Merry Christmas!!!

We are so exited for this christmas!  I decided that Eric and Elizabeth and I need to get more in the christmas giving spirit.  So today and tomorrow I will be baking up some goodies for us to take to friends and family.  It might be a little too slippery to doorbell ditch... but we will see.  I love doing doorbell ditching so hopefully its not too icy out.  We went to our ward christmas party on Saturday and Elizabeth met Santa for the first time...

Clearly she wasnt too thrilled about it.  But it was cute!  I took that picture as fast as I could.

We got our family pictures taken recently, however I didnt have time to make christmas cards.  I believe I will be sending it out in an email though, so post your email so I can send you one if you would like one!

Today we went to the White House grill for lunch... AMAZING, like always.  Here is a pic of when we went for my birthday!

I love how Elizabeth has her eyes closed, lol!  We had so much fun!  However, $25 for lunch is a little pricy... So, while we were there today I looked and payed special attention to what was in my favorite dish so that I can replicate at home.  I want to start doing some themed dinners as a tradition in our family.  I think it would be awesome to incorporate traditions of other cultures in our dinners... Like, dancing!  I am going to look for a vegan whole wheat pita recipe so I can replicate the vegetarian gyro from White House.  Their green beans are to die for, and looking at it closely I realized that it was simply sauteed garlic steamed green beans, EVOO, and basalmic vinegar... Easy enough!  Eric got a nice Factory farmed Turkey from costco for christmas so we will be having our my family over for dinner Christmas eve, as well as play games.  We are so excited!  To all of our friends and family we don't get to share Chistmas with this year, we love and miss you all dearly and are excited to see you soon!  We think of you all the time! We send our wishes of a beautiful Christmas season full of happiness and joy in the knowlege of our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ who came to earth and showed us the way back to our Father in Heaven.

Love the Foutz family!

Well... we all have our days...

   Thought I would share this slightly funny, slightly embarrassing, family story of the day.  Yesterday while playing basketball with the missionary's Eric got kneed right in his thigh muscle.  At first he was groaning about how much it hurt and I thought he would get over it soon enough.  Well, not so.  My poor guys muscle tightened up so much that he cant even really bend his leg.  It hurts him to do just about anything right now (I'm sure it will get better soon though.)  Well, me trying to lift his spirits a little today before he went to work decided I would whip him up some blendtec ice cream for him to take with him and enjoy while on his way.  Well, I'm still new at the whole liquid/ice ratio etc... was running the blendtec and needed to stir it down towards the blade a little more.  I removed the lid and stuck my fork down into it scraping the ice from the sides down to the center.  Well... the blade had not stopped spinning.  I accumulated a stupidity injury on my hand from when the end of the fork jammed into my hand (Its not bad, hurt my hand a little, hurt my pride a little more.)  Besides that it also caused a bunch of the stuff to fly out of the blender, on our cupboards, counter etc.  Eric was standing right there when it happened too, so, more embarrassing.  But anyway, I sucked it up, fixed the ice cream and put some in a cup for Eric.  I felt good about it and it tasted great and I was sure Eric was going to like it.  While in the hustle of trying to get all his things (phone, wallet, keys) he stuck the ice cream on the top of his car.   We said our goodbyes and I love yous for the day, and he was on his way.  Proceed to 3 minutes later.  I get a phone call from Eric.  I thought he was going to tell me how wonderful I was at making blendtec ice cream and how amazing I was and how glad he was to have me for his wife.  Although I'm sure he would agree with those things, the phone call went a little differently.   He said "Renee, I'm really sorry (in my mind "oh no, what else could have happened?") I had put my ice cream on the top of my car, and well, I forgot to get it off and I drove with it on the top of my car.  I now have ice cream down the back of my rear windshield and the cup fell off and shattered on the road a few blocks away from our house."  I started laughing because I thought of all that effort for the stupid ice cream that 1. hurt my hand, 2. made a huge mess, 3. hurt my pride, 4. broke one of our nice glasses, 5. went to waste down the back of a windshield.
   You know, I guess the memory of that will always be something we laugh about.  And hopefully, maybe Eric's leg will feel better after having a good laugh. 

I got a new calling!

I have a new calling in church now!  I am the new Primary Secretary!  I know that this is one of those callings where its intended that I grow... as I'm not the most organized person.  I'm excited though!
Eric has been serving as the Sunday school teacher for the 12-14 year olds and loves it. 
We just got a blendtec last week and we love it.  We are making all kinds of green smoothies, soups, desserts, etc with the thing!  Its awesome!  It seems that Elizabeth will eat anything that has been made in the Blendtec too, which is awesome.  Speaking of which, she just woke up from her nap.  She is sooooo cute when she wakes up.  She does this little yell/cry thing knowing that I'll come in quickly and then she just likes to crawl around on the bed for a while smiling and giving me kisses!  Its great!  She is currently watching sesamestreet.org while I finish writing this.  Besides the blendtec we have been doing really well.   Eric, Elizabeth and I went to the White House for my birthday dinner (obviously not the DC version :) it was amazing!!!  I got the Vegetarian Gurro, lots of Hummus, garlic, veggies, YUM!  Elizabeth got her very first childrens menu item, spagetti with garlic bread (special occasion)  We had a wonderful time, although we were dissapointed we missed the belly dancer that comes every thursday night at 7.  We got there at 5:30 and staying until after 7 would have just been too much for E.   On my birthday I got to watch letters to Juliet which was an amazing chick flick that I loved and would like to someday own :)  Elizabeth is now saying "hi" to everyone that she sees.  Infact, at White House Grill she took a liking to the people sitting next to us and kept looking at them and waving and saying "hi" to them.  It was so cute.  Anyway, thats whats new with us! Till next time!
Love,
the Foutz Family!