Christmas Has Finally Arrived...

After several weeks of craziness and procrastination, we finally put up our Christmas tree on Wednesday... and then we spent yesterday morning decorating! Kevin made us some hot cocoa and we turned on the Christmas music and enjoyed celebrating being on vacation! Here are some pictures of our cute condo now that it is ready for Christmas!



I love our stockings and stocking hangers- mine is a little Bakery building. It is so cute! I also love our garland that sits on the mantle. It lights up and makes the room look so festive!


Here are the fabulous snowmen decorations that I got last Christmas and the darling Christmas tree candle that Miranda gave me a few years back. I love opening up my Christmas box each year because by the time the next year rolls around I've forgotten about all of the things we already own.


On the top shelf of our little hutch is one of my favorite presents from last year- a beautiful Spode Christmas platter. Some day I plan to have the Spode Christmas dishes and silverware so that we can eat Christmas dinner on them.


For Christmas Eve when I was little we'd always read "The Polar Express." My parents gave Kevin and I a copy of the book the first Christmas after we got married. They also gave us one of each type of ornament that they have on their Christmas tree. I love the ornaments because even though we're not always together on Christmas, it feels like a little piece of my family is with me.


Lastly, here is the great advent calendar we got from the Buskirks last year. Isn't it beautiful?! Only two more days till Christmas!

Holiday Traditions

Most of my favorite family traditions revolve around chocolate (surprise, surprise!). Every year since I can remember, my mom has always carried on the tradition of baking for weeks before Christmas and then putting together intricate and delicious cookie plates/containers and delivering them to a few of her hundred closest friends. Each of us were always responsible for a particular cookie- I was in charge of the Snowmen, Elise was in charge of the Santa cookies, and Jessie and her friends were in charge of the stars and Christmas tree sugar cookies. My mom made the rest of cookies and bars and we were lucky if we could snag a bite!


After a week or so of baking, we'd help put together the cookie plates and then we'd all jump into the car and spend several evenings dropping off cookies. My favorite year involved Scotter wearing a Santa mask and all of us girls wearing Santa hats. As we left the cookies at the houses we'd be asked again and again to sing some Christmas songs, so we'd quickly walk back to the car singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Very few years went by without some sort of argument about who would deliver the cookies to the doors (since many of the people were my mom's friends... and they'd only heard about us from her). Our favorite visits were when we'd arrive at a home to drop off cookies and receive a plate of cookies in return- they were usually quickly devoured in the car. After several hours of driving, we'd stop at Friendly's for some dinner or ice cream and enjoy their typical SLOW service.


Kevin and I decided to continue this tradition of cookie baking and delivering in our little family. This year was our 2nd attempt and although the cookies didn't taste as good as my mom's and weren't as plentiful, we had a lot of fun! Kevin was a whiz at making the peanut butter blossom cookies (pb hersheys kiss cookies) and even tried a new variation using Reeses PB cup bells instead of Hersheys kisses. They were delicious! He also proved to be a great plate wrapper.


I think between work friends, church friends, and family, we delivered 45-50 plates! Last night and yesterday afternoon we did the official cookie delivering. I drove the car while Kevin searched in the dark to find names on the plates... and fortunately no one got the wrong plate (although there were a few close calls) and we only got lost once or twice.


Now we're just hoping to be able to get our condo decorated and Christmas tree up before Christmas day! (P.S.- If you're already gone on vacation and we missed giving you treats... we'll be stopping by in January with some New Years goodies. Merry Christmas!)

Gingerbread House Competition

We were invited over to our friends Lindsey and Tyler's house on Monday night for a Family Home Evening Gingerbread House Competition. Here are some pics. It was a great night! Especially when the little torch came out and Tyler started lighting marshmallows on fire.

Here we are with our little house. We were especially proud that the roof stayed up.


Here are Steve and Alie with their beautiful house before Steve torched it. They were intimidating competition since Steve is an engineer and is currently building his own house. :-)

Space Time 2007

On Saturday night we went to Google's holiday party. We would have to say it was the most incredible party we've ever been to. We arrived fashionably late (about 40 min) along with about several thousand other people. Here is the line of cars trying to get into the parking lot. We had to park so far away from the main event that we boarded a party bus in the parking lot to drive us to the entrance.

The first room was florescent orange and pink with all sorts of appetizers and desserts and a DJ. It was about the length of a football field and completely packed with people.


The best desserts in the room were the chocolate mousse cups and the little lemon tarts. They also had a Spanish Tapas bar and Italian Tuscan bar.

After we explored the first room, we ventured down the dark hallway to the Space Lounge.

The Space Lounge was a lot quieter and all sorts of crazy old space movies were being showed on big screens all over the place. They also had some virtual reality machines you could try out. The food in this room was more like comfort food- Kristina's favorite thing was the mashed potato bar! They also had pigs in a blanket, gourmet grilled cheese, and blue cheese bites. We were in heaven... until we walked up the stairs and found the crepe bar! They had amazing berry and chocolate crepes... so the eating continued! :-) Basically the entire event consisted of wandering around and eating - it was fabulous!


The last room was the craziest/loudest room where the live band was playing. Baby Buskirk didn't enjoy the loud music too much, so we didn't stay long in there... but we did stay long enough to try the creme puff bar. They had several different types of creme puffs and then would smother the creme puffs with either hot fudge or hot caramel. Mmmm!


In the live band room they also had some vintage arcade games for people to play.


At the end of the evening we waited in line to get our picture taken to document the event and then we jumped on the Google party bus to head back to our car. It was a great way to start off our holiday party season!

Cookie Extravaganza

Every year my friend Kaari throws an awesome Christmas Cookie Swap party. I feel so lucky to make the invite list since I get to come home with a HUGE amount of cookies made by other people AND Kaari buys each of us the most darling holiday plates that we get to bring our cookies home on.


Here are some pictures of my contributions to the cookie swap. Last year I made chocolate chip cookies, so this year I thought I'd try something different and make an ooey gooey chocolatey brownie bar thing. The recipe came from one of my favorite treat cookbooks called The Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook. I included the recipe below just in case you feel like trying them out- they have peanut butter, chocolate, rice krispies, and brownies in them... so they're very rich and good!



Once we arrive at the cookie swap, we have to put three of our treats on a special plate to give to the judges. Then we all eat a delicious dinner prepared by Kaari and then we start loading our cute plates with cookies. When the judges are done taste testing the treats, they announce the winners and prizes are given out. After my plate is heaped high with treats, I always go home and share the goodies with Kevin. We usually make ourselves sick from all the sugar. It's a great tradition :-)

Marshmallow Krispie Bars

1 package Duncan Hines Chewy fudge brownie mix

1 package miniature marshmallows

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup JIF Creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 ½ cups crisp rice cereal

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 13X9-inch pan
2. Prepare and bake brownies following package directions for basic recipe. Remove from oven. Sprinkle marshmallows on hot brownies. Return to oven. Bake for 3 minutes longer.
3. Place chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chips are melted. Add rice cereal; mix well. Spread mixture over marshmallow layer. Refrigerate until chilled. Cut into bars.

Make about 2 dozen bars

Tip: For special presentation, cut cookies into diamond shapes.

Birthday Breakfast

Here's a quick picture of what Kevin cooked up for me last Saturday for my belated birthday breakfast- Williams Sonoma chocolate chocolate chip waffles. They were delicious! Basically it was like eating chocolate cake with whipped cream for breakfast. I would definitely recommend trying these!

Birthday surprises...

I've now been 28 for a week (crazy how fast the years creep up!) and today I was thinking about the fun birthday surprises Kevin gave me this year. My birthday was kind of a crazy day, but he still managed to make it special and give me some nice gifts.


As always, one of my favorite treats is a Mrs. Fields cookie. This year not only did he get me a cookie sandwich (looks like a cookie ice cream sandwich but instead it is filled with frosting), but he also got me a Mrs. Fields Happy Birthday cookie card. Imagine a cookie about the size of shoebox with loads of frosting on top. It was perfect!


Kevin also gave me a cover for my cell phone. This was the best gift ever since I just got a new black LG chocolate phone and dropped it on the first day I had it! I basically drop my phone every day at least once when I'm running... so now it will hopefully look a little less abused.


My other favorite gift that I got from Kevin is a Saturday breakfast in bed coupon. I am hoping to use it this weekend. He bought the most INCREDIBLE waffle mix that he's going to use for my breakfast- Williams Sonoma Chocolate chocolate chip waffle mix. I am very excited!

All in all, it was a good birthday! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and thoughtful husband!

Wedding Bells

This weekend we headed to Utah for Thanksgiving and for Elise and Dan's Wedding. The ceremony and reception were both beautiful!


Here are some pictures of the gorgeous reception at Sundance. Elise and my mom put together an incredible party. This is a picture of the table I sat at. Kevin and I had so much fun chatting with our friends at our table- Regan, Miranda, Liz, John, Becky, Nate, and Jeff. It was so nice that Jeff, Liz, and John could come from Cali to celebrate with Elise & Dan.

Before the reception we threw a little bridesmaid party to honor Elise. It was a nice little break for her from her grueling photo shoot. We had some chocolate truffles, sparkling cider, and of course we brought her a large diet Coke to help her get energized for the partying.

Here's a picture of Elise with the girls- from left to right is Elise (of course), Jessie, me, Colleen, Anna (Dan's sister), and Kathy. Don't our bouquets look beautiful?!


Kevin and I enjoyed a great evening talking with friends and family and dancing. I also got to be the official videographer for the night and as the Maid of Honor I got to give a speech in front of all the guests (about 200). It was definitely nerve wracking!


Here's a pictures of the beautiful wedding cake and the grooms cake. Both turned out perfectly and it was awesome when Dan smashed some of the chocolate cake in Elise's face :)

We feel so blessed to have Dan join our family!

Rock Launchers

Today was one of those days where I felt like I got to have small glimpse of what it's going to be like to be a mom of an 8 yr old boy and to be honest with you... it was pretty funny. After spending about 20 minutes talking with my four favorite hooligans in my class about the importance of not "play fighting" on the playground (they all admitted to having seen too many Cops shows where the police brutalized people, kicked them, yelled at them, etc. and had then chosen to act out their favorite scenes during lunchtime)... I sent them on their way to afternoon recess. When the bell rang for the kids to return to class and head to library I discovered I was missing my boys. As I headed to the front of the school, several teachers stopped and told me that my kids had gotten in trouble. When I walked into the main office, I saw all four boys sitting in the chairs outside the principal's office. Their heads were hung low and I had to give some sort of speech telling them how disappointed I was in them...when really I was cracking up inside. They had decided that since they got banished from playing in the back field, they'd move to the front field and find some new sticks/rocks to play with. Today the activity they came up with was throwing rocks over and through the school fence. Unfortunately, the fence separated them from Stanford Ave. by only a few feet... so instead of just launching rocks over the fence, they were launching rocks into oncoming traffic. Witnesses (other busybody kids who like to get my guys in trouble) said that they heard the rocks smashing into cars that were driving by. As usual, the yard duty teacher was called and all four of my boys tried to run... but since we're on a closed campus, there wasn't anywhere for them to go... so they were herded to the office where they got to meet with the principal. They all ended up getting sent home, so I ended the day having only 3 students in my classroom. I know that I should feel more disappointed in them, but mostly I think their antics are somewhat entertaining. Rocks, sticks, and dirt are their favorite toys... so of course it would make logical sense to try and launch any number of those objects over a fence. I'm just surprised that they didn't think of it sooner. These are the kids that decided three years ago that it would be fun to launch little mini cherries through my classroom window (leaving my floor blanketed in mini-cherries)... so of course as they get older they'd obviously move on to bigger, louder, and more destructive things. I only hope that about 8 years from now I have as good of a sense of humor/positive attitude about my own little guy and the crazy things he gets involved in.

United We Run

Today a few of the girls in my ward and I headed up to Chrissy Field in San Francisco to participate in the 7th Annual “United We Run” RadRockyD 5K Fun Run. We ran from the Yacht Club in the Marina up to the bottom of the bridge and then back. The race was more like 3.5 miles and was awesome. At the finish line we we got Jamba Juice, Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, and granola bars. I was pretty proud of myself for keeping up a decent pace and finishing within about 32 minutes- a much slower pace than usual, but still ok. It is much easier to justify running a little bit slower when you're pregnant and about 15-20 lbs heavier, but it felt so good to be out by the water and running hard! Unfortunately the weather wasn't as idyllic as the picture above- it was overcast, foggy, and probably in the 50s/60s, but perfect for running!

Afterwards we headed to Plutos on Chestnut Street for a light lunch. What a great way to spend a Saturday! I love living so close to SF. I wish I had time to go up there every weekend!

A Night Out At Google

Our friend Jocelyn flew in yesterday and we were excited to spend a little bit of time with her on her whirlwind trip. We headed to one of our favorite dinner locations- Google. Kevin gave us a tour of the Googleplex and then we ate dinner in my favorite restaurant there, Charlie's. Here are some pictures of us posing in front of Kevin's building.

The girls- Jocelyn, Karren and I

Jocelyn w/ Kevin & I

We are excited to hang out again on Sunday for dinner on the opposite coast. I'm counting down the minutes until our trip to D.C. I am hoping we get a little bit of East Coast fall weather. I've missed that this year!

Halloween Pics

Here are some pictures from Halloween. The best part about my costume this year was that I didn't have to do anything! (except wear black... which is what I do everyday anyway). Two of the fabulous third grade teachers made my costume for me. I have a great team.

Kevin's costume was awesome- Mr. Incredible (a perfect fit for him since he is so incredible). If only he would've worn the speedo like his co-worker... :-)


Everyone on Kevin's Google team dressed up like a super hero.


Here is half of my staff (Simeon was a Tae-Kwon-Do instructor and Ashley was a Spice Girl). Yvette was a flapper and John B. was a cowboy... unfortunately I couldn't find them for pictures!


Here is one set of parents from my class. They dressed up for the parade too! The entire family was part of Lord of the Rings, I think?
Here's the great spread of goodies we had at our party and the beautiful Halloween table my fabulous room mom set up. We have several kids with special diets, so everything was basically gluten free, high fructose corn syrup free, and peanut free. My favorite things were Boo Chips and the healthy rice crispy treats!

Happy Halloween!

For our Fun Friday activity yesterday the little people decorated our classroom for Halloween. They're really into bats and tombstones this year. I organized them into little groups and each group got to be in charge of one area of the room. My super Room Mom sent in decorations for us to use and then the kids also made their own decorations too. It was a GREAT way to end a very crazy week!

The reading corner was their favorite part to decorate. They put plastic spiders all up in the web and they even wrapped some of the web stuff around the doorknob.

They thought the graveyard hanging sheet was awesome... and now I can work at my computer and have some privacy. The colored blobs are the ghosts that they made (and some other stuff that I couldn't figure out).




I am really excited for our class Halloween party this year! My favorite thing that we do on the morning of Halloween is crawl under a big table covered with a black sheet and we tell spooky stories. Usually the kids try to tell a story that they've written during writers workshop and then I also have guest readers come into the class to read spooky stories. Since the goals for many of the kids are related to sequencing, retelling, telling stories with a beginning, middle, and end, speaking in complete/clear grammatically correct sentences, etc. I'm actually still teaching the whole time and they don't even realize it. It's really dark under the table so the reader shines a flashlight under his/her chin to make it even creeper. There are some definite squabbles under the table as everyone fights for a good spot to lie down, but it's still everyone's favorite activity!

Last year I attempted to have the little people do pumpkin math activities where we carved pumpkins, took out the seeds, counted them, did math projects with them, measured the pumpkins, etc. Since most of the little people couldn't count past 50 and didn't know how to measure with a ruler consistently, the activity mostly just gave the adults huge headaches! We might try again... or else we'll just do my usual favorite Halloween math activity- M&Ms Math! I'll take advantage of any opportunity to use chocolate as I teach :-)

If you have any other fun Halloween activity suggestions for me to try, definitely pass them along!