Like Father, Like Son

Now how cute is that??

Sledding - snow much fun!

The past several days we have received about 2 feet of snow and I hate to see that go to waste! SO we have been playing in the snow quite a bit! On Saturday we met up with some friends and went sledding for an hour or so and had a blast. The on Monday Cole and I went on our own snow trek. Cole couldn't stop laughing as he walked through snow up to his thighs. He just loved it. He also discovered that he LOVES eating snow. I watched him pile it into his mouth and when I asked him how it tasted my reply was "MMMMM!" Too cute. Then yesterday Bret suprised us by coming home early and taking us sledding again! Man, do we love the snow!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We had a wonderful holiday season! The only bad thing is looking back it seemed to have disappeared into a whirlwind! We drove down to Albuquerque to spend Christmas with my family. That was not my favorite drive but thankfully Cole was an angel for most of the 12 hour trip. *cringe* I think I complained more than he did :) We arrived Friday night late and spent the next two hours trying to wear Cole out since he got a second wind upon arrival. On Saturday the fun began. I stayed home with my mom (this was one of her days off) and Bret and my Dad headed off for the New Mexico Bowl. Jill came over that morning with Xander and he and Cole had a blast. It was pretty fun to see them play. When the men arrived home I heard about all the fun they had and believe me - there was plenty of pictures of the game. Bret even took some pictures with the cheerleaders (which cracked me up). I was glad they had had so much fun. That night we played games and had a fun time. On Sunday we drove out to Keri's ward in Los Lunas to listen to her teach in Relief Society. I'm sure it was an amazing lesson but sadly I didn't get to hear any of it. Cole was having a rough day and didn't want to go to nusery so we spent our time walking the halls. Oh well. We then had dinner at her house that night. Cole - the cook- even helped with dinner prep. He had a blast chasing the kitties also. I'm not sure the cats enjoyed it to much! On Monday Bret, Keri, Dad and myself headed up to Santa Fe for the day. Bret had never been and I wanted him to see it. I love Santa Fe for all its culture, museums, and so much more. It was a great time. We arrived home in time to head over to the Pearce's for dinner. While there we exchanged gifts with each other and allowed the kids to pretty much run amoke together. Tuesday I went to lunch with my dear friend Amanda (who had put up with me for the past gazillion years) and then came home for another night of games. We also went to see the traditional Buggs Lights. Cole loved them and ran around the entire time shouting "Lights, I see!!!" It was pretty cute. Wednesday night we had the missionarys over for dinner and to play chimes. It is a pretty awesome tradition. Afterwards we drove around to see some Christmas lights. Thursday morning was so much fun with opening gifts and spending time with my whole family. Cole made a haul between grandparents and aunts/uncles. Bret also enjoyed all of his gifts especially a church book from my parents. He still can't keep his nose out of it! All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. Thursday night Bret and I stayed with Keri and Cole had a really hard time going to sleep. He didn't fall asleep until almost 1am and then all the adults had to get up at 4:30am for our annual trip to the Bosque Del Apache. It is a bird refuge and we love it! But in order to see all the geese rise from the lake at once ( a truly amazing sight) we have to leave by 5am. Thankfully this year Katy and Lyle decided to stay home and watch Cole for us. (Thanks again!) We had a great time and saw lots of birds, 12 deer, and an elk. We got back in the afternoon and the boys headed off for a movie (they had also played lazertag for 3 hours earlier in the week for more boys time). Saturday I went to visit another friend,Amy, who just had a baby and got to spend a little time with her. We then played more games and had tonz of fun. Sunday came to fast and we left early in the morning for our long drive home. What a great vacation.
New Years we didn't do anything big, but just stayed home and watched movies together. The day after was football and we had Scott over for the day. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and our family hope that this new year will be filled with blessings for everyone!

Microwave Peanut Brittle

Peanut Brittle

In a glass dish mix:
1/2 C white karo syrup
1 C. sugar
1 C nuts of any kind or mixture

cook on high for 8 min.* stirring at 4 min intervals

Add 1 tsp. vanilla

Cook and additional 1 min

Stir in 1 tsp baking soda into candy

Pour on buttered pizza pan and spread thin.

DO NOT DOUBLE RECIPE!!!!!!

*times may vary

Holiday Goodies

For Christmas this year Bret wanted to take some stuff to work for his coworkers. I decided to try being a Betty Crocker with one of my good friends and attempted to make some yummy Christmas goodies. We started off with making A very yummy microwave peanut brittle (just like peanut brittle but I don't like peanuts so we substituted with pecans). Our first batch we followed the recipe exact and torched the first batch... not a good start for us. The next 2-3 batches we thought were good - but they sadly didn't set up. (see first picture) We lovingly named this "the Christmas Blob" It tasted pretty good - but more like caramel than pecan brittle. Well at this point we decided to start on our homemade truffles. This was also a first for both of us out of a Kraft magazine I get each month with some really yummy stuff. We made regular cream cheese truffles and mint flavor truffles. It was pretty easy until we had to dip them in chocolate - that is a true art form that we have yet to find. They didn't turn out professional pretty but for first timers I think they ended up beautiful. On the tops of the truffles we put different foods to decorate them - crushed candy cane, nuts, powdered sugar, and red sprinkles.
We then took at nap/lunch break for the kids and two hours later we tried again with the brittle, only this time we were successful! We found out that with the first batch (thanks to help long distance from my amazingly patient mom, I called her a gazillion times) we hadn't cook the first batch long enough. After one hour, four batches, and several charred fingers (this stuff gets HOT!!) it was perfect!

What a fun experience. The lessons I learned:

• Don't eat the brittle while still hot no matter how good it looks
• Pecan Brittle hardens istantly when done right so you can't be slow
  
• use a hot pad when pouring the brittle into the cookie pan
• dipping truffles is a pain and I probably won't do it again

On the Go

So for us most of our Saturdays consist of deep cleaning, shopping, lots of shopping especially with Christmas sneaking up on us, naps for anyone under 20, and other random honey do things. Well, this past Saturday just ended up way busy but full of fun.

The day started for me at 5:30am when Cole decided he was awake and therefore mom should obviously be awake also. So we snuggled and played until about 6:30 when Bret woke up to cook a breakfast casserole for our ward party. At 7 we started our usual cleaning and then headed to the church at 8 for the Christmas Breakfast with the Bishop. Cole had a great time running laps around the church house and all the breakfast tables. So much fun that he actually opted out of breakfast. Cole also got to sit on Santa's lap and was kind enough to ask Santa to give his mom a cruise for Christmas - I'm not sure that even that will work for me but it was a try. Cole was fine with Santa but preferred the orange that was given to him by turning it into a ball and chasing it around the gym. We then headed home, finally got Cole to eat some breakfast, and then got ready and went swimming with some good friends at the Clearfield Aquatic Center. It was so fun but Cole took a really long time to stop shivering in the not so warm pool but that didn't stop him from having tons of fun on the kiddie jungle gym in the pool. Around 1 we called in quits and headed home, ate lunch, and Bret headed off to go golfing with Josh L while I put Cole down for a "nap" and helped his wife Ahshley decorate her tree and clean her house for family to come. Cole, being exhausted, decided not to take a nap. So he chased their dog Leah around the house and climbed in and out of her kennel while Ashley and I finished up on some fudge gifts she was giving all her neighbors. When Bret got back we headed to the store to pick up a movie for the pizza and movie night Scott (Bret's old roomie from college) had requested. We rented Journey to the Center of the Earth. As we were waiting for Scott to arrive Cole crashed on my chest so I let him sleep for 1/2 and then when Scott got their we ate pizza and played Scene it in which my trash got severly kicked by both guys. What can I say? I don't watch that many movies. After Cole went to sleep we watched that movie. It was pretty cool and I can't wait to see it in 3-D. Scott then left at 10:45 and we headed for bed after a very long but fun day. It was awesome but I'm glad that not every Saturday is like that!

Painting byMorgan Weistling

Tonight was our ward's Christmas Enrichment. They presented a program written by someone in another stake that was just lovely. The speaking parts all the different women/mothers from when Jesus was born - Mother of Mary, Elizabeth - Mother of John the Baptist, the wife of the Shepard, the wife of the innkeeper and so on. In between each speaker was a musical number and it was just so amazing.
I had the humbling experience to be the last speaker as Mary, the Mother of Christ. I can't even tell you how many times I had read and reread my part so that I could get it just right - but near the end of my part I still teared up - the Spirit was just so strong that it couldn't be denied. After my part they ended with a song that I had heard only once before when I was not a mother but have grown to love, because now that I have a child it means so much more to me. I want to share the lyrics with you.

Mary's Lullaby (Tonight You Are Mine)
All mine in your loveliness baby, all mine.
All mine in your holiness baby divine.
Sing on herald angels in chorus sublime;
Sing on and adore, for tonight you are mine.

The wise men are coming to worship their King,
The shepherds are kneeling their homage to bring.
Out yonder the star over Judah will keep.
No harm will befall thee, then sleep baby sleep.

O let me enfold thee, my baby tonight,
While legions are singing in joyous delight.
A new star has risen to hail thee divine,
For you are a king, but tonight you are mine.

Away spectered future of sorrow and plight,
Away to the years that must follow tonight.
The pangs of Gethsemane, let them be dim,
The red drops on Calvary, not Lord, for Him!

O let me enfold thee, my baby tonight,
While legions are singing in joyous delight.
A new star has risen to hail thee divine,
For you are a king, but tonight you are mine.

Sing on herald angels in chorus sublime;
Sing on and adore, for tonight you are mine.

It was such a beautiful program and it made me that much more thankful for the amazing responsibility that I have of being a woman and the mother of a precious child.