Happy Turkey Day

We had a fantastic and relaxing Thanksgiving. Hopefully you all did too! Aaron's brother and his wife drove out to visit and stayed for a few days, which was particularly fun since they recently got married and we haven't spent much time with them! Thanks Garth & Kiery for coming! Our good friends Zack & Karen also came to dinner and we had lots of great food and an awesome time with everyone. We did a little Black Friday shopping (nothing too early or crazy), and just hung out and had fun. Sadly enough, despite my making sure we had batteries that actually worked for our camera, we don't have a single picture from Thanksgiving.

The one thing we do have a picture of is the day before Thanksgiving. I was making Cranberry Cheesecake (a traditional dessert in our family) and Sydney was following me around fussing and crying. My solution was to strip her down and give her the spatula with cheesecake stuff all over it. Yeah, she really liked it.

Thankful

Here is what I am thankful for this year - from A to Z. Some are superficial and some are not, but all make a difference in my life. Click on any links to learn more about a topic.

A - Aaron and Adoption. Aaron is the best husband ever and I love him so much. Obviously adoption has changed our lives in ways we could never have imagined and we are so incredibly grateful for the opportunities it has given us. FYI, November is National Adoption Month!
B - Birth mothers. For very obvious reasons, I am particularly thankful for Sydney's birth mother, who is an amazing girl that had the wisdom and foresight to see that her pregnancy was about more than just her and that she had a chance to change the lives of many people. We love her so much and can never repay her.
C - Coupons. Silly, I know, but when I buy things I would already be purchasing, and I save money on them, it makes me happy. Plus, that $5+ I save almost every time I shop really adds up!
D - Disposable diapers and wipes. Seriously.
E - Employment. I am so grateful that Aaron has a job and one that allows me to stay home.
F - Family & Friends. We have such wonderful family and friends and we are so grateful to all of you. If you're reading this, thank you for making an impact on our lives.
G - The Gospel. It has shaped who I am and how I live my life. Click on that link to learn more about our beliefs.
H - History. If you've known me for long, you know I'm a little obsessed with it (remember my "This Day in History" board and email?). I love it and I love that I always have an outlet and something to learn about. Hooray for the documentaries at the library. I love them.
I - Internet. Remember how I really only keep in touch with people this way? And how did people learn anything before the Internet? I also love my cell phone.
J - Jesus Christ. I know he is my Savior and I am grateful for the knowledge that I have of His plan for me.
K - Knees. As I lose the ability to bend at the waist more and more, I use these guys a lot. Thanks for helping me out.
L - Libraries! You all know I'm a book addict. But I'm also cheap, and one of my favorite places ever is the library. It's almost always the first place I find when I move to a new city besides our church and a grocery store. I love our library. They almost always have what I need or order it quickly, and they have fancy self-check out scanny things. That makes me happy. Also request online and pick up so I don't have to parade my screaming child through the whole building. Thank you.
M - Marriage. I'm so grateful to be married to Aaron and to have a commitment to and from him. One blessing we got from "waiting" to have Sydney (although it was involuntary), we got a lot of time to just be together and enjoy each other. Now he's my best friend.
N - Nap Time. I love when Sydney is awake and I get to play with her, but I also love her nap times when I can either get something done or take a little time for me. That way when she's awake I can focus on her and not go crazy! She's such a good napper (I hope I didn't just jinx myself) and I love that she asks to go "night night."
O - Opportunities. We have so many of these in life and we have had so many lately. They all make us learn and grow and become better people.
P - Prophets. I am grateful that our church has a prophet that can receive direction from God. I think we need it more in these times than almost any other.
Q - Qdoba. I really like this place. And their queso? Oooh yum. Totally my favorite part. I really just love nights I don't cook.
R - Reading. This is my outlet and I always have a book. I am grateful that my parents cultivated a strong love of reading when I was a child. It's something I'm determined to do with my own kids, which is probably why I own hundreds of children's books. No seriously.
S - Sydney. I could go on for ages about this kid, as you all know since you've obviously read my blog. Suffice it to say, I love her and am so grateful I have the privilege of being her mommy.
T - Temples. I am very grateful that we can be a family even after we die because of the special work done here.
U - United States of America. I am very grateful to live in the country I do and I am grateful for all those that have fought and are fighting to keep it free. I think whether we support the wars or not, we should always support them, because they are there for us.
V - Veggie Tales. I might actually be in an asylum if it weren't for these little green guys. Sydney practically goes into a trance whenever I turn it on for her. I try to save it for when I'm really going nuts or she's having a particularly rough day. Here is a (2 month old) video of her watching it. She is completely entertained whenever I turn it on. It's gets us through the rough days. :)
W - Work Ethic. We've recently encountered a number of people with extremely low work ethics (Wendy's tonight was a joke!). I am grateful for the fact that both of our parents taught us how to work and that it is something we are all required to do in life. It makes your life easier when you don't think you're being picked on just because you have to contribute.
X - eXamples. (I know, I'm cheating, but honestly, I'm not that grateful for xylophones.) There are a lot of people I look up to and I am grateful that they live their lives the way they do so that I can learn from them.
Y - You! I'm so glad you all want (is that the right word?) to read all this nonsense about my life! Seriously though, I'm grateful to have you as friends and to be able to keep in touch.
Z - Zoo. You all know we're here a lot, and I love it. I love all the little outings we do! Now we just need to work a few more in to our schedules...

A Sense of Accomplishment

First, a goofy pic of my cute kiddo. She has discovered this bowl, which she puts on her head so it looks like a little bowler hat. It's too small, so it falls off, and she laughs. Dang, I love that kid.

Now the real reason for my posting - let's face it - I love to craft, and I dabble in pretty much every crafty type project there is. Sewing, painting, floral design, scrapbooking, etc. You name it, I've usually tried it. Not to say I'm actually good at all or any of these things, but I enjoy most of them. However, I have a major craft flaw - I go in serious spurts. I get things done that we NEED throughout the year, but my crafty projects I want and like to do wait until crafting season begins. Which is now.

During spring, summer, and even a lot of fall, I want to read, go to the park, work in the garden, or laze around the pool. Crafting is work during those months. But when that cold chill comes into the air and I start dreaming of Christmas trees and snow days (usually sometime in late September), the craft bug in me comes out! Take this year for example - in the past few weeks I have: sanded and painted this nativity (which Syd decided to eat 5 min later. I saved Baby Jesus, but Mary and the sheep have a few battle wounds)
Made/finished our stockings (I am soooo proud of this one since it took me like 4 years to do!). Also notice the new baby even has a stocking minus the name (since she doesn't have one yet).
Decorated my turkey with fall leaves instead of suckers (Syd throws tantrums when she sees suckers and we're working on eating healthier anyway)
I also made Sydney a new blanket, fixed an old blanket, made an apron, darned 3 socks, hemmed 2 pair of pants and completed 2 soft books. My project pile is rapidly depleting! Hooray! I feel so productive. Happy day!

Also in BIG news - today Sydney took her first steps! No walking yet, but she did take a couple of unassisted steps and fall into our arms! Yay Sydney! We'll get video when it happens again.

SNOW!!!!

Remember how I've been dying for it to snow for ages now? I look out the window each morning and each time I am disappointed. I'm dying for that gorgeous picture out my window where each house on my block looks like a gingerbread house dusted with powdered sugar. Well, this morning Aaron got me out of bed (I was awake) and had me go to the window, to see SNOW!!! I was so excited I wanted to squeal, but knew it would wake Syders up, so I kept quiet, but was whisper screaming how excited I was! We took Sydney out and let her see the snow.

Total confusion. Even after we fed her some she was still confused. I think she wondered what happened to the world. (Do you see the powdered sugar dusting further down the street?!)
When we came back in she stared out the back door for a long while trying to figure it all out. Sadly enough, it was gone really soon. By the time we left the house at 11 am it was 60 degrees, so the only white stuff left was melting or completely shaded. Sydney must have known I would be sad and decided to create a snow storm in the kitchen out of all our grocery sacks which she pulled from the pantry. It was much appreciated.

A little behind

I've been a bit of a slacker lately I guess as far as posting, but I also haven't taken that many pictures, so here's what we've been up to. Sydney is finally starting to grow a little bit of hair. Enough to wake up with some funny pic material a couple times a week! Although she doesn't seem to mind, mom wishes more hair would grow so she wouldn't get called a boy every time we leave the house. At least they say she's a cute boy I guess.

Playing in the leaves. Our tiny pile. Remember last year's leaf pictures? sigh She's so big now.

Our real official Halloween pic after trick-or-treating. We did 2 houses I think. It was for the experience.
Our little fairy! My aunt and uncle gave us this darling little dress and it fits her now! She wore it to church on Sunday.
In much more entertaining news, Syd's becoming a much better dancer. She's always loved music and started dancing when she was about 6 or 7 months old, but she's really starting to shake it now!

Yeah, she likes to rock. Oh, and windshield wipers terrify her. Who knew they were so scary?

My New Fave

I don't mind cooking most of the time. I actually even enjoy it when I have everything I need and know what I am making and am not in a rush. But I hate figuring out what to make, trying to keep Sydney occupied while I make it, etc. etc. Usually each day I put dinner off until just before Aaron comes home, which means in order for dinner to be done somewhat on time, I have to choose something that can be done in about 3o minutes. So my choices are tacos, spaghetti, or a Banquet boxed meal (we actually love these and you should try them - particularly the pizza pasta and the chicken/gravy/biscuits/potatoes). All good meals, but they get old having them too often.
I decided we were going to broaden our horizons and find new Quick and Easy meals we liked. I don't usually try new recipes though, because I have a few requirements that they usually don't meet. They are as follows:

1. The recipe must be FAST.
2. The recipe must be EASY (aka have about 8 ingredients or less - this is a vague and general rule. I do actually have recipes with more than 8 ingredients, but I stay away from long intense recipes (Sorry Kiery!)
3. I must have the majority of the ingredients AND gadgets needed in my current possession. I really hate buying new things for a meal you want to try and discovering you hate the meal anyway and you will never again use the 7 lb bag of ingredient x you purchased and used 3 tsp of.
4. Any ingredients I do not own must be fairly easy to find and cheap. I found a recipe for potatoes last week, and the first ingredient was Spanish Smoked Paprika. Excuse me? What? That doesn't work for me.

Enter my new favorite magazine:
I've been getting this magazine for a couple of years, but I've never made a recipe from it. Who knows why. Until this month. I realized I own almost all the ingredients for about 95% of the recipes in here, so I tried a taco bake and was pleasantly surprised! This week we had the Chicken Parmesan (the breading is made with Ritz crackers!), the bruschetta chicken bake, and the blueberry cheese rolls. While none of them are what you would consider gourmet (Olive Garden's Chicken Parm is better), they are really good, fast, easy, and use ingredients that I own! Yay!!!! After a little bit of tweaking a couple of things (the bruschetta needs a bit more wetness and we made raspberry cheese rolls instead of blueberry) I think we're going to really love some of these and use them frequently! At least we'll have a bit more variety in our menu now! If you want to get this magazine, you can sign up for free here! Enjoy!
P.S. Don't use the tangy pork chop recipe. It was really icky.