Christmas Joy Part 1- Gratitude

We enjoyed a WONDERFUL Christmas in Maryland! Details to follow in further posts...

We are so grateful for this time of year to celebrate the Savior's birth and to enjoy the blessings of family and friends. What joy to know that our Heavenly Father's plan provides a way for us to continue these precious relationships in the next life. We feel grateful for the Savior's incredible, loving gifts to us.

We hope you all had a beautiful Christmas!

Christmas Card

Scott and Jennifer’s TOP TEN Favorite Things of 2007

1. Celebrating Our First Anniversary In March, we celebrated our first year as a married couple! Scott surprised Jen with a really nice dinner and tickets to a jazz concert at the Dayton Art Institute.

2. Our New Apartment We moved into THE CUTEST new apartment. Scott’s favorite feature: no stairs. Jen’s favorite feature: takes less time to clean than the old house. Teddy’s favorite feature: the pond with all the swans, ducks and geese that he gets to bark at.

3. Our Trip to Texas Jen’s little brother Joe got married in Dallas, Texas this summer and we got to go! We also went down to San Antonio to visit some good friends who live there. We were there while they were having all that crazy flooding and even saw some cars on the side of the road that were in water up above the windows! But we stayed dry (except for the humidity – whew!) and had a wonderful time visiting family and friends.

4. Jennifer’s Week at Girl’s Camp Jen is the Camp Director for the young women at church and really enjoys going off into the woods with them for a week during the summer. When she walked back in the door (looking like she had been off in the woods for a week) Scott’s eyes got all big and he said “Who ARE you??!!”

5. (Jennifer) Reading the last Harry Potter Book Jen is still working on getting Scott to read Harry Potter…

6. (Scott) Reading the last Teachings of the Book of Mormon Class Transcripts Book by Hugh Nibley Scott is still working on getting Jen to read Hugh Nibley…

7. Going to Festivals Ohio has TONS of festivals throughout the summer and fall. The Strawberry festival, The Garlic Festival, The Sauerkraut Festival…to name a few. Being the food lovers that we are, we enjoy sampling all the local flavors. Some of our favorites: Strawberry Salsa, Garlic Ice Cream, Sauerkraut Cabbage Rolls and Deep Fried Oreos.

8. Getting Released From Nursery Yah-Hoo! After a year and a half with the 18-month to 3-year olds in the church nursery, we finally got released. Really, though, we had a GREAT time. With 30 children every week. Two of our favorite stories:

1. The little boy who was unusually fussy until we got his mom and she figured out that he was unhappy because his shoes were too small. She took them off him and for the rest of the morning he kept sighing, “happy…happy….happy!”

2. The nursery has little laundry and kitchen play sets. We looked over one day to see one of the little boys taking off his pants and putting them in the “washer” and then in the “dryer”!

9. Thanksgiving In Maryland It’s a fun 7 hour drive to Maryland and we made it for Thanksgiving. Scott says Jen slept the whole way there, but she doesn’t remember that…maybe she was asleep. Anyway, we had Thanksgiving dinner with Jennifer’s parents and Scott’s mom. We feel so blessed that our families enjoy spending the holidays with us AND each other!

10. We Started This Blog To see how exciting (or not) our life is, you can keep up with us here. Send us an email or leave us a comment to let us know how exciting your life is!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Chaos

Teddy here...


Mommysmama asked me to post some pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas...here you go, Grandma!




It's a good thing mommy took these pictures a few days ago because this is NOT what the house looks like right now. Mommy has been so CRAZY busy getting ready for Christmas (why oh WHY does she procrastinate so much?!?!) that currently there are presents, wrapping paper, Christmas cards, cookies, craft supplies and half-finished handmade gifts and general clutter strewn from one end of the house to the other. Not to mention the pile of wet coats, scarfs and boots by the door from all the snowy-wet weather. And I'll tell you a little secret...she hasn't even made the bed for a week!!! But we LOVE the mess of Christmas!

Movie Mania

OK, we may be the last people on earth to know about this, but we just discovered Redbox. They have these little kiosks at McDonald's and other places where you can rent movies for A DOLLAR A NIGHT! Woo-hoo, I love a deal! Seriously, who wants to pay 5 bucks at Blockbuster? I mean, sure, they give it to you for several days but how many times are you going to watch it? (My friends with children tell me that kids like to watch things over and over and over and over and over, so that might be a good deal for them, but for me personally once is sufficient.)

So, we have already rented a couple of movies this way, and as Scott says, the best part is that if you hate the movie you don't feel so bad because you only paid a dollar! We experienced this with Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer. Dumbest. Movie. Ever. Usually I like the superhero flicks, but this was way beyond stupid. (Sorry to anyone if you liked it!) We did like The Last Mimzy though. Very interesting plotline and different from your typical fantasy.

So, we will probably be watching more movies now that we can rent cheap. But, as my girlfriend said, now we just have to get Hollywood to produce something worth watching!

Dinner and a Movie...and Grocery Shopping!

Date Night!
We consider ourselves "foodies" and pretty adventurous eaters (except no seafood or mushrooms for Scott and no walnuts or raw onions for Jennifer) so we enjoy any outing that has to do with food!
Scott threw me in the car on Saturday and said "We're goin' to Cinci!" We found Sabor Peruano - a Peruvian Restaurant that was very authentic. I think we were the palest people in there which is always a good sign. Scott had Lomo Saltado - sauteed beef with onions, tomatoes and rice with yuca. The waitress had this stunned look on her face when he ordered that, I'm sure she doesn't see many Gringos ordering yuca. (For those of you who don't know, yuca is a root vegetable kinda like a potato but is an aquired taste for those of us who weren't raised on it. Scott aquired a taste for it on his mission.) I had Pollo a la Milanesa - a breaded chicken dish with rice and beans and sweet plantains. When she brought my pollo out, I had to laugh - It was bigger than my head! Then we headed over to Jungle Jims- the adventure park for Foodies! Seriously, this place is insane. It is six acres of food from all over the world. When you enter, there are all these jungle animals out front to welcome you with various hoots, howls and calls.
Then inside there is so much to see! Besides all the incredible food, the whole store is decorated with crazy things like the Cereal Bowl Band playing atop the S.S. Minnow from Gilligans Island. (They really sing!)We saw Robin Hood and his Merry Men up a tree where they have hidden the Sherrif's treasure above all the aisles with food from Great Britain. Oh, yes, they have all kinds of wonderful things to eat and see, including...A WHOLE PIG'S HEAD?!?!?!?!
We picked up some fun, new food items to try (we left the pig head there) and even met some new friends. We talked to a couple in the China aisle who recommended some famous Chinese candy. We met a family from Russia in the Russian aisle who told us all about their favorite foods and showed us which items we might like and what things to stay away from.
After four hours of shopping, (yes, we spent four hours in a grocery store...I said we were into food) we were pretty tired so we came home and curled up on the couch and watched a movie. And ate snacks. It was a great date!

First Snow

Is there anything more wonderful than waking up in the morning, stretching your paws, rolling over for your morning belly rub, and then going to the window to find this? Ahhh, the first snowfall of the year. (Well, actually we heard that there was a light dusting of snow over Thanksgiving, but we weren't here so it doesn't count.)

Mommy wonders, does she really need to go grocery shopping today? Wouldn't she rather just stay inside curled up with a book and a mug of hot chocolate? Of course, she won't share the chocolate with me. (pout)

We have been waiting all year to see the view outside our apartment covered in snow. Isn't it beautiful? But I worry, are the birds OK? The swans are swimming in the ice! Do they enjoy that? I myself do enjoy a frolic in the snow, but ice water...brrrrr!!! We might have to feed them some bread crumbs later. And perhaps some hot chocolate.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We drove to Maryland to spend the holiday with family. Mom gave me Dramamine for motion sickness, so I slept the whole way, but she said that the drive was beautiful with lots of gorgeous fall color still left in the mountains. When we got there, we helped Grandma make our traditional turkey cookies. Mom has been making these since she was a little girl. This was the first time Dad had seen them and he liked them so much he says we definitely have to keep this tradition.

On Thanksgiving day, Daddysmama came over to for dinner, along with some friends from Mommysmama and Mommyspapa's ward. We had a feast! It's so wonderful to enjoy those traditional dishes that bring back memories of your childhood. And we all had fun cooking together!

After dinner, I fell asleep in Grandma's arms. Grandma's not really a dog lover but I won her over! She LOVES me!!!


Mom is one of those strange people that actually enjoys making pie crust. Perhaps it's because her Dad always complimented her on it growing up and her husband raves about it now. Anyway, besides making a fabulous crust, she added fall leaves on top to make it pretty! She found the templates online and cut them out and traced them on the pie crust. Pretty and Yummy!

The day after Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad went to Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Michael's house for another Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a fun night! They arrived to find the most delicious buffet of appetizers and goodies. Mom especially likes the shrimp and cheese spread with crackers and Dad liked the gringerbread cookies with pumpkin dip. Then there was an entire Thanksgiving dinner buffet! YUM! After dinner, Michael had prepared some really fun games and everyone laughed until they hurt! It was a great night of stuffing tummies once again and visiting with family and friends. We feel so blessed to have one big, shared family with so many people to love.

It was a wonderful trip and we had a great time! Mom loves to decorate for the holidays, so I have to put some pictures on here of our fall decorations at our house...



Fall is fun! Christmas, here we come!!!

~Teddy

Hello World!

Well, my mom has been thinking about blogging for a while now but hasn't gotten around to it yet, so I thought I would help her get started. I don't know how often I will be able to post, since it's pretty hard to type with my cute little paws, but I'll do my best so that friends and family can keep up with what's going on in our life!

~Teddy