Third time's a charm

Cute little Rebekah is finally 3. She was pretty excited about her birthday and about being a little older. We tried to make it special for Miss Noel so that it wouldn't feel like two Christmas days in a row. I think it definitely felt like a birthday, so maybe we succeeded.

She started out her day with a couple presents.

She picked cereal for breakfast with strawberries. This chick loves strawberries--too bad they are ridiculously expensive this time of year.

We took her to Burger King for lunch and to play in the only indoor play area in this town. We contemplated sledding, but when the wind chill makes it below zero, you think twice about it. So Burger King it was.

After the BK the kids watched Cinderella. Then she was in the mood to go out in the fresh Christmas Eve snow, so her and Dad went for a walk to look at Christmas lights. Alex came in to watch me finish up the cake. Bekah wanted a snake, so that is what we did. I've never heard of a 3 year old girl that wants a snake for a cake, but whatever.

Here is the 3 foot long beast.

The kids got to add their artistic talents to it.

Alex excited about the impending sugar consumption.

Here it is after they finished.

Blowing out her candles.

Yeah, it tasted pretty good, too.

After that were the rest of her presents.

All in all, it was a really fun day. Bekah is so funny and we love her to bits--can't imagine life without her. Thanks to our family for all the cards and gifts--she loved everything!

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

I thought it would be fun show everyone how cool my parents were with our Christmas trees--probably one of the ugliest things you've ever seen. I just love how they let us kids do whatever we wanted to do to the tree. We all hung something on the tree--usually some sort of paper thing we made--and it really helped it feel more Christmas-y. Here is an example of the poor tree that was hacked, brought to our crazy house, and was made to wear whatever hideous thing we could come up with. Okay, so they weren't all hideous. Nathan's stuff was pretty cool.

Dad, Sarah, Matt, Nathan, and Rachel
(May I add that my parents also let me pick my glasses out myself and this is what I picked. They never told me how ridiculous they were.)

A good ten years later things were a little better as we developed our craftiness.
Danny, Mary, and Sarah (in the back)

Another few years added, and alas, no paper chains, painted and glittered egg carton bells, dripping frosted cookies, or paper snowflakes on this tree.
So sad.

Jeremy, Matt, Danny, Mom, Mary, Sarah

And just to finish this off,
Merry Christmas from us!

Gettin' Jiggy and Gingerbread

Matt and I went to the school's winter formal and had a great time with friends and each other. The music for the dancing needed some help, but other than that, it was a fun date.


On Saturday, I made a gingerbread house. It was kind of time consuming, but it saved me the 10 bucks it costs to buy a kit. The only problem is now we have a bunch of gingerbread cookies and a house, and Matt and I aren't super into gingerbread (well, c'mon, it's not chocolate!).
But here are the kids and I decorating the thing.

A Study of Sleep and Hypnosis

For the week off of school Matt and I wanted to see the effects that plenty of rest and hypnotic movie watching would have on us, so that is what we did. I should add that this study included copious amounts of sugar. We are very pleased with the results--we weren't necessarily ready to go back to the school schedule, but are definitely more prepared for it because of the indulgence during the break.
Some other things we did:

Raked a ton of leaves

For our anniversary I made cheesecake with homemade blueberry sauce with fresh blueberries. So yum.

Matt and I went out to eat at this awesome restaurant for our anniversary. We didn't eat out for 2 months just so we could go here. It was worth it. Those croutons alone make you want to die.

Us at the restaurant.

We also went shooting to practice with our new gun. I did better, but who's counting?

And that brings us to Thanksgiving. We spent the day with the Crellins. Here are Matt and faceless Jason hanging out watching movies.

Here are Tab, Bekah, and Alex hanging out watching movies.

Oh, there's Jason. And Benton in the high chair.

For dinner Rebecca and son Terry came to eat with us. She is a student, same year as Matt and Jason. I think during dinner we only had 4 references to bacteria and/or diseases related to. Pretty good for 3 med students.
Our menu included herb-rubbed roasted turkey, homemade stuffing, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, fresh cranberry relish, fruit salad, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, homemade gravy, rolls, and Martinelli's, baby!

The two slaves responsible for most of that goodness.

We can't forget the dessert. Carmel Pecan Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust and a homemade Lemon Meringue Pie.

I swear this is still Thanksgiving even though the kids are in the Halloween costumes.
The very same Lemon Meringue, a Chocolate Mousse pie, and Rebecca's Apple Pie, Blueberry Pie, and Pumpkin Pie. She used to own a bakery and it definitely shows!
We may have been a little outta control with the desserts. Jenny and I had two other crusts made that we didn't even fill. We also had a cherry pie that had to wait a couple of days for us to even get to it.

Last but not least, we spent the final days of our vacation getting a Christmas tree and decorating it and the house. Alex had been dying to do this for the last month, so now he is just dying for Christmas to actually be here. After that, I'm sure he'll be dying for his baby sister to be here. Then his birthday, etc, etc.

It must be in the genes

Anyone who knows Rebekah very well knows that she is not typically described as "graceful". Someday she will make millions doing physical comedy because she has a knack for making falling look so darn funny.
I was walking out of the gym today warning, "Be careful guys, it's really slip--". That's when I went down. I partially caught myself with my hands but I didn't realize until I was buckling Bekah into her carseat (yes, she took her own little spill as well) that I was bleeding. We must be related.

Deep Thoughts by Rebekah Noel

"When I was 3, I will be 2 1/2"

"When we are all done with our food, we'll be done"

"Leave me alone--I have a headache"

"I need medicine because I was crying"



For some good laughs check this out.

Bleu Cheese Toast

When my mom and brother were here and we were all in Nauvoo, my mom bought some Nauvoo bleu cheese from a local market. I am a total sucker for bleu cheese (like my mom), so I was dying, because you're not supposed to eat it when you are pregnant. Unpasteurized cheeses might contain listeria bacteria, which could cause meningitis in the baby when it is born, which could cause, oh, death. Anyway, so my mom flew back home, leaving most of the bleu cheese to taunt me in our fridge. I decided that I was going to have some one way or another, so I came up with a recipe to heat it to kill any listeria bugs. I combined about 4 oz of bleu cheese with 2-3oz softened cream cheese and spread it on sourdough bread and toasted it in a 400 degree oven for about 10 min. And the reason that I am blogging about it...because it was sooo good. I could eat just that for the rest of my life. Okay, maybe not just that. Cereal, ice cream, and bleu cheese toast. That's heaven.

Bad picture, I know. "Get used to disappointment", as Wesley would say.

Hallow Evening

We did the usual stuff for Halloween. About a month ago, someone gave me some little boots that are Bekah's size. Alex decided that he was going to try and wear them even though they are several sizes too small. Regardless of only his toes fitting in the boots, this is what he came up with for a cowboy costume:

Pretty sweet. Don't worry, we've got the real thing lined up for Christmas.
So here is the pumpkin carving picture:

The decorating cookies picture:

And for one of the trunk-or-treat activities, Bekah was a princess. She actually looks like a girl for once.

For going trick or treating Bekah was a tiger.

We went door to door with Jace and Heather Fullmer, who are going to Michigan with us for Rotations. Oh, by the way, we are moving to Michigan in June, in case you haven't heard. Anyway, my Chinese shirt is sort of busting open because I'm wearing a bulky fleece sweater underneath. At 5 months I am showing, but not too noticably in this particular shirt when I'm not sporting a sweater underneath. (Just then I wanted to say "a sweater inferior to the shirt"--the anatomy lingo is getting to me). ANYWAY, all I'm saying is that I'm not as poofy as this picture suggests, I promise.

Catching up...

I've been such a slacker with blogging. So this is what happened in October:
My mom and my brother Danny came to visit us. We went to the school's Still-A-Bration dinner and activities, went to Nauvoo, and just hung around the house playing with the kids. We had a little un-spoiling to do after wards, but it was really fun having them here. We had a late night of Scattergories and it was a crack up. Oh, and Danny spent a lot of time fixing our computer. I backed up everything, but now my pictures are not organized at all, so that accounts for one reason why I haven't been updating lately.
Both my mom and Danny get mad when you take pictures of them, so I had to get them when they weren't looking. This is them reading stories to the kids at bedtime.

A little before they came, Matt had his 28th birthday. I also had mine not that long ago, but those are the only pictures that I forgot to back up before we reformatted our computer. This is Matt with some of the lovely gifts he received. Matt says thanks to everyone!

I made chimichangas for his birthday dinner. Oh man, they were so stinkin' good! It is always fun to fry stuff, too.

A while back we went to a corn maze/pumpkin patch nearby. Here are the kids jumping in a straw pile.

When we got to the middle of the train-themed maze, there was a train whistle that we got to pull.

Before we left Alex told Bekah, "We're going to a pumpkin patch". Bekah says, "Eeew".
Alex explains, "No not a eye patch made out of pumpkin"

Posing with our little friend Jackson in the maze.

Alex jumping the hay in the little kid maze instead of going through it.

On a hay ride.

So now you know that we haven't been completely boring. The end.