Merry Christmas!

     Merry Christmas everyone! Scott and I have enjoyed the season so much this far! We are leaving the day after tomorrow to go to Utah and be with the Peacocks!  I can't wait to see beautiful baby Mona and the rest of my family, I miss them so much around the holidays.

     Scott and I have had such a great time getting ready for Christmas! We bought a 4 ft, pre-lit, fake "Indiana Spruce" at the Walmart, and hung candy canes on it. We built graham cracker gingerbread houses with his cousin's family in Shelley.  We've had lots of friends come over and bring us treats, and have made lots of treats for friends!  We put up Christmas lights in the window and have the radio station preset to Christmas music 24/7 now. We have had so much fun this season and have started some new traditions for our little family. We have decided that one of our traditions will be serving others.

    Even though this is the "hap, hap, happiest season of all", there are a surprising number of people who are lonely, overworked, stressed out, and depressed.  We want Christmas to be about lightening the load of another as Christ would have done, and loving those who especially need a little extra kindness in their lives. I can't say enough how much happier I have felt since we have started looking for ways to serve others. I have to say one of my favorite service projects was cutting down a tree and leaving it on our neighbors' doorstep because they weren't going to get a tree this year.  Another fun one, was letting my friend who has three kids go out with her husband to go Christmas shopping all day long while I babysit (they were so cute).

Scott and I have been blessed with such great friends that take such good care of us all the time- it was so nice to be able to give back.  I know that serving others is something we really want to teach our kids, and show how much joy it can bring to both you and the people you serve.  And you don't have to spend any money to do it either! Sharing your talents, time, or even just a smile or kind word is enough to truly make another happy.

   A movie recommendation for Christmas time:

My mom and dad mailed us a great surprise for Christmas this year: The Nativity Story! It is one of my favorite Christmas movies- a newer one that came out in 2009.  It really brings out the reality of Christ's birth, and reminds me what a blessed miracle He is for all mankind.   Christmas should remind us all of this beautiful story of Christ's birth, and of Heavenly Father's love for us.  Scott and I are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives and I bear my testimony that Christ lives and loves us and that we can take part in the atonement and one day become like Him through His mercy and grace. Merry Christmas, and as President Monson always quotes after his Christmas Message: "God bless everyone!"

"A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." -Carl Sandburg

   Jack Frost came for a visit to little Rexburg around the third week of November -and he is here to stay! We have had temperatures down to 4 degrees so far, and winter storm warnings just about every week!  We broke down after about the first week of snow and turned on the heaters- I can't imagine living without them!  The weather brings us a lot more quiet time inside now though- we just love snuggling up on the couch in our warm apartment, watching a movie while the snow is falling! 

  Well, BIG news this month:  My beautiful twin sister's baby was born October 29, 2010!  My first neice on my own side of our family, and wow was the Peacock family excited! I saw Mona Lynn Cope (yes her middle name is after muah!) for the first time during Thanksgiving break, and I don't think I've ever seen a more loved baby! At one point, there were four people kissing her at the same time! Above is a picture of the little bugger:  I love her so much, and I am so excited to see her grow!

  

  Luckily being married to Scott has already made me an auntie! I have three absolutely beautiful nephews and neices on his side of the family already and they are the coolest kids you will ever meet!

This little guy on the slide is Braden. He is quite possibly the most hilarious person I've ever met in my life, and he's only four. He says all his words with a "T" in front of it. I think my favorite is "Uncle Totty", instead of "Uncle Scotty"  :)

This little precious baby I haven't even met yet! His name is Mason and he was born a couple weeks before Mona, all I know about him is he looks a LOT like Braden and I pretty much want to give him lots of hugs and kisses...

This is Ava, and she is the cutest!!! She loves pigs, loves to eat, and loves everything girly.  Her parents are really going to have to watch out for her, she is absolutely gorgeous and her smile will break every little boy's heart!    One time she climbed up on my lap and told me I could share her princess pony with her with the sweetest little voice I've ever heard in my life- I am now permanently wrapped around her little finger!                                                                                                                                                                

I'm thankful for all of my nephews and neices, and our family and friends, and especially for the small acts of kindness they do that truly touch our lives.                              

Pancakes for Dinner and Other Nutritional Matters...

      It's been quite a while since my last posting, September flew by!  Scott got a job at a local dealership in town called "Madison Motor City" and has been working hard there detailing cars full-time this semester.  I am back at school and am trying to figure out the curriculum my professors are throwing at me.   We are happier and more in love than ever though- and much more sleepless since we broke down and upgraded to a king size bed recently:) We seem to have more fun together as time goes on in our marriage, and found some new hobbies to do around Rexburg like: hike "R" mountain, go for walks around the temple, play card games on our living room floor, and playing softball for our intramural team at BYUI. 


         But the best part about life right now, has to be that it is FALL!!!  I went for a run today and it is official. The leaves have changed. There are pumpkins in the store windows. And the "back-to-school savings" are all over the department stores.   If we were at my mom's house we would be guaranteed to smell the cinnamon she's set to simmer on the stove, and if we were at Scott's mom's house right now- she would just be starting to light the wood stove again.  This has to be my favorite time of year! And so as I was thinking all of these wonderful, seasonal sentiments as I ran around good old Rexburg, I wondered what would be a theme for Fall in our household.
 
       I love tradition and want to incorporate it in our family, so my mind has been reeling on this idea since my last 1/2 mile towards home.  I thought it over, and one of the most beloved fruits (literally) of fall has to be the apples! This time of the year they are the tastiest, not too mention the cheapest kind of produce around!  They are gorgeous in any color and apparently a good source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. So, my goal to keep this season's delectable harvest a part of our home will be to make something with apples once a week- for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and even just snacks!

           Starting off tonight, I've gathered up a recipe for "German Apple Pancakes"  for dinner!  Scott's never had German pancakes before so I thought it would be a good night to convince him with this ingenious idea I had!  I found the recipe off my favorite website: www.allrecipes.com, and decided to serve it with maple sausages and asian pears.  The verdict- the entire 9X13 was empty.  The apples were soft and coated in cinnamon, and totally complimented the light and fluffy "pancake" it covered.  The pan licked clean, I took that as a job well done!  Can't wait to see what we come up with next...

Corn-Fed.

Scott and I were able to go to Indiana this last week of July, and part of August.  We were able to spend a lot of time with both of our families.  They are our best friends and we had the time of our lives out there with them- just fishing, swimming, bbq-ing, and a lot of front porch sitting.  There was no homework, no office, just time to think and time to love.

Everything in Indiana is so different from what I grew up around.  It's amazing how we can all be from the same country, and yet you almost feel like you're a foreigner when you go from one side of the states to the other...

And these "HOOSIERS"... well, they're quite a unique breed.  For instance my hubby is 6' 4", and one big corn-fed white boy, and let me tell you- so is every other man in Indiana.  I went to pick Adrienne up from high school one time when I lived out there, and these boys looked like they could eat me- and the car I was in.  Out there, they eat mashed potatoes and noodles mixed together, fried green tomatoes, and weird desserts that sound more like brands of ammunition: "buck eyes" or "gooey hell".   They say "warsh" and "garsh" instead of "wash" and "gosh", and call vacuums "sweepers".  They use phrases like: "a stone-throw away" to describe distances.  And every night if you live in town, you are lulled to sleep by the sound of diesel-powered trucks constantly passing your corner.  My more rebellious friends from my inner-city high school smoked pot and painted abstract drawings on sides of buildings for fun.  In Indiana, they smash mailboxes or hijack four-wheelers for fun.   And I have been educated on so many things I never knew existed: "International Harvesters", "the FFA", "4-H", etc.

Despite all those foreign concepts, and sometimes humorous tendencies, The Indiana Hoosiers are also some of the most friendliest people I've ever met.  You could get your car stuck in a ditch, and not even a minute later, a stranger would be helping you pull it out (which is what happened to me).  Neighbors often share vegetables from their garden with you, and I've never had so many friendly waves and smiles when I drive.  Your local Walmart is also the town's designated social gathering spot, which makes visiting and socializing with people significantly more efficient.  And the general attitudes of people around there are completely genuine,humble, and laid back.

I love my Hoosier man, and I admit... I love Indiana:)    

Summer Explorers!

          Scott and I have had one heck of a summer so far. Oreo gave birth to one tomato, and now has 7 more coming.  I got a full-time job at a property management company and now have to pretend to know what I'm doing.  And Scott's been fixing cars like crazy and doing wheelies in the golf cart he drives for work (BYU-I mail services).  We've been able to squeeze a ton of fun into our packed days still.
    We love driving up to Idaho Falls and hanging out with the Harris family- Berret and Tanya are so much fun and Hallie just stole the key to our hearts!  We got to go with them on a Sunday drive around Yellowstone National Park a couple of weeks ago,     and I have to say the most entertaining part of the trip was all the jokes in the car.
     The next weekend we went with a bunch of Scott's old roommates up to the ice caves- I got around a lot easier on the slippery, small tunnels than Scott did- but Scott was more graceful than he's ever been:)
      And this last weekend was a real blast. We went back to Yellowstone with half the Peacock family! Becky, Landon, Joey, and Adge were all there with us. It was so great to see my siblings have so much fun with my husband. He fits right into our family!!   Scott almost got charged by a buffalo, I forgot my pillow and ended up sharing a sleeping bag with Scott- worst idea EVER, and Becky balanced her preggo self over a creek on a log with Lando.
            Needless to say, we plan on recuperating this weekend and spending the whole weekend by ourselves around Rexburg. But we love the warm weather and being able to spend so many great times with our friends and family!
      

Brothers.

When Mother's Day rolled around my little brother asked the question: "Why isn't there a Brother's Day?!" I thought that was pretty funny and gave me some inspiration to spend a little extra time today acknowledging the brothers in my life.

Well my little brother Joey is graduating from high school soon and starting school at BYU! I'm so excited he will be closer to me and Scott, and have been thinking about him a lot- wishing I could come to Portland to hear his speech at graduation, see him get his eagle, be ordained an elder, etc... But I'm glad we can be close anyways even if we are far away from each other.

Lando was a nice edition to our family when he somehow managed to catch my awesome twin sister, and it's been so much fun to finally have a big brother!

I thought about what makes my brothers so... UNIQUE. And thought pictures and even a video might do more justice than any words could. So to Joey and Lando- I love you guys!

Lando and Jack from Erica Winkler on Vimeo.

Friday Night= Date Night!

Okay, so when we went over our finances the first time Scott had this GENIUS idea of only going out to eat when we had enough money in change:)  So we saved our change all of April, and for this Friday night date night we decided to splurge with what we had saved up! We started out flipping through the coupon book for Papa Murphy's and found a large pepperoni for 5 bucks, and then we decided to grab some vanilla icecream and candy bars to make shakes with.

 We had some extra luck during our adventure out that night. First: We got to Papa Murphy's and they had a family size pepperoni that they made extra and gave us that instead of a large! Second: When we were in line buying Scott's Reeses at Walmart, the cashier told us we looked like a very nice, cute couple.
  
Needless to say, it turned out to be one heck of a great night (and all for the low low price of 9.00)!  We flirted across the table over our food, and spent the night watching "Zombieland" (Scott loves it).

 I love spending time with my best friend. He makes me laugh, he teaches me new things all the time, and he tries so hard to understand me.  I think it's important to learn how to have fun wherever you are, and enjoy the little things... especially on friday nights.

                                                                                                    TGIF!

E is even more than anyone you could adore!!!

  Well it's about time I introduce a new member of the family... This is "Oreo", he's a tomato plant. We bought him at the Rexburg Farmer's Market!  We love him very much and hope he loves us back by giving us delicious tomatoes to eat soon!!! I just bought his new home for him today- a 15" pot and some miracle-gro soil! 

   Along with Oreo's new home, is our newly furnished and finished apartment! (thanks to the awesome family I babysit for who gave us the couches!)    We love filling our new home with loud laughter, kicking our shoes off, and being ourselves with each other.  What a refreshing part of life- to be able to stay somewhere where you are safe, secure, and most importantly loved! Whatever adventures come our way, I will always remember what a blessing it is to make a place we can call home. We both feel very fortunate to have all we do, and thank all our family and friends who have helped us make it what it is. I've posted some pictures to share below (just click on the url and it will bring you to a slideshow). Enjoy!

http://www.go2album.com/album/e/w/i/n/k/ewinkler/4be9b859165/new_home%21.swf?fs_path=http://www.go2album.com/album/e/w/i/n/k/ewinkler/4be9b859165

Home SWEET Home!

Our first time in our new apartment---

V- is very very... extraordinary!

Happy Cinco De Mayo my friends! Before I go off to bed, I wanted to post our celebrations for the night- pretty simple. We layed on the floor during one of Scott's frequent homework breaks and ate chips and dip we got on sale at Walmart:)  It's kind of ridiculous, but this past-time strangely means a lot to the both of us (yes I'm talking sentimentally about chips n dip)...

When we were engaged, we set out on a Friday night for a date.  Well we ended up in the Walmart buying ruffles and french onion dip because we were starving and hadn't eaten dinner yet.  So, we took them out to the truck, and instead of resuming our plans and going bowling, we spent the night in a parking lot staring off into an ugly scenery of dry grass, semi-trucks and the neon glow of fast-food joints. We just sat and talked, listened to the radio, and I confess- put away the entire carton of dip and the bag of chips... But it just goes to show we can have fun  absolutely anywhere- doing absolutely anything!!!

I love my husband and I love Lays for bringing us closer together. Happy 5th everyone.

O- is for the only one I see!

"Our greatest strength as a human is our ability to acknowledge our differences, our greatest weakness is our failure to embrace them." 

    When Scott drove out to Idaho for school he picked these magnets out at a gas station along the way.  He saved them for our first refrigerator and now here they are!  I LOVE them.  They say so much about our relationship. 

    One of the biggest life lessons I've learned is from my husband, (as I'm sure many of them will be):  People always say look past your differences, when in reality you need to understand each other's differences and embrace them!  Scott makes up where I lack and visa versa. 

    For example, Scott is SO OBSERVANT. I, on the other hand am horrible at noticing details.  Scott helps me realize when I need to watch for more details- like when he woke up one morning and found my key had been left in the front door all night.  

     Or take our eating habits even: I take forever eating- I love to savor each bite.  Scott is more of the mindset: "go big or go home"... I think this picture speaks for itself:) 

      Being able to see our differences for what they are is such a great skill we have learned to acquire.  It's workin great so far in the past... 3 weeks that we've been married! So I'm just acknowledging (and embracing) some of the differences we have, and invite any body reading this to do the same!

         

   

L- is for the way you look at me.

  Marriage is awesome. We love being able to live together, eat together, sleep together, but most of all have fun every day together!  Scott's back at school for the summer semester while I have it off, so we wake up at 6:30am and Scott showers and gets ready for school while I pack his lunch for the day.  We usually have time to sit over the breakfast table with our bowls of cereal and stare sleepily into each other's eyes with smiles that admit we'd rather be back on the honeymoon.  Then Scott's off to school by 7:20, which leaves me with plenty to do.. and not do.  I hang out with a little 3 year-old twice a week as a part-time job, and am currently looking for more work.  But life is good and we look forward to the adventures before us! I'll be posting about our lives, big and small changes and things that make us happy on here.  Right now though we're just spending our nights in homework, with water, snack, dinner breaks, and some times wrestling breaks. We love to play tennis together and really enjoy getting out in the sun when there is any.  I've been trying to experiment with some new recipes and love my new cookbooks,   And  ...Scott just got his suit back from the dry cleaners.