Merry Christmas Happy Birthday to me!!

Some of you may know that I have a tendency to hang on to money and gift cards that I get at birthday times and Christmas. I just so rarely get to spend money on "whatever" that I have to make sure it's a really good purchase. Make it absolutely worth it. So, today I received in the mail one of those absolutely worth it purchases! I had cash from my last birthday (9 mos ago) and a JC Penney gift card from 2 Christmases ago (thank you Ronica!!), and used some thriftiness of online discount codes, and a good find. And got this for free!! I'M SOOOOO THRILLED! Derek and I have never had a real bedspread, not to mention a matching skirt and shams!

Here's the whole getup. We got the spread, skirt and 2 shams. (picture courtesy jcp.com)

Here's one of the shams, my camera doesn't do the sage any justice. It looks blue in this pic. I'm just so happy that I finally have a bedspread that will match all my random Chinese junk!

And.....drumroll please......I have been given the OK to buy a new mattress! Yay!! Mine is a NIGHTMARE! New bedspread+newmattress=best Valentine's ever!

Kiss It Better

Not neccesssarily what I had in mind when I taught her how to "Kiss it better."

But it's sure dang funny!

Is this MY baby?

The Evil-Eye and terrible manners! She does the evil eye thing all the time, but got shy when the camera came out, darn it! Cracks me up every time.

Big Weekend!

This last weekend we had a houseful!! My brother Tom and his girlfriend came, as well as my sister and her family. And the basement is under construction, so it was pretty crowded, but so much fun to see everyone at once!!! (minus Roo of course) We kept busy eating way too much food, watching movies (including home movies) and just playing around. And then, as usual, after they leave, I get to spend the next week taking care of a sick sick baby girl (this time it was puking and juicy-diaper, hooray!)

Watching Snow White on G-ma's bed

The darling duo, (or Salt and Pepper as G-pa calls 'em) taking turns sucking on magnet alphabet letters. Whatever keeps 'em busy!

And of course, we said goodbye to the Mullett FINALLY!!
(before)

Sofie did really well holding still.

Bye Bye Mullet!! Thank you Shayla!

Why We Love G-pa A

He's so much fun!

Trying to Start a New Year Tradition...

...But it's kind of hard when someone throws a Mission District Party at your house (okay, we can't complain, it's free rent), so I just did it tonight and pretended like it was New Year's Eve.

I want to start making jiaozi every new Year's Eve, like this, because by the time Chinese New Year comes around, I completely forget. I found a few new recipes 'cuz I didn't like the one I've been using. And decided to try them out in my bamboo steamer. The recipes ROCKED! I did a tofu/veggie one and a shrimp/pork one. Unfortunately, they only had square wrappers at the store, and they sucked really bad and they were too dry to fold, so I ended up having to wrap them like wontons... But they tasted awesome! We also had egg drop soup.

Sofie is getting practice early in life :) I'm hoping someday she'll be old enough to help me wrap the dumplings.

It only works if she stabs the food...

And if anybody has great recipes that require a bamboo steamer, send 'em my way! There's not much online.

Christmas Videos

Sofie's first taste of real freedom, learning to run like a wild stallion at Jumpin Jacks!

Is this what walking on the moon feels like? This is how we got her to stop crying after Jake took her down a slide.

I just can't get over her cute little voice in this video. And thanks again Kasey! Such a cute gift!!

I love how out of it she was! We woke her up around 8:00 so the boys wouldn't have to wait for her all morning (she usually sleeps in 'til 9:30!) so she was still half asleep, but happy enough. (and you gotta love Ronica's helmet...)

A Million Christmas Pictures

We had an incredibly great Christmas, full of lots of family and food. We were way too spoiled!!

Porcaro Christmas Party: Sofie, Derek, G-pa Porcaro

Porcaro Christmas Party

Porcaro Christmas Party: Sofie, Sierra, Tobin (patiently waiting for dinner)

Porcaro Christmas Party: Sofie's reaction to Santa!! Not good.

Porcaro Christmas Party: Sofie's present

St. George Christmas Eve: SUNSHINE!!

St. George Christmas Eve: Cousins and sunshine! How much awesome can you have?

St. George Christmas Eve:

Derek's brother Jake works at Jumpin' Jacks and got us in after hours on Christmas Eve. Whole place to ourselves!! The boys (both adult and toddler) have soooo much fun!! This was the slide that made Sofie cry (she eventually had fun).

St. George Christmas Eve:

Jumpin' Jacks. Scary, Mom.

St. George Christmas:

Sofie's new jammies (thank Linds!!)

St. George Christmas: SANTA!!

The most adorable Fisher Price Kitchen EVER! It makes all the noises. And plastic food of course.

St. George Christmas:

With Papa and Broden

St. George Christmas:

Buried somewhere behind our mountain of gifts

St. George Christmas:

Derek's box of iPhone accessories

La Mien! Chinese pulled noodles -the first attempt

Thanks to Chelsea and Kevin, who attempted the "pulled noodle" last month (click on the words in quotation to see a video!!), I went online to learn and figured I'd try it myself. They're no Uighur Noodles, but I thought for a first try, I did pretty good! I'm pretty sure I ate these noodles every single day, sometimes twice in a day in Nanjing. It was fun to try, but it's still easier to go down to Munchies and just buy a bowl of niu rou mien for a few bucks. :) And also, I've been notified by my husband, (who was kind enough to eat a bowl) that this is once again a recipe that his family would NEVER eat...

Struggled quite a bit with getting them uniform before they broke. Sometimes I wish I was a Uighur cook.

And here is my experiment with "shaved noodles." I only had a really dull potato peeler, so they didn't work out, but again, it was a fun walk down memory lane. (Looks a little bit like albino leeches...)

For those of you who may be remotely interested in La Mien making, try www.cheftomm.com/chinese-hand-pulled-noodles and www.lukerymarz.com/noodles/index.html

Long Time, No See

This week, Lindsey and I threw a party and gathered a bunch of friends we hadn't seen in a while! (and a few regulars as well) It was so much fun and there was tons of food!! Best of all was reliving those great 9th-12th grade memories. Ahhhh.

Jessica and Jackson with Ashlyn, enjoying the food!

Serena, Kendahl, Jordan and his wife Rachel, taking a walk down memory lane, with old old picture albums! YIKES!!

I forgot to get a picture of Steve Nelson and his family before they left, but this is his beautiful wife Sherrie and their son Jared (stole the picture from facebook)

Me and Mine.

Spencer and Mackenzie Pranger, and little man Colton.

Jackson, Jessica and babygirl Ashlyn Behling.

Jordan and Rachel Miles.

Kendahl Andrade, Lindsey Andersen, Serena Del Castillo

Linds and baby Sofie

Evan Crockett showed up as well, but my camera had already left the party, so no picture. It was tons of fun to see the next generation of "The Group" and we're so sad that a few people couldn't make it!! Hopefully we can get more people together next time (especially if we have more than 6 days to throw it together!!)