The Wonders of Christmas

Since the snow didn't come forever (and then it DUMPED, we have been stuck 4 times so far & have 5 foot walls of snow down our little country lane) we started out our Christmas season with the boys' 2008 pictures in Tony's sister's backyard...


Next came our ritual visit to BYU-Idaho's Santa (we've been since the boys were 2 & he recognizes them now--he's the best, most authentic Santa I've ever been to AND he tells them every year that they have to 1.) Obey their parents 2.) Be nice to each other & 3.) Eat their veggies & brush their teeth!! Hooray for Santa!!!)


One night in December doing homework--that cat sure loves Jaydon!


Our Christmas Eve night started out with an amazing feast, then nativity, a couple of numbers by family members & family singing. Fantastic!

Singing around the piano (Sister Sarin & fiance, Tony & I & a couple cousins--not pictured singers: a bunch of aunts & uncles, grandpa/grandma & more cousins all wandering around singing along with us :)

Savanah cousin doing her "Silent Night" sign-language actions

Jyson-the-chill

Our Nativity Scene at Grandma's House...

Tony-Donkey's entrance--watch out Mary, don't fall off!!

My shining cousin stars!

Jaydon-the-Joseph

The full scene in action

Our very cool actors

This year's Christmas was so different & so wonderful. It's the first year we've had Christmas morning in our own little home. The boys didn't wake up until 8:00, then we opened presents, and ate from their annual "Sugar Cereal" choice provided by Santa (cuz of course Mommy would never buy such junk!). Next we headed off to Papa & Nana Cobia's for presents, & then on to Grandma Laretta's for Christmas dinner with cousins. The boys' favorite thing to say was, "We got THREE Christmases!!" Which was, well, true! However, we tried to keep the true meaning of it alive by giving back to Christ through acts of kindness. Every time someone did something nice we wrote it on a yellow piece of 'paper-straw' & put it in Jesus' manger. We were also able to do some other things as well that hopefully helped the boys remember the true reason for the season!

Hope yours was as merry & joyful as ours! We're excited to have another week off school to enjoy each other & do some more fun activities (like sleeping in & putting together bionicles)!

Our "Happy Thanksgiving" & an oven fire...

Here we have "The Jamie Turkey" as I like to call it (thanks Jamie for doing it for your FHE so I could copy it for team activity for my students!). All 50 students wrote three things they were thankful for on their piece of paper & then we (my teacher partner & I) taped them on the feathers (my very favorites were the ones that wrote they were sooo thankful for me, their other teachers, & school...yeah, riiiggghhhtt. Well, I guess a little brown-nosing never hurt anyone :) Honestly though, out of the three years (& don't get me wrong, I've absolutely loved every student I've had, I feel very blessed) I've taught, this class is just such a sweet, kind & helpful class. I'm really grateful for them!

Don't let some of their serious mugs fool you, they are simply wonderful!!

Here is my new favorite dessert I mentioned in an earlier blog. A new recipe I tried for Thanksgiving that went over quite well, I must say (though no credit of my own, it won 1st place in a contest & was in a magazine, where I found it :). It was easy, just make sure you have enough time to cool it & refrigerate it, that's what makes it over the top, baby!!!!!!

Candied Apple Pie Cheescake

1 cup crushed ginger snaps
3 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar, divided
2 pkg (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup apple pie filling, divided
1/2 cup walnut pieces, divided
1/2 cup toffee bits, divided

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix ginger snap crumbs, butter & 2 tbsp. sugar; press onto bottom & up side of 9-inch pie plate. **I used about another 1/2 cup crumbs, w/ more butter & sugar because I like a little thicker crust & it worked great.**

Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar & vanilla w/ mixer until blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended. Stir in half EACH of pie filling, nuts, & toffee. Pour into crust.

Bake 35 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with remaining pie filling, nuts, & toffee.

And now for the fire...I was cooking some butter dips for dinner, which requires melting the butter in the oven first. Well, it slipped out of my hands, spilling all the butter into our gas oven---whoosh, instant flames! I stood there dumbfounded & uttered one brilliant syllable, "Fire." Luckily my brainy sister was there & reminded me to throw baking soda on it, which I did (with the fire alarm blaring in the background), & it sizzled out instantly--whew! The best part is that I was stubborn enough about still wanting those butter dips for dinner so I sent my blessed husband to go ask a neighbor if we could use their oven. After trying 3 different neighbors who weren't home, he went to our landlord's house! The boys were with him & as soon as they opened the door they yelled, "We had a huge fire in our oven!!" But the good news is they too had a fire in their oven once so they could sympathize, ANNNNNDDD...I got my butter dips :) The End.

'Tis the Day After Halloween

This is what I spied & quickly got the camera because Jyson was being so happy & goofy (he sings all the time!) while he was dusting. I'm sorry, I switched the angle so you'll have to cock
your head awkwardly to see half of this little video (I thought my camera adjusted it).









And this is what Jaydon was doing meanwhile. And now it is time for haircuts, a perfect post-Halloween activity!

Is Halloween Really Over Already??

Niece Kelsi, Tony, Me, Rambo 1 & 2 at Tony's sister Dina's house, one of our last stops of the evening. We had a great time visiting a few older ladies (the boys shyly sang their cute skeleton song for them), and wow, Tony was as excited as they were. Nostalgia hit him in great force & he ran--literally--all over Dina's very generous neighborhood with the boys (one house gave every child a dollar--what the??).





Us at Heritage Park for the "Trunk-or-Treat." Great idea Sugar City, but apparently the citizens decided to do their own thing because there were only about 8 cars there :) See Jyson's bag? Isn't it awesome? He forgot his cute little pumpkin at home, so we rummaged in our trunk & came up with two options--ginormous bag or girly basket. You see his choice.








"The looking at" of the loot with Dina's kids: Carson, front skeleton (he was one of my students last year); Garett, back skeleton, Jaxon Spiderman/Power Ranger/Superman (he put a conglomeration of costumes together to come up with THE ultimate super hero!); and Kelsi Cinderella. Then after we got home Tony introduced me to his Halloween tradition, "The Trade." It was an intense 20-30 minutes of trading for, trading back, bargaining & begging between the three (yes, Tony too) piles of candy. Incredible!








Me, far left with some of my little darling 5th-graders at the Straw Maze yesterday. For those of you that don't know the story...a student at BYU-I wanted to start up a Straw Maze to make some money/do a business, so he listed his request on Craigslist and received a response! Isn't that wild? So he splits the proceeds with the partner & they have a lovely symbiotic relationship :) At night they even have scary chainsaw guys chasing you into the dead ends & strobe lights to make it even more spooky. I have to say, it was pretty darn good. It was easy at first, but the end is so confusing, & there are a million turns! It was so fun to go with my 4 giggly/screamer girls. It was so easy to scare them in order to get some great scream-age & laughing (a bit of an imp am I, admittedly).

Tomorrow we're going to have family over to have our traditional "Dinner-In-A-Pumpkin" and carmel apples. We're adding a new one...cinnamon-sugar bats with apple-butter/peanut butter dip. I also have a new recipe I'd like to try for Apple Cheesecake with gingersnap crust that looks delicious that I might post (if it's good, that is). What about you? What are your traditions? Have any yummy recipes to share?

Fall is in the air, and here is the evidence to prove it...

Here we are, the happy family at the Central Elementary School school carnival. Tony was able to see and reminisce with so many of his old high school chums (& their wives & kids :) from 13 years ago! Who knew so many of them were still around sweet lil' Sugar City?? While he chatted, I waited in lines with the boys for the awesome games (they love them truly!), and my night was certainly complete when I was able to satisfy my once-a-year-craving for the orange rolls made by the school--yum! The best part? Tony doesn't like them, and the boys had enough sugar to keep them happy. I had them all to myself, pure bliss!














And here we see our garden after the first freeze of the year--good bye until next summer (kind of a blessing since it was so cold for so long this year, nothing grew for forever! And then after we got married & moved next door it was pretty much a thing of the past after that)!















Here is my pirate pumpkin carver Jaydon & my oh-so-docile-for-the-picture-Jyson. The rest of this story is that about a week after we put the pumpkin outside it started collapsing on itself (the frequent temp changes from warm to cold, I guess?) & looking pretty pathetic, but I didn't want to throw it away for fear the boys would be sad. Lo and behold I came home one day & it was on the ground, totally smashed in (we live on the top floor of a duplex). Tony immediately surmised that it was probably a little boy who threw it over the railing from our deck, & he even pointed to the one he thought it was. Jaydon guiltily owned up to it, leaving me to shake my
head in wonder---oy!!!!!! Needless to say, he got to clean up the deliciously squishy pumpkin...















This is our very fall-ish view from out our front door, right after the grain field has been tilled under, now prepared for the winter. And can you spy the thing we love the most about our view? (especially when the grain is still green & it's a stormy day, or at night when it's all lit up...)? It blends in pretty well, but I'll give you hint...it's where we got married :)




















And here we see the boys, ready for one of their favorite manly fall activities--loading up coal with Papa (my Dad)! Oh boy, they came home so black this last time, with racoon eyes to complete the ensemble. I even found it in their ears--grodie! Then when my Dad unloads at his house they play in their "tree house" (a.k.a. a tree with branches that cover them) for hours. My Dad goes about 4 different times to get enough coal to last through the winter, and they really think it's just the greatest thing ever. Simultaneously it blesses my life by giving me a chance to clean the house & bask in its beauty for at least the hours they are gone

And here we have the "fruit" of our labors from this year. We just do canned peaches & dried pears, but eventually, when I'm all grown up I'd like to do tomatoes, salsa, ground beef, carrots, & beans. And yes, I do believe my dreams can come true!!!!!!!!!!! Dream #1 : Prince Charming enter my life & marry me--check check!! Dream #2 : be able to do more canned goods...

The Rexburg Temple...and us!

We Did it!!

And even more pictures!!!!!

All of everyone!
Surprise!

Tony's work of art

A little sass...!

A couple views of the reception...

Our little boys

The big boys

Loyal students

The Newest "Fam" meets the Newest "Blog!!"

Here we are at long last...the blogging community! I'd like to thank all of you who encouraged us to get here and made it all possible :)

Well, let's see, what HASN'T been happening lately? A short month ago we were getting ready for the wedding, moving, and preparing for work/school to start (Tony is working at Chesbro in Idaho Falls as a wholesaler, I am still a 5th-grade teacher at Madison Middle School, and the the boys are now in 1st grade-sniff). It all crazified at once of course, and then it all came together beautifully. I had some awesome help to get my classroom ready (thanks go to Shana Shirley of Rexburg), we had a million and one worker bees help us move in, and the wedding? Voila--it just all fell into place!

The reception was on the night of August 29th in Tony's sister's backyard in Rexburg & it was magnificent (see pictures for those of you that weren't able to attend). We prayed the weather perfect--one of those tender mercies I guess. I wanted it simple, yet elegant, not a lot of fuss (or money!), but casually beautiful with lots of evidence of nature all around for people to enjoy! It honestly couldn't have been any better. It was just what I hoped for and MORE! How blessed am I? Anyway, the night was perfect (complete with Godiva chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory Tony surprised me with since we didn't have a cake), we were supported by so many loved ones (thanks everyone!), and even all the kids had a blast on the swingset & in the cute playhouse that Dina (Tony's sister) had movies set up in going non-stop. Plus we had Millhollow Frozen yogurt, a true Rexburg treat!

The sealing the next morning made it all complete. It was so special and sacred I don't even have the words to describe it, but wow, what an amazing feeling of peace and "rightness." Hooray for foreverrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!

And now, one chapter, one month later it is still total & complete bliss!! The boys think Tony is the best thing since Legos were invented, and I'd have to agree--minus the Legos, he's just THE best thing!!

Thank you to all of you who have been such a love and support during my "again-singleness" and yeah for happy forevering!

Love from us to you!