Thai in Springfield

For our pre-powell-christmas evening while awaiting the arrival of the rest of our family, we went to Tong's Thai restaurant and celebrated my sister and brother-in-law's sixth anniversary! 

Happy Anniversary!!

Us after eating Thai food.

We got home and rocked out to super base and wrapped last minute presents.

Now, Redbox here we come.

our holiday from work

We have been blessed with an abundance of family love this season. Starting Dec. 17th and through today, we have celebrated christmas many times over, each gathering has its fond memories. Mostly this year on nic's side, the family shifted present focus to littler kiddos. We had an exciting gift-opening time with nieces and nephews. It was a joy to see the their excitements when opening a dust buster to "un-dust" the house, their very own gift cards, book sets, bean bag chairs, "this reminded me of you gifts", and fashion forward attire. The energy in that house just kept building. 

We then moved to food and extended family gatherings. Santa visited us at Grammy's (extended Kline) gathering, kids were crying in confusion and Santa lost weight this year evidenced by his trouser malfunction (thanks uncle Chuck!). Stringers gathered around more food. Singers gathered around a delicious taco bar and XBox Kinnect. The present Bob Kline clan consumed desserts, coffee, hot chocolate, and well dressed sugar cookies. In all, we grabbed quick moments with all too often unseen family members. I failed to take photos, I know lots were taken. If you are reading this and you have them, send them, or else...

In between social gatherings we took down our Christmas decor a little early, stripped popcorn plaster off our living room/dining room ceiling, painted our baseboards white, and painted the walls a lovely "Missouri Bluffs" color from Nell Hills all while jamming out to Super Bass by Nicki Manaj. Boom daboom boom boom daboom baby...great song. Highly recommend it when painting. Here is the current state of our abode.

We are so close to being done, one more living room coat, a few touch ups, add crown molding, and move back in. We worked hard during the day and were thankful for the social gatherings to give our bodies a break.

We also got precious moments with dear friends who were in town for Christmas. We spent the morning catching up over coffee and then talked the night away over dinner and dessert. Glad we took a breath to capture a photo memory. Miss you guys.

The abridged version of our 2011 Christmas in Kansas City: 6 family Christmas gatherings down and one more to go, Neosho loves to eat paint, Nic learned how to dress classier from the above parties, and taking your own family photo can be stressful. 

More Christmas cheer this weekend with the Powell family! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Kline family!

We are so thankful for you all, and hope you had as wonderful a year as we did. 

Here are some Christmas photo attempts that didn't make the cut:

Egg roll deliciousness

Im off work for the next two weeks and I have no organized plan on what to do with my days. For me this translates into a big list of things I'd like to do and really only accomplishing one or two of them. Kind of frustrating for my contorted type a personality. But I bear with myself. After getting a handle on my inboxes, I decided my first order of business would be to make sure nic and I have food for the week. Sounded like a good stay at home wife kind of thing to do. So I shopped, chopped, boiled, mixed, baked, and scrubbed. Made and prepped dinners for the week, which is no small task. One thing I made that I've always wanted to try is egg rolls. Random, I know. But I gave it a try. 

I searched pinterest and found the worlds best egg roll recipe and did some tweaking so I wouldn't be cutting carrots all day long:

Ingedients:

1 chicken breast cooked and sheredded - I boiled my frozen chicken for about 20 min, and then put the hot, cooked chicken in the kitchen aid with the flat mixer attachment. It was shredded shredded perfectly!

1 package cabbage with carrots (you know the coleslaw ready kind)

1 small napa cabbage chopped

1 package julinned carrots (since the cabbage package didn't have enough)

1 onion sliced

1/2 package or approx 4.4 oz of the smallest rice noodles I can find, cooked

2 eggs beaten

3/4 cup of bread crumbs

45-60 Packaged spring roll wrappers, the recipe called for lumpia wrappers, but I couldn't find them

1 tablespoon pepper

Approx. 4-5 oz of oyster sauce

Step 1: Combine all of the above and stir

Step 2: Fill the spring roll wrappers with a little less than 2 tablespoons of your veggie filling, you don't need much. The smaller and more compact the easier they are to cook. And then let the rolling begin, think chipotle burrito.

Step 3: Fill up a frying pan with 1/2 in of vegetable oil, heat, and fry both sides. I had some trouble with my oil heat. Either it was too hot and they were burning or I couldnt get them cooked enough. But that's just me and my lack of pan frying skills. I think I learned the more oil the better, it was best when the roll was half submerged in the oil.

Step 4: Let cool on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Step 5: Enjoy while hot or wrap in wax paper and refridgerate or freeze. We plan to reheat in the toaster oven.

Oh and an excellent sauce recipe is from my great uncle Gary. Simply combine equal portions of mustard and grape jelly in a bowl and heat in the microwave. It is a delicious sweet and sour sauce! Great for egg rolls or meatballs!

Despite being soggy or burnt, they were DELICIOUS. I ate four of them right away. Word to the wise while they were good, I'd recommend pacing yourself on consumption. 

Some other things on the list to do this week include:

1. Rid my ceilings of popcorn texture

2. Decide on a paint color for the living room and bedroom, and paint them.

3. Choreography recital dances at the studio

4. Spend time with people

5. Read, read, read. I want to take a day to simply read. Be content in silence. Rest under His wings. Prepare my heart for the news that on Sunday we will celebrate that the God of the universe broke into our world in order for us to one day meet His Father. 

back home

after spending a week in moberly, mo for work i made home. 

Christmas Decorating

Brought to you by Nic:

I just wanted to share a few of the best parts of Christmas-decorating with you all.

I got to put my safari Rack back on my 4Runner to get the Christmas tree. Perhaps I should end this post here, cause that was pretty much the best part.

Julie cooked and basically made TWO dinners while I set up the Christmas tree. Dinner #1 was delicious.

Neosho was a BIG help setting up the tree skirt.

The tree skirt looks like Captain America's shield.

Neosho was also a huge help opening the ornament containers. For the record, we couldn't get them open, and he successfully helped us with nine of them, without issue. And then when I took a video on the last one, he completely crushed the ornament inside.

Julie's ornament lanters are fun. But watching her find the perfect position for them for half an hour, EVEN MORE FUN.

It's going to take a while to finish, but at least we finally got started.

Merry Christmas!

Family photos

Oh what fun we have at the holidays.

mom and her sisters

cousin's kids got a hold of the ipad. :)

silly video watching.

Thanksgiving Photo

At the Fansher farm in Garden City, KS

Posted via DraftCraft app

iPad blogging, test, test, 1, 2, 3

In a moment of weakness, we purchased an iPad for me. Today, Nic showed me an app called, Draftcraft, which allows you to easily post blogs via an iPad. Sweetness. Hope it works!

Posted via DraftCraft app

advent season

questions in my mind lately. am i just going through the motions? memorizing my way through life? do i know Him? do i understand Him? do i know what He loves? do i know what He hates? can i let go of control? approval? 

i've heard a couple of christmas songs lately and the lyrics have reminded me what the christmas season is all about. on my drive home today it was the last verse of silent night.

silent night, holy night

son of God, loves pure light

radiant beams from Thy holy face

with the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

i often think about what life was like back then, when Jesus was born. God's people were expecting a king by the world's definition, one to rescue them and make all their problems go away. but God sent a baby, his Son. you see, the world is broken, humanity is broken, things aren't as they should be, we still have plenty of problems, we are sinful, and because of it, we can't stand in the presence of a holy God. but on that holy night, God sent his Son to redeem humanity to Himself. the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus was born, He lived the perfect life we should've live, and died on the cross taking all God's wrath to pay for our sin, all of it, none of His wrath is left for us, and calls us to believe, to trust Him. have faith my child, you've been redeemed, reconciled to your Father.

advent. the four sundays leading up to christmas. it's a season to prepare our hearts to celebrate the coming of our savior at christmas and his promise to come again to bring it to completion.

'tis the season.

New York City 2011

i love traveling, and even though i'm partial to the mountains, spending some time in new york city last week with friends and family turned into an incredible and memorable vacation. of course, not a vacation that proved to be relaxing by any stretch of the imagination. it started off with a work conference followed by jam packed days of sight-seeing, walking countless miles through crowds of people, navigating through unknown territories (thank you google maps for all your assistances), getting as little sleep as possible, and bickering as all healthy married couples do, starting to sound like a great time, huh? well, it was. without further ado, here's our trip in a nut-shell of a blog post.

i flew in wednesday night and spent the next two days learning some valuable information about SEC filing requirements. the first night we ate at dos cominos, yes, mexican in the city, so delicious. great guac. the second night we ventured to a cute little italian restaurant in union square, i tre merli, also delicious.

at i tre merli

at mcsorley's old ale house est. 1854. two types of beer are sold, dark and light.

nic flew in friday night and saturday, november 12th, we began the sight-seeing, after a cup of coffee of course.



at the roasting plant in the green village. we then walked through the union square green market.

strolled through central park.

found apple store #1. yipee!!

met up with nic's sister for lunch at le pain (awesome food) near columbus circle, followed by walking/shopping/browsing. loved the shopping south of washington square park.

had to charge our phones from all the usage we put them through, so we found apple store #2. :)

after all the walking, the three of us decided to sit and eat dessert before dinner, best. choice. ever.

we then met back up with friends where we enjoyed dinner and wine in little italy. hm, can't remember the name of this restaurant. ;)

sunday we toured what we could see of the 9/11 memorial, took a subway to brooklyn, ate grimaldi's pizza, and then walked back to manhattan across the brooklyn bridge. we stopped for an afternoon coffee at 71 irving and people watched in washington square park. oh and had an amazing peanut butter sandwich at peanut butter and co. the evening line up was the Rockettes show at radio city music hall and dinner at rosa mexicana near lincoln center.

construction on the new building at the world trade center site.

grimaldi's pizza and a $2 can of coke.

the view from brooklyn bridge, a lot has happened in 10 years.

afternoon coffee at 71 irving place coffee and tea bar

heading to the show

setting up the tree at Rockefeller Center, which seemed to deserve a photo at the time.

at the Rockettes!

while not a clear shot, evidence of us at lincoln center.

monday we spent the morning with nic's sister, saw grand central station, ate at patsy's pizza, visited an AMAZING furniture store (abc carpet & home, incredible), ate thai food at republic (so satisfying), saw phantom of the opera (bonechilling), and capped the night with juniors cheesecake. my feet were officially swollen by end of day monday.

tuesday was our final day in the city and we packed it full.

morning coffee at the starbucks near our 34th and 9th st. apartment

toured the top of the empire state building

said good-bye to nic's sister

shopped the christmas section at macy's, did you spot santa?!?!

we grabbed a quick burger at shake shack in madison square park, and made a last minute decision to go to the patigonia store.

we bought matching jackets. :)

all in all a wonderful trip. happy thanksgiving!!