tis the season...

to order your Christmas cards from The Paper Egg! The shop is somewhat stocked so go take a look. 

I've been designing birth announcements, Christmas cards, birthday invitations and more for years and I'm trying to add those all to the shop.  It's a slower process than I thought so check back weekly to see all the new items!  https://www.etsy.com/shop/eggsturnbow

easter 2013

Oh man do they make them any cuter?

We had a great Easter this year filled with cookie decorating at Grandma Turnbow's house, dying Easter eggs, Easter baskets and of course the annual Easter egg hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Kash loved every minute of it and was very excited for Easter this year.  The weeks leading up to it he watch our home videos from Easter last year and he was ready to go on the egg hunt with ALL of his cousins.  Sadly the Frandsen girls couldn't make it this year and he was really disappointed.

For family home evening we focused on the resurrection all month.  I was amazed at how much Kash learned from the simple lessons we planned.  As we were driving past a Catholic church that has three large crosses in front Kash said, "look mom that's where Jesus died!  And now he lives."

And as for Nixon's first Easter, he loved it!! He loved rolling around and eating all of the plastic eggs and thoroughly enjoyed being outside for the Easter egg hunt--he loves being outside!

Kash loves going to Grandma's house and now it's an added bonus when Kitt is there!  And per usual plenty of sugar was consumed in the making of these cookies. 

Dying eggs this year was extra entertaining with Kieden.  This kid LOVES!!! eggs.  Well I guess he loves to crack them.  It was so fun to watch him splash the eggs in all of the mugs, use his hands to scoop them out of the dye and of course a lot of cracking went on!

Kash came into our room Easter morning and Blaine told him he thought the Easter Bunny had come.  Kash said, "Nah, not today Dad" and jumped into our bed. haha.  When we finally convinced him to check and see he was very excited and surprised to find eggs hiding everywhere and a basket full of treats.  Nix enjoyed watching Kash run around and playing with all the empty eggs Kash was leaving behind. 

And finally the moment Kash had been waiting for, the Easter Egg Hunt.  I think it lived up to his expectations :)  Grandma and Grandpa had about a million extra eggs lying around the yard which of course Kieden loved! 

easter egg hunt 2013 from Erica Turnbow on Vimeo.

So as you could see we had a great Easter!  Every year after Easter I always find myself saying it's my 2nd favorite holiday.

the hunt for a tree that will do

yep, the christmas posts are coming.  christmas in march, deal with it.

The day after (or two days after this year) Thanksgiving we headed up the mountains for our traditional hunt for our "perfect" Christmas tree. One little baby bear and a little cub in tow.  Usually Blaine and I scour the mountains looking for a full, pretty tree to put in our living room.  After having to feed and change Nixon in the car and meeting everyone in the forest later, Kash insisting he be with either Grandma or Tyler and not with our little family and having to carry Nixon around we decided to just find a tree that would do this year. ha

It was still a fun adventure and fun to have little Nix along for the ride this year, we just didn't bring home the best looking tree.  Kash had a lot of fun with his extended family (didn't want anything to do with Blaine or I this trip), enjoyed all of the left over Thanksgiving treats and even got to pet some Christmas horses.

Kash loved all the treats, shocker. (Almost 3 years old)

baby bear taking a break from the elements. (2.5 months old.)

This picture is my favorite!  We had a great idea of taking a picture of Grandma & Grandpa with all the grandkids for their Christmas card.  And here's how that went...

 Eventually these three were left...and as happy as can be!!

 This is the picture that they ended up using for their Christmas card.  MUCH CUTER!!!  Love all those little kids!!!

thanksgiving

Ugh, I'm still playing catch up...

We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year!!!  Blaine and I both left his parents house feeling full and happy. Joy and her family were in town which always adds to the good times and holiday fun.  Kash loves having Jocelyn and Joelle at grandma's house to play with.  He's always sooo sad to find out they are no longer at grandma's house when he goes over to play.  I love that he has cousins close in age and that he gets to see often!

Nixon had a great first Thanksgiving.  People held him, he slept, flashed some smiles, drank some milk and slept some more.  Sounds perfect to me.

oh man, I guess if I have to live with all boys at least they are handsome!

helping Grandpa with his famous rolls

hahahaha this picture kills me every time!  Grandpa dug a fort for the kids to play in...

some turkeys making some turkeys

sleepy bow tie baby

family skate night

One night while Blaine was busy I bundled up the boys and thought Kash would get a kick out of watching people ice skate at our outdoor mall's ice rink.  I don't know what on Earth made me think Kash would be content just watching people skate and not have any desire to try this for himself, I'll blame it on sleep deprivation.  Yeah my perfect outing blew up in my face when Kash was screaming at the ice rink begging to go skating.  Idiot mom.

A little hot chocolate and a promise that we would come back with dad finally got the tears to stop.  Phew.

So the next week we all went as a family to ice skate, and wasn't it a sight.  It took Kash and I about 5 minutes to even get on the ice, the worker man had to come help us.  But once we got on the ice we did okay.  The same nice worker man also said we could bring Nixon's stroller onto the ice.  This actually turned out to be awesome and allowed me to zoom around the rink giving people the false impression I was a semi decent skater.  And I was glad I didn't attempt to skate without Blaine there because it turned out to be quite the leg workout to push Kash around and keep him from falling. It was definitely a two man job to keep that kid upright. 

It was a fun night and I'm glad we live somewhere that has so many fun activities for us to constantly do.  Kash was a little disappointed that he wasn't a better skater, aren't we all, but he still had fun. 

ice skating 2012 from Erica Turnbow on Vimeo.

action shot

See, Nix was there! 

halloween, craboleen

Oh man so much catching up to do on this little blog...

For months leading up to Halloween I would consistently ask Kash what he wanted to dress up as.  I figured he's at the age where he could have a say (I still held the power to veto any ridiculous requests of course) and it would be fun for him to choose.  Well his answer was always, "I want to be a baseball bat."  Oh brother...I wouldn't have hated this idea so much if he didn't dress up last year as a baseball player.  After being a pumpkin for years and year as a child I now have a Halloween complex and feel the need to have my children dress up as something different each year.  My mom will tell you I wanted to be a pumpkin all those years, I just can't believe that.  Love ya mom ha!

So I figured anything in the sports realm would please my little athlete. Then Juli gave me a tip that USU was having a sale on toddler football uniforms and I was sold.  All that was left was to convince Kash that he wanted to be a football player and not a bat.  He actually loved the idea and loved it even more when his helmet and jersey came in the mail.  Now I had to figure out what little Nix was going to be.  I saw a darling owl costume that I wanted to make him, but I kept thinking of that cute picture on Pinterest with the brother football player holding his little baby football and went with that idea.

Of course the day of our ward trunk or treat Kash all of the sudden hated the idea of dressing up and getting free candy. It seems as if this is going to be a yearly tradition.

And it wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't go to Grandma and Grandpa Turnbow's house to carve pumpkins!  This year Grandma went all out and had a huge party with pumpkin carving, homemade root beer, games, pinata and all the treats you could ever want! :)

Frandsens were in town and Kash enjoyed ever minute with his big cousin Jocelyn!  

Go Aggies! Probably the perfect year to dress up as a USU football player!

Serious face > crying

Kash wouldn't stop freakin' his pants until he found BFF Elliot.  And then this is what they do when they are finally reunited...

Kash was really good at saying trick or treat at each car.  But eventually wanted to stop and have a taste party. 

Once the get ready phase of the night was over and when Kash finally found Elliot I think he had a good time!  And as for Nixon's 1st Halloween he was a champ.  He didn't mind one bit being shoved into his little football costume and pretty much slept during all the festivities. It was great having my mom here again this year for Halloween...I'm starting to really depend her during Halloween so I hope she plans on making it a tradition! :)

Oh and it needs to be mentioned...I won the ward chili cook off.  I mean the fact that we had brought our entire extended family to vote for us has nothing to do with my victory, it's just good chili! haha

easter weekend

I feel like I'm still recovering from our eventful Easter weekend full of multiple birthday celebrations, tons of family time and Easter activities everywhere you looked.  Turns out I don't have the stamina I normally do before pregnancy.  But each day was great and it's so fun to celebrate when all of the Turnbows get together!

It was awesome to watch Kash understand what was going on and get excited for the activities.  Except he's already learned that if he puts in a request for what he wants in his Easter basket that the Easter Bunny listens.  Wasn't expecting that for a few years!

Jason's birthday was a few days before but we normally don't get to celebrate with him so it was fun to do cake, ice cream and presents with him

Kash's favorite part of dying eggs was splashing them in the dye and then stirring them around forever.  Resulted in some pretty bright eggs!

Easter morning was a lot of fun, once we finally convinced Kash to come down the stairs!  I cut about 5 min. out of the beginning of this movie to spare you all the conversation that he didn't need to bring ALL of his cars down right now!

If you see Kash throwing back eggs it's because he doesn't think they are Easter eggs if they are shaped like animals or other fun characters! haha

It was another successful Turnbow Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's house!  Love this tradition and love our little guy!

zoo lights

Every year we talk and talk about going to see the zoo lights and never never do, but since this year Kash was older and was loving Christmas so much I made it a point to get us there.

I'd never seen that many people at the zoo, not even on a free day, but I'd say it was worth the wait.  Kash had fun too ha, but he was a little disappointed at the fact that we were at the zoo but we weren't seeing any animals! He kept saying, "More nanimals? More nanimals?"

Kash thought it was pretty cool to kick the snow all night

zoo lights

Every year we talk and talk about going to see the zoo lights and never never do, but since this year Kash was older and was loving Christmas so much I made it a point to get us there.

I'd never seen that many people at the zoo, not even on a free day, but I'd say it was worth the wait.  Kash had fun too ha, but he was a little disappointed at the fact that we were at the zoo but we weren't seeing any animals! He kept saying, "More nanimals? More nanimals?"

Kash thought it was pretty cool to kick the snow all night

ho ho mismas

It's been really fun to watch Kash get into the spirit of Christmas this year and enjoy this holiday as much as I do.  But I was a little nervous that when it came to the whole Santa deal it would be a different story.  I mean that's how it is with most kids his age...and for good reason.  Santa is a strange guy in a funny suit with a weird scratchy beard.  I was fully prepared for Kash to kick and scream and say "down" but he didn't and I was shocked.  Now I'm not saying he loved it (clearly the picture below shows he had no interest in Santa) but he didn't cry and that my friends is a success in my book. 

A few weeks ago I was getting Kash ready for bed and I asked him, "What does Santa say?"  I wasn't expecting an answer at all I was just making small holiday chit chat, but to my surprise Kash said, "Ho Ho Mismas!" with his hands on his belly and all.  I about cried with excitement.  I couldn't believe he knew that, U had no idea where he learned it!  But looking back I think he got it from the Mickey Mouse holiday episode.

via Karen Turnbow

Year two of seeing Santa was a success! 

cranberry cream pie

When the holiday dinners, parties and pot lucks start to roll around this time of year my go to dessert is always Cranberry Cream Pie.  In fact I've already made it three times this holiday season. I discovered this recipe online when Blaine and I spent our first married Thanksgiving together just the two of us.  I googled a "Thanksgiving Cheesecake" due to Blaine's love of cheesecake and trying to impress him our first holiday together. This is what I found.

I love this recipe because:
a) it's super easy
b) I can get away with counting it as a pie but it doesn't taste like one
c) it's good. 


Cranberry Cream Pie

3/4 C. sugar

2 t. cornstarch

1/4 C. cold water

2 C. cranberries

1 graham cracker crusts (pre-made 9 inches)

1 C. confectioner's sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 C. whipping cream, whipped

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and water until smooth.  Add cranberries.  Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes.  Reduce heat; cook until berries pop, about 5 minutes. Set aside

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until fluffy.  Fold in whipped cream.  Spread evenly into pie shell.  Top with cranberry mixture.

Chill for at least 4 hours.  Store in refrigerator.