Snow!

For those of you in Iowa... Look! There really was snow! I didn't get any good pictures of how heavy it was snowing, but trust me, it was really coming down. (Nothing like your blizzard this week though! :) ) We didn't play outside in the snow because it was cold, yucky and wet out there. Maybe next time it snows we won't have rain to go with it.

Santa

Lily was sooo excited to see Santa! When she first saw him, she waved and smiled, and he waved back to her from across the room. Then we went to eat dinner and came back to visit Santa afterward. When she got close to him she was shy, but not really scared. I don't really think she understands that she can ask Santa for something specific - she's just excited about presents in general, not specific things that she's hoping for. So she didn't really tell him what she wanted. Santa gave her a candy cane, and she's been talking about him nonstop ever since. When I told her that Santa will come down our chimney and through the fireplace to get in our house, she was worried that Santa would get burned. She's also been talking about the reindeer, and she wants to make some reindeer food for them. We're really enjoying the Christmas season!

Santa looks grumpy in this picture, but it's just a bad picture; he was really very nice.

We took some more pictures by our own tree when we got home that night.

Christmas Tree

Boat Ride

Lily went for a boat ride / fishing trip with Daddy and David a couple weeks ago. They didn't catch any fish, but she had a great time!

Perfect Apple Pie

This is my favorite apple pie recipe, and here is a picture of the one I made for Thanksgiving.

6 to 8 tart apples, pared, cored & thinly sliced (approx. 6 c); I use 3-4 large Granny Smith and 2-3 Braeburn
3/4 to 1 c sugar
2 T all-purpose flour
1/2 to 1 t ground cinnamon
dash of ground nutmeg
pastry for 2-crust 9" pie
2 T butter

Combine sugar, flour, spices and dash of salt; mix with apples (if apples are not tart, sprinkle them with lemon juice before mixing with the sugar). Line a deep 9-inch pie plate with pastry. Fill with apple mixture; dot with butter. Adjust top crust, cutting slits for escape of steam; seal. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Thanksgiving

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time, with lots of food and friends. The kids played football, and everyone had plenty of turkey and pie.

Eight Weeks

Here are some pictures from November 23rd, when Dylan was eight weeks old. I also weighed him that night, and he was 11 lbs 6 oz. Of course, that was over a week ago now, so he's probably even bigger.