Christmas Newsletter

Dear Loved Ones,

2009 has been our most eventful year ever! Let's take a quick look at the past 12 months:

In December of last year, Jenny graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from BYU-Idaho.

In April, Travis finished his undergraduate work at BYU-I.

In May, we welcomed our sweet daughter, Grace Lorraine Holloway, into the world.

In July, we moved cross-country to Ohio and began renting our first house.

In August, Travis started his first semester at the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine.

In November, we had our first Thanksgiving away from home.

And in December, Grace met her great grand parents and Travis completed his first semester at OCPM as a straight-A student.

All of these changes, though big, have been such a blessing for us. Although we miss being close to family and familiarity in Idaho, we really enjoy living here in Cleveland, and feel blessed to still live close to some family (Travis' brother and sister-in-law) and to enjoy all of the new opportunities that are here on the East Coast. We like our new ward, and enjoy the friendship of the other students and their wives that are in it. Travis is currently serving as the Second Counselor in the Young Men's Presidency (over the Teachers) and I am the Compassionate Service Leader in the Relief Society, both of which keep us busy. Travis enjoys Podiatry school, and we're all so proud of how well he's doing. Jenny loves being a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, though it's harder than she expected! And Grace is almost 8 months now, and enjoys sitting, scooching, smiling, laughing, talking, biting (with her 4, and almost 6 teeth), eating, bathing, and being the joy of our lives.

At the end of this big year, we feel extremely blessed and grateful for all that the Lord has given us, and we hope that, in this new year, heaven smiles upon you too!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Jenny, Travis, and Grace Holloway

Root Beer Float Cake

This is our all-time favorite chocolate cake recipe--we love it! And since we've shared the actual cake with many of you, we thought we'd share the recipe as well so you can make it too!

Root Beer Float Cake

Ingredients

2 cups root beer (not diet)

1 cup (dark unsweetened) cocoa powder

1/2 cup (unsalted) butter (1 stick), cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (dark) brown sugar

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray the inside of a 10 inch Bundt pan (we use 2 9-inch round cake pans) with nonstick cooking spray, or butter generously and dust with flour, knocking out the excess.

In a large saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Add sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten. Then whisk into the cocoa mixture until combined (Note: you must let the cocoa powder cool first as per the directions, or you'll be cooking the eggs in it right now!). Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy. (You can give it a quick whisk if you like, but don't over beat the batter or it could cause the cake to be tough. Don't worry, the batter is very loose.)

Pour the batter into prepared pan(s) and cook for 35-45 (25-30 minutes for the rounds), rotating the pan halfway through baking until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean (ignore this for the rounds). Transfer to a wire rack to coll completely, then loosen edges with a butter knife and turn out onto a cake plate.

Chocolate Root Beer Frosting

Ingredients

2 ounces 60 % cocoa, melted (we just use Hershey bars or chocolate chips)

1 stick (unsalted) butter, softened

1 tsp salt (you may want to use less, maybe just a 1/2 tsp)

1/4 cup root beer

2/3 cup (unsweetened) cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, beat softened butter and cocoa powder, Once combined, add the melted chocolate, salt, powdered sugar and root beer. Beat together until smooth. Spread on top of cooled cake. Slice and serve with vanilla ice cream.

This cake is awesome--like your favorite chocolate cake with a little extra kick, and it's moist, and the frosting is deliciously light and creamy (our favorite frosting EVER)....SO GOOD! Anyways, we hope you all enjoy this treat as much as we do!

Funny Grace

I just wanted to share a funny thing Grace did yesterday. Travis and I were at the dinner table, saying a prayer over the food , when we heard some clinking noises. We opened our eyes to find that Grace had grabbed the serving spoon from the vegetables and was shoving it in her mouth (successfully, I might add)! Needless to say, we had to take a little break to put the spoon down and get a few giggles out before we finished the prayer. What a funny girl!

First Taste of Food =)

After about a month of watching Grace stare us and our food down at the dinner table (I mean, leaning forward to watch every bite we took!), we decided (October 13th) to finally start her on solid food! After all the anticipation, she actually wasn't too sure what to think about her rice cereal for the first few days, but by day 5, it was a hit, and now she enjoys carrots too!

Here she is all ready to give her first bite of food a try (as you can see, she has no idea what's about to happen to her, or I think she'd look a little more excited!):



This is how most of that 1st attempt ended up--on her chin!

Here's a video documenting her first meal:

We wanted to let her play with her spoon so she'd get used to the idea and taste of it, so here she is weilding a spoon for the first time:

Since Grace had decided that rice cereal was a go, we decided to try a new food on her yesterday--carrots. And just like with her successful attempt at rice cereal, she opened her mouth for it and even sucked some of the carrot puree off the spoon! I thought it was so fun how she wanted to help me feed her, by holding my hand and pushing it toward her mouth! I think she's liking this new real food thing =).

For your veiwing pleasure, below is a video of her trying out carrots. (She'd make a little bit of a funny face because it was sour, but she liked it enough to keep coming back for more!)

While I realize that with each new step she's getting a little older and farther away from being my little girl (which makes me a little sad), I'm also excited about all of the new things she's doing and the progress she's making, and especially about the fun little person she's becoming (or that we're now realizing that she IS).

We sure love you, Grace girl!

Grace Update--5 months!

I know, I know--a post about Grace is LONG overdue. So, here is a post full of pictures of our sweet Grace since the last time we posted.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to get Grace one of her Christmas presents early because now is the perfect time for her to start enjoying this exersaucer/walker. It has noises, lights, and lots of fun toys, and she loves it!




Grace also enjoys some other fun toys (now that she's become more proficient at grabbing and manipulating things), including this table top toy (which we also stick on her
exersaucer) and the curtains (I know), and reading and snuggling with mom and dad.


This cracked me up--she's playing with it with her feet!


Didn't you know that curtains were fun to kick and pull and put in your mouth?


We have a tradition now of reading this bedtime book and the scriptures before bed...

...laying side by side on the floor together. And I love it, especially because Grace gets so excited when we do it--smiles galore--because she knows the routine.


We love snuggling with our sweet Grace!



Grace also loves figuring out how her cute little body works. She recently became aware of her feet, and is now in love! She puts them in her mouth whenever possible. =) I just can't believe how flexible she is!

Chewing on feet also often leads to chewing on socks--yum!

Of course, she still loves her hands too :)

All of these body parts are so fun and exciting to her because she has been teething for a while, and finally, last Monday (10/12), she got her first tooth!

So now, she's also aware of her tongue (as it slides oh-so-nice over that fancy new tooth), and enjoys sticking that out often as well.

She also finds it quite funny when we repeat her trick and stick our tongues back out at her--funny girl!

Oh, I just want to squeeze her!

And now that she knows about teeth and tongues, she thinks our mouths are pretty interesting too!

Grace even has a new smile now, which she does while sucking on her lower lip. I just think it's so darn funny, because it makes her little chubby cheeks look huge!

Sucking on her lower lip...

...then breaking out into a smile! (well, maybe a half smile)

(there's a full smile!)

And speaking of smiles...

...and laughs...

...and funny faces...

..she's full of them, and they make our days and melt our hearts!

Grace also has a couple new tricks up her sleeves. The first is that she's sitting up and standing pretty well if shes sitting against or holding onto something, which is pretty exciting.

The second is that shes been scooching forward lately, as well as getting up on her elbows and knees, so the beginning stages of crawling are underway!

I can't believe she's already five months old! Our little girl is growing so fast!!

Well, that's all for now, but soon to come are some recent videos of Grace talking and (so exciting!) trying rice cereal, so stay tuned!

Fiesta Chicken Casserole

We made this new recipe the other night and it was a hit, so (as per request) I'm sharing it!

Fiesta Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

1 package (15 oz) refrigerated pie crust (2 crusts)

1 jar (16 oz) Pace Chunky Salsa

1 can (10 3/4 oz) Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup sour cream

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (about 8 oz)

1 pkg (24 oz) frozen whole kernel corn

2 cans (9.5 oz each) Swanson Premium Chunk Chicken Breast in Water, drained

1 can (About 15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Let the pie crusts stand at room temperature for 15 minutes or until they're easy to handle.

2.Stir all ingredients except for the pie crusts in a large bowl. Spoon the mixture into a 13x9 in baking dish.

3. Unfold the pie crusts on a lightly floured surface. Lay the crusts side by side so that they overlap by about 3 inches in the center. Press the seam to seal. Roll the pie crust into a 14x10 inch rectangle. Place the pie crust over the chicken mixture. Trim the excess crust from the edge. Cut several slits in crust.

4. Bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

(My notes: I would let the dish set for 10 minutes or so after it comes out of the oven so it can thicken. We served it almost immediately, and it was rather runny, but thickened with time. This can be served as a main dish as is, or as a dip with tortilla chips, or even as a burrito filling.)

I loved this dish because it was so easy to assemble and used, for the most part, those things that I usually have in my cupboard anyway. Plus, the flavor was super tasty! Hope you all enjoy this recipe too! (And just for fun, leave me a comment letting me know if you tried it!)

Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame

On September 26, we went to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for the Smithsonian's Free Museum Day. It was a place we knew we had to go while we lived here, and what better way to go than for free? Let me just say that the Museum was chocked full of musical memorabilia: there were cars owned by famous musicians like Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin; TONS of star outfits--like one of Elvis' white jumpsuits, Mick Jagger's flag cape, John Lennon's Sgt. Pepper costume, Michael Jackson's glittery white glove, and some of Jimi Hendrix's 70's-style shirts and head bands; there were old fashioned music recording machines and records and papers on which artists had scribbled down lyrics; there were even some of U2's rejection letters from various music companies (ironic huh?) and random Beatle's stuff like pins and mini figurines. And on top of all the memorabilia, there were tons of other neat features, like a section dedicated to the early musicians who influenced Rock and Roll, listening stations where you could listen to the featured artists' music, various movies about Rock and Roll (including one on music videos), and even a radio station (yeah, and live, straight from the museum)! It was really cool. And I think the coolest thing about it was that by seeing all of these things, like the outfits and cars--things that were worn or touched by these musicians whose music we've listened to and who we've heard so much about--made us feel a kind of connection with them, and that was really neat. So all of you who haven't been, if you're ever in the area, you should definitely go!

Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the Museum, so we took several of us on the outside. It's a pretty cool looking building huh?

We ran into a couple from our ward as we were leaving, and they were kind enough to take a few pictures for us. Thanks guys!

Bruce Springstein was the featured artist this season, and so the top two stories of the Museum were dedicated to all things Springsteen.

It was so fun to get out as a family for the day, especially somewhere unique and in the city, and we hope to hit up another fun spot soon!