Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

I think this will be the first White Christmas I can remember. We started getting snow on Wednesday and have gotten snow everyday day since. It has let up for today Monday, but is we are expected to get more Wednesday and Thursday (Christmas).
We have all had a great time playing in the snow! Of course I have taken lots and lots of pictures here are just some.




One morning I looked out in the yard and saw two deer. As the morning progressed the deer kept coming, in all there were 6 deer (3 nice bucks and 3 does).



You know it's really cold out when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you think of is fixing your chicken some warm oatmeal to help keep them warm.

Baking Sugar Cookies with my boys

The snow started falling on Wednesday and so no school! I decided it was a good day for baking. The boys and I made up some sugar cookie dough with frosting sprinkles and all.

Grandma Katie's Povitica

While reading my monthly subscription to Family Fun I saw a picture of some bread, I was so excited because I knew that it was povitica. I quickly turn to the recipe and sure enough it was.
You see my Great Grandmother Katie use to make this for the holidays. My sister Deanna and I have made it a couple of time over the past few years, but it always seemed to be quite challenging. Grandma Katie’s way of making it was that you rolled the whole batch of dough (enough to make 4/5 regular loaves of bread) over the entire kitchen table and tried your best to spread it as thin as you possibly could without tearing it. Then you would spread the yummy nut filling across the whole kitchen table that had the dough on it and then do your best to roll it all up like you would cinnamon rolls, again without tearing it. As you can see this became an almost impossible task.
When my sister came to visit I showed her the recipe and she said yes, it seemed like the recipe, but Grandma Katie’s used ½ -n- ½ instead of milk. No this isn’t a lowfat kind of bread.
I decided to give it a try one day, and I was surprisingly amazed it wasn’t all that hard, when you don’t roll all the dough out at once. Now, why we didn’t try this earlier when attempting to make it with my sister I am not sure, maybe because we wanted to make it just like Grandma Katie? I ended up making 4 loaves and I must say they are quite tasty. I am going to make some more when a couple of days before Christmas so they will be fresh.

The search for the Perfect Tree

I love the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree. Every year we go hunting for the perfect Christmas tree. Of course this take a little time and when we think we have found one that everyone will like, someone decided it not quite perfect and we have to move on to the next. This usually take 30 minutes or so, but we all have a great time. The last two years we have gone to Ames Tree farms not to far from us. They have really nice trees and they are cheap compared to every other place.

This year the boys decided they wanted to cut the tree down. They discovered it is a little harder than it looks. They both gave it a good shot, but in the end Dad ended up cutting it down.

Well time has sure flown by. I keep meaning to come and update my blog, but life just keeps happening and I don't always get the time I want. Since school has started we have been so busy. Between ORLA, swim team, dance and homeschooling we don't have much time for anything else.

Steven had his first swim meet in October, he did really well for his first one, he had lots of fun. Did you know even just starting out and doing it mostly for fun they still have to follow all the rules/regulations as if they were swimming in the Olympics...it's crazy. There are so many disqualifications I am surprised anyone places. You can get disqualified for your arm not being bent just the right way or when you start out you kicked just a little wrong. Steven's coach's daughter was hoping to qualify so they could compete in a certain meet and she was disqualified for her shoulder being back instead of forward on the turn. Needless, to say Steven didn't place, but he had a lot of fun. I was bummed Pete forgot the camera so we don't have any pictures.

Halloween was fun! The homeschool group had a dance with trunk or treating before, so we deck

the van out and the kids went around and got candy. Then Abby stayed at the dance and Pete and I took the boys trick or treating. The boys got way to much candy which Mom and Dad had to check over first to confiscate all the "bad" candy! LOL

Steven was a Skeleton Chopper biker guy and Austin was Wolverine.

Abby I am not sure what she decided she was. She was going for a punker, but had gone to a friends house before and ended up not doing all that she had planned?

We just got back from Disneyland, where Abby's clogging dance group dance 2 days (once at California Adventure and once a Disneyland) It was a great time to go, the lines weren't bad at all, I think the longest we had to stand in line may have been 25 minutes. That was until Monday (11/10) when California schools were out Monday and Tuesday for the Veteran Holiday, then it was just crazy. Pete's Mom Marilyn went with us too, I think she had a lot of fun. She hadn't been to Disneyland since 1964 so a lot had changed.
Abby had the best time, Saturday Disney was filming their Christmas special, so the Jonas brothers and Corbin Blue were there. She was ecstatic that she was up front when Corbin Blue performed, she got lots of pictures and some video. We will have to watch for when it airs and see if we can see Abby. Here are a few of the many pictures that we took!

Abby and Emma(right) dancing their part in their Highschool Musical dance!

I love how Marilyn is looking at Goofy in this picture!

Gramma and Austin

The Boys

Dracula and myself (Austin took this picture, I thought he did quite well)

Austin didn't want any of the girl characters to sign his autograph book. I told him it was going to hurt Minnie's feelings and she did pout for a second or two, then Mickey gave Minnie Austin's book and she pretended to kiss and hug it and then she handed it back to him. He was like Ewwww! It was pretty funny.

The Incredible!

We were suppose to act like we were strong, but the boys must have decided not to?