Christmas cheer

This year my sister Paige, who usually brings all the traditional goodies to our Christmas Eve celebration is with her family in beautiful Hawaii for Christmas. So, I stepped it up a notch and did a ton of baking. It sure helped being 'stuck' at home due to the snow, with lots of time on my hands.

This is pretty much the only Santa thing we do with the kids. I made these Santa cookies with my mom growing up, and they are a fun family tradition.

You buy (or make your own) sugar cookie dough in the roll. Since I had lots of time on my hands I made the dough and rolled it up in wax paper and put it in the freezer til I was ready to use it. When you are ready to make your Santa's you slice it. Each Santa takes two circles. One for the head and the other makes up the whiskers and hat. You cut the sides off the circle, angled in a little, to form one triangle and two sort of semi-circle wedges. I should have taken pictures since I'm not sure that makes sense.

But anyway, then you put his triangle hat on his head and place the semi-circle whisker wedges down on his face. Bake at 350 for about 8-9 minutes and cool. Have fun decorating. I use chocolate chips for eyes and frost the hat and whiskers white. We used heart shaped candies for the lips, but you could do red gel frosting.

Be creative!

We also carried on the gingerbread house tradition. Wyatt made one at his one day of school last week, but it was falling apart when he brought it home. So we used the milk carton from his house and "re-constructed" it. Extreme Home makeover would be proud. Above is the completed house with a sled, snowman, mushroom patch, flower patch, and slide. Very fun!!

All three working together was a little interesting.....but we managed.

Merry Christmas!!

the best birthday present...

Craig painted our bedroom walls this beachy green/blue color I have been dreaming about for a while, and I wanted to post a picture of the result. I love the color and it really is a wonderful bday present. I pretty much sat around on the computer and did some organizing back here while he painted. He's the best.

This morning I open a package from my friend Jessie. Late this summer she took pictures of us on the beach and she surprised me with the folio of two of her favorites of Craig and I. I really treasure it because it is so seldom we get pictures taken of just the two of us and they were taken shortly after our 10 year anniversary. She did an awesome job of picking out the color on the outside. It totally matches our new paint color and is now on a little shelf above our bed.
It's been a fantastic day!

I {heart} snow days...

We spent part of the day at our friend's home, playing in the snow and sliding down hills. Next we rented 4 movies to keep us occupied for the next few days.

I've also been baking Christmas cookies like crazy. It sure helps to have another adult around to coral the kiddos while I'm in the kitchen! He also did the dishes and folded three loads of laundry. What a guy!

Tomorrow is another "day off" and Craig has mentioned painting the ceilings throughout the house and our bedroom walls a new color. Something I have been wanting to do for at least a couple years now, and I even have a color picked out, ready and waiting for an opportunity such as this.

I'm excited to see what we will accomplish this week around here. Getting this unexpected family time together is so much fun.

Enjoy this winter weather and stay warm!

The tree is up!

I have to say I am really fortunate this year to have a "pretty" tree. We usually have fun cutting one down in the woods or going to a cheep tree farm (and trying to find the BEST $10 tree), but this year we were offered a free Noble Fir! I have learned that once we get all our special decorations on it, the tree doesn't really matter so much to me. But I AM enjoying the nice trimmed look of this tree!

Here's the three after we decorated LATE friday night. This picture cracks me up. Wyatt has his basketball gear on and Anna's in her princess dress. Fun times!

Every year the kids get a new ornament and our tree is becoming pretty loaded. It was fun to see the kids pull out their ornaments and actually remember which ones were theirs from years past. (I don't even remember without looking on the backs!) We usually do a tree in the boys bedroom, but didn't this year....I think next year it will be a must with the amount of ornaments we have.
Joe Montana even made in on our tree this year! When Craig and I married his mom gave us a big box of all his ornaments growing up. Along with Joe, we had a fisherman Santa and several basketball themed ornaments. I remember going out and buying a box of sparkly gold balls and a box of little gold churches to add to our collection. Now we have one church and one of those gold balls left! I admit, I struggled with Joe Montana on my Christmas tree for a while, but now he, and a red 49ers ball hang proudly on our tree interspersed with my snowman collection and all my white ornaments. And I've come to realize it's just a reflection of us!

I guess I put these in the wrong order but here's my strong husband hauling the tree out. The sun was setting and I couldn't resist snapping this shot.

Hooray, we finally decided on one. After searching for about and hour they all started looking the same. The kids were tired and cold and we headed back for some hot chocolate around the fire.

It's looking more and more like Christmas around here!

More on Annie....

I would love to post pictures of Anna's birthday party. I would love to show you how hilarious she looked in her sleeping beauty wig. How precious she was in her new dress up clothes blowing out the candle on her cake with Disney princesses on it. But instead, I have only this one picture of her unwrapping her first gift because right after I took it my battery died.

My sister's each had their cameras out so, not to worry, I will get some copies for her scrapbook. We celebrated with Craig's fam on Thanksgiving Day at our house. We hosted Turkey dinner and I had made this princess cake for Anna the day before. She was so excited about the cake. Her reaction when I first showed it to her says it all:
Then we had a joint party with my side of the fam on Sunday evening for Anna and her cousin Halle who is turning 8. The girls had a blast opening presents and Anna got so many nice new things, which she is enjoying greatly.

I am so thankful for my little girl. Parenting Anna is so different than the boys, and it can be challenging, but she is so full of love and brings joy to my heart everyday. She's sweet and spunky and loved being the center of attention on her special day. I'm still in awe of how fast she is growing. I am so excited for all we'll get to experience together as mother and daughter in the years to come....yet I can't believe she's three already!

In my heart I knew I wanted another baby about a year before I became pregnant with Anna. The Lord worked on Craig's heart and I'll never forget the day he came to me and said, "let's have another"...it was Thanksgiving Day 2004. Anna was born 4 days after Thanksgiving 2005. She is indeed an answer to my prayers. She blesses me daily and completes our family perfectly!

We love you Annie-Beth!