Kent was post call today ( he came off a twenty-nine hour shift this morning) and it meant he was home almost all day!  Luckily he got a few decent hours of sleep at the hospital and it was actually fun to have him home because he was awake.   In celebration of his "day off" we experienced a few significant events.

Ike took his first real steps.  I can't believe he's barely ten months and WALKS.  Tonight he walked between kent and myself repeated times- and giggled the entire time.  He was so proud of himself. And it was so nice to have kent home since he was at officer training for Zeb's first steps.

 The worst part of it all is now I have to make sure Ike's wearing shoes everyday!  He still can't get up onto his feet by himself and is pretty shaky- but I'm sure it will all come fast enough.

And this evening we tried out a new place to eat.  I had read about it recently on some friends' blogs in Utah and thought for sure it was some west coast thing. I checked out their website only to realize that they had JUST opened a store in Toledo in the past few weeks.  Five Guys Burgers and Fries is here and we have pictures to prove it.

My favorite part of the night was the sign on the wall that read:  "today's potatoes are from: Shelley, Idaho".  It almost made me feel like I was back home and could have dinner at grandma O's house!

little zeb-o enjoyed his fries immensely- and that's saying a lot considering he doesn't eat french fries.

This is an absolutely TERRIBLE picture of the two of us but Zeb took it and was so proud of himself.  In our defense- we had just come from working out. 

If you go to Five guys- make sure and get the small burger.  I got it and still gave half to Kent. and ONE regular fry is HUMONGOUS.  If you like burgers- the place is amazing.  It's a little pricey- but very very fresh and very tasty.

I'm allowed to brag. I'm his wife.

Kent ditched me for the night to work with the kiddos at St.V's children's hospital.  Really, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter but I know he's enjoying himself. 

He's wrapping up his six week peds rotation right now and I think it's going to be really hard on him to switch back to the adults! He is made to work with rugrats.  Even the physician he worked with on his family practice rotation said that he'd never seen another colleague (attendings and residents included) that worked so well with children.  It's kind of funny considering I don't work well with children.  Kent is more patient- more fun- and a whole lot happier about parenting than I usually am. Really, it's unfortunate that Kent can't just birth our children.  He claims he'd do it without an epidural and while I believe he'd be able to do that just fine- I KNOW that he'd be the most annoying and complaining pregnant person ever.  I've at least got that on him.  I know I carry children better than he would :)

I love that kent is loving what's he's doing.  Some of the stories he comes home with are too much for me to handle- but he can do it and he's amazing at it. I'd venture to say that he's going to be the best pediatrician the air force has ever seen :)  Oh- and did I mention that they are in desperate need of pediatricians to work in germany right now?  I told kent to e-mail the air force and tell them we'd be there in four years!  Just hold one of the spots for us, please.

I love my little rugrat boys.

wonderful weekend and my first attempts with the fancy shmancy camera!

This weekend has been full of holiday festivities and has been absolutely wonderful.  One of my favorite parts of December is always having something to do or somewhere to be.

I also finally found some time to try out my new camera a little bit. I've got an awful lot to learn and I've been reading all sorts of guides and tips and pointers.   I'm trying to figure out lighting and distance and apertures and isos and settings and all sorts of camera mumbo jumbo (as you can see from my pictures on this post!).  I'm really excited to get picture snapping and blog posting with all of my new tricks. I'll be posting just as often as usual- but my picture quality should be much higher.  Tanner- Rachael- and all you other pros- I am open to LOTS of advice, suggestions, etc.

The weather around here has FINALLY turned COLD and I am so HAPPY.  Decemeber should be chilly. Coats should be worn!  Hot cocoa should be sipped.  Now all we need is SNOW. please.

Today after lunch and quiet time we spent the late afternoon at the Stake center to check out the interfaith nativity festival.  It was AMAZING.  We were going to take a great family picture all dressed up but the kiddos were opposed and I didn't want to put up a fight. So, I made Kent put this on and I snapped a picture.

 They had a room just for little kids.  There were crafts- games- and all sorts of nativities to play in, on, and with.  Zeb and Ike enjoyed themselves thoroughly- even if Zeb's face isn't showing it.  This face is frozen on him for at least ten hours a day.  He really is happy. He just scowls a lot.  My mom says I was born with a scowl.  He must take after me.

Ike was a good little monkey, as usual.  He wasn't good last night, though. He was up A LOT.  I hope it's teething or something.

holiday mugs and turkey leftovers

This little monster is obsessed with the snowman mug.  he wants to drink everything out of it constantly.  he calls it his snowman sip.

And Thanks to some inspiration from cousin Amy and yaya, I made a delicious turkey tetrazzini with the leftovers of our eleven pound turkey.   The name tetrazzini has always thrown me off. I thought it was some complex recipe with obscure ingredients that I was sure to never have. Turns out tetrazzin is oh-so-simple and delicious.  And I'm sure it can quite simply become chicken or tuna or any other kind of tetrazzini.

6-8 oz (about half of a box) Skinny winny fettucine noodles (multigrain!) 
chopped onion and garlic (as much or little as you'd like)
4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
1.5 cups of chicken broth
1 c milk
1/2 c parm cheese
chopped turkey - 2 cupsish
1 bag peas
breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until al dente. Drain, and place in the prepared baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until bubbly. Stir in flour. Stire for 1-2 minutes. Mix in chicken broth and milk. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Stir in Parmesan cheese, and remove from heat.
4. Mix mixture and turkey and peas. Add to pasta.  Bake 40 minutes  in the preheated oven, until surface is lightly browned. Add bread crumbs 5-10 minutes before you remove from oven.
   

Makes an 8 by 8 small glass casserole dish. 

O, Christmas tree! O, Christmas tree!

Some of my favorite childhood Christmas memories involve tree shopping with my family!!  One of my most devastating childhood Christmas memories was the year my parents announced they were switching to a FAKE TREE!! thanks a lot mum and dad.  It still makes me sad to think about.

Since we are sticking around for the holidays this year we decided to get a real tree for our place!! I am so excited. it smells so so good already.

 Tuesday night we went out in search for the perfect tree.  Prior to our search we'd set a measly budget and realized we'd be getting a charlie brown tree of sorts.  I actually kind of like scrawny little trees so I wasn't too disappointed.  A scraggly real tree is better than a grand fake one any day.

Zeb loved running through the rows of trees and seeing this huge Santa.  As soon as he saw it, he stopped and said, "Santa is ginormous! He's so high in the sky!".  Ginormous is one of his favorite words right now.

 After hitting a few tree lots, Kent was ready to buy- but I was sure we could find a better deal.  I begged to drive down one of the main streets here just one more time.  That's when we saw Home Depot.  They were selling trees.  CHEAP trees.  Cheap BIG trees.  We brought this beauty home for 14.97!   Zeb is still shocked that we put a tree in our house.  He wakes up every morning, runs to see the tree, and giggles, "Mama- there's a tree in our house!".  It's pretty funny.

I'm finally just about caught up from the weekend!!

Sunday we finally had a day to relax and just sit around- so I decided that I wanted our own big Thanksgiving dinner.  What's thanksgiving without the leftovers, right?   I really wanted cold turkey sandwiches on homemade rolls with cranberry sauce and salt and pepper this week and Kent wanted green bean casserole for lunch everyday. We bought ourselves a baby turkey (eleven pounds) and made a big dinner.  I was bummed that I didn't have time for pies- but just as I began to wallow in self-pity- one of Kent's classmates called and invited us over for homemade pies!  Yum-o. 

Zeb took this picture for us.  He's getting really good at taking photos. He LOVES the camera and could take pictures of his t-rex and trains all day long.

And here are my two monkeys fresh after haircuts.  You'd think we were actually cutting fingers off the way Zeb howled and wailed.  Dang turkey.  They both look so much better now, though. Sunday at church I felt like I was the mother of two ragamuffins so I asked kent to get out the clippers.  He's so much better at it than I am!