William's Blessing Day

We blessed William today. Bryce gave him a beautiful blessing. We were able to have Bryce, cousin Peter, Bishopric, home teaching companion (Bother Gunn), and Friend Alan Taylor join in the circle. William was perfectly quiet the whole time. He looked good in his white tux!

Carr Visit

We were so lucky to have Bryce's cousin, Peter, and his family come to visit us this week! They live in DC, so they have been the only family remotely close to us for years - the kids have loved getting together with them when we can. We spent time together at home playing our new Wii, playing outside (yes! the weather warmed up!), touring ECU campus, playing games and watching movies. On New Year's Eve we even went down to the beach! Caleb thought we were crazy for going to the beach in December, but everyone ended up having a great time!

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve! Its a day full of tradition and anticipation. We skipped lunch and had a big early Christmas eve dinner so the festivities could start! We had a talent show full of singing, saxophone and trumpet playing, and even a little baby dancing!

We had the kids act out the Nativity story while Bryce narrated. We even had William starring as the baby Jesus! We watched "Joy to the World" and had a nice testimony meeting. Next up: PRESENTS! We opened our new jammies and the sibling gifts. It was such a wonderful night!

Peppermint Bark Popcorn

Um, ok, I just made this popcorn for the first time today (and first time I've tasted it) and it is a Christmastime MUST HAVE! Oh me oh my! It was forwarded to me from Latacha who got it from my friend Jackie Daley (I have to give them some credit)! Here is the recipe:


Peppermint Bark Popcorn
Recipe by Our Best Bites

16-20 C popped popcorn (fresh, or about 2 bags microwave popcorn)
1 lb Almond Bark
1 6oz box candy canes, crushed. (About 1-1 1/2 C total and Bob's are the best!)
2 tea. peppermint extract
3/4 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

*one bag microwave popcorn has about 10 cups in it, so if you're air-popping, do about 20 cups.

Place popcorn in a very large mixing bowl.
Crush the candy canes and pour over popcorn. I pulsed them in my blender. Here is the note from the recipe giver:

Unwrapping the candy canes to crush them is the most labor intensive step of this easy treat, so you can do that ahead of time if you want too. I put my candy canes in a large zip-lock bag and have a whack with a heavy marble rolling pin.
One they're crushed, dump them into the bowl with the popcorn.

To melt the almond bark, follow the instructions on the package. When your almond bark is melted, add the peppermint extract. It will seize a little bit (get kind of lumpy) but it's totally fine. Pour over popcorn and candy canes.

Stir it up really well until the candy is evenly distributed. Pour the popcorn out onto a piece of waxed paper, parchment, or foil. Spread it out into an even layer and leave it alone! While the popcorn is setting, place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the popcorn. You can use a fork, or put it in a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off.Leave it until the almond bark and the chocolate is hardened. If you need to hurry it up, do this whole process on lined cookie sheets you can pop in the fridge. When chocolate is hardened, use your hands to break up popcorn into chunks. Toss in a bowl, a jar, a cute package, or in your mouth :)

There you have it! Yum! Enjoy!

My Big Boy!

William is 2 months old! He is a whopping 12 pounds! He is growing so fast :( He is FINALLY getting into a better night-time routine (at least for the last 4 nights - lets cross our fingers!), sleeping 6 hours at a time sometimes! He is so smiley when he is awake, its hard to get anything done because I just want to talk to him. He is so yummy. I had Caleb try to steal a few pictures of him smiling while I was holding him, and he got a few cute ones!

check out these baby chunkies!

Gingerbread Traditions

Ok, so they aren't real gingerbread houses, but graham crackers are the tradition here, so we stuck with that! We even invited some friends over to create with us - we have to try to make it as chaotic and crazy as we can :)

Snow in Winterville?

I know, with a name like Winterville, you would expect snow year round, right? Not in Eastern North Carolina though! We were told when we moved here that it rarely snowed and hardly ever actually stuck to the ground. Well yesterday, snow flurries were spotted in the afternoon and by evening, James managed to make a (slightly pathetic) snowball! Lucy even caught a few flakes on her tongue! It was beautiful. It felt like Christmas time. (oh, and don't worry, we aren't finished putting all the lights up on the house yet!)