Bree-isms

The other morning Bree woke up and was fake-crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, pointing to her temple, "I hurt my feelings."

I've been encouraging Bree to say her own prayers. I'll start her off, and give her an example of "I'm thankful for _____," then I'm quiet and let her take it from there. It's always interesting to hear what she says. Some days, she says a sweet "bless Daddy be safe, bless gramma and papa, bless Mason," etc. And then, for instance, after Halloween, every night for a week, she would say "Thanks go trick or treating, get candy." Last night, she said, "and Santa Claus come down the chimdey, decorations the tree, and be Christmas time. Name Jesus Christ, amen."

A child-proof tree

It is true that with a little effort and discipline, you can train your small toddlers to leave the Christmas decorations alone. This has been my mantra ever since having kids, because I won't be deprived of Christmas ornaments on my tree simply because there are babies around. That being said, a compromise was decided upon last year. We have stored away the beautiful glittering glass balls and breakable snowmen that used to adorn our elegant tree, to be brought out again some day in the future. Instead, we now have a cute country-esque theme comprised solely of wooden, cloth, and plastic ornaments. And candy canes. I love it just as much as the elegant tree, and even more so because Bree was able to help decorate (see her "cluster" method of hanging ornaments, above right). Yes, I am still training my children to leave the tree alone, and they are so good--even 10-month-old Mason! But, with a child-proof tree, I'm better safe than sorry.

Thanksgiving at Gramma and Papa's

Since Chad never gets the holidays off, we celebrated Thanksgiving a little early so we could visit my parents. Bree gets insanely excited whenever I mention grandma or papa. She loves visiting their house, playing with all the toys, riding the tractor and the wheelbarrow, petting Patches, and taking full advantage of her grandparents' love. Mason is now old enough to get excited about it too. He wiggles and reaches for my parents now, and does a lot of that ridiculous grinning (see video). Chad and I were so eager to escape to the middle of nowhere. We ate a delicious turkey dinner, played games, watched movies, I did some quilting (I'll post photos soon), and enjoyed knowing that we were out of cell phone range and unreachable! A true vacation.

The best ways to eat pumpkin

Since last month, I've been exploring the uses of pumpkin. I asked myself, "Do I only eat pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies because 'tis the season? Or do I actually like food made from pumpkin?" As a result, I have discovered and thoroughly enjoyed desserts like Joanna's pumpkin sheet cake with cream cheese frosting and pecans, my fried pumpkin donut holes with glaze, and Amy's pumpkin cookies which don't need chocolate chips to taste amazing! So for Thanksgiving, instead of the same old slimy pumpkin pie, I made a pumpkin cheesecake, a la Cheesecake Factory. So good! The taste makes you think you're eating pumpkin pie, but the texture is heavenly and smooth. Pumpkin pie used to be the healthiest dessert on the Thanksgiving table...

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sugar, plus
1 tablespoon sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
whipped cream
Directions
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2 Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and 1 T sugar in a medium bowl.
3 Stir well enough to coat all of the crumbs with the butter, but not so much as to turn the mixture into paste.
4 Keep it crumbly.
5 Put foil partway up the outside part of an 8-inch springform pan. (I didn't do this)
6 Press the crumbs onto the bottom and about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the springform pan.
7 You don't want the crust to form all of the way up the back of each slice of cheesecake.
8 Bake the crust for 5 minutes, then set aside until you are ready to fill it.
9 In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, 1 C sugar, and vanilla.
10 Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.
11 Add the pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and continue beating until smooth and creamy.
12 Pour the filling into the pan.
13 Bake for 60-70 minutes.
14 The top will turn a bit darker at this point.
15 Remove from the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool.
16 When the cheesecake has come to room temperature, put it into the refrigerator.
17 When the cheesecake has chilled, remove the pan sides and cut the cake into 8 equal pieces.
18 Serve with a generous portion of whipped cream on top.

I'm In Like

This morning I drove over an hour to the nearest theater with the only other die-hard Twilight fan I could find in Globe to see the 10:00am showing of Twilight. I've been planning on seeing this movie since pre-production stages, and I was pretty excited. I did not, however, let myself expect too much, because that inevitably leads to disappointment. And I didn't read the book right before seeing the movie, since I have discovered that this only causes annoyance when I notice the differences between novel and movie. So, I was all geared up to enjoy myself, but I had already decided that I wasn't a fan of Robert Pattison, who plays Edward (couldn't they have found someone hotter to play the part?). It was awesome to see the characters come to life. I truly was riveted the entire time, and it was over too quickly. Edward actually grew on me (except for some of his more "constipated" expressions, as my sis-in-law put it. He was going for intense but overshot), and I was pretty impressed with the acting of the other characters (I really liked Charlie and James). This particular kissing scene was hot but not inappropriately steamy. All in all, I can't actually say that I loved it, but I really really liked it. I'm looking forward to the sequels, and am trusting that they will get better as we go along.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Today is Chad's birthday, and my gifts to him are #1: his new computer game expansion pack that allows him to advance his characters another 10 levels (thereby ensuring that he'll spend even more time on the computer), #2: the fact that it's 11:00 and he's still sleeping. My mom's watching the kids, so they're not here to wake him personally.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I thought I'd commemorate it by posting myself a birthday card from the Relief Society presidency (I don't think my secretary will send me one in the mail from myself). There we are, from left to right: Judy, my amazingly organized and on top of things secretary; Amy, my 2nd counselor and one of my best friends and co-young-moms; Marsha, my totally experienced wealth of knowledge 1st counselor; and me, a RS president who feels like she'll never get things totally together. So this is the adorable photo (taken at one of our meetings at my house) that we send to our sisters on their birthdays along with a message that my secretary photo-shopped on there. I could not function without you ladies! Thank you!

Happy Easter! Happy Birthday!

Yes, I realize that I'm like 7 months late in posting these. But when my camera was still fairly new, I took a couple videos sideways like a dummy, and couldn't figure out how to rotate them. Well, just today I installed the CD that came with my camera (I'm usually right on top of those things; I've had this camera 11 months now...), and I discovered how to rotate my videos! I didn't think it could be done! So now you get to be reminded of how cute Bree was at her 2nd birthday/Easter (they were within a couple weeks of each other). Enjoy!