White Boys Christmas!

Just thought this was a fun pic everyone would want to see.

WHITE CHRISTMAS...HA HA!!

Yes, we had a White Christmas, in fact we do every year. So here are a few pics to give you a small glimpse in to a White Christmas.
Craziness ensued, it was a blast having Christmas with Funcle Jared and Auntie Steen!




Auntie Steen and beautiful little Abbey, her first Christmas!


















Seth enjoyed a baking set that Joel actually got. But ultimately his favorite was his "choo choo bieke" which unfortunately didn't make it on to our camera so that will come later.















Joel posing in front of Grampa and Sweet Gramma's Christmas tree in Hemet. It was great to spend time with the extended White family and with so much AMAZING food! (Gramma, if you ever read this, just know that you are the best cook in the world!) Also, thanks everyone for the gifts, love ya!







Josh after prime rib, cheesy mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, honey baked carrots, a bowl of olives, some fiery jalapeno cheese, a beef stick, some smoked gouda, ceasar salad, some more prime rib, definitely more cheesy potatoes, wine, a spoonful of horseradish, a few chocolate peanutbutter balls, gingersnap cookies, creme de menthe flourless chocolate cake, harvey wallbanger cake, and two glasses of Gramma's version of a protein shake...CUSTARD! He was just doing what Grampa White always says, "Why be uncomfortable when you can be miserable!" Thanks Grampa, you rock!

Snow Friends!

Some of our friends, Brian, Stacie, and Logan (Lolo) came to visit us in the snow. Here are some pics with us sledding and building a snowman. It was so much fun to have them come up...except for the part where we had to push them out of our driveway, what's up with 2-wheel drive in the snow!? We welcome visitors, especially those who enjoy sledding, snowball fights, and building snowmen.

Sledding (Part Deux)

Here's a video of Joel just going for it while we were sledding. He was totally not himself on the sled hill. Typically he's very cautious but he wanted to sled down the steepest hill and go as fast as possible. He even sledded right in to a pole once, unfortunately we didn't get it on video...and he was OK!

Pioneer Man & Woman Make "Crack Rolls"

So first we have to thank our friend Stacie for pointing us to this awesome blog called "Pioneer Woman Cooks". This lady lives out in the middle of nowhere and spends some of her time coming up with some of the greatest dishes on the planet. This is the second time we've made her cinnamon rolls, which another friend of ours, Gino, has lovingly dubbed "crack rolls" (because they're just somewhat addictive).







Here we have the first batch of dough, which we made from scratch, rolled out and then smothered with a pound of melted butter, a cup of sugar, and a whole lot of cinnamon.












Next we roll it up, probably the hardest part because all of the stuff starts oozing out of it. Pioneer woman helped with this part but was taking the picture just now.










Here is Pioneer Man using a very sharp knife to cut the roll in to the individual rolls. Pioneer woman would then put them in to little foil things to bake.















Here is one of the yummy goodness just before it goes in to the oven.











Here they are baking.






Here we have hot Pioneer Woman making the glaze that goes on top of the rolls after they've baked. The glaze is "AMAZAZING". It has coffee in it, maple, and ALOT of powdered sugar.




Here is Pioneer Woman glazing the rolls with yummy goodness, as if there wasn't enough of that already!















And alas we have finished product. Pioneer Man then ran out and gave most of the crack rolls to a few friends. So far the comments we've received from these are:
"They were so good we just ate them for dinner."
"They were gone in 3 minutes."
"If you don't give us more our marriage may be over."

If you're feeling adventurous and want to eat something that is absolutely amazing then lookup Pioneer Woman cooks and go for it...or I'm sure my beautiful Pioneer Woman would give you the recipe if you asked nice. Merry Christmas!!

Sledding

We got about 18 inches of snow in the last several days so since today was sunny we decided to go sledding with the Tates. We went out near their house....
Well I'm sure our kids will be surprising us for years to come but to day Joel SHOCKED us! He just went crazy. He was climbing to the highest, steepest hills he could find and just going for it. He loved it. It was a blessing to see him let go of any sense of fear and have a wonderful time!
Seth isn't really a snow bunny but he had a good time as long as Josh was willing to carry him up the hill since 18 in. deep snow is hard for a little guy.

Here's Josh T. with his daughter Lucy, who wasn't too sure about sledding, but she was willing to try. We had a great time, we thank God for the "white stuff" and for a great start to our Winter.

The first snow

Everyone needs traditions. So, we started one. Yesterday was the first real snowfall of the year so we decided to celebrate by having a campout in our living room. So we watched the fire in the fireplace, ate cookies with milk and all slept in the living room. (the boys on the floor and josh and I on the sofa bed). Hopefully we can do it every year the first day it snows. (and of course, since I went to college and had to always "site my sources appropriately" I must say we stole this idea of camping out in the living room from the Tate's.....we just decided to do it on the first day of snow)

A Tea Party

These are my buds from college.....We will all turn 30 in the next year wow! Jen's sisters and mom (Jen is in the black and White dress) threw her a Tea for her 30th birthday. It was awesome to see friends, celebrate Jen and everything from the decorations to the food to the cake was beautiful. I'm so glad I could go!

Me, Domestic??

So, do you know what these are??? No, not tomatoes. They are persimmons. I know you're thinking, "what?" My dad gave me a bag of persimmons while at home over Thanksgiving and so I decided I'd make Persimmon Jam. I called my mom, the only person I know with a bachelors degree in Home Economics, to ask her a few canning questions and do you know what she said...."wow, Emily you're really becoming domestic." So domestic or not I tried to make Jam.

I followed a recipe I found online....it was pretty easy and here's my results. It made 7 1/2 jars.
Of course the real question is, does it taste good. Josh gave it a thumbs up, and I also really liked it. It kind of tastes like a mild apricot jam (since most people don't automatically know what a persimmon tastes like). I saved a jar for my dad who gave me the persimmons and one for my friend Josh Tate who made rose hip jelly a few months ago and gave me some. The rest will go to some friends for Christmas. I'd say.... it was a success!

Disneyland

So...a mentor of Josh's from business school gave us free passes to Disneyland. So we went this week, on a Wednesday (we thought crowds would be small) and enjoyed 70 degree Orange County weather. The last time we went to Disneyland Joel did not like the characters but this time he couldn't get enough of them. Seth wasn't sure what to think.

Here's Seth about 2:00pm or so.....he did really well without his normal nap but by the time we left he fell asleep in the car in about 5 seconds (before we were even out of the parking garage.)
Toon Town.....you don't really appreciate it until you see it from a 3 or 4 year old's point of view. In the middle is Charlie the son of our friends the Towlers, oddly enough we had both planned to go to Dland the same day so we met up!
Here we all are....yes Abbey was there too though she spent most of the day in her stroller.
So Big Thanks go out to Greg and CeCe Glover who gave us the tickets! We had an exhausting yet wonderful day. Joel said his favorite ride was Buzz lightyear and Seth said his favorite ride was "pow pow" which I think means the Buzz lightyear ride (because on the ride you shoot the enemy Zurg with little laser guns). We aren't big "souvenir" people but we let the kids each pick out a Christmas ornament to help remember the day!

The Jungle Book

Have you ever read "Jungle Book".....when the monkeys kidnap Mowgli they say "teach us the secret of man's red fire...." Why is it that people can just stare at a fire and watch the flames dance and be entertained. Well, Abbey sure likes it!! Really we lay her near the fire and she stares and really enjoys it!

somebody in Fresno....

Can you read Abbey's shirt?? Someone in Fresno loves her! I wonder who?

December already?

Well, we arrived home from Thanksgiving in Fresno and it was December!! (Sorry no pics from Thanksgiving....I didn't take any, I need to get some from my mom and dad) Time for the Christmas tree!! We have had our Christmas tree from last year sitting in our front yard (it's a potted/live tree) so all we had to do was clean it off and bring it inside! Here are our very strong boys posing as if they carried the tree in. (But really Josh did). And because we actually use our fireplace (daily!!) we can't hang our stockings there....so they frame our big window.
The boys were so excited to put the ornaments on, and Abbey, though not very excited about it, watched us all! Our little girl is 4 months already, Wow!
And here are the kids after we finished. The lower third of the tree has many ornaments because that's about as high as the kids could reach. They love walking around the tree and talking about the ornaments. Melmo (Elmo) is Seth's favorite and Joel loves all the Disney ones. We already have a few presents wrapped (most from Nani and Papa D) to finish out the tree. We are excited for this season but already see how difficult it is to teach young minds that Christmas is about God coming in flesh to our world, the incarnation, the nativity....and that more than His birth its about His whole plan of salvation and redemption! Lord, help us to be good parents.