Piecakes 2: Return of the Piecakes

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We celebrated at our house the way I usually celebrate things: by making cupcakes. I finally re-attempted the cupcakes that look like pies. They turned out better this time.

Red velvet. Mostly food coloring. True story.

Josh forbade the usage of orange M&Ms because he said it too closely resembled OSU colors. So I ate them.

 In the cupcake caddy.

Like always, Josh made his ribbon jell-o and it was a big hit.

Josh is suspicious about the quality of this turkey.

 Bonus Picture:

This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it's cute. The cats just can't get enough of Josh.

Easter with the ShepAlders

My family already celebrated Easter without us (for various reasons that I will, hopefully, be able to explain later... unless you've seen me in person, in which case I've probably already blah blah blahed about it). So I missed out on the egg hunt and the infamous lamb cake (a cake that looks like a lamb, not a cake made from lamb). Instead, when Josh and I went down to Eugene for the weekend, my mom and I made duck cupcakes.

They were supposed to look like this:

Hold on to your suspense!

We started off with cupcakes:

After we frosted the naked cupcakes for a base, we then added marshmallows cut in half crosswise for the tails and doughnut holes for the heads:

We were supposed to dip each cupcake in frosting, but the heads kept falling off. Instead, we did this:

It kind of worked, except the frosting at that point was so runny (for the dipping), it kept dripping off. I also used starburst for the beaks and feet:

 This required me to spent an hour squishing and molding. There was much debate about how best to do the feet. I think they turned out okay.

 We did finally get it all together, get the beaks on, and tried to keep the heads on. The turned out like this:

I think these duck bums are the cutest:

They are kind of deformed, but they just look so hopeful:

The unfortunate thing is that it took so much frosting to make everything stick together. It was a little too much sugar for me:

But people still ate and enjoyed them, so it was a success! 

 In Other News:
Remember how my dad requested we visit the Lego store in Chicago to buy odds and ends for his Lego projects? One of those projects is a Lego version of their house:

Isn't this ridiculous? 

My dad was planning to make it so you can take off the roof, but the design didn't work so well. So you miss that inside the house is all relatively (as close as you can get with Legos) architecturally accurate. There are even minifigs for most of the members of my family. For some reason, we're all in the den eating turkey.

Here's the back side:

We took down our Christmas tree today...

... and it reminded me that I neglected to post about our new ornaments this year. Josh and I like to collect ornaments from the various places we visit, and then at the end of the year we get to reminisce about the fun trips we've taken during the year.

Since the last time we put up our tree, we have visited:

 Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX

The U.S.S. Texas (also in Houston)

NYC, NY

 Ellis Island

 The Empire State Building

 Salem, Mass.

 Pearl Harbor

 Disneyland

We also acquired some decorations:

 Last year, Christmas 2009, my sister Abby gave me these nativity ducks. SO CUTE!

We also got to hang out with my family at Hoodoo for NYE:

 with my nieces Alice and Katie

Josh showed up too

Everyone was being pretty freaking cute

There were also fireworks, which is my absolute favorite part of NYE. You can't beat fireworks over snow.

A New Year

Josh and I ushered in the new year here:

where we watched fireworks and listened to live music.

It was cold and we had to bundle up.

I couldn't find my snow pants, but thankfully I have four sisters and a mom who own snow pants, so I just borrowed some.

I also forgot gloves. Josh packed my hat, otherwise I would have really been in trouble.

Later, Josh played football on the PS3 with our nephew Brad while our nieces Alice and Katie gave him a makeover. (And by "makeover" I mean they hit him in the face with the hat until he put it on).

On New Year's Day we went to Eugene to watch the Rose Bowl with my family. My dad went to U of Wisconsin, so he was really disappointed with the outcome. They also went to the last basketball game at Mac Court. Josh was impressed that the Duck rocked out on the drum set.

We really are blessed with wonderful family and friends. 2010 was pretty rough, but I have faith things will get better in 2011. 

Thanksgiving 2010

This year Josh and I spent Thanksgiving with my family (unlike last year). Josh really wanted to run in the Turkey Stuffer 5K, since we had done it a few times previously and Josh wanted to prove to himself that he could do better than his past time.

I did a lot of waffling about whether I was going to join him. I go to the gym, but I don't run, and I really wanted to not embarrass myself. The other people who run in this 5K are generally high school kids on the track team, though there are some families and younger kids too. Have you even been passed by a ten year old who isn't even breaking a sweat? Embarrassing.

But then my parents said they were going to join us. In the past, the Turkey Stuffer has been something fun for my family (when we're in town) to do together before the eating. So I promised Josh I'd come too.

Here we are before the race:

I'll spare you the after picture because it is not flattering, but here are my parents after they finished walking:

The moment I hate most about being slow in a 5K is that by the time I was nearing the second mile point, people were already heading back to their cars or running the race from the end to find their family members. Pretty discouraging. 

I did meet some of my goals (to finish before my parents, who were walking, to finish before the end of my 41 1/2 minute ipod playlist) but didn't quite meet my other goals (to run the entire time, to finish at a time I wouldn't be embarrassed to tell people). I did run/jog for the first two miles, and I did pass a lot of people who had to walk because they weren't pacing themselves well. When people passed me, I just told myself "I'll pass them later when they get too tired to keep running." It was just sad to remember past Turkey Stuffers where I did run the entire time and realize how terrible I am now by comparison.

Ultimately, Josh beat me by about 9 minutes, but I beat my parents by about 15 minutes. At least I didn't come in last!

Later that day, for the Thanksgiving meal, my nephew Brad made place cards for us:

If you're having trouble reading it, is says "Best Person Ever"

Apparently I don't make this a secret.

He also made Josh a place card:

Josh says Brad should just call him Captain N

The next day, we went to the Ducks vs. Arizona game, where we premiered our yarn beards:

Happy Easter to Us!

We got a package today. This is what was inside:

An appropriate amount of chocolate, sent to us for Easter by my parents, which is cool because I like shoes. And chocolate.

A closer look:

However, I was sorely disappointed to discover that it was not quite all edible:

Stay tuned for more Boston/NYC pictures. It's taken some time to get used to being back, getting over jet-lag, etc.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Josh and I are proud owners of our very own fake tree that takes 15 minutes to put up, came with lights, and is the kind of low-maintenance that we require. We may not be very particular about our tree, but we love our ornaments. One thing you may not know about us is that we collect ornaments from the various places we visit. It all started with our honeymoon in Jamaica when I impulsively bought this gem:



And continued when we went to Austin, Texas and found this guy:


This year we picked up a couple ornaments from San Simeon (Hearst Castle):

The Neptune Pool


Hearst Castle

Not only are we nerdy enough to have bought ornaments of the monuments when we went to DC, but we are nerdy enough to have put them together in our own mini DC:

You can't see it very well, but the Pentagon is back there, too.
As is the Neptune Pool, but that was just wishful thinking.

We tried to include Monticello and Mt. Vernon, but decided it would not be geographically accurate.

Mt. Vernon, including tiny deer

Ever since last year when Josh bought a slew of Star Trek ornaments in an eBay auction, we have had a tradition where he gets to pick only a few to put on the tree (it's my way of letting Josh get something he wants without being stuck with a tree full of Star Trek ornaments). Here he is trying to decide which ones to include:


He finally decided on:

Baldy Von Balderson


Weirdo McBeardo


And this guy

We don't just buy ornaments from places, however, but also of things we like, such as The Beatles:

The one on the left is from the EMP, which we visited when we went to Seattle in August

And, of course, we rounded things off with a festive tree-topper:

Even our tree says, "GO DUCKS!"

We love our ornaments.