Pleasant Surprise

I made something yummy last night, and we all know how surprising that is. I made chicken and wild rice, and while that was good, the surprising part was the glaze I made to drizzle on the chicken. I diced and sautéed a green apple, then added chopped walnuts and ¼ cup of maple syrup. Sounds sickening, right? It was so delicious! My good intentions are rarely good, so I was really pleased with myself. Now, don’t be too impressed; I got the idea off of the wild rice package (what, did you think I made either on my own?). My dad once told me that my sage wisdom to Darby would be, “If God wanted us to eat it, He would have put it in a package.” That is my mantra, but I did at least make the glaze from scratch and not a dehydrated package (like my rice).

What weird cooking success have you had?

Christmas Continued

making pie with Gran.

Darby dancing with her daddy

more dancing with Daddy

floor sliding. notice Brett and Frankie's hands working together to get the most distance possible!

don't you love this face?

these pictures belong with the last post. i'm not very good at this and i'm sort of rushing. so, read the last post because it belongs with these pictures. also, i forgot to tell you that for the 15 hour drive with a potty-trained child, we brought a potty-chair in the car and it was the most brilliant idea i ever had and it worked perfectly!

Christmas

time of Darby's life!

she loves the snow.

Frankie and Pa making a couch for Darby.

Darby, Montanna, and Auntie Britney

little happy cousins

Alright, I’ll start with the business and then we’ll get to the fun stuff. It has become imperative that I get back on my meds, so Frankie and I are no longer trying to get pregnant. This isn’t a pity plea; I only mention it because a lot of you were praying for us and we are really grateful to you and thankful for that. It just seems that it isn’t the time, so it’s nothing to be sad about; our Heavenly Father is aware of us and that’s it.

We had a great Christmas! Darby opened her presents from us the Saturday before Christmas. She got a ton of stuff, including a Hello Kitty big-girl bike. She calls it her "Hello Beauty Cat Bike." She took off on it and I had to run to keep up with her! Then we took off that afternoon for Colorado. We arrived at Brett and Corrine’s on Sunday evening and spent the next week just enjoying our family. We got to see Adam, Lindsey, and Montanna for a few days before they left for Utah, and that was so fun. We’ve missed them since they moved away. Darby had a blast playing with Montanna and Britney especially! She is so loved and entertained by our family. Frankie and Brett had her lay on her stomach on the wood floors and they pushed her so she slid on her belly across the room. She loved that! She got to watch the Tinkerbelle movie and I got to watch Star Trek. Frankie and Brett built Darby a little couch and it turned out so great! I helped make pie crust, believe it or not. Darby had so much fun playing in the snow. She had the best day of her young life when we took a walk and a neighbor let Darby pet and feed her horses. We had such a nice time and really hated to leave.

Some people really have trouble with their in-laws. I am so lucky and thankful for mine. Frankie has a really great family and I am so glad to be a part of it; I love them and consider them my own. I don't know how i got so lucky to come from a great family and marry into one (for a rare picture of my whole Judd family, see Aramie's blog aramieandkacey.blogspot.com).

How was your holiday?

I Can't Put My Arms Down!

Well, we are supposedly leaving tomorrow for Colorado, where we will be all bundled up for the next week. So, Merry Christmas to each of you and I hope you have a really great and safe holiday.

Como Te Llamas?

Last night, Frankie was teasing me about something that I don’t commonly share; an incident which occurred when I was in kindergarten. As a savvy 5 year old, I decided that it would be better if I were named Helen. So, I took it upon myself to scratch “Hillary” off of everything I owned and write “Helen” instead. I’m sure it was confusing for my teacher to find out half-way through the year that “Hillary Judd” was defunct and a new student, “Helen Judd” had taken her place; from her desk to her cubby. The fink teacher alerted my parents and my dreams of being named Helen had to be cast away.

Thank goodness. Helen is not a pretty name (if you are named Helen, no offense. But you know it is true).

So, we were laughing about that and I asked Frankie what he would’ve changed his name to when he was a kid. His response was perfect. “Probably something lame,” he began, “like Jason. Or Captain Kirk.”

Thinking back on yourself as a young child, what name would you have chosen?

Devil Wears Steve Madden

While attempting to organize our bedroom, Frankie and I had a disagreement. Imagine that. He said that if we get the dressers that I want, we won’t need to eventually add on a walk-in closet (you know, when we suddenly become rich). I said that we needed a walk-in closet for the storage of my shoes. He then blasphemously suggested that I get rid of some of my shoes. I’m so sure. He then asked if I thought I had too many shoes to which I replied that I obviously don’t think so. He said, “I’m going to take a poll. I’m going to take a poll at church next Sunday and see how many pairs of shoes each woman has and I guarantee that you have more than all of them.” I said, “But you can’t poll certain people, like Alisha. She’s far too sensible to buy tons of shoes!” It’s true; she always looks perfect, but is such a sensible shopper. So is my sis Haley. And my sis Jessica, for that matter. I hope to be more like them someday. Anyway, so I need each of you to go to your closet right now and count your shoes. Please have more than or near 65 pairs. That would be helpful to me (and awesome for you!). I am particularly interested in Aramie’s count; she’s definitely going to be on my side. That’s what sisters are for. And Bing; I already know how you feel about this. Don't judge me!

What are you waiting for? Go count your shoes!

Delicious

In a desperate attempt to forget about Dustin and Jessica's volatile attitude towards A Christmas Story, I’ve been wondering about something. Sure, I could look it up online, but what with all the school-work I have to do, I am intensely averse to researching anything of my own free will and accord. So, here is my question: From where do fruit flies come? I mean, are their little babies living in my fruit and if I don’t EAT them right away, they then have time to hatch? Are they birthed right out of my banana? That is filthy.

Without researching it, what is your theory?

Poetry. Sheer Poetry.

My favorite Christmas movie of all time is A Christmas Story. We’ve all seen it, and we’ve all loved it. When I lived at home, it would play for 24 hours on Thanksgiving day. It is quite possibly the greatest film ever made.

What are your favorite Christmas movies?

The Respectful Declination

So, today Darby asked me if I wanted to smell her giney. Yeah, you read that right. We tease her that her armpits and feet stink and she laughs when we act like she’s stinky (which she rarely is, by the way). So, today while she was in the bath, she asked me if I wanted to smell her feet and I pretended they were stinky and we had a good laugh. Then she asked if I wanted to smell her giney, and it got a little awkward. I mean, how do you respond to that? I’m just teasing; it didn’t get awkward and it was actually hilarious. I declined, by the way, just in case you were wondering. So which one of you sickos taught that to my baby?!

What is the weirdest thing a small child has asked you?

Worst Idea Ever

Seriously, who okayed and then profited off of candy cigarettes? That is just the most negligible creation. But, they sure are delicious! Didn’t you love those as a kid?

What is something you loved as a child?

Wii The People

Over the weekend, we went to visit our dear friends Liz and Kris down near Tucson. They have 2 sons and another on the way and Darby has just as much fun we do. Kris and his family lived 2 doors down from my family all growing up and he was my brother Dustin’s best friend and one of mine, too. Liz was my roommate in the MTC, so we have a lot of history with this great family. Anyway, our friends introduced us to their Wii while we were there. I hate video games. I’m terrible at them and have no sort of coordination at all. That said, I love the Wii! It was so much fun! And I even beat Frankie at a game or two. We were so into it that I was sore for like, 2 days after! Anyway, it was way fun and I know everyone else has played it before, but I hadn’t. The last video game I played was at their house, but it was Call of Duty and I couldn’t get my little guy out of the corner and I just screamed the whole time. Before that, it was regular Super Mario Brothers. And I’ve never passed level 3.

Other than that, I thought you could use a recap of our Thanksgiving. I cooked a 6 pound turkey breast at 450 degrees for 3 and ½ hours. Yeah, I didn’t realize until the last 30 minutes that I should have turned the heat down about 100 degrees and cooked it for about an hour and a half less. But, I still didn’t turn it down or take it out! I just decided to see what happened. The top was charred black, of course, but luckily I placed it breast down in broth, so the turkey turned out awesome! It was looking pretty dismal at first, but it turned out great. Darby ate a nutrigrain bar and called it a day. I guess she’s not a fan of gourmet cooking.

A really great guy from our mission died over the holiday. I don’t want to touch on that too much, I just feel really sad, especially for his wife. Please pray for the Jones family.

For FHE last night, we put up our tree and lights. I have all my nativity scenes set up and I love it. We listened to the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas album, which I love, and then we drank hot chocolate with candy canes for stirring. I love to spend time as a family.

How was your holiday?