Mom I figured out the bouncer

Dinners

Ok, I'm also pretty impressed by this.

Today for dinner I made Nick's favorite: chicken quesadillas.  But!  I made everything from scratch.  Even butchered the chicken…..just kidding.  I did however make the tortillas all by myself, nice huh?  It did take a really long time to put it all together, and I made quite the mess, but it tasted good.  Nick helped by cutting up the chickens (dead meat, not my favorite thing…)  It even was nummy blended!  (I know, I know….gross)

Peanut Butter Redo

Hmmm….I bake when I'm bored.  And while I haven't really had time to be bored, what with my screaming insane son (have no idea what his deal is lately, he won't let me put him down.  Nick thinks he has severe anxiety….I think he's right), I barely have time to feed myself.  And with what little sleep I'm getting, thanks again Tristan, I really have no desire to do anything but watch Hulu.  But!  Last night I made pumpkin bread with a can of leftover pumpkin from thanksgiving.  And today I found this awesome recipe for peanut butter cookies.  It only took sugar and peanut butter!  So I mixed it up and put little drop cookies in the oven.  Mmmmm they smelled good.  But every time I checked, they didn't seem done.  I consulted the recipe again.  And there it was, blaringly obvious: 1 egg.  Oops

But wait!  I can still salvage the situation!  I'll just add the egg now!  So I pulled out the cookies, luckily they were still piles of goo, and scraped them back into the bowl.  Then I cracked an egg in and started to stir…….poop.  It cooked the egg!  So there I was with a bowl full of gooey egg chunks.  Sorry, no pictures, I was too embarrassed.

Anyhoo, I dumped the whole bowl in the trash.  At least my house smells like sugary peanut butter, hehe?  So I tried again, and as soon as those are cooked, I will show you.  So much for a "quick and simple recipe!"……

New ornaments

Every year I like to add to my reindeer collection, and Nick took me to Hobby Lobby on Black Friday to find something.  Here's what we found!  He also got me a tree topper and some kitty decorations.

Flash!

Ah yes, finally, my camera has a flash!  I found one on ebay for under $50 and ordered it.  Now we will be able to take pictures that actually look descent and not blurry, haha.  I'm excited to try it out!  My dad warned me though to make sure the flash and shutter speed are in sync…..otherwise I will have pictures that come out half light and dark.  Nick said that would be cool, but I didn't really think so. Well, I'll pick up some film in the next few days and let you know how it goes!

Thanksgiving pics

This year we went to my brother Jacob's for Thanksgiving.  Even though my family never gets very formal (we love using paper plates and plastic forks!), it's always fun to spend time together.  After all, isn't that what it's all about?  The food was great, the company better, and I'm going to miss being able to get together like this when Nick and I eventually leave to do his PhD somewhere.  But in the mean time, we still love going over to visit, it means lots of games hehe.  Well, let's just say the second round of Wizard I was in the very last place, I'm not too great at betting.  But I still had a lot of fun doing it!

Ani, Isaiah and Lizzie

Isaiah Ani and Elena

Jacob carving the Turkey

Becky and Matt

Baby and Daddy

Matt, Becky, Nick and Phil eating

The kiddie table downstairs

What do you think of the greenbeans?

They were a little strong…..very flarorful

Jacob and Andrea

Esther and Garion

Best part, Pies!

Auntie Becky and Tristan baby

Daddy makes baby giggle

Thanksgiving is about family

Cousins! (Ani)

And more cousins! (Elena)

The necklace Becky made, she sells them too! 

 Let me know if you are interested

Tristan's latest thing: playing peek-a-boo with himself.  Only he forgets to take the blanket off his face.  Then he doesn't make any noise, just flails his arms.  It's super funny, because he laughs so loud when I pull the blanket off.  The problem is, he does it when I'm not looking….so then I'm wondering why he's being quiet, and find him smothering himself with whatever he can find around him.  What a crazy kid.  So I've learned to not leave blankets or clothes around him, he thinks its too funny to cover his face.

And here are a couple catch up pictures!

The doggie hat….hahaha

Sleeping with his blankie

Loving his high chair, he can

see things better like this

Christmas portrait!

Suki hiding under the tree

Part of my reindeer collection, I try to add

to it every year

Our little tree, got it for 20 bucks 3 years ago!

Nick and I got super festive, and hung

decorations all over the living room

Pumpkin rolls rising

All baked for Thanksgiving

Kids….

Some memorable children experiences in our current apartment complex:

When we first moved in, Nick and I were bringing some boxes up to the apartment when we saw a giant beetle bug on the steps.  The thing was massive, with big furry antenna.  We didn't bother it, and went on moving.  The very next day, we were on our way down to the parking garage, when a family met us on the stairs.  It was a mom and her three little kids, and she welcomed us.  Her little boy ran up the stairs while we chatted, and came back a moment later, the giant beetle perched on his hand.  He though it was cool at first and wanted to show us, but a moment later, was screaming his head off.  It appeared that the beetle had woken up and was flapping its wings while still sitting in the boys hand, scaring him.  He started jumping and screaming and shaking his hand, telling us he hated the bug now.  Haha, it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.  Poor little guy.

Another story:  We live next to some very loud, very roudy children.  I have to tell them at least every other day to quitmaking so much noise in front of my bedroom window, because they always wake Tristan up.  "You kids, this isn't a playground, and you can't make that much noise.  Please go play in front of your own houses."  For some reason, they never get it.   Well, a couple days ago, Nick and I were leaving to go out, and the kids were playing in the yard in front of the complex.  One of the little boys ran up and said to me "hey!  I know that lady!  You're the lady in number seven, that says we can't play in front of your house.  You say to go play in front of our house."  Great, now I'm the mean old hag lady in number 7.  It was even better when the next day I was taking out the trash, the same little boy was walking up the stairs with his mom.  He said the same thing again.  I'm not sure if it was contempt of embarrassment on her face as she hurried her little boy into their apartment.  Meh, as long as it gets the point across.

My Crafty Side

I decided yesterday that I wanted to make an Advent Calendar.  And I wanted it to be a 24 day count down, but with scripture references each day reguarding the birth of Christ.  However, I couldn't find enough…..so!  At lds.org, I found a 12 day count down with references, and kind of borrowed it.  So 12 days on my calendar will have scriptures and little felt figures, and 12 days will have a candy.

Tristan and I went to JoAnns today, and well, he's heavy.  Haha, but we got some felt, and some fabric to make the calendar.  We also ran into Sis Yorgason and her daughter Megan.  We were in the same ward last year and we taught Megan's primary class.  It was really nice to see them, and to have her tell us how much they loved us as teachers.  I miss teaching, it was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot.

But then me and Tristan took Nick some food at school before going home to start the calendar.  We took a break halfway through to pick up Nick and take my little bro Phil to Walmart.  I just finished it, haha and it's 1:30 in the morning.  Nick helped me cut out some of the felt figures, since I wasn't terribly great at it.  Overall, I think it turned out pretty well!  As good as a gluegun can do, right?  Haha.

Eating some toys while mommy works

The figures and references

All finished calendar!

I'm so proud of myself

Helmet update

I suppose you've been wondering about Tristan's helmet…..well, after the 4th adjustment, he started getting little sores all over his head again.  It still looked too tight in many places.  So we took it off to let the sores heal, and then, when we tried to put it back on again, it didn't fit at all.  We went into the orthodic office again today, and apparently, Tristan had some sort of crazy growth spurt right after the initial fitting…so it never actually fit quite right.  On the bright side, he did go from a 13 mm discrepancy to a 4 mm discrepancy in his overall measurements, which is a great improvement.  The problem is, he still has a "wind swept" look.  Which means his head shape is still off, with flattening here and bossing there, making it look like his head has been swept to one side.  The options?  Grow a lot of hair.  Or, try again.  This time though, it would be a different type of helmet and he would be watched more closely.  Russ asked me today what my thoughts were, and I said, "well, I don't want him to come to me when he's 10 years old and say 'mommy what's wrong with my head?' and me answer 'Oh, we were too lazy to take care of it….'"  Then Russ laughed and said that made him feel guilty too, so we would see about trying again.  I will say he did warn me in the beginning, this was going to be a hard shape to fix, but we're going to try our best.

Nice mug shot

There, that's better!

Trying to stand up by himself

Playing with his seal toy

What?  Green eyes now?