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Barry's birthday was last Thursday. We went to Red Robin after he got off of work: We signed up online so he could get his free burger on his birthday. It was fun to have his family there to celebrate too. Warren enjoyed eating Grandpa's fries and has found a new love for balloons! I really wish I had brought our camera, because they sang to Barry and made him wear a pair of balloons under his neck: Priceless.

I found a red velvet cake recipe that I wanted to try out. Oh my goodness...it was delicious!!!

I didn't realize the recipe called for 5 tablespoons of red food dye. I was barely able to squeeze out 1 1/2 tablespoons, so it's not nearly as red as it's suppose to be. I think the best part of the cake was the frosting! It is the best frosting I've ever had. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening (I used 1 cup of oil instead)
  
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa (I used 4)
  
• 4 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar WELL. Add eggs and beat well.
3. Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add to creamed mixtur e. Mix salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla and buttermilk together. Add alternately the flour with the milk mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix soda and vinegar and FOLD INTO CAKE BATTER. DON'T BEAT OR STIR NOW.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. To Make Icing: Cook 5 Tablespoons flour and milk over low hea t till thic k, stirring constantly. LET COOL THOROUGHLY! While cooling, cream 1 cups sugar, butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat this well till light and fluffy. Add to flour mixture and beat until of a good spreading consistency. DON'T ICE CAKE TILL COOL.

On Friday we went up to a cabin in Island Park with another couple Barry knew from high-school. It was crazy to see how much snow is still up there...especially since all the snow has melted from our yard. (I never thought I would see our grass again!) We stayed up all night talking and playing games and eating way too much junk food. Then on Saturday we went snowmobiling: It was my first time! 2 seconds after we got on Barry tipped it over. He got it started and then all of a sudden we were tipped over in the snow. But after we got back up thankfully there weren't any other accidents to report. It was really pretty funny more than anything else.

It was the perfect little weekend trip!

A marble set Taylor found for Warren to play with...somehow I don't think he had quite as much fun as everyone else did with it.

Twins

Layering up to go out into the snow

Barry showing off

Me thinking I hope I don't kill myself on this thing!

"The Best Two Years!"

Today is our 2 year anniversary. It's gone by so fast....I guess 2 years really isn't that long, but hey it's longer than I've ever been married before.

We decided to celebrate this past weekend by going out to Blue Hashi for some absolutely delicious sushi! We didn't feel too bad about splurging, because we finally cashed in all the change I've been collecting around the house. Barry always comes home and dumps all his change everywhere, so I have a little 'penny bank' that I put it in to save for a rainy day. Surprisingly we had about $65! Then we went out and did a little shopping. It was so fun just to go out and not worry about getting home to put Warren to bed.

Marriage isn't always the easiest thing, but I would definitely say it's well worth it. I love Barry so much: He really is my best friend!
Next up... Barry's b-day on the 17th, and then Warren's 1st birthday on the 30th!

Just had to add-in some photos of Warren...He's just too cute not to! He finally has his 2 upper front teeth in. You can kind of see them in this photo.

He's learned how to pull himself up in the crib. It's so fun to come in and see him up and waiting for me.



I had to make a centerpiece for one of the tables at our relief society birthday celebration. I found this idea online, and this is what i was able to put together. I think it turned out pretty good. It's grapes on the bottom, then limes, and daisies on top.

Hello 2011...goodbye 2010!

Just a little tribute to 2010...

In January Barry attempted a gluten-free diet and I found out I had gestational diabetes. On the flip-side my sister-in-laws hosted a baby shower for me, and my mom totally surprised me by showing up!
In February we relished in our tax refund, and Barry surprised me with a wonderful Valentine's dinner from the Thai House.
In March I quit my job at D&L's, we welcomed our first baby, Warren, into the world, celebrated our 1 year anniversary and Barry's birthday.
In April we spent a lot of time at home with the baby, many sleepless nights, and celebrated my birthday.
In May we traveled to Utah for a baby blessing, spent time with family, and Warren was also blessed this month.
In June we made another quick trip to Utah to see a friend in the hospital who was recovering from a bone marrow transplant.
In July Warren started sleeping thru the night, saw his first fireworks show, we went to Menan Days, started looking at houses again, and found our perfect home on craigslist of all places. We were also able to pay off all our hospital/doctor bills for the baby this month!!
In August my mom came to visit, we went to the park tons to play frisbee, continued to enjoy walks outside, Barry hired his first employee, we packed, closed on our house, moved, and unpacked.
In September we attended the Christensen family reunion in Island Park, Barry started back to school and bought his first motorcycle, we purchased our first lawn mower, learned how to adjust sprinklers to water the lawn, and we welcomed a new nephew.
In October we went to a fun pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, Warren dressed up as a sumo, we went trick-or-treating, loved watching the leaves change colors, but didn't love raking them up so much.
In November we welcomed a new niece, Barry quit his job at Checker, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Christensen's, and started shoveling snow for the season.
In December we survived the snow, survived the 8 hour trip to and back from St. George, celebrated Christmas with the Stephenson's, and welcomed another new nephew!

2010..you've been good to us!!! Can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us.

I can't believe it's over

Happy New Year!
Wow so much to catch up on.... We went to St. George to be with my mom for Christmas. We left about a week before hoping for beautiful sunny weather down south. Much to our dismay it was snow and rain the whole way down. It rained and rained the first part of the week. Luckily it cleared up around Wednesday or Thursday.

We traveled to Las Vegas to visit my grandma and aunt and uncle that live there. It was good to see them. My cousin also has a little boy about 3 weeks younger than Warren, so it was fun to see them interact with each other. Before we left Vegas we went to the Bellagio which is always decorated beautifully for Christmas.



When we got back to St. George my mom treated us all to dinner at a steakhouse called, Anasazi. Oh it was so delicious!!! They bring out your steaks on a heated volcanic rock, and you continue to cook it to your liking in front of you. They also serve several different kinds of cheese fondue. We had two types that were very delicious as well.

My nephew, Ben, just loves Warren. He played with him all week! It was so nice to have someone else around to entertain him! And of course Grandma enjoyed her time with the grand kids!


It was so nice once the weather cleared up. Barry and I played tennis for a little bit, and then we all went swimming! A Christmas Eve tradition in my family is that we get to open one gift which is always PJ's. Then we read the nativity story, Twas the Night Before Christmas, hang our stockings, and put out cookies for Santa. This year all the little kids got to open their Christmas Eve pajamas including Warren.

On Christmas we opened presents around 7...which poor Warren missed out on. He was not feeling very well the night before, so we let him sleep in. He had his own personal Christmas about 2 hours later! He doesn't quite have the hang of opening gifts yet...maybe next year! Although he did have fun playing with the bows. We bought a little santa suit for him last January that Barry had found on clearance: We have been dying to put it on him since he was born. We were crossing our fingers that it would fit, and luckily it fit perfectly!

The rest of the day was far from relaxing! We decided to host a Christmas dinner for people in my mom's ward who didn't have anyone to spend the holiday with. After breakfast everyone got to work getting ready for the dinner! We cooked a ham and turkey, a couple of different salads, stuffing, yams, potatoes...etc. We also made some cute little stockings that we filled with candy and hung for the guests. There were about 10 people that showed. Even though it was a lot of work it was so nice to be able to add a little glitter to their Christmas.

I loved the time with my family. It was so fun to be able to visit and play games.
We headed back on Monday. We made a stop in Utah to see Barry's brother's baby, who was born right before Christmas. It was also nice because we were able to see almost everyone in his family as well while we were there.
Even though we had definitely enjoyed our vacation time we were getting pretty antsy to be home. Our car was packed super tight. Every time we opened the back door stuff would fall out. For a few days after we got home Warren would throw a fit every time he had to get back in his car seat. Poor guy!
New Year's Eve we spent with some friends just playing games. Our electricity went out around 8:30 and didn't come back on for about an hour and a half. It was sooo cold!! Way to ring in the new year right?! Barry was trying to get our generator going and got it all set up seriously right as the power came back on. Like always Warren slept through the whole thing.

Barry's new website

My husband just made his first web site. You should check it out. generatorchampion.com

Catch-up

I have found that not updating the blog is the same reason I never write in my journal. I go for long periods of time without writing, and then I feel overwhelmed thinking about all the stuff I need to write about to catch up and don't end up doing it at all!

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Christensen's. It's always fun to get together with the family. All the food was delicious! I went a little crazy with the pies though. Originally I was only planning on making a peanut butter/chocolate pie and a pecan pie, but my family always has tons of pies on Thanksgiving. So I was worried there wasn't going to be enough pie: I volunteered for 2 more pumpkin, and I also decided to make cherry pie. I don't know what I was thinking! I didn't have a pie crust recipe, so I found a couple of different ones online to try out. The first 2 were pretty disgusting! I still can't figure out how they got such high ratings. Luckily the one I used for the pecan and cherry tasted pretty good. I was pretty panicked after the first two failures.

Barry's brother brought up his Kinect for everyone to play. It was so fun. I never thought playing video games would make your whole body sore the day after. Here is a pic of his parents boxing each other. I'm sure they will be thrilled that I am posting this:

A couple of weeks ago I helped throw a baby shower for one of my sister-in-laws. I was so excited to make the invitations! I also found a site online that listed step-by-step directions on how to make a fruit bouquet. It was so simple...actually the hardest part was hunting down the strawberries. Luckily Barry was able to find me some, although they were definitely on the pricey side.I have really been getting into crafty projects lately. It's nice because they keep me busy! I just finished some cute crochet projects that I will have to post pictures of later. A while back at enrichment a lady had buckets that she had decorated to put treats in to pass out at Christmas. From that moment on I was obsessed with the idea. The buckets she used were from Porter's and super expensive which bummed me out until I realized I could use the empty baby formula cans we have. Here's what I ended up with. I wish the lids weren't orange but sometimes you just have to deal with it I guess.

Barry and I finally finished the Hunger Games Trilogy. We both agree that the first book was definitely the best! It was fun to be able to enjoy reading together though. I will have to admit near the end Barry was way more into the book than I was. It's sad how fast I die out at nights now. Once it gets past 10:30 I am done for.

Warren now has two of his bottom front teeth in. It's so super cute to see him smile now. He's also started to learn how to stand without any support. He kind of teeter totters balancing from his heals to his toes. It's so fun to see him learn new things! He is still army crawling. I wonder if he will ever really get the hang of crawling?

We actually found something that he won't eat. I never thought that would happen. He usually eats anything you put in his mouth. But we bought some canned baby food beef for him. He made the funniest face and started spitting it out. But I really don't blame him. It smelled and looked disgusting. He's also started falling to the side of his high chair while he's eating. It's so weird!

I still can't believe that Christmas is right around the corner! We are going to St. George this year to be with my side of the family. I'm not necessarily looking forward to the 8 hour drive, but I am excited to be in warmer weather and, of course, I am so excited to spend time with my family! As there is a 100% chance that none of you will receive a Christmas letter in the mail from us I decided that I would take the time to wish you Merry Christmas here. I hope the weather stays nice for all of you who are traveling. Enjoy the time with your families or friends or maybe it's just your dog or cat. And don't forget to remember the real reason for the season.

Love,
The Christensen's

"..Oh the weather outside is frightful....!"

I've been inside all day listening to the crazy wind blowing!
A good amount of snow has been falling all weekend. On Saturday our power went out for a few hours. I was going to leave with the baby, but after looking out the window and seeing all the snow I decided to wait it out for awhile. The power came back on about 3 hours later. I was so relieved: It definitely got a little chilly.

Every morning we wake up and look out the window to check the damage of the night snowfall. This morning there was just wicked wind...and a huge snow drift on our front lawn. Oh how much I love Idaho winters.

On a little brighter note... Our niece, Lily Ann Stephenson was born on Friday. She is so tiny and precious. We were able to go up to the hospital on Saturday and visit with Mom, Dad (my brother) and baby Lily. She surprised everyone with a club foot. But thankfully for modern medicine
it won't be too much of a problem to get that all fixed up. We are so glad that she is part of the family!

Since I last posted Warren has started to 'crawl'. He does his own thing. We call it the inch worm, but it's started to turn more into the army crawl. It's so fun to see him more mobile these days. I'm sure I won't be saying that here in a few months. He also has had the appearance of his first tooth! And really, for the most part, he hasn't been too fussy about it. Woo hoo! We'll see how the rest of them go.
Barry's last day at Checker/O'Reilly Auto Parts is this week. It's crazy to think that he won't be working there anymore. Ever since I've known him he has been there. But I can't say I'm really going to miss it all that much (well maybe the steady paychecks). After weighing all the pros and cons we decided that quitting that job will be the best. This way he can have a little more time for school, he can invest way more time into his own business, more time with his family, and no more working Sundays! I know it will be a little harder financially, but thankfully we have money saved up and the Lord has blessed us so much! It's exciting and scary all at the same time. But Barry is fairly confident he can be successful with his business. I am just grateful to know I have a husband that will do whatever it takes to provide for his family.