Merry Christmas!

In an attempt to spread holiday cheer, embrace technology, and get out of trekking through the snow and freezing temperatures to the post office, please accept this as our holiday greeting, sent right to your door. :)

Another wonderful year has gone by and we are still blessed with great family and friends, thanks for your love and friendship.

Wishing you the very best, Brian, Chelsea, and Ethan Cheney

Wicked Disappointed

As soon as I heard in August that the musical Wicked was going to Salt Lake in April, I called up my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law and started planning our first annual "Girls Weekend." The musical was of course, going to be the highlight of the weekend, since I'm the only one who has seen it and everyone else has been wanting to see it.
In anticipation, I counted down the days until the tickets would go on sale: December 12 (yesterday). We picked our top day to see it, had a few others in mind just in case, sent my brother-in-law to the SLC theater to try to get tickets.
After being 3 blocks back in line at 7 am, he was told that from a certain point ahead of him and back, would not get tickets before 10, when online ticket sales started.
So, I started trying to get on the website almost an hour early. Unfortunately for almost 2 hours of constantly pushing the "try again" button on the website page because the website was clogged with high demand, I never even got through the second page to get tickets. Plus, calling the theater over 100 times, only to get a busy signal, AND having my mom and sisters calling or working on getting through the website STILL did not work. Within 2 1/2 hours, a message popped up saying it was SOLD OUT!!
So sad. We all had our hopes up, and planned it months ago, and still had no chance of getting tickets. I am blaming it on the scalpers that got early tickets through a season ticket holder offer, and took most the tickets before anyone else had a chance. How in the world are you supposed to get tickets without having to buy from the scalping websites for triple the price if you never can get on to the official website?
Of course, having the cold flu at the same time (yes, I did have a flu shot a few months ago), made yesterday one of those bad days. With chills, sweats, body aches, skin sensitivity, a cough, fever, and stuffy nose, I couldn't even function enough to be able to take care of Ethan after a few hours. I called Brian up to come home from studying for his finals (he's almost panicked to be ready for his 3 next week), and to take care of Ethan.
On the good side, my husband is so sweet and loving, putting his family first to come take care of his bedridden wife and fussy child. What a sweetheart! He is so wonderful to me.
Also on the good side, I am feeling well enough today to manage to care for me and Ethan. Whoopie! I hope no one else gets that bug, it's nasty.

H.E.M. at Last

Ever since I started dating Brian 5 years ago, he has teased me about being a H.E.M. (his term of endearment to his Home Ec Major). At any mistake or hesitation to want to do something, he says, "Oh, come on, you're a H.E.M, of course you can do it", whether it be cooking a gourmet food, sewing a masterpiece something, being a perfect mom, or whatever else these "HEMs" are supposed to be experts at. Of course, this is all in good fun, since I often burn food, have to unpick half my sewing project, or just have no clue how to mother this cute little rascal. But I have to say, I have truly failed in one area: Baking the famed "Cheney Rolls."
Brian's mom is Amazing at cooking her rolls. I can hardly stop myself from eating a whole pan when she makes them. I have been convinced since we've been married that to truly be initiated in as a Cheney, I need to be able to make these Cheney Rolls.

Attempt #1: Failure. Two years ago I tried, and well, let's just say, we didn't end up eating them.

Attempt #2: Failure. Unfortunately, this was at last week's Thanksgiving meal (I know, my previous failure scared me away for 2 whole years from trying again). In a sincere effort to let Mom Cheney rest instead of making rolls, my SIL Lizz and I tried to make the rolls. Not a good idea. They came out of the oven 2 minutes before our Thanksgiving feast started, flat as a biscuit and with blackened bottoms.

In speaking with other Cheney family members about this, and hearing that every other person who has tried to recreate these masterpieces, has utterly failed too, we decided that these aren't actually Cheney Rolls, these are Eileen Rolls since no one else can achieve that greatness.

My sweet, loving, and oh-so-supportive husband, then sat me down and said, "Chelsea, I know you are a H.E.M, but you can't make these rolls. You have failed twice. You are not allowed to try again."
"Excuse me?!" I replied, "You can't demand that I never try again."
"Well, you've tried, and you can't do it. So don't even try ever again."
"Hmmph." I answered, with a "yeah, we'll see about that" in my head.

Yesterday, in direct defiance of my hubby, I tried again. And....
It worked! My rolls turned out almost perfect, only stunted in their baking by me having to take them out before they were golden brown, because Brian called and needed a ride home.

So, I guess that means they weren't as perfect as Eileen rolls, but I can say I know how to make Cheney Rolls!
And by the way, Brian really isn't a bully or demanding, but I did fall for his reverse psychology. Darn it, I always fall for that. :) Brian's excited I can make them now.

In case you would like to be a Cheney too, here's the recipe. I think we can honorary adopt anyone in who also can make the rolls.

Cheney Rolls

1 c. milk
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. margarine
1/4 c. water
3 1/2 c. flour
1 egg
1 Tbsp. quick rising yeast
Heat milk, sugar, salt, margarine, and water in saucepan until butter melts. Pour into large mixing bowl and add 1 1/2 c. flour, egg, and yeast. Mix for 3 minutes with a hand mixer. Gradually add about 2 more cups of flour with a spoon until dough is very thick and not too sticky. Knead just a few times and place into a greased bowl and let rise until doubled. Punch down dough and shape into rolls. Dip into melted butter and place in greased baking pan. Let rise again until doubled in size. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Brush again with melted butter.

A Big Baby or a Little Boy?

Because of writers block/laziness/busy-ness, I have not blogged in almost a month, making those of you who check it, see dumb pictures of Sarah Palin and the Faux Palin. My apologies. So...
Update on Ethan:

• We have a walker!!! He's been working on it for the past month, but last week decided to tip the scale and walk more than he crawls. He's so hilarious, but he's so proud of himself too. Here's a video of his first attempts at walking a few weeks ago. He learned quick, but just wasn't willing to give up the crawling for a while...

• Ethan loves to read (i.e. have his parents read) books over and over and over, although somehow he still has a hard time listening all the way through a book before he's handing over another to be read.

• Baby Einstein is his (and my) new best friend. He feels the need to touch the screen as he watches (a sad attempt to move him back explains the piano bench in front). But I can actually get a bathroom cleaned without his help if that video is on. Whoopee!

• He's a momma's boy to the extreme. Anyone who gets within 2 feet of him or me during one of his "moods" is shoved and screamed away. I should feel flattered, but usually don't.

• 
• In addition to hiding his toys and making me retrieve them, Ethan also likes to hide himself in a cupboard, I think he enjoys it as his own little "fort".

• Ethan learns new words almost daily and loves to try to mimic what we say--it is SOO cute! Words include: Brush teeth, Jesus, milk, yes, mama, dada, cracker, ball, and the FAVORITE is "NOO". Anytime we ask a question, we get a reply of "No". You'd think that's all I say to him all day. We're trying to replace it with "Yes", but apparently it's not quite as fun to say. Here comes the rebellion at age one.

• Having friends come over makes his day. He loves to hug and kiss other kids (as long as he's bigger than them and they don't try to grab him back). He can't understand why other babies don't want to catch the balls he throws in their face (luckily, his mother has usually caught them first to avoid any injuries).

• Our once voracious eater has now turned into a herbavore (minus the veggies)--he wants to live off of fruits and crackers (with the exception of one type of baby food). And yet, he still manages to make a mess.

• He is SOOO much fun and has quite the personality. Brian and I can't wait to see what he learns next!
  

Get Ready, Get Set, VOTE!

A word from Sarah Palin and me "Oh, ya know, be patriotic and get your little hinny over to the voting booth."
And, since the election is nearing an end, like every good patriotic shopper, we are donating our clothing to charity. It makes spending all that money on clothing and make-up worth it. Yes, I realize my Saks on Fifth Avenue was really Salvation Army on 2nd Avenue, but hey, I live in Iowa, give me a break.

It's true, any and all of these accessories will be auctioned off to my own charity (really, my own pocket). Goes to the highest, lowest, or any bidder.

Happy Halloween!

Friday night we went to a fun Halloween party with friends, where Ethan dressed up as a horse to go along with some other kids in a medieval theme. We had a king, knight, dragon, and princess in addition to the other cute costumes of lobster, ladybug, and Elmo. Unfortunately, we never got pictures of all the kids together.
Saturday was the church Trunk-or-Treating party where Ethan managed to dress up as a monkey for the first half hour after which he was exhausted and grumpy, hence put down for a nap in an empty room while we finished the party.
I had a great time dressing up as Sarah Palin. I'm no Tina Fey but it was still fun putting together the costume and attempting the accent of "Oh, you bechya (wink, wink)"
Sadly, Brian wasn't my John McCain, but we should have got him into a Todd Palin outfit. Too bad.

House of Insanity

For the past few weeks, Ethan has fallen in love with balls. His favorite thing to do with them is to roll them under the couch, then whine and complain for me to get it out. The moment it comes tumbling out from under the couch, he pushes it back under, gets on his stomach and tries to get it out, and failing, cries "uh, uh, uhhhh, groan, moan, uh" for me to get it back again.
The thought going through my head was this Albert Einstein quote:
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Yes, this little stunt Ethan does makes me think he's insane. It almost seems like he really doesn't understand how the ball got back under the coach after he shoves it under there.
Then again today, he kept taking a water bottle and pushing it onto the kitchen table, where it would roll across the table and get stuck against the wall where he couldn't reach it. After a "ohhh, scream, waaa, mama, uh uh, grunt" ("mama, help, I don't know how that just happened, but I need my water bottle back.") I would then give it back to him, and within 3 seconds, he would push it back on the table and back to the wall it would roll. This was repeated at least 5 times, and I would tell him to just not put it on the table the next time. Yes, my child repeatedly does the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Yes, my child is insane. And with that came the sad realization:

Ethan wasn't the only one doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

I guess he's not the only one insane in this house.