A turkey, a tree and a tooth

Well, we have had a nice couple weeks and are in full swing for the Christmas season. Me and Jason Stager (a good friend who actually just asked me to be his best man at his wedding this summer) drove up Mt Hood and hiked in the woods for a tree. We hiked a couple miles total and found a great mountain hemlock tucked away in the snow covered (nearly 2-3ft) forest. We spent Thanksgiving with Erin's mom and dad and had a quiet but relaxing time with them. I cooked the 19.6 lb turkey all by myself this year! It turned out pretty good too. I soaked it in brined (salt water) the night before and it gave the meat a great flavor (don’t laugh Ben!). We have been using the fireplace every day and have only turned on the furnace twice this year so far. We're so glad we were able to put it.
Noah has his first tooth coming in. He had an unusually hard night a few nights ago and that was when we noticed it. He really hasn't been complaining too much. I think we were bracing for the worst with the horror teeth stories we had heard but we are fine with the way he is dealing with it. Hmmm What else? Joel, there is something in the miniature village that I put there just for you. You have to look for it. We'll I guess that’s it for now. Erin and I are just looking forward to the break coming up. I am taking three weeks off of work for Christmas. It is the only time of the year in our industry when we just plan on being slow. Christmas packages will be going out next week!!!! Marie, we are sending your families gifts to mom and dad's because we know how often you check you mail!
Love you all,
PS. We just had to put that picture of Bree up. She was really tired of reading and needed to take a nap!

Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti

Hi Mom! Here is that recipe. Thanks for the reminder email...I've had this cookbook out for the last 4 days to get the recipe to you. So here it is!

1 tsp. coffee, ground (Make strong shot of coffee by putting 1 tsp coffee into 1 Tbsp boiling water)
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup dried cranberries (or cherries if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet and set aside.
In a cup put ground coffee in 1 Tbsp of water. Set aside.
In medium sauce pan over low heat melt chocolate and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. (Hmmm...fluffy? Maybe creamy?) At low speed add eggs, one at a time, blend. Add chocolate and coffee (press coffee so you have no grounds in your biscotti) and beat until blended. Add flour mixture and beat until blended.

Mix in cranberries by hand.

By hand divide dough into half and put on cookie sheet in two long loafs. Make sure they are 3 inches apart since they increase in size while cooking.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Transfer to cutting board and cut a loaf into slightly diagonal pieces (approx. 1/2 inch thick.) Place slices, cut side down back onto the cookie sheet. Return to oven and bake an additional 15 minutes to dry biscotti.

Transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely. Biscotti will harden as it cools. They will stay fresh in a cookie jar for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!

our trip

Whew!! We are home!!! We left Thursday before thanksgiving for charleston. We stayed over one night at my mom's to break up the trip. The first pic is of Ryan in the leaves. I miss GA falls! We arrived in Charleston the next afternoon. Ryan was so anxious the last part of the trip because he wanted to see grandma and grandpa!! We had so much fun while we were there. We are now well educated about Charleston history:) thanks to dad:) Dad and Ben took a couple of 'short cuts' to golf courses that they never found. The highlights were a lovely cruise tour and a trip to the park zoo. Matthew got a new tooth and took his first steps on his own while at grandmas. It was nice to share them with family:) He also got an ear infection - #4. That made him extra fussy a night, but still good, nonetheless. I see ear tubes in his future. He was so excited when we got home and he saw all his toys and his kitty. Ryan really got the hang of the traveling thing this trip. He actually was upset the next day when we were only going to the store! He loved his cousins!! He misses them a lot and talks about them and grandma all the time. Except now he calls all his friends cousins now :) We also enjoyed all the wonderful food!! Ben and I both gained weight - in 1 week! Thanks mom and dad for everything!! It was wonderful!! On the trip back to atlanta, we stopped at my grandmas in Augusta, GA. My uncle, my parents and my sister were all there with her. It was really nice to have everyone together. My grandmother is doing great, I miss her so much! We only had an hour! to stay, though. On thanksgiving we ate dinner with one of my best friends before heading back. We actually had Thanksgiving dinner again on Saturday at my other friend's house! Thankfully, I didn't get called in Friday like I thought I would and I even got downstaffed Saturday. It was nice after our vacation to have another 'vacation' to wash clothes and recoup:) Hope you all are doing great! Amy I love your new kitchen, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and I can't wait until you have little Micah:) Erin - are you getting any more sleep? We are doing a little better - 0430 some mornings, but still 2 am for others. Ryan really spoiled us - he slept through the night at 5 weeks and always went to bed in his crib with out rocking/feeding/walking.... Go figure. Mom, how much did we leave at your house? I'm sure you'll find lotsof stuff!! I'm not missing anything yet, I'll let you know. I'm tired!!! Goodnight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!

May this next year bring you abundant blessings as a wife, mother, daughter, and friend. It will be an exciting year as you nestle into your new home with a new baby boy and the always new adventures of Abigail (and Joel of course)! You are truly blessed and a true blessing. God Bless you Amy. Happy Birthday!

Almost!

They come back tomorrow morning at 8 to install the counters and all the hardware, shelves and I think that's it. Yippee! We love it!

1000%

That's what Domen (the cabinet guy) said on Monday about the cabinets being ready to be delivered and installed on Wednesday. He's already told me "100%" a couple times without delivery so maybe 100 meant 10 and 1000 means 100???

Then he called tonight and said they're coming for sure, just not sure what time yet. On Monday he said 8 or 8:30, tonight he said, 9 or 10. But at least they're coming! Joel scheduled the plumber to come tomorrow afternoon to hook up the sink and dishwasher and finish installing the bathroom upstairs.

Wow! We can't wait!

And it's all just in time for Thanksgiving. We feel like we have so much to be thankful for this year!

Oh...and a fun thing (well, for me, not so much for Joel) is that a new shopping mall is opening here in Kranj, 9am on Thursday morning. It's going to have two great new stores, one of which is my favorite over here, H&M. The other one, C&A is sort-of like a smaller scale JCPenney or maybe a Mervyn's and they're offering the first 100 customers a game piece where 10 people will win a 100Euro gift card. I told Joel "it's like Day after Thanksgiving Shopping! Yippee!!" He said, "oh yeah, yippee...." I need all you ladies!!
He said he'd go anyway. There is going to be lots of fun stuff going on and Abigail will really like it too.

recording on slingbox

Hey we know that Will and Marie will be with Mom & Dad soon so we thought we would post a blog to get a hold of them. Could you guys tell us how to record on the sling box. We are celebrating Thanksgiving Saturday with another missionary couple and they asked if we could record a game on Thursday to show on Saturday. Thanks
Joel

Our Charleston weekend-

Ryan loves Uno Attack - seeing how many cards will pop out of him.

Ben, Debbie, and the boys got in about 4 friday afternoon - right after dad got home from his "6 hour tour." Saturday we went to Charlestowne Landing to see the animals and Ryan is still talking about that. He claims it was the best and he wants to go back today. Ben got a wheel chair for dad so that he could enjoy it too. He'd never been back to see the animals. They have a large cart that takes you around the park and Ryan thought that was great too. He thanked the driver profusely when we were done. He did think Morgan and Katelyn would be at the park and asked for them when we got there.

Ryan is also enjoying playing with the dress-up clothes and the rest of the toys. He likes playing "marriage" with his mommy. He is anxious for his cousins to come tomorrow so he has more willing players! :)

Ben and Debbie experienced our church yesterday. I'll leave that to them. We needed a relaxing day as Matthew had decided Saturday he wouldn't sleep or let anyone else sleep. He is normally very good natured and laughs and plays but bed time at grandma's isn't his favorite. It's after 7:30 and Ryan just got up and I don't hear anything from the upstairs so maybe, hopefully last night was better. We're anxious for Marie, William, Morgan, and Katelyn to come tomorrow! It will be fun to see the kids together. Sure wish we could all be together but we're enjoying this to it's fullest.

It's pancake time -

Pictures...

Hey MOM!
Since we can't be down there in S.C. would you please post pictures this week from your time together with Ben and Debbie and Marie and Will, and of course All the kids. It would be fun to see :)

Zato ker Ben je nemarljiv.

Zdravo svoj sobrat!Se potrudim vpisati umazanec tako da Mom hoteti ne razumeti. Rabim zaprositi vi a vprašanje zato ker Ben was v nemarljiv v oklic vi. Hoteti vi obstati voljan v pomoč zaslužiti mom a prsten slika stojalo zakaj božični? Mislim mi hoteti vsi potreba v sodelovati dvajset dolar. Pustiti mi znanje kakšen vi pretehtati. Ljubezen vi. poljub poljub :)

Logan's calf

Someone sent me this link today from a Christian radio station. It is really good and I thought you might enjoy it. Very smart boy!

http://www.ksbj.org/eblogs/morningShow/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/logan-calf-story.mp3


Love you all-
Mom

A weekend to Remember

This past weekend Jon and I went to the Familylife conference while my parents watched Noah. It was so much fun to hang out with just the two of us. We even were able to stay in a hotel one night while my mom braved it out. Noah seems to do better for her than he does for us! It was so nice to sleep although it wasn't enough sleep in my opinion. I'll take what I can get these days right Debbie?
We've had some beautiful sunny weather the past few weeks and now the clouds have settled in again. All the leaves are gone and we're ready for the holidays to begin. I just wanted you all to know what we've been up to since it's been a while since we posted.

Almost finished

I don't know how many of you read our other blog, so I thought I'd just update you a bit on our kitchen. Everything is finished and waiting for the cabinets to go in. The guy called today and said they're being painted and will be ready on Monday so he'll call then to set up a time to have them installed (or start to be) on Tuesday. Yay! We can't wait! It's been a long wait and we're ready.

Just today I decided to start putting things up on walls and setting things out, like pictures. Everything has been sitting around in stacks or boxes waiting for things to be finished. I've held off because it seemed like every time I set up something, everything would get dirty again. And it might happen again, but oh well. It felt nice this evening to have candles lit, silk fall leaves and flowers out and a few pictures up. I even made banana bread and it made the whole house smell nice. It really makes me look forward to having a kitchen again and making our home, homey. Just in time for winter!

Hope you're all doing well!
Amy for us.

The park!

Wanted to share a sunny day at the park! Ryan and Matthew love going to play. Not much going on over here. Not much sleep happening either! Last night was horrible. We would get one sleeping and the other one would wake up his brother..... We even drove around for 30 min? I think, and Ryan still would not go to sleep. Matthew did, but his brother woke him up as soon as we pulled in the driveway. Needless to say, we are TIRED. I was working Wed and Thurs. I just know someone holds up a sign in front of our hospital "If you are on crack or you abuse rx drugs, please come deliver your baby at Baptist." I was so mad Wednesday. I had to send home a sweet little baby to a mom with an intense history of cocaine abuse - she actually tried to commit suicide with an overdose DURING her pregnancy. Her other 5 children were in state custody, but for some reason the state thought the 6th one would be different? That poor baby! Better run, Matthew is pulling all the past bills out of the box - what a mess!