Happy Christmas!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas, we sure are! Just wanted to upload the pictures we took yesterday building our cowboy snowman and this morning opening presents.
Aidan and Aaron did most of the work on the snowman. He turned out really cute and Aidan loved putting on his eyes and buttons and arms! :)


Aaron's parents stopped by with Aaron's brother, Jason, to help us open presents. The kids had a blast! They got all sorts of cool new toys and loved tearing off the wrapping paper. I think they'll be occupied for quite some time!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

So I decided to make a quick dinner tonight and pulled out a package of tri-colored rotini, a jar of alfredo sauce, two cans of tuna, some frozen peas, and parmesean cheese. Viola! Tuna Noodle Casserole in less than 20 minutes! And because I felt bad for not actually doing any of the cooking, I pulled out a demarle fluted bundt mold to make it fancy. I even stuffed the hole with baby spinach leaves! It turned out so pretty I had to take pictures to share. :)

Snow!

Here are some pictures from the last few days. We had snow fall and then a day of sunshine, then more snow, and now it can't decide if it should snow more or rain or be sunny (we had all 3 today). The kids love it though! Here's Everett with those oh-so-pinchable cheeks:

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures. We had Emma, Cooper, and Hazel over for a play date one day, then Sabrina and Zack for another.

Everett is the only one who doesn't like snow! He hid inside with me! :)

Eggnog

I bought a box of RiceNog for Aaron since he's watching his diet lately. I tried it with very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. It does taste like Eggnog, but without the richness that milk has. And with 0 cholesterol, low sodium, etc, etc...

Just thought I'd share in case anyone else was looking for substitute to get their eggnog fix. Hmmm, I bet it would make a great coffee drink! Back to the kitchen...

Goofin off

It's been a slow day today, just cleaning and hanging out. But I got some cute pictures, so had to go through the camera and upload everything on the SD card. Everett has such a sweet, serious face.
Aidan had his birthday yesterday! Lamentably, I didn't take any pictures. Too busy making cake, serving pizza and smoothies. Aaron took him and Beccah to the movies to see Madagascar 2. He loves seeing movies!
Rohnan is eating left over pizza for lunch. He has the cutest cheesey face! Boy do they all need haircuts!

Baby Jack

He's 3 weeks old! And he came to visit us so I could get my baby fix. :)

Proud Papa Pete.

Proud Mama Erin.

Congrats on the adorable baby boy!

Eating is hard work!

I think I have pictures of Aidan just like this! lol

Bare Rohnan

He's just too cute naked! And he was nice enough to cover his parts so the pictures aren't X rated. What a smart guy! :)

Fall Leaves

It was nice to get the kids outside for a bit in this chilly weather. Aidan was actually pretty helpful picking up the leaves. He liked to scoop them up with the rake, and he was just tall enough to dump it into the refuse container. He was so sweet and helpful that I had visions of him doing it as a teenager and complaining every moment about chores. hehe

While we were taking the photos, Aaron mentioned how he likes the digital cameras so much better than the old 35mm since we can take as many pictures as we like and just delete the ones that don't turn out well. I have issues deleting any picture, no matter how badly it turns out, if it contains one of my babies! Even their 'ugly' faces are precious. :)

My bedroom

Yes, it's a little weird to be proud of the fact that I cleaned my room at my age, but, oh well! I cleaned my room!! And it's stayed clean for 3 whole days!! :)
Just don't notice that the closet door is closed and I didn't clean off my work desk or hang the pictures yet. But by golly, that floor is spotless and the bookcases aren't covered in toys! And check out that sink top, the counter is visible!!
Special thanks to my mother in law for watching the kids downstairs so I could clean. I threw out 5 bags of crap from our room/bathroom. My soul feels lighter.
And no, I will never win any awards for interior decorating. That doesn't bother me too much.

Rohnan

He's not the baby if I don't spoil him more than the others right? So here are some pictures of just Rohnan! He has a killer smile if you can coax it out of him.

Sasha

Love our puppy! Here she is snuggling with t-rex.

After Turkey Day Food

So I hade some ingredients on hand and decided to invent something new. This is a Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry stuffed with sauted chicken (we ate all the turkey from thanksgiving), red onions, rosemary, and a layer of brie cheese. It turned out really well for just being invented! And it looks amazing! (I think so.)
We decided the flavors are good, but next time I'll add mushrooms and cut the amount of cheese in half at least (I had a huge round of it from Costco and used the entire thing.)

Thanksgiving

Here are the pictures I took at Thanksgiving dinner.


It was just family, except for Aaron's parent's Chinese friend and his wife and son. Aaron's mom made a huge turkey and all the trimmings! It was a relief not to have to do all the cooking with all the kids running around. I did make the dinner rolls from scratch though (with the help of the bread machine). :)

Pondering the Past

I was just looking through some of the older pictures on my hard drive and came across this one from our trip to Hawaii. It was a year or two ago when Aaron's friend Gabe invited us to his wedding, and since it was in Hawaii... well, we had to go! I think I was about 6 months pregnant with Everett. That was a great trip, I really loved the hotel we stayed at. They had really cool trees and the bed was really comfy (yep, I was 6 months pregnant and the bed was still comfy)!
Guess I'm just reminded of how wonderful my husband is. He puts up with me when I'm cranky, and that makes him super-man! I feel mushy, I better not be pregnant again! :p