Merry Christmas Baby

This is how it started. The ward Christmas party and Santa Claus......I have to admit that I LOVE this picture. I was told to make it part of my Christmas decor and I think I need to find a perfect frame.

Christmas morning was at the Steineckerts. Brigham, being the youngest, got to go first and got this dinosaur puzzle - he was happy to just have this all day long...little did he know that he had truck loads of gifts from both Grandparents.

Charlie the Ranch Dog!! Brigs was thrilled to have this and can pretty much read the entire thing all by himself.

Ryan's parents both turned 60 and since July all of us kids have been planning a surprise birthday party for them. It was alot of work, but SO MUCH FUN! We were so happy to celebrate this with them and that the surprise went so well. Lots of friends - the best red velvet cupcakes I've ever had - great memories. {Jana, on the far right, is preggo with our soon-to-arrive nephew Cole, we can't wait!}

Aunt Allie got us tickets for the Natural History Museum at Thanksgiving Point. What a great museum! It is so kid friendly, full of hands on activities and TONZ of dinosaurs. Brigham is still talking about it!

The annual Caldiero Bucca Di Beppo {post}Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful time with Grandma & Grandpa full of parties, food, food, presents, food {I got to try sugar cookies from the Sweet Tooth Fairy & a red velvet bunt cake from Nothing Bunt Cakes - oh so good!} sleeping, eating some more, family pictures, food...you get the picture.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the year, surrounded by our families and ....really, realy, good food!!!

The Christmas Tree Hunt

We found snow!! We had to make quite the drive and do some off roading, but we found it and Brigham loved it! He loved walking and then stopping to look behind him at his tracks. He also liked finding bunny & deer tracks.

After hiking around Mom & Dad found a tree that we thought would work. Brigham gave us the thumbs up and Dad went to get the chain saw.

While Dad was cutting our tree down, Mommy & Brigs hung out in the warm car.

There's "Mort" the Steiny Christmas tree of 2011.

Brigham had a great time with Mort. He liked pulling on his branches. Putting them into his mouth. About a day after we decorated Mort we had to re-decorate him so he was bare two feet up.

Sadly I didn't take any pictures of dressed up Mort...it was a busy holiday.

Our Thankful Tree

The Thankful Tree

In the spirit of being Thankful this month we all took some time every Monday night to say at least three things that we are thankful for & then taped our "Thankful leaves" to the sticks and made a "Tree". Ryan rolled his eyes at first, but I think this is going to be a tradition that will stick in our house. Here are some of the things that we are thankful for this month:

Brigham - Horses, T- Rex, books,puzzles, juice, prayer, whales & Jesus (seriously said Jesus!)
Momma- Brigham, naptime, , my bed, Ryan, Internet, yummy food, telephones, FB & Pinterest, Kisses from Brigs & Daddy, family, hot showers, pjs, good friends & heaters.
Daddy - Snow, good job, chocolate & fresh vegtables (don't know how the two are connected, but oh well), temple & priesthood, Mexican Mondays, Brigham, Days off, Momma,Brigham kisses & hugs & 2 good working vehicles.


Here's a few other things going on with our family this month:

So Barnes & Noble has an AWESOME online Story Time where celebrities and authors will read their children's books along with their pictures (think Reading Rainbow). I love it. Brigs loves it. We love it. One of the books on there is "Charlie the Ranch Dog" by Ree Drummond (the Pioneer Woman) and Brigs LOVES it. He honestly watches it over and over and over and over and over and...well you get it. He's even memorized a few key phrases and will go around the house saying :

"Oh No! Wher'd ey go?" (oh no. Where did they go?)

and Daisy! Nooooooooo!!!!

We also have some new-to-us snow boots while we wait for the snow to arrive. Brigs is so cute walking around in them. It's hard to describe it, but he kind of gets this little buck-a-roo swagger to him when he's walking in them and he tends to kick his toe out as he walks. It's great. As you can see he loves to wear them everywhere!

His creative side is coming out. We are finding new uses for the things that we find around the house. Like this normal looking tupperware can be used as a space-aged hat and you can see through it! (Sort of. He walked right into the table after this picture was taken. Don't worry this hat served as a pretty good helmet as well as a fashion statement.)

Thanksgiving was great. We didn't have any family come up our way this year, but we spent it with our close friends, The Paramores. It was really nice only having to make a turkey & a dessert instead of being incharge of the whole feast. As usual Brigs blew everyone away with his vocabulary, his eating & his blue eyes.

As always, when we reflect on this year and all we have been blessed with we realize that our family & friends are most dear to us. Thank you for all the love, support, laughter & fun we've had with you this year!!

Happy Halloween punk!

"Say hello to my little friend...."

Those notorius chubby cheeks are out on the streets and they want candy!

Brigham had a really great time at Halloween despite the freezing cold winds. His "Mob Boss" costume was a HUGE hit with everyone and Mommy was pretty happy with it too (I didn't make it though. We inherited it) That suit is two pieces and a breeze to take off and on - plus - it is large enough that I was able to put a coat on him under the jacket so he could stay warm. Ryan made him the tommy gun...he really had fun with that.

We went to a party at the library and our towns annual main street "trick or treat" parade and Brigham made a HUGE haul!! When we got home we picked out all the candy we didn't like and gave it to the trick or treaters that came (yeah!!! a bowl full of the candy that we like!). I think that Brigham liked the trick or treaters coming to our house more that going out. He loved handing out the candy....and then eating some.

Earlier that day Brigs & I carved pumpkins and listened to Halloween music. We stopped once for a dance break to "Thriller" and Brigs tried to mimic me with the "thriller moves" that I have - it was SOOO much fun.

Happy Halloween

7th Anniversary is Copper

It's been seven years. Seven years ago I called Ryan my boyfriend. I slept all by myself. I fit into that dress.

It really doesn't feel like seven years. It's hard to put a time frame on how long you have known your soul mate. I'm just so happy that I found mine and that I get to share this blissful life and wonderful eternity with him.

For an anniversary gift this year I wanted to do something unique and meaningful. Something that would reflect the 7 year milestone. Well you know how there is something (gem/metal/flower) that corresponds with every anniversary? Well for the 7th anniversary it is Copper. Not sure the significance, but the mention of copper makes me think penny and that made me flash back to a pin that I saw on Pinterest of this:

A sweet penny key chain that has pennies with the dates of your birthdays (and you can add anniversary, children, etc).  I thought it would be perfect! and I thought that I could pull it off all by myself......I dug through our pennies & I found our birthday's  & the year that we were married and grabbed the hand drill (can you already guess how this is going to turn out?). I don't know how that gal gets nice smooth, small holes in her pennies, but mine were large and gnarled with sharred copper and zinc and whatever else is used to make a penny. I didn't even make it through the 1979 penny (pure copper back then) before the drill bit broke. I showed Ryan what I had tried to do to which he responded, "that's really great that you tried" - pretty much it was like giving him a macaroni necklace that I made by myself in kindergarten class. So for our anniversary Ryan got a new drill bit (and a few other things)

This year Ryan was in charge of our anniversary activities. He got a sitter and we planned dinner & a movie. Dinner didn't quite go as planned. He wanted to surprise me and take me to the local Thai restaurant in town but between ordering your food & getting it is a two hour wait (she makes EVERYTHING from scratch) and by the time the sitter came and we got going there wasn't time for dinner and the movie at 7pm (our town's movie theater only has one showing 7pm) so we went to our favorite mexican restaurant instead

Then we headed to see "Contagion" because our love is like a deadly disease. You can't touch it without catching it!!

"Multiply it by infinity, take it to the depths of forever and you will only get a glimpse of how much I love you."

Graham Crackers

Recipe at Smitten Kitchen really good recipe

Your house will smell like vanilla all day!

September in one post

I can't believe that September is over?!? Where did it go? Well here is our whooooole month of September in one post and a few pictures:

We Moved!!! not too far though. We are still in Oregon, but we moved from Burns to Hines (which is like moving from West Jordan to South Jordan). Our home is a bit smaller than our other home, but we don't mind it a bit. We are happy that we sold, we are happy that we found an AWESOME rental and we are really enjoying our new neighborhood.

 We get asked if we miss our old home. Honestly, no. We love our new digs, but if we could take one thing with us it would be our garden. We miss our garden - especially now since it's starting to be harvest season. We took some herbs with us and the new owners have said they are willing to share the harvest.

 Fair week! The only thing we care about when it's Fair week is: Lion Balls. They are deep fried balls of dough that are smothered in sandy hills of cinnamon sugar....yeah we like fair week! We went to the parade that Saturday and Brigs had a blast seeing the dogs, horses and cars that went past - Dad liked the candy ( He hates parades, but is happy that he has "a reason" to run out and grab the candy)

 This month is such a special one it's birthday time for TWO! Both Ryan & I became a year older. While both days were pretty low key - they were the best ever. Good food. Relaxing and wonderful desserts. How do you like my cake? The night of my birthday Ryan had cooked so much we didn't have time to make the birthday treat that I chose, Cinnamon Bun Popcorn and it was late (I'm trying not to eat treats past 9pm)so I enjoyed a peanutbutter cup! and had the popcorn the next day. Ryan, of course, had Dessert of the Gods, we crunched the numbers and we figured out that this was the 16th Annual Dessert of the Gods birthday treat.

 Brigham. Oh Brigham. He's getting so big. Walking. Talking. Getting into everything!

 Reaching for everything!!

His little personality is really coming through and his imagination is growing. One day while I was cooking I noticed he toddled in, rummaged through the tupperware and then toddled out. Once I got to a place in my cooking that I could stop I went into the front room and found him doing this...

In other {me} news. I'm really excited to announce that our community is putting on a production of Steel Magnolias. The geatest news about it is that I'm not directing it, but ACTING in it!!! I figured out that it has been SIX years since I've acted, waaaaay too long!! It was weird working on my monologue. Crazy to be auditioning and WONDERFUL to get back into the groove of it all. The play is beautiful and unlike the movie has no men in it. It's focused on the six women and all the action is done in Truvy's beauty parlor. I was lucky enough to snag a great part (let's be honest all the parts are great). I will be playing Shelby. I'm just so thrilled to be part of a cast again!

All of this has been going on with Ryan working his head off at the Ag Center, reffing soccer and he is broadcasting sports again for the new radio station owner - it's been great!!! While I don't like that he has to be gone every Friday night I am looking at it as: The night I can do my crafts, paint my nails, spend hours some time on Pinterest.

Snapshots of Summer

Well summer is almost over and I've been waaaay overdue to post! So here ya go with a summary of our Summer one snapshot at a time:

I threw a surprise "You are Moving, but I will stay in Denial about it" party for my friend Candace

(Note the confused look on her face, she thought she was coming over to look at a "rash" on Brigham)

Ah Brigham, he's the sunshine in the day!! Between making animal noises and giving me kisses whenever I request them he's the BEST baby E.V.E.R!

Even when he's onry.....which can occasionally happen

His little personality is coming through and we are loving every minute of it!!

Went to Utah this summer and had so much fun with both sides of the family. Grandpa Caldiero set up some bowling for Brigs.

Got to reunite with some old highschool friends (oh so old, it was our ten year reunion this year)

Natalie is a great friend. When others are talking about how they also had a crush on Micah McBride she doesn't start laughing uncontrollably and telling everyone how you did too (she's good that way ;)

My younger brother - he's so useful around the house.

Fireworks with the nieces and the nephew!! Brigsy didn't join them due to the fact  that it was waay past his bedtime and it was early enough in the vacation that Mommy was still stuck to the schedule (by the end of the vacay he was eating dinner at 11pm at IHOP :/)

Bear Lake! Brigham would have been happy enough to stay on the beach for the whole time we were there. Digging. Digging. Digging!!

"My leg, where is it?"

We went to Hogle Zoo with the cousins. I think I'm more excited that they still have the lion drinking fountain there!! Brigham...not so much.

They had an attraction this summer called ZooRassic Park. As you can see Brigs isn't a big fan...I don't blame him. They (the dinosaurs) are pretty cool, but kinda creepy. The main ones on display moved and one shot water - it was pretty popular since it was soooo hot.

(note how he MUST hold a cracker in each hand)

All in all it was a really great trip. Went by way too fast (as usual), but we were happy that we could go and enjoy time with family!! And excited to learn that Brent & Jana will have a little cousin for us in February - can't wait to rub her preggo belly at Christmas!