A Relaxing Day of Vacation

We had the best day yesterday! After dropping the girls off for babysitting, Peter and I decided to go explore a new coffee shop (one of our favorite things to do). When we got over to the east side, we took a side trip to Por que no for a couple tacos and freshly made tortilla chips, guacamole, and salsa. It was scrumptious :) Afterwards we went to Random Order Coffeehouse and had beautifully made, delicious coffees. Peter and I read our books for a couple hours and then decided to walk down Broadway - we were feeling like we needed to move around a bit after eating and drinking! We had a great time together. I love having him home this week :) I decided to attempt another recipe out of my new cookbook, and Sam and the kids came over for dinner (they brought a pizza over for the kids). Last night's recipe was 100 times easier than the night before! It was very tasty, but I'll add a little more spice next time. It's so wonderful having the time to experiment with new recipes. Kelsey and Sara made some cupcakes together while Alex and I supervised :) During half time of the Blazer game, Peter and Kelsey made their steak marinade to get ready for Peter's New Year's Eve steak barbecue today. Kelsey and Peter have a tradition of making the marinade together. Kelsey loves cooking (last night she even started to make her own cookbook...)

Change of Plans

It's funny how you have plans to do something, and then everything completely changes. For the past week we had been looking forward to going out with our friends who we haven't seen in a very long time. They were going to meet us at our house at 4:00, but then 2:00 came along and it started snowing. Kelsey and I headed over to Mom's to get something we needed, and we played a couple of games and played with little Jack. I didn't think much of the snow until we went out to drive in it. We tried to turn out of Mom and Dad's neighborhood, and the traffic was completely stopped, so we took the long way home. We saw a car slide about 15 feet, and their wheel almost came off. Our friends had called to cancel, so now we didn't have plans for dinner. I made it almost all the way home, but couldn't quite get all the way up the hill (Peter easily managed to do it, after I quit attempting and felt fine to leave the car parked horribly on the side of the road... :)

So the change of plans was getting to try a recipe out of the new cookbook that Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas. My mouth has been watering as I have been reading all of the recipes. The recipes are pretty involved, so I thought tonight would be a perfect night to take the time to try it (not realizing that it would take me over 2 hours to make it!) Lots happened in betweeen starting and finishing this dinner(burning some of the chicken, burning my arm after olive oil splattered on it when I put the chicken in the pan, having olive oil splatter all over the island and the floor, dropping some food on the floor, squishing whole tomatoes by hand and having juice squirt who knows where (yes, the recipe says to squish the tomatoes by hand....!) When the meal was finally done, I set it on the table feeling a little scared that someone would dare complain after all I (and Peter) went through. To my surprise, we loved the dinner. I couldn't believe my ears when Conner said, "These mushrooms are REALLY good!" We agreed that it's not a dinner that we can make after work, but it's definitely one to make again (after my arm recovers :) We finished up the night watching Julie and Julia, pretty appropriate movie after our dinner experience!

Random Happenings

Kelsey got her ears pierced on Saturday!

Peter got his hair cut very short!

We went to a delicious restaurant in North Portland yesterday after we picked up Kelsey from her sleepover at Sara's.

McKenzie has been working on decorating her room with her friends' pictures.

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful day we had! I woke up early to do my quiet time before all of the Christmas events started. I sat by the tree, listened to Christmas music, read my Bible, and watched the sunrise all before the kids woke up - it was wonderful :) They actually slept in until 7:20. We took our time enjoying opening up gifts and then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. After lunch we went to see The Blind Side which is one of the most inspirational movies we've ever seen. At home Kelsey spent every free second that she could under her Oregon Duck Snuggie, her soft white blanket, and wearing her new Uggs. For dinner we enjoyed delicious prime rib at Uncle Dan and Aunt Mary's. McKenzie, Kelsey, and I finished off the night with a jog around the neighborhood.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas Eve at my parents' house. Kelsey and Sara performed some Christmas music on the clarinet and keyboard, dedicating their show to Grandma and Grandpa (they even wrote up their dedication and framed it). Mary, Matthew, McKenzie, and I played a game of Qwirkle, and we ate a delicious chicken fettucini dinner! The bowl was almost licked clean it was so good :) After dinner 11 of us went on a walk around the neighborhood while others stayed back to clean up. The kids had so much fun opening up their gifts. They immediately put on their matching pajamas that they get every year. There were two incredibly special gifts given last night...a very special gift from my Grandpa, and a "cousins gift." On Michael's Christmas list he had written down that he had wanted to spend time with his cousins. So my mom has planned an activity to do every month for the next five months. We start off January 5th with all 21 of us going to the Blazer game. We will be going to a Children's Theater Play of the "Three Little Pigs," a bowling night, a pizza and game night, and a cooking class all together at the Merry Kitchen! I am continually amazed how my mom thinks up such wonderful, thoughtful gifts. We went home feeling so grateful and happy to have received such incredible generosity!

Baking with Alex

Today Alex and I got to spend some special time together. While Kelsey and Sara were playing upstairs, Alex and I made cookies together. He was absolutely adorable. He was very excited to help and made some of the cutest comments. I kept telling him what a great helper he was, and he said, "If you ever need help cooking, just call me. I'm good." After we were done using the mixer, he started inspecting the mixer, trying to figure out what the parts were for. He asked if he could unscrew part of it (I said yes), and then he asked for a flashlight so that he could see inside of the mixer. He then took apart the flashlight. He put everything back together without any help - he definitely takes after his dad! I have never had a cookie baking experience quite like the one we had today. Every once in awhile he would just gently hold my arm and give me a kiss. He made my day :) After we were done baking, he started cleaning the counters. After he had cleaned the counters, he cleaned the floor, and then asked if he could clean the windows. He was a great help! Kelsey and Sara came down just in time to lick the bowl!

Cookie Exchange 2009

Today we had our annual cookie exchange at our house - we had so much fun! It was great to have everyone over. Everyone brought lots of snacks and cookies, and then we baked 3 different kinds of cookies. We ended up with 31 plates!! Maggie helped unwrap the Hershey kisses, Alex helped roll peanut butter balls, and the rest of the kids were the taste testers :) Mary made her famous lemon cookies and peanut butter rice krispie treats. Katie made some delicious chocolate peppermint cookies. Amy found an adorable M & M Christmas tree recipe. Mom was generous and brought 4 different kinds of cookies. My cookies turned out pretty flat - good thing I'm not in the business anymore! Aunt Mary came, even though she just had some surgery yesterday! Annie kept us laughing with her funny stories. Seven out of 9 of us wore vests.... :) With all of the busy-ness that can sometimes go along with Christmas, it was so nice to stop and really take time to enjoy being together. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have such a great family.

It's Christmas Vacation!

One of my favorite things to do when the kids get out of school for Christmas vacation is surprise them with an after school treat served on our snowman and Santa dishes. Today we had hot chocolate and brownies - they were grateful, even though I baked the brownies at too high of a temperature for too long! I've only baked these brownies 100 times :) I guess it's the thought that counts.