Amzie's Christmas list

Yeah, Christmas is over but I just have to post this little movie of Amzie reading her list to Santa. Everytime she's asked for stuff the past month or so I tell her to write a letter to Santa and ask for it. The other night when we were at Grandmas she said "I want to write a letter to Santa!" So we gave her a pen and paper and let her roll. I was overhearing her talk it out and it was so funny. She likes to make up words so if there's anything you don't understand, it's because it's not understandable. It's also pretty poor quality because I just took it with my digital camera because I didn't want to miss the moment. I also think the actual letter is really cute. She wrote it with lines so it looks like a real letter. What a girl! (Oh, and sorry, I filmed it sideways. I thought I'd be able to flip it, but no such luck. I'm a bonehead.

Just in time...

I finally got the finishing touches on our house just in time for Christmas.

Just kidding. We don't even have lights up. But I really think nothing says "Christmas" like a yard full of blow ups. :) Yeah, next year the first thing on my Christmas list will be the blow up Santa on a motorcycle. Can't wait.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Shepherds. No, Wise men.

We had our Christmas with the Beelers on Saturday. Grandma put together a little Christmas program and decided we should all dress up a little for Amzie's sake. Amzie liked it and she really loved it when Grandma let her lead the music. So here we are in our "wise men" garb.

What is that?

Well, it's a, a, well, I'm not sure what to call it. J.Paul said it's a "wax up". Let's go back to the beginning of the story.... Amzie said she wanted a blue ring for Christmas. Not really sure where she got the idea but every time we ask what she wants for Christmas, it's a blue ring. We looked for one, but had no luck. J.Paul said he could make one at school using the same method you'd use to make dental crowns and bridges. First you have to make whatever you're making in wax. So to the left is the wax ring with the blue stone. Then you invest it in stone (are you still with me?). Then you cast it, or fill it with metal. Then you polish it and you have your finished product. It took me a while to get it. Anyways, here is Amzie's ring.

Looks pretty good, huh?

A Haircut

When we were at Great-Grandma and Grandpa's house, Amzie found some scissors. And then she took a few snips, right at the front. Amzie is "hair challenged" on the sides and she took a big hunk right out of that to make matters worse. We were pretty sad and told her so and she said she'd never cut it again, so hopefully that's true.

(3 out of 4) stockings were hung, by the chimney with care

Okay folks, I need your help. I've made all of our stockings and I need to make Evan's this year. You see, it didn't get done last year, but it could still happen this year. Come on people, it could. Anyway, my dilemma is this - I don't want to make it the same as the rest. I'm kind of over that. But could I just go ahead and make it completely different, even though the other three are the same? What do you think?

Evan's new hobby

Evan loves to climb. It's moderately to severely annoying. His favorite venture is to crawl up on the fireplace, then up on to the end table, then onto the couch, then get down and do it all over again. The fun never ends! If I pull him down, guess what happens? How did you know? He goes right back to it. If he falls on to his head, screams and cries, I comfort him and then put him back down, guess what he does? You got it. He keeps climbing his little heart out. But he's just so cute.

Kindermusik

Amzie and I attend a little class called Kindermusik once a week. My nice mom keeps Evan so we can do this together. Amzie gets to sing, dance and play all sorts of cool different instruments. She was really wailing on that triangle.

'til we meet again

My little brother entered the Missionary Training Center today. He will be there to learn how to be a missionary and get a jump-start on his Spanish for 2 months. I remember my first Spanish class we walked in and our teacher just started speaking Spanish. We were all looking at each other like, "is this guy for real?" But it really is amazing how much you learn in that short 2 months. Good luck Kirk! Enjoy this time in the MTC! After Kirk is done with his training, he will be off to Buenos Aires and he'll be gone for 2 years. It seems like a long time, but we'll still be here in school when he gets home. (sigh)....... I heart Kirk.

YAHOO!

J.Paul is officially done with the worst semester ever. If I am wrong and next semester turns out to be worse than this one, I might have to be committed. J.Paul got home from his last exams last night complaining of extreme pain in his side. We looked up kidney stones on the internet and it basically described exactly what he was feeling. Luckily we had some Percocet lying around. He's okay today so either the kidney stone isn't traveling or it was a fluke. Let's hope for the latter. I can't wait to spend 3 weeks with J.Paul. Yahoo!

A Budding Photographer

Amzie loves to take pictures with my camera. She has her own, an old broken 35mm, and when you push the button to take the picture the flash goes off. You'd think this would suffice, but I guess nothing compares to taking the picture and seeing it right there on the back of the camera. Here are a few of Amzie's "best" shots.

A perfect weekend

My roommate Jenn from college at Southern Utah University came to visit Carolyn and I this past weekend. It was her birthday so she treated herself to a visit to Memphis. We had so much fun! Friday Jenn and I got 'do's from our favorite hairdresser, Carolyn and just hung out a bit. That night us three girls went to mid-town Memphis and got some local food at Soul Fish Cafe. Jenn experienced her first catfish and black eyed peas. The food was yummy. Then we walked down to a place called Sweets and got some yummy cake. We shared pistachio and tres leches cake. Then we spent the night in my mom's "suite". Saturday we went shopping all day and then celebrated Jenn and Ava's birthdays. Carolyn got a ganoche cake from a French bakery that was delicious. We topped the night off with a game of NERTZ. It was such a fun time and and a blast from the past. So much fun reminiscing on our college days. Thanks for coming Jenn! And a big thanks to all who helped watch all the kids so we could have some much needed girl time. I really appreciate it.

I'm wondering if Carolyn has a copy of the picture of us doing this exact same thing 10 years ago?

Hmm...who had trash duty?

We got home from our trip on Sunday afternoon and had absolutely nothing to eat. After digging through the freezer, fridge and pantry I decided to come up with my own concoction. After J.Paul took a bite he said "You've got to blog about this". He liked it.

It is Toasted Ravioli with chicken and broccoli. If you're interested, it's easy to make, but there are quite a few steps.

for chicken and white sauce: cut chicken into small pieces and cook in olive oil with salt and pepper. When thoroughly cooked, remove chicken and add a couple tablespoons butter to pan. When melted add a couple tablespoons of flour and mix well. Slowly add a can of chicken broth while whisking. Add a little half and half. Add a couple handfuls of grated parmesan cheese. Keep on medium heat to thicken up while toasting ravioli. When sauce is thickened, add chicken.

prepare broccoli to your liking

to toast ravioli: whisk two eggs together with a little half and half. Dip ravioli into egg mixture and then into seasoned bread crumbs. Toast ravioli in olive oil over medium heat. It just takes a couple minutes on each side.

Serve ravioli with broccoli on top then put the chicken and white sauce on top of that.

Hope you like it.

Thanksgiving weekend

Okay so I am notorious for not taking pictures when we go on trips. I remembered to snap a couple on our way down to Georgia but I really wish I would have thought to take a picture of our Thanksgiving spread. My brothers Wade and Reed and their families were going down to Disney world and planned to stop at my sister's in the Atlanta area for Thanksgiving and head on down to Orlando the next day. So, a few more of us decided to join in for the fun. I think there were close to 40 people there. We had a great time. On Saturday morning we woke up and headed to J.Paul's grandparents in Linden, TN. We got there just in time to eat another delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Needless to say, we were a little tired by the time we got home Sunday afternoon but it was all worth it. It's great to spend time with family.

This picture was taken outside of Birmingham. You can't really tell from the picture how pretty all the changing leaves were but it was really a beautiful drive.

Game On!

So we are slightly addicted to a game called The Settlers of Catan. I would say we used to be highly addicted but just haven't been able to feed the addiction as much lately with J.Paul's crazy school schedule. We used to get together with my brother and sister-in-law, Chad & Kristy, every Friday night. Now we're lucky if we can get in 1-2 games a month. The thing that makes Settlers so fun is that the game changes every time because of the way you set it up. We played Saturday night and I won the first game and J.Paul won the second game. Yes, the Beelers dominated. You also may notice the chips and salsa, those are required for play. Also cookies are usually a staple but we didn't have any the other night. If you've never played this game I highly recommend it. Just be ready to play for a while - the average game takes about an hour and a half. This picture is of Chad being beaten twice in a row. See how baffled he is? He thinks he usually wins. We also like to play with Amanda and Michelle who we look forward to beating over the Christmas vacation. :)

Silly Amzie

Yesterday morning my visiting teachers were over and I was sitting talking with them and Amzie was playing with one of their little boys. While they were here it started raining pretty hard and the next thing we know Amzie was ready to go play in the rain. As you see, she still had her pajamas on and she went and found her red shoes and umbrella and proceeded to go outside. Later that day, when giving her a bath, she decided she needed to wear her shades. And she did the whole time until I shampooed her hair.

Amzieisms

Amzie says some of the funniest things and I wanted to write some of them down before I forget.

1. chocolate milk is "cold hot chocolate"

2. a tissue is "tennis shoe"

3. past tense of make is muck, for example "mommy, Evan muck a mess"

4. every time she wants to say "I forgot" it's "I got to forgot"

5. mowing the grass "moving the grass"

6. every time she gets in bed it's "mommy, I want you to laid with me"

7. breakfast is "bretis" and cereal is "cimeal"

8. every time I tell her to be quiet her reply is "Who's sleeping" as if the only time you need to not be screaming at the top of your lungs is if someone's asleep.

Green Tomatoes

Our garden continued to grow this summer after we were over it. Well should I say after I was over it and J.Paul was too busy to do anything about it. Mainly it was the okra that we just let go. But the other day (we're in November, mind you) we noticed we have a few green tomatoes just a-growin'. J.Paul said Amzie and I needed to collect them. My mamaw says that she remembers picking green tomatoes before the frost and letting them ripen inside and having tomatoes well into the winter. We got about 1/3 of a paper bag full. We'll see what happens.

Sleeping Amzie (finally)

I've mentioned before that Amzie's not a big fan of going to sleep. She has all the delay tactics down pat. The other night I heard all of them 100 times each. After at least 1 hr. 15 min., I didn't hear any noise. When I went to check on her, this is what I found.

That's right, she's sleeping on the hard floor. I guess she just couldn't get comfortable on her soft warm bed with her blankets and pillows. Also, these aren't the pajamas I put her to bed in - they were pink. Hmmm...

Isn't this monkey irresistable?

Okay, sorry I couldn't resist the urge to put a couple more pictures of Evan in his monkey outfit. He was just too cute.

Trick or Treat

These are the kiddos on Halloween. They had a good time. Evan didn't seem to mind his monkey costume as much this time around. I just put him in the stroller when we went trick or treating and he was content. We went with the Waites in their neighborhood. Amzie and Eden had fun screaming out "Trick or Treat" as long as nobody was really at the door yet, when someone came they seemed a little more reserved about it. They especially enjoyed looking at all the fun Halloween decorations at the houses. And we had perfect weather. It's finally cooling off here and feeling like fall.

Amzie and Daddy dress up

Yesterday J.Paul got home from school early and was helping Amzie clean her room while I fixed dinner. When I was done I discovered Amzie had played dress-up, and convinced Daddy to join in. It was so cute. Thanks for being a good sport Daddy!

Halloween Party

There was a halloween party/carnival/hayride/trunk or treat at the church on Friday night. We had a good time, especially on the hayride. Amzie enjoyed following her cousin Carly everywhere. She was Little Bo Peep. Evan was a monkey but I didn't get any pictures of him. J.Paul had him while I went everywhere with Amzie, but it's still lame that I didn't get any pictures of him. Some of the best costumes were a family dressed as legos, a family dressed as chickens, Napoleon and Deb, and a guy dressed as the wolf in granny's bed. Good thing Amzie was Little Red Riding Hood last year! Also, I should mention that my sister LeAndrea made this Bo Peep costume and it is so cute! The hat kind of hangs in Amzie's eyes so she had to walk around all night looking up so she could see. Someone mentioned thatshe was going to have a neckache from having to look up all night!

Pumpkin Carving

My mother-in-law Glenda called us up and invited us to come over Friday to carve some pumpkins. We had a great time. Amzie loved it. We let her paint a pumpkin and she kept asking to cut it. After every time she'd paint something, "Let's cut this here now". But she ended up being content with her Dora, pumpkin face, black cat pumpkin. J.Paul made a skull and Grandpa made a spooky face. Thanks Grandma for the fun time!

Can you see Dora on Amzie's pretty pumpkin?