Reed's First Thanksgiving and Such

Well, this is a little belated, but Happy Thanksgiving!  It has been quite busy since Thanksgiving, I apologize for the delay in my blogging.

Our Thanksgiving was really nice.  It was just the 6 of us and I cooked it all.  I made executive decisions on what to and what not to have and it turned out quite nice.

 
 

I brined our turkey this year and I will do it now EVERY year.  It turned out SO scrumptious!  SO juicy and TENDER!!  We had a wild rice stuffing, homemade rolls, a squash and apple dish, and then a yummy salad with apples and pomegranate and of course cranberry chutney.  It wasn't too much food and it really turned out nice.  I then made a chocolate pumpkin pie and a "mystery" pecan pie.  The mystery was that it had a layer of cream cheese in it so it was like a pecan pie cheesecake.....our new found favorite!  We used my grandma Stockman's china, it was really nice.  Reed sure enjoyed it.  He got to eat turkey too and he sure loved the rolls.  The day after Thanksgiving we gave the girls a little early Christmas present.  Spencer and I took them to see The Lion King on stage here in Denver.

 
 It was SO neat!!  The girls were just spellbound the entire time.  I am so glad that we were able to do that with them.

We were able to get our Christmas decorations up early this year because of really warm weather.  We have this tradition that when it is the first Christmas of any child in the house they get to put the star on top of the tree so, this year was Reed's turn.  I think he was mostly interested in the camera light than putting the star on the tree....he's so cute!



The girls decorated the tree yet again this year.  It is actually really nice to have them do it, they do a pretty good job.



They are so excited for Christmas this year, well, they are ALWAYS excited for Christmas, but I think they are more so this year.  For what, I have no idea, but they are.

CJ gave a talk in primary today, it was so sweet and good.  She is sure growing up fast.  Her prayers changed over night (more mature sounding) and she is starting to assume more responsibilities around the house....kinda breaks my heart a little, the growing up not the responsibilities part.  She is doing alright in school except with some problems with bullies.  The mother instinct kicks in and I want to go kick some little tooshie of the kids that are mean to my sweetie.  She seems to be making new friends though, at school, ballet, and at church which makes me happy.  Every Sunday after Sacrament Meeting, this little girl in her class comes and gets her to walk with her to primary.  It warms my heart.  Ballet is going really good.  She is in ballet 3 and she is also taking beginning lyrical this year.  She is learning so fast and is doing so good, I can't WAIT for the recital this year!

Avary is bossy and thinks she's always right, as usual.  She is doing exceptional in school and she says the most cleaver and funniest things of anyone in the household.  Today we were at tithing settlement, and she had gone to the restroom.  When she came back she was panting and I asked her why she was panting because she wasn't supposed to be running in the church.  She looks at me and without missing a beat she says, "CJ was running."  And she left it at that.  Like it was CJ's fault that she was panting.  It was so funny.  Avary's ballet is also going really good.  She is in ballet 2 this year and she is zooming through swimming.  She takes after her mommy in that area....we were both born to swim, little fishies we are.  She was tested for the AGATE program at her school.  We haven't heard anything, but her teacher already has her in more advanced groups.

Reed is growing SO fast we can hardly keep up with him!  He started to army crawl and was hauling pretty good at that.  Then he started to sit himself up and within a couple days he was crawling on his hands and knees and not his tummy anymore.  A week after he started to actually crawl, he started to pull himself up on furniture.  This kid is going to be walking before we know it!  He is sleeping in his own room now and he is doing great!  He usually cries around midnight, but then we give him his pacifier and he goes right back to sleep, except the other night when he didn't make one peep!  It was nice!  He is clapping now and he is amazing us every day with his progress.  He sure has been a perfect addition to our family.  He just warms us all through.

Spencer is doing well in work, no big surprise there.  They love him there.  His boss was so impressed with the work that he and the rest of the team did that he gave them 5 extra days off next year!  So, instead of 3 weeks they get 4.  That helps seeing how we will be leaving on our cruise in LESS THAN A MONTH!!!!!!!  I am so excited, I can hardly stand it!  He is the second councilor in the Elders Quorum and is SO awesome to help me at home when he gets home from work.





I had monkeys on the side of the cake as well.  I was REALLY happy with it.  Especially since I think I just perfected my recipe for chocolate cake!  Every time I made it it would fall......BAD!  I think I found the "formula" to fix that little problem.

Anyway, that is what we have been up to lately.  Just waiting to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, Christmas, New Years, and then we are off on our cruise.  I am sad to leave my kids, especially Reed because he doesn't understand, but we got set up on Skype so we will be able to see and talk to them everyday.  Spencer and I have been wanting to do something like this ever since we got married.  We really didn't have a "honeymoon" so now we are going to take advantage of our 10 year anniversary and take an 8 day cruise to the eastern Caribbean, visiting the islands of St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten.  It will be fun.  But I'll be happy to get home, I'm sure....I'll miss my kids too much.

Love to all and I will work on being better at my blogging.

Have a Merry Christmas!!!  I'll post again soon.

Halloween Fun!

Happy belated Halloween!  It has been a REALLY busy month for this household.  The end of September my mom had major abdominal surgery to remove her appendix and her sigmoid colon.  Then two weeks after her surgery she threw some blood clots to her lungs and landed in the ICU twice and a total of 2 weeks in the hospital.  She is home and doing well now though.  It was a rough month, but we also had some fun.

This year for our ward trunk-or-treat the Young Women were in charge of planning it and I offered to make the cupcakes for our traditional cake walk.  I had so much fun doing them.  I went on a search for "Halloween like" candy and found some good ones.


I found gummy worms and I used upside down octopi for spiders.

Then I found gummy brains:

And nice big corns:

I got a lot of compliments on them.  I sure loved doing them.  I wish I could do them more often, but people don't ask me to.  Anyway, we sure had a good time.

We had our traditional Halloween feast again this year.  I believe this WILL become a tradition, I enjoy doing this too.


We had Roasted Baby Fingers ('Lil Smokey's wrapped in bread), Garbage Salad (coleslaw, probably the best one I've made, it turned out SO yummy!), Cheddar Bones (Cheetos), and Witch's Brew (Lemon Lime Punch with dry ice).  The girls LOVED it!  Later we took Dirt Dessert (chocolate pudding with Oreo crumbs and gummy worms) to my mom in the hospital.

It was a really nice night for trick-or-treating.  It was really warm and we all dressed up.  The girls were little hula girls:


And Spencer and Reed were Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat.  I wore tattoo sleeves and a green and black wig with dark makeup around my eyes.  My mom hardly recognized me when I walked through her hospital door.  I got a lot of laughs and comments on my outfit.  I liked it.  I'll use it for future Halloween's.

My chiropractors daughter got married on the first of November, which was Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and I wanted to give her something special.  She wasn't the typical bride.  She isn't into "show" and "excess" and she was getting so stressed with everyone TELLING her how to do her wedding so she opted to just have the ceremony in the temple and then a lunch with just her family afterward instead of a huge reception.  She was VERY happy with that choice and I'm proud of her for doing what SHE wanted.  I hate it when people try to make someone else's wedding about them.  Anyway, I wanted to make sure she had a cake, so I made a "Honeymoon Cake" for the two of them, just the two of them.


She LOVED it!  I had SO much fun doing it too.  Spencer, of course, did the carving of which turned out PERFECT, and then I decorated it.  It was so fun because the more I did to the cake the better it looked.  I really miss doing cakes.  I mentioned to Spencer that perhaps I should just tell people to pay for the ingredients and then I will make their cakes for them just so that I can decorate more.  I was so rusty on this cake, it was frustrating, but thanks to some big and elaborate decoration I was able to cover most of the mistakes.

Birthday Mania!!

Well, another year has come and gone for our birthday's.  I think this week is the most exhausting week of the year for me...besides Christmas.  We sure had a lot of fun this year.  On my birthday the girls had an early release day from school, SO my mom and I picked them up and we went to Georgetown to have our own little Victorian High Tea Party at a cute little store up there to celebrate all our birthday's.

EVERYTHING was SO YUMMY!!!  CJ drank us all "under the table" with the tea.  She had to use the restroom a lot after that, but the girls sure had a great time.  I couldn't believe how yummy everything was.  There is no way to pick a favorite.  We had meat pies, bacon spinach tartlettes, deviled eggs, scones with lemon curd and devonshire cream, fruit cup with oranges grapefruit raisins and coconut, fruit tartlettes, lemon bars, peanut butter squares, cucumber sandwiches, black walnut cookies, and white chocolate cameos.  CJ had extra eggs and Avary had an extra fruit tartlette while my mom and I had extra bacon and spinach tartlettes and meat pies.  It was bliss.  We really had a wonderful time.  When we got home, Spencer had put a BBQ pork shoulder in the crockpot and he made dinner that night for me.  Complete with fresh corn on the cob and rice.  For my birthday "cake", Razzleberry Pie with Vanilla ice cream.  I was utterly spoiled!

For my moms birthday, the day started with her sleeping in while I got the girls ready and took them to school.  Later that night we went and picked Spencer up at work and we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  Another blissful dinner!  They wrote happy birthday on mine, my mom's, and Avary's plates. 

It was the first time the girls had gone there. I don't think there is anything that I have tried there that I haven't liked.  Everything was absolute de-lish!

Unfortunately for Avary's birthday, she spent the day at home with strep....AGAIN!  CJ had a cold and it was another early release day at their school so I just let CJ stay home that day with Avary.

Her day started off with pancakes.  I made her pancakes and wrote Happy Birthday with whipped cream, but as you can see in the picture it melted.  I also had sprinkles, a cherry, and powdered sugar to make it perfect for her.  She was SO thrilled with them.  I also made her hot chocolate and put whipped cream and chocolate sauce in it.  (My mom and I had McDonald's hot chocolate the Saturday before while we were on our way to Kansas to pick up some beef that we bought through my brother Spike.  They put chocolate syrup on the whipped cream and it was so yummy that I did it for the girls for breakfast.  It was yummy too!)  Anyway, she then wanted her hair done really special so I did an experiment and it worked out quite nicely.  At first she wanted a braid that went across the top of her head, but then I expounded with all around her head.  She really liked it and felt special.  For dinner she wanted ravioli, so that's what I did.  Poor thing didn't eat much because she wasn't feeling good.  She opened presents after that and she was THRILLED with what she got.  Everything she got had something to do with horses aside from her leotard and fingernail polish.  She got horse pj's from my mom, a My Little Pony from "Reed", and then she got her own chapter books called The Horse Diaries, along with a couple other things.  She was ECSTATIC!  She wanted an Oreo birthday cake this year and wanted to decorate it herself, but seeing how she had strep, I ended up doing it for her.  It isn't my best job, but I think it turned out quite cute for the supplies I had.  But the most important thing is that Avary loved it.  She even said it was exactly how she wanted it....sweet girl.  Aside from being sick, she had a good day and I am SO glad.  I hate being sick on my birthday and I totally sympathized for her.  We had plans to go miniature golfing on her birthday, but we told her we would do it a different day when she was feeling better.

Just as a side note,

isn't he CUTE!!??!!??

Blanding Trip and other August Events

From our last post you know that Spencer's grandparents died in a car accident the beginning of August.  Well, we all went to Blanding, UT for the funeral....even the dog.  It was a really good trip, I'm so glad we all went.  Anyway, having kids we had to keep them occupied with fun things to do.  There isn't much in Blanding, but we found some things to do to keep the girls happy, which in turn, kept us happy.

The first place we went was the dinosaur museum.  I had heard so many stories about Spencer and his family going to the dinosaur museum that we had to take our kids.  It wasn't what I expected, but it kept them busy for a little while.  Especially when Uncle Tyler and Aunt Shelly decided that they would come with us.  Thank heavens they did or it wouldn't have been a "successful" trip.

 

Reed slept through the whole thing.

Spencer thought that this was pretty cool.  I guess it is a replica of the model used for the King Kong movie.

I LOVE the look Avary is giving Uncle Tyler in this picture.  I don't thing she knew what to think about him.  We LOVE Uncle Tyler.

CJ sure had a lot of fun with Uncle Tyler.  Like I said, if they hadn't have come with us, it would have been a flop.  Here is a little video of the fun they had:



I think we were actually the only ones at the museum besides the one worker there.  It was good though.

Later that same day we went do Grandma and Grandpa Johnny's cabin.  They were on their way to the cabin when they were hit head on by a Penske truck.  It was really pretty up at the cabin.  When we got there, there was a deer hanging out looking for food.  I guess that was what Grandma and Grandpa Johnny would do, they would go up and feed the local deer.  It was really neat to see.  Jersey went NUTS!  The deer didn't get too close because of the dog, but we got some good wilderness time with the deer.

They have this beautiful reservoir there called Recapture Reservoir.  It sure was beautiful.  The pictures don't give it justice, but I like this one that I took.

Every time we drove past it, it just took my breath away.  I loved it.

The next day we found a little water park that they just opened up so that the kids could swim.  It was SO hot in Blanding when we went that water was more than welcome!  This was the first time Reed went swimming

 He didn't like it so much.  The water was a little chilly for his liking, but after I got him out I let him wade a little.  He liked that, just didn't like the immersion.  Too much I guess.  He sure loves his baths though.  Just too cold I guess.

 
 The girls really had a good time and so did Spencer.  Uncle Ryan, Aunt Cami, and Aunt Addie all went with us to the water park.  It was so good to get out and have some fun.

At one point Spencer and Ryan got the whistle blown at them because they both had a girl on their shoulders playing "chicken", you know, where they try to knock each other off the shoulders.  Silly boys.  Not really a game for little girls.

The next day was the double funeral.  They did such a good job, both the families.  It lasted only about an hour and 20 minutes which was, I think, record breaking...ESPECIALLY for a double funeral and two different families.  It was beautiful though and really neat to hear all the fun things about the two of them.

The family was able to move the plot that Grandpa Johnny bought over by Grandma which was so neat.  Grandma is buried next to the two men she loved dearly, Grandpa Burdett on her Right and Grandpa Johnny on her left.

When we got home the girls started school.  CJ is now in 3rd grade and Avary is in 1st.

 My my my....where does the time go!!??  They are really enjoying school this year.  They both are doing so well and I am so proud of the both of them!

Reed started eating cereal this month as well.  At first he wasn't sure what to think:

But he REALLY enjoys it now.  He is growing SO fast I can hardly keep up with his clothes.  He is such a joy though.  The girls love him more everyday.

I made another cake this month.  A friend of our Bradley Teacher called and wanted me to make a Gluten Free, low sugar, organic cake.  It turned out really yummy (I know because we always get scraps!)  :)   She didn't have any specifics about the decoration, she just wanted chocolate with "Happy Birthday Chandler" written on it.  I think it turned out really cute:

The cupcake on top was for Chandler, he turned one so he got his own little cake.  I love decorating cakes.  I wish more people would ask me to do them.  If I could I would decorate a cake every day.

Till We Meet Again

Tonight during our Family Home Evening we got a phone call from Spencer's dad telling us that Grandma and Grandpa Johnny were in a car accident and that both of them had passed away.  Spencer has lost all 4 of his grandparents within 11 months of each other.  We are devastated by the news, but we know that they have been welcomed into our Heavenly Father's kingdom with open arms.

Your love and kindness will always remain with us.  We will miss you terribly.  All our love.

The Four F's of July 2011

This has been a VERY busy July for us.  As I recount everything we did this month, I realize that everything we did started with an F.  Every weekend we have had something to do.  So here we go!

Fourth 

For the fourth we went up to Georgetown.  My mom was FINALLY home for the fourth instead of in Alaska, so we took her up to Georgetown to see the parade, like we did the first fourth we were here.  It was really fun.

The girls made their own flags to wave during the parade.  We had yummy house made ice cream before the parade and the girls got a nice load of candy.

After the parade my mom and I did a little shopping and then we went to the town park to have our picnic that we took.  On the way there I had to stop and take pictures of this house that I just love!

I love how the river goes right past it.  I just love how majestic it seems.  Anyway, after our picnic we decided it was time to go home.  Good thing we left when we did because it took us an hour and a half extra to get home from Georgetown because there was a semi turned over on the freeway going into Denver.  We had to take one of the only two detours we could and it was just HORRIBLE.  What a NIGHTMARE!!  Poor Reed was NOT a happy camper.

When we finally made it home, things started to look up for Reed so we decided to go to the Aurora Fireworks that they do not too far from our house.  They were AWESOME!  They were the best I've seen since we moved here.  The best, by far, is still Disneyland, but the finale was just spectacular.  I don't think I have ever seen a city do fireworks the way that Aurora did.  It was a pretty good day aside from the horror of trying to get home.


Fun Place

Every year the city of Aurora puts on this Kidspree that is free.  They hold it in this huge park and everything you do there is free, aside from the food.  This was the first year since we found out about it that I was able to go and I am SO glad that I did.  They have a maze that the girls and Spencer went through before I got there. 

I got there just in time to watch CJ and Avary ride their first pony.  I thought Avary was just going to flip out, but she didn't and Spencer and I were a little disappointed in her lack of excitement.  Although they had been in line for a LONG time waiting to ride.

 We then went and stood in another long line to get their faces painted.  Reed even got a little "tattoo" of a frog trying to catch a fly.  It was really fun.

After the face painting we found this booth where they can make their own hats.  CJ made a hat out of a CD and Avary went a little nuts with a headband.  They did a good job!  I especially liked this venue because it had air conditioners going in the tent.

We left just in time because as soon as we got to the car, it started to pour!


Family Fun

This seems kind of random, but one day we let Jersey in and when she came in she had something on her.

 We couldn't figure out what it was and then I looked outside.  We realized that she had sat on the blue chalk that the girls drew on the back porch.  We had a good laugh about it.

My brother Shaun was here for a couple days and we had him over for dinner one night.  After dinner, Spencer got into the bubble gum.  He can get a little crazy with the gum sometimes and this was one of those times.  He was blowing bubbles and he blew one that got pretty big.  I bet you can guess what happened next.  He was wearing his glasses, too.  We all just about peed our pants, ESPECIALLY the girls.  So, he continued to make a mess of himself.  This was the finished product:

Spencer went up to our bathroom to clean up and pretty soon I hear, "Sierra?!  How do you get gum out of nose hairs?!"  My mom, brother, and I answered at the same time, "Peanut butter!"  Ya, he was a MESS.


Fair

We promised the girls this year that we would go to the county fair.  It was really fun once we got there, but BOY it was expensive.  We know now the days to go, during the week NOT weekend.  Anyway, we got there just in time to go on a ride, get some grub, and head over to the rodeo that they were doing.  Avary got to see horses in action.  She was pretty excited.

 I LOVE this picture of her!  After the rodeo we went over to the petting zoo.  They had some really cute baby goats and baby pigs.  I think Reed and this Llama  are reading each others minds.

 After the petting zoo, Avary started to complain that she wasn't feeling very well so we took CJ on some rides.  They had a roller coaster there that was a dragon so we went to take her on that.  Spencer couldn't ride with her because he was too big so she got to go all by herself.  At first we weren't sure because the expression on her face, but pretty soon she showed us how fun it really was.

We all had a really good time.  It was the last night of the fair so we got an extra special treat....FIREWORKS!  They were pretty awesome, but what was really the entertainment that night was Reed.  This is him watching the fireworks.

Everyone around us was just in awe that he was so calm during the fireworks.  He LOVED the fireworks.  He closed his mouth once to swallow and then it dropped open again right after.  His eyes were fixed on those lights like they were going out of style.

It was a great July, busy, but great.  Glad it is over because now we can relax....a little.