Christmas 2009 Pictures

Christmas Eve.

Pop-Pop White reads the Christmas story from Luke 2.

All the White Grandkids.

Chandler got 3 shirts for Christmas and every time he opened a new one he immediately put it on over the one he was wearing. He wore all three shirts the whole night!

Aunt Becky and McKenna

Me and Judah (wearing his first KU T-shirt!)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

And to think, if I had only waited 13 years between my children I could have had this! Ben was a great "babysitter" on Christmas Eve. All my little ones think their cousin Ben is the coolest "big kid" EVER!

Christmas Morning.

Judah is still looking a little sleepy. Must have been his 6:00 am wake up time (thanks pumpkin!).

"I could really get into this ripping of the paper stuff...this is GREAT!".

Try not to hurt yourself with that goofy smile, Maya!

Yeah....I'm fading fast.....

I think she likes it!

You can't really tell in this picture....but that is indeed a WHITE Christmas you see out the front window! We must have had 8+ inches of snow Christmas Morning!

This was THE gift Chandler asked for the most!

And McKenna was so happy for him....awwwwww!

Judah is begging to be put to bed now!

But not before he checks out one last Christmas gift. I LOVE this little baby squat thing he does.

Oh, Maya...that extra cheesy smile kills me :-)!

Chandler will now explain exactly how to use his new Bakugan battle brawler.

*After all of this fun we went to my parents house for more food, fun, and festivities...and we forgot the camera! Hey, at least we remembered all of our kids, two giant boxes of food, another giant box of board games, presents, blankets, coats, PJ's, diaper bags, Christmas movies, and a special request for a batman toy for Zion to use in his new Batman jet. Someone explain to me how I remember a small Batman action figure for my nephew to borrow, but I forget my camera?? Really...how does that work? One of these years I'm gonna get it together...or at least I'll keep telling myself that!

The Nutcracker Ballet!

The girls in my family started a tradition a few years ago of going to the Nutcracker Ballet every other Christmas. (We would love to go every Christmas but it's a bit pricey, so for now we settle for every other year.) It's always a fun day filled with beautifully dressed little girls & plenty of Christmas magic! This year ALL the girls in my family got to attend, including great grandma Martin. I look forward to carrying on this family tradition for many, many years to come. 

Christmas Cookies

I know Christmas is over now, so I'll make this post relatively short. Here is what took up most of my time in the month of December. My butt is twice as wide now, but it was worth it! I'll just hit the gym in January and sign up for another race to get my rear slimmed down :-). It's not likely that I'll ever quit baking, so I guess this is how I'll have to handle my yearly over-indulgence filled with this sort of cookie madness.

Peanut Blossoms

Fudge

Orange Drop Cookies

Cinnamon Rolls

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Dipped Pretzels

Pretzel Hugs

Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

"My name is Amber, and I have a serious baking addiction" -Amen.

New Stuff Coming Soon!

My computer has been acting up lately & Jon had to re-build the whole dang thing (Mac users...save me the lecture...I know...I know!). I STILL don't have my camera software installed so I can't post fun new pictures and videos just yet. Because I have not been blogging I've had more to time to bake...and BAKE I have! I'm trying some new cookie and candy recipes this year and as soon as I can post pictures I'll share them with you.

Right now I'm going to go crank up the Nutcracker music and enjoy the fact that as of 30 minutes ago my kids are officially on "Christmas Break"!

Adventures with Cinnamon Rolls...

I've been trying to come up with something new to fix this year for teachers and neighbors since I've been giving out the same Christmas cookies every year & I'm kinda bored with that. I've always had an unnatural fear of yeast breads for reason too submerged in my subconscious to even understand, so I try not to go there. However, I decided to face my fears yesterday & just get over it! I heard about "The Pioneer Woman" site about two months ago (thank you, Theresa!) & this wonderful cattle ranchers wife, and her awesome food photography spurred me on to greatness yesterday! Well....sorta. I tried her famous Cinnamon Roll recipe and while things were not as simple as she makes it sound, it was a good learning experience & I DID make 8 whole pans of cinnamon rolls!

I followed the recipe EXACTLY as it was written and the only problem I ran into was that my dough was pretty soft and sticky even after adding the 9 freaking cups of flour with another CUP of flour sprinkled over the rolling surface! My cinnamon rolls did not cut into cute Pillsbury pinwheels like PW shows in her pictures & I would not call this an "easy" recipe (PW rates this as an "easy" recipe on her site...but that woman is smoking some high quality crack if she really thinks this process is "easy"!). Whatev' PW! I had oozing melted butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture rolling all over my counter and even dripping onto my floors & shoes! Every time I tried to cut a roll it stuck to my knife and fell apart before I could get it transferred to the pan. I fought really hard to keep my smooshy dough looking somewhat "circular" and cinnamon roll-ish which started making me really frustrated toward the end . I'm glad I didn't give up though, because the end result (while not very aesthetically pleasing) was very, very yummy!

I'm going to try my hand at these cinnamon rolls again for Christmas (and teacher gifts), but next time I think I'm gonna cut down on the butter and sugar used inside the rolls (I think 1/2 cup of melted butter is PLENTY and brown sugar might work a little better then white sugar). The maple frosting on top is to die for, but it's also VERY sweet so you don't need a truck load of sugar inside the rolls too! I'm also going to work a little extra flour into my dough before I actually roll it out. Oh, and in case you live in fear of yeast rolls like I did for the first 30 years of my life, here are a few tips I found that made things a little easier:

-When you scald your milk only bring it up to about 185-190 degrees (I used a candy thermometer).

- Let your scalded milk cool down for about 50 minutes & don't add your yeast until the mixture cools to about 125-130 degrees.

-If your kitchen is really cold (like it probably is today on this 4 degree day!) then turn on your oven to preheat and leave your dough in the pan on top of the oven (yeast likes a nice cozy warm environment to rise).

-"Sticky/Wet" dough is way too tough to handle, so it's best to work a little (a little light kneading where your turn the dough into some flour with the heel of your hands) flour into the sticky mess before you try to roll it out.

-Yeast dough probably takes a little time and patience to get better at, but it's well worth the effort!
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This is what my pans of cinnamon rolls ended up looking like (not so pretty, huh?), but the frosting sorta covered a multitude of sins so to speak-ha!

Pumpkin Muffins!

(RECIPE)

-1 box yellow cake mix

-1/4 cup flax seed meal (optional)

-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or more if you want!)

-1/4 cup oil

-2 eggs

-1 can of pumpkin

*DO NOT ADD ANY WATER!

-Preheat oven to 350

Mix all ingredients

Pour into greased muffin tins...and bake for about 18-20 minutes.

Turn around and realize that while you have been baking your one year old has been systematically taking apart the lower shelves in your pantry!

Clean up baby just as the timer goes off on the oven!

Take muffins out of oven.

Children and husband will come flocking to the kitchen to devour said muffins...watch out!

*Only after you have eaten all of the muffins will you realize you forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Such is life with 4 Little Whites to feed and care for!

Judah's new "Tricks"

This baby boy is surprising us every day with new little "tricks" & sometimes I have to admit that each new milestone is a little bittersweet for me. Baby "Jubs" is almost certainly our last little White which means all these cute little "firsts" are my "lasts". The last time I'll hear one of my babies say "ma ma" for the first time. the last time I'll get to witness those pudgy little baby feet take their first steps, and the last time I'll get to witness one of my babies "shhhhhh" his older siblings when they are being loud in the car-LOL! OK...so that last one is unique to Mr Judah, but it's super cute & I even caught a picture of him doing it :-)

Seriously......you guys are so L-O-U-D! Knock it off!

SHHHHHHHHH!

My Baby turned 8!

I'm going to try to get my blog up to speed this week. After a few weeks of craziness & a very old computer that is starting to have a mind of it's own (sigh) it's been tough to keep up with the blogging world, but I'll give it my best shot this week!

The day after Thanksgiving was McKenna's birthday & we had a great time celebrating with our sweet big girl. We bought her some new clothes, a new webkins & of course, some new Hello Kitty makeup! Then we took her to Burger King (her choice!) & to the movies! After the movies we went back to Grandma & Grandpas house for pizza & red velvet cupcakes.