Stander Stander

The title of this post is an expression coined by Andrew, one he often uses when he sees Emma standing, while holding onto his fingers, next to some furniture, or, most recently, with no support at all.
My baby is growing up too fast. I'm interested to hear your best guess as to the day she takes her first step. I'm thinking around Valentine's Day, what about you?

Cheese Puffs

It seems to me that, unfortunately, junk food tastes good to the untrained palate. For this reason, I avoid it. However, we were given this can of cheese puffs, and it has made for one happy little camper in our home while it has lasted. Take a look.

P.S. If you listen carefully to my voice, you can hear that this day (Monday a week ago) was the onset of my cold that seemed to be fueled by the energizer bunny. Luckily, a week and a half later, I am back up to full speed.

Double Whammy

I was on my way to Walmart when I made the discovery of the week: a sign announcing the opening of a Target in October. Huzzah! I have been waiting for something like this my whole adult life. I live 13.7 miles away from the nearest Target, and having grown up only 2.2 miles away, it's been a hard adjustment. I couldn't help but squeal with delight imagining all the errands I can run to this new location, it'll open just in time for Christmas shopping. Perhaps my first errand will be to make a return that I've been putting off due to the discouraging distance between me and the Fort Union Super Target; who knows, maybe I'll still have it sitting in my trunk.

To top things off, a block away from this new-found gem, I discovered a do-it-yourself car wash for $1. It was pretty exciting to hold the power blaster of a gun and spray down my car. For a buck that lasted two minutes and six seconds, it did a pretty good job, and with the old towel we keep in the trunk, I was able to polish up our 94 Saturn pretty nice.

Yeah, it's been a good day.

Christmas Cooking

If you know me, you know I love to bake. This time of year is full of baked sweets and we've had fun baking them! It stared with strudel at the Warrens. Ever year since his mission, Andrew's dad has made apple strudel. It's a big family tradition. The cooks of Austria pass their examinations if they can roll out the dough to be thin enough to read a newspaper through it. I'd say Kelly's pretty good. Emma had a lot of fun at her first strudel night.

Thanks Grandpa Kelly!

Next, my mom invited us over to make gingerbread cookies. I'd actually never done it before, and I really enjoyed it, especially the dough!

Mom with her grandsons:

I love this picture!

Emma helped, too.

This kid is such a "poser," like his mom says!

And now for the frosting:

Besides that fact that I look at the camera the second time, can you find something different between these two photos?

Finally, I baked loaves and loaves of bread for Christmas. That was also fun; more fun when the loaves rose enough. I loved having the smell of fresh bread in my kitchen, yum! Now I just need to make some for myself.

What are your baking highlights from the holidays?