A White Christmas in Colorado...

This year was a Christmas of firsts for us. It was our first year without traveling. Our first year with our own live tree, my first year making the Marshall secret toffee by myself (no burns this year, but I attached last years picture just for kicks), and the first white Christmas that I can remember.
Christmas morning we woke up to new snow on the ground and snow falling. It continued all day and finally stopped around 10pm with about 10 inches of new snow. It was an amazing sight to see and we're pretty glad we stuck around for it.
We celebrated Christmas eve at the Leavitts. Tara made an incredible beef tenderloin dinner, we played bingo for prizes, we had a goofy gift exchange, and we rocked out to Karoake. Spencer and I had Christmas morning at our house, pretty quiet with 2, but fun. We made mom's coffee cake for breakfast and then we headed back to the Leavitts that afternoon. We played their new Wii, ping pong and pool, and Jason hooked a sled to the back of the quad and took the kids on sleigh rides around the neighborhood.
I've decided that life would be pretty great if no one had to work and we could all hang out with family and friends and play all day.
It's so fun to have family in town, and it turned out to be a great Christmas in Colorado.
Happy New Year.

Comin' Home

I just booked a flight to come home for a week. I'll be in Boise January 3rd-10th.
For any of you old Boise friends, I'd love to see you, and if anyone needs photos taken of their kids let me know, I'm bringing my gear.
Happy almost Christmas!

Check it out!

Hi all,
Spencer's work, "Anabliss Graphic Design" just got their new website up. www.anabliss.com
Now you can see the cool projects he's been working on. It's easiest to get to the project pictures through the portfolio link on the (full screen mode) home page. Be sure and look at the "Champions For Children" webpage...who is that? And, if you go to the sketchbook link you can check out the "Rocky Mountain Fresh Foods" design. Spencer worked heavily on this project and I think it's pretty cool. We love shopping with our canvas cow bags that he designed and we're becoming so eco-friendly.
Also be sure and check out the leadership photos that I shot. They were one of my first commercial accounts since moving here, and were a lot of fun to take.
Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Today is Spencer's 31st birthday.

We've been married 3 1/2 years but I was thinking about it last night, and this will be the 6th birthday I've spent with you. I think the first was your 26th, and you and Ty and I drove to Jackson Hole and got blue cheese burgers at the Silver Dollar Bar.
I'm so grateful for so many years of fun memories with you.
I just wanted to say how much I love you and am grateful for you. Aren't we lucky to have so much fun together!
Thanks for always making me laugh and being my best friend. I sure love you, more now than ever.
I hope you have a great birthday!
-Andi

Frederiksen lady elfs

Spencer's uncle did this with the Leavitt girls and it was pretty funny.
So here goes my version, shake a leg Frederiksen elfs...Mom's cracks me up, I think her elf is a little slow. Copy and paste this in a new window, it's worth it!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1396953059

Mother of 3...

Spencer and I spent last week at the Leavitt's watching their girls while they vacationed in Hawaii. We had a ton of fun, but going from 0 to mother of 3 overnight, and still trying to work was a little crazy. Trying to remember everything was the hardest part... Did you brush your teeth, your hair, Ryleigh did you remember to feed the dogs,do your homework? When's dance and hockey and where again? Do I have an appt. this morning...my computer is at home and they're coming to view photos in 45 minutes yikes!
It was a full-on time management course, but good practice for me. Hats off to all you mom's that do this every day! At least the girls were super fun and forgiving of my mistakes like bringing Kennedy to dance in her tennis shoes instead of her jazz shoes, or having to ask for help from a stranger to tie Ryleigh's hockey skates tight enough. But overall I'd say it was a success. We all had fun, Kennedy had a great 6th birthday and rocked out to her new i-pod during our dance parties. Ryleigh helped Spencer and I shop for a puppy (wishful thinking) we like the french bulldog and boston terriers the best, and Emerson was as cute as can be. The video is off of our little point and shoot camera so it's not the best quality but still pretty silly. She did have tights on earlier, but this was after church post diaper change...

Chocolate Haupia pie

I'm baking! We loved Ted's chocolate haupia pie in Hawaii so much that I baked one from scratch for the first time, shaved the chocolate and made the whipped cream even. Made a little bit of a mess too as you can tell from my countertop, and the shaved chocolate was everywhere, but it was sure Yummy! You all have to try this.
I don't usually love coconut flavored things but this is so good, almost as good as the real thing. When I make it again, I think it would be even better with milk chocolate chips instead of the semi-sweet the recipe calls for. Thanks to Diane for hunting it down.

Chocolate Haupia Pie
Ingredients:
1-9" Prepared pie crust 1 can Coconut milk 1 C Sugar 1 C Whole milk, but you can us skim or low fat 1/2 C Cornstrach	1 C water 7 oz Semi-sweet chocolate 1 1/2 C Heavy whipping cream 1/4 C Sugar Shaved chocolate, for garnish
Cooking Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Bake pie crust until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. In a saucepan, whisk coconut milk, milk and 1 cup sugar. In a separate bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water. Bring the milk mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and whisk in cornstarch mixture until thickened. Microwave chocolate pieces for 1 minute or until melted. Pour half of the haupia mixture into a bowl, set aside, with the remaining half mix with melted chocolate and pour into the bottom of pie crust, layer the remaining haupia on top, (hint use the back of a tbsp spoon to evenly pour mixture out). Cool the pie in the frig for a minimum of an hour. In a mixer, whip heavy cream with the 1/4 cup sugar until still peaks form. Garnish the pie with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. Chill for another hour. Makes 6-8 servings.