Christmas News Letter

Sorry for those of you who thought you would be reading a Family Christmas letter. We had a little power flicker and lost the letter. We ment to re-type it but for Christmas this year we got the Flu and Strep. Ya! we spent a lot of family time together. Bonus! We had a wonderful time other than that. We hope you all had a great hoilday season.. Happy New Years to you all aswell..

Little Zoe Dress-Up

If you enjoyed the gingerbread house give this a try I love playing paper dolls as a girl. I had the “Gingham Girls”. For those old enough to even know who they are... They were a Christmas Present from Grandma Jones. I stayed up all night playing with them Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to come. This web-site and artist also reminds me of an all time favorite artist, author and illustrator Mary Englebrit.

http://www.jennybharris.com/activities/xmas/christmaszoe.htm

Sorry for the nude it won't let me publish it with cloths on. A little chilly don't you think?

Gingerbread Houses and special moments

Abbie

Spencer

Andrew

Zachy and Dad

Zachy

Finished Houses. Some of which didn't even make it home they were eaten in the car.

We love to make ginger bread houses every year the day after Thanksgiving. We have been doing this as long as I can remember. Our cousins even joined us a time or two when we were younger. I have to say that I am so thrilled that my boys are still excited about making them.

I am a very lucky mom because my kids love to hang out with mom and dad and they and their friends like to hang out with our family too. I will hold on to every little tradition I can as long as they will humor me. I am very grateful to have such sweet and tenderhearthed kids who don't act like they are to cool for making gingerbread houses, give a F.H.E. lesson, go to the Nutcracker ballet, go to a girly movie with the family (Enchanted) and admit that they liked it, play games or do activities that their little sister and brother picked and even read book with them in bed. I hope you all have these special moments with your children. This year let's all try to make even more opportunities for special moments in our families. (Don't get me wrong; there are days they are all banned to their own rooms. Ironically when we seperate them they only want to be with each other more. Go figure.)

Click on this link and you can make a ginger bread house of your own with out all the mess and cavities.
http://www.jennybharris.com/activities/home/sweethome.htm

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Getting Ready for Christmas

You've probably already seen this, but it's a lot of fun and it's fun to see your kids dancing. The kids were so excited to see themselves, so I thought I would share the sights with you as well. Here are the kids getting jiggy: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9627398705

Not to be outdone, I decided to get myself in my usual Christmas spirit. http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=9629209413

So.... Bah Humbug!

Regan

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We had a great Thanksgiving day. We hope you all did as well.. We Spent the day at Grandma Connie and Grandpa Da's house in North Lehi. We had Grandpa Great Roberts Who just turned "95" a couple of days ago, Grandma Great Jones, Great Aunts Jackie and Jenny, Stockman gang of course, Roberts-Abbott's(Ginger, Cologne, and Dominick), Andreson's(Jason, Amber and kids). After a great meal we had a great time playing with cousins, talking and playing games. Some of the gang watched Spiderman #3.. We took the opportunity to take our Christmas card pictures as well. It was so COLD! Thanks Amber....

MMMMM..... Chili Verde....

Hello, this is Regan. One of the ways I judge a decent Mexican restaurant is by their chili verde. I'm kind of a sucker for the stuff. So it was with a little bit of excitement that we made our own chili verde with a recipe sent to me by a friend. It turned out SO good. Even the kids loved it - except for Zachary (who won't eat anything that doesn't look or taste like spaghetti). We had our good friend Derek come over and try some on his way out the door to meet his family at Sweet Tomatoes. He ate two burritos and was tempted for a third. (Sorry to ruin your appetite, but we needed an outside opinion.)

So here is the recipe if you would like to try it yourself. Honestly, the hardest part of it was having to wait to eat it while the smell filled the house. That, and cutting the onions. Brooke came downstairs while I was standing over a pile of freshly chopped onion that was really burning my eyes. She noted the tears running down my cheeks and called me a baby. Small price to pay for something this delicious.

CHILI VERDE
4 lb Pork Roast (my friend uses a boneless pork loin roast, I used a couple of shoulder roasts)
1 10oz can Rotel Original diced Tomatoes and Green Chili
1 10oz can Rotel Milder diced Tomatoes and Green Chili
4 4oz cans of diced green chilis
1 extra large white onion diced small
1 jalapeno chili minced (I just throw in a whole 4 oz can of diced jalapenos)
6-8 large garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
dash red pepper flakes
1/2 cup flour

Coat meat with flour and place in slow cooker (sprinkle any remaining flour on roast). Mix all remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over roast. Cook in crock pot on high 6-8 hours or on low at least 12 hours.

When Brooke took the roasts out to shred them, they literally fell apart on her. The meat was VERY tender. It was also very spicy and I was afraid it would be too hot for the kids. But shredding the meat took some of the heat out of it, and it was pretty much perfect.

Also, a note on the shoulder roasts. We get ours from the 8th Avenue Market up by LDS Hospital in Salt Lake. They call it a "Pork Cushion" and it is a family favorite no matter how it's cooked. It shreds very well and is great for pulled pork sandwiches, teriyaki, whatever.

If you give it a try, let us know what you think. Hasta luego.

LOOK WHO IS "40"

Regan turned “40” this July. It was definitely a long celebration.... Regan took of the week of his b-day off of work - he believes no one should work on their b-day, so why not take off a whole week? This was really hard on me (Brooke). I was planning a surprise party for him and he was just plain in the way. I had to sneak his phone to get R.S.V.P's from people I didn't have phone numbers for. Then I had to cover my tracks by deleting all phone number histories. I even used a different e-mail address because he knows my password. We had so much fun at his "Real b-day party" thanks to all who came and celebrated with us. BIG thanks to all who helped me with the party. We really missed those of you who couldn't come. I say "Real Party" because Regan was feeling sad for himself and the night of his real b-day he threw himself a little get together because he thought we hadn't planned anything for his big milestone birthday. (It was his "40" b-day you know). We just played along and thanked those who played along with us and came to the party he gave himself. What great friends we have! He even bought cake and ice cream... so funny. He must have been so sad to think we didn't even care that it was such a special day and we didn't even plan a party... BUT HE SURE WAS SUPRIZED WHEN HE SHOWED UP TO HIS SUPRIZE PARTY AND THERE WERE ALL HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY!! HE TRULY HAD NO CLUE!! SO COOL! I CAN’T BELIEVE I PULLED IT OFF!

Mister #40 pants himself. "How many days left until my next birthday? Any takers?

We did lot of fun things during Regan’s b-day week. Regan picked a fun activity for us to do each day. Each kid got to go on a special date just with dad. Regan also thought it would be fun to give us all gifts for his b-day. One of the days we went bowling which we all enjoy except Spencer because he scores low and hates it when the little kids beat him. Hey Spence remember they cheated, they used bumpers. Maybe you can sign up for a bowling class in college. It’ s a real class. I even took a ballroom dancing class it was so much fun. You might even find a hot bowling chick, Spence.

Good Bye Summer!

This summer we went camping just above Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. We went on a 4 wheel ride with all our friends to the towers and got to see down into "Lava". Our get away was over Labor Day, so it was truly the last summer day for us.

Welcome to the Stockman family blog. I have decided to start a blog just for our family and keep my design blog separate. Feel free to click on the link and see what I'm up to.

http://www.designsbybrooke.blogspot.com/

I have a few fun entries about our family over there as well. Feel free to leave comments. We love having you all as family and friends.

Thanks, Brooke