{holidays}: the new year

{I've kept adding and adding to this, so i think it will be revisited a bit before it's done.}

This year has been a year of great kindnesses for us. We have been blessed by so many more than we could ever know. We have been showered with love, support, gifts, advice, and food:

• Thank you to all of you that pay your taxes. You paid for my Zofran, prenatal care, and childbirth. Without medicaid I could not have survived my pregnancy (literally) and would not have the beautiful baby I have today.
• Thank you for the baby gifts and help. We needed it.
• Thank you to my Relief Society for providing meals for 2 weeks instead of one.
• Thank you Jessa, for lifting my spirits and coming to visit for my birthday-I needed you then.
• Thank you for your help, all of you at the Bridal Show. I could not have done it without all of you!
• Thank you, ALL of you that helped us move. We physically would not have been able to do it alone-I was getting big then.
• Thank you too the wonderful people that take care of our housing-we are so blessed to live in such a clean, friendly environment.
• Thank you to all of Jon's professors for letting him off the hook every now and again.
• Thank you Shroomies for feeding us. You have kept my husband alive!
• Thank you all our friends for going on picnics, camping, swimming, and sitting on our couch to watch movies. We love you all and need your support.
• Thank you Jon Cross for the Chinese food. It has never tasted better than when you brought it to us.
• Thank you parents, all of you, for everything.
• Thank you Dave for everything. Especially for posting every season of the Office and Flight of the Concords on the server. That got me through the last of the pregnancy
• Thank you Christina...you poor woman stuck with me in the August heat and grumpiness.
• Thank you Anna for offering me the job-we miss you.
• Thank you for the Christmas Cookies and delicious Cinnamon rolls...mmmm...
• Thank you for coming to the blessing...it was wonderful to have you all meet our baby girl
• Thank you for visiting in the hospital...I love you all.
• Thanks for coming to visit me in my store-I love seeing friends!
• Thank you to everyone for everything. We love you all and have had quite the year. I can't imagine what is in store for us in 2010!
• Thank you Sarah, for your blog and telling me you can't spoil a newborn. I've passed that on to many...
• Oh, and thank you, whoever left a washer and dryer on our back porch. I don't even know what to say it was such a surprise. At least let us know who it was so we can hug you...

{consumer report}: chocolate

I feel qualified to recommend good chocolate. I love it. I crave it. It physically makes me feel better (I may or may not have an addiction). On my worst days, chocolate picks me up. It has magically healed everything from cramps to headaches. I love good chocolate. And I like it dark and creamy. So, without further explanation...my picks for best chocolate.

I actually typically buy this as a chocolate chip. Not only do I cook with them, but I do love to snack on them frozen. They are perfect for a sweet little pick me up at the end of a long day, and they give chocolate chip cookies a bit of a richer taste. Love it.

I also love this brand of chocolate chips for the same reasons. I currently have a bag of both sitting in my freezer and I can't decide which I like better...they're both perfect for cooking and can hold their own just as a snack...

I have not yet been able to find this regularly in the United States. I became hooked on this particular brand of chocolate in Germany, and I also found it in Mexico. It is the only milk chocolate that I really, really love. It is so creamy with such a smooth filling...and they make kinder eggs that come with prizes so really its a win-win.

I LOVE Ritter Sport. It is available at Wal-mart sometimes and always Target. The marzipan in something you MUST try if you haven't ever. You must. I promise.

This is the chocolate of my pregnancy. This is what I craved. Once again, Ritter Sport. Love them. This dark chocolate is so wonderful, and I LOVE hazelnuts. I would make trips to Target when I was prego just to buy one of these...wonderful! These are also especially delicious when frozen-for some reason I like the chocolate to be crunchy with the nuts.

Their truffles are to die for as well, but too rich for my everyday chocolate needs. This is a very dark chocolate, not their darkest, but very dark, and oh, so good. Just a couple nibbles of this is enough to settle down my chocolate cravings and it is so rich in antioxidants that I feel the need to justify eating it every chance I get...is that so wrong?

Ok, so I lied when I said Kinder was the only milk chocolate that I love. Once you try Milka, Hersheys will taste like the chocolate flavored wax it is. It is the smoothest most melt-oh so gently-in-your-mouth chocolate that there is. I was beyond excited to see that Target has started to carry it regularly...this became a fav in Germany and I'm glad to see it in the states!

Well, that is all for my bit on my chocolate addiction...I've got chocolate chips to tend to...

{my nightstand}: current reads

I'm re-reading Twilight. I've seen the movie too many times and the book really is better. It makes me very disappointed in the movie. The book actually develops their relationship where the movie does not. And Bella and Edward actually have chemistry in the book, which is viciously lacking in the movie. Overall, it's been a good re-read.

I'm also reading the BOM. Again. I skipped the first part and went straight to Helaman. I've read 1 Nephi too many times, enough to last a life time, so I now skip around when ever I read it. I skip Alma often because its hard to read about battle after war after battle. I know there's a point in the end, it's just not my favorite. And I always leave Moroni for the last-I think he's one of my favorites, and I like all his chapters. I always pictured him as an awesome Grandpa-the kind that tells you crazy stories about the war or something...

This book is out of necessity. It is wonderful. If I was every to recommend a parenting book-this is it. I love having a heads up of what's next, what to freak out about, what to not freak out about, and really how to get through things. For example, sippy cups. I never had thought twice about them, and they have an entire chapter about rethinking ever giving them to your child. Its interesting...

And of course, I am america and so can you. This book is FUNNY. Really, really funny, and perfect for nights when I get scared and can't go back to sleep. And just to mix it up a little. I love it. Steven Colbert is hilarious.

{update}: true joy

I have sat here and giggled with my baby for 5 minutes now. Nothing is more wonderful than this...

It sounds weird, and this is Jon's cell phone video, but that really is her...

{holidays}: christmas

So this year for christmas I got a double electric breast pump:

moo. I hate being an adult.

{memories}: photography

Rachel and I have a folder called "april's behind." I flipped through it and it made me laugh so I thought I would share with you. It's a bunch of our test shot that we somehow land ourselves in...

These last two were donations from other photographers...

{update}: big trouble for me

So, I have a baby crocidile. If you get your hand anywhere near her little mouth, she will snap at you and try and bite you. That actually isn't why I'm in big trouble, even though you would think that would be a bit of a problem (and it can be when she trys to bite everyone and everything...). My trouble is that my child fussed and fussed and fussed at me today. She was fed, changed, warm, everything. I was checking my e-mail and some other things bouncing her in her bouncy chair and she was fussing and fussing and fussing. I was even talking to her the entire time, confused as to why she was fussing. Finally, I picked her up and laid her facing me on my chest and asked her what was wrong. She proceded to look me straight in the eye, two inches from my face and tell me a story for a solid 3 minutes-estatic to have my undivided attention. And this was a story-no doubt about it. She had all the inflection and drama that a good story would have. After the story she was content to merely look at things around her and tell me about all of them, and was certainly not ok with being put down to explain all this. Once she had my attention, she wasn't about to give it up! And this is why I'm in trouble. I reproduced...and we got another me...