xmas oh my.

Alright Christmas, you kicked my ass!

I spent weeks on these for the ladies down at Darwin's. I'm just glad I got them done. Whew. So is Sean, I don't think anyone has ever been as glad as he was to see beads get put away. Then my wonderful sister sent me a box full of bead and shells for my bday. I um.....accidently opened them on xmas though. I promptly started beading agin inbetween cooking the cakes and the ham and then I took one look at his face and decided to wait until later this week.

Our Christmas eve was kinda shakey emotionally so I decided to course out my bad vibes by making him some Dolmas which he loves! They are divine. Maybe I'll do a dolmas tutorial later on.

the Ginger bread advent calender from laura's family. The girls absolutely adore it.

Cookies for Santa of course. Maybe their why mama didn't lose any weight this week huh?

In my family we always opened up 1 gift on Christmas eve, I carry that tradition on. Sharel suprised us by making these beautiful dolls for the girls. They LOVED them. They took them to bed with them and still had their hands on them when they woke up xmas morning. So super cute.

After I wrapped everything. WOW

Denali's Barbie glamor camper. She squeeled upon opening it and LOVES it sosoooo much!

Boo Boo proudly handing Sean the gift she picked out fro him from all of them. The most elmer fud hat you've ever seen. I love it. The sight of him wearing it is hilarious and wonderful. Good job Boo!

Elsie's fairy mermaid. I had to sew wings on the mermaid doll I found because I could not find a fairy mermaid anywhere for the life of me, but its what she wanted and its what she got. I think its laying in a corner somewhere. Go figure.

Boo's magic Ariel from Auntie Shawn.

Custom hats from Auntie Julia.

Little budding artist and her paint set.

I should post some photos of her drawings because they really are incredible.

Ah, what would my blog be without another picture of food. So heres my ham. It was to die for! The girls', Sean, Big Sid and I scarffed it.

So, thats that. Today is the day before my 32 bday. Amazing. I will be going to work tonight and then tomorrow the beautiful Asia and Juniper are coming over to babysit so Sean and I can go out. We don't really have any money after this month but we do have 2 free movie tickets! Beside fun with your husband is free right! Love Love love you all.

Sarah

The week in pictures.

As I may or may not have said. Last weekend the girls were alittle sick. Well, we decided to go to Seward to our beloved Sea Life Center. In the winter time the place is great because you normally have the whole thing to yourselves. This time was alittle different. There was another little bunch of 3 girls all about the same ages as ours. They had so much fun running around and looking at everything together.

Woody the Stellar sea lions girlfriend

The girlfriend sat and stared at Elsie for a LONG time.

As You all know (probably) I have been obsessed with thepioneerwomancooks

lately. If she has a recipe that I can adapt using what I've got I'll try it.

So butter rosemary rolls

Heeres that beast of a turkey I cooked. For some reason I didn't get the cooked picture. Probably because we were all to buisy devoring it!

Leftover turkey pot pie. Pre cook

after

Okay...imagine if they were wearing monkey costumes.

This was breakfast yesterday. I don't know why I put pics of food on here, except that its my blog and I love food, so bear with me.

Homemade hashbrowns, as we used to call them, dad's grey browns. They get grey in the cast iron pan.

Anyways its covered in onions, green chiles and a bit of diced ham. Then you put chees on it, cook up a egg anyway you like it and plop it on there and drizzle with salsa. Had we had any sour cream you can bet that would have been on there too!

So there, thats our week. This week is xmas. I wish we could be with more family but I am damn grateful for this little life. Love love love

MamaWhalen

anyone....bueller, bueller.......bueller?

Anyone out there reading this? What should I cook tomorrow? Saturday 12/19/09. Is there something you have always wanted to cook? Tres leches cake is mine. Ever since I heard about it I have been dying to cook it. Anyays send me ideas, even if its past saturday send me ideas of something to cook. If I cook one of the ideas ( More like if anyone even reads this) I'll post a picture of whatever I chose. If no one replies well, I'll come up with something and maybe I'll post that.

Enjoy a picture of tres leches cake, and look it up and tell me if it doesn't make your knees buckle!

makes me happy

For the last few days the girls have been sick sick sick, and no, thats not the makes me happy part. They have been puking and emotional and its been full of laundry and cleaning ( not my strong suit). So this is the time I decided to try to brine and cook a 17 # turkey. I have been obsessed with the pioneer woman cooks lately and I was looking up things on the computer for brining a turkey, I didn't even know if I had a stock pot big enough to brine said 17# turkey or where I would put it in my fridge. I was skeptical as well. Anyways I came up with my own brine. I heated up 2 cp of water and mixed in 1 1/2 cp salt, alittle sugar, lemon, garlic and some apple cider vinegar, I let that boil and then let it cool and added more water. The I washed the turkey pulled out the stuff....you know the stuff  and then lowered into the salty mix. Placed a lid on it and put it in my fridge. I didn't touch it again for about 24 hrs. I then preheated my oven to 275 and cooked the bird for 3 hrs tightly seeled up with foil so nothing would escape. ( I realize this is a different font but somehow I couldn't find my way back to the original font) well I'll just keep changing it til I get my font back. Anyways, 3 hrs @ 275. When this is done take out the bird and baste it with about 1/2 cp of butter stick in a meat thermomater and stick the sucker back in the oven @ 375 basting with more butter every 30 min until it reads about 170-175. it is one of the most beautiful things I've seen. A perfectly cooked turkey with crispy skin and moist meat. Amazing. Meanwhile as I write this my 3 kids are running amuck sticking toys all over the house where they don't belong and pelting me with stuffed animals. Hmmmm, but I'll tell you they devored that turkey much like little animals themselves. They are finally starting to get better which is nice. I can't stand to see them in pain, it brings out more patience in me than I ever knew I had. Now we are all laughing again and I am getting ready to make a turkey pot pie but with bacon, potatoes and leeks and cream. Things have been particularly stressful this season. We got hit with a med bill that got sent to credit while we were waiting on all the info from Sean's health insurance company. At the holidays thats $500 out the door. The girls have been all sick sick sick, the beautiful cards I ordered the day after thanksgiving never came and so this yr there will be no cards, and last but not least we won't have the money to send my family anything for xmas. I now they'll understand but damn.....sucks! Oh wait last but not least...the christmas tree is on this day 12/18/09 darn near dead. It stopped taking up water and I've tried everything I can think of to renourish it but to no avail, its dried from the middle up. We are leaving it up and I haave promised Sean I won't be grumpy about it because as he says " the girls don't know its dying" they don't kow the difference so I just have to try to keep them from running into it and making ALL the needle fall off. Sigh.....so Merry @$&Xing Christmas, atleast my bills are paid, my family is happy and for know we are well fed because today I am going to forget about all the things that didn't go right and I am going to go cook and be happy. Lotsa love to you all, I hope your days are bright and beautiful and that you shine through any shadows that maybe in your way.

To close, a picture of Sandia's teddy with Santa because non of the girls would go near him. hahah oh and at the end of the day that turkey was basted with a whole cup of butter, and what isn't going to be good with 1 cup of butter slathered on it? Enjoy.

Mama Sarah