Steinbeigle Family Bakery

Christmastime is here and the Steinbeigle family bakery is OPEN! We've been cooking up a storm all week! Every year my family makes an assortments of cookies to snack on all through the holidays as well as to give out to friends and neighbors. My mother and sisters and I have been busy making pinwheels, sprits, molasses cookies, chocolate dipped sugar cookies, melting moments, chocolate dipped pretzels, white chocolate covered popcorn, cookie cutter sugar cookies (hand decorated, too!) and gingerbread houses! Here is some of what we did!

Every artist needs a signature! I may start using this more often!

This are the cookies my baby sister Savanna decorated

These ones are decorated by Amber-an artist herself

These are Micheley-belles!

A few extra ones I decided to get artsy with

Here are the ones I decorated

Gingerbread houses! This one in front is mine!

This one is Amber's. We keep teasing her that it looks like an outhouse. She thinks it looks like a man with his mouth open!

This one is Savanna's!

Here is Michele's! I like the pearl decorations!

Here's our little town!

My favorite part about all of this is just getting to spend time with my sisters and parents. I sure love being home for Christmas and they make it so much more special! I'm happy we all get to be together for this special season! Happy happy Christmastime!

Bundle of Joy!

Dear world! I'm writing to you from California this week where I've been spending the Thanksgiving Holiday with some of my best friends: The Raleighs! It's been an adventurous week to say the least! We've done some snorkeling, swimming, shopping, eating, cleaning, playing, Turkey-ing, Black Friday shopping (and grey Thursday as well) and spending time with the most beautiful bundles of joy that ever did exist! Aka, Morgan and Alyvia. If my future kids are half as cute as these adorable babes, I will be the happiest Mom in the world! In other words, all I'm trying to say is, they are adorable. Uh-Door-Uh-Bull. Nuff said. Take a look at this!

Morgan is just the most angelic beacon of cute-ness! She makes a toy out of eveything, and even when she's messy or mad, she can't help but be cute!

However, the best is when she is happy (usually as long as she has had her nap) and she just wants to curl up in your lap and cuddle with you! I've never had a baby so sweet climb up into my lap before and demand to be loved!

If she were my own child, I'd sure struggle with not being wrapped around her tiny finger. She's also so impressive, because despite not even being two years old, she has the most impressive vocabulary! She can say things like "keekow keekow" (or in other words "tickle, tickle") "shoes," "hurts," "I did it," "I want some," "drink," "ow," "buckows" for her seat belt buckle, and so many other words! Even when we just went swimming, she heard us saying goggles, and was repeating the word, pointing and asking for her own set of "goggows." She even goes and gets her own diapers when she needs to be changed! Man, this girl is a genius!
Then there is cute little Alyvia, whose fifth birthday will be coming up soon, too!  This young lady, though she has her moments of disobedience, is surprisingly well behaved. She helps her mommy unload the dishwasher. She clears off the table and sweeps the floor. She helps take care of Morgan and hardly even fights with her!

She loves to be picked up and spun around, which used to be an easy thing for me to do, but now that she is getting bigger... is starting to be a strain on my back. Even though she isn't the baby anymore, she is just beginning to blossom and grow every time I see her! She even swims by herself in the swimming pool, without even plugging her nose... (that's way more than I could do at the age of four!) Anyway, I just wanted to brag on these sweet little children.

Everytime I visit the Raleighs, I can't help but melt all over again every single day I'm with them! They are the sweetest children I've ever been "fake aunt" to and I just love to be around them! I wish I could do it every day!  Maybe someday I will have sweet little chidlers of my own. :)

Ice sculpting and Santa Clause!

So, Ben and Isaac and I decided to go check out the Riverwoods Mall this weekend. Partly we were there to see "Wreck-It Ralph," (which was an amazingly done movie in my opinion!) and partly because Peter Breinholdt was supposed to be singing there. Well, unfortunately we missed the singing. However, we DID run into something else that was rather amazing:

An ice sculpture!!

A life-size, fully carved ice sculpture!  I've only ever heard about these or seen them in the movies! Never have I seen such a big and beautiful one in real life before!  I couldn't get over how it just sat there, solidly, yet so slippery and wet to the touch. I had no idea they could sit out for so long and still maintain their beautiful shape! (Hmmm... maybe I will have some done for my wedding someday... wouldn't that be awesome?! Anyway, I just HAD to touch it and feel it's textures! It was so amazingly done!

Further along our walk through the Riverwoods, we ran into a few other ice sculptures as well: 

This bear was in front of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!

This cool Christmas Tree almost looks like a rocket ship!

Anyway, it was fun to be out and about, see Wreck-It Ralph, and spend some time with my friends. Oh and by the way, guess what else we saw:

 None other than the jolly old man himself!  Better start getting those letters to Santa ready for the mail!

Family Night at the Cornmaze!

So as part of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I get to participate in what we call Family Home Evening. It is one night set aside every week-usually Monday- for the family to get together and have a spiritual thought and spend some time doing some kind of fun activity together. As a student at Brigham Young University we still get to participate in "FHE" but with our roommates and other members of our apartment complexes. Every Monday our "family" still gets together for a spiritual message and a fun activity. This particular week our family decided to go to a local corn maze! It's such a fun way to get to know new people and build and strengthen friendships, as well as a way to establish a group of individuals on whom you can count for whatever social activity or need. Here is my FHE group sitting near a pumpkin patch at Cornbelly's Cornmaze. It was fun to navigate the maze and try to stick together, despite it being very dark! We got scared a couple of times as we paid our entrance fee by what appeared to be nothing but bushes and hay, but really was really a couple of employees dressed up to scare! It turned out to be a fun night as we also rode a few play tractors and on the swings and slid down the giant slides in burlap sacks and fed the goats and played in the pumpkin patch. Activities like this remind me that I am never too old to be a kid. :)

left to right: Grant, me, Nicki, Brian, Nate, Amanda, Emily and Dave volunteered to take the picture. :)

Christmas Special!

Tonight was one of the most wonderful experiences I have had all year long! As Christmas Eve came came to it's end, we commemorated the evening with a performance by Savanna and I: she on the violin, and I on the piano. We played "Silent Night" and "O Holy Night," with me playing a French host. (my favorite part, lol) We had only practiced that very night, so the performance may have been more or less, but the spirit was strong. It was fun to prepare and perform with my littlest sister. After the performance, we went to our basement where the television is and put in the movie "Joy to the World" produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It contains a beautiful twenty minute message about the birth of the Savior and how the sign of his birth was viewed not only in the Eastern hemisphere, but in the western as well, by his righteous followers on the American continent at the time. They had awaited his birth in anticipation as did all those who believed on the Savior Jesus Christ. It is a beautiful little film with clips of music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other scenes from the live of the Savior. After the film, (and after seeing the last half hour of a Mormon Tabernacle Christmas performance on tv with David Archuleta) we rushed off to get ready for bed. As usual on Christmas Eve, elves had come and placed pajamas on our beds, so we could greet the next day with fresh warm clothes! The best part of the evening was even yet to come, however.  As my sisters as I all brushed our teeth, tried on our new pjs, got our last drink of water, etc, we settled down into the room we were all sharing for the night. (Grandma and grandpa Decker are in town and are therefore using the other bedroom.) We decided to read a little excerpt from a book I bought a while back called: Christmas Treasury for Latter-day Saint Families, by Lloyd and Karmel Newell. I asked Amber to pick a section for us to read together and she chose the one on traditions.  We read the section together and then talked a little bit about some of our favorite Christmas traditions as a familiy.  Savanna said she loved getting to decorate the Christmas tree each year for her birthday (which falls at the beginning of December). Amber said she loved taking Mom's white chocolate popcorn to all the neighbors and especially putting up the felt nativity and reading the story of the birth of Jesus and moving the felt pieces around to act out the scene. Michele said she loved everything: especially going out to look at the Christmas lights and making and decorating cookies. Since she is already 22 and out of the house, she and her soon-to-be fiance did a few Christmas traditions of their own this year, including those two things. I also love everything: from getting pajamas from elves on Christmas eve, to making cookies together, to the Christmas music we play, to decorating the tree, seeing the lights, etc.  All make up for a special and wonderful holiday.  I think most importantly, I just love being home with my family. It is such a rare and special thing now that Michele and I are moved out of the house. Since I haven't been home for Christmas in three years, this one seems extra special to me.  The most special part of the evening was being able to just sit and share these special memories together with my sisters, and best of all: to kneel down with them, all four of us, lined around the edge of the bed, and have my Sister Michele offer up and sweet and sincere prayer of thanks for our family, for the season, and for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has made all of what we have possible.  Our family, the love we feel between one another, the blessings of health and happiness, and the mercy and forgiveness of our Savior are all gifts given us by Him.  We owe everything we have to this special being, who was once born in a stable, and lain in a manger. A man of such royal birth, born in so humble of circumstances.  A King over all earth and sky, and yet, so humble and pure, insomuch as to suffer and die for the sins of every one.  I am thankful for that moment in which my Sister humbly expressed these feelings as we knelt down all together in prayer.  What a special moment for me to be united with my family again, on the Eve of the Anniversary of the birth of our Savior, giving reverent thanks unto Him.  These things are the reason for the season: family, friendship, service, camaraderie, compassion, love.  Michele, Amber, Savanna, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, and best of all my Savior: Thank you for a wonderful night!

Pecan Pie Crusts!

December 24, 2011.

I made my first pie crust! You'd think I'd have learned by the time I was 25, but no.  Mom was so sweet and took the time to teach me how to do it the right way!  Hopefully I can remember next time I got to make a pie! The recipe was so simple, too!  Flour, sugar, salt. Smash in chunks of cold butter until blended... but not too much. You still want it chunky. Next, add iced water, only two spoonfuls at a time and mix with a fork until it is just sticky enough.  Barely sticky.. About six-ish spoonfuls will do.  Spread flour on surface where you will roll out the dough so it won't stick, and using a rolling pin, roll until, I dunno.  The size part I'm not sure about, but you want it to hang over the edge of the pie tin by at least an inch 1/2 or so. Next, gently place dough in pie tin and gently mold it to fit. Take a beaten egg and baste it around the whole surface of the dough to give it a shiny appearance. Cut off the extra dough around the edges and shape them however you'd like. Oh, and be sure to shape the crusts so that they stand up from the tin a bit since it will shrink as it bakes. Fill with your favorite pie filling and then put it in the oven (for how long and how hot, I'm not sure. I guess it depends on the pie you are making.) a Voi la! Homemade pie crust! Hmmm, I'll need to get the exact measures of flour, sugar, and salt though from my Mom. I think it was 1 1/2 cup flour, 2 Tbs sugar, and a pinch of salt mixed with a 1/2 c of cube butter. Yep!  There you have it! In this particular case, we decided to divide up the dough into two halves and make two mini pecan pies since not everyone in our family likes to eat them. Here's how they turned out! (too bad I didn't get a picture of the final baked product!)