Tuesday, February 26, 2013

FEBRUARY IN PICTURES!

February was a fun month! The beginning of the month, I celebrated my birthday! 29 and holding strong... =)
This sweet girl also had a birthday!
 

11 years old. I cant believe it. As you can see, big sister is ALL about eating the cake... =)

Ariel had fun frosting and decorating her cake as well



They also had a random, child-led craft time of making bows and arrows. The world is about 200 popsicle sticks poorer now...





The younger 3 called themselves 'Spider Hunters' and got all decked out to unleash some fury on our fine 8 legged friends (or foes, whatever)


Then joy of joys,  my wonderful friend, Staci came for a short visit from KS with her crew and she brought with her BOXES of clothes for my little guy! Love this gal


Her crew and mine always have a blast together...



 
 
All the kiddos together...
 
 

 
 
Hard to believe that this was them almost 5 years ago (picture below)
 

 
 
RANDOM PICTURES
 
 
 
Gorgeous sunset, courtesy of Ariel's awesome camera...

Jumping on the couch is FUN!


My little sweeties. Good golly I love those cheerful smiles

Found this little gem hiding on the computer! The 'Sickness' hit our house around Christmas so we didnt get to do these until the 2nd week of January so I had forgotten about these pictures.
Doesn't need to be Christmas to enjoy some Gingerbread house fun!


 
 

 

 
 

JANUARY IN PICTURES

 
JANUARY IN PICTURES!
 
 

January was a very sparse month, picture-wise. But here are a few!

We had a good snow....here's a shot of Sir Daddy snow blowing the neighbors driveway. You can see how thick it is there on the side!


The Boy love love loves my hair and can be caught doing this with it a time or twelve everyday.

*Reading a book while the storm blows outside.*

Little Big-Guy

This picture makes me giggle. When he dresses up in this suit he calls himself 'God' (meaning the preacher at church whom he thinks is named God).
December was a fun, cold month!
 

 
*The girls are working on card-making here. A very chaotic and messy experience!

*Setting up the tree*

*Just realized some of these pictures are out of order! Weird!*





Opening stockings! I didnt wrap the stocking gifts this year. They didn't care and saved myself at LEAST 2 hours of wrapping. Win-win.

Such a funny guy =)

Presents!



  *Two of my awesome newphews.




*Random pictures from December*....

 *My lovely momma, myself and The Boy

*They CRACK ME UP.

 
 
 

Friday, February 22, 2013

Christmas 2012 COOKIE TRAYS!

COOKIE TRAYS 2012!
 
 
This was the 7th year in a row that the girls and I have made treat trays for our neighbors. I got wise this year and broke it up into 2 days instead of trying to cram it all into one...
 
We tried a new recipe this year: 'Cool Whip' cookies. We did 2 versions. One with strawberry cake mix and one with lemon. They were both AMAZINGLY good.
 

 



*Ariel was taking pics of our cookie-making and got this one of me sticking the cookies in the oven with my typical 'The oven is so hot! I cant BREATHE!' face...she looked at her picture and said 'mom, can you make a more normal face?'

 Here's what she got. I don't do normal.

The finished product (strawberry)

The finished product (lemon)

We made chocolate chips cookies which are my FAVORITE cookie....




And oreo bon bons

Ritz Rolo sandwiches...

...we dipped ours in chocolate which made them SO much better

The snickerdoodles were EXTRA EXTRA good this year. I dont know what I did different but when I figure it out, these may be a monthly goodie and not just for Christmas!

CHRISTMAS CRUNCH:  this was another new one this year. Got the recipe off of Pinterest. I think its called 'Christmas Crack' on there. I LOOOOOVED it. I did one batch with peanuts and one without (for my nut allergy kiddo)

THE SPREAD!

Prepping the 'trays'....

Getting ready to hand them out!


We came back as sloppy wet slushy snow-y stuff started to fall

So I completed the giving of the trays myself
*delivering a tray to my friend who lives behind us...if you look close you can see I stomped a happy face in the snow. 


When I came back, Old Man Winter had covered up my happy face so I let him know that I have a heart full of forgiveness for him ....  :)  Snow cant get THIS girl down!  (Unless I have a long run planned, then its a different story).....   =)