Christmas at the Gehringer's

Andrew and I were able to go to California to visit with Grandmama and Grandpa. The flight was long, but Andrew slept most of the way. My side of the family did Christmas early so they could all meet Andrew. We had a lot of fun and are glad we went.

Here are some of the many photos that we took. (more to come...check back soon)

My new favoritie photo.
Shelby doing the bull dog.

Shelby wanted to pet Andrew's head.

I'm still taller.

Santa's job is hard.

Close up on that action.

Andrew pooped loudly while Stephanie was holding him. Took this pic fast so I could change him before he exploded over innocent bystanders.

My greatest Christmas gift.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas. More photos to come. Check back soon!

Blog Giveaways

My friend told me about these cool blogs that has giveways. Click here for one, and here for another. This is a new concept for me and sounds pretty cool. Check out the blogs when you have time and good luck!

Let it snow...

Yup, so the other day I was talking with my friend and mentioning that I actually did miss the snow. Although I do hate driving in the snow, I don't mind the cold so much. I think the snow is really pretty and fun to play in. I was listening to Christmas music (as I do most of the day), and I heard Let It Snow and missed Utah a little. Yesterday I ran some errands with Andrew and really had to bundle him up because it was so cold outside. That afternoon, Ryan called me and told me it was snowing! I dashed to the window and threw open the sash to notice that he was right. I was talking to my friend online who also lives in Houston and I told her it was snowing. Her response was, "In Utah". No silly, here. Sure enough, little flakes were coming down, but not sticking. Then Andrew left to pick up Ryan at work and it was snowing more, sticking on the windshield for a few seconds before melting. By that night, it started sticking on cars and bushes.

This newspaper mentions that the last time it snowed in Houston was on Christmas Eve, 2004. The last time it snowed on December 10 was in 1944.


So little Andrew got to see snow for his first Christmas. It was a Christmas miracle.

This is a bush outside our front door.

This is our backyard. Here you can see the snow is still there at 9am, the day after it snowed.

Andrew's Baby Blessing

On Sunday, November 30, Ryan blessed Andrew during our church meeting. It was a very special and spiritual time. He is the first in our family to receive a (LDS) blessing. We had a lot of friends come to be apart of his blessing. Our friends, Matt and Rose Dyer, let us borrow their son's outfit for the occasion. Thanks! Here are some photos. Enjoy!

New Holiday Tradition

So I forgot to mention the best part of Thanksgiving....the DESERTS! So for 4 adults, we had 4 desserts planned. We were going to make an apple cobbler, and 3 pies. We decided that may be a bit much so we canceled a pie and the cobbler. That left us with 2 pies. Rose made the traditional pumpkin pie, which turned out fantastic. I made a pie I've never made before. I've never even heard of or eaten such pie until a week ago at my friends birthday party. We made ice cream pie. Oh, but we didn't just use any old ice cream. We got Coldstone Gingerbread ice cream. Oh My Gosh! We put it in a graham cracker crust, and then put cool whip on top and put it back in the freezer. I can't tell you how yummy it is! I think this will be the kind of pies I make from now on! I'm going to make it for our Christmas party so family - watch out!

We did end up making the cobbler - which I mainly ate for breakfast (what? it had oatmeal in it). And we made another ice cream pie. Oh, so yummy. This one was Bryers Eggnog ice cream (no whip cram). It tasted just like eggnog but with a graham cracker cookie attached to it. I highly recommend these pies. Oh so delicious! I can't wait to make them in a few weeks!

Oh so yummy!

Rose put chocolate syrup over her piece.

Thanksgiving!

So this year was my first year to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Phew! Let me tell you! I don't like cooking birds. There's too many bones to carve around and too easy to dry out one part while not fully cooking other parts. Next year I'm trying a ham. Other than that, everything else came out great!

Our friends Matt, Rose and Dima (and future wife of Andrew, Lilly) came out to spend the holiday with us. They just moved to Seattle and we are so glad they came out for a whole week!

We all worked together to cook the dinner. We had turkey, stuffing, green bean supreme, candied yams, cranberries, mashed potatoes, and gravy. The stuffing was Stove Top. I really like it and it's super easy so why not? All the other foods were made from scratch. Rose and I made cranberries. They were sooooo good. I ate it on everything! (and I mean everything...it weirded people out). We just cooked the cranberries with orange juice and sugar. They popped and wal-la! Yummy Cranberries! (This coming from a girl who bought 3 cans of the jelled cranberries because she doesn't like the whole berry caned stuff). I even made the gravy from the juice from the turkey. It turned out much better than I though. Matt and Ryan made the potatoes, Rose made the candied yams and I made the green bean supreme. (I forgot to put the rolls out to rise so that was the only thing we were missing) It was so nice to all work towards a good dinner.

We have been so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!