Christmas

Well Christmas is over now so here's the recap.

Thursday evening we went to my grandparents house and had supper with all of the family then opened presents (which is really money for most of us). Then we went back to my parents house to open all of our presents. It's so nice being to spend time with them because we don't get to very often. Here's a pic from the night.

Friday we just went to Brandon's parents house to have dinner and open presents. We lounged around the house that evening and it felt so good to be able to relax for a while!

Brandon's brother, sister-in law and the girls

Brandon, his brother and Mom

Me & my nieces

Me & Nora

Nora again...she loves having her pic taken. :)

Brandon's mom got a GPS...

Then a Wii!! As you can tell she wasn't expecting it!

Yesterday was the final Christmas gathering at my other grandparents house. We all ate dinner, opened presents, and played dirty bingo. I ended up coming home with what I had brought. ;)

And I got my meet my new baby cousin Addison Grace, born 12-18!! Here's a few snapshots I got of her.

My cousin Kyla holding her.

My mom was feeding her.

My brother thought he'd get in the picture.

Just Me and Addison...

Being around her definitely made me even more exciting about trying to have a baby!! :)

Sad day at home

Yesterday I woke up to my husband telling me he had bad news...his grandma had died late Saturday night. I was immediately filled with tears. She had been in the nursing home for a while and we all knew she would be going very soon so it wasn't a complete shock but it still isn't easy knowing we won't be going to visit her anymore. We actually hadn't went to see her since Thanksgiving but it was hard then seeing her how she was. The services are Wednesday and I know that day will not be a good one for me. Brandon has always been good at controlling his emotions and I never have been. I know she's definitely in a better place and is alot happier because we could see she was suffering the longer time went on. Just not a good start the holidays...

4 Months

We've been married 4 months today!

And I guess I should tell everyone we've kind of started to try to have a baby. By kind of I mean we're not really pushing it hard but we aren't preventing either. Time is flying by!!

1st Snow

Monday we woke up to the first snow of the year!! By the end of the day it had all melted already but we just got more this morning. It's beginning to feel like Christmas now!!

Puppy party

We had the puppy birthday party last Thursday evening. All of them got along for the most part except for Lily which was the only female we had. Every time the other dogs would go near her she would start barking at them. We're thinking maybe she was just intimidated because there were so many around, she's usually fine when just around 1 or 2. Also, Marly was definitely more shy than usual but I'm thinking he was frightened since the rest are so much bigger than him. Overall it was a fun night and great to see them all together again!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Just thought I'd post a pic of our tree this year. It's not a great picture and I'm gonna try to get one showing the lights better but you get the idea. It's all about green this year!

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Marly's 1st birthday was on Tuesday so we're getting him and Willow together with all of the other puppies from the litter tonight for a little "party." I'll try to get pics and share tomorrow...I'm excited to see them all together again!

Movie night

Sunday night was Brandon's turn to pick out the movies we watched. He got "17 Again" and "Observe and Report". I really liked the first one. It's a nice family movie and has a good message. I may end up buying it. The other one was a different story. It was basically the same thing as "Mall Cop." I definitely don't need to watch it again.

Thanksgiving Recap

I'm finally getting around to my Thanksgiving recap...and recipe sharing! We had Brandon's side of the family over for dinner so there were 8 people in our little house. It actually went very well and the food was delicous!! Brandon did the turkey and I made pumpkin cheesecake bars and sweet potato casserole. We later went to visit his grandma at the nursing home. She's not doing very well and they've called in hospice so we wanted to see her since her days are probably numbered. Later that evening we went to my parent's house for supper. It was a nice day but very tiring...I don't know that I'd like to have holidays at my house every year.

Here's the 2 recipes you've been waiting for!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
(Source: Kraft)

Ingredients
25 Nabisco Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (about 1-1/2 cups) (I actually used some broken graham crackers...probably didn't taste the same)
1/2 cup finely chopped Planters Pecans
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash ground cloves

Directions
Heat oven to 325°F

Mix crumbs, nuts and butter; press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 13x9-inch pan.
Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended. Remove 1-1/2 cups batter. Stir remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter.
Spoon half the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half the plain batter. Repeat layers; swirl with knife.
Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

It's delicous!!

(sorry about the half eaten pic, I had just remembered I needed to take one)

I actually saw the recipe for sweet potato casserole from a girl on the Project Wedding website and decided I would try it. It's different because instead of putting marshamallows on top you make a pecan topping. Let me tell you, it's way better this way!! I'll never do the marshmallows again.

Sweet Potato Casserole
(Source: brianne2009)

Ingredients
Filling
3 c sweet potatoes
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Topping
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour
1 c pecans
1/3 c softened butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 350
Blend filling ingredients together and spread in baking dish
Stir topping together and spread on top of filling.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Forgot to take pic of this. :(