Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas from the Brights

Thanksgiving- Matt, Taylor, Elissa and Xander
Xander and Taylor

Thanksgiving- Taylor, Baleigh, Landon and Xander
Merry Christmas!  We enjoyed an early Christmas gathering with Matt's family and Taylor had a great time opening presents and playing with her cousins, Baleigh and Landon.  Here's a good one of the kids from Thanksgiving (which pretty much sums up the activity level of all the kiddos).  
Christmas- Xander, Taylor, Baleigh and Landon
Taylor in her Christmas "costume"
We went to my Grandma and Grandpa's in Nebraska for Christmas Eve and day.  Taylor came to Christmas Eve service while Matt stayed home watching over sleeping Xander.  Taylor loved all the singing (and added her own clapping) and even sat up front for the children's story.  She was very excited for the end of service when we got to hold a lighted candle...potential disaster, but after a moment of not listening to mommy's rule about she MUST allow me to also hold the candle, she did great!
Xander
Elissa, Xander, Taylor, Matt, Kelly, Paul, Lily (dog), Granddad and Mimi
After service, it was off to the Christmas party!  Surprise, Xander was awake when we got back to the house and I was so nervous that this was the start to yet another 4-waking night (Xander has been getting over a virus, then strep of the nose since Thanksgiving so little sleep has been had).  But apparently he had a conference with his cousins Luke and Sam (just 1 month older) who have been sleeping through the night for a couple of months now, and they told him of the joy of a good night's sleep because Xander slept through the night for the first time!  He went to bed at 8:30, had a brief waking at 5:30 and then woke up at 7! Just wish I had gone to bed earlier to truly enjoy his first full night of sleep :)  

Taylor, Sam, Xander (time for bed!) and Luke

Matt, Sam, Niki, Luke

Matt, Sam, Niki, Luke, Suki, Steve, Cassi

Cassi, Kelly, Gigi, Shaylee and Taylor with her new ladybug pillow


Granddad and Taylor shoveling snow at Great-Grandma and Grandpa's
Family, games, presents and conversation was had and Taylor and Xander enjoyed all the activity and loved seeing people we don't get to see often.  Taylor was especially excited to see her favorite Aunt Kelly and so thrilled once baby Sam and Luke arrived!  Merry Christmas to all!
Love,
Matt, Elissa, Taylor and Xander

Monday, December 20, 2010

Mmm, squash

We had a very productive weekend of baking and cooking in our house. Matt was in charge of the grown-ups with a fantastic Saturday dinner and a house full of Christmas cookies. I was in charge of the food for the boys.

Thanks to Mary Jo's book, I'm getting quite good at making baby food. I'm working my way through the beginning chapter while hosting my own cooking show each Sunday. This week's menu included squash, bananas, and pears (in honor of Aunt Janice's pear cobbler.)

I talk through everything I do to keep the boys entertained. The pears got steamed, and the squash got roasted.

After rotating to a new audience (we do a lot of rotating around here), I scrapped out the insides and processed it up.
I'll save the bananas for the day I use them, but the squash and pears made all this frozen in ice cube trays. Even using organic food, it's still cheaper than store-bought. Plus, it's fun!
The true test came later that day. Drumroll....

Success #1!
Success #2!
Another mess, another success!
Here's wishing everyone a very merry holiday season. Can't wait to read about every one's Christmas!

Niki and Matt

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Just a comment from Mary Jo

Loved the story about Sam and Luke and the Sweet Potato Dinner. I knew I picked the right person to give the "Make Your Own Organic Baby Food" book to. I'm glad the boys liked the sweet potato...actually a very nutrient dense choice. I made pureed fruits and vegetables for my kids, too. Of course, that is no guarantee that they will be great vegetable eaters as they get older, but we do our best. In a related funny story, the other night the phone rang about 11:30. When I answered, Andrew said, "I know it's late, but I have an important question." You can imagine what thoughts went through my head at that time. He continued, "Did you feed me rutabagas when I was a baby?" I told him I did. "But why do you want to know?", I asked. He explained he was with a group playing Scattegories and the category was baby food and the letter was "R". Oh my...

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Holy crap!!!! It's been over a year????

Wow, I just rememberd about the blog and discovered it's been possibly over a year since I've crashed this thing!!!!!! Hmm, if it wasn't for Keeley just meesaging me on Facebook about grandma wanting to see it and getting my help to get her to this page, I would have COMPLETELY forgotten about it!!!! Since it's been this long, well, I have NEWS!!!!!

Well, I'll start with this tidbit: I moved out into my own apartment in April. I'm loving every minute of it!!!! Independence, combined with mooching off my parents for $$$ when most needed = a GREAT life!!!! Now, if I can only get my mom to come over and clean my dang apartment and do my dishes for a penny an hour. She's the one that has ALWAYS maintained that part-time employees do NOT have to be paid federal minimum wage. I told her she's wrong, but I'll let her keep this perception...then I can get away with cheap labor ;). For those of you who have me on Facebook (that is if you didn't get deleted off my list by Facebook...*shakes fist at Facebook*), you can see my pics in an album. Rent is pretty decent for a 1 bedroom. I pay $385/month plus utilities. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And it's a nice apartment. It's a nice large bedroom. It was originally two efficiency apartments, but they knocked one out because my landlord/landlady knew it would be hard to keep tenants in those. Stormy is with me (yes, they allow cats, but not dogs). She took a LONG time to adjust to the place, but she's used to it now. Only problem, she's a porky lil cat now. I discovered that today. Time to put her on a diet. Mike and Ike remain at my parents being neglected and not played with :(. But Cathy would only let me have one cat, so I couldn't bring all three of them. Otherwise, I would have had a HUGE custody battle in court for the boys. Oh and I would have won paws down becuase GRANDMA AND GRANDPA didn't WANT anymore cats after Chippy died. I had to BEG them to let me get Stormy =). But that's one tidbit.

Another tidbit is that I'm still at the toxic HRC. Yes, we're still open. And yes, there are rumors that they are going to shut us down. I don't think the legislature is really that stupid to do such a thing after the mental health reform backlash they got after closing HRC down the first time. I REALLY need to get out of there. It's making my mental health suffer and my stress level shoot above the breaking point. I've been applying for state jobs like crazy in Lincoln/Omaha area, but so far, no luck. I'm REALLY hoping that I'll get a break in this one job I'm looking at with Voc Rehab and the state. But if that doens't pan out, then I'm just sunk. I can't get out of HRC and no matter what I do to try to get out of there, I just can't. Now, it's conspiracy theory time: HR is MESSING with me!!! Actually, I know they are because the lady has told me stuff she's done in the past. So I'm not liking them one bit!!!! But if I DO ever get out, I'll be sure to post it on here.

I got a SECOND Bachelors degree this last January. Maybe I wrote that already. I don't remember. But I went back to school for a second Bachelors because I was only four classes away. So I graduated with a Human Relations degree. Yay me!!! The first one is pointless, so this one should do me some good (that is if I can get a different job!!!!). I looked at grad school before going back for the second degree and tried a couple of schools as you know, but I decided to do the Bachelors. Heck, I should look at grad school again and find a different program. I would do Criminal Justice, but seriously, what can I do with that as a Masters degree? I'd do Social Work, but the thing is, I don't think I will get into UNO's program :'(. I could do one online, but the cost is WAY too much. So I'm just weighing my options right now.

It's Thanksgiving and I'm here by myself. But that's quite alright with me. I was supposed to have a Fringe marathon day, but instead, I decided to do the Internet marathon day of Facebook and e-mail. Haha. Mom and dad went up to Sioux City to see my relatives. I stayed back naturally so I didn't have to go. But guess who got stuck housesitting and catsitting and chicken sitting???? ME!!!! They left me $40 for pro-rated rent (a requirement I have if I have to stay here while their gone to make up for what I'm paying) and for doing the chores. Not enough if you ask me. I think I'll charge an extra $10-$15 when they come back Friday. The chores of the lone chicken are too much for me!!!! Heck, I almost killed myself lugging a half-full bucket of lukewarm water out to her this morning because it was so dang heavy! I know, I'm a wuss ;).

But now I'm gearing up for the Black Friday shopping!!!! I have no $$$, but so what? I still am going to do it because of GREAT Christmas deals! I have my mom's shopping done for the most part, except 1 or 2 more items, and well, my dad...nada. That'll change tomorrow. But I'm CLUELESS on what to get him in some areas. But I think I might have found one of the perfect gifts--if I can get up and be at Menards by 6 am. I doubt that. Oh and if any of you are going to be at the door at 3 am when stores open, YOU'RE CRAZY!!!! I'll be tucked in my warm bed, SLEEPING!!!! I never understand those die hards. But hey, I will admit, it's a rush of adrenaline to battle the crowds for the deals. I'm checking on a Walmart ad and might stay up until 12:01 am and go back to get some electronic stuff for me before they run out. I don't know yet. It'll depend on how tired I am because I couldn't sleep well last night. But Black Friday...HERE I COME!!! Yee haw!

I think after blabbing on and on, that is all I have to report. I'm using my trusty laptop mommy got me so I can cut down my cell phone bill by not utilizing the internet on my phone and doing the 900 minutes/month everything data plan for $70 plus fees. Much better. I get free internet access at my apt. complex (but part of my rent). They had a heck of a time for awhile with the connection, but I fixed that for them. I REFUSE to credit Andrew for it, even though he told me something they never thought about. So it's pretty good now. I pay for my own cable, but hey, without tv, what would I do???? I have no signal with a converter box, so I had no choice but to get cable.

Okay, okay, I'll go superglue my mouth shut now and superglue my fingers together so I can't type on the keyboard anymore. Haha. I'll be back to crash this blog at another time...perhaps a year again????

Suz

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Pear Cobbler from Janice

You can take the girl off the farm, but you can't take the farmer out of the girl, apparently! I especially love to harvest things. There are two pear trees at a rental house down a couple of blocks from us. For years, I watched the fruit fall to the ground. I can't stand to see fresh produce go to waste! I knocked on the door, asked if I could pick, and the people were thrilled. (These two trees produce many bushels of pears, and it's a lot of picking up, if you don't want them.) And I have learned that pears always fall off green, and only ripen after several weeks on the counter. My patience has paid off, and I have been eating fresh pears daily for weeks now. Even better than that, I have made this fantastic pear cobbler a few times for family and friends. You may want to try it, too.

Pear Cobbler with Cranberry Streusel

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8 x 8 inch dish.

4 - 6 pears, more or less depending on size, peeled, cored, and sliced into large bowl. I left mine in large chunks and like a generous amount of pears.

2 tsp. vanilla - Sprinkle over pears and toss.

Next, sprinkle with the dry ingredients, and toss until well-coated. Put in baking dish.
1/4 c. brown sugar (or less Splenda blend)
2 T flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Streusel topping:

1/2 c. butter (I used less. Maybe 1/3)
1/2 c. brown sugar (or less Splenda blend)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt (only if the butter is unsalted)
1/2 - 1c. oatmeal (my addition)
Mix together with hands or pastry blender. Can use the same bowl as the pears.

Toss in 1 c. fresh or frozen cranberries.

Crumble topping over pears and bake 35 - 40 min. or until pears are tender and topping is brown and crunchy.

We eat it with vanilla ice cream, but it is also excellent without. You are going to love this!

See! You really don't have to have life changing news to post!

Love to you all,

Janice

Keep posting, Niki....we love it

Dear Family,

I have absolutely nothing interesting to add, but I just have to encourage Niki to keep us up-to-date on those darling boys. I check almost every day. It's such fun. Of course, I keep hoping I'll hear something from the rest of you, too.

Paul and I have had some kind of icky virus off and on and off and on for several long weeks. I started with a headache and achy calf muscles. That was about a week. Then Paul had a nasty sore throat and head cold symptoms. Then I got that. It surely is hanging on. I take lots of hand sanitizer to do the visits to the day care homes I absolutely HAVE to finish. I haven't been coughing or sneezing lately, so I tell myself I'm not contagious.

By the way, happy birthday, Niki. I remember your post last year when you gave us an account of your pasta maker, including a beautifully set table. Things are a little different this year, right?! (But lots more fun....)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Baptism and the Big Apple





Hi to all,
I don't mean to make this a Stamp family blog, but since there were no new posts since mine, I wanted to share a few photos from a couple of big events in our family. The twins, Sam and Luke, were baptized on Oct. 17 in the same church that Niki was baptized and confirmed. A brunch followed at our home and it was a special event on a spectacular day with many wonderful family and fiends. There is a beautiful family gown that has been worn by 16 members of the Wise family. Because there are two babies, Niki and Matt opted to have the boys photographed in the gown for the official gown book, but wore button-down, collared dress shirts for the service. They were just precious.



Our other big news is that Cassidy settled in New York three weeks ago. She found a great job as an assistant in a financial company. It's amazing how well she has adjusted to the most populous city in the country with about 2 million people on a 23square mile island. I can't say we don't worry about her, because we do, but she's living the dream and seems to be enjoying her new life.
Somewhere in midtown lives our little girl...

Gotta love their pizza.

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall season and let's all cheer the Huskers to a BCS bowl game!

Love to all,
Suki

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Nebraska City Adventure



As some of you know, John, Sue, Steve and I take adventures to see the countryside and wildlife of our fine state of Nebraska. Sue usually drives because she owns the new, roomy Murano or because we take John's pickup, and also because the guys sit in the back enjoying their cooler full of, uh, ice tea?



Today we ventured to Nebraska City where we did a quick tour of the Lied Conference Center, enjoyed lunch at Parker's Smokehouse, walked around Arbor Lodge park, shopped at Arbor Orchard, Kimmel Orchard and finally got apples and cider at Union Orchard. We didn't have any sunshine, but we were happy to have great fall temps and no rain. Oh, almost forgot. Sue and I almost always get ice cream at trip's end. It was a great day with apple crisp to follow this week.


Sue and I testing the "Whispering Bench." It really works!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Kelly-Paul's!

Last weekend we went to visit Kelly and Paul in Nebraska.  When I told Taylor we were going, she was so excited and kept saying "kellypauls, kellypauls!!"  I think the trip lived up to her expectations.  We had a great time at "Kelly-Paul's," got to go meet Niki's new babies and even got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa.  And the car rides were smooth - bonus!  Here's the overview of the weekend...

Great-Grandpa and Grandma thought Xander was beautiful and quite the chunker! 
Xander and Great-Grandpa

Taylor ADORES Kelly! 
Tay loved Kelly's bracelets! 

Story time with Kelly and Lily

Tay looks just like Kelly :)
When you ask Taylor to smile, she thinks that means 'squint your eyes' which looks just like Kelly when she smiles!

Visit to Niki's to meet the boys, Sam and Luke.  Thanks for letting us stop in on a Saturday!  They are adorable, and Niki and Matt are great parents with their hands full!  Matt won Taylor over by giving her cookies and Niki snuggled with Xander and did the "swing-bounce" move, his favorite.  Taylor was very interested in all the babies and thought their room was "too cute!"
Sam

Luke

Sam - Xander - Luke
To be fair... Xander is bigger, but appears even larger due to his cloth diaper and pushing his belly out
(he likes to stand, not sit :)

Niki-Sam, Elissa-Xander, Taylor, Kelly-Luke
Baby fest!  Just a preview of Christmas

Tay reading to Luke

Niki and Xander - we all have the cutest babies
Tay liked the baby stuff!

Tay wanted to hold Luke
Xander and Sam checking each other out
Also remember that Taylor and Xander have a blog at elissabright.blogspot.com that I try to post on regularly (but I'm not quite as good as Niki!) so you can always check that out.  It is a private blog, so if you are not a member, just email me at elissawiles@gmail.com and I'll send you an invitation to join!

-Elissa, Matt, Taylor and Xander

Friday, October 1, 2010

Hi All from Mary Jo

It is a beautiful, bright fall day here. I need to wash windows, paint my porch floor, harvest the peppers and a few more tomatoes, etc. Instead, I had to catch up with some of the duties for my part-time job....also making phone calls to Omaha, checking on Mom. Latest, she suddenly (seemingly) lost the hearing in her right ear and is "whoozy". We know ears are connected to balance, but what the heck caused that? John has been running her for tests, (mom says he is a "saint"), but so far, no answers....She feels OK otherwise, and isn't nauseous. She is using a walker she had from a previous injury, and NOT driving. We will keep you informed.

Thanks to Niki for giving me my "baby fix". The babies seem to be doing wonderfully well, as do their parents. Really, Niki....modeling and running!! Your mom reports your maternity leave is now over. I won't expect quite so many pictures now, but I will miss it. I hope the transition is not too traumatic for any and all of you.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Twins are Wearing Big Boy Pants!

Luke and Sam

Hello, Grandma is posting this for Matt and Niki as they are quite busy these days with the boys. Sam and Luke are thriving and growing into handsome little guys with their own unique personalities.

If you want to check up on the Strotman Family Singers, Niki maintains a blog on the twins with quick, humorous inserts almost daily. I find it's the highlight of my day and they always makes me laugh and smile. For quick access to Niki's blog, Sue set up the link on the right side of the Family Letter. Thanks!

Sadly, Niki returns to work on October 1 after a three month leave. Physically, she's in fabulous shape as she has started running again and recently did a fashion show for White House/Black Market for a Mary Kay event. She looked fantastic.


Sam and Luke are coming to our home for a sleepover Saturday (in their Go Big Red outfits) and we are looking forward to it. We think Matt and Niki are doing a fabulous job as parents and we are so proud of them.
Love to all,
Suki