Thanksgiving

I don't really feel like writing right now, but the pictures from Thanksgiving will give you a good idea of how great it was:

The kids played

Micaela almost figured out how to play "Mary had a little lamb"

Grandpa Dennis babysat Jon

Aunt Shellie was the Master Chef who prepared the delicious meal (shown here wearing a birthday hat that Micaela made for her)

All of Shellie's helpers: Bob, Grandma Ginny, her mom Cheryl (who flew in from Isreal that morning!)

Getting ready to eat (like how I set the table with our fine china, aka paper plates?)

Isaac skipped the pie and went straight for the cool whip

And Jon was just happy

Jon Update

As requested, Jon video and pictures to accompany my last blog (well, three blogs ago):

Gremlin re-appearance

For those of you new to my blog or not familiar with the Gremlins, here's the link to an earlier blog.

I found this note taped to Jon's door last night and thought it was really funny. I think Micaela figured out that anyone can be a gremlin, although I always stuck to my story and told her that I wasn't the gremlins (white lies don't hurt, right?)

Not meant to be

Kurt tells me that I have no business being in the kitchen, and he's probably right. For a few days now I have been craving chocolate chip cookies. I tried to get one at Starbucks on Thursday but they were all out. I didn't have anything to do this afternoon, so I thought I'd take a shot at baking. I asked my chef-extraordinaire friend Misty for a recipe and she recommended this one from Martha Stewart. The ingredient list was short and it looked pretty simple, just what I needed. I didn't have unsalted butter, flour, or chocolate so I stopped by the store after picking Micaela up from a birthday party and got those things. I laid all the ingredients out on the counter and after dinner Micaela and I started baking. All seemed to be going well. The recipe didn't say whether or not to grease the pan, so I asked Shellie who recommended parchment paper (what is that?) and then just told me that I wouldn't hurt to lightly grease them. I had 6 cookies on one sheet and 9 on the other ready to go in the oven. Expecting something to go wrong, I put the sheet with 6 cookies in first and set the timer. While waiting for the cookies to bake I started to clean up. When I got to the unopened package of butter I knew I had done something wrong. I held it up and said, "I think I was supposed to use this" to Micaela. I didn't remember it being in the recipe so I went back and looked. I didn't see it, but then Micaela read the first line to me - melt the chocolate AND BUTTER.... oops. Too late now. It said to bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, but I set the timer for 10 just to be safe. I ended up checking after 7 and the cookies were already burned on the bottom. I didn't know that the oven here cooks 50 degrees hotter than what you set it. There is a separate thermometer in the oven which I could have looked at, but I'm still claiming that this one is not my fault. I turned the temperature down 100 degrees (to be safe) and put the next batch in. I only let this batch go 10 minutes and then I took them out thinking they might be done. The recipe says to let them cool for 10 minutes on the pan and then move to a cooling rack to cool even more. That's B.S. What person with a sweet tooth can sit and watch cookies cool?!?! I waited about 10 seconds, moved them to a plate, waited 10 more seconds and then tried the first batch. The chocolate taste overwhelmed the burned bottom so they weren't completely ruined. I waited and waited for the second batch to cool and harden so that we could take some of these cookies down to Bob and Shellie. When they didn't harden I got impatient and just stacked them on a plate and walked down. I told Bob I slightly burnt the first batch, but I though the second batch was alright. That's when he said, well they're not cooked in the middle. Ah, so that's why they wouldn't harden... I'm a moron. All in all, they weren't great, but they satisfied my chocolate craving and I won't feel guilty the next time I buy cookies from the bakery (much less of a hassle). Here are pictures of Martha's cookies and my cow-pie look-alike cookies:

And, my new favorite picture (I caught them both by surprise):

New Tricks and No TV

Jon has mastered rolling for a while now, back to belly, belly to back, both sides, etc., and he's also quite good at spinning himself around in circles, but today he figured out a new trick - how to scoot forward. All it took was a toy that he really wanted too far out in front of him. But it wasn't any toy, he couldn't care less about all the expensive baby toys, he wants the all-in-one remote that works our entertainment system. I tried to trick him by giving him an old remote, but he knew the difference. Go figure.

My sister is always telling me that I need to censor what Micaela watches on TV. It started with us letting her watch Mean Girls (we thought it was kid friendly, it's definitely a TEEN OR OLDER movie). She's also accidentally watched a few other things that were a little too mature, but in general we stick to Disney or Nick. In the mornings I like to watch the news which is not all that kid friendly for someone who is actually old enough to understand things like murder, but it's usually boring enough that she goes into the kitchen to eat her breakfast. This week though she is grounded from watching any TV so she took a little more interest in my adult shows than normal. I've had to refrain from watching news (after the TODAY show did a segment on high-end prostitutes), sitcoms, the comedy channel, anything on E!, and sometimes even HGTV. I'm so sick of Sportscenter and can't wait until she is un-grounded so that she'll be occupied somewhere other than the living room where I want to watch my shows. Is that bad?

Mari's blog comments

Until Mari get's around to taking new pictures of Caroline, here are some old ones I found:

Falling behind

Because of Veteran's Day and my teacher's busy schedules, I'm in the middle of a full week off of school. On my first day off I worked pretty hard cleaning the house and doing all the small things I never feel like doing. I was so proud of myself that I took Saturday and Sunday off to do nothing but relax - we bought a mini-van on Sat (whoo-hoo!) and went to Disneyland on Sun (the happiest place on earth!). My plan was to work on all my projects and papers Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to get caught up and hopefully a little ahead. Here is it, Monday afternoon and I'm just now sitting down at my computer (and I'm blogging rather than doing schoolwork). So much for getting ahead. It's tough to sit down and focus with both Micaela and the baby here (and sometimes Isaac and Chloe). Even if they are being good and not bothering me, it's still distracting knowing they are here and wondering if they are getting into trouble (is Micaela cutting up her curtains to make a doll's dress? Is the baby figuring out how to crawl out of his crib? etc.). Ugh. Maybe I'll ask the babysitter to come over tomorrow to entertain Micaela and watch the baby since I procrastinated all day today and will really need to buckle down tomorrow. Anyways, here are some of the pictures my mom took (disclaimer - she doesn't always announce when she's taking pictures, she likes it to be a surprise):

The new mini-van :)

I think Micaela saw a Hannah Montana episode where she got a star,

so Micaela wanted to pose like her

I like this picture, too bad Kurt wasn't there or else I could have made it our Christmas Card

Waiting for the High School Musical show to start

Getting on the train that goes around Disneyland

A Preview

Yesterday I got a preview of what Jon is going to be like as a toddler. He is continually refining his large and fine motor skills and is now able to grasp just about anything and move it the way he wants to. Additionally, he is now an expert roller and can pretty much squirm where ever he wants to go. I like to feed him while I'm sitting in my dad's recliner watching TV, but sometimes Jon has different ideas. Yesterday he sat up, rolled over on my lap, reached over to the side table, grabbed the remote and threw it on the floor and then followed up by doing the same with his bottle, the telephone, and everything else that was on the side table. I would have stopped him, but this all happened quite quickly and I was caught off guard. Mari and my mom are always teasing me about how fun my kitchen is going to be for Jon to play in since I have all our pots and pans and snacks on open shelves just about toddler height. We may change our set-up after all...

This is for Mike the Pedrick - Jon is now old enough for the Steelers Dino that you got him and he loves watching it (too bad the song gets obnoxious after a minute or so). It's a little dark, but you'll get the idea of what the Dino does:

Halloween Pictures

For Halloween this year Micaela was one of the following: an angel (dress with wings), a snow princess (dress without wings), and a gypsy (dress with Mardi-gras style mask).

This is her Angel costume:

This year Jon went as his dad (a pilot):

Here are the pictures from the very cool Halloween carnival that the church put on:

Micaela and her cousin Isaac