making the season bright!

 

merry christmas.

love lmno. 

pump pump pump it up...

...pump that holiday spirit up! that's right bloggies, i just did that. i pulled out a cheer from the archive & changed the words to appropriately match my feelings! i'm not gonna lie, it's been a little difficult to keep our spirits up around here. to make things less offensive & pg, i will just say that it has to do with the fact that i am still posting from colorado & it's the 21st of december. at the last resort, i wanted to be on the road heading to the midwest by tomorrow. but...michael will still be working. yes, we are on our third, pretty unbearable at this point, week of him working 15 hour days! his scrooge of a boss is behind it, as you may have guessed already. and that's where i'm going to leave it...because believe me, the blog content will soon turn r-rated with what i have to say about him. and that is not the kind of person i am...in blogland ;) so, we are trying to make the best of it. because that's all we can do at this point now! and until we are "released" from this anti-holiday imprisonment, we must just. make. the. best. of. it.

so...we've been going on a lot of drives {oliver & i} while mike works. i've really tried to find some new areas to photograph for my weekly-themed flickr group. i even made {MADE} michael open his most exciting christmas present. he insisted no...but i insisted more 'yes'. it made me happy =) we've elfed ourselves. (click on elfed if you're not familiar) and we've just tried to keep laughing as much as we can...& since oliver has completely transitioned into a little boy, his funny personality is very humorous. so here he is being silly with me. he is a constant happy in my life, so at least i still get to surround myself with this silly man everyday while we await our trip back! excuse the up & down movement with the camera...i was trying to mimmick what we were doing with our heads.

oliver has been really interested in animals lately. so for the last couple of weeks, i've taught him a new animal noise. he's gotten down cow, puppy & now we're working on kitty "meow". mike was really impressed to see this last week when he was released & home earlier than 10pM. oliver still happened to be up, so we showed daddy our animal noises. he also has gotten used to watching me blow on his hot food. so now he blows on everything {hot} too. he's also come around to the birdies on his ceiling, hanging above his bed. he wasn't too interested in them at first. but now, every time he enters his room, he blows at them & waits for them to swirl around. here are some photos of how we've tried to keep the holiday spirit up...

watched it snow. which by the way...melts right away! we have no snow here!

mixed up some christmas cocktails.

tried to teach oliver how to properly use his lego man head lamp.

created light trails with the neighbors deer...& our christmas trees.

played in the snow.

hung out at paul & sonya's.

and dabbled in destroying their christmas tree.

which, by the way, he didn't even deconstruct, he left it alone,

except pulling this one, mitten ornament off. 

drank milk out of a mason jar with a straw...because mommy

forgot the sippy cup. 

decorated christmas cookies.

stumbled across some big-horn sheep on a drive outside of basalt.

 this is the view from the home michael is working on.

the ski lifts, literally run right above the road up there.

so...there you have it. we are stuck here, luckily still surrounded by beautiful surroundings to go explore. and midwest bloggies...we promise. we will be home! still just don't know when! happy holidays to all =)

sweet holidays.

so our christmas story continues...

we had planned for a fun-filled family outing with friends this weekend. mostly to tag along & have the experience of snowshoeing, as they hunted the forest for their tree. well...the grinch struck again. michael came home on saturday & said that he would have to go into work on sunday. yes, sunday. the only thing that would be make this story more of a bummer, would have been if he really only had to be there for two hours...oh wait! yes, that's all that he needed to stay. so it was enough time so we had to cancel our outing, but not enough time for us to catch up with the tree hunters. ugh. moving on...

i decided to tackle some holiday baking today! i made my final trip to the store before we head back to the midwest...& it BETTER be the final trip. i strategically planned out our meals (which is obnoxious & makes me feel like a lunch lady, no offense). it's just one thing that i don't want to have to mess with before we leave. i mixed up my favorite snack mix (donna, i know you're drooling) & pulled a new (but old) brownie recipe out of my stack of "to-make-someday" pile. i had this thing sitting for about 2 years now. and i finally became brave enough. i mean, when i have to study the recipe numerous times because i'm dealing with scoring, double-boiling & ganashing...then you know i must be in the holiday spirit. because these things just don't happen on a daily basis around here. i will happily leave you the recipe for you to attempt as well. of course, mine are only semi-martha stewart-ish...because, i don't think she has an ambitious one-year old cussing at the christmas tree or locking himself in the laundry room. oh the holidays!

peppermint topped brownies.

ingredients.

10 tbsp butter, plus more for pan.

6 oz of good-quality bittersweet chocolate, broken into large chunks.

3 eggs.

1 1/2 cups sugar.

1 tbsp vanilla.

1/4 tsp salt.

1 cup all-purpose flour.

1/2 cup cocoa powder.

1/2 tsp baking powder.

80 hard, round red & white peppermint swirl candies (17oz).

1/2 lb (8oz) semisweet chocolate, chopped.

1 cup whipping cream.

directions.

(just beware, it's a time consuming one!)

preheat to 350.

butter a 9x13 in baking pan.

in medium saucepan, stir butter & bittersweet chocolate over very low heat with a heatproof rubber spatula until just melted (do not simmer or boil). remove from heat & let cool slightly (5 mins).

in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla & salt. slowly pour in chocolate-butter mixture, whisking constantly. into a seperate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder & baking powder. with a rubber spatula, gently fold flour mixture into egg mixture until just combined.

spread batter evenly in the baking pan. bake 20-30 mins or until brownies are firm, beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan & a toothpick inserted in the center emerges with only a few crumbs clinging to it. let brownies cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

reduce oven heat to 300. line a level rimmed 11 1/2x16 in baking sheet with parchment paper. with a pencil, draw a grid of 1 3/4 in squares (5 rows of 8), leaving about a 1 inch border & turn parchment over. place a mint in the center of each square (i would push them more close together than further apart, as mine decided to not completely all mold as one). bake 15-25 mins or until completely melted into 1 large sheet, but remove before candy turns yellow. immediately score peppermint squares with a pizza cutter, using the pencil lines as a guide. if scored lines don't hold, rescore quickly. let candy cool completely. gently break into squares along score lines. arrange, bake & score remaining 40 candies the same way.

in the top of a double boiler or a metal bowl set over simmering water, combine chopped semisweet chocolate & whipping cream. cook, stirring often, until melted & blended. remove from heat & let ganache cool until just warm.

pour ganache over cooled brownies in pan & allow to set until firm (about 2 hrs at room temp or 1 hour in fridge).

place peppermint squares bottom side up on ganache, leaving enough space between squares to cut brownies. cut brownies into squares along edges of peppermint tops. wiping knife clean between cuts. remove brownies from pan, discard (eat) scraps. and return brownies to pan. cover with plastic wrap, making sure wrap doesn't touch peppermint & refrigerate 3 hours (to soften candy). serve slightly chilled.

so there you have it, in case you have 6 hours on your hands & don't know what to do with them ;) believe me, mine was more like an all-day process & well, you saw the finished result. but yummy! and then, i will just leave you with some random photos of oliver & my day. i have set up a workspace & am quite fond of it. it gives me a place to retreat in silence if i need to. yet, oliver did show me how he can climb onto the chair & onto the table. so the door to my space is now under 24-hr surveillance little mr...by santa clause!

oliver's 'home alone' rendition...

thirteen. mo.

so oliver has reached the thirteen month mark. and so, i thought it the appropriate month for this to be my official 'signing off' of reporting to you bloggies each month on oliver. remember our deal with thirteens... 
http://babyschweitzberger.blogspot.com/2009/10/lucky-number-13.html =)

i figured, i'll just tell stories at random as they happen, or report here or there of the madness that oliver has been slowly bringing to our lives. good madness, if such does exist. thank goodness for christmas cocktails at the end of the night, after he falls right to sleep at 7pM (sorry, i had to mention it!). we are pretty proud that we have transformed our sporatic sleeper/waker into a very good nighttime man. he takes two one-hour naps through the day & then. and after his last milk fest between seven - seven-thirty, he is ready to clock out. yahoooooo! and even more impressive, is that after his bottle, we brush teeth, read a story (that he typically doesn't have the time of night for), & just lay him in his bed. he heads right off to dreamland. no fussing. no crying. no nothing. just sweet sweet dreams. it is the greatest feeling. ever. well, it's up against the way you feel right after you deliver, but it's a close zen!

so, anyway. it's pretty much been a free-for-all around our house lately. oliver has gained his independence by walking around without support. he now opens doors, so there's no closing things off or keeping him contained. he gets up on & down off of the couches at his own leisure, so there has been some changing of the decor recently. the end tables in the living room are glass-covered (i hate them to begin with) & since he thinks they make a great pedestal for reaching the light switches...they had to go! i could only imagine his chunky little body falling through...eeehhh. don't even want to think about it! so they are gone. and the christmas tree. oh the tree that i just had to have up asap! well...it's slowly starting to become a fixture i am wanting to just throw out the door! all the lights are thrown back on after he pulls at them. the ornaments are all jammed up towards the top...& his three favorite things to do...splash in the water, pull ornaments off & let them float in the water & unplug the lights. well...last time i checked, mixing electricity, water & a baby...it's not your ideal combo. so, for the sake of harboring a safe environment for our child, i must play 'guard' whenever he is in the vicinity of that dang tree! oh next year...will it be better?! other than wreaking havoc on everything in sight & climbing everything elevated at minimum an inch off the ground, we've been pretty good around here. we've just about made it through our first week of michael working 12 hour days. not as bad as i had horrifically imagined in my head, but i'm not gonna lie, i am in need of a break =) so, off to do some snowshoeing this weekend, hopefully gathering some christmas/holiday/mid june-july card photos. ha! i can already tell i'm going to be a bad christmas card mama. you'll get it in your mailbox about july 13th. merry christmas in july! you know mike & i, we don't tend to be mainstream ;)

no tree skirt...well...it just gets in the way...& wet!

naughty or nice?

i'll let you be the judge ;)