I love my job!

Who knew that cooking and cleaning could be so fun?

Especially when Luke is "helping". His favorite chores include making cookies, putting dirty laundry in the basket, and refilling the dishwasher soap. Now that he wears big boy underwear, maybe I can teach him how to change diapers in a few months. Hmmm....

Herry Christmas

Here are a few snapshots from our very "Herry Christmas" (as Luke calls it). Luke got a train table, but I think the chips and juice box he got in his stocking drew even better reactions. We went sledding after we opened presents, and Luke absolutely loved it. He even went down the "baby hill" all by himself.

Pie Feast

Our pie feast was a great success! We discovered that Luke can eat peach pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - it's his favorite! Here are a couple pictures. The winning pie was a black- bottom peanut butter mousse. Here's the recipe:

1 graham cracker pie crust
1 1/3 cups bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (about
8 ounces)
2/3 cup plus 1 3/4 cups chilled whipping cream, divided
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
6 ounces (1 cup) peanut butter chips
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned style or freshly ground)
cool whip or whipped cream topping

Combine chocolate chips, 2/3 cup cream, corn syrup, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium heat until chocolate softens, about 3 minutes. Whisk until melted and smooth. Spread chocolate mixture over bottom of crust. Freeze 10 minutes.

Microwave peanut butter chips and 3/4 cup cream in large microwave-safe bowl on medium heat at 15-second intervals just until chips soften, stirring often. Whisk in peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cool to barely lukewarm. Beat remaining 1 cup cream and 2 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until very thick but not yet holding peaks; fold into peanut butter mixture in 3 additions. Spoon mousse over chocolate layer. Spread whipped cream on top. Chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

Christmas Kitchen

One of my favorite things each year is to have a "Christmas Kitchen". It's basically where I turn on the Christmas music, and make mass amounts of my favorite Christmas treats. Sometimes I go overboard and it overtakes the kitchen so there are chocolates, pretzels, caramels, or cookies everywhere. Like canning, it can be slightly annoying to Travis, but for the sake of tradition, I do it anyway. This year I made caramel apples - only slightly better than the funny reindeer heads made of coco crispies - ask Travis. They were delicious, and I'm not counting how many I had to eat to make sure they were OK.

my new bee

Since my new "bee" is my new camera (correction - OUR new camera), I thought I would post some pictures of the winter wonderland we have in our backyard, and the snowman we made. While Everett was here, he kept complaining about the cold, but he kept saying "maybe it will snow", like a little kid. Well, Everett, you left a little early, but you are probably glad you did. First, because I would have wasted you in a snowball fight. Mom gave me this nifty little snowball maker that can make a perfect snowball in 1.2 seconds flat. Second, you would have froze to death working on the house. All the hot chocolate and clothes from Walmart can't keep that California boy warm. Merry Christmas, California crew!

Santa...I can explain.

Right now Luke is in time out for being super naughty. Lately, when he gets in trouble, he has an excuse soon to follow (smart boy). He says "I'm sad", "I'm tired" or my personal favorite "I'm hungry", knowing that I can understand irrational behavior due to an empty stomach (just ask Travis what I'm like at 4:30 pm on fast Sunday). After battling with him to take a Christmas picture, this is what I got - somehow he looks naughty and nice. If Luke got the chance to talk to Santa, I'm sure he would try to explain... And Santa would probably laugh with her bowl full of jelly (and growing fetus) and give him his presents anyway.
PS - I love my new camera!

Grand Canyon

On our way back from Arizona, we stopped at the Grand Canyon. It was amazing!

Thanksgiving

I am happy to report that the Snyder family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent the week in Scottsdale, Arizona with my family roasting turkey and roasting by the pool. It felt like we had Thanksgiving at every meal. I felt hungry today for the first time in a week, and for a pregnant Ghent, that is saying something!

On the subject of Thanksgiving, I read a very cool study about people who keep a journal of all the things they are thankful for. Here are some of the benefits of having an “attitude of gratitude”:

• considerably more satisfaction with their lives as a whole
• more optimism about the upcoming week
• more connected with others
• builds and strengthens social bonds and friendships
• feel loved and cared for by others
• strengthens sense of spirituality
• broadens the scope of cognition and enables flexible and creative thinking
• facilitates coping with stress and adversity
• makes people feel good in the present, and increases the likelihood that people will function optimally and feel good in the future.
• more positive and optimistic appraisals of one’s life
• more time spent exercising
• fewer reported physical health problems/symptoms
• more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or offered emotional support to another

I am thankful for this study!


Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life, Emmons RA, McCullough ME, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(2): 377-389, 2003.

So, I know I just keep posting pictures of Luke instead of writing something witty, thoughtful, or clever, like all of you other bloggers out there, but this is the closest thing I do to scrapbooking, so this will have to do. While enjoying the fabulous Utah weather, and I took some pictures of Luke at the park. He especially loved the climbing wall and did a pretty good job of making his way to the top. Just one more way Luke is like a mini Travis.

Halloween

So, this was the first Halloween that Luke wasn't wheezing with croup or vomiting all over his costume, and we had a blast! He wore his costume for a week straight - no joke. He thought it was so cool that all you had to say was "tickle treat" and someone would put candy in your pumpkin bucket. But he probably had just as much fun handing out candy to "the kids", except when a scary "idol" (aka skeleton) costume came by.

Autumn

This week was "Autumn Week". We usually have a theme for each week so Luke and I have some structure to the week, so we both don't go crazy. We had so much fun! We learned why the leaves turn colors, had a picnic in the canyon, made pumpkin cupcakes (Luke's favorite - he was cradling the can of pumpkin puree in the grocery store), and played in the leaves at the park. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the little man as he is crunching leaves and wearing his "cool dude" coat.

Jordan Shirt

Luke in his "Jordan" shirt.

canning

OK, so I know that canning fruit sounds nerdy, old fashioned, economically a waste of time, but I just learned how and I think it is awesome! There is a fruit stand down the street from my house that sells the best fruit and I bought about 75 pounds (gulp!) of peaches and pears. Travis was a good sport, but a sudden migration of fruit flies made sure that canning will be a yearly project, at most.

Whitney, here is the recipe for the Harry & David's Pepper Relish (it's delicious mixed with cream cheese and served with tortilla chips!)

3 cups tomatoes, skinned, diced and drained
3 cups red peppers, diced
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 T salt
1 small box pectin
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 T fresh ground chili paste
2 jalepenos, seeded and diced
2 onions, diced

Mix all ingredients together, except pectin. Bring to a boil. Turn down to low/med heat and simmer for 2 hours until thickened. Whisk in the box of pectin and boil for 1 minute.

beekeeper

Travis says I always have a bee in my bonnet. After 6+ years of marriage, I'm starting to realize that he is right. I am a beekeeper. I love projects, I love learning new things, and I love creating things. So, I decided to start a blog to chronicle my latest "bees" as kind of a project scrapbook. The only bad thing is that it will explicitly show how much I jump from one "bee" to the next, giving Travis concrete evidence that I am a little crazy and create fun but unnecessary projects.

I decided to call my blog "the bee's knees" because I love the phrase. It's cool, timeless, and it rhymes! Until I did a token google on the phrase, I didn't know a bee had knees. Apparently it has pollen baskets or "corbiculae" on the midsegments of its legs, where it can carry pollen back to the hive. In the late 1700's, the "bee's knee" was used to define something small or insignificant. In the 1920's, it evolved into a hip phrase meaning the height of excellence. So my postings are things I think are the bee's knees - small and insignificant, but still fun and top-notch.


Interesting side-note: Other phrases tried to come on the scene, but didn't last (probably because they are weird and awkward) such as: the eel's ankle, the elephant's instep, the snake's hip, the flea's eyebrows, and the canary's tusks. Weird!