Back to the Beach!

For some reason I couldn't post this at the beach, the laptop kept giving me an error code. So it is a bit depressing to publish a post that was written early in your vacation when you are home and unpacked. But oh well...here it is!

We're on vacation for the week, enjoying time with family and fun in the sun.

I'm getting time with my nieces and nephews

The kids are enjoying story time with Nama

Much much water fun

Lots of cousin time - this is the first picture of all four girl cousins together...

And it's only Tuesday! More great times to come - currently I'm sitting at the beach house with a great view of the ocean, enjoying some time before I head out into the 90+ degree heat. Four of the kids are out on dates with grandparents or dads and the rest are quietly playing.

It's a good day!

1st Book Review

My love of reading is finally being put to use as I am now a part of BlogHer's Book Club! (Check out my new little badge on the lower left of my blog - click on it to go the book club and see other reviews) I get to read and review a book for you all, which is basically combining two things I love the most, reading and sharing stuff I love with people.

The book I reviewed was called Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok.

Curious what I thought of it? Then please go check out my review - leave a comment and let me know you think and maybe I'll get to do more of these!

Memorial Day Fun

I hope you all are enjoying this lovely Memorial Day weekend. We've had many hot sunny days in a row and the girls have enjoyed many days of swimming.

This was on Friday...

By Saturday she was swimming around with no vest on at all! Can't believe we have two swimmers now. Another big milestone for us as parents :)

Matt and Ella swam up to the edge of the pool so I could get a picture (mostly to document Matt's hairiness)...

And then this guy joined them....

It was pretty hilarious because they weren't expecting it and the dog was right on the edge angling down towards the water. Matt was trying to stay really still so they didn't knock him off while also turning the tube so the dog was facing the deck and could jump off. Eventually he just climbed over Ella to get back to dry land. Imagine how much she enjoyed that!

We really had a wonderful weekend - plenty of time just the four of us and plenty of time with friends. Now it's Tuesday morning and back to the grind with school and work...but we're counting down the days until school's out!

Special Days

For a few days last week Blogger was down. You couldn't create posts or edit posts. I didn't know this because I had a blog full of pictures sitting on my desk top and hadn't gotten around to doing anything to them to know that I wouldn't have been able to anyway. When I went to close it down and realized it wasn't saving I realized "oh....that's why I've been seeing grumbling messages about blogger on facebook and twitter". I was pleasantly surprised to see that a few days later my post had been restored (seriously though, how hard would it be to add the pictures again....apparently for me it would have been tough!) and I didn't have to start over.

I just wanted to highlight a few special things from the past week (now two weeks ago). Note: This is not in chronological order. I know that's annoying but so is rearranging the pictures!

On Mother's Day I had the most wonderful gift of watching Ella and Catherine dance in church. They performed a beautiful dance, choreographed by Renee, to David Crowder's version of "How He Loves". It is such a beautiful song and watching my girls dance to it on Mother's Day definitely resulted in some tears! I love watching them grow as they get old and more comfortable performing. They are both so different on stage. Ella gets a little nervous and is very focused on getting the moves right. She loves it so much and I am so proud of her for doing it and not letting that little nervousness hold her back! Catherine doesn't mind being on stage at all - in fact she'll make eye contact with you if she can (if it's me, I'm usually mouthing back to her, watch Nay Nay, watch Nay Nay) and flash a big smile and just dance her heart out, even if she's not always going in the right direction!

Here are two sweet pictures of them waiting to perform....

A few days before I got to attend a Mother's Day Tea in Ella's classroom. Her teacher did an amazing job organizing this and the kids worked so hard preparing all the activities.
I love any chance I get to be in Ella's class (and man it's been a lot this year!). It's great to see how she's doing and have her show me all her "stuff". I love getting a sense of the class "dynamic".

The kids did a poem, a song, and a book. They made a little book about their moms and a card with their picture and handprint on it. We also did a little craft together and the teacher came around a took a picture of each kid and their mother (it's not the one above, but it's one of my favs of Ella and me. I'll have to scan it in and post it)

Then the kids served us tea, little sandwiches, fruit and chocolate. Pretty nice tea party if I say so myself!

Finally, but not really, because it too place earlier that day. That morning on the same day Catherine's class had an open house. She got to show us all around her class and point out all her favorite things.

I was glad Matt was able to zip over from work and join us.

Then we made a craft together (crafty day for me!) and the kids performed some of their favorite songs.

I love that picture because everyone is getting situated but Catherine saw Matt with the his phone up and went into camera mode! Love it :)

Then the kids all served us drinks, doughnut hole and other treats.

It was a busy day but such a special day to see both girls in their school environments and enjoy some extra time with them.

Smooches

Thank you all for your great feedback on my last post - last week I sat down and wrote about all of them! There were 18 photos and it actually took awhile. When I finally hit publish all I saw afterwards was a blank screen. The post vanished! I tried to retrieve but for some reason it was gone for good. So....at some point I hope to go back and redo it but for now I needed to do something else...something that made me happy!

It's recipe sharing time! These cookies look like your standard peanut butter blossoms, right? But no, there is a big big difference and it's a difference big enough to make this one of the yummiest cookies I've made in awhile.

Instead of peanut butter, the dough has....Nutella in it!

I love Nutella! It is basically it's own food group in our family because my love for it is echoed in each of family member's heart.

We put it on a banana for breakfast, on toast, on a ritz cracker (perfection when you add a slice of banana to go with it), in crepes and for special occasion we use it to make one of my husband's favorite dessert, Bomboloni de Nutella - which are super good and yummy but the process is a bit involved and not something we make when it's just the four of us. This cookie recipe is really easy and absolutely delicious. I actually think I'll make them at Christmas time since my kids aren't fans of the peanut butter blossom.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches

Original recipe here, courtesy of Giada

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella) - can use more - I used a heaping 1/2 cup, maybe closer to 3/4 cup
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies in
1 (9-ounce) package of chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped (recommended: Hershey's)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, place the chocolate hazelnut spread, butter, and both sugars. Using a hand mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and blend until incorporated. Stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated.

Shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. Rolls the balls in the sugar. Place the cookies on a heavy cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven. Quickly place a chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Be careful with the cookie time - it's better to undercook them slightly and allow them to continue cooking on the pan afterwards. They are best when soft!

Take your pick!

So what do you think? This is a pretty random collection of pictures taken from my iPhone over the last month (click on it to see them larger). Which ones do you want to know more about? Come on, the Barbie is begging to be explained!!! Let me know in the comments and I'll start posting!

Are you watching?

Yesterday afternoon a friend sent me a link to streaming video of a Bald Eagle's nest. Two little eaglets (yes I knew that without looking it up, but yes I did look it up because I wasn't 100% sure) had already hatched and number three is due any day now.

Here's a picture from my computer...

It is super fascinating. The kids and I have it up on the screen all the time and Catherine was singing a song about Eagles being our best friends. The bird...not the football team! At one point last night we saw the eagles about to dine on some fresh food....Ella thought it was a rat but Catherine figured out quickly that it was a fish. The eaglets are soooo soft and fluffy (looking that is, I haven't been out to Iowa where the nest is located to confirm they really are) and so cute.

It's been like having our own little science lesson here at home, which is especially nice since Ella has been home all week with yet another bout of bronchitis.

Here's the link. Just a warning, it's fascinating AND super addicting! Don't say I didn't warn you if you find yourself stuck in front of a computer for hours on end tomorrow.

Let me know if you check in and if you get to see baby #3 hatching.

Hellooooo

Man, when you don't blog for a month it's really hard to decide what to start with when you get back into the swing of things...

As usual I have so many posts swirling around in my head and it's been so long so it's hard to know what to share first...

I guess I'll start with some good old randomness!

-One significant thing for me the past two weeks has been my commitment to drastically limit my Facebook usage to checking once in the morning and then not again until after the kids are in bed. For someone who has an iPhone and can basically check Facebook anytime, anywhere as often as she wants - this is pretty major! I originally started it as part of Lent, sacrificing something that I knew was a source of a lot wasted time in hopes that I would use that time more productively and be more diligent about spending time with God, whether through prayer, worship, time in the Word or all of the above.

It has been soooo good for me! Wasted time aside I realized I was really addicted to just mindless checking and scrolling around on Facebook. I love to connect and be connected with people and Facebook really is a fun way of doing that, especially with family and friends who aren't near by. But I don't need to know everything that's going on with people right at the moment it happens, or is posted. I can wait until my kids are tucked up in bed to check and see what's new! Sometimes it's good to know things quickly, which is why I love that when Rachel posts news about Trey in their Facebook group it gets sent right to my email and I know how to be praying. But the vast majority of things can wait and I'm finding that so can I.

The thing I miss most is posting things my kids say or do when it happens because it really is a fun to get feedback and comments. Today Catherine said to me "What happens if there is no more coffee in the tri-state area? What will all the adults have to wake them up?" After recovering from the initial shock at the very thought of there being no coffee within reach I got quite a laugh out of that - definitely would have been a facebook post!

-We enjoyed a few days of gorgeous spring weather last week and now are more ready than ever for Spring weather to be here.

But I do know that Spring is here. We enjoyed our free Rita's on Sunday in honor of Spring, now we're just waiting for some warmer weather!

-I'm a reading fool these days. I put a ton of stuff on hold and it all came at once! I really need to keep an up to date list so I can follow up with authors I really like. So although I really don't need to know for now since I am set for awhile, any good recommendations?

-Oh yeah, a recipe! I've been wanting to post this for a long time and if I don't do it know I might not get a chance until next fall/winter. It's just too good for you to wait that long. This week is still supposed to be chilly, potential for snow in various areas of the state - why not make this easy, inexpensive meal before the switch to grills and summer food!

Pork Chops with Caramelized Apple and Onions

From Mels Kitchen Cafe (who else?!) bold italics my comments/notes

4 bone-in pork loin chops (at least 1/2-inch thick) I don't bother with bone in chops and I usually try and fit as many as possible in the pan.

2-3 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced about 1/4-inch thick I have used one or two (max) apples
1-2 yellow onions, sliced only use one onion
1/3 cup brown sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Place the onion slices in an even layer over the bottom of the dish. Top the onion slices with the apples. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the apples and onions. Season the pork chops generously on both sides with salt and pepper. Arrange the pork chops in a single layer on top of the apples and onions. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake in the preheated oven for three hours. Do not open the oven and lift the foil – the pork chops, apples and onions need to be tightly covered the whole time to work their magic (and not dry out).

Serve each pork chop with your favorite side dish and top with the apples and onions.

Seriously, this is so good! The pork is basically falling apart, so tender you don't need a knife. And did you see that list of ingredients - it doesn't get much simpler than that! As always let me know if you try it out and what you think.

Thanks for checking in even though it's been forever.

Fine Dining

We have a tradition with our good friends the Kovaliks (Hanging with your Naybor). Renee and I both enjoy cooking and trying new food so we use Valentine's Day as an excuse to have a gourmet dinner of sorts. We say it's our Valentine's Day gift to the guys, but I think it's just as much a reason for us to have fun planning and cooking some super yummy food.

Last year we chose recipes from Julia Childs' cookbook and while we enjoyed a wonderful tasty meal it was a lot of work. At the culmination of all our labor, we actually light our dish on fire - per instructions by the great Julia. The thing is when you cook one of her recipes you don't really know what is ok to adapt and what steps you might be able to shorten or even skip. Until afterwards when you go "ooohhh, that's what that was, I could have totally done that quicker!"

This year we planned our meal using the good old world wide web. Overall it was a great success and I thought it would be fun to share our menu with you should you ever need some gourmet recipes for yourself!

Appetizer: Crostini with Proscuitto and Fig - This was really a perfect appetizer for this type of meal. Not too heavy and not too labor intensive - just some wonderful flavors that really complemented one another. I am not a big fan of mint outside of dessert or drinks, but I didn't mind the mint with this. But I would have been without it as well. (bottom left pic - after we'd devoured all but one of them...)

Salad: Mixed greens with caramelized pears and pecans. Here is a link to the original recipe but we changed things up a bit. Instead of romaine we used spring mix, we used pecans instead of walnuts, because...well pecans are just better, instead of proscuitto (already in the appetizer) we added feta cheese. Yum! (top right picture)

The main course was Filet Mignons with Spiced Butter, Caramelized Shallot Mashed Potatoes and steamed fresh green beans with lemon zest. All three were delish and worked perfectly together. I don't have a recipe for the beans because are a recipe Renee makes, lemon zest and lemon juice added to the beans after steaming them - for some reason they never turn out as good when I make them so there may be some secret trick to it!

Cooking filet had me nervous because it is such a pricey piece of meat that you really don't want to get it wrong! Renee and I were funny, I would take it out of the oven and we'd look at it and then look at each other, trying to guess if it was to that magic medium rare point, not bloody, but still nice and pink. After searing it in a pan, cooking it in the oven, you topped each piece with the spiced butter (only thing changed on that was no carraway seeds) and then tented it with foil while you worked on the sauce (we didn't use the veal demi glace that the recipe called for. No clue how it would have been different). It was a success - I don't think I've ever cooked something that made Matt as happy as that filet mignon did!

Dessert Raspberry and Chocolate Ganache Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream. Take a few minutes to take that all in. Then click on it to look at the picture. Yes it as good as it looks. Kind of rendered me speechless! If you have an occasion to make a fancy cake, give this one a try. We split up the leftovers and our half is taunting me from across the room! I think the only change was in the raspberry layer, Renee cooked and strained the raspberries according to the directions then we just added it to a raspberry fruit spread instead of making it into a curd.

I don't know if you noticed in the pictures but there are only four place settings at the table. We fed the kids pizza earlier and they were downstairs in the basement watching a movie while we enjoyed our fine dining!

I hope you all have wonderful Valentine's Day and somehow someway enjoy some fine dining of your own!

Snow Days

We've enjoyed a number of fun snowy outings to nearby hill that is perfect for sled riding. It's fast enough to be super fun for the kids but not steep enough to be really dangerous. I'm still a bit scarred from watching a kid smack into a tree at a really big hill a few winters ago.

I love the snow, but not so much this icy slushy rain stuff we've had this week. And I don't love how quickly our school district cancels school without building any snow days into the schedule. But I do love a good snow and I love having a hill nearby that is our go to place.

Yay for snow and sled riding!

Ok, now I'm ready for Spring!

You give me fever

It's a been a long few weeks.

Remember that last post when I was all excited about my meals?! Yeah, I think I made one of those meals. By the end of the week my husband, who has never ever complained about dinner occasionally being grilled cheese, or sometimes nothing (because we all have those days) said "I need real food".

Instead of being about new and yummy meals, my week became all about fevers, motrin, tylenol, coughs, fever, motrin, tylenol, exhaustion, crankiness, snow days, fevers, bronchitis, ear infection, sick stomach, another ear infection, crankiness, exhaustion.

In case you you didn't catch that, both kids got sick with fevers that resulted in me not leaving the house for four days straight and watching so much Hannah Montana, The Suite Life and Phineas and Ferb that I thought my brain would melt away.

Isn't it nice that my beloved children were sick and miserable and somehow I made it all about me?!

Ella got the worst of it with a fever for three or four days straight and a cough that became bronchitis as well as an ear infection. She was up every night coughing or dealing with being uncomfortable. I knew she turned the corner when she asked to go to bed at 6:30 and proceeded to sleep for 13 hours straight. On the whole, she is not a good patient. The entire time she was home she was exhausted, more miserable than I have ever seen her. BUT - she would NOT sleep. She would lay on the couch in tears because she was so exhausted but she said that sleeping was boring.

For real. Sleeping, the one thing that would make you feel better, was boring.

One time I forced her to lay down in a dark room and I proceeded to sing her to sleep for at least twenty minutes. Her eyes were closed and she was perfectly still. I was so relieved, finally I would be able to sneak away, give Catherine a little attention, try and straighten up the house....when Ella's eyes popped open and she said "Can I be done resting now?"

Groan.

Then there's Catherine. Wednesday morning she woke up not feeling well and proceeded to sleep until noon! That's right, she slept until noon. She was definitely sick with a fever spiking close to 103, but she never got bronchitis, never was as miserable as her sister.

In the midst of this we had a snow day and then the following week we had Martin Luther King Day off and then the next day another snow day. At one point I realized that out of 10 days Ella had been in two of them (2 snow days and a holiday included helped her not have as many sick days)!

We've started off this week on a good note and both kids went to school as usual Monday and Tuesday. But as I am writing this I'm also listening to the weather forecast and wondering if they school district will cancel school out of fear of the upcoming storm. Then what about Thursday when we deal with the aftermath of this "potential" snowstorm? Because guess what - Friday is an inservice day so we know we're staying home!

In all seriousness, I am thankful for the kids' health and realize that I have no reason to complain about a week or so of illnesses. But can I have free reign to complain about the weather or do I have to wait to February to officially have Spring Fever?!! (cuz it's all about the fevers over here!)

Menu Monday

I was so excited about this week's hearty and comforting meals that I had to share them!

Snow is in the forecast and that had me craving warm hearty meals that would warm us up after braving the cold outdoors.

Tonight I was all set to cook but Matt's going to be away until bedtime getting a snow plow attached to his truck. No, there's not that much snow coming, it's a work thing, but let me tell you I am even less excited about driving the truck around. I am already nervous about parking it as it is but now I will have a nice plow in the front and an extended bed in the back. Yay. So tonight will be whatever I scrounge up for the kids and myself. (I'm curious if anyone else skips cooking (and by cooking I mean, a real meal that you've planned, not like breakfast for dinner or spaghetti which are two standard fill ins when it's just me and the kids) when their spouse is gone? It might just be me but knowing that the one other person who will really enjoy the meal is gone takes a ton of my motivation away.)

Tuesday - Chicken and Vegetable Dumpling Soup I dare you to click on the link and not want to make this soup right away. It looks incredibly delicious and healthy. Perfect perfect for a snowy day!!! I can't wait for the way this makes the house smell :)

Wednesday - Kalua Pork - This is one of my favorite ways to cook pork. So easy and so yummy. I plan on serving it plain accompanied by broccoli and some sort of red potato (mashed, roasted, any suggestions?)

Thursday - Classic Italian Lasagna - In case you haven't noticed all three recipes are from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I know I say it all the time, but I LOVE her recipes! Anyway, this lasagna looks so yummy and is different from a traditional lasagna because it doesn't use ricotta cheese. I am a ricotta cheese fan, but I have to admit it's not my favorite part of a lasagna so I am super excited - I am hoping to have found my go-to-lasagna (I tend to rotate a few different recipes, or make a combination of a veggie/traditional meat one).

Friday -Sunday - I never plan real well for the weekends because, well, it's the weekend! But too often that leads to last minute dinners that end up costing more money and aren't as healthy or yummy. My plans for those nights include leftover pork in the form of BBQ sandwiches, Spinach Ricotta Pie, a family favorite growing up and a relatively inexpensive vegetarian dish, and most likely pizza, because who I am kidding, it's not a weekend without pizza at least one night!

What are your favorite meals to make during these cold winter months? Let me know if you post any recipes so I can come check them out!

Christmas singing

We had a very lovely Christmas that was full of family, fun, food, Barbies and last but not least...songs.

My kids love to hear stories about me and my brothers growing up. Catherine went through a phase where she would ask me to tell a story from when I was little every single night. They know them so well that they often request certain ones. For instance Catherine will say "Mom tell me the story about when you were little and your bigger brother would make you do songs Christmas and put a towel under the door so no one could hear you practice."

Why thank you Catherine, now there's no need for me to actually tell the story!

But yes, when I was younger my brothers and I would put on a little Christmas Eve show that involved us singing various Christmas carols. And yes, my older brother was a bit of a slave driver and would make us practice upstairs in his room, and in order to keep our program a complete secret from my parents, he would put a towel along the bottom of the door to keep any sound from escaping.

You know in case my mom was trying to listen.

Because thinking back on it now it cracks me up because I know if my kids were upstairs playing (assuming happily) my first reaction would not be try and listen in. I would definitely be using my time more wisely, like cooking dinner, cleaning, doing laundry....or reading blogs, playing Words With Friends, scrolling through facebook. Hmmmm which seems more likely?!

Anyway - we've come full circle because after hearing that story for years now the cousins (fueled by Catherine and Ella) decided this was the year to put on their own little show.

I took some video that isn't the greatest quality but it's better than nothing.

Same house, Same fireplace, different giggling girl (Ella = me 25 years ago) and different little squeaky kid voices that I imagine bring the same joy to my heart as to my parent's many years ago.

This next one is a few songs later. Just keep your eye on Norah, it's priceless...

Seconds later and we're all good!

There are many more I hope to post - some great rock and roll clips with Caleb leading the way with his drum and some sweet dance moves during a little dance party. But I couldn't pass up sharing with you an event that was 25 years in the making!

Sharing Christmas 2010

It's here! Sharing Christmas 2010, which is, as Nancy reminded me, the fourth Sharing Christmas!

Please post the specific link to your Sharing Christmas post, that way people can click right to it. Take the time over the next couple of days to check out everyone's post and leave a comment saying hello! That goes for all of you who might not have blogs or aren't to getting a post together - please still come out and enjoy Sharing Christmas!

Welcome to our home! 2010 has been a very busy year so it's important for me to take time and share a little about this most special time of year.

I won't share pictures of every little thing since much of it is the same as years before. This year I actually remembered my antique sled and dug it out of the shed in time to add a little pizazz to our front porch. I know, the bow is pathetic. It was meant to be temporary...you know how that usually ends up!
The tree is in a different place this year. Due to a new addition of an iMac we have a small desk in the corner where we usually put our tree. So now it's just on the other side of our archway in the dining room. The presents under the tree are mystery gifts that the kids wrapped the other night. They grabbed books and who knows what else they found lying around and wrapped them up for us. I'm hoping it's nothing I need before Christmas day!

A few shots of some of my favorite "areas".

I love this old fashioned sign. It reads "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays"

I love my hurricane candle holders. I decorate them different for each season and it's so fun to be able to change things up every year. This year I added the gold ribbon as well as pinecones, cranberries and an old cut up garland. It's so pretty when I light all my Christmas candles at night, and I would have taken a picture like that but my lighter was in the car from Sunday when we had a birthday party for Jesus at church. I was the crazy Sunday school teacher who light a candle on each kid's cupcake for singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! (and the candle is leaning, oh my, driving me nuts, but no time to change it now)

I've been adding more lime green to our colors every year. The Dollar Tree always those colored ornaments so I pick up a pack or two each year. This picture kind of drives me nuts because the berry ring is off centered, but oh well!

Can you tell that I love berries? :)
What does my dining room table look like? Well it's the same as every year except last night it looked like this...
It was a fun night of cookie decorating and Santa Buddy watching. We were so busy we forgot to have Ella study for her big unit spelling test which she has on the 23rd. Can you say Ba-Hum Bug?!

As in years past we do an Advent Calendar all month. We have two so the kids switch back and forth between which one they get to "do". Every day I try and put a piece of paper in our wooden one with various Christmas activites for that day. This year I've struggled to actually do it the night before and having been scrambling to come up with something on the spot. In fact today I told them in the car that today's Advent activity was making a Gingerbread House.

One thing that is different about this year is that the kids no longer believe in Santa Clause. It's kind of weird and a little sad, while that was not a big focus of our Christmas, it was fun to watch their child like belief and excitement. Catherine is actually more adamant about it than Ella (I told them we could play along and still have Santa be a part of our Christmas celebration) and said that it's not as fun knowing that Santa doesn't bring the presents. But we press on knowing that while Santa is a fun magical part of Christmas he in no way even comes close to what this season is all about! (I know, I know, Saint Nicholas and giving and all that - I do tell them about St. Nick and the history behind the legend of Santa)

This year our church had a big Christmas community celebration on December 4th, it was a great great night (although planning it consumed by husband for weeks prior) that had me so in awe of our church community and their willingness to come together to make the night so special and successful. It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

Another big event this season was this past Sunday when the girls danced to Bebo Norman's "Come and Worship" during our Christmas service at church. Renee once again did a wonderful job teaching them and getting them ready and watching my girls up on stage is something I truly treasure.

As far as baking, I've scaled back this year. I made sugar cookies (as seen above), soft oatmeal cookies with craisins and white chocolate, Cinnabon caramel corn and a new addition, Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies (sorry no link)

As always our Christmas morning is highlighted by Monkey bread, fresh from the oven - can't wait!!!

The girls are in love with Barbies these days and their big gift is the Barbie Dream House. I got a great deal on it and am soooo excited for them to see it Christmas morning! It got delivered to our house in it's original packaging in the middle of the day and I was so thankful Matt was home to quickly run it upstairs before Catherine could see it. We were so close to having that fun surprise ruined!

Thank you so much for sticking with me while I shared! It's getting late, you better get home ;) Hope you enjoy the view of our front porch...

(that was my not so subtle way of acknowledging that the first picture was taken midday and now it's nighttime)

Wishing all of you a most special Christmas this year. I pray that you have time to enjoy special moments with those close to you.

Merry Christmas, with love,

Ella, Matt, Megan and Catherine

Who's Sharing Christmas?!

It's that time of year again...time for the third annual Sharing Christmas!!! Thank you to those of you who kept reminding me over the past few weeks. With the way this fall has been, I really do think I may have forgotten!!

Funny thing. For those of you who have done this before, go back and look at your old Sharing Christmas posts. I did it just now in order to grab the picture and it was neat to see how so much stays the same and the little things that are different. A couple of times I said "oh, that's where I put that!"

This year I am going to hold Sharing Christmas on Wednesday December 22nd. That gives you a week to take some pictures and get your post together! Click on the link in the previous sentence for a full explanation of how it all works.

Sharing Christmas is a neat way for us to take a tiny peak into what Christmas looks like at your house this year. If you're like me, the decorations stay pretty much the same, (Haha, tempted to reuse pictures! Don't worry I won't!) but each year brings change and newness that is important to document. Not just to share with us of course, but to look back on for your self (if you haven't gone back and read your archives, do it. My kids LOVE hearing stories from when they were littler!)

So on Wednesday when you put your post up, along with pictures, I hope you'll include some of the following things:

What is different between this Christmas and last? Or what has stayed the same?!

Any new traditions or events going on this year?

Any new recipes you're trying out? (Renee and I were talking today about our habit of trying new recipes when we have to take something somewhere instead of maybe the wiser route being going with something tried and true. But that's a bit boring, right?)

What is the gift you're most excited for your kids to see Christmas morning?

What are ways you try and share the true meaning of Christmas? (not that we don't try and do this throughout the year, but I know many of you have fun advent traditions that I want to steal!)

You don't have to share all of those, but I definitely hope you'll share a bit about how Christmas is lived out in your family this year!

Let me know - will you be sharing?

Super Seven Years

On December 4th my firstborn turned seven. SEVEN!!! I can't believe how fast seven years have flown by. I remember how far away that all seemed when she was a helpless, completely dependent upon me, baby. I am pretty sure I say the same thing every year!

I do feel a little bad that I just skipped right over her turning six. I also feel bad that Catherine turned five in August and I still haven't posted about that. But since Ella already missed one birthday I had to start with her!

First - I can't just ignore her big 6 birthday. So a few major milestones that she reached between the age of five and six:

Learning to swim

Learning to ride a bike

Starting Kindergarten

Losing her first tooth

Big year, right? I definitely picked a bad year to miss :(

But rather than let it get me down I'm getting number seven up there in less than week! Yay me!

A few highlights from this past year

*Finished a great year of Kindergarten

*Played her first real season of soccer, did not enjoy

*Lost another tooth

*Passed the swim test at the Y, which involved swimming a full lap of the pool without stopping and then treading water for a minute without stopping. I am beyond impressed with her swimming skills and how well she did, especially considering that she didn't really know what it meant to tread water until she actually did it (Note to remember, I was the crazy coach/mom on the side of the pool cheering her on and making her stay in the middle of the pool. I knew she could do it, but I knew if she got to close the side her instinct would be to grab on to the wall. I was soooo darn proud of her afterwards!!!)

*Survived and even thrived during a week away from mom and dad this summer

*Started 1st grade

*Played another season of soccer, this time with mom as a coach. Much improvement!!!

*The lightbulb turned on and she started reading like a champ. Every sign we pass, the title of every book I'm reading, everything she sees on tv...she's reading!

A few days before her birthday she experienced another big milestone.

Ear Piercing!!!

Let me add that I suggested that she get her ears pierced since the only other thing she ever said she wanted was a hamster (a year running now) and the closer it got to her birthday the more I realized I wasn't ready to bring a pet into the house. Hamsters are nocturnal so I figured he/she couldn't live in Ella's room and the only other options were the playroom, which is basically just an extension of the kitchen, so no, or the basement. What's the point of having a pet that you never see?!

So Thursday afternoon I got her off the bus and we headed to the mall for the big event. She was so excited and nervous at the same time. She kept asking me if that was ok, which I told her yes of course!!! (because I was nervous too - I wanted it to be a positive experience)

I had called ahead to make sure there would be two people there so her ears could get done at the same time (crucial crucial - don't do it any other way!). I let her pick out her earrings, of course she picked an expensive pair (I was taping her and she told the camera how much the earrings cost and you can kind of hear me say "wow it's expensive getting your ears pierced") but I figured it was still less than the hamster so I rolled with it.

A few pictures....here she is sitting in the chair, about to get started....love the look on her face!

And then because I knew her dad and sister would want to see it happen, I took a video during the actual piercing (while holding her hand at the same time). I guess I was pretty confident that she'd do well because if she freaked out I'm not sure I would be allowed to share this video...

That's my little tough cookie- no big deal to her!!

Here we are afterwards, and a close up of the sparkly pink flowers she picked out!

I have more to say and pictures picked out to document Ella turning seven, but I have to go and make a list to get ready for our next milestone....her first slumber party!!!!

Carried away by Cards

Last week I saw something posted on Facebook that got me super super excited! It was definitely too good to pass up.

Shutterfly is offering a deal to bloggers for fifty free photo cards. It got me thinking about Christmas cards that we've done in the past and what my plan was for this year.

Click my Review page to here all about it...

Perfect Popcorn

I know this is kind of a random recipe to share on Thanksgiving week, when blogs are full of recipes for yummy sides, perfect turkeys, and scrumptious desserts.

But I see it this way. What did the Native Americans help the pilgrims grow? That's right, corn! So I think it's entirely appropriate to share my favorite popcorn recipe as a reminder of all we have to be thankful for.

I know...it's a stretch.

First of all, in answer to the question you all are asking...why don't I just use microwave popcorn? Well, I wish the reason was that I knew all along tha microwave popcorn isn't that good for you, that supposedly certain chemicals leach into the popcorn and that's just not good, but I only found that out after the real reason....our microwave is on the fritz. It's brand new and it stopped working and we've had repair men out from the company and now we're waiting on a replacement.

Popcorn is an essential part of our family movie nights so I had to get online and find a recipe for stovetop popcorn. (which is when I found out that perhaps not using microwave popcorn is a good thing!) After making it one time I decided that this is how we'll do it from here on out. It was soooo good, and I honestly don't think I will be able to appreciate the taste of microwave popcorn after having this kind.

So, because I care so much about my blog readers, all five of you, I am going to share my new love with you.

Perfect Popcorn Recipe
from Simply Recipes, modified
Ingredients
3 Tbsp canola oil (I experimented with adding less oil and it works fine, I usually use 2 Tbsp)
1/3 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
1 3-quart covered saucepan
Salt to taste

Method
1 Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat.

2 Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.

3 When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. (Count out loud; it's fun to do with kids.) This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.

4 Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl.

With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop (I counted 4 unpopped kernels in my last batch), and nothing burns.

5 If you are adding butter, you can easily melt it by placing the butter in the now empty, but hot pan.

6 Salt to taste.

I usually make mine with just salt, but the kids like having a little butter. I'm sure you could try all sorts of fun toppings if you wanted. Let me know if you get around to trying it and what you thought of it! I'm home with two under the weather girls and I think that we might kill some time with popcorn and a movie this afternoon!

Facebook Funnies

I've been holding onto these stories for awhile now, but they are just too good to not share with you all!

First is one that has nothing to do with me so I won't use the name of the guilty party....

(I looked back on his profile and saw that the post and comment thread are no longer on there so I definitely won't post names - but it's just too funny, I have to make sure it isn't forgotten!)

I was scrolling down my facebook homepage and came across the following post and link from a friend;

(read carefully)

"Hey for all of you with young boys who like to play with blacks, check out this website!"

Crickets.....

The first comment was from a mutual friend of ours saying "I think you meant BLOCKS, right?"

So yes, he made a tiny little typo that totally changed the meaning of his post. This was one of those things that struck me as so funny. I laughed so hard. I thought it was so funny I had to call Matt and make him go on facebook and read it - because I was laughing so hard I could barely explain it. Renee and family were over that night for dinner and I had her come see it and laugh with me.

What kind of awful website would that be (it was actually a link to a kids woot deal on wooden block sets) according to his typo? Seriously - worst typo ever!!! I think some of the funniness of it knowing the person and imagining his enthusiasm over sharing a link to a great deal and then realizing that...oops....that's not what I meant to say!!!...is what makes it so funny to me - I hope you can put your imagination to work and find the humor in it too!

But if I'm going to laugh at someone else's mistake, I have to be willing to laugh at my own. So next up, a mess up on my part that provided people with many laughs!

Ever since Matt got an iPhone and I found the Words with Friends App I have been super into (i.e., obsessed) with the back and forth challenges that I have going on with various friends. My one friend "J" and I joke that we know each other's schedules based on when we play, and it seems to be around 11pm at night when she's done with all her grad school work and starts to play her rounds. Since I'm usually reading or getting ready for bed I'll grab Matt's phone and start entering words and occasionally we'll send messages back and forth, briefly catching up or talking trash!

(It's funny because often times J and I have 5 games going on and we're both on a roll and it's getting late and I know that one of us just needs to quit and go to bed...and then I'll see "Your Move with J_____" and I get sucked in again!)

Ok back to the story.

She had gone to a concert one night so was not available for our nightly WWF play. The next day she posted on facebook how great the concert was and I added the following comment:

"Glad you had fun - I missed you at 11pm last night! ;) We need to talk in real life sometime soon!"

No big deal, right?

That afternoon I got home from something and Matt was working on his laptop and said something along the lines of me being responsible for the latest facebook oopsie. I honestly couldn't figure it out....until he said "you posted on J's wall....under my account!"

So yeah - basically that innocent comment from me sounds not so innocent and rather strange coming from Matt! Strange enough that her husband was convinced that Matt's account had been hacked and was going to call and warn us. Two hours later she posted a follow up comment "Meg, is that post coming from you?" They figured it out, but I'm just picturing the two of them (both off of work after the late night - so they saw the comment right away) sitting there trying to figure it out for that long, her husband so convinced he needs to warn Matt when, finally they put it all together.

I think it will take me a long time to live that one down!

So which one is worse - The blocks website or my wrong account posting?

Baking Woes

I think I'll place the blame on the busy week. Just one of those weeks, getting ready for the girls' Fall/Halloween celebrations at school, coordinating the volunteers for Ella's class, getting ready for Pumpkin Math at Ella's school - just a lot of things all in a few days.

I had volunteered to bring in a pumpkin treat for the class to enjoy after Pumpkin math. Pumpkin math was this fun activity that Ella's teacher organized, where the worked with estimating, measuring counting and counting using a pumpkin.

Anyway....

I decided I would make my pumpkin cookies. They are super easy and super yummy. Also they are topped off with brown butter icing which is my favorite for anything pumpkin.

I figured I would double the batch since we had our church group meeting Thursday night and I could bring them to that as well. Only one problem. The recipe called for shortening and I didn't have enough for two batches. So I used half butter, half shortening.

At this point my problem began. I'm not sure if it was just using the butter or if my butter was too soft and getting melty, but the cookies flattened out more than usual and were very....soft/mushy/fragile/falling apart. I made probably six plus dozen cookies and I tried all sorts of tactics, cooking them longer, letting them cool longer on the pan, refrigerating the dough beforehand. Nothing seemed to really work too much, but the refrigerating did help a little. (leading me to think that it was the butter being too soft and not the use of it that was the main problem. any thoughts)

Of course as the cookies were basically falling apart in my hand, I ate much more than my fair share, because of course I can't give the kids broken cookies and can't just throw them away either!

Sidenote: There is something about pumpkin that leads to me always overindulging. With brownies or chocolate chip cookies I usually have more control, but give me a pumpkin cookie or even an oatmeal cookie and I'll just go to town. Is it that, despite all the butter and sugar that I added with my own hand, the addition of a "healthy" ingredient" results in me feeling that it's not as bad for me as brownie? Can anyone relate to this?

So I ate tons of broken cookies all day and then that night right before I put the kids to bed I made the brown butter frosting. This involves melting butter, adding brown sugar and milk and cooking it until it's boiling. Then you remove from the heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla, stir until combined and then drizzle or spread on your dessert of choice.

Easy cheesy.

So with the kids watching I did all of the above. Except instead of being a consistency that could be drizzled or spread, it got super thick and dough like. I thought perhaps I read the recipe wrong and added more milk, hoping to thin it out. And then more milk. And then it became apparent that whatever I had done wrong was irreversible so I had to step back and evaluate.

I tasted the icing. It didn't taste right. (Catherine liked it and actually had a cookie with it on top in a big lump) It didn't take me too long to realize that I had added flour instead of powdered sugar! Awesome! So I dumped it all in the trash and started over with much better results.

I packed the cookies up into a container and set them aside for the next day.

But of course that would have been too easy. When I opened the container whatever was wrong with the cookies from the beginning and just gotten worse and many of them were breaking, sticking to each other (kind of funny, not the icing, only the cookie part was sticky) - basically a big mess that I didn't feel would be great to share with a group of first graders.

So.....I decided to risk attempting to bake again, this time, pumpkin bread from my favorite food blog Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Even though I really really did not want to bake again, and the thought of having more pumpkin temptation was almost unbearable, I'm glad I did it because the bread turned out awesome!

Thanks to Mel I avoided adding yet one more baking woe to my list. Anyone else have issues when making non yeast bread when the middle seems to stay gooy and the sides get overcooked? It happens to me all the time. In this recipe Mel said that if I was using a 9x5 pan it would make 2 loaves and an 8x4 pan it would be three loaves. I don't think I ever realized that that extra inch on either side would make that much of a difference, because it turns out I do have 8x4 loaf pans. All those times I was getting gooey undercooked bread - perhaps I was cramming three loaves worth of batter into two pans!

So yeah, all of this to say, go check out Mel's Kitchen Cafe and make her pumpkin bread. You can't go wrong with it!

Stay tuned for some more yummy fall recipes. I have some that are so easy and simple that I can't not share them with you!