Haircut!

Jeremy gave Coop a hair cut, no lie he was not excited about this. But his hair was out of control....he's got a ton of hair and while it's cute longer, it was past time. So after we got him out of the bathroom where he was hiding he sat fairly still.



It always makes him look so different....



And just cause she said cheese



That is her bed head, she's got crazy thin hair.

Food TV

I watch a lot of Food Network, because I love to cook. There is not one show that makes me want to go to the store and immediately make what I saw.....until Pioneer Woman started back. So Sunday for Breakfast I recreated this:



French Toast with Blackberry compound butter and syrup. You should make it, it's amazing! It didn't hurt I got to use my new sugar shaker....



Yes that was another Christmas Gift!

Couldn't last.....

My jeans that is. Obviously I'm not wearing regular jeans and since I really have no reason to get out all that much (except for bball games) I only had 2 pairs of maternity jeans. I bought one pair this time around at Target, while they are cute, they just aren't as comfy as the pair I wore when I was pregnant with Maddie. Probably because I wore them all the time, they are nice and stretchy. So a couple of weeks ago when I came home from Edmond I was crushed when my husband pointed out there was indeed a hole in my jeans, around the fly. So since I don't have any maternity store options around and I couldn't bear to pay $50 + shipping for a new pair; I did what any girl would do. Called my
Mom, begged her to go out to the mall, buy me a pair of jeans, and mail them me. (I'm sure you know there wasn't a lot of actual begging involved.) She sent them Friday and Tuesday morning I got this:



With a lovely new pair of jeans inside:



So thanks Mom for saving the day once again, she's the best! So next week when we are back on the basketball marathon again I can wear jeans and not my yoga/workout pants that barely stretch around my waist!

Kitchen Gadget Obsession

So I might have a kitchen gadget obsession, but only with ones that I'll use. My Christmas list looked about like this:
Non stick skillet
Sugar shaker
Whip creamer (like they use at Starbucks)
Calzone mold
Tortilla press

So I had a few other items too, but mostly stuff for my kitchen. I like the idea of making homemade pizza crust and tortillas, just like I love homemade ice cream. You can control what is in it. I saw a video about home made tortillas, which made me want a press. You could roll these out, but a press is way more fun! Mexican food around here is good, but sometimes you just need a good fresh tortilla. So I set out today and made homemade tortillas for our tacos tonight! I used Pioneer Woman's flour tortilla recipe. It's a little time consuming because you have to let the dough rest, but you can mix it, forget about it, roll it into smaller balls and then let sit till you're ready to cook them.
My first attempt was a success, Cooper even ate a few, which is huge!



Roll into smaller balls




Put the ball toward the middle back and press



Cook on some sort of flat top, I just love this flat iron skillet (It's useful for cookie cakes too!)



Wrap in foil to keep warm!

The foil does keep them pretty warm, when I went back for a third taco, my tortilla was still pipping hot!
They are a little smaller and I was worried the press made them thin, but they were perfect. I wouldn't suggest using them for enchiladas, but for tacos they were great, they'd be great with some butter, or dipped in cheese!

Really, it's been 10 years?!?

10 years ago I had just returned from some of the best times and travels of my life. I was lucky enough to go on the Vienna Studies 2001 program, I remember when at OC that was a big deal to go on that. After our year for whatever reason that kinda fell off. Which, hello college students, a semester abroad, traveling, learning about other cultures, making life-long friends, you're really missing out. I will say I think our group was so lucky, we had amazing sponsors in Mickey and Jane Banister, and our group gelled so well together it was almost unreal. We all enjoyed being together. (Which I know you won't find in every group!) I may have not really cared about my 10 year high school reunion, but a 10 year Vienna Reunion, I jumped at the chance to help out with and attend that one. It was so great to see a number of our group, we held out over homecoming so Mickey and Jane would be back from their 3rd tour of Vienna, sounds like a lot has changed since we went. Although I have books of photos and boxes of memories, here are a few of the best!

 Our group on Halloween, I don't know why this is the only group pic I have...

My trusted Dad's back pack that I traveled all over with, 

and my best traveling partner April!

 My mom surprised me about half way through when we met her family in 

Germany for the first time!

 

Mandy, Jenn, and I, we ate a lot of good Gelato....

oh what I wouldn't give for some of that now!

 

Our group and new additions that could make it out to Royal Bavaria in Moore 

to eat Saturday!

 

The pic above is how we signed this book on a retreat we went on. 

I don't know if people even still go out there, but we agonized for ever how we 

were going to leave "our mark". So this is what we came up with, it's a subway map,

with the lines representing countries we'd visited so far, and we put our

first or last name into famous landmarks. I drew this out in the book, 

so I digitalized the picture that I had and made magnets for everyone

as a keep sake. I'm just glad they turned out good and people didn't think it was stupid, haha!

Marathon Christmas

So here is my massive Christmas post.....full of the few pictures I took.....

 The kids and I came to Edmond a week before Christmas so Cooper could see his

"Best Friends" Lydia and Levi!

 Christmas morning at my parents, somehow Santa found these two there

 The "BIG" Piano, it plays a lot of different instruments. 

Cooper's favorite thing to do is step on each different instrument and say what it is.

 Don't try to take this shopping cart away from this girl, it gets ugly fast.

 Cooper got his very own real Starbucks apron, yes I have created a monster, he loves loves 

Starbucks, his favorite color is "Green, like Starbucks!"

 More Christmas at Mama Jo's after church. 

(We missed the other celebration because we were in Texas, and I didn't take any pictures there cause I'm a bad mom....)

 This is probably Maddie's favorite gift, her itty bitty baby, she loves this baby,

which we hope will be great when in 10 short weeks she gets a real baby sibling!

 See, we're trying to take a perfect family Christmas picture, she'd rather be carrying around her baby.

 

Oh, we celebrated Grandma's birthday too, I got the best picture of my parents

and their Grand kids, it's amazingly good for 3 little ones! (This isn't it, but it's not bad, yes my daughter 

is partially naked, that dress requires special cleaning, and we all know she's a messy eater.)

 "Christmas" or the day after Christmas morning in Newkirk

 Thomas the Train and Friends are still his favorite gifts. Although, he does love is golf set; his wish for 2012 was to go the golf course more. Newkirk "Country Club" is luckily free, although

the greens are sand greens.

 Stocking Fun!

 Maddie loved opening all the presents, I think she opened all of mine and Jeremy's too. 

She did get a kitchen, but was more interested in trying to putt with the golf club at the time.

I'm happy to report that she does play with her kitchen that took us 4 HOURS to put together. 

Taking pictures and trying to video is hard work....

 So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the 

Young Family....this is as good as it got on Christmas afternoon.

Now it's back to school, back to work, back to basketball, then that Baby will be here before we know it!

(10 weeks, not that I'm counting!)