Funny

I was just organizing my photos and labeling them in folders and I came across this one from Rob's birthday dinner. The Carters have a tradition of doing a "squeeze" shot where everyone squeezes the birthday person and makes them laugh and squeal and whatever other funny noises you can make them make. This photo is funny because the person taking the picture (Annette?) was apparently only focused on Rob and Grace. What a good little squeezer she is! The eye was one place no one had thought of yet!

Grandma Millie

I'm ashamed to say that these are the first photos we've taken with Gracie and her Great-Grandma Millie. We had such a nice time visiting with her last night!Four generations of Carters.

Family Dinner

We had another monthly family dinner here on Sunday. Kylee and Gracie looked really cute in their Chirstmas dresses.

Duck face for her daddy.

I want the binky!...No! It's mine...But I'm bigger....Mommy!.... is about how the conversation went after this photo was taken.

Nativity

Drum roll please.... Here are the pictures from Gracie's acting debut as Baby Jesus in "The Nativity" at the Annual Gweaston reenactment. She was very cute and did a great impression of a boy baby (that's why we wear headbands...).

The Puffy Vest Photo

Here is the photo that you all are dying to see, thanks to Grandma Marge upstairs. Not the best... or maybe it's true to life? Who knows, that's why I'm asking I guess. :) I wrote the original post hastily and made it much better in my head on the way to Target, but alas, twas too late. I was thinking that you all will think one of the following: a) her vanity is overwhelming; b) I'm concerned for her mental health; or c) she's amusing. I hope it was the latter, for that was the intent. So, what do you think, teeny bopper, chubster, or age-appropriate? :) Oh, and there were no sneers to note at Target in case you were wondering.

The Puffy Vest

A long, long time ago in a land called Provo there once was a little freshman girl from California called Amanda. This girl loved the sunshine and had never really wore many sweaters (except when she wanted to look fashionable, but was way too hot in them). Her first winter in Provo she was very, very cold. Good thing this lucky girl had two fantastic parents who rushed to her aid and came to Utah and bought her some proper winter coats and a cute cream puffy vest. After that, the girl lived happily warmer (most of the time) ever after.

Flash forward to today. It's freezing and I feel like I have nothing to wear. I've decided I hate bulky sweaters and turtlenecks (as hard as I try, I can't stand the throat restriction!). I'm also in this limbo of being a mom, but still being young, but giving up my "younger" clothes, so some days it's really hard to get dressed. So today, feeling adventurous, I pulled out my puffy vest and put it over a maroon long sleeve tee with dark jeans and cute flats and dressed it all up with fatty pearl earrings and a bracelet. In the mirror I think it looks alright, but I have this fear that if Stacey and Clinton showed up and put me in the 360 degree mirror and I explained why I think its cute and appropriate for someone my age that they would laugh and cut me off and ridicule me and all the people watching at home would think "what the HECK does she think she's wearing?!?!?!" But, despite my fears I am leaving the house like this anyway to brave the cold world. I'm hoping that at least I won't see the sneers of the people at Target today who think I'm nuts. Chances are no one will notice or care, but I will be thinking about it and that's all that really matters, right? :) Thoughts on puffy vests?

Mom's Spaghetti

I couldn't get it to format in the sidebar, so here's this week's recipe. This is my Mom's recipe for spaghetti. It is amazing! It takes some time to chop everything (we were amazed how much faster it went when we got our hand-me-down Cuisinart!), but it is so worth it! This is for a single recipe, but I suggest if you're going to go through the effort, just make a double or triple while you're at it. It freezes well in quart zippys. Each zippy feeds the two of us for two meals. Bon Appetit!

1 1/2 Lb Ground Beef

6oz Can Tomato Sauce

2 Medium Onions, Chopped

4 T Olive Oil

4 Small Garlic sections (skin & cut fine)

1 Lb Spaghetti

1 tsp Salt

1 1/2 Ribs Celery (string & chop)

28 oz Can tomatoes

2 T Parsley (dried) (or 4 T Parsley, fresh, chopped)

1/4 tsp Pepper

1/4 tsp Rosemary (crushed)

1/4 tsp Oregano

Saute garlic in oil until very lightly (golden) brown. Remove & place in pot for sauce cooking. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce and begin gently heating. Saute chopped onion & celery until very lightly brown. Add to tomatoes (if preferred the tomatoes may be blended prior to start of sauce). (If using mushrooms, they may be sauteed with the onions and celery the last minute.) Brown the meat and add to the sauce pan. Add spices, parsley, salt and as much pepper as desired. Mix together, chopping tomatoes as you stir. Simmer covered 1 Hr. then uncovered 1 Hr. Stir occasionally to avoid burning.

Heat 5 Qts water in large sauce pan. When boiling, slowly add spaghetti whole or broken. Stir to keep spaghetti separated. Cook until tender (5 to 7 minutes ‑ do not over cook). Drain in colander, rinse well with hot water ‑ drain and return to pot. Add sauce mixture or if desired serve with sauce spooned on top. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on individual servings as desired.

Gingerbread Houses

Rob's family has a tradition of making gingerbread houses every December. This year we decided to make a pirate ship that turned into the Santa's Jolly Roger. We were really proud to have accomplished the ship with no hot glue, because that is cheating.

Santa was El Capitan and apparently has a thing for himself, since he is also the masthead.

And really, what would any ocean scene be without a surfer being followed by a shark?

Grace is becoming more interested in things daily. She reaches for anything she can find. Here she is "playing" the Wiggles guitar, and eating it too.

Happy Birthday Rob!

Gracie and I would like to wish Daddy/Rob the best birthday ever. We decided to celebrate with a great photo of him that shows how much fun he is:Rob, you are the greatest, kindest, funnest, thoughtfulest, sweetest, everything-est dad and husband that we could ever ask for! We love you sooooooo much!

Solvang

On Saturday, we went to Solvang, a cute little town in central California that looks like it was beamed straight from Denmark. The day started out inauspiciously with Gracie blowing out of her diaper into the Baby Bjorn...she must not have liked what she was wearing because she got a new outfit out of it. Solvang was incredibly busy, but we had lots of fun!
We ate a tasty lunch at this little sandwich shop.

Then we went to Ingeborg's Chocolate Shop. Yum-O! I'm holding Haribo Peaches - we found these as our favorite treat when we were in Spain. There, they're called melocotones.

These are flodeboller - aka chocolate boobs. A favorite treat, mostly because of the nickname.

Grandpa was incredibly entertaining with his quacking while Rob, Mom and I shopped.

Gracie loves hanging with her Grandma!