Hooray!

George passed his board exams!

(he took them in October)

Yea!!! As you can tell, we're dancing for JOY.

Geo is too, but sadly, was not captured on film.

Simply havin' a wonderful Christmas time

Gingerbread village making

The boys were definitely the creativity winners on this one. Mark used sea salt as "snow" and George made a snowman out of white gumballs.

Lacey and the kids decorated the tree while I tackled the other parts of the house. So far each baby has pulled the tree on themselves one time, but we've been clear of accidents for about a week. We'll see how long that continues...

"Christmas story" countdown

We buy a new Christmas book every year, but the rest are loaned from the library. I wrap them up and put them in a "book box" under the tree and we open one each night. Our favorite book so far has been "The Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett. We might have to buy that one in the future.

Gingerbread cookie making

We made some all sized of ginerbread people, making sure to cut out some babies (to go with the book). We don't do an activity with every story, but this one seemed to be a no-brainer (and any excuse to make treats is always good).

Happy to be a big girl
Mr Claus himself

A continual party

Lucky for us, my sister Lacey and her hubby Mark are here visiting from Kansas. Its always a shopping/eating fest when we get together and this time has been no exception. I think we've been to Target 4 times in 5 days and almost each time, we buy another new "holiday" shirt to wear. Fun times!

The Tew's arrived on Thanksgiving day (also Austin's birthday). They joined in the pie and birthday celebration. George worked whole Thanksgiving week (however, it was not as crummy of a schedule than if he were a resident. He'd come home for a few hours in the middle of his shift.) So we didn't have a real "Thanksgiving dinner" until Saturday night. I think it was my best gravy to date, so I was pretty happy about that. Geo brined the turkey and it was nice and moist. Dinner was worth the wait.

Saturday was also a day to try out the Christmas festivities at Sea World.

I was most looking forward to the Sesame Street show because the Halloween version was my definite favorite in October. Sadly, it was kind of lame. Maybe my expectations were too high.

However, the "Shamu Miracle Show" definitely exceeded expectations. I thought it was going to be really corny. What would "Shamu" and "miracle" have in common? I mean, really? But it was good. They showed a video clip of kids and adults talking about the definition of a miracle or a miracle in their life or a favorite Christmas. It was well done. They even had silhouettes of the wisemen, star, mentioned the birth of Jesus, and sang "Noel". However brief, at least there was some mention of the real meaning of Christmas.

I mean, look at this. Austin and Elise still can't take their eyes off Shamu and the show is over.

Actually, Elise was so scared of Shamu she sat perfectly still the entire 30 minutes. It was quite incredible.

My second favorite show was the shortened version of the Polar Express in 4-D. The other dimension was "snow" from the ceiling, spray of water, smoke from the train, "chocolate flavored" air, etc. The babies lasted through the whole thing (about 20 minutes). I think Elise would have kept her glasses if they would have let her.

And the party is still going... we have the Tew's for one more week!

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We've also made some different things with all our turkey leftovers. I always make turkey pot pie, but this year we decided to try turkey chili with breadbowls (very yum). Mark and Lacey made eggrolls (big hit) with turkey, carrots, and coleslaw. I don't have pictures, but have to include this so I can remember to do it next year.

Happy 1st Birthday to Austin!

Austin celebrated his FIRST birthday on Thanksgiving Day! Its hard to believe my little man has been with us ONE whole year! Austin had a personal pumpkin pie that night to celebrate and was one happy kid. In all reality, we had enough pies for a pie per person. Check out that yummy spread! With all those leftovers, I've had pie for breakfast the last 4 days. Yum!

Here's a few pictures of gift opening. Aunt Lacey and Uncle Mark flew in Thanksgiving day to celebrate with us :) so all these great birthday pictures/video (above and below) are courtesy of Lacey photography.

Part of his birthday gift was a few new decorations for his room. The blessing dresses once hung on the walls are moved to the closet, flowers are retired and everything replaced with some boyish Cowboy stuff. Ha! Who are we kidding? That gift is really for me. But either way, I'm pretty happy with the result.


Its wonderful to be born at the time of year when there are continual celebrations, but that also means his mother is a bit slow in posting some of the great things about him. I sure love this handsome guy. He has such an easy going, fun disposition. He is our best eater. Here is one of many pictures of him in his high chair. If you can't tell from the pie-eating video, the kid loves food.
Austin's curiosity level has really jumped a level these past few weeks. He loves to open cupboards and drawers and empty them and is really fast at doing so. My once organized pantry with a section for jello, a section for pudding, etc is no more. I don't even attempt it. Plus, he has a partner in crime so there is no point in trying to keep up. They love to throw things in the recycle bin. Who really knows what we've lost in there?

Austin loves the bath. He splashes all over the place and laughs really hard. Its pretty much impossible not to join in with the giggling.

Austin's first words:

BALL

MA, MA

He can also say "Hi," "Da, da", "ba, ba", "uh, oh" and "peak boo". He also has a sort of "thank you" (of course, not the words, just an intonation, but is kind of cute).

Austin is content to crawl but he'll stand for a few seconds if he's focused on something else. We walk holding his fingers and he plops down after about five steps and takes off crawling. He likes to be outside, to chase a ball around the house and his sisters making funny faces/sounds to make him laugh.

We sure love our AUSTIN!

He has brought so much joy to our family.

THANKFUL for ONE

HAPPY BIRHTDAY SON!!!

We sure love this kid!

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On a side note, Lucy and I have been pretty busy making pies. It was my first (and last) time to make homemade pumpkin puree. Its not hard, but just too much work. Check out the pretty color though.

While we were working on the apple-cranberry pie (this was also a first, but won't be a last), Lucy said, "How do you learn all this stuff?"

Me: "I learned it from my mom. You know, just like you are learning."

After some thought, Lucy: "So, what do you learn from dad's?"

Me: "What do you think?"

Lucy: "How to be a good

SNITCHER! "

Bless the day

Sunday was a great day for everyone. It was Elise's first day in nursery! That means the 2nd two hours of church are much happier for her (and us too since most of it was spent in the hall). What a big girl. Can you believe this little peanut is 18 months? This sweetheart has added so much joy to our lives. She's added a little mischief too. :) One of the ladies I work with in YW (Jamie) was subbing in the nursery and said Elise did great and was happy as could be. George and I both taught lessons so Jamie took Austin to nursery the last hour so we could teach. He loved it too. The bubbles at the end were a big hit for both of them. Another first (well, something that hasn't happened in a long while) was that we made it through sacrament meeting without going into the hall for naughty behavior. (George made one trip with Austin to the hall because he smacked his head on the bench. That doesn't count.) What a wonderful day!

I am thankful for...my mom!

Last year, I helped Lucy and her preschool buddies make a Thanksgiving advent calendar. We made a brown turkey body with lots of feathers and the girls pulled one off each day and said what they were thankful for. I kept the turkey body and decided to use it again this year, only backwards. This time, Lucy added a feather every day. This idea actually came because I didn't put it together in time, but hey... I thought the backwards idea was even better. Then we'd have a fancy feathered turkey when it was time for Thanksgiving rather than the plucked one. Well, apparently, it wasn't so great. The first ten days of November, Lucy would run down the stairs and eagerly write her "grateful item" on a feather. Then she said she started to get a feather and say she needed to "think about it some more" and put it back in the jar. Our little turkey will definitely not have 26 feathers by Thanksgiving day. One day, I sat her on my lap and we started naming all the blessings we could think of. This didn't go as well as I was hoping. I would point to my head and she'd say, "Brain? No. I'm not thankful for that." or "Austin? No. He's too little to be thankful for." Uhhh... now what? Well, about the 17th, she decided it would be funny to write "Mom" on all the feathers until Thanksgiving. Now she runs down the stairs with excitement again. It's cute that she loves me. But the real reason is when her dad comes home from work, he always asks what she wrote on her feather. She giggles her reply and his response is an enthusiastic, "What!?! You wrote her name yesterday!" And Lucy laughs hysterically. When she writes my name on the feather in the mornings, she says, "Dad will think this is so funny." Oh well. If she didn't learn gratitude, she learned a "good joke."

(some of Lucy's art from preschool)

I found a great web page with a few short gratitude video clips and games/coloring pages for kids . Maybe I'll give the gratitude lesson another try this week. The videos are excellent. There is truly a lot to be thankful for...

Quick trip to El Paso

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes!

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At the last minute, we decided to drive to El Paso to visit our friends, the Cain's. Miki is deploying for a year and leaves on Sunday so we decided to make the trip. We've been meaning to go for a while, but there was always "something." And this weekend was no exception. But time was running out, so off we went.

The van ride was a 10hr trip (for us). That is one way. Elise was our A+ traveler. She couldn't have done better. Lucy gets an A- and Austin... a B-, at least from me. I'm not sure what grade his father would give him. D? He definitely got the Cole "no sleeping" gene.

The weekend was mostly filled with great chats, games, and laughter. The girls had a ball playing with each other.

We also went bowling, which was a first for Luce. She thought it was great and her enthusiasm was contagious. But sadly, her skills did not rub off. I finished dead last. It was gutter ball after gutter ball for me.

We made the plan to make the trip back to SA after church on Sunday. Elise and Austin were stuffed up with colds and pretty crabby. It wasn't long until we were out in the hall. I only heard one sentence of the sacrament meeting talks:

"Perspective is the KEY to happiness."

But if you're only going to hear a sentence, isn't that a good one? I've thought about it a lot and really believe it is true. When you have the proper perspective, bubble gum rolling all over the floor is pretty funny and pen on the wall is just pen. You realize that temper tantrums will be over. And sadly, so will the lap sitting and storybook reading and snuggling. Really, its all over so quickly. It was a good reminder to cherish all stages of life.

Thanks for a great weekend, friends!

We wish it would have been more than a weekend trip...
Good Luck Miki!

32

Happy Birthday to me!

At breakfast, Lucy said, "So, is this your real birthday or are we just celebrating it?" Ha! She knows me well. I like to celebrate all month long. There are many purchases justified because "its my birthday" but today was actually the big day.

Lucy fixed my hair with a special birthday clip and made me a new card every hour. That girl knows how to party!

Hangin' with good company

These are the ladies with whom I spend my Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights and a few extra days here and there. Aren't they cute?!? Plus, they're fun too. I feel pretty lucky...

Toothless and Ruthless

Geo's tooth surgery (one of many) is scheduled for this week, but I'm still thinking Austin will win the "new front tooth" race. George's tooth fixing ordeal has lasted for 3 years now...

Halloween fun 09

The Whole Meal

Whew... it has been a week of parties... and this post is longer than the Christmas ones. Grab a treat from your child's trick-or-treat bag to get you through all of this and here we go...

Music Class party

We were glad Grandma Liz got to join in on this one. Every year, I'm amazed at the all new fun Halloween songs people come up with for music class. Who knew there were so many cute ones to choose from?

Dance Class Dress-up

Fries are pretty hard to dance in, so we dug through the dress ups and Lucy was a hairdresser. Of course, we had to try it out first.

Pumpkin Carving/Painting

Lucy's school parade


Here are the faithful supporters...

And lest you think one of them is not happy to be here...
...just wait til she gets to the sandpit.

They also "trick-or-treated" the other classrooms. The whole time Lucy had the craziest look on her face... not sure what to make of it... Embarrased? Grumpy? Confused? Doesn't want a cheering section?





Playgroup Party




Fun at Sea World

Sea World had the cutest little Sesame Street Halloween show. The kids thought it was great and even the adults had a good time and sang along. The rest of the attractions were average. However, Geo was the magician's helper, so I think he picked up a few tricks. Lucy's favorite prize from the "trick-or-treat" street was this fancy green ring.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Face/Arm painting

Halloween yum dinner

(ideas modified from Family Fun)

Trick-or-treating

We had so much fun taking the kids around this year. Lucy really "got it" and had a great time. Elise was so funny. At the first house, the man handed her a candybar. Half way down the driveway, she dropped it and traded it for a rock. Then a crushed can. But when she figured out how to get the sucker wrappers off, she was one happy girl. And Austin was just along for the ride.

Aunt Lacey joined us for most of this craziness. She was a great sport and we were sad to see her go...

I want to be a part of it...

(upstate)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

Geo and I just got back from a great vacation... just the two of us! A while back, he had the great idea to visit upstate New York after he finished the boards. He and Jim did the arranging. This trip included many fun things...

These are some of our friends from the Omaha days. The Callans live in Buffalo now and the Williams live in Canada. All four families (minus the Tripp and Stephenson kiddos) met up at the Callans for dinner and fun conversation. We laughed and laughed and laughed... just like old times!

Aaaaa... the romance of Niagara Falls

We hit the fall leaves at peak season at Niagara. One thing I really miss about NY is the magnificent colors of fall. You just don't quite get it anywhere else...

boat ride on Maid of the Mist... very wet, but fun

Romance at Niagara on the Lake too...

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Another reason I was thrilled to visit NY was that I served my church mission in Palmyra/Seneca Falls/Niagara Falls area. It has been 9 years since I've been here...

Peter Whitmer farm

Joseph Smith Frame home

Sacred Grove

Book of Mormon Publishing Site
(link to a written testimony of the Book of Mormon by an apostle - even better when watched)

Palmyra Temple

(it was dedicated while I was serving... April 6, 2000)

Hill Cumorah

I loved going back and remembering the feelings I had while serving in this special area of church history. It was a time of reflection and gratitude and rekindled my desire to be a better person. I especially loved going back to visit the Sacred Grove and Peter Whitmer farm. The fall leaves were a bit past their peak there, but it didn't matter. Its not the trees that make the grove a special place, it is the reality of the God the Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith there. And I had so many tender experiences while serving at the Peter Whitmer farm (where the church was organized). In the evening, we visited with one of my favorite families, the Siracuse's (not happy I forgot to take a picture). It was a wonderful end to a great day!

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We finished our vacation with a visit to the Anchor Bar, the place that claims to have invented Buffalo wings. We ordered a big platter of 50 for an appetizer (yum) and each person ordered their own meal. In NY, wings always go with pizza, so I ordered myself one, plus a sampler plate of appetizers. Check out the size of this thing...I about died!

Thanks hubby and friends for a wonderful vacation! I give it a double thumbs up... even though you can only see one thumb here.

Brush-a, brush-a, brush-a

Lucy has been looking forward to her first visit with the dentist. I was really proud of her because I wasn't with her most of the time. I introduced her to the dental assistant and hygienist and then walked two "rooms" down the hall to get my teeth checked out. I had to chuckle many times during my appointment... I could hear her just chatting away. I'm not sure how they got her to stop talking long enough to get those instruments in there. In fact, the hygienist told me that was the toughest part of the appointment. :) Great job, Luce!

New toothbrush and flossers! How exciting and right in time for the candy fest of Halloween!

Back from vacation

Geo and I have been on a fun vacation. Post is coming. Grandma Liz was the tender and the kids were in great hands.

It was fun to come home to see the cute little rascals......

Elise could not keep her hands off me...
afraid I'd escape again, I guess.

Big Ol Bugs

We went on a little fieldtip to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens with Lucy's preschool. They had an exhibit with big bugs around. It was quite impressive... so much so, that at each bug all the mom's had to take a group picture... :) Our own little Mamaratzi...

Thank goodness for grandma Liz to keep the troops under control.

Lucy's favorite thing about soccer

Lucy says she likes soccer "except for the times you sweat." Her favorite position is goalie because she "doesn't have to run." But, running is worth it if you can have a treat afterwards.

The headband was a hit (almost as great as the popsicle... but not quite). It stayed on for a long time afterwards, but no one noticed the backwards shorts until bedtime.

"Pumpkin" carrot cakes

I love this time of year for many reasons. One big one is all the pumpkin flavored deserts. This is not one of those, but it looks like a pumpkin so it sort of counts. Here's a little background that is not really related to the treats, but the reason I made them...

Every month we host a group of medical students rotating though Wilford Hall as a 4th year elective. Most of them want to be in the pediatric program, although some have changed their minds. George thinks its a good opportunity for them to ask questions about SA, the pediatric program, residency, etc. in a smaller setting. Last night was our fourth (and I think last) one. Its fun (but exhausting) and makes for a good excuse to clean my house really well. It just doesn't seem to get done if there isn't a good reason to do it. I find other things to do (like blog or read Harry Potter or whatever). Anyway, I can't handle all of that cleaning plus make a nice dinner and nice desert. Only two of the three. This time I opted to clean (but could only handle the main floor) and make a nice desert. I actually thought the dinner turned out pretty good, but it was a crockpot recipe that took less than 20 minutes. So for the desert, I decided to make carrot cake (recipe from one of the best cooks I know) and use my mini-bundt pan. Deep down, I really think I was trying to justify the purchase of the pan (bought it last year and have probably used it three times). So I thought I could turn the mini-bundts into cute little pumpkins if I iced them with orange. I also had some leftover mint brownies that I made in celebration of Geo finishing the boards (recipe from another one of the best cooks I know) and used that as the dirt.

It turned out cute, but the funny thing about all this is the conversation I had with George. I showed him my masterpiece and he said, "nice."

Me: "Do you get it?"

G: "Get what? That they are pumpkins? Yeah."

Me: "Soooooooooooooo???"

G: "Nice."

The whole man/woman difference in reaction/anticipated reaction just cracked me up. Lucky I have Lucy to give me the "proper reaction": "oh mom, that is SOOOOOOOOOO cute!!! I love it!!! Can I make one?" This recipe also doubled as my treat for the Neighborhood Recipe Swap.

Jessica's Famous Carrot Cake

Cream:

2 c sugar

1 1/2 c oil

4 eggs

Add:

3 c grated carrots

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

2 1/4 c flour (sift)

nuts (optional)

Bake at 300 (time depends on what kind of cake pan you use... for these mini-bundts, it took about 25 min)

Frosting:

8oz pkg cream cheese

1 cube softened butter

powdered sugar

vanilla or orange flavoring

I usually half (or 3/4) this frosting recipe (depends on how much frosting you like).

Erin's delicious mint chocolate brownies

Brownie Layer:

1 c sugar

1/2 c butter

4 eggs (beaten)

1 c flour

16 oz chocolate syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c finely chopped nuts

Mix ingredients and bake in a greased 9X13 pan, 25-30 min at 350.

Mint Layer:

2 c confectioners sugar

1/2 c softened butter

1 1/2 T green creme de menthe

Spread on completely cooled cake.

Glaze:

1 c chocolate chips

6 T butter

Melt together, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly and spread over the entire surface. Cool and cut into squares. Refrigerate (this is how Geo likes them) or freeze.

Kids play to learn and Adults learn to play

George had the day after boards off of work, so we headed to the San Antonio Children's museum (see above slogan) for an afternoon. I think one of Geo's best skills is knowing how to play, so it was great to have him along. Sometimes I tend to be more of a "watch from the sidelines" person, but he gets right in there. Love it. We started in the basement with "grocery shopping" and worked our way up to the top floor "airport." I had to chuckle at ourselves several times... George and I would say, "look at this! How cool!" and Lucy and Elina would give us a patronizing smile and quickly move on to something else (that we usually thought was lame).

Geo gave the girls "shopping lists".

The airport

Somehow the girls thought this was fun enough to visit twice. And I think they'd have gone again if we had more time. I'm still wondering what was so appealing... but definitely something.

Bubble ranch

Everyone seemed to have a good time at this one.

Near the end we found something all of us thought was COOL... not sure what you call the thing we were playing with. You know those box of nail type things where you press your hand and it makes the shape? (ya, I know. Lovely explanation.) They had a big one of those thingys and we played on it for probably an hour.

Elise liked pushing the pegs back into position best, but of course we had to force a body print.

The girls thought it was so funny when they figured out they could make foot prints too.
The many faces of Geo.

Yea Dad!