Unashamed Advertising

No one is paying me for this, no one put me up to this, but I have two very random advertisements for you. The first is only for people living in St. Louis. Well, I guess it could be for you if you don't live here, but since it involves car repairs, you would have to drive your in-need-of-repair car here and that probably does not make much sense. So if you live in St. Louis and have car problems (or even if you just need an oil change, inspection or emissions test) you absolutely need to go Rasch Service Center. They are the nicest, honest, most hard working car people around. I think the honest part is what seals the deal for me. We have been going there since I could drive and have never had anything but excellent service. So, like I said before, even if you just need an oil change, take your car there- they won't tell you you need a new air filter, windshield wiper blades, hoses and belts (unless you really do) and it will cost you the same amount as a chain store. We really have had wonderful experiences here, so I felt the need to pass that along.

Ok, that was ad #1, here is ad #2. And you can live anywhere for this one. If you have a child, know a child or are just in need of getting something cute for a child, buy them one of these t-shirts, from Honey Bees Tees. I learned about Darby from my sister-in-law Steph and Tripp just got his first shirt from Honey Bees Tees from James and Steph for Christmas. It is great. The t-shirt is soft, good quality and best of all, it does not have crazy words all over it, disney characters, etc (all things which I am not exactly a fan of on kids' clothing). If you are like me and don't spend a lot of money on your kid's clothes, then paying $13 for a t-shirt may seem like a lot. But it is totally worth the money and seeing as I just bought about 10 shirts for Tripp at a $1 each, I can justify spending more on a few of these tees. Besides, if you get one, your kid just might look as cute as this:

or they might take their modeling job more seriously and look like this:

(disregard the hair- he just woke up and had seen that his firetruck shirt was clean and could not wait any longer to wear it).

And finally, a shout out to Martha Stewart and her Molten Bittersweet Chocolate Cake. Don't you wish you were having this for dessert tonight?

Here's the recipe in case you do decide you want it for dessert tonight.

1 stick plus 3 tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for ramekins

1/2 cup all purpose flour, plus more for ramekins

5 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), chopped (1 1/2 cups)

5 large eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

pinch salt

1. butter and flour six 6-ounce ramekins

2. melt butter and chocolate in double boiler. meanwhile, whisk together eggs and sugar till pale and thick, about 4 mins. sift flour and salt into another bowl.

3. fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture. immediately fold in flour mixture. divide batter evenly among ramekins. refrigerate for at least an hour.

4. preheat oven to 400 degrees, back until just set, 14-16 mins. let cool for 3 mins, turn out cakes onto plates.

*you can keep ramekins in fridge for up to two days and bake whenever you want to.

Being Thankful

As we were putting Tripp to bed tonight, Nelson told Tripp it was time to pray to which he responded by folding his hands and saying "Thank you Jesus! Amen!" I was struck at first by how seemingly simple this prayer was but then more so by the fact that the first thing that comes out of my mouth when I pray is not that I am thankful for things. It is usually supplications to the Lord for the difficult things in our life (and others) right now. While this is not totally wrong, it is wrong to not be thankful for the many, many provisions that the Lord has given us in our life. So if you are anything like me, it might be good to take some tips from this 20 month old boy on how to pray!

Christmas 2010

We have been back for a week now and I am just now getting around to posting about Christmas- I already feel like we are back in the busy, but great, routines of our lives. This past week was exciting for me- we finally moved to our new offices at work. This has been quite the frustrating process- we got to design them from the beginning, but it is has been so painful and way late in us actually getting to move. But, all that is over- we just have to deal with one slanted floor. And now I have 4 windows in my office (I was in the basement before), it is 15 minutes closer (even though I am literally one exit off the highway closer- the exit I was off of was a disaster as far as traffic is concerned), I don't have to pay for parking anymore, I don't to haul bathroom chairs up two flights of stairs and across a parking lot to get to my car- the list could go on and on about how much better this new place is. We (my boss and other co-workers) decided to celebrate by having margaritas on Friday- it was great. Anyway- now that my body has mostly recovered from moving file cabinets, boxes, computers, etc, I think I have enough energy to muster up a post or two before taking my Sunday afternoon nap. Christmas was great- my favorite part was probably watching the boys play together.


Weston shared his toys with Tripp like it was no big deal, and Tripp woke up every morning asking where Weston was. Tripp also did his fair amount of snuggling with Reed so that he wouldn't feel left out.

We had so much fun opening presents, eating together, hanging out and playing games together, and even running errands/shopping together.

It was also a great feeling that pretty much every day for 10 days, I got to either take a nap or just lie on the couch by the fire while Tripp took his nap. No laundry to worry about, work to do, etc. It was truly relaxing!

Tripp's Christmas Program

Tripp goes to parent's day out one morning a week and they had been working on their Christmas program for quite some time. Well, the other day (ok it was a few weeks ago- I am really late in posting this), we all got to go and experience what we had heard Tripp "singing" about for a while now. They did the Christmas story and sang Christmas songs. It was so fun to watch Tripp (even though he didn't sing a single word and just stared at the big kids the whole time) and we've enjoyed still hearing him occasionally sing himself to sleep at night to the tune of "Jingle Bells."