Like Father, Like Son

The pencils

We have started a new daily activity at our house.

First, Zack spots the pencils.
"Mwa, ha ha ha.... they are within my reach once again!"
After removing a few he attempts to put them back.
"Uh Oh, someone is going to notice"

Finally he gives up and enjoys the fruits of his labor.

"This is soooo worth the risk of being caught"

Business Venture

I've been trying to find ways that I can help with our family's finances and over Christmas I found something I think could be just the ticket.

TUTUS!We made these for my nieces for Christmas and they were a HIT! We made them to match each of the girl's favorite colors. They can be a bit time consuming but I think they are something I could handle even with my little monkey runnin' around. For those of you who actually follow this blog (if you really do exist). What do you think? Marketable? If so... how? and how much?

Belated Christmas Photos

As I mentioned in the past post, I am avoiding preparing a talk. So, here's more pictures I found today. These are from Christmas- I know I am SOOOO slow to post Christmas pictures. There are just so many great pictures It's hard to pick wich ones to post.

These are of Christmas Eve- Every year the Gundersens/Christensens get together for a party and every year we act out the nativity. This year, since we had the most recent addition to the family- we played Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.

At some point or another, Baby Jesus discovered there was a nice sweet, ewy gewy center to his "gold". What a mess, at least he enjoyed himself

Here's the whole gang.

Missing Idaho

I'm supposed to be preparing a talk for church on Sunday. I've tried. Really I have! I've been reading, studying, but I've just got writters block so I decided to sort through some pictures and organize them better- for no reason whatover. Anyway, I found this beauty. I miss Idaho!!!!

A year in Review

1 YEAR OLD!!!!
Happy Birthday!1 month

2 months
3 months

4 months

5 months
6 months

7 months

A whole year gone by!

8 months
9 months

10 months

11 months

Zach and Woody

Zach loves his Woody that his uncle Josh and Aunt Lindsay and his cousins Roy, Jill, and Sarah bought hime for christmas.

The Chair...

Last week we had a little family trip to the Babies R Us to pick up a crib-railing-protector. No more swallowing paint chips! Horray! Anyhow, during that trip Zach spotted this elmo chair up on the top shelf as we walked by and he freaked out. He was so excited he could barely contain himself. We let him sit in it and his grin seemed to take over his entire face- unfortunately the chair was in the 60-70 bones range. NOT an option. He was pretty bumbed when we left the store so Jason sent me hunting. Walmart- no go. Toys R Us- out of price range. K-mart-nothin'. Finally- Target clearance section, the very last one. We have a winner!!!

Golly Gee! What could this be?

Zach, AJ and Scotty admiring the new addition.

Zach and AZ- chillin'

P.S. I realize the wrapping paper was inside out- I was trying to creatively hide the fact that I'm too cheap to buy new wrapping paper after Christmas. Leave me alone! ;)

The big day!

Today was the big day. The big birthday. I can not believe that Zach is ONE! This last year has really gone by so fast. It wasn't so long ago that we were trying to determine which grins were happy grins and which ones were stincky.

Here's the cake I made:

Not too shabby right?

Here's Zach diggin' in. He started out being sneaky and poking one finger in the center when he thought nobody was looking. Then he got a hold of mom's fork and the cake didn't stand a chance.

Landmark

Tuesday is Zach's first birthday and I can not believe how much he has grown up. Just in the last two weeks even! Before we left for Idaho he was just starting to scoot along the floor- VERY slowly. Now he flies across the room. Before Idaho he didn't know the stairs existed. Now he takes every opportunity to practice maneuvering both up and down the stairs.

Before Idaho Zach was completely dependent on me for his nourishment, now... just watch. (Awww.... I might cry. Again!!!)

Flyin' in and Airplane

"Flyin' in an airplane. Looking out the Window. Watchin' the clouds go by!""Flyin' in an Airplane. Looking out the window. Up so very high."Is it really sad that I actually know the Barney songs. Would it be even sadder if you knew I learned them even BEFORE our little munchkin came along?
Anyway, we have safely arrived in Idaho now and I am SOOOOO proud of this little guy. I tell you what- he was an angel. Even though we got him up at 4:30 am, he was pleased as punch.

We got this DVD player the day after Thanksgiving and OF COURSE- popped in Toy Story and Zack was thrilled.

We had 2 long flights and a layover and Zach didn't cry at all! I was so excited. Last time when we flew to AZ he was a mess. He was younger then and just didn't under stand. This time, I was smart enough to ask the flight attendants if there were any open rows and there were. We sat in the very last row of the plane both times and we were able to spread out and relax. Zach also loved sticking his face against the window as we landed.

Unfortunately, our flights back home are full so we'll have to be a bit creative. That's OK though. We are just so happy to be here spending time with family. Zach just misses his dad! Everybody pray for good weather the 23rd OK? We don't want to wait any longer than we have to.

Updates

First off, I do have to clarify. My "hairstylist" of a husband has ZERO experience with actual hair- styling. He does cut his own hair on occasion but NEVER does he attempt the "insane" practice of hair-dying. In fact he thinks it's pretty silly that I even consider such a thing. The only way we were able to make it through our adventure was by several phone calls to our true hair "connection"- Jason's Cousin Heather. THANK YOU HEATHER!!! I was pretty nervous but I think Jason was even more. He's pretty protective of my hair.

Anyway- it's been a while since we had an update so here we go....

Zack is crawling pretty well now. He climbs all over me if I lay on the floor with him. He also seems to think being trapped under a laundry basket is great fun. He crawled around the room with it over his whole body like a turtle's shell.

This improvement in crawling abilities has translated into some trouble at nap time. He can now sit up on his own and I often find him on his knees in his crib hanging on to the side for dear life- not quite sure how to get back down and definately no where near sleeping. Yesterday, he was quiet so I thought he had fallen asleep. Suddenly the monitor started beeping at me that it's signal had been lost and so I went up stairs to see what had happened. This is what I found;

Yep, doesn't he look like a good little boy ready to take his nap? No? More like he's really proud of his little accomplishment right? He's trouble, I can tell.

His next accomplishment was finally figureing out how to stand up on his own. He's still not very stable and is at risk for tumbling at any moment (we learned that the hard way). This is what finally motivated him to get to his feet.

We had just pulled out our Christmas decor and this is a nativity set that Grandma Gundersen gave us several years ago. I think it's becoming one of his favorite toys.

Finally, winter is in full force here in wisconsin. I've gotten into the habit of shoveling snow every morning when Zack first lays down for his nap. Yuk! Boy what I wouldn't have given for a snow blower today- my goodness! We got a good amount. Actually, It was pretty light and fluffy though so it was easy to shovel. I wish it would always be so fluffy. I'm actually really excited for the snow. It's so beautiful. This is the tree just outside our back door.

Change can be good!

I've been meaning to change my hair for some time but just haven't dared. I haven't colored my hair for probably 4 years! Still, I really felt like I needed a little boost. I've been feeling pretty frumpy as of late so I took the plunge. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Here's my before and after shots! It's not a HUGE change, I just wanted a little more color.

Oh! And I have the hottest hair stylist ever. He's dreeeeeeaaammmy!

Thanksgiving Tradition

I recently had a request from a friend of mine to share my favorite Thanksgiving tradition recipie. So I decided to do so, publicly, in the true Pioneer Woman fashion. Through pictures. Now, I love my camera but as of yet have not been able to afford to purchase a macro lens so I'm not able to get quite as artsy fartsy as she does but I'm learning the ropes. Andrea, I hope this helps!

Now, this recipie is one of those that has some "personal preferences" so I would say- feel free to take some liberties and taste along the way (you'll be glad you did- yum!) to make sure it's the way you like it.

First our "cast of characters" as Ree says;

This is for the sauce-

*5 tablespoons of butter

*5 tablespoons of flour

*1 cup brown Sugar

*1 cup water

*1/2 cup corn syrup

*1 teaspoon salt (yes- I have salt for life. Can you tell I shop at Sam's?)

Also, obviously, the sweet potatoes. I just didn't include them in the pic. SORRY!

So, you've got your butter

Melt it in a saucepan and add the 5 tablespoons of flour. (funny story- when I first inherited this recipie from my mom I somehow ended up with teaspoons instead of tablespoons- didn't work too very well.)

Just as it sarts getting bubbly you add the rest of the sauce ingredients.

We've got the brown sugar, salt, corn syrup and water. Now stir and let it simmer a while.

Stir it pretty regularly- it will start to thicken the longer it simmers. This is a dangerous stage of the process for a couple of reasons. You want to make sure that all of the sugar dissolves- sometimes this requires tasting. This is dangerous for two reasons.

1) it is very tasty and very addictive. One might not make it to the rest of the steps if one has little will power... like me!

2) it is very HOT! Yes, I've learned this the hard way. When something is that tasty it is often very difficult to restrain oneself from tasting a bit prematurely. :)

NEXT... the sweet potatoes. First Peel, then chop.
How many? It depends on how many you need. We had a fairly small group this year- just two families so we used only about 1 1/2 large potatoes. Just enough to fill my casserole dish.


Next Boil the Potatoes. OH! Don't forget.... you are still simmering the sauce. Make sure to check on it regularly. I only say that because I have a tendancy to NOT check on things.

Poke the potatoes and when they are evenly soft all the way through but still hold thier shape, drain the water.

Place the sliced potatoes in the base of a dish. The size just depends on how many people you're feeding. I probably could have fit more in or cut the slices thicker. Oh well, I always have to pick on my cooking.

By now the sauce should be thickened up. Though you might want to taste it one more time just to make sure. ::wink wink::

Pour the sauce over top of the cooked potatoes. I only ended up needing about half the sauce I made. It just depends on how much you decided to make.

Fill till it just covers the potatoes. Then bake at 325 for 20-30 minutes. Now it gets really good...

Top with marshmallows and return to oven. Set oven to broil and let the marshmallows get all nice and toasty brown on top. Then...Eat up!!



Wait a sec! I didn't even get my finished product photo before it started to disappear. Ah well... I guess that's a compliment to the cook right?

Now if I could just figure out... does this count as a veggie? a side dish? or a dessert?