Bonus Post

I know, I know, two posts in two days.

What more could you want?

Christmas music????

We'll I updated my blog music too. (Sorry Amy, it does play automatically, I'll change that after while.)

Yesterday, as I mentioned, church got canceled because of terrible weather conditions. I on the other hand would have canceled it anyway, because I spent the day on the couch with terrible terrible cramps and back pain. I finally asked Barry for a Priesthood blessing, because I feared I was going into labor. I was blessed that our baby was very healthy and strong and would be delivered at the proper time. The cramping didn't go away, but I felt much comforted as the spirit whispered in my ear something that should have but had not occurred to me. Today looking at my ripe belly, it definitely has changed shape, and I can (deep breaththhhhhhhhhhhhh) breath again. All is well, Little Baby Pate has dropped, and she is right on schedule for making her New Year's Eve appearance.

Snowed In

Ellie and James' first look at the snow. We got a ton, Barry spent a couple of hours trying to shovel us out, but the piles of snow on either side of our driveway grew taller than him. Our kind neighbor finally came and plowed us out with his tractor.


Saturday night we lite a fire in our wood stove and watched Burl Ives' Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. James loved the music and wanted to dance.

His daddy obliged him





Scones and hot milk before bedtime.


A very tired James. He gets up at 5:45 to see his Daddy off to work everyday, but sometimes around breakfast his lack of sleep catches up with him.


We got snowed in this year for Thanksgiving. We were sad to miss visiting with everyone, especially Ellie's who has been counting down the days for more than a month. We did have a good meal though, with all the fixings. So we didn't miss out on that part.
The weather has just been awful, cold and snowy and windy. The roads are terrible slippery. Our car is much more of a sled on snow than a car, so it makes it quite scary. I told Barry we should put sleigh bells on our car, since we just slide down the road anyway.
We did have some fun on Black Friday, Barry went out early and picked up a few Christmas presents, 2 for him, 1 for me. Then we went shopping with the whole family. Got a few more things, including snow-pants and boots for Ellie and candy for everyone. Then we went car shopping, donated stuff to the DI, got everyone a hamburger and surprised Ellie with movie tickets to Tangled. She loved it, and was very surprised. She didn't even realized where we were until we were about to go into the actual theater, and then she got all excited. We snuck our candy in and Barry even bought us popcorn. :o
On the way home we picked out a Christmas tree, we weren't planning on getting one yet, but Barry decided to go ahead, so we strapped it on the top of our car and slide slowly home.

Overall it's been a very quiet peaceful weekend, and I am thankful for my family, our safety and our warm home.

I got up early today to get ready for church but we found out it got canceled today because of the weather and the huge snow drifts across the road. So today we will have another family day. I spread some blankets out on the floor in front of the wood stove, and James is already getting our his blocks to make trains, and Ellie has carried down her dolls to play with. I think I'll stay in my PJ's, eat pie and warm my feet by the fire.

Craving

So I've been delaying my post, so I could show off my birthday present. Unfortunately it didn't arrive in the mail today as anticipated. So I'm gravely disappointed and had to eat a handful of chocolate chips to console myself.

After Halloween I told Barry I wasn't making any desserts until after Thanksgiving. After gaining 10 pounds in about 3 weeks, I knew I needed to cut back on the goodies.

This, not dessert making, has been extremely hard on me, but more so on Barry. He doesn't have access to the hidden Halloween candy, or my stash of chocolate chips and marshmallows. He's actually threatened to make a dessert himself and not give me any, but I am holding strong. I am determined, I am resolute.

Today, I got out the ingredients to make white chocolate pecan cookies (oh drool), but I put them away before I started. Barry says I'm just going to have to make up for lost time after Thanksgiving with extra goodies, but I think I can overcome.

I will admit I went to a party for someone I never even talk to just to get a measly piece of cake and scoop of ice cream. I also went to enrichment for the 3rd time in oh so many years in hope of refreshments. I stayed until almost 9, with no refreshments in site, I finally left.

On the upside, at enrichment I did learn how to sew a baby blanked with mitered corners. Thus leading me to my birthday present. My very own sewing machine

Her she is.



I've put off buying one before, because I don't have a good space to keep it, and well, I don't really know how to sew, besides the basics. Yet, my faith in my basic skills were renewed at enrichment and I found sewing the blanket very easy and satisfying and the end results good. So my intense craving for sugar has lead to possibly a new hobby and years of joy and entertainment ;)

Besides Barry will need to use my new machine to sew his "Joseph" costume for the Nativity.

After much encouragement from the high council, He did go to the practice on Sunday, but Mary was not there, so they didn't practice lines and her identity still remains a mystery.

The stake president's wife DID tell him that he looks exactly like Joseph. She must be older than I thought.

The stake nativity is on Sunday December 12th. I may be singing in the choir.

Further details to come.

A Boy and his Trains

Each train is special, each train is unique. James will spend several minutes building a train. Designing the different cars, hooking it all together, and lastly hunting down a couple passengers for the train. I don't recall anyone every showing James how to make a train, or even showing him what a train was. But as he drags his creations around the house with his sweet unmistakable "choo choo" there is no question, James knows what a train is.

Last week, James was playing blocks in his room as I went downstairs to take the bread out of the oven, ...then I heard James scream.

I knew it wasn't a scream of pain, or even fear, it was a "help me" scream.

I hurried back up the stairs, as I neared the top, I spied my little James, who has drove his train over to the landing at the top of the stairs. I also noticed he had loaded, and I mean loaded this train with people, he had found every block person we have and put them on every available space on the train.

This was definitely a passenger train, and this train was definitely in trouble...

As I watched he was gleefully driving his train off the top stair and mock screaming for the people, as the train dangled there helplessly. Then he would pull the train back up and drive around a bit, before sending them off the stairs again.

Sometimes I wonder what is swirling through my clever boy's head. He's so delighted with mischief.

Carrots and Blocks

These are some carrots from our garden this year, the seed package wasn't kidding when they said they would grow into big juicey carrots. I tried to get James to hold one of the carrots so you could see how big these carrots actually are. He wouldn't. He was rather afraid of it. 1 carrot equals about 6 large carrots, these things are monsters, but the good and crazy thing about them is they still taste good.



Meet Ellie, the photographer.
She conducted yet another photo session with James. She asked me if she could take some pictures of James playing with his blocks.
Notice the focus, the lighting, the angles. I think my girl truly has talent.

chuckling

Last Sunday, a counselor asked Barry if he'd play Joseph in our Stake nativity. Barry was eager to accept because it would mean he would have an excuse to keep growing his beard until Christmas.

They told him he would have a few lines to say, something from Joseph's perspective.

Later, I teased him that they would be lines like:

-Think of all the money we're saving Mary by staying in this manger.
-This baby doesn't look anything like me.


I mean, seriously what would Joseph say?

Barry's speaking part arrived in the mail today, I admit, I just had to open it.....

Now, I'm chuckling all the more, I just can't see Barry or Joseph saying any of this.


I just hope Mary is cute, for his sake, and over 18 ......talk about awkward ;)

oh and he gets to make his own costume.....




I'm definitely attending the Nativity this year.

I'm sure he would appreciate your support as well.

Come one, come all.

Recipes Good Enough to Share

Lucky you, this is #2 post for today.

My two favorite soups, and yours too, as I can see. I'm watching you. Wooooo wooooo. (Scary huh?)

YUM!


Kelli's Creamy White Chili

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and cubed
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (or fresh garlic is even better)
1 Tbls. Vegetable oil (I use olive)
2 (15 oz.) cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can chicken broth
2 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies (usually found in Mexican food section of the grocery store)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. black pepper ( I put in about high, because I mildly allergic to it)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I leave this out, because I'm highly allergic to it)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

The recipe doesn't call for it but I always add in fresh mushrooms and saute them with the chicken. Add as many as you like.

In a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and whipping cream. Serve immediately.





Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

* 1 lb ground Italian sausage
* 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
* 1 large diced white onion
* 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
* 2 tsp garlic puree
* 10 cups water
* 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 4 large potatoes
* ¼ of a bunch of kale
I added a bit more salt in the end, because I think it needed it, but other than that, it was just as good as the Olive Garden.

1. Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
3. Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
4. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!

Buon appetito!

Halloween and High Self Esteem

For Halloween we went to the fabulous annual Stuart Halloween Party. My brother and his wife out did themselves again.
They set up a graveyard in their backyard with fog, and a spooky zombie that moved. Inside they had decorated everything spooky. James was very scared at first. My brother constructed this really cool ghost that looked and moved like I would imagine a real ghost would. I wish I had a video of it, it was awesome.
They also had yummy soup and bread sticks shaped like bones. The pumpkin roll my mom brought was also delicious.
I admit I didn't dress up for the party. I felt bad, I was going to be a peanut M&M, but nothing was going my way that day, so it didn't happen. Ellie was a beautiful princess and James was an adorable puppy dog.

Saturday afternoon we came home and made soup for the ward party, Zuppa Toscana, it was delicious, I was very pleased how it turned out, since we never had made it before.
At the ward party the kids got to go around the gym in a line and get candy from everyone sitting on chairs around the edges. James and I were stuck behind a very shy neighbor girl who just froze and stood in front of people and stared at them even after they gave her a piece of candy. Eventually I would prod her on, but James took this to his full advantage and gave big smiles to the people who gave him candy, he would stand and wait a minute behind the frozen girl, and then again smile and hold up his little plastic pumpkin to the same person, who usually couldn't resist giving my adorable puppy another piece. One man gave him 4 candy bars before we moved on.

After about the hundredth person told Ellie she looked just like a princess, Ellie chuckled and whispered in my ear, "What they don't know, is that I REALLY AM a Princess"
Maybe that would concern some mothers, but it makes me happy. I want my daughter to know and feel as special as any princess. I want her to have confidence in herself, and love who she is. I know there are some risks with too high of self-esteem but we'll take those any day over those of a low self-esteem.
We went to a party after the ward party and had homemade doughnuts and apple cider. The kids ran wild, the men discussed, the woman gossiped, and I stuffed myself silly. It was truly delightful.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I figure how to get them off my email.



Coming soon .............Mouse Tales continued