I'm the winner!!

My friend Chelsea (who I studied in China with) had a little raffle-ish thing going on last month, and I was one of the winners! She sent me this fun package of Christmas stuff (candy, cookies, hot chocolate, etc. etc.) and this way darling apron!! She's so talented! Thanks Chelsea!

Buon Natale!

Caterina Consiglieri Porcaro making ravioli.

Caterina is my great-great grandma, born in Italy in 1883 and came to America as a governess to a Doctor. She was remembered for her love, kindness, and talent for cooking great food (and was only 4'10"!!). She was a cook in the Porcaro's own Italian restaurant "Caro's" for years. Today we pass on the tradition of cooking ravioli for Christmas. Every Christmas Eve the Porcaro's get together for a big Italian feast of ravioli, meatballs, spaghetti, melanzane (an eggplant dish), etc. Unfortunately, G-pa has the big task of cooking the Italian food for all of us, so I'm trying to learn the trade so I can help keep the tradition alive.

Me trying to be as cool as Caterina was.

Grandpa Porcaro and me. The cheese filling.
(Sorry about all the cheesy poses)


Fortunately, we have new-fandangled technology to speed things along for us. This is the Kitchen Aid ravioli attachment that allows you to kneed the dough, stretch it, and add the filling to it.

Cutting the raviolis

Putting them on trays to freeze and keep until the party.

All Done!

I made about 250 (with G-pas supervision).

Thanks Great Great Gma Porcaro!

Ward Christmas Party

Andrea, Derek, and Sofie enjoying our Ward Christmas dinner. (I know Derek looks like he pretty much hates his life, but he was chewing and this was the look we got.)

Sofie loved the music! THS's Show and Chamber came to sing for us and Sofie helped lead the music. She learned this in Primary and I've never been able to get it on film. So cute. Denkers would be proud. (The kind lady holding her is a woman in our ward who couldn't get enough of Sofie that night!)

Talent or Desperation?

My mom says I have a talent for using leftovers in creative ways. I'm not so sure if it's a talent or if I'm just desperate to clean out the overflowing fridge. Anyway, this time we had leftover Western Family already-made pie crust (not enough for a full pie) and some cherry pie filling. So I made little pies using a cupcake tin. They boiled over quite a bit, but it was fun, and a great way to make individual sized pies. :)

B-day Times

This year for Derek's b-day we got to go to St. George to visit his family. (Although, this b-day cake pic was taken tonight here in Orem...) It was great to see them again and be able to watch the kids play together.
Sofie playing with cousin Ethan.

She decided to go ahead and share the walker with Ethan and push him around for a while. He was such a great sport!

Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving was great too. We spent it here in Utah Valley with my side of the fam. I don't have any pictures though. :(

Flash Back

Just thought I'd throw this pic up here. This was about a year ago. (plus, I was a little sad about that last picture being the first thing I saw whenever I opened this blog...this is much cuter)

A New Stage

Still dealing with the mullet of all mullets: But Sofie has officially hit the Pony Tail stage of hair length! I'm so excited!!

Although, the headband was still needed to catch the side stragglers.

Now I just need to figure out how to get her to leave it in for more than a minute and a half!!

Motherly Tidbits

As a mother, I feel that I have learned many things, like: Patience, Unconditional Love, Multi-Tasking, and most importantly, how to use a baby food mill to turn a perfectly good homemade chicken pot pie into something that even a puffy-cheeked, loritab popping Mommy can eat :)

Appetizing huh?

(ps, I recommend this contraption to anyone trying to teach a baby how to eat food, it'll grind up anything!!)

Day 3

The swelling is supposed to be the worst today, then get better. If this is the worst, I think I'm doing alright! Just wish I could find a quiet enough place to take a nap.

Only 3

I did it! I survived and I survived WELL! I got my top two and bottom right wisdom teeth taken out yesterday morning. My favorite part was when the Surgeon came in and said, "Well, looks like we've got 3 Wisdom Teeth to slip out today." I thanked him for using such a wonderful verb. "SLIP" I had imaged "YANK", so slip was a great thing to hear, like taking raisins out of pudding!

Swelling hasn't been bad. In fact, I can only notice it on that bottom right side where it looks like I have a marble stuffed in my cheek. That was the hardest one to get out because they had to break it into 3 pieces in order to not damage the nerve it was entangled with.

I love Loritab, it's wonderful. And I've been able to stay well fed, as I bought a bunch of baby food (I really like the squash...) so I could stay away from the sugary-lack-of nutrition in most easy-to-eat foods. I am very determined to heal quickly and get right back on track, so I figured baby food would be a great way to stay on top of vitamins and nutrients.

The 3 culprits. I actually feel better now that I'm not "teething" anymore. :) And I love that I look more like Sofie than ever with my puffy-cheeks. She's so darling, she could tell something was up yesterday after the surgery, so she kissed me over and over and over. Made my day!