This & That

Around Here This Week

Around here this week, there was massive prep.

For Thanksgiving, and for the arrival of DDIL #3 and Baby James, who will be here this afternoon and will stay with us for a week. We are pretty excited.

I'm not totally sure James is excited with the prospect, though. Cute picture I got from my son this week. Hopefully traveling will be easy for my DIL.

There was pie. How is it that even when you're only feeding 4 people, you end up cooking like you're feeding 24?

And a happy dog. He got to go duck hunting Thanksgiving morning. You can see his feet still have dirt on them from chasing ducks. It was a short hunt, though, because The Master had to be back to help get the turkey in the oven.

My husband cooks the yams for the dinner, since he prefers them the way his scout leader used to make them on campouts. He texted this picture to my boys for advice. You can see he got some good suggestions.

There was also the traditional cutting of the Christmas tree, which was a little tricky with only PB and me to help, but that gets a post by itself.

A couple of cute pictures of Eric's kids that he texted this week. The girlies in the leaves.

And Emmett, who is getting plenty to eat. 

Happy Thanksgiving

This was the view of my Thanksgiving table last year.

Only a couple of these people will be here this year. I miss the others. I hope your Thanksgiving will be spent with people you love.

And that there's pie.

Family Portraits #3, aka Photographic Adventures

While Eric's family was here, we wanted to take some pictures of their family. I'm finding when I try to do this with my kids who have multiple kidlets, it's quite an adventure. To complicate matters, we were racing the late afternoon light, so we were trying to hurry, which translated into a 15 minute session.

We started here, which was fine, but I didn't really love the background. This also wasn't my sweet Caroline's favorite activity of her time here, as you will see.

She got a little distracted by the cat running behind me. 

This was the picture that sort of typified the time...and made me totally laugh when I saw it on the computer.

From there we moved to this. I kept shuffling everyone around the perimeter of the house, looking for better light. All the places I'd tried were very much the definition of "open shade," but everything was looking very cool-toned.

And then we moved around the house some more and got this one, which is my favorite, even with the uneven light in the background. 

And ended with this, lol. Fun, fun times.

 

A Baby James Check In

James is now a month old...yesterday as a matter of fact.

I have a cute collection of photos from the past week or so that the kids have shared with me. My DIL sent me this showing off his cute little crossed feeties.

This is apparently the same position my son sleeps in. One thing I do know, and that is if my husband is in this position, his mouth is open and he's snoring and nobody is getting any sleep.

There's nothing like a full tummy to give some grins. I got these next two yesterday. My DIL was trying out some different carrying strategies for the airport. We are so excited because she and James are coming to visit this weekend while my son takes a class in some other midwestern state somewhere. She says at first he started out with crying, but then it went to this...

And then this...

At least we know the front pack works for this one moment in time. Hopefully it will work for the trip out.

Chewy Chocolatey Nutella Brownies

 In my quest to find a really good non-boxed brownie recipe, I made these last week when family was here. And they are really good...a nice fudgy texture, although there isn't much of a Nutella flavor coming through, so if that's what is driving you to make this recipe, you may be a little disappointed. I found the recipe here and will definitely make it again, because, well, chocolate, nutella, fudginess...what's not to love?

 

Chewy Chocolatey Nutella Brownies

• 1 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in sugar and stirring constantly for about 2 more minutes {do NOT bring to a boil}(I did this in the microwave, because I'm lazy and don't like to stand and stir stuff if I don't have to). Stir in Nutella and remove from heat.

In a stand mixer, beat Nutella mix with the cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined. Add the flour and chocolate chips and mix until incorporated.

Spread dough evenly into prepared pan, and bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool before serving. Enjoy.

Around Here This Week

I had the 3rd and last leg treatment and waved good-bye to the vein doctor. He did a good job, but I was sure tired of him stabbing me with various sharp instruments.

It's been cold, which I will take hands-down over mid-summer weather, but it has been cold. Fortunately, it gradually warmed up to temperatures that were a little more normal for the season.

I got this great text from my eldest son about my grandson. It made me really laugh, because when my son was a teenager, it was difficult at times to get him to do his chores. Oh yes, it was a Mommy Moment.

There's a little Thanksgiving prep happening. Cranberry sauce, which has to be made just this way per my husband's request. He love the whole berry stuff.

And look...I got a real layout done. I work on my daughter's mission album when I get a chance and this one will go in it. I lifted the design from a layout done by Jamie Harper in an old CK magazine.

This one will also go in the mission album as well. It felt really good to play with paper a little bit. This is a tweaked lift of a layout by Erin Clarkson that appeared in an old Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine.

And lastly this one, which is my favorite. I've gotten one of these walking-away shots of my last several kids as they've left on their missions, and while it's always hard, it never fails to result in one of my favorite mission layouts for them. The design for this is taken from a layout by Waleska Neris that appeared in Scrapbooks, Etc. 18 months is the length of time she'll be gone.

A Slice of Life

I am posting this totally for the benefit of my children, as this is a possible real once in a lifetime occurance, as opposed to the "once in a lifetime" bighorn sheep hunt that has occurred multiple, multiple times at our house.

When my husband asked what I wanted for our anniversary last week, I gave him the answer that I've given when he's asked that question for Christmases, birthdays and anniversaries for the past several years....I wanted his stacks cleaned up. (As an aside, look at the beautiful roses he sent me...love the color!)

While I'm thinking of it, this is what I gave him. My husband is really difficult to buy gifts for. He tends to buy what he needs or wants rather than letting anyone know he needs or wants it. His grandmother made German Chocolate Cake every once in a while and he's quite fond of it. I don't ususally make it because I have children with nut allergies and it's not my favorite. I like the flavor of coconut, I just don't like to floss my teeth with it, if you know what I mean. This was a big hit with him, though. It's sitting on his grandmother's cake plate, so that was a nice memory for him.

If you've read my blog for a while, you may recall that he is a stacker and I am a tosser. We have lines delineated on our bathroom counter and our dresser. My half is always clean; his always contains stacks up to a foot high of miscellaneous, well....mostly junk. And I can say that because most of it ends up in the garbage on the rare occasions he does go through it. This anniversary, though, he took me at my word, perhaps because I've given the same answer so often, and did actually mostly clear off the stacks. So, for my children so they can see this momentous occasion (and in a half an hour it will probably revert back to stacks...), photo documentation:

The bathroom counter, my side.

His side. I KNOW, kids, can you believe it??? In all honesty there is still a small stack on the left side of the sink, but we tried to think of the last time we could actually SEE the counter on this side and literally could not remember. And yes, there are still a few very much my-husband-related things there....a plastic duck decoy foot, a carabiner, some air-soft pellets, but seriously this is pretty amazing.

The dresser, my side.

His side. Before this, there was an avalanche-prone, foot-high pile. He must really love me, lol.

Caroline and Cleo

Caroline loves all our animals and while she was here she learned some valuable lessons. 

She learned that it's not a good idea to pull a kitty's tail trying to get her back from under the pasture fence so she could play with her.

She and Gwen also learned that despite Ollie's size, he isn't a horse. Both good lessons to learn and even better when there are fairly patient animals to teach them.

 

Cabin Birdies

Happy, happy birthday to my DDIL #4.

She sent me this picture yesterday as she was traveling to spend a couple of weeks with her folks. My son will follow right before the Thanksgiving holiday. I am grateful for her and all my other DIL's for the good mama's they are. :)

During their time here, Eric's family spent some time up at the cabin so he could chase a critter. I couldn't be with them because Bryce is in school and needs a chauffeur. They had a good time, though, or it looked that way as I scrolled through the pictures on my husband's camera.

 It looks like there was some wandering.

And making sure the girls were warm enough by piling on some cabin sweatshirts.

 Even Emmett got bundled up for a walk. My husband also documented the long-sleeved wing flapping for me.

 

 

 

A Baby Blessing

First off, happy, happy birthday to my sis! We don't get to be together nearly often enough. I had a really great picture I could have posted here from our sister days during the summer. (Yeah, remember that orange smile/hair clipped back one?? Total blackmail material. Just remember that I didn't post it.) Love you!

While Eric's family was here, we had Emmett's baby blessing. (A baby blessing is kind of similar to a christening in LDS tradition.) Tender stuff for me to watch my son on this day and remember back to when he was this size.

The whole family at the church.

And the 4 Generation photo. These were both taken with my husband's phone, since we don't take pictures of the actual event. It would be too disruptive to the service, so I didn't bring my big camera.

We did take some pictures at home, though. Eric got some good grins from Emmett, who was just a little stingy with them at this moment. He was wearing the blessing outfit that my mother knitted for his daddy some 31 years ago. And I know someone is going to ask. He is lying on a bear rug that is going to Marc as soon as we can manage it. It doesn't usually sit on my living room carpet. Grandpa brought it out special for the occasion. Bit of an eyeroll here, but it totally works with my family.

We needed to get a pictue of Great-grandma with Emmett, since he was modeling her handiwork.

And you can see where this is going, right?

Yep.

 

That's OK, it happened with this grandma, too. Special boy and special day.