Christmas pics up

There's too many to post here, you can see the album here (I think). I forgot to include this one in the album tho, so here's one to enjoy on the blog!That was my gift to Brian. :) He commented it's almost life size! :)

Grandma's Cabbage roll (Bierocks) recipe

This was a tradtional christmas staple in my family growing up. grandma made these every Christmas eve, which is when that side of the family got together. Sadly, grandma passed away this year. Fortunately a few years back I got the recipe from her, so now I'll share it here. (my older brother requested it, so that's my main motivation for typing it up)

UPDATE: Before you jump right in, a few notes since we tried it.
--don't use an old box of hot roll mix. unless maybe you use fresh yeast instead of whats in the box.
--this makes WAY more cabbage mix than you need. I would prolly cut it down to just one, small cabbage. Aim for about 4-5 cups. I'll be eating coleslaw for a while now.
--roll your dough pretty thin

Grandma Brodhagen's cabbage rolls. (or Bierocks, pronounced beer-rocks)
1 box pillsbury hot roll mix
1 1/2 heads cabbage, shredded (more like one, small cabbage. 4-5 cups worth)
1/2 onion, shredded
1 lb hamburger meat

Prepare hot roll mix according to package, set aside to rise.
Brown hamburger.
Add cabbage and onion and simmer until cabbage is tender, remove from heat.
Roll out dough and cut into triangles, (around 3-4 inches per side I think)
Place a "decent amount" of cabbage mix on the middle of the triangle, then fold all sides up and press edges to seal. (one heaping tablespoon seemed fine, more would be good but hard to work with)
Bake in oven according to hot roll mix instructions.

These also freeze well, I know the last several years at least g-ma would make them up ahead of time and freeze them, then let them thaw and reheat them in the oven. The guys in the family liked them with hot sauce on them, I always just liked butter on mine.

Brian and I are thinking we might try making these on new years day, if we do I'll update the recipe as needed, I wasn't much of a cook when I wrote it down, so didn't catch the details such as the thickness of the dough when you roll it out, exact sizes on the triangles, and the amount of mixture to put in each triangle.

Christmas Eve PJs!

I decided our family PJs need to at least be in the same color family on Christmas morning. That way it will be easier for me to scrapbook the photos! This year I had matching monkey pjs for me and Ru, but then hers didn't fit right, and we couldn't find any for daddy. So we just went with Red as a common theme. I've got my monkey pjs, Brian just has new sweats and a red shirt, and Ru has these adorable stripey Christmas pjs. Merry Christmas everyone!

Newsflash--first tooth!

Just one more quick post before I pump and go to bed tonight. Ru was seriously fussy today, she wouldn't even go to her Auntie Judy at choir practice. (who handled it well, altho I know it was killing her not to get to hold her!) Tonight Brian and I were handing her off every 5 minutes because we were sick of the fussing. She didn't sleep well last night, either.

Just before bathtime I was hanging with her and noticed her cheeks were really red. So I managed to convince her to let me move her tongue out of the way to check her lower gum. Sure enough, there it was! Her lower right front tooth is just barely thru the surface! It's about time, she's been teething off and on for the last 4 months, it's nice to finally see some real progress!

SNOW!!!

For those of you that don't live local, Ru's first snow is turning out to be a doozy! We took those pics last sunday. It has snowed again off and on all week. School was cancelled all week, and Brian only made it in to work twice. Now it's saturday night, we have 6 inches of snow, and it hasn't stopped snowing all day. (or night) The town is starting to shut down. They've cancelled church tomorrow (at our little church, maybe not the entire town). Even worse, the teriaki place closed JUST as we were gonna walk over for dinner!

Anyway, I went out and took some pics tonight. It was tough to take pics of the house/trees/anything big because the snow reflected the flash. I did get one good one of the house without the flash. Too bad we didn't get to the christmas lights this year!

Here's the cars covered in snow, and the van was cleared off when we went to choir practice, then again when we came HOME from choir practice...so that is all just from the afternoon.


The house--I took this with no flash (pesky snowflakes were reflecting way too much.) The level in the foreground is 7 inches deep. (I was using it as a ruler)

I took this one just because it's a great shot of sammy loving the snow. If you can't tell he's about 2 feet in air (he was 3 at the top of his jump) trying to catch some snow I kicked at him.This much snow sticking around this long is just about unheard of up here. Maybe we'll get a white Christmas! :) (altho I sure hope the roads are clear by then!)

Some sitting (not spitting!) up pics

I'm making up for lost time this weekend! :) Here's some pics of Ru sitting up on her own.

8 months old!

I've finally got a minute to post her 8 month pictures! (It takes a while because I have to go thru the jillions we took and pic the best three) We took these on the same day as the snow pics so the outfit might look familiar.

She can sit by herself now, altho if there's any distractions (like me with my camera) she'll usually topple right over. She also has started babbling a LOT during the day, she's working on her "b" sound now... blah blah blah blah... I told Brian last night it will be fun the first time she says that nice and loud during the sermon at church...

She also has FINALLY decided it would be cool if she could move herself around. Of course, she hasn't a clue how yet, but rather than immediatly flipping off of her stomach she finally has starting reaching forward....and then getting frustrated and yelling about it. ;) She also will walk around if we hold her hands so she can balance. (and occasionally shift her weight so she remembers to take the next step)

A bath in the big tub!

Daddy and Ru decided to try a bath in the big tub. Ru didn't seem to care so much, she likes the shower as well. She can splash in either one. Mommy had fun taking pictures tho!

We prolly won't bath down there too much just yet, until she seems to actually have a preference. It's a long ways away from the bedrooms and there isn't a convenient place for drying her off and dressing her downstairs. Maybe in the summer when we aren't as concerned about her getting too cold. :)

Brodhagen family peffernuts recipe

My brother asked me for the recipe as he lost it several years ago. Since I typed it up for him, I figured I'd share here, too. :)

3 cups sugar
3 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup HOT water
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp clove
1 tsp baking powder
5 cups flour
2 tsp anise oil (or 4 anise extract)
1 cup finely ground pecans (other nuts will work)

Mix together both sugars and butter. Add eggs and water, mix well.

In separate bowl sift together spices, baking powder, and flour. slowly stir into sugar mixture.
Add anise and nuts, mix well. Dough will be thick.

Roll dough into 1 inch (or smaller) "snakes." slice into small cookies. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. (original recipe said 350 "until done" but we kept burning the bottoms with raw insides so we turned the oven down. Acutally the original recipe called for way more flour, and you were supposed to refridgerate before rolling into snakes. But this works better for us!)

Ru's first snow!

I think technically it snowed/hailed once after she was born, but while she was still in the NICU (it was a kinda freak thing in late april) but that doesn't count because she didn't get to see it.

She needed a nap after church, so she might be more excited after she wakes up from her nap. This is how excited she was when we took a couple pics before putting her down.
I do LOVE her little letterman's jacket. Strawberry shortcake, and the hood zips up if we wanted it. But we were only outside for a few minutes to take some pics, and her santa hat is pretty dang cute, too. (it says "I love santa" on it, we gotta start buttering the old man up early! ;)

I also love her green stripey legwarmers. I LOVE baby legwarmers. I tried tights once. We didn't even get to church before I'd decided I was done with them. If you're thinking about a christmas gift, babylegs brand makes some adorable ones, but I'm not stuck on that brand... ;) bonus, she won't outgrow them next week! (or ever, really, altho the won't work as tights forever! and they will have to switch to armwarmers someday...)


More pics later this week, today is her 8 month b-day plus I took some great bathtub ones last night when she had her first bath in the big tub. :)Happy Holidays!

More milestones

Ru can sit in chairs pretty well now, as long as they have arms....and she doesn't see anything else interesting she needs to nosedive for....

She also has been more and more vocal this past week. Her first word has become quite clear, and I'm quite happy to report it is "mama!" Well, more accurately it's "ma ma ma ma." Close enough for me! She only uses it when she's sad or upset, but I'm sure we'll expand that later.

her second word will most likely be "hi" as she has the h sound figured out. I'm sad to report the d sound is not one she has played with at all, so we'll keep working on dada.

We tried on our christmas eve pajamas today, I haven't taken any pictures so no sneak previews--yet! :)

Check out Ru's Choir Robe!

One of the ladies in the choir made this for Ru! We'd been joking she should have one since we process down the isle at the start of church some weeks, and she's the only one sitting in the choir loft (at the front of the church, and we sit in the front row) not wearing blue. So Bonnie "whipped one up" for Ru, isn't it adorable!?! And the color matches our robes just about perfect. I love the built in Stole. (sp?) Of course, it's just the right size...right now. Bonnie will prolly have lots more sewing to do in the future.... ;)