Christmas Dinner Party

We've had a few new couples move into our ward recently and since losing the Edgingtons we've really felt the need to broaden our friendship horizons and make some more friends. So I thought I'd host a dinner party with just the adults so we could really try and get to know them. We of course invited the Whitakers though too so we'd have some solid friends there with us as well. :)  In addition to them we invited the Ponders and the Colemans, but the night before the Colemans had to cancel to due a last minute work trip. So we only ended up getting to know one new couple, but they are great and the party was a lot of fun!

I snapped some pics of the house all decked out for Christmas before the guests arrived...

I of course took pics of the food too. I was particularly proud of my homemade rolls. I am NOT good with dough and I've never even attempted to make rolls, but this recipe on my sisters website inspired me for some reason and they turned out SO good! Maybe I don't have the dough curse anymore...or maybe this recipe is just that easy. :) Regardless they were good.

 I also made braised short ribs with carrots, fennel, leeks, onion, celery and garlic, mashed potatoes, the rolls & I had Jocelyn bring a green salad.

For dessert I made panna cotta with pomegranate and orange zest.

 It was such a lovely evening of uninterrupted (we had the kids with a baby sitter at the Whitaker's) adult conversation and yummy food.

  

Here's to making new friends just before the new year!

Random Updates in December

We attended Jeff's office party the first of this month. It was held at the Denver aquarium, which was pretty awesome. I didn't manage to get a pic of Jeff but here I am in front of some pretty amazing coral.

 They have a mermaid show in their largest tank. Apparently you can also scuba dive in there. Pretty cool. The party was fun. Lots of meeting new people, but great to finally put a face to all these names I've been hearing about since Jeff started this new job a few months ago.

 Here's a couple baby bump photos.

 21 Weeks

 22 Weeks. I don't know if it's the shirt or if I actually got that much bigger in a week. Probably the latter. Wawa

 I'm loving the few additions to my Christmas decor this year. This little tree (above) and these little owls (below) just make me happy.

 In sad news Addie touched the glass cover to our fireplace a few weeks ago and burned her hand very badly. I've never heard her cry so hard for so long. I felt TERRIBLE! I was literally sitting 5 feet away from her folding laundry when it happened too. It happened so fast. We had to keep it wrapped for a couple of weeks. It's finally out of the wrap but still pretty red. Amazing how the body heals though. And as for Addie after the initial burning wore off she was really good natured about the whole thing.

 I covered her wrap with a plastic bag when she'd eat so we didn't get it dirty. I also managed to catch her feeding the dog and then making the most hilarious, "it wasn't me" face after wards. Her facial expressions kill me.

 We've done some Christmas shopping. The Apple store is always a hit for Jack since they have kid sized tables with full size computers on them set to kids games. His personal heaven.

 We've made...

 ...and ate lots of sugar cookies.

 We've been to the Denver Botanical Gardens to see the lights.

And last but not least we've gotten all dressed up in our holiday wear for church.

 Oh, and Addie recently learned how to say, "CHEESE!" I love this cheesy grin.

And I love December!!!

Jeff Turned 31

 On December 6th we celebrated Jeff's 31st Birthday. He wasn't entirely thrilled about this bday. Turning 30 wasn't fun per se but at least it's a major milestone and we celebrated appropriately. Turning 31 just says I'm really not in my 20's anymore. I'm full fledged in my 30's. Despite his less than excited attitude towards growing older we still celebrated the day with presents, dinner out and I made him his favorite sugar cookies in place of a cake.

Happy 31st Birthday Jeffy!

Thanksgiving in Alpine

After an 8 and a half hour drive to Utah Wednesday evening we made it to Alpine around 11pm just in time to wake up the next day for Thanksgiving! I love this holiday. Family, good food, giving thanks...I mean really it's awesome. 

We had the entire Lind crew minus Gary, Sharon & Gordon who are in Texas, plus a few extras...ie: Steve Kenny (our Irish friend) & Grandma Richards. Rosemary had done a TON of the work the day before so the morning of really wasn't that crazy. All I had to do was peel potatoes and make a salad. Not too bad. Then I got to enjoy all the delicious/traditional foods surrounded by those I love.

 Some of the girls even made these cute turkey name card holders the day before.

Jack, of course, ONLY wanted to eat his cookie turkey. We had to force him to eat a little "real" food before he dove into the candy version. Adelaide slept through the entire meal.

 Later that day we had a gift exchange since we won't be together over Christmas.  Addie got some cute board books.

 And Jack received a Batman car and Batman Wii video game. He was THRILLED!

 Meanwhile poor Brent did a bit of this during the festivities. He's been working a lot of overnight shifts lately. Life of an OB.

 However, thanks to this fabulous OB we were able to get an ultra sound done on Tday and found out that we are having a...

BOY!!! 

We are thrilled as can be, especially Jack, who has been asking for a brother ever since we told him I was having a baby. He said to us in the car on the way home from the ultra sound, "I got my wish! Only Addie didn't get her wish. Maybe she'll get her wish next week." (He apparently made the assumption that Addie was wishing for a girl and that next week we will have a girl so she can get her wish. He hasn't quite figured out how time works yet.)

I didn't do a great job at taking pics this trip so I'll just have to list our other fun activities. They included: Ellie's baptism, Anders 1st birthday party, football, basketball, and video game playing for the boys, long chats and cooking for the girls, a temple session for Suzy who was recently called to serve a mission in Argentina, and a breakfast with the Bowen cousins. It was non-stop parties all packed into a few short days. 

 Which led to two very tired kiddos at the end of the day.

 We were also lucky enough to have dinner with my parents as they were traveling back to St. George from Ogden. My Dad snapped a few pics at dinner.

 This girl LOVES food! She will try just about anything (a far cry from her older brother) and this night was particularly entranced with the fruity drink and the guacamole, which she ate by the fork full!

The irony of this venture to Utah is that in the past 4 years of living in Denver and traveling to Utah for Tday every.single.year. we've had terrible weather either going/coming or both ways of the trip. And every year we say to each other that we wished we had an SUV to make this drive in. So, with the impending arrival of baby number three we finally upgraded to an SUV just before Thanksgiving and as luck would have it the roads were ABSOLUTELY clear there and back. Life. Saying that we were of course thankful for the smooth drive and were able to make great time both ways. And Jack is loving his life in what he calls "his new big car with the TV." 

We had a lovely time in Alpine and are extremely thankful for our families.