaff (aka the youth).

Most of the Santa pictures kind of turned out like this...

...but we did get one cute one!

Christmas Decorating

We were a little late on the decorating this year, but it got done. It was one of those things that I kept putting off because I thought it was going to take forever and I "didn't have time." Once we actually did it, it didn't even take that long and I was annoyed that we waited.

We bought a fake Christmas tree (I know, I like the real ones too, but I can’t do everything) when we were in college, and this is the second time it has been used in 5 Christmases together. Can you tell we are in the Army? In fact, this is the first Christmas that we have been all together in our own home on Christmas. It was exciting to think that we could start our own traditions and have a lazy Christmas day if we wanted to.

Madeline loved decorating the tree. Joe and I had considered putting it up one night after she went to bed, thinking it would be easier, but I’m so glad we didn’t. There is nothing like the magic of Christmas in a child’s eyes. I have an ornament that I bought for Madeline’s first Christmas, and it plays “Silent Night” when you push the button. I hung this low, so that Madeline could have access to it. Not sure if that was a good idea. That thing was played nonstop for about 2 days. Then she decided to “redecorate” and it got placed even lower, but I think it was so low she forgot about it. Darn. Yes, our tree was a little more crowded around the bottom, because Madeline wanted to hang EVERY ornament. It was so much fun though.



One of Madeline's first Christmas ornaments (Yes, we have 4 of them - but don't judge, I only bought 1!)...

See how cooperative Joe was in posing for a picture? Notice how he doesn't actually have an ornament in his hand? I won't mention this is like the 3rd one I took.

We have some cute videos Joe took while we were decorating, but I won't post them because Beyonce is blaring in the background and it's a little embarrassing. What's that you say? Where is the Christmas music? Ask my husband. Anyway, I took this one at the end, and it's really the cutest anyway. Joe was in the other room trying to wrap some presents, and apparently he was lacking some tape.