Messiah

I remember when my two children were born.  As I would look at them and hold them in my arms, I had many, many thoughts and feelings.  But, one of these thoughts was an utter sense of amazement than I could be part of creating something so amazing.  This was a little person--with working eyes, ears, hands, feet--all the body parts, my kids had them!  It was just amazing to think that Stacey and I could have done that.  Well, I recently attended the performance of Handel's Messiah by the Grammy Award winning UMS Choral Union, and had a similar sense of amazedness--as a Choral Union member, Stacey was part of creating the amazing, rich, powerful, and inspiring sounds I heard from the stage.  She helped build this sound and experience that was so amazing.  Stacey.  Wow.

So, Saturday night was the first performance and Handel (this year) by the Choral Union.  It was the culmination of a lot of hard work and determination by Stacey.  First, she decided she was going to try out for the choir.  She went to the try outs, and was a bit unnerved.  Many who try out do not get a position, and she feared she would be among them.  But, she was not.  She made the team, and, so, the practicing began.  For the last many months Stacey as been practicing every week, and this last week, she has had several practices.  It has been a lot of hard work, a lot of focus, and a lot of singing, but, it paid off.  The music was amazing.

Here is the choir, symphony, and soloists on stage at the Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor's premier concert venue.  I was seated on the second balcony, and the sound was amazing.  The Hill Auditorium was fashioned after the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, so its acoustics are very amazing.

Here is Stacey with her sister, who came all the way from the commonwealth of Virginia for the performance. 

Here is Stacey with me, and with my brother and sister-in-law, who came up from Ohio for the performance.



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Here is a short video of clapping after the whole thing was over. It took several minutes for the clapping to end.

Hopefully my posting this brief post will not discourage Stacey from posting something herself, so we can hear what the starlet has to say about her first big show.

New Shoes

The father of my officemate and cohort is in town from China. He has met Jacob (and saw Rebecca enwombed), and so brought them each a gift. Here they are, showing off their cool new slippers. Jacob was quick to note the presence of Tigger on the sole of the slipper, while Rebecca was extremely pleased to tromp around showing off her new footwear. They both wore their shoes when we went out to dinner on Saturday, and around the house as well. They are very appreciative of their new footwear, and the slippers are certainly cute.

Jacob was not terribly cooperate in the picture-taking department yesterday, so, it was difficult to capture a good picture of the two of them.  But, you get the point.  Thank you, Mr. Qu.

Both opted to go pantless so as to make sure their leggings didn't distract the eye from their slippers.

Virginia

For Thanksgiving, we had the amazing opportunity to go to Virginia to visit Stacey's parents who live there. It was a grand time. Here are a few pictures:

Here is Jacob and aunt Erin (who came back with us from Virginia) looking at some fish in the Baltimore Aquarium

Here is Grandma M and Jacob jointly flying a kite

We had a little get together with three of Stacey's friends from high school/college who, for one reason or another, find themselves in the DC area.  Here are the children of everyone.

It was a great time in VA.  Thanks for the good time, Grandma and Granpa McKoy.

Chicago

So, a couple weeks back, we went to Chicago. I went to the National Tax Association annual meeting there, and Stacey (along with my mother), played with the kids (and reportedly had a good time). Here are a few pictures.

Jacob rides the luggage into the hotel

Jacob at some childrens museum, having a good time

Rebecca touching the big shiny bean thing

Rebecca and my mom looking at the shiny bean thing

J, R and I in front of the bean

Jacob driving a trolley car at a childrens museum

Rebecca showing us the city skyline, in front of a fountain (that was waterless, as it is now cold in Chicago)

Visit to Utah

So, a couple weeks back I went to Utah for a conference.  It was a good time at the conference, and then afterwords, I spent a bit playing with my siblings who live there.  One of my siblings is stabling my little Nissan truck that I drove throughout high school and college.  We took it up Provo canyon to have a fire while I was back for the conference, and here I am standing in front of it.

"Happy Halloweeny "and A New Kind of Candy Bar

 

Here are a few cute pictures from our Halloween festivities. For the third year in a row I took the kiddos down to Main Street downtown to trick or treat at the businesses on Friday. Saturday our ward had their trunk or treat and a big Halloween party so the kids were delighted to dress up again. When Jacob saw Jeff in a champion wrestler/superhero costume (which was it, Jeff?! (: ) and when he saw me in my ridiculous nerdy costume he asked us "what kind of lion are you?"  So, Jacob was a lion, and Rebecca was a cow, and they played their parts fairly well.  

This year for Halloween I got in on a great deal with SheSpeaks and was chosen to be one of many bloggers who handed out a NEW kind of Snickers on Halloween.  I really like the new candy, it's like a regular Snickers but with the addition of creamy peanut butter and fewer actual peanuts.  We have some left over if anyone nearby wants to come raid our kitchen!

In addition to being provided with this new candy (and the original) to hand out to trick or treaters, we also received a fog machine, "fog juice," as Jacob calls it, a strobe light, some spider webbing to hang up, a large sign declaring that it was no trick - this was the only house to get this new treat, Snickers caution tape and window clings and a trick or treat bag.  So we decorated our house as best we could. The kids had a great time helping me "scissor" the caution tape and stretch out the webbing across our door, and my husband helped hang up the big sign once we had the rest all done. The Snickers Peanut Butter Squared will be available in stores later this winter, and in case it means anything, I recommend it! :) 

Where's Jacob?

Oh no! There's a lion in the sandbox!

Visiting Dad's floor at the business building, the kids took some time to show our good friend Venky how solving the world's accounting research conundrums is more fun when you scribble in the middle of your work.

They both fell asleep on the way home from trick or treating on Main/having lunch at the Institute/visiting Dad's office.  That is one tired cow...

And one sleepy lion!  ("Wimoweh," anyone?)

Some more playing in Venky's office. He let her ring this bell for a little bit, and I wished I'd looked for a cow bell for her to wear that day.

The doorstep in the middle of decorating it, and Rebecca sporting her Happy Haunting sweatshirt.

Mummy wrapping at the church party! Jacob kept asking, "Where is Daddy, I just can't find him ANYwhere?!"

Eating a cookie with black icing is so fun and colorful for the teeth.

Jacob decorated his own cookie. I think it turned out quite well.

The family in costume! You wish I didn't have my jacket on so you could see the rainbow suspenders better, and that you could see my uneven pigtails and poorly rolled up jeans.  And you wish Jeff had his cape on for the picture.  But here we are nonetheless.

Our cow could stand on her hind legs; she's fairly amazing. 

Throwing caution (tape) to the wind from Jeff Hoopes on Vimeo.

fog machine from Jeff Hoopes on Vimeo.

KT Tunstall Tiger Suit Album Review

This will be pretty short since I'm not feeling fantastic this evening.  Thanks to One2One Network I received a copy of KT Tunstall's new album Tiger Suit to review.  The only song of hers I knew before I got this cd was "Black Horse and A Cherry Tree." Most of the songs on the new album have a great dance beat, it might be good if you are in to running while music is playing, and it has kind of a natural feel to it.  Her voice is so different it's almost hard to classify, likely due to her being Scottish and having her own unique style of music writing and singing!

From Amazon:
"KT Tunstall has had a recurring dream since she was a child. She sees a tiger in her garden and goes outside to stroke it. She returns indoors and is seized by the fear that she could have been killed. Over the years, it has occurred to her that the reason the tiger responds so passively is that she herself is disguised as a tiger. That she is wearing a tiger suit." Click here to listen to some song samples.

Full disclosure: These amazon links do not have any affiliation to me, and I received the cd to review it and give my honest opinion, which I did!  I will also be entered into a drawing for a gift card for completing this review. 

Beanie Blessings

Something has been missing from Jeff's life for a few years, and tonight he was reunited with a whole 25 lb of his dehydrated refried bean buddies from the past.  It was a picture-worthy reunion. I almost shed a tear.

TWD: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

 Janell had her turn to host this week, and she chose Dorie's recipe for Caramel Pumpkin Pie. 

Things to do differently next time:

- find time to make my own pie pastry (I had some in the fridge and it was speed v. taste and texture today)

- ensure that the crust does not shrink during prebaking (I swear I didn't stretch it!)

- put foil on the crust during baking time so it doesn't get as dark

- don't prebake at all, maybe?

- cook the caramel for a bit less time so it doesn't have as much of a burnt aftertaste - though it never really burned as I cooked it, the flavor was a bit too full, perhaps

- try it with the streusel

I had fun putting this together with my kids tonight and just enjoyed two slices for myself.  This might be a good pie to remember if you have some pumpkin, but not enough for a pumpkin pie, since it only calls for 1 C of the puree! 

Three Cedars Farm

 The other night we packed up some dinner and met our friends the Nielsons at a pumpkin patch/cider mill/donut shop/animal farm/corn maze/hayride kind of place that's not too far from us. It was very fun!  Here are a few pictures of our time there. I recommend going if you live near us, and if you come visit sometime in the fall, you should ask us to take you there. I'm sure the kids will gladly go again, the little ones and the two big ones... :)

A wee bit fuzzy...but a nice picture nonetheless. Maybe I will work on fixing it some...

Blurry but I love her little crossed legs in this one!

New Bed

So, a few weeks ago I decided to make Jacob a bed. So, I did. I used almost solely wood I had scavenged, and did not design the bed before hand, and so it did not turn out so well. Jacob has been sleeping in it for a bit, but, I resolved to build another one. So, this morning, I did. Jacob and Rebbecca helped, and it is a bit sturdier than the last one I made. Here it is:

Did I mention Jacob sleeps outside?

TWD: Delayed Cranberry Upside-Downer

I made this a couple weeks ago when it was scheduled to be made, and thought it was great!  I shared it at our first presidency meeting for my new calling as Relief Society secretary.  Many thanks to Sabrina for her perfect fall pick. I was so glad I still had cranberries in the freezer from last year's post-Thanksgiving cranberry blowout sale at Aldi where I got 4 or 5 bags for a dollar. Sweet (or tart?) deal! 

I used peach jam that didn't quite set up (peach sauce?) instead of currant jelly for the glaze on top and it was a nice mix of summer-fall flavors. 

I decided to cut back a bit on TWD. I will still be involved, just doing maybe baking 2 weeks each month as opposed to all 4.  I do want to make the Tarte Fine that was for this week and will probably post that when it's baked. It sounds too good to skip over! 

Here are October's recipe titles and page numbers:
October 5, 2010- Double Apple Bundt Cake on pages 184 and 185.
October 12, 2010- Fold-Over Pear Torte on pages 348 and 349
October 19, 2010-Caramel Pumpkin Pie on pages 322 and 323.
October 26, 2010- All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie on pages 300-302.

Which ones should I do?!  I think I'll do the apple tarte fine this coming week to make up for skipping it this week and then I'll make the pear torte and pumpkin pie and sit that last week of October out.   

Jacob turns 3!

Last week on the 20th Jacob turned 3. I have decided that when the oldest child has a birthday the mother should celebrate a little in her heart. It is, after all, the day that she became a mother, so it is a big deal. All day I went back and forth in my thoughts, "is it possible for me to have been a mother for 3 years already?" and "a lot sure happens in three years!" We had a great day. Jacob got to pick all the meals for the day (well, except for Dad's lunch since that was at the Public Finance Free Lunch Seminar while he was at school) and he sure has great taste: blueberry flaxseed waffles for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and chicken sandwiches for dinner. His cake was a yellow dump truck that was pretty fun to piece together. My two favorite parts were the license plate that said JACOB3 and the windshield wipers made out of tiny slivers of black licorice.

Since I had rehearsal on Monday night, Tuesday night we had a little get together with some friends and neighbors. We served the rest of the cake, ice cream cones, a few kinds of cupcakes, and I made what I called "stoplight crackers" - the smallest part of a graham cracker with yellow frosting on it, topped with a red, yellow and green M&M. The table was decorated with a road that I made out of construction paper, and Jacob's cars and trucks gave a nice visual effect of rush hour on the road. Happy Birthday, Jacob! We're so glad you're in our family. And happy half birthday to Miss Rebecca - we sang to her as well. Two kids in nursery for a few months...pretty exciting! Enjoy the pictures & video!