Christmas Recap - B

Here are some pictures from Christmas at Kay's. If I thought the time in Amherst was a whirlwind, I'm not even sure what to call this!

We started our time together with Kay's AMAZING lasagna!! No one makes lasagna like Kay, it's SO good! Then, with 5 under the age of 5.... there was a 15 minute blur of paper and gifts and pictures and then it was done. Taking turns was out of the questions, they just all went after it. Unfortunately this made it difficult to keep track of who got what and from whom. But oh well, it was fun nonetheless.




Kay got to open the picture book that we made for her. Back in October we had family pictures taken. Here's a link to the slideshow.


Family Slideshow

Quick Italian Soup

As I mentioned previously, we had a splendid soup selection at the Heermann family Christmas celebration! This yummy delight was the Dixson contribution! Enjoy!!

2012 Christmas Recap - A

Merry Christmas to all!! We marvel at the awesomeness of being blessed with the birth of our Savior!! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Today, on Christmas, we spent a quiet day at home just the 3 (4) of us. It looks like a tornado swept through while we were gone, these is stuff piled EVERYWHERE. Joe spent time relaxing on the couch (he's had enough activity to last him the next 4 months I think), Rhea opened and checked out all her new gifts, and I went around trying to make a little sense of the chaos. Grammy Kay came over to visit in the afternoon and we had roast and potatoes for supper. A short nap and too much sugar made for a rather unhappy toddler so she went to bed early.

We've been in Amherst this last week with the Heermann side and then celebrated Christmas at Kay's on Christmas Eve. It was great to be able to visit Papa and Gramma for a few days. We arrived on Wednesday, thankfully before all the crazy snowfall! Wednesday and Thursday were spent mostly baking and playing. Rhea was 'Gramma's girl' most all the time so Mommy did a lot of the baking and Gramma did a lot of the playing. Friday evening we opened gifts with Papa, Gramma & Uncle Matt. Then on Saturday afternoon the extended family arrived, Mangels & Inloes. We opened gifts in the afternoon, had a wonderful soup supper then played some games into the night. Sunday the Inloes headed for Norfolk to spend some time with Great Grandma Francis (in the nursing home recovering from a broken hip), the Mangels, Dixsons & Heermanns went to church then had soup reruns for lunch before departing.


Below is a slideshow of our time in Amherst.... (I'll follow with another post with info/pictures from Kay's.
[you can click on the slideshow to go to the album and view pics at your own pace if you'd like]

M&M Guys get put to work!

They've got to earn their keep I say...

.... helping fold laundry


This one was awhile ago, but we've done laundry the last 2 days so we can pack to head to Gramma's!!! I believe the M&M Guys helped us make waffles on morning and possibly one other thing but I know I won't have time to upload/compose those posts so this is probably it for the year as far as M&M Guy adventures. Rhea did get a new M&M Guy on her gift from Great Gramma and Great Granpa Svoboda... and I'm pretty sure that's the part she was most excited about :-)

Tis the season..

... to bake cookies!!

cake mix cookies...

adding the chips; these were snowman cookies
since there was a snowman on the mint chip bag

quality control

some ready for the oven

starting the second batch
(while continuing to ensure quality)

"taste"

taste testing is the best part!

some of our yummy productions :-)

M&M Guys go for a ride!

We're all for Biblical accuracy here in the Dixson house... these must have been Noah's neighbor kids coming to help him herd the animals.

M&M Guys feel right at home

Introducing the M&M Guys to her other toys...

M&M Guys play noo-noo!

This was a hoot! We buried them, rained on them, they wore the scoops as hats.... all sorts of good stuff. I think they liked playing noo-noo! (noodles)

M&M Guys boogie!!

Boogies... you know you're close friends when you can share your Kleenex...

** On a 'friends' note, Mommy got to spend some much needed girl-time last night out baking with friends! (we may have accidentally shared a water bottle, but there was no Kleenex sharing) If you can believe it, my camera didn't snap very many pictures but Amanda has several. I'll wait for her to do a blog post and then just link to it for everyone to see :-)  Daddy stayed home with Rhea and said they had a fun time together, popcorn for supper and watched some Elmo on YouTube ;-)

M&M Guys in da house!!

Knock, Knock. Who's there? M&M Guys. Do come in!!

Christmas Season 2012

Hello all! I hope I'm not setting myself up for failure here but I have a series of fun photos to share with you leading up to Christmas! This year, I chose to forgo the decorating for a variety of reasons. Have no fear, the nativity is on the mantle and we borrowed a small fiber optic tree (I just didn't have the energy for my 9ft-er) But never the less we are enjoying the season! I'm just tickled to find some of my childhood memories and 'keepsakes' going through a few boxes to get out a couple things. 

These "M&M Guys", as they have been named, are our friendly seasonal guests! Rhea loves real M&M's so the little guys are a real treat. We introduced them to life at our house with some fabric play....

Stay tuned for more fun times with our new friends!!!

Happy Sugar Rush!!!

A Baking Day at Grammy Kay's to kick off December right!! 

Productivity:
5 batches of cookies
2 kinds of truffles
A whole lot of pretzel treats
3 viewings of Frosty the Snowman

A recap of our December 1st 2012.....

...into the treats before I even get breakfast going!!
(yes, my kitchen is a mess... it's normal)

Knowing we need a good start, we made a sausage
and scrambled egg skillet

...but cake and frosting still taste better ; )

proof of Rhea eating her eggs
(after identifying everything on her farm plate)

Here we go... cookies at Grammy's!!

'Helping' in the spice cabinet
(pretty sure she had some form
of cookie or sweet smeared on her mouth
all day no matter how many times I wiped it)

Playing with Baby 'Goo' in the jumper

These are fun treats to make... you eat all the hugs out of the pretzels, right?!

Helping Auntie Sarah unwrap some more hugs

Mommy's truffle station

Look at all these cookies!!!

Beef & Veggie stew for supper :-)

Then Mia came for a sleepover!!!!
2 cutie girls, eatin popcorn and watching Baby MacDonald

Bedtime stories

 After spending the entire day on my feet, and putting 2 little princesses in bed, this is a tired Mommy... put my feet up to, you guessed it... blog! Joe wasn't feeling well today at all so he slept soundly while Mommy and Rhea were away. He was not feeling very photogenic tonight so he escaped the camera.

Thanksgiving!!

Today we slept in just a little, had breakfast, skyped with Gramma Sue, cleaned up and went next door to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Al & Linda. We stayed for about an hour of the parade then came home for lunch and nap. During Rhea's nap I fixed up an apple crisp and green bean casserole to take to Kay's. Joe has to work overnight so we went early to visit then we had to eat and dash (so he could catch a few winks before his shift).

Rhea, Grammy and the turkey!

Rhea and Luke

Just holdin' my cousin. No big deal.

Skype-ing with Aunt Christie in CA.... chaotic but fun!

Alie, Mia and Rhea at the 'kid table'

0-6mo section of the dining room :-)

Brownie Baking Goodness!

I honestly feel like I've been on vacation for the last 4 days!! Gramma Sue came to visit Wed - Fri , Joe was off work Thrs & Fri, Uncle Matt was here Thrs night- Sat afternoon,  and then Saturday night Rhea and Mommy spent the evening baking with our friend Amanda! To have Rhea laugh and play comfortably with others really blesses me :-) and being surrounded by so much loving family is the best!!!

Wanted to share one of Joe's favorite desserts! This was his request for our baking night...

 

... this time around I used a 9x9 pan for the brownies and halved the topping recipe :-)

** Also note that because there is milk in the topping I store the leftovers (if there are any) in the refrigerator

[knowing it's important to site sources... this is my source: a recipe card from my mom written a few years back, and I have no idea where she found the recipe.]

How to dye pasta

I had made Rhea a rice 'sandbox' to play with and she loves it.... but it's quite messy. So in a flash of brilliance I thought I'd dye some pasta and use that instead for easier clean up. First I did some rigatoni to string on shoelaces/yarn, then I did some plain old macaroni for a new pasta box. There are a number of tutorials on the web, but I felt like making our own, enjoy!!

STEP 1: Gather supplies and helper!

You'll need: pasta (any shape/brand/quantity will do)

food coloring, rubbing alcohol, ziplock bags,

measuring cup, towel, wax paper (not shown)

STEP 2: measure out approximately 1/4 c. rubbing alcohol for every

1 cup of pasta to be dyed

(we did 4 different rounds for 4 different colors)

STEP 2B: have your assistant select the color to be used

STEP 3: Add 10 drops food coloring to the rubbing alcohol and swish to mix

STEP 4: add desired amount of pasta to the bag

STEP 5: seal bag and squish the pasta around until the colored alcohol

has contacted all the noodles

STEP 6: Lay bags out to 'cure'. I used a towel underneath to protect from any possible leaks.

STEP 6B: every 30 minutes or so, turn the bags over and swish the dye around in the bag,

the longer you leave the noodles in the dye the brighter the colors get

STEP 7: Lay pasta out on wax paper to dry overnight (or newspaper works too)

STEP 8: HAVE FUN!!!

Teaching moments: textures, colors, weights, measures, hand/eye coordination, counting

Play Supplies: tupperware (varying sizes), measuring spoon/cup, shovel, egg carton, spice jars, coffee cans, buckets, toilet paper tubes, you name it!! Endless possibilities!

*~* MOST IMPORTANT *~*

No crying over spilled pasta

(this tip is more for Mommy than kiddos)