Almost Christmas

We've (read Lindsey) have been getting ready for Christmas. Lindsey insisted on putting out some Christmas lights, so she wrapped the tree. If we are still in this house next year I have plans of lining the roof :-)

The decorated tree, without any presents.

For some crazy idea I felt the need to make candies and give to the neighbors and people I work with. After dipping a pound of pretzels, a double batch of oreo truffles, peanut butter balls and 8 dozen cookies, I was ready to pull my hair out

Oreo truffles and peanut butter balls

This was the winning self portrait for the Christmas card. My new camera has a setting where I can set a timer for it to take pictures as well as having it take multiple images too. We had to try a couple times and always had it set to take ten pictures, but we were able to get a couple of good pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a while since I've posted anything. This year we ended up staying in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. Finnis and Penni came out and Finnis helped us rebuild the terrible sunroom addition on our house. When we bought the house it was covered with honeysuckle and we didn't know how poorly it was build. We still have to some work to do, but it is much better now. We had a non-tradtional dinner. We smoked a pork shoulder all day, and I also made a green bean casserole, party potatoes, corn casserole, and sopapilla cheesecake. The neighbor kids brought over a pumpkin pie, so I'll make one this week with the ingredients that I bought.

This is sort of a 'before' picture. We had actually already torn down quite a bit of the honeysuckle at this point
Behind all the honeysuckle. The wall wasn't sealed very well and they did a terrible job insulating it. Also, the smaller windows on the right side of the picture didn't even go through the wall, they were covered with dry wall

New window. Brice and his dad sealing up the joints. Siding is up now and we need to prime and paint as well as texture the dry wall on the interior wall

Worst Idea ever

This was quite possibly my worst idea I've had. I had seen these wreathes around and saw how to make them, so I thought I'd give it a try. Before I even started tying the fabric on the wreath form I was regretting my decision. It takes forever to cut all the little strips of fabric. Each strip is about 2 inches wide and 8 inches long...and it seems like a cut a million pieces. I only tied the fabric on the inner two wires of the form, because I was getting impatient, It still looks nice and full, If I had done all four rows I'd still be cutting fabric. Now that it is finished it looks good, but I doubt I will be making another one of these anytime soon.

Added the word Boo in the middle. I think I may eventually paint them green and figure out a better way to attach them

Final ProductMy Bow needs a lot of help, but I ran out of patience.

Dessert and Cute Animals

I made sopapilla cheesecake today. It was super easy

Ingredients:
-3 cans pillsbury butter crescent rolls
-2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
-1 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/4 cup butter (melted)
-Cinnamon & sugar

Instructions:
Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

You could probably get by with only using two cans of crescent rolls and just spread the dough a little thinner.





And now a few cute animal pictures

Jack in a very small box

Rusty and Bailey 'killing' their bottle toy

Riley in her giant box

This is my ankle...2 weeks after it happened. The bruising goes all the way to the bottom of my foot. Now it's been 3 weeks and it is starting to look better.

Front Yard

The house next door to us is unfortunately a rental house and they drive me slightly crazy. The parents are fine, but they have kids that are around my age that are pieces of crap... The other day I came home to a ton of cigarette butts on the ground in front of my house, complements of their son. They also have a large gate with a paved area in the back yard. The son has been moving cars in and out and you can see tire tracks and the weed barrier fabric is getting shredded in their yard. The little brat was also cutting the corner and driving though our yard, so I did a little passive aggressive xeriscaping. I moved some of the rocks from the back yard to the front the make it so they can't easily cut the corner.

I bought pumpkins, but I'm still on the fence on whether I'm going to hand out candy to the little brats this year. Some stupid kid/parent stole one of my lights last year.

I saw a version of this online with stickers and loved it. For a while it seemed like people were always coming around wanting to sell us junk. I found the sign hilarious, but I don't think Brice is amused by it :-) I just printed it and stuck it in an old picture frame.

My mums I planted a few weeks ago are getting bigger. We had a windy day shortly after I planted them and I thought one of them wasn't going to survive, but they seem to be doing well.

Air Show at Kirtland Air Force Base

To continue the eventful weekend with my parents we went up to Bernalillo for one of my soccer games. After the game and lunch we headed out to the air force base for an air show. We parked near our offices and then were bused over to the runway. Just as we were getting off the bus they had a B-2 stealth bomber fly over us. After walking around and looking at some of the planes they had out the Thunderbirds started flying. I didn't take my camera, so here are a few pictures stolen from Dad.

Four Thunderbirds doing a loop in formation

Blackhawk

Bernalillo County Sheriff's Helicopter

Thunderbirds on the runway

Balloon Fiesta

My parents came out for the last weekend of the balloon festival. We got up at 4am and headed to a park and ride location to take a bus to the park. It rained quite a bit on Friday afternoon and late into the evening, so the park was really wet. The winds weren't quite right, so there was a delay in the balloons taking off too. They were supposed to take off around 7am, but it was closer to 8:30 or 9 when they actually starting going up. While we were waiting we talked to a pilot and the crew of the ladybug shaped balloon. It turns out they were in Amarillo this week for the Amarillo festival.

Here are a few pictures from the morning

One of the bumble bees

One of the special shapes. His glasses have the reflection of other balloons

Butterfly and basketball. The butterfly was one of my favorites

Just a few of the balloons in the air

This cow was huge!

Mom and Dad

Cat...another one of my favorites, because he's giving the stink eye