2010 is almost over!!

Where has this year gone? It certainly has been a whirlwind of a year! Victoria and I have said good bye to John as he walked towards the gate to head to Afghanistan. We've added a new addition to the family, Anneliese Mae. Welcomed John home, and watched his eyes light up when he saw Annie for the first time, and Tori after months of being without her. I've lost friends, and made new ones. Started a new volunteer position to help keep my "non-mom" brain working, and have furthered my skills in the kitchen. Victoria has gone from barely talking, to being able to carry on full conversations about what she did that day and what she would like to do tomorrow. She has developed a wonderful sense of humor and likes to joke around with us. Anneliese has come a long way as well, she's come from the newborn, lump on a log, baby stage to the curious 8 month old she is today. She can now feed herself cherrios and pieces of banana, giggle, understand her name, and she is starting to try to figure out how to crawl, although I still think she is another month or two away from that.
John has passed his Staff Sergeant test and will be putting on his new rank in March, and in September, we will be packing away all our things we didn't sell (if you're interested in anything from our house, let me know, 80% of our things will be sold or given away) and moving half way across the globe to a little town called Misawa in Japan.
Needless to say, I would count this year as a wonderful and successful year. I cannot wait to see what the new year of 2011 brings the Cates family!
Happy New Year to all my friends and family out there in blog-land! Thank you so much for being such a wonderful support system throughout the year and keeping my blog alive.

1 week until Christmas!!

AHH!!! I am so not ready for Christmas to be here! I still have a few things I need to grab for the girls and 1 more thing I need to grab for John. Unfortunately, both of those ventures will have to be alone, and, well, it's not exactly easy to do things alone these days. I have very few people I can trust with my children, and those few people aren't always available! I would love to just have the money to put the kids in a day care a couple times a week to not only give them the social skills they need and desire, but to get them exposed to all the nasty bugs that come with school.

I hope you all are enjoying the winter season this year (in our case it's non-existant so far) and staying warm and dry!
Love you all!

Award Winner!!

Last night was John's squadron's holiday party. We had such a blast!

There was a dessert contest, so OF COURSE, I entered. I am usually a little baking challenged, especially since we aren't at sea level. But, hey, pie's are altitude safe! So, I asked John, "What sort of pie should I make? One of my usual's?" He came right back with a cranberry-apple pie. Umm... YUM! I knew there was a reason I married him! Anyway, I searched allrecipes.com for a few recipes, and decided to combine a few I had found to make the best pie ever. It was super easy, although the crust I made gave me a bit of hassle. I apparently didn't add enough water, so I had to keep going back and adding more. Unfortuantely, I have NO pictures, I was stressed out over getting ready and having 2 screaming/misbehaving children to even care about pictures. It wasn't until I got home from the holiday party that I said "OMG! I didn't even take a picture of my pie!!!" Guess I'll just have to make another one of these days... bummer. ;)
Anyway, as usual, I've typed out the recipe and saved it to my file, and thought some of you may want to make your own award winning pie!! I won a giant gift basket filled with pampered chef things! And if you make it, feel free to take all the credit! I won't know! ;)

Here it is!

Cranberry-Apple Pie

(AWARD WINNING!)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cranberries
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 5 apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 4 9 inch pie crusts - unbaked

• extra pie crust - cut into leaves
• few extra cranberries, for decorating, if desired
• corn syrup or honey
• sugar for dusting
• 1 egg white

•  
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a large saucepan, mix together white sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and salt. Stir in cranberries and maple syrup. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly. When mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir apples into simmering mixture, and continue to cook for 5 minutes, or until apples are tender. Remove from heat, and stir in walnuts. Pour apple mixture into pie shell; set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, 3/4 cup flour, brown sugar, and melted butter. Mix well, and sprinkle over apple filling.
5. Take second crust and make a lattice top. Any extra crust, roll out, and use cookie cutters to make holly leaves. Bake separately
6. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until topping is golden brown. Serve warm.
7. Glue the leaves on to pie with egg whites for last couple minutes. Also, roll few extra cranberries in honey or corn syrup, and roll in sugar to give crystalized look. Glue those in-between leaves to look like bunches.

I hope you are all enjoying your holidays this season! Thank you all for reading and supporting me!

XOXO

New orders!

So, yesterday we found out that we have received orders to Misawa Japan! I am so incredibly excited. And a little nervous to leave everything I have grown up with (AKA, anything and everything American) and venture to Japan. But, life is what you make it, and I know it is going to a wonderful adventure. As long as I have the love of my life and our 2 wonderful children with me, I don't think anything will be terrible (maybe just slightly intolerable? Ha). I have heard nothing but great things about Japan's culure and people, so, I'm glad I'm going to get to experience that for an extended period of time. I will get to see the Cherry Blossom's for a few years, venture off base and get REAL Japanese sushi (something I have missed immensely since leaving California), maybe learn a little Japanese, and explore the surrounding towns and cities! Another thing I'm excited about is being able to shop at the local markets. I heard that the produce on base isn't very good, but off base at the markets it is amazing. Plus, John is very excited about fishing.
We'll be in Northern Japan, so, it will get pretty cold, but, we will be by the beach, so, even if its' cold, I'll still have my Pacific Ocean to keep me company! Plus, it'll still snow!! I love the snow, and when I'm stressed out, shoveling the driveway and sidewalks really helps me clear my head and take some time off from whatever is driving me up the wall, usually my wonderful children.
For those of you who are a little sad about me moving to Japan (mom) I would like to point out that we hardly see each other as it is now, so, it's not going to be that much different! Plus, if you ever scrounge up the money to come see us ($1500 for a plane ticket!) you'll be able to see a new country and create new experiences! Also, the offer to come visit extends to anyone who wants to make the trip!! We love entertaining.