Christmas Play

At our ward Christmas party, the primary and nursery children dressed up to sing and "act" out the Nativity. All the nursery kids were asked to dress as little lambs. I had a crazy week, so I got up early the day of the party to start on Addie's costume. When she woke up she was SO excited to see the beginnings of the costume, she insisted on wearing the hat most of the day. She thought it was time to go trick or treating again and kept asking for candy!
My day was crazy! I was trying to get Christmas presents shipped out of town but the UPS system was down I found out after waiting in line an hour, I had to make Addie's costume, make lots of cookies for the party, etc. so we ended up arriving a little late and with store bought cookies, but just in time for Addie to change and run on stage. I distracted her once she got up there so I could sneak off, then the curtain opens and she realized I wasn't around and burst into tears. Luckily Daddy saved the day and went up the side stairs and hid behind the curtain. Addie saw him and immediately was happy. Jarom was able to coax her back out onto the stage while he stayed hidden and every few minutes Addie would sneak back over to him to say hi.
Addie realized I was out in the audience and so she then headed to the end of the stage to wave at me, then decided to peek over the edge, giving all the adults a scare thinking she was about to tumble off the stage. Her and the one of the other stray sheep decided to roam around a little throughout the performance, kind of funny! Afterwards Addie wanted to get some candy, so an oreo treat had to suffice! Addie takes after Daddy with her love of oreos and that was the end of me even trying to get a cute picture of her in her costume.Then it was time for Santa, so we all got in line. When Addie saw Santa she ran to the front of the line. I grabbed her and was pulling her back but everyone insisted she go first since she was so excited. (Little stinker got her way)
We finished off the evening with a fun trip to Red Robin at Bridgestreet with Ron, Victoria, Vanessa, and Trevor since we were all too late to eat dinner at the party.

I have a video to post of the play also, but its on the laptop with Jarom at work, so it will have to wait until later.

Black Bean Burgers

2 cans of black beans, drained, rinsed and dried off
1 onion diced
1 bell pepper diced
2 TBS flour
4 slices of bread, crumbled
2 TSP garlic powder
1 TSP seasoned salt
2 TSP chili powder
1 1/2 TSP cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions and bell peppers in a little EVOO 3-5 minutes until soft. Mash beans (I blended mine up in the blender) until almost smooth. Add onions and peppers until mixed. Crumble bread into the mixture (SMALL crumbles) and all of the seasonings and mix until combined. Add flour 1 TBS at a time and stir until well combined. Pat out patties and cook in skillet with a little EVOO until browned on each side (maybe a minute or so on each side).

Use whole wheat buns, tomato slices, lettuce, mustard, and ketchup for a low fat, high protein meal! If you aren't concerned about the fat, then I'd mix up some ranch with chili powder and a dash of hot sauce to use instead of mustard and ketchup, but I was going for low fat, haha!

Makes 8 burgers.

Burgers before they are cooked in the skillet can be flash frozen and cooked from frozen if you want to double the recipe to have some for later.

Also... I just guesstimated what I added with regards to the seasonings. I just shook them in a little at a time and tasted it until I liked it. A lot of the recipes called for onion powder, but I'm not a huge onion person so I omitted it. Jarom and Addie both LOVED these (as did I)!

Gatlinburg Trip Part 2

Saturday we woke up to a little bit of snow, so we headed for the sky lift to get to the top of the mountain. Addie LOVED the snow until her fingers were too frozen, so we warmed up inside the store before we headed back down. In my hasty packing, I forgot socks for myself and my feet were like ice cubes! We stopped at a little gift shop and I think I paid about $6 for one pair of ugly socks...oh well.

Addie's first time holding snow! Last years dusting melted before Addie woke up from her nap.Mom's snowdog and snowman... For lunch we went to Fudruckers down in Pigeon Forge and then Mom, Katie, Addie and I shopped the outlets while the boys headed back to the motel for the football game (I don't know which one though...haha). Mom and Katie out shopped me for once and then we went back to the room for a game of Rook before settling in for the night.

After our long day, I treated Addie to a bubble bath. Her skin is so sensitive the bubble bath breaks her out, so I don't give her bubble baths often because I have to empty the tub after, refill it, and wash her again to get the stuff off her. I didn't realize how out of control the bubbles would get with a jetted tub, haha! Addie had so much fun and played in the tub for over an hour!Sunday we ate some breakfast, took some pictures in front of the Smoky Mountain sign (it's a tradition) then headed home. Addie did great traveling both ways, but didn't nap either way. We stopped for a slushie and a snack each way and it kept her really happy on the trip.On the way home, we took the scenic route and saw this wild turkey on the side of the road... crazy! This was also on the scenic route home....lots and lots of this. So many turns though it made me carsick!

We had a great time and can't wait to do it again! We already made our reservations for next year!

Gatlinburg Trip

We took a trip to Gatlinburg the first weekend in December for their annual Christmas festival. We got up there Thursday and stayed until Sunday. Thursday we were exhausted from traveling, so we stayed in our comfy rooms with the fire roaring, then Friday we headed out.

We ate breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, our absolute favorite place there! After breakfast, me, Jarom, Addie, Katie, and Scott headed over to Ripley's Aquarium. Addie loves fish, so it made for a great time. Jarom asked Addie if she wanted to go see fishies or eat fishies and she said "eat!!!", haha!

It's almost impossible to get a "normal" picture of Scott. Typical.




Katie will probably kill me for this one, but it's funny! They had these fish tanks that you could climb up into, Addie loved them too.

Addie petting a horseshoe crab

Addie loved looking at all the fish but didn't like it when Dad put her in one of the giant fish display's mouth. Addie saving Daddy from the sea creature!
Then we were watching the sting ray's and Addie climbed up on the ledge and was watching them until one got right up in her face and she went hysterical, it scared her to death! Poor baby! After the aquarium on the walk home (right before Addie fell asleep).Jarom got in trouble for touching the sharks (he touched one smaller shark 3 times) in the sting ray petting area, and the shark charged Jarom, not to happy about being touched. We then headed back for some lunch and Addie fell asleep on the way, so she and I stayed in the room while Jarom, Dad, Katie, and Scott went zip lining. When they got back we headed out for the night time Christmas Parade, which was a blast! I found a hot chocolate stand and it snowed while we watched the parade. So much fun!