All about the Christmas food

After putting the kids down to bed, Dallin and I got cooking. If you knowDallin or I, you know that holidays and travel (for us) are ALL about the food. Since I'm Hispanic, we always celebrated Christmas Eve with a traditional dinner that included Guatamalan tamales, sweet bread, and hot chocolate. So over the years, Dallin and I have combined our traditions and this is what the Christmas Eve meal has turned into. First, we always have lobster tails for dinner. We have a fantastic recipe and Dallin cooks them on the grill. They seriously are the best lobster I've ever had.



Next we cook up fire-roasted artichokes out on the grill as well. This is a recipe that we've perfected over the years. We had these at a restaurant years ago and spent several years trying to imitate the recipe at home. And we finally did it (although I think our artichokes are actually better now!) The pictures don't do them justice, but trust me, these are dee-lish!

And lastly, we spend the last couple of weeks before Christmas trying to track down some good Guatamalan tamales. Last year, I ordered them from a lady Dallin knew but I was not impressed with them. This year, we found a little Guatamalan restaurant here in Reno and ordered a few for Christmas. They were pretty good -- not as good as the ones I ate growing up, but they were up there. For those of you who don't know, Guatamalan tamales are made of up of a soft maize filled with pork, olives and red peppers and wrapped in banana leaves. Christmas, for me, just would not be the same without them. And for dessert, we had a peppermint pie that is a DeMordaunt family tradition.

Christmas morning always includes family recipes as well, including the Christmas kringle which seriously is to die for. It's a dough ring filled with raisins soaked in an almond filling, with icing on top. We make two rings and they're gone in a blink of an eye! Okay, I think my next post, I will finally blog about Christmas day!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Christmas 2008 was wonderful! This is the 2nd or third year (I honestly can't remember) that we've stayed in Reno for the holidays, and I absolutely love it. We don't have to deal with long lines at airports or long drives. We can just stay home, relax and spend time with our family.

We've got some neat Christmas traditions underway and I'm sure they'll only get better and better over the years as our kids get older. First of all, the pre-Christmas season was full of the usual: decorating gingerbread houses and putting up all of our decorations, and of course trimming the tree. We totally scored on our christmas tree this year. We actually got it pretty late this year (b/c it was just a hectic time of year for us), so I was convinced we'd come home with an ugly "Charlie Brown" tree. But not so! I think this was the prettiest tree we've ever had. It was perfectly symmetrical and nice and tall. And the kids had so much fun decorating it. Every year Dallin and I exchange ornaments that are symbolic of something that happened that year. And we also give similar ornaments to our kids. So over the years we've started accumulating some really nice, sentimental ornaments, which I absolutely love.

My kids showing off their very best behavior for Santa

This year, we also lucked out with some great snow before and during Christmas. I can't remember the last time I've had a truly "white" Christmas, but this year, it was just that. The kids had fun making snowmen, we had fun sledding, and everyone had fun running through the mounds of snow behind our house. The first day it snowed, I felt like such a kid. I spent HOURS outside with the kids pulling them on the sled, trying to shovel the driveway and having snowball fights with them. It honestly was so much fun.

Jacob ready to pummel his mama with a snowball

The cutest snow bunny -- I adore my Aubrey!!

On Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa and his reindeer and then re-enacted the nativity. This year's program went a lot better than last year. Last year, everyone was crying throughout the whole thing. This year, there were no tears and everyone seemed to get along... even inside the manger. As you'll see by the picture below, none of my kids like to have things on their heads, so the best we could do was to lay kitchen towels on their heads to make them look more like Mary, Joseph and a shepherd.

After the nativity, we took pictures in front of the tree and let them open their one present of the evening which is always pajamas.

This post is starting to get lengthy so I will continue the rest of the christmas festivities later this week. Enjoy the pictures!

My "Sistas"

So, I am finally getting some more pictures from our recent trip to California for Adeline's baby blessing. And I'm not quite ready to start blogging about all of our Christmas projects this year yet. So I will stick to everything else for the moment and do a massive blog about Christmas in a few days.

I just have to say that I am very lucky.... I have 2 great older brothers and 2 REALLY great little sisters. My sisters and I are very close. We talk all the time and in general are very similar to one another -- in looks and personality. While I was in CA with them, I realized how much I miss them and wish I could be near them especially now that they're married and having babies. I'm not much of a phone talker, but get me on the phone with one of my sisters, and I can't shut up!

Also, while we were in Cali, one of Becky's friends took some great pictures of my family, which I am including below. So this post is filled with lots of fun pictures. Enjoy!

This mosiac was made by my sister Ligia, but I stole it from her blog and posted it on mine too!

This was taken right after Adeline's baby blessing

Our cute girl

Family shot at the beach

Playing Catch Up

So I'm a little behind on my blogging. First off, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Reno with my brother-in-law and his family. They have the CUTEST little boy you've ever seen named Lucas and my sister-in-law Melissa is (I'm convinced) one of the most beautiful people I've ever met. (I know she is probably ready to kill me after reading this!!) And she is funny (you should see her dance)! And smart (she and a friend started their own company which they run out of their homes). Anyway, we had a great time making Thanksgiving dinner, the kids had a great time playing on the golf course behind the house, we drove around parts of Tahoe, and we even squeezed in some skiing for the husbands and boys and massages for the ladies! The morning they left to go back home, my son Jacob woke up crying because he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to his cousin Luc. I think we ALL missed them once they left. (We especially miss "the goggle." -- Melissa, this joke is for you!! :) )

As a side note, I don't think I have EVER seen Dallin so happy as when he came home from skiing with Jacob. I think Dallin has been waiting his entire life to go skiing with his kids so the fact that Jacob has loved skiing so far and has been pretty good at it has made Dallin's year.

Jake and Luc on the slopes

Now I'm going to fast forward to recent events. We just got back today from my niece's baby blessing this weekend. My little sister Becky had a baby girl about 2 months ago (my niece looks JUST like Becky and is SOOOO cute!) so my parents, sisters and I went out for the blessing. We had so much fun seeing Becky and her family and seeing my parents and my sister Ligia with her daughter, who is also the cutest and most happy baby I've ever seen. We went to a local petting farm with the kids, ate yummy food and just spent time together. We were only there for the weekend so the trip went by much too fast.

On the drive home, we got a flat tire. It was late at night on Sunday so EVERYTHING was closed. And practically NOBODY (I'm talking taxis and cabs) wanted to come and pick us up because of where we broke down. Anyway, after several calls to AAA, a local hotel and a towing service, we were finally able to get out of there safely. We had to get all of our tires replaced and we weren't able to come home until this afternoon. But like I said, we made it home safe and sound so I guess we should be grateful for that.

Including some fun, family pictures below....

Garrett with baby Adeleine
The happiest baby on the planet!

Aubrey and Evan enjoying a swing at the beach

Jacob and his "Papa"

Storytime

So most of you will have to forgive me for this post. But I use my blog sort of as my journal and I wanted to include a couple of stories about my kids that have occurred over the last few months so that we remember these when we're older. First off, my Jacob.

A few months ago, Jacob was in primary during sharing time and the teacher was playing some sort of game and choosing kids to help with the game. Apparantly, Jacob was not getting chosen and he was very upset about it and making all kinds of loud comments about not getting picked. After not getting picked again, Jacob stood up, stomped his foot, and yelled, "That's it. I quit this church!" And then he proceeded to walk out of the primary room, down the hall and out the front door of the church with a row of primary teachers and leaders trying to catch him. I heard about this story from virtually every teacher in primary that day because they all thought it was hilarious! Yeah, hilarious is not the first word that came to MY mind when I heard that story. But moving on...

A few nights ago, I was tucking Aubrey into bed and I asked her if she wanted me to read her a book or tell her a story that night. She chose a story so I began the usual way:

Me: Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Princess Aubrey.

Aubrey: Mommy, make sure princess aubrey gets put in a castle by a witch.

Me: Okay, once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Princess Aubrey who was locked inside a castle by a wicked witch.

Aubrey: Mommy, make Princess Aubrey have a beautiful voice so she can sing.

Me: Okay, Princess Aubrey had a beautiful singing voice and all of the birds and butterflies in the forest liked to hear her sing.

Aubrey: Mommy, make the birdies love her singing.

Me: [starting to get frustrated by all of her 'interruptions,' which are preventing me from finishing the story and getting out of there]. Okay, the birdies in the forest loved Princess Aubrey's singing so much that they wanted to save her from the castle so they could hear her sing some more.

Aubrey: No, Mommy. The King has to save the princess.

Me: Oh, sorry. The birdies loved to hear Princess Aubrey sing. So one day, there was a king riding on a horse in the forest and he heard Princess Aubrey's voice from the castle and he rode to the castle and saved her from the wicked witch. The End.

Aubrey: Mommy, you forgot to say that they king married Princess Aubrey and they lived happily ever after.

Me: Oh, right, the king married Princess Aubrey and they lived happily ever after.

Aubrey: [a content smile crosses her face] I like that story

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Stories on demand.

And finally, Aubrey is a typical girl: moody, pouty, and likes to talk to me about the most random stuff. In fact, she likes to talk so much that I catch myself saying "uh-huh" every now and then because I'm not really paying attention. And she'll, of course, catch on and say, "Mommy, TALK to me!!"

Aubrey Turns 3!

Aubrey turned 3 yesterday. Where did all the time go? She was so excited about her birthday. She's been talking about it for the last 2 months. I would ask her what she wanted for her birthday and she would always say, "Starbursts and Smarties!" After she woke up yesterday, we made her a big pancake for breakfast. Then we painted her nails and toenails because that is one of her most favorite things to do. Then we headed over to her favorite restaurant where we ate lunch, opened gifts and the waiters brought out some ice cream and sang her "Happy Birthday." She had such a fun day.

Then on Sunday, we wanted to have a family party with cake and ice cream at home. So we invited our neighbors over because she adores them. She calls the neighbor girls her "sisters" which I think is so sweet. So they all came over to sing to her and have dessert. She was on cloud 9 the whole night.

Every girl deserves her own pancake on her birthday!

Giving big brother a taste of her dessert

The whole family at Red Robin

Aubrey with her "sisters" and neighbors

The NEW Love of My Life

When I was single, one of my roommates (aka "Bussie") would make 2 homemade loaves of bread every Sunday night. My other roommates and I would salivate in the kitchen anxiously awaiting the loaves' departure from the oven and into our watering mouths. I swore at the time that I would never make bread because even though she made it look effortless, it still looked like too much work for me. So I swore off bread making forever.... until last year. My friend Whitni loaned me her mother's BOSCH bread mixer over Thanksgiving. She came over a week before Turkey day and gave me a quick crash course on how to use it. (It wasn't that hard... it only really had one button to push). Anyway, I made the most delicious rolls using this Bosch machine. In fact, I held onto the Bosch mixer for a few extra days and made rolls several times because it was so easy to do with this thing. There was no kneading involved... at all. Who wants to mess around with a sticky ball of dough... no, not me.

So, for the last year, I have been on the hunt for the perfect Bosch machine for me. I didn't want one of the new ones with all of the bells and whistles (some of them come with blenders, and choppers and all kinds of other things). But I just wanted the same simple bread machine that my friend Whitni had. And today I found it. I bought it. And I cannot wait to use it!! It's a little pricey but if I end up making rolls and bread as much as I think I will, then I'm sure it will be worth every penny!

Happy Halloween

This Halloween was filled with all of the usual fun: carving pumpkins, going to our ward's halloween party, and of course trick or treating. Jacob wanted to be batman this year and he absolutely LOVED his costume. The second he put it on, he was "in character" -- and was running around the house pretend saving people from catastrophes. Aubrey wanted to be Cinderella this year. Like most girls, she's WAY into the princess thing right now. Her favorite thing about her costume? The MAKEUP! She was so excited to wear lipstick... she kept puckering up her lips and looking in the mirror. Iit was pretty funny. And finally, Evan got to be a lion and wear the much used costume that ALL of my children wear when they're almost 2. Personally, I LOVE this costume because the mane on this costume is great. I've never seen another one like it yet. So I'm holding onto it!

Batman giving his "mean face" to ward off any "bad people"

My favorite lion

Cinderella showing off her red lipstick

At the ward's halloween party


Carving and painting pumpkins

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last week, I flew out to SLC to attend my friend Whitney's wedding. The bride looked stunning, the location was breathtaking and the wedding was one of the nicest I've ever attended. One of the things I loved most about the wedding was seeing all of my girlfriends from DC, most of whom I lived with at some point during my single life. I don't think I will ever find a group of friends like this again. They're very dear to me because we lived together during a fun, but sometimes difficult time of life. It was so fun catching up with them that we are (hopefully)planning another girls trip next year. So here's looking to Girl's trip 2009!

The DC crew outside the SLC temple

Whit with the DC and New York girls

Me & Mauri at the dessert reception

The most beautiful bride I've ever seen
The "shoe" shot -- we always gotta have one of these!

The new Mrs. Gourley

Halloween -- Amazing Race Style

So this blog entry is dedicated to some good friends who KNOW how to throw a party. A few weeks ago, Dallin and I noticed an envelope sitting on our windshield after church. We opened it up and found a cryptic invitation to a halloween party. We had no idea who was throwing it and what it would entail. As the week progressed, we started getting even more cryptic messages via email informing us that this party was going to be like the Amazing Race. We would be split into teams and given clues that would take us to different locations where we would have to perform tasks to get the next clue. As the days progressed, we got a packet of information outside our doorstep. Mind you, we still had no idea who was throwing the party, although I was starting to have some suspicions. This packet of information told us some more of the details and asked us to bring the following items: shovel or pick ax, long rubber gloves, flashlight, life jacket and protective head gear. At this point, I'm like, "OK, should I actually be WORRIED here? I mean, a pick ax? Protective head gear? Yikes!"



Finally the night of the party came. It was last night and Dallin and I had SO much fun. We dressed up... you'll have to see if you can guess who we were (see the pictures below). And we really did have to act like we were on the amazing race. It was awesome. They had us meet at our local Costco and then we split into our teams. We opened our first clue and off we went. Our teams had to search for and break open a pumpkin which contained our next clue, run through the new Scheels store and find our clue, eat some slices of pizza loaded up with a ton of hot chili peppers and hot sauce and then swing off of a 185-foot tower (think half swing, half bungee jumping). We seriously loved every minute of the night and as a reward for completing the race, headed over to Claim Jumper for dessert afterwards.

We seriously have some pretty creative friends so thank you for an adventurous and unforgettable evening!

Can you guess who we are?

Here's another shot in case you still haven't guessed. By the way, our buttons say "Vote for Pedro." If you STILL don't know, then there's nothing I can do for you, my friends. I seriously would bust up laughing after each picture and it took me about a minute before every picture to get my "game face" on.

The Great Pumpkin

Yesterday, Dallin took the day off of work and we escaped the cold weather here in Reno and drove to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch in California. Because it was a school day, the pumpkin farm wasn't very crowded, which was wonderful. At times, it felt like we kind of had the place to ourselves a bit. The kids had a blast. We took a hay wagon ride, went to the petting farm at Bishops, rode a train, picked pumpkins, played on all of the fun slides and other toys there, and ate yummy food. We even brought home fresh apple cider and the MOST delicious apple pie -- I'm talking ripe apples, thick, flaky crust and caramel goodness all rolled into 1 pie. Evan loves trains and was in heaven, I think, during the train ride. He just kept saying "choo choo" throughout the whole ride. Very cute.

We thought we might get stuck there because it was snowing back home in Reno and we weren't sure we'd be able to make it through the pass. But we lucked out and came home and enjoyed a little bit of snow in the backyard. The kids loved every minute of the day and Dallin and I were rewarded with 3 kids in bed by 7 p.m. passed out cold!

Every year I long to get that "perfect picture" of my family surrounded by pumpkins but we unfortunately were unable to get it this year. I took 36 pictures of my kids by the pumpkins.... you heard me right, 36!! But there was not ONE where all of my kids were looking and smiling at the camera at the same time. I guess there's always next year!

YeeHaw! Dallin and Evan playing in the cowboy village


One of our "better" pictures

Mommy & Aubrey by the pumpkins

My boys

Posing by some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen

The favorite of the day: train ride

The Power of Positive Thinking

Whenever our kids get frustrated with something, we encourage them to keep trying and to not quit. And we always say to them, "DeMordaunts don't say 'can't!'" This morning at the breakfast table, Aubrey kept asking Dallin if he was going to work. And then she asked him (in her most pouty, melt-your-heart voice), "Daddy, can you stay home with me today?" He, of course, said, "I'm sorry. I can't stay home today." And then without a moment's hesitation she spouted off, "Daddy, DeMordaunts don't say can't!" It was so cute and Dallin and I just busted up laughing. I guess they really do pay attention... some of the time.

On another note, the past 2 weeks have... well, stunk, to say the least. We've all seemed to have either bronchitis, the runs, a high-grade fever, or pink eye. But we do seem to be on the mend, thanks to some good antibiotics and lots of rest this weekend. As I was cleaning house today, I kept running into old miscellaneous pictures from this summer. This past summer has been one of our more memorable ones filled with lots of road trips and local day trips, family reunions, and lazy days by the pool. So I threw them all into a slideshow. Enjoy!