Catch-Up!

BACK TO FIRST GRADE
For a couple months I had the opportunity to go back to one of my favorite places: FIRST GRADE!! I worked as an aide in Special Education to the most adorable, happy, sweet 7 yr. old on the planet who took all of a day to fall in love with! He makes me happy and I am forever grateful to have him as my friend. :)

The sounds and joys of the season!

Weston and I have been working in nursery since September and just saw our class graduate into nursery this new year. They teach us a lot and are so precious to be with every Sunday! We talked about reverence recently and brought a camera so they could see themselves being reverent. Here is one sweetheart's interpretation. :)
A lovely trip during the break to the Raleigh, NC temple.
We were privileged to have the missionaries over for dinner! They are such happy, good, and wonderful young men who love the Lord! They are wonderful examples of why we are here and bring a lovely spirit into our home.
Heading to our friend's home, the Mizell Family, for Christmas dinner. Such wonderful people to celebrate with! PLUS their beautiful farm home in the hills of Virginia...so picturesque.
We love traditions! Our new family Christmas tradition begins here Christmas morning, at our nativity (from Haiti). Stars will guide each family member to the nativity where we will present and share our gift (written, colored, or what not on Christmas Eve) to the Savior for the coming year.

A gift from a thoughtful nephew and sister. We had was too much fun! I love Weston's face of concentration--it takes opposable thumb skill!

Ah, our first Christmas. It was so wonderful just to be together! We got an early start--I couldn't sleep all night!--and enjoyed being able to call family and hearing all the happy chaos in the background: the sound of home. We missed being there, but are so grateful for the missing. It just means we love you!

Some views of Christmas in our apartment. Don't miss the snow falling from the ceiling! :)

A fun tradition: Christmas apple-making. Thanks Diana for starting the trend all those years ago!

Christmas Eve we went to a lovely Fireside at the church and came home for our turkey dinner. It was nice to build off our own family traditions that evening, and begin some of our own.
The dinner...ta daaa!
We LOVED each of our thoughtful and cute Christmas cards! Thank you!
We used the apples we canned for this apple pie! Despite a serendiptous lapse--I forgot to add sugar (who does that!)--it turned out quite tastey :).

SNOW!!! We were so happy to discover for the first time in 10 years, VA would have a White Christmas! It was so beautiful and we LOVED being snowed in! Being snowed in created a lot of opportunities for everyone to slow down and meet, help their neighbors. It was such a blast to see cars squealing and all these people coming out in their lounge wear to push/help a neighbor, strangers no more.

Virginians were not equipped. Shoveling supplies consisted of cookie sheets, buckets, and dust pans.

By the time we were done digging out our car and 4 others, our enthusiasm to build a snow sculpture began to fade...so we settled for the tower created by the lovely snow that once covered our car and parking space.



We made a lot of German pancakes over the break--they just sounded good to us. this batch however, went awry...yikes. It was our last batch.
I wanted to make our stockings, so I made a pattern and a font template out of newspaper and had a lot of fun! They're not totally complete --or identical...but hey, we're all different! :)
Our finished tree. Ball of fire! We had random things to decorate and some happy memory ornaments from dear friends to use.

Little does this smiley girl know she is allergic to this type of pine...that was an adventure, but worth it :) Quote, "My hands feel kinda of weird...tingly...AHH!" No Scottish pine next year...unless gloves are used whilst decorate.

We were soooooooo happy--okay, me especially--that we could go Christmas tree shopping together! So much fun, and such a cute tree :) We went late in the season and I'm glad the tree got to fulfill it's Christmas destiny!

Merry Christmas

In case we lose power with all the snow, or don't get to use the internet, we want you to know we love you! Merry Christmas! We are grateful for the gift you are, and for the gift of every season that is here because of Jesus Christ.

A Season of Thanks: NOVEMBER 2009

We made a point to go into NYC just a few minutes away. It was Weston's first time and we had a blast just walking around...on black Friday...We also went to go to the Manhattan Temple which was the highlight for us.

Central Park made it into our "top 3" of things to do/explore in the city. Beautiful and fun! We're excited to go back.

The weirdest thing seen was a Persian cat on a leash for a walk, wearing a sweater. I don't think it was very happy though because it tried to take sudden jump off a bridge! Still, impressive.
Times Square
Hurray for M&M's! I wanted to pull every lever!
Manhattan Temple (right across from Juliard!)A ride on the carousel--a piece of history--with the family! Spencer cried the whole time! :)
An unquenchable love for soft and squishy animal toys!
The name speaks for itself..we just had to peak and see what all the hype is about...
One of our favorite buildings (also VERY historic): NY Public Library! Inscribed on the wall was, "A good book is the precious life blood of a Master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life"
St. Patrick's cathedral. A beautiful place to stop, think, and rest our aching feet!

Hurray for big trees at the Rockefellar Plaza!
Weston and I enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving and are grateful for a season that reminds us to of the many ways that God has blessed our lives. We had the opportunity to go to New Jersey and spend the holiday with my sister Linda, and her family! It was completely delightful and they were so good to us.

Too good. Scott and Linda refused to let us sleep on an air mattress. Check out the our "Chateau 193 Suite" they made--portable DVD player, gourmet chocolate, tourist info., amenities, and refrigerator included!


Weston was given the carving privilege...wow!An incredible Thanksgiving feast--can't be too bad when your bro-in-law is a chef!

My AMAZING and darling nephew, Spencer. We had a great time together!
Weston played some Turkey ball with Linda and Scott's home ward and other friends. I was the proud wife of a '2 touch downs' player :) The wet grass was a great athletic equalizer and made watching a lot of fun!

Happy Day, EASY BREAD!

Dear friends of domestic enjoyments,
Please enjoy the easiest (and very yummy) bread recipe I recently discovered from a woman in my ward. I've made many different recipes, and this is so simple!! No kneading required! It's true. Much less messy! It's one of my Christmas miracle. :)

P.S. This doesn't take as long as the directions look. Don't get intimidated!

Use plastic bowl if available. Makes 4 large loaves (white or multi-grain)
5 cups hot water
2 T salt
2/3 c. sugar (or about 1/2 c. honey)
2/3 c. oil
1/2 c. bread flour
STIR 1 MINUTE
3 T yeast
STIR 1 MINUTE
10 c. bread flour
---if doing a multi-grain bread--i.e. whole wheat, cracked wheat, cornmeal, oatmeal, wheat bran, barley flour, mashed potatoes, etc.--use any combo but be sure 5c. of the 10 are bread flour.
STIR UNTIL MIXED
RAISE in warm place for 20 minutes
DUMP dough onto an oiled counter and divide into 4 parts and squish briefly into cucumber shape
ROLL very flat (about cardboard width) on oiled surface (with oiled rolling pin). It's best to start in the middle and do 1/2 at a time, going length-wise
ROLL up the dough like a cinnamon roll
PLACE in sprayed loaf pans with seam down
RAISE 20 min. at lowest oven setting
BAKE at 325 for 30 minutes
REMOVE bread from pans
COOL bread on towel
CUT with electric or good serrated knife

Hurray for bread-making...and eating!

Here be one of the most beautiful Fall trees that I have ever seen! So beautiful! It put me into my over-enthusiastic raptures of nature, so we FINALLY stopped to take pictures. Unfortunately, I tried using a film camera, so here are some that turned out on Wes' camera.





Ah, the bliss of Fall! Here are a few pictures to make you happy inside.Our friends Amber and Kevin Mizell have been so nice at welcoming us to the area! They invited us on an impromptu hike to Bald and Rocky Knob. Here, Kevin is with his ADORABLE hiking buddy, Oskar. It's impossible to get too many pictures of that insanely cute baby boy.

Behold, The Oskar. As one so well put it: It looks like he's trying to hug the whole world! And, it does. He's a gem.

Endless green, rolling hills, farmland, trees, silhouettes...[sigh]

FALL FESTIVITIES

Sandwich bread, or brick laying? Amazing what an extra 30 minutes in the oven will do...I was baking bread for the week until 2am and fell fast asleep (even through my backup alarm) on the floor. Oi.
HALLOWEEN! A bunch of couples in the ward were invited for a night of games and treats. I was a repeat costume--Funshine Bear! Why? Carebears: They care. Felt is cheap and does wonders. Weston was...well, you'll see.
Just an ordinary, awkward boy...or...
dun du DAAAAAA, da da da DUN da daaaaa!
He's too good at this... I knew it!