Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Success

So part of my problem is that I now take pictures with my phone and I haven't quite figured out how to get those on my computer yet.  Kinda lame I know.  Anyway Christmas this year was a success.  It was a Zank family Christmas and it's always different having a Christmas with other people and other traditions.  I was in charge of breakfast for everyone, which was like 14 adults and 6 children...give or take.  It was kinda intimidating.  I made things typical for my family's Christmas and luckily Stephen's family liked it too!  I love trying new recipes but I am always nervous with how they will turn out.  I would rather get new recipes from people I know so I can be guaranteed they will turn out...so I am giving the recipes I used so if you need any breakfast ideas here are some to choose from.

First up is the Breakfast Casserole:

 
Looks pretty good.  I made two batches of this one and it's so easy because you make it the night before, and then pop it in the oven in the morning.  I like the above picture best, but I found the recipe here.  (I left out the mushrooms)

Next up I made Caramel Monkey Bread:
This one is sooo good, and super easy too.  And it's another overnighter...perfect!  I found the recipes here.

While the Breakfast Casserole was in the oven, I put this one together


So freakin' good!  I had never made this before and I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be great.  It.Was.Amazing.  I found this recipe here.  I don't think I can rave about it enough!  Yum!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Gingerbread Men

Before Christmas I made some gingerbread cookies with my mom and sisters.  I really enjoyed decorating them. 
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I tried to make every one different and was quickly running out of ideas.  Then my mathematics knowledge kicked in. 
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And my family thought I was just weird.  Becky said “you should add squiggles”  and I let her show me what she meant.  You see, it’s rather difficult to do minute details with the larger hole I cut for the icing bag and I knew it wouldn’t look good.
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Hers is on the left, while mine are on the right.  Love you Becky!

P.S. I am just giving Becky a hard time.  She knows I'm kidding, and poking fun at her.  And if it would upset her I wouldn't have posted it.  I was just so excited that FINALLY I am starting to be good at this kind of thing.  Growing up (a decade younger) and trying to paint or scrapbook or make cards with my family was frustrating because my stuff was ALWAYS the worst.  It was hard to keep going when there was such a difference in quality.  It's just nice to see that the tables have turned ;)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Trip to Utah

Right before Christmas we were able to go to Utah for Stephen’s mom to get married.  Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the wedding or of any other time that we were with his family.  Stephen has plenty of pictures and video from his mom’s wedding and they will be on his website at some point in time.  But as for this blog, it’s like it never happened. 

I’m bummed that I didn’t even take a picture of when all the sister-in-laws and our mother-in-law went to get mani-pedis before the wedding.  It was so much fun and will definitely have to be a tradition. 

Nor did I take any photos wedding dress shopping with Stephen’s mom Mitzi.  See, we arrived Thursday night for her Friday wedding and at around 11 pm she showed Stephen the dress that she was planning on wearing.  It was just a normal dress and certainly wasn’t very flattering and immediately Stephen said it wouldn’t work.  So the next morning instead of a relaxing day at the spa she went to find a dress for her wedding that evening.  Kellee and I came with and luckily the first dress at the first store we went to was PERFECT!  And SO much better than what she was planning on wearing.  But no, you don’t get to view any of that. 

Instead I have pictures from our 5 hour escapade out to Tooele.  Enjoy.
First up is my adorable son and myself.  This was the first and only time we let him play in the snow on our trip.  He doesn’t even have a snow jacket.  We’re such Arizonans.
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He LOVED the snow, but he just enjoyed stomping around in it.  He had no desire to actually touch the stuff with his bare hands.
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This is what Tooele looks like.  It’s where my Grandma lives and where my dad was born and raised.
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Here’s my grandma’s house!  I love it with all the snow.
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As I was trying to get this shot the tree dumped TONS of snow on me.  Lovely.
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Stephen has his own rocking horse down here and he immediately got on this one at my grandma’s.
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My grandma was the first to hear the little guy awake from his nap and she quickly scooped him up before he realized I was there too.  So cute.
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I love that in this picture is a picture of me just barely older than him.  I’m in the black, white and red if you can’t tell.
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This is the wall of our family photos.
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I love this picture of the early family at Memory Grove in Salt Lake City.  This is where my parents had their wedding reception.  We have soo many family photos taken here and I was lucky enough to have my engagement photos taken here too.
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My dad drew these pictures of my three eldest siblings.  That man has sooo much talent.
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These are some photos of my grandparents. 
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And this is the infamous height chart.  Both of my Stephens are on here.
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Unfortunately this picture is so dark, but the second dark line down is my son!  From this trip.  Then move a dark line down to the first light line and that one is mine.  These two lines are a good two or more inches apart.  The crazy thing is I was two for that line, and my son isn’t there yet and already he’s two inches taller!  CRAZY!  I LOVE being able to see that stuff.  I WILL have one of these in my home.
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These next two are homes that my family had in Tooele.  There on 200 West which used to be called James Street which is the family name.
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And here’s how Stephen was kept occupied on the trip.
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Haha.  Seriously though I was so proud of myself.  I came up with all these different things for him to do on the long drive.  I brought a mini cookie sheet which fit in his lap and some magnets (which he hadn’t used before) and some coins and pencils and paper.  While those certainly kept him occupied for a good while on the trip, my genius husband’s idea was the winner.  He downloaded episodes of The Backyardigans for IV to watch on the IPad.  Winner.  And now we ALL have the theme song memorized.  And yes, we burst into it at random.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Part of the Trip to Utah (in December)

Haha. Of course this picture had to come up first. Explanation:
Stephen has a friend he went to high school with (and who performed in the play with him last May) who now does Drag Shows. He was doing a show in Magna and seeing as how I've never a.) been in a bar or b.) seen a drag show, we decided this was an opportunity not to miss.

Thankfully Kellee and Jared came along with us which helped me to feel not so out-of-place, and it was quite entertaining. His costumes were quite elaborate and I was impressed with how well he took on the mannerisms of each of the women performers he portrayed (we saw Dolly [up above] and Julie Andrews from the sound of music).

OOh, and I watched a drunk guy check out Kellee and then get in a yelling fight with his girlfriend...quite entertaining.

This next picture was taken on our way home coming down the mountain from Daniel and Crystal's.
Of course we had to get the obligatory IceBerg shake. Cheesecake flavored was delicious. And yes it was snowing at the time.
My grandma is staying in AZ right now and so she asked us to get a picture of her house in SLC so we could prove to her that it hasn't burned down yet.
And as a girl from Arizona, snow and ice are all very new and exciting to me so I had to take pictures of the ice on the truck window. I'm sure Stephen and his family thought I was very odd. It's better they find out now. ;)


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Christmas Photoshoot

I'm REALLY behind getting these posted, but I have cute photos of my baby to share. I'm sure you don't mind.

Before we left for Utah to spend Christmas we had a little photoshoot with the Christmas lights I was putting up. At this point Stephen wasn't crawling...so we pretended he got into the lights even though he couldn't, and didn't. He sure looks mischievous though!




Wednesday, December 23, 2009

First Snow

We are up in Utah for a few weeks and it started snowing yesterday. I was sooo giddy I'm sure my in-laws think I'm nuts....but I LOVE the snow! So wintery and Christmasy! Here's the kid's reactions.For my family - doesn't he look JUST like me in that above picture! I love it!
This is probably the first post-pregnancy picture I've liked of me. And the kid doesn't look too bad either! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!