Baby It's Cold Outside!

We got snow!!!!

Embarrassing Photos!

Poor Brady. Lately he has been taking some not so flattering photos and as the bad mother I am, I think they are hilarious and am posting them for all of you! Enjoy!

 That is some pretty good rice cereal eh?

 Milk Drunk???

 OK! OK! I will redeem myself as a Mother and post this super studly one! Look at my cute boy!

The Stockings Were Hung...

So Ike's Mom is really incredible when it comes to cross stitching. She made unique cross stitched stockings for all of her 10(!!!) children and when Ike and I got married, she even made one for me. Well now that we have kids I want them to have unique and beautiful cross stitched stockings. Well, I felt bad asking my mother in law to make one for each of my children so I thought this might be a good opportunity to learn a new skill. Cross stitching can't be that hard right??? WRONG!!!!! In theory it is easy, but actually making all your stitches look right and not losing count (my biggest problem) is not easy. My blood literally went into this stocking. I don't know why I decided to make Brady's first but I did. After much frustration and ripping out stitches, It is complete!!! I will be the first to admit that it is not my best work, but I am proud of it. I think it will stand up with the ones from my Mother in Law. The only bummer is that it took me so long to make Brady's that I don't think I will have Jackson's done in time for Christmas. He will probably use Ike's mission stocking this year and next year he will have one of his own.

Brady's Stocking!

 Ike's, Mine and Brady's!

 One more shot of Brady's!

You Better Watch Out. You Better Not Cry...

Christmas Spirit

Today I received the December Ensign in the mail and when I read the first presidency message I realized that I could do so much better this season. President Monson talked about Rediscovering the Christmas spirit.

When we have the spirit of Christmas, we remember Him whose birth we commemorate at this season of the year: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

In our day the spirit of giving gifts plays a large role in commemorating the Christmas season. I wonder if we might profit by asking ourselves, What gifts would the Lord have me give to Him or to others at this precious season of the year?

May I suggest that our Heavenly Father would want each of us to render to Him and to His Son the gift of obedience. I also feel that He would ask us to give of ourselves and not be selfish or greedy or quarrelsome, as His precious Son suggests in the Book of Mormon:

“Verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who … stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

“Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away” (3 Nephi 11:29–30).

In this marvelous dispensation of the fulness of times, our opportunities to love and give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. Today there are hearts to gladden, kind words to say, deeds to be done, and souls to be saved.

His message just made me realize that I have focused so much on presents and material things this Christmas season that maybe I have overlooked the true meaning. So starting today I am going to try to do things to keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas and try to rediscover the true Christmas Spirit in my life.

HOW THEY BE SO CUTE?!?!?!?!?!

So I don't really gloat that often. But I would like to today. Not the sinful bad kind of "I will compel you to be humble" gloating though.  More like the GAHH MY KIDS ARE SO CUTE motherly kind.

Behold! My children and their cuteness!!!!

The Avengers Challenge

So Ike and I watched The Avengers a few weeks ago and even though we liked it, we were left with a few questions. We had not seen all the movies leading up to it that we should have and were frankly unprepared to see the movie and enjoy it the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Luckily, our branch has a family that I feel comfortable calling experts in comic book knowledge and after discussing with them what we thought of the Avengers, they gave us some homework to help us better appreciate it. We did it and now both Ike and I feel much more competent (and not to mention cool) because we have all this new Super Hero info in our brains. So now I pass what they gave us along to you! I challenge you to do the homework then re-watch the Avengers. I promise you will enjoy it more!

You have to start by watching these movies in this particular order: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America. Then as you watch these movies you have to answer the following questions. Some of these may require the help of the internet. In exactly 7 days (Which I think should be enough time to complete this assignment) I will post all the answers to the questions and you can see how well you did!
These are the questions exactly as they were assigned to us:

Iron Man

1. An old man appears in all of these movies. Who is he? Why do we care?
*After credits: Appearance of Nick Fury! Big geek moment!

The Incredible Hulk

1. What is the bad Hulk's comic book name? (A_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N)
2. What other Hulk villain's origin is shown in this movie? (L_ _ _ _ R)
3. What other Hero makes an appearance? (After the credits)
4. Who played the computer department guard and why do we care?

Iron Man 2

1. What are the comic book names for these actor's characters?
- Scarlett Johansson (B_ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ W)
-Mickey Rourke (W_ _ _ _ _ _ H)
-Don Cheadle (W_ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ E)

2.Which two items appear in this movie that belong to other Heroes not yet seen  at that point in time? (Be sure to watch after the credits!)

THOR (This one was totally my favorite in case you were wondering.)


1. Thor mentions "Yggdrasil". What is it?

2.Which other Hero movie is it mentioned in?

3. How is it tied to the glowing cube?

Captain America

1. What other Super Hero has Chris Evans portrayed?

FURTHER HOMEWORK!!!
Re-watch the Avengers and don't be so ungeekingly clueless!

So there you have it! Do the homework and in 7 days I'll post the answers! Have fun!

Santa Lady

I just finished a job making these Santa aprons for our local bank. They sponsor Santa coming every year to Fullerton's Old Fashioned Christmas celebration and they wanted his helpers to have some Santa aprons. I thought  they turned out so cute I would write a post about them. They actually look cuter on real people because the bottom flares out. My mannequin has no hips beyond a certain point which makes it look like the apron sinks in a little. On a person it looks much better.

Brine On!!!

Oh Thanksgiving! I love you and I hate you. I love you because of all the DELICIOUS food but I hate you because I end up eating my body weight in green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. The pants that I blogged about being so excited to button up now mock me with a two inch gap between button and button hole. How sad. It is OK though. Tomorrow is a new day to exercise and besides, our left overs are almost all gone so the temptation will no longer be calling me every time I open the fridge to make a turkey sandwich...which sounds so good right by the way.

I brined my turkey again this year and I swear it is the only way I will prepare my turkeys from now until I die. They just taste so good!!!!! This year's brine was brown sugar, salt, garlic, onion and some random spices I had in my cupboard. Maybe next year I'll go a little lighter on the salt but I really can't complain. The turkey was amazing.

 I don't stuff my turkey while I cook it. I add the box stuffing after when I put it on the platter to make it look pretty.

We had a couple from our Branch join us for dinner :)

I made my absolute favorite favorite (can I say it again????) FAVORITE rolls.

You know you want those right???? Well do you have a bread maker? If not you can make them anyway but it will be harder and they might not taste as good.

April's Favorite Rolls:
Put in the Bread Machine Pan in this order:
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons very soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp salt
1 egg
Now use a fork and gently mix these together.
Now add:
3 cups white flour (You can use a 1/4 cup more if you want. I do in the summer when the air is very humid)
3tsp Bread Machine yeast

Make sure your yeast is not touching any of your ingredients except the flour. Now put your pan in the Bread Machine and put it on a dough setting. When it is done you should have some beautifully risen dough. Now punch it down. Divide your dough into 15 balls (You could do more or less depending on how big you want your rolls.) Put them in a buttered up pan and let them rise for 35-40 min or until doubled. I warm up my oven on it's lowest temp (170) then turn it off right before I put the rolls in. When they are almost done rising, I pull them out of the oven and  pre-heat it to 375. When it is ready,  put your rolls in and cook them from 12-15 minutes. As soon as they come out of the oven, brush them with melted butter. Wasn't that easy??!?!?!?!? Now go make them and eat them!

Trivia!

Can you guess what my least favorite chore is????

If you guess correctly, you will win a gold star and two hours at my house folding laundry. Huzza!

GO BIG RED!

We had a great opportunity to go to a Nebraska Huskers football game last Saturday and now I think we are officially Nebraskans. I am pretty sure we will get our certificates in the mail. This was the first time Ike and I have been away from the kids in over a year. I think we need to try and make this happen more often. It was an awesome day!


It was sunny and windy.

 The lone Penn State fan in a sea of red.

Life Science Rap

Ike told his life science class that I could rap (which is kind of an exaggeration. I would call it more like glorified rhyming.) and they have been bugging him every day to bring in a video of me doing it. This is the rap I made up for their class.

 

SMALL VICTORIES!!!!!

So I mentioned in a previous post that I have been doing weight watchers and step aerobics. I have been doing this for about 5 weeks and I'll be honest, I don't look too much different. I wish there was some kind of magic pill that would magically make me lose 5 pounds a week but alas, it is not so. BUT!!! This is not a post about giving up after 5 weeks because I don't see much of a difference in my appearance, it is the opposite. This is a post about the first small victory I have had!!! My number one goal when I started trying to lose weight was not to get to a certain weight number per say (Although I do have one in mind.) but more to try to fit into my clothes. I have a closet full of clothes that I have not been able to wear in literally two years. I just want to be able to wear the clothes I have. Well yesterday morning just on a whim I thought I would try on a pair of jeans from before Jackson was born. The last time I tried them on (maybe when Jackson was like 1ish?) I couldn't even get them past my thighs. But yesterday not only could I get them past my thighs, but I could actually zip and button them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Were they still a bit tight? Yes. Did I even have a little muffin top? Yes (Notice the strategic placing of my hands on hips to hide muffin top in pictures) BUT I COULD AT LEAST PUT THEM ON!!!!! So these last five weeks have not been in vain and now I have new motivation to keep on keeping on.

I used to be kind of vain about my booty but after two kids I was "compelled to be humble". I actually think my tushy looks pretty good in these jeans.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween got postponed this year in Fullerton because of a High School football game so we did our trick or treating on Friday instead of Wednesday. Originally I made Jackson a Thomas the Tank Engine costume. I think it turned out amazing. Unfortunately, as cool as it looked, it was super awkward and uncomfortable to wear and every time I put it on Jackson he would say, "I don't like it. I don't like it", in a very sad/cute sounding voice. So I had to come up with plan B. Luckily I have tons of scrap fabric and it was easy to whip up a cape, bow tie and top hat. So even though he sort of wore Thomas to the Branch party, he went trick or treating as a magician.

The Original Costume

 Not very fun to wear eh? Well here is an easier and much classier costume!!!

 What are you pulling out of your hat??? A rabbit? A pair of keys? A diaper??? We will never know.

And Brady made an adorable Pirate. 

Do you know how hard it is to draw facial hair on a 2 year old and a baby with liquid eyeliner without it smudging????? Well I do. And I don't plan on doing it again any time soon.

Why we love pumpkins...

 1. They make excellent toys.

 2. They are great for hugging! (Yes, that is what he is doing, I have no idea why he made his hands into fists.)

 

 3. They make excellent canvases for artwork.

 4. They are fun to get messy with!

 5. They help develop fine motor skills.

 6. They make you smile.

 7. They make us excited for Halloween!!!

Jackson absolutely loves our pumpkin. He named it Gronkowski and says goodnight to it before he goes to bed each night. Hopefully this one won't get stolen until after we go trick-or-treating. Last year our pumpkin got stolen but it was infested with ants so it was kind of a good thing.