6 years

How it all began...
Minutes after proposal

Today we celebrate 6 years of marriage. Being married is not easy, but it is a wonderful sacrament God has blessed us with. We have faced many different joys and sorrows throughout our time together and I know there will be more of each to come. No matter how rocky the road, we are in it together. I'm not sure what Matt would say about me (and I don't think I could ever get him to type a post!), but I truly love him more today than I did on our wedding day. It is a different kind of love...a more knowledgable love if this makes any sense. I know so much more about him now than I did then. I have so much respect for him as a worker, a father, a son, and a husband. He loves me for me, in spite of my crazy mood swings, stubborn nature, nagging habits, horrible cleaning abilities, and love of reality television. He is a great guy. I love you, Matt.

Christmas Pics Outtakes

I decided to take our Christmas card picture early this year. Before you think I am organized or on top of things, it really had to do with a great sale on snapfish. I have only had professional pictures taken once when Jackson was an infant. Some people may think this is appalling, but I don't have a death wish. I love digital cameras for the following reasons:

you can keep taking pics until you get a perfect one usable one

if your kids act horrible, you are not totally mortified in public

it is cheaper

we have 4 kids age 4 and under

I usually manage to get a good one somewhere among the many I have to take. Well, I did end up getting some to use for our Christmas card this year, but I had many that did not work. Here are some of the outtakes just to show you how much fun we had.

Jackson is a fan of the "look up my nose" shots.


Mia cheesing it.

This is what happens when I try to get the big kids to kiss the twins.

This was the first shot. I really wanted to get one of all of them together. You can see it didn't start off well!

This one is adorable, right?

My mom and I were talking about what we did before digital cameras. We used to get the pictures developed, then pitch about half of them that didn't turn out. I admit I delete quite a few pictures that don't "work," but I do save many of them to remember moments like these that were frustrating, funny, and part of being a mom and having 4 little ones. Besides, if we deleted all of the bad pictures we wouldn't have hilarious ones like this one my in-laws took after we had Amelia in the hospital.

Priceless.

DesignHERMomma is having a contest for the best of the worst attempted Christmas card pics. I think the kissing picture is probably the best for this contest (at least this year!) If you want to join in on the fun, enter at http://designhermomma.blogspot.com/2008/11/christmas-card-fail-bloggy-carnival.html.

Happy picture taking!

Book Worms

Liz and Luke's Wedding Photos

So long DHL...

Many of you have heard about DHL and the changes associated with the company. Fortunately for Matt, he had already taken a sales position with a freight forwarding company in Indianapolis several weeks ago. He is excited and likes the new company. What a blessing in timing! God always has a plan, right?

I love this picture of Matt. It was taken last winter when we got outside to play in the snow. He is always being goofy for the camera (see pics tomorrow of the wedding from this past weekend).

Please keep Matt and all the other soon-to-be former DHL employees in your prayers.

Baby Footsie

Part 2 of Grandpa Visit

Fall Cleaning Challenge

So the hyper homemaker has been having a fall cleaning challenge and it is now over. She motivated me to get going on some much needed cleaning, but I didn't complete all the cleaning and I totally missed the deadline. Needless to say I did get some things done. Here are the before and afters of under the sink areas. I am mostly posting this to remind myself that I did accomplish something today, for proof for my husband, and proof to myself that it once looked nice since it will probably get messed up in a few days!

Kitchen sink before

Kitchen sink after

Bathroom sink before

Bathroom sink after

Pretzel Time

I have always loved looking at cookbooks since I was a little girl. This probably explains the weight problem I have had most of my life (or it could be the fact that I eat too much and exercise too little...) Anyway, this Betty Crocker cookbook I vividly remember growing up. My mom has let me have the cookbook and yesterday we made the pretzel recipe. These probably really aren't "pretzels" as they are more like rolls shaped like pretzels, but they were fun to make and pretty good to eat as well. Jackson and Mia liked rolling out the dough, brushing it with egg wash, and sprinkling them with salt. Mia has already requested to make these again and I think I will do some experimenting with the dough in the future. We made two batches and the second batch I added 1 tsp ground mustard, 1 tsp garlic powder, and sprinkled them with salt and parmesan cheese for more flavor. Here is the recipe as it's written from the 1984 Betty Crocker cookbook.

Cheesy Pretzels

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used a jack cheese blend)

2 tbsp softened butter

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

Coarse salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease cookie sheet. Mix above ingredients minus the egg in a bowl with a fork until dough is mixed. Shape dough into a ball and knead 10 times on floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll one half of the dough into a rectangle, 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. Cut dough lengthwise into 8 one-inch strips. Fold each strip in half and pinch the edges to seal. Twist each strip into a pretzel shape and place on cookie sheet. Beat egg in dish and brush pretzels gently with the egg wash. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Repeat with other half of dough. Makes 16 pretzels.

Wacky Wednesday

Picture of us at Newport Aquarium. I love the look on the twins faces!

Preparing our list for Santa

Jackson and Mia LOVE the Sunday paper toy ads. It was so cute to watch them scanning the Target ad this week telling me what they were going to ask Santa for this year. I totally remember diving into the Sears and JCPenney big catalogs as a kid looking through all the toys and putting together my "wish list." So fun! Christmas is coming fast, better get shopping!