Christmas...almost caught up

Our tradition of taking a picture in front of the Christmas tree didn't go as well as normal.  Ben wasn't there to take it and for some reason I couldn't get it together.  This is going to have to be good enough.  One day I want to get all the different years developed and make some sort of Christmas thing with them.  They are some of my favorite pictures.  And I wish Ben was in them but I had him take the pictures and then all the sudden there was a tradition that didn't include him.  Whoops.  

Our Christmas this year was busy.  We ended up having a big dinner party for the techs that work under Ben.  I made a huge dinner.  Roast, vegetables, salad, sweet potatoes, quinoa, appetizers, sparkling cider...tons of food. Half of the people cancelled!  We had so much left over food it was ridiculous.  It was a good experience to learn from though.  Next year I can tone it down a bit.  Once the dinner party was over we were able to relax the whole week leading up to Christmas.  

I love Christmas at our house.  I love the tree in front of the windows, love the fire burning near by, love the kids waking up SO early, and love that we make it last as long as possible instead of rushing through. Our Christmas began at 4:15 in the morning.  I don't sleep well due to excitement and so I just got up and showered super early.  Turns out I wasn't the only one awake.  Heidi and Kaylee were both waiting in their room and so, to get them to fall back asleep, I had them get up and read scriptures.  We had been working on reading the Book of Mormon together during the year and were a bit behind so we read it from 4:15-6:15.  I thought they would opt for going back to bed but they didn't.  Instead we spent our Christmas morning waiting for Ben to wake up and reading all about the horrible slaughter and tortures done both the Nephites and Lamanites.  Not exactly a nice Christmas story but we were able to plow through Moroni and finish the Book of Mormon on time.  It was an awesome way to start our Christmas morning. 

Way Back When...Butte Creek Mill

About three posts ago I decided to be more dedicating to blogging and taking pictures of the activities we do.  Mind you, we don't do many outings, but I decided I should start taking some pictures when we do.  Way back in October Ben had the idea to go to Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point.  It is a Mill from when the Rogue Valley was first settled and it is still in operation today.  It's actually pretty cool to see it all working and know that it is all done right there in the mill.

Outside the Mill

Going for a walk after the tour.  The Mill is right along the river, which is it's main energy source, and  so we went for a walk to the covered bridge that was nearby.

One funny thing I realized when looking at these pictures is that Ben is wearing glasses.  In September, Ben took a new job position at the Medical Eye Center.  Now that he is working with Ophthalmologists it didn't take him long to switch positions on Lasik.  He was always hesitant about it before because of the risks involved but now he has had it done himself.  He likes it!  And it is weird to see him with glasses in these older pictures.   

So that completes our Butte Creek Mill trip.  And I have gotten another blog post done.  We are on a roll!

(Although, really, aren't we the most boring people you've ever followed on a blog?)

The Chocolate Cake Way of Life

I have this recipe for a Deep Dark Chocolate Cake that was given to me by a friend way back when I was pregnant with Kaylee.  It is the yummiest chocolate cake ever.  I have since learned to bake it, but not without many mess-ups.  When I make my chocolate cake I want it to turn out perfectly.  But, there were many times that I could not, no matter how well I greased the pan, get that blasted cake out of the pans without it falling to pieces.  When that would happen I would be so frustrated that I would take the entire cake and throw it away.  Many times my family and friends would try to stop me.  They didn't care it didn't look nice, they would eat it anyway!  How could I just throw a whole cake away??  Well, that is just the way I am.  I am not going to serve a cake that doesn't look nice.  This way of living transfers into other facets of my life.  For example, I wanted to update the pictures on my blog.  I sat down to do it and after a few hours, a couple of different headers and a blog that I HATED how it looked, I threw it away.  Just deleted it.  If it wasn't going to look the way I wanted it to then it wasn't going to exist.  I've had a few weeks to calm down and try it again.  

We have had plenty of things going on since the last time I blogged.  I have pictures from the fall, christmas, birthdays, etc.  Today I am just going to post a few cake pictures to start off with.  For Christmas Heidi was signed up for a cake decorating class.  Her goal this year is to decorate all the birthday cakes we have.  She did hers with an owl and then Kaylee's is the deep dark chocolate cake.  It's been fun watching her learn it.  It was hard to get to class each week by 6:00 and have our buckets of frosting ready to go but we learned a lot and it was fun.  She signed herself up for the next class and will take it in a few months.  She is pretty excited.  

Once again, I will try to post more.  And I will (hopefully) not delete my entire blog in a moment of frustration.