Christmas Day

Haws and I spent Christmas morning just ourselves. We were lucky enough not to have rain in the morning, so we went for a long walk, had breakfast and opened gifts.

Don't mind the mess or the couches... but do notice our beautiful leaning tree!

We went over to my parents to open gifts... this was the only picture I got. 

We then headed over to spend the rest of Christmas with Haws' family.

Jared, Sarah and Thor were here from Utah. It has been fun having them in town and being able to hang out with this little guy.

He is not so little anymore.  Haws wanted to eat him!

We got Thor this little thermal hooded onesie. They thought it looked like a "jailbird" outfit, but it is actually navy blue, so I think he looks more like a little sailor.

What a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we spent with my side of the family and it was a crazy one!!! We headed over to my grandma's house to spend the evening with some of my extended family. Now that my cousins and siblings are having kids, things are getting a little more chaotic. John, Brooke and the boys were in Montana with Brooke's family. I can;t imagine what it would have been like with the two boys added to the mix!

Dana and Chase came in from Utah. It was so much fun having my sister back home. I miss her!

The kids 

The Scantz family came in from Utah. Having them here definitely added to the excitement.

Chase, Dana, Haws, Lori, Kori and Brad

Kori and Brad, Ty, Cambria, Nicole and Brett

What a surprise!!!! Haws fell asleep around 900pm. after opening gifts. He says the biggest compliment he can give to someone is to fall asleep in their home.

We had so much fun being able to be with our family and cousins. We are truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. And especially blessed to be related to so many of them!

Dec Birthday Celebrations with the Families

Growing up, there were four families in the neighborhood where we would juggle around kids, take vacations together, spend the night at each others houses, eating each others food and teasing each others siblings. Now the "kids" are all grown up and starting families of their own. Fortunately for us, most of us have been able to stay in the area. Those that are away... are always with us in spirit. Besides those who are out of the state, we were missing some of the Jacobs due to work and some of the Clawsons because Alisa had just given birth to little Von. I didn't get a picture of Sharon and Kate, but here are the rest of the clans.

Some of the Clawson clan.

Most of the King clan.

Most of the Davis Clan.

Sara and I share the same birthday and it doesn't seem right unless we celebrate it together.
Sara had a big birthday gift this year... a beautiful ring!!! Sara and Dave were engaged and will be married this summer. I am so happy for both of them!

I love this picture of Luke. His smile is adorable!

THE BIG 3-0! Disco Skate Party

My time has come to turn the big 3-0! People keep asking me how I feel about it and to tell you the truth... I feel great! I really think the thirties have a lot of good things in store for them. 

The birthday weekend was full of fun activities. It started off with my birthday dinner followed by a night of roller skating, 70's attire required. I was so happy that people got into it and dressed up! I was a little rusty at first and only ate it once (with a nice bruised up knee as a souvenir). After this night, I wanted to make roller skating a regular activity... good wholesome fun :)

The fro was a big hit! Paul even got a few little fans that followed him around at the rink.

Disco meets hippy. Callie and Grant covered both styles of the 70's.

Jackie and Ryan.

Brad and Koko. Little Tan-man was so good that night. He just hung out and slept in his little baby carrier.

Ryan and Haws enjoying some yummy mexican food.

Dana and TaeTae

"The girls" with a few good men.

Nicole and Ty came decked out and even brought Cambria dressed up in bell-bottoms!

FINALLY!!!

After a year and a half of waiting... it finally came in the mail today. Yes, our amended marriage license finally came back from the state! We needed to make some changes to it before I could legally change my name and it only took the state over a year to do it! Now I get to start the fun process of going to the social security and the DMV to take on Haws' last name. This is more work than you would think. 

Tis the season...

To be blog slacking!!! I have failed to post anything about our family trip to Lake Arrowhead, Thanksgiving and many other holiday festivities. This time of year gets so busy and then I forget my camera!  I am just going to throw some pictures on here of the some of the activities we have been doing over the past few weeks.

Baby Tanner's baby blessing

Luke and I in Lake Arrowhead. 

John and Haws swinging the boys. They loved this and could probably swing all day if we had the patience to push them that long.

Baby Tanner bundled up for a walk down on 2nd street. 

My friend Kimberly and her husband Doug had their little girl last month. This is their first child and she is so good! She just fell asleep on me for a good 30 mins. Kimberly said in the 4 weeks she has been home, she has only cried about 3 times. Amazing!!!!

Thanksgiving spread at the Bendheims... yum yum!

Redge letting the tryptophan from the turkey work its magic.

One of the shots Callie took for our Christmas card. I love the way Haws looks in this picture... his eyes are so blue! Too bad I am looking a little weird or this one would have made the cut.

This is our little Christmas tree. We got it from a tree farm in Irvine where you pick your tree and they cut it fresh for you. This is a tradition I want to keep going. I love REAL Christmas trees! We have a modge podge assortment of ornaments and add to our collection whenever we take a trip. 

Ostrich... yummy!!!!

Yes, that is right, I said Ostrich is yummy! Tonight I made another one of Karina's recipes and substituted the beef for some ostrich meat we had. When Haws and I were on our honeymoon (ages ago) in Solvang, we visited a Ostrich farm there and tried some of the jerky. It was so good that we vowed that we would make it sometime. While shopping at Whole Foods, I came across some ground Ostrich meat and HAD to buy it! Ostrich is a great alternative to beef because it is super lean, low in fat and cholesterol, and high in protein and taste!!! To get the recipe and see what it looked like before we devoured it, check out Karina's Stuffed Acorn Squash. It is a wonderful cold weather meal :)

We feed them... they feed us! 

This is what was left by the time I thought to take a picture. I made a few tweaks to the recipe as I always do, mainly because I didn't have exactly all the same ingredients. This has a lot of flavor... sweet and spice!

PUERTO RICO!

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our Puerto Rico trip. We had such a good time and there are sooo many pictures that I decided to try a slide for the first time! I hope it turns out OK.  

Enjoy :)

Puerto Rican Red Beans and Rice

This may not look like the most appetizing meal... but don't allow looks to deceive you. This red beans and rice dish is a staple in Puerto Rico and it is delicous!!! 

I got brave and decided to make the Puerto Rican beans from a cook book we bought on our trip. I was pleasnantly suprised by how good they turned out! I had never made beans that didn't come straight out of the can before and now I don't think I can ever go back. 

These are not just your average beans... they have a few surprises in there to spice things up. 

Puerto Rican small red bean stew

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Soaking time: 8–12 hours
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours

 

1 pound dried small red beans
2 quarts water
1 1/4 cups cubed, fresh calabaza or pumpkin (I used Acorn Squash instead, but you can also use canned pumpkin)
1/4 cup tomato paste

Sofrito:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp crushed bay leaves

Rinse and drain dried red beans. Place in a pot, cover with water, and soak for 8–12 hours. Drain beans and place in a large, heavy pot with 2 quarts water. Add calabaza or pumpkin, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Continue to boil over medium heat for 1 hour. If using fresh pumpkin, slightly mash the pumpkin. To prepare sofrito, heat vegetable oil in a heavy pot. Add all sofrito ingredients and sauté for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sofrito and tomato paste to cooked beans and pumpkin mixture. Cook for an additional 30 minutes to allow mixture to thicken, stirring occasionally. May need to add additional water, as mixture should be moist.

Classic Haws

Fridays are always a tough one, especially for Haws. After a long week of waking up way too early in my opinion, he is usually pretty beat by the time 10pm rolls around. Tonight, like many other Friday nights, we went out and while I was driving home, Haws fell asleep. And like most nights like tonight, even though he was delirious, he comes home and just HAS to stay up to watch sport center. Tonight, I came out after cleaning the kitchen and saw this....

Total Classic Haws! I better go put the poor guy to bed :)

TV UPDATE

So we bit the bullet and bought a new TV yesterday. We didn't want to miss out on the election coverage and Dancing with the stars! We all know the results... so I won't go on and on about it here. I am a little sick of the whole thing and I am glad to take a break from all the campaigns.

Our wedding gift was out of warranty and it was going to cost us twice as much as a new one to fix.  I LOVE COSTCO! We got a brand new Panasonic 42" plasma with Costco's additional 2 year warranty for half of the price listed on the Internet! We stayed away from the VIZIO since that is the one that popped. 

Lesson Learned: The next time you have to get a TV, go to Costco!

The Pop of Death!!!

On Sat night, I was in the shower and heard a loud pop come from downstairs. I thought Haws had done something to himself... but it turns out that our plasma TV that we got for a wedding gift experienced "The pop of death". This refers to what happens when some wires get over heated and burst... the screen went completely blank and it appears that it is dead. The TV had only a one year warranty (we just hit the one year and 5 month mark), so we have to have it repaired or try to talk to the company into trading it in. Needless to say, this couldn't have happened at a worse time. We don't watch a ton of TV, but now I am missing dancing with the stars and the election coverage!!! I may have to get a temporary replacement until then. That, or I will have to spend some time trying to catch up on my blog. I am still working on getting some Puerto Rico pictures on here.

Play Doh and Neil Diamond

I am a little behind, but a few weekends ago I had the pleasure of helping out with my friend Kimberly's baby shower. This was our first "couples shower" and it was surprisingly a lot of fun! I knew that if Kimberly and Doug who were throwing it... it would be something Haws would be able to handle. I volunteered to be in charge of the game and I had to find something I thought would be fun for both the guys and girls. I found this idea online and it was a hit!

"One of the cutest games I ever played at a couples shower was "Make a Baby." We each got small pieces of two different colors of Play-Doh and were told to make a baby. When the time was up, we all had to put our babies on a platter, and the expecting couple came back in the room to pick their favorite baby."

 I was surprised how creative everyone was and Kimberly and Doug got a kick out of it.

It was a fun day of catching up with some people I haven't seen for a long time and seeing once again... how many things you need when you have a baby! It still baffles me to see all the gear that comes along with such little people.

Kimberly is so cute prego and Doug looks pretty hot sporting the baby bjorn (with a whale bath toy). They are going to be such great parents. Little Ridley is going to be one lucky girl. I am so happy for them!

This is Haws' baby creation. He was the runner up to win. Nice umbilical cord!

The winning play-doh baby.

After the shower, we were off to the Neil Diamond concert at the Staples Center. Besides being in the VERY top row... it was a great concert. Neil still has it!

We went to the concert with Haws' parents and his brother Wade. It was a anniversary present for Chris and Mary and a birthday present for Haws.

I didn't take very many pictures, but I did manage to get a good rear view of the boys :)