Christmas finally came!

Well, as I'm sure you're all aware, Christmas finally came! Yay! I was so excited! In the last few days leading up to it, we made lots of different goodies, like these chocolates. They were pretty fun, but only looked cute from this far away. Always nice to find another thing I don't have the gift for. Sigh, but it was fun. Then Jared requested I make this for him to take to work:

Oh, it's SO yummy! I'll have to post that recipe sometime. If you don't know, I have this major thing for almonds, and this is an almond puff pastry, so, well, there just aren't words for it! :o)

The forecast was calling for a huge storm for Christmas Eve, so Jared's work canceled their patients, so he didn't even have to go in. Bonus! Too bad he spent half the day digging out from this:

The kids played and played while he shoveled, and I did some clean-up inside. Jared thought he better even shovel off the balcony and also decided to put the patio furniture in the shed, so he tossed it over into the yard, and then the kids discovered it was fun to play on:

Christmas Eve we were invited to a party, so when we got home we just hurried and put them in their jammies and snapped this picture. You can't see in this picture, but the cookies for Santa weren't even frosted. We assured the kids that Santa would still like them!

They were pretty excited about this, and sweet little Sara was insisting that I open the gift from them first. That's what she's trying to find in this picture. I was surprised they didn't just want to open the biggest first, but John stuck with his plan to open one I had put under the tree a few days before.

She looks a little scared in this picture, but she really loved the dollhouse. A lot. Even though she kept saying that she "barely" wanted it. She kept saying that about all things she got, meaning she really wanted them, but it was funny how much that changed the meaning.

And the start of the dinosaurs...

I think this next one is my favorite picture. We let them buy movies for each other, and this was after Sara opened hers from John. A totally unprompted hug! Aw.

One happy kid:
And another with a cute cat from G and G Morton:


Check out this face on John when he opened the Legos...

Long story, but I couldn't decide what Legos to get him. They have a duplo dinosaur set, but I thought it was too babyish. They have a set that you build a big stegosaur with, but the Lego guys at the store said it was pretty advanced and it was $70, so I didn't buy then. I kept looking. I bought two other sets at other times and returned them, after deciding he didn't want Legos as much as I wanted to get them for him, so I was going to get a smaller set and have more $ for dinosaurs. Anyway, the time got down to it, and every store by me was out of the basic sets, so I had the kids with me at the Mall of America when I bought this. I told them it was for a "little boy" (giving them the idea of someone else, but I didn't lie, I swear) who still needed a present, but I did ask John what he thought, expecting him to say he could only hope he'd get something so great. Well, he told me he wouldn't want it. What?! That's what you get when you ask a five-year-old what they think, I guess! I figured I'd be able to make him see the light, so I bought it anyway. So, that's why he's looking at me like that. By the way, he did like them later, but I think I had more fun with them than he did. Sigh.

Since John's love of dinosaurs really started to thrive when we borrowed Prehistoric Planet from the Gotbergs, that's the movie Santa thought John had to have..Sara got Mulan, but happend to be opening this kitty when I was snapping this shot...

A book from G and G Morton--now that's a genuine smile!
John with his goods:

And Sara:

Notice the fire--that was awesome. We've really enjoyed the fireplace so far. It's so cozy. And here's the marbleworks toy I raved about. Jared and I built the marble maze to show them kind of what to do, and it was cool. The whole day we just played and played. The kids never even got dressed. It was great.


Sara got these cute mini princess coloring books from Chase:

Oh, and the cinnamon rolls I'd been wanting to make for a long time. I never plan ahead well enough, so these were not ready by breakfast time, but they were still a welcome afternoon snack.

I didn't want to plan food (other than the cinnamon rolls), so I was planning to get Chinese take-out like we did last year for our Kung-Fu Panda Christmas. Well, all the Chinese places around were closed, except one that I finally found. It was close, though!

See, they are playing with the Legos, but still with their other favorites at the same time. Funny monkeys!

Anyway, it was a really nice Christmas, and now I need to re-arrange things to make room for new toys. Yay.

Oh, I almost forgot two funny things from that day. The kids got electric toothbrushes in their stockings, and Sara misunderstood the powers of it, I guess. Because when John started brushing his teeth and I was still opening Sara's, she told him to let go of it, because it could brush his teeth by itself! Ha! Then that night she said in her prayers, "Please bless President Jesus." She said that right after she said bless President Monson, so maybe that short-circuited her brain. Anyway, it was funny.

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

I don't know if I can wait!

Well, I feel ready for Christmas finally, and now I don't want to wait! I feel like a kid, except that I don't care so much what I get, I just can't wait to give to my kids. I have thought and thought, comparison shopped at the stores all around, and online with about every available moment for over a month, and found things that I think the kids will love, and now I just want them to have these treasures in their hot little hands!!

Not that I've gone crazy shopping, but like I said, I really agonized about finding "the" things for them. I didn't want to spend too much, but I had enough to work with, and Jared has even gotten a couple bonuses--from the clinic and from his department, so I've been having a great time increasing my budget and trying to maximize the dollars. I feel like my kids don't get spoiled very often, and I sometimes just want to get them everything their heart desires, which isn't even that much. Anyway, of course John wanted dinosaurs, but I was not too excited about buying anything dino--don't we have enough? Well, I finally found some of the good Imaginext ones that I know he'll go crazy for, so I'm excited. They are different from the other ones we have, so I think they'll seem like something new. I've also gone with some Lego stuff, which I can't wait to give him.

Check out John's letter to Santa:



And for Sara, her big thing will be a dollhouse, even though she said she didn't know what she wanted. Have you ever seen the Fisher-Price Loving Family dollhouse?

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=5851&e=product&prodcat=dollhouse-thumb&pid=44946

Well, I think it looks so cool, and I can't wait to play with her! I hope she loves it, but I feel pretty sure she will. I didn't go with the fully furnished model, so we'll have to let her pick out a couple rooms to buy after Christmas, but even so, I just can't wait!! Have I mentioned that?

Well, I've also gotten movies, books, puzzles, and a board game and other stuff like that for the little monkeys, so I'm ready, right?

Oh, another thing I'm way excited about--http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2317854

If you don't feel like checking out the link, it's for a "Marbleworks" thing. I didn't want to post the pictures in case they come in and see this, but the marble thing is for both of them, but I think it will be a hit, too. That was a good one, because it's a BIG box and only $20. Score!

Oh, and I even got them jammies, but they don't match, so it's not as cute, but still...

Don't know if I can wait, except for the fact that I still have to wrap everything. Doh! It's all been hiding in our trunks, so out of sight that I keep forgetting to get it all-the-way done. Oh, well.

What about you? Are you done? Do you just let the kids pick things out? Do you go nuts trying to find really perfect things? What thing are you most excited about for your kids?

The rest of Sara's bday

So, I never posted the pictures of Sara's actual bday, so I thought I'd go ahead before I forget. We had a fun, relaxed Saturday playing together and went to McDonald's for dinner. Did I already tell you I had been planning to give her my Cabbage Patch Kids dolls from back in the day? Anyway, Jared was skeptical, but after he saw her reaction he agreed that it was a good idea. I washed them and the clothes I had for them, and they cleaned up pretty well for being almost 25 years old, I thought. We also got her a set of wood dolls, which she also loves, and it is pretty cool if I do say so myself. John picked out a Princess book and a Strawberry Shortcake coloring book to give her, and she also loved the packages from the grandmas and grandpas. She loved the clothes and book and goodies. Thanks so much!








I have to admit, I was so happy to see my fav kid toys back in action, and I hope she'll enjoy them even half as much as I did. Did you think those dolls would be a long-term investment, Mom and Dad? Isn't the last picture sweet?

PS--she named them Sara and Katelin. How cute is that?

So nice to meet you, Chicken Broccoli!

So, I just had to post that I made my friend, Julie's, Chicken Broccoli recipe yesterday, and it was perfection! THANK YOU for setting me up with my new best friend, Julie! We all loved it, and I'm a new convert to the world of French's French Fried Onions. I have literally never bought them before (is that un-American?), but I think I'll be using them in place of bread crumbs or corn flakes on any kind of casserole from now on. Here's her recipe, which I loved, because this is how I think through recipes, too:

Put chopped broccoli (frozen and thawed, or fresh, 16 oz.) in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Cover the broccoli in shredded or chopped chicken. How much? I don't know...just some, so it covers the broccoli generously. Sometimes I even put the chicken on the bottom, this recipe is not that picky. If you are feeling lazy, and sometimes I am, just shred up a rotisserie chicken and throw that in the pan. In a bowl combine two cans cream of chicken soup and one cup mayonnaise, no Miracle Whip. In my opinion, even having Miracle Whip in your house could potentially ruin the outcome. Oh, and don't use Canola Oil mayo or anything like that because it is not fatty enough and it will not work. Just regular fatty Hellmans or Best Foods, depending on which side of the Rocky's you reside on. Add some curry powder in to the mix and some lemon juice, not too much of either. Pour the goop over the chicken and broccoli. Bake for 20 minutes. Add Cheddar cheese (lots) to cover the top and sprinkle with French's fried onions and bake until cheese is melted and everything is bubbly (20 min). My step dad uses bread crumbs on top and bakes it with the cheese on the whole time but if you use the onions, they will burn so you will have to either bake the cheese/onions for less time, or cover the whole operation with some foil. Alright, are you confused? Now you know why I dragged my feet about sharing. Not quite recipe book format. If you want a real recipe, search Chicken Divan on allrecipes, and I am sure they will have some options for you. But there...I answered...and kept my promise!

Back to me again. I was also going to mention that I loved the curry powder in it. I even licked the bowl to taste the "goop" part (well, using my finger) and then found myself unable to stop. Even with just the soup, mayo, lemon juice and curry, it was delish. Might sound weird, but you've got to try it!

I made rice to go along with it, but it could stand alone as well. How do you do it, Julie?

So, everyone should try it and tell Julie how good it is! Yum!

I give up.

My turn

My friend Julie had a post where she asked for questions from her "audience," of which I am always happy to be a part, so I asked her a couple things, and she reciprocated. Well, here goes...but first let me also say that she had been asked by a cousin if they could have an "Ask Julie" Day because they had lost touch a little bit and were happily reuniting in blogland. It's not like Julie was just thinking that everyone was dying to know more about her, although she is a VERY fun, and funny, friend. Everyone should be dying to know more about her!

So, anyway, she asked about my favorite Church History site in New York. That's a tough one. I always have a tough time picking favorites, and they might change at any time. Maybe it would be easier for me to say my favorite part about each place, I love them all so much, but I guess I'll spare you all the details. Excluding the temple, since it isn't a "church history" site, but it is where I was endowed and married, so I'm a pretty big fan, I think I'd have to say the Sacred Grove, of course. Did you know President Hinckley changed the design of the temple to have a window that you can look out of and see the Sacred Grove since it is such a sacred place? No other temples (as far as I know) have a window where you can see out, so that is more than cool to me.

I don't know how many times I've been to the Sacred Grove, but we went a lot as youth, and I can't think about it without thinking of my big brother Justin. He was a big fan of it, and even had a certain place in it that he especially liked, where there was a huge rock. I might be making that up, but that's how I remember it, so in turn, I have always loved to hang out at that spot. Justin was just always a good example to me about spiritual things, because he never thought it was "uncool" to believe, and I think that's a common thing for teenagers. He loved to be the first one up in a testimony meeting, and I always think of that when I'm sitting in an awkward, quiet meeting. Thanks, Jus!

My family went there before we lived in Buffalo, too, and I remember that trip to visit my aunt and uncle who lived nearby at the time. Even a ride in Stan's helicopter was overshadowed by the special feelings I had when I visited the church history sites.

My ward youth from Ohio went on a trip up to see the pageant and the sites the summer before we moved up there, and I loved every minute of that trip, too. I thought I was so OLD and mature at twelve! Ha.

Then while we lived in Buffalo, we went many times for youth activities, an EFY, and as family as well. We didn't always even visit everything of course, but I guess I'm just trying to emphasize that I've been there in the pouring rain, the falling snow, the crisp coolness of Fall, and the Summer heat and it is always special. I really wanted to do pictures there before our wedding, which may seem a little disrespectful frankly, but it was so special to me. Here are some pictures...






The sites were updated, renovated, and greatly changed just before we were married (2001), so a lot is different now (even better!) than I remember it as a teenager, but I still love them a lot! I love the interesting history of the Book of Mormon printing process that you can learn at the Grandin Building, I love feeling like I can really picture Joseph Smith and his family hanging out, doing the day-to-day things in the frame home, or imagining him having the First Vision in the loft of the cabin in a bed likely cramped with siblings. I love driving up and seeing the majestic Hill Cumorah, with the monument on the top, and the Christus in the visitor's center window. And I love the Whitmer farm, too--imagine being there when the church was organized! Well, I could go on and on, but I better leave it at that.

Julie also asked for my recipe for Chocolate Crinkles, which is definitely worth sharing. My family can't have Christmas without these fudgy, delish cookies, in fact I made some last Friday for the ward party, and almost decided not to share the goodness. Yum!


Chocolate Crinkles

1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. powdered sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oil, melted chocolate, and sugar. Blend in one egg at a time. Add vanilla. Mix dry ingredients excepted powdered sugar and add to wet ingredients. Mix well. Chill several hours or overnight. Drop 1" balls of dough into powdered sugar (or whatever size you like) and roll till coated. Bake on greased baking sheet for about 10-12 minutes. Don't overbake!

To be fair, I feel like I should also share how I'd answer the questions I asked her. I asked her to share something that worries her. I heard a speaker once have us all in the audience turn to a neighbor and exchange one thing that worries us in an effort to help us bond and get to know each other. It was a young, single adult conference, so we were all uh, anxious to make good impressions, etc. and that question struck me as a way to really get to know something deep about a person. I guess that's why I asked it, although it seems like kind of a mean question, so I felt like I should share too.

I worry about plenty of things, but one that is kind of silly that I've shared before is escalators. Jared thinks this is too funny, but I can't help it! They are freaky.

I worry that someone will kidnap my kids, so I basically never let them out of my sight. At that museum we went to a while ago, there was a kid sized ant farm thing with a bunch of tunnels for them, and I got totally freaked out waiting for them to come out. What if someone was in there touching them or something?

I worry that people won't think I'm sensible. Even saying that, I feel silly, and I'm thinking I also wish people thought I was exotic and the opposite of sensible, but I guess I should make up my mind. Who cares, but I really want people to think I make good decisions--big or little, and I really feel dumb too when I waste food or money or something. Last night I forgot to put the chicken away after dinner that I was planning to pick the meat from to make chicken noodle soup. We had been asked to take letters we wrote to our ward's missionaries and servicemen to our Bishop's house, so I didn't clean up all of dinner, but I thought I had put the food away. OOOPS! I hate doing that kind of thing.

I worry my kids will think back and only remember my freak out moments. I wouldn't blame them, so I guess I should try to have fewer of them!

I worry about lots of things, like getting into a dark car, but I don't think I want to think about too many more, or I'll get all worked up and won't be able to sleep tonight!

I also asked Julie to share a favorite Christmas tradition, and she said they always get a new ornament each year. I love this idea, and have done it some years, but not every year. I'll have to be more deliberate about it.

I think my favorite tradition that we did when I was little was our family's "progressive dinner." We lived near some of my mom's sisters while we lived in Idaho, so we could do this. We'd have soup and salad at one house, then move on to another for the main course, and another for dessert and games and the gift exchange. Even when we moved away, my mom continued the tradition with friends in Ohio, and it was so fun! It still goes on with my mom's family, which is now sooo huge, and we were able to be out there a few years ago. Love it!! I might have to revive it sometime!

My last question for Julie was to share a favorite meal--one that she always had the ingredients for. That was my thinly veiled request for her Chicken Broccoli recipe that I'd been asking for, and it worked! :o)

Again, it's hard for me to pick a favorite, but here is a recipe that I love, another of my mom's. I don't always have fresh mushrooms on hand, but they are optional. And I don't always have the Monterrey Jack cheese, but I try to keep some in the freezer just for this recipe:

Chicken Tetrazzini
12 oz. thin spaghetti, broken into smaller pieces, cooked and drained
1/2 lb. fresh, sliced mushrooms, sauteed (if desired)
1/4 c. melted butter
3 to 4 c. cooked, shredded chicken (or turkey)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 c. sour cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine all ingredients except cheeses in large bowl and pour into 9 x 13 pan. Spread cheese over top and bake for 40 minutes.


Well, I have got to get back to some laundry and other things. If you have any worries, fav traditions or recipes, or fav church history sites, please share!

Little Strawberry Shortcake Sara

So, I asked Sara if she wanted a birthday party with friends or something special with the family like a Build-a-Bear, but before I could even finish my sentence, she said "a party!!!!" I don't know if she even knows what a Build-a-Bear is, but I didn't know if she'd be too excited about a party since we only know four kids from church (and only one is a girl), so I hadn't really been planning to do a party. Anyway, it all kind of snuck up on me and on Tuesday I found out that that the mom of one of the kids I was planning to invite is due any day, and so I decided to hurry and do the party. I called the invitees, since I'm always the Queen of Etiquette, but then we delivered invitations, too. Not that that compensates for giving such short notice, which I'm sure impressed the moms. Oh, well. They were all very nice and brought their precious cargo to hang with us this afternoon.

Sara still loves Princesses, but she loves everything and had a princess party last year, so I wasn't sure we'd go with a theme at all. Then we visited the local party store and she decided on (with my subtle hinting) Strawberry Shortcake. Sara's cousin Maggie has a SS doll house and the dolls that were my sis-in-law's when she was a kid (so cool!), and Sara LOVES them. Well, we love all of Maggie's toys, but that one is a super cool one. Anyway, I like Strawberry Shortcake, so "we" opted for that! We didn't even know the other girls' names, so I had to do a little research.

I decided I was not going to stress, so I tried to think of really simple things to do. It was a little tricky since I had four boys coming and only two girls. I tried hard to keep them in mind, but some of the things were "girly." Oh, wait. I forgot to mention this--of course after I tell all the moms the plan, that night Jared says he's taking John to work that day to practice giving the tests that they do to kids. Uh, what? See how well we communicate. It ended up working out that they'd be done in time, since I was planning 12:30 since a few of the kids had morning school, but it did stress me out for a minute. It made for an interesting morning for Sara, though. They are very rarely separated, and she hardly knew what to do without him! Cute.

Here are some pictures I took while we were waiting for the guests to show...I figured the Christmas decorations could double as birthday decorations and then just blew up a few balloons (the rest of the bag from John's party). And you thought you were cheap!

The goody bags. I went with things of Play-Doh hoping that was a unisex kind of crowd pleaser.


So, back to my play-by-play, after I fed them pizza, I let them play balloon volleyball and then we popped the balloons. Then I led them on a silly scavenger hunt to find the six SS girls throughout the house. I wrote cheesy little rhyming clues and hid them all around, which they seemed to enjoy. Then I even got them to color the coloring pages of each girl that I found online. I didn't think any of the boys would do it, but they said they'd do them for Sara. That was their idea, wasn't that sweet? Then I had bracelets/necklaces for them to string; a re-run from last year, but I love having kids do beads, so I do that a lot. A couple of the boys didn't want them for themselves, so they gave them to the girls, too. It really was sweet!





And then for the thing I was the most excited about--the bean bags!! Yes, you heard me. I was SO excited, because on Thursday as I was trying to envision each and every moment of this party, and I just wasn't getting any ideas for activities (too bad the Slip-N-Slide wouldn't work), it suddenly hit me. I wish I had a bean bag toss game--the boys would like that, right? Well, I have some extra fabric (red even) with my sewing stuff and beans in my food storage, so I pulled them right out and went to town--I didn't even have to go to the store again, which I think I'll be avoiding until April by the way. It's cold now. Very cold. The kids really loved them, and I kind of wish they had been a Christmas gift, so if you are looking for a totally cheap and fun gift, there you go! (I cut the fabric into 5x10 inch strips and then filled them with about a half cup of dried black beans if you're wondering.) I probably could have found a really cute idea online, but I just had the kids try to toss them into pie pans, and then just had them toss with a partner, so it was super easy. Please comment about the bean bags. :o) No, really.


The best stress reliever I did was eliminate the whole cake thing and we just did cupcakes. Much easier for me, although certainly less memorable. I thought the cupcake toppers were cool, though. Oh, and 24 cupcakes meant that I could really let those six kids go to town on them, which they did! Several of them had three, and they loved it when Jared ate a whole one in one bite and then they tried it--thanks, hon! Do you think there might be a correlation between all that sugar and the kids' crazy behavior at the ward party tonight? Ooops. Actually, they mostly had a hard time because the party was pretty serious (they had presentations about different cultural traditions and the Bishop read the scriptural account, like ALL of Luke, and then we did every verse of every Christmas carol known to man, so it got long. I enjoyed it a lot, but it was hard for the kids to stay engaged), but I'm digressing. Back to Sara's party...





And then we finished up with the gifts (which Sara was able to "handle" much better this year--remember last year?) http://losmortons.blogspot.com/2008/12/sara-kate-turns-three.html , and then the Moms came and it was all over. It felt very manageable, which is probably a combo of the kids being older, and it was a pretty small party and they were good kids, and I was basically totally ready, so that was good. I was sad, though, to not be able to have all of Sara's "old" friends. I would have loved the chaos if we could have had everyone over!! Sigh.

I'll be back with more since her bday isn't till tomorrow, so we still have some other "family" plans and presents...like the oatmeal she requested for breakfast. Weird.

PS-Can you name all five of Strawberry Shortcake's friends without wikipedia-ing? Hint--their colors are yellow, pink, blue, orange, and purple.