Christmas 2013!!!

WARING: You're about to see our Christmas celebrations in photos! There are lots of 'em 'cause we've had lots of fun!!!

Christmas Eve after a fun gathering at Mona's house with all of the cousins, we made sure to sprinkle the Reindeer Food on the ground before heading inside.

Since we weren't able to open our pajama's at Mona's as we had planned (funny story that will forever be comically remembered), we waited until we got home to open 'em up! Of course by that time, E was already hard core out cold, so just the older two were able to open their Christmas Eve present: homemade matching pajamas! What a fun project they were for me to make!

Here's Rudolph waiting patiently to open the first gift of the Christmas season...

Chase was very patient, too!

And Sir Sleeps-a-lot was, as I mentioned, out cold.

Opening...

Chase LOVED his new pajamas!!!

See??

LO loved hers, too! She especially loved the removable red bow!

Two-thirds of my little loves!

Seriously. He LOVED them.

Really.

Little E's pajamas were ready and waiting for bedtime...

Hope Santa was still hungry when he hit our place last night. We had THREE plates of cookies, some carrots for Rudolph and a large cup of refreshing chocolate milk!

LO was sure to leave a few notes for the Big Guy. She made him a sleigh out of paper (complete with each reindeer and paper sacks full of toys) and left a note to let him know it was his to take with him. Too sweet!

And then there was the one about whether or not he had Rudolph with him...

After a late night for mommy and daddy, everything was set for Christmas morning.

The stockings were too heavy for our stocking hangers to handle, so we put new ornaments on the hangers and left the stockings on the ground. Quick and easy access for the kiddos!

FINALLY! Christmas morning and time to open stockings!!!

Even the little guy got in on the stocking action. Sorry for the bad iPhone pic. ;)

Ah, yes... my THREE little loves! 'Tis a Merry Christmas for sure!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!

Now what about all of these gifts? Is it time to open? OH YES IT IS!!!!

This kid was TOO excited about getting a Wii U so he could play Super Mario 3D World!

His big sister was pretty excited about his gift, too!

FINALLY! A bracelet loom kit like she's always wanted! Thanks, Mona!

WHAT?! Santa knows the folks at Build-A-Bear?! How perfect! Now she has the whole My Little Pony collection... until they release the next one, of course.

Meanwhile, Chase was still pretty excited about this new Wii U...

Yay! Super Mario Bros. U!

YES! Super Mario 3D World! His life is now complete!!!

Contrary to the look on his face, he was SUPER excited about a new Super Mario shirt!

More My Little Pony for our little pony girl!

This guy was content in his own little play land of toys and wrapping paper!

More Mario gear, of course!

Pretty stoked about the Mario Kart slot car race track!!

And this is how the kids spent the long, arduous minutes waiting for the Wii U to be set up and ready to play. How they can just watch the little cars go 'round and 'round the track over and over again... can you tell I'm no NASCAR fan? Haha!

One of my faves... LO made Chase a special gift and wrapped it up. He was LESS than thrilled to see it was just an empty toilet paper roll that she colored and turned into a telescope. Haha!

Had to do this! Pretty sure we have a pic of each of the kids with a bow on their head on their first Christmas morning, too! LOL!

Now we're finally playing Wii U while mommy and daddy get the house ready for our big family gathering tonight... can't wait!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

First Christmas!

This little guy is ready to celebrate his first Christmas! Such a sweetie!!!




((Sorry for the blurry pic -- the boy never stops moving!))

A Good Laugh!

This boy!!! He's so darn cute! His little laugh just makes my heart swoon!

- Posted using BlogPress on my beloved iPhone

Cookie Time!

The kids and I made some yummy Christmas cookies this weekend. I'm so pleased with the sugar cookie recipe I used that I think it'll be my go-to from now on. Check out the Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookie recipe over at Bake at 350. It's amazing!

I doubled the recipe, then separated it into thirds. We used one for these cookies and froze the other two so we could make more for the big guy heading our way in 10 days! I'm curious to see how well the dough behaves after freezing & defrosting it...

I went with a basic royal icing recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. It's 3 simple ingredients and super easy to make! If you haven't yet, check out that link to Brown Eyed Baker because she has an amazing tutorial on decorating cookies with royal icing. The best suggestion she had was to gather your supplies before getting started. Had I done so, I would've realized I was out of red food coloring gel. That's why our stockings ended up hot pink. 😁

Another helpful tip I gleaned from the comments on BEB's tutorial was the suggestion of decorating the BOTTOM of the cookies! The bottom is always perfectly flat which makes the piping and flooding so much easier! Win!!

The kids had a lot of fun with the decorating, although they were slightly lacking in the patience department when it came to my demonstration on piping the borders on the cookies. And when I was showing them how to do the flood icing as well. But once it came time to bust out the sprinkles, they were on their game! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again soon in another week or so.

Check out their yummy masterpieces!!!



Seriously, these cookies taste perfect! Not too sweet, still soft and chewy and not dry or crunchy! Seriously the best!!!

What a fun weekend we've had!!!

- Posted using BlogPress on my beloved iPhone

Seven Months!

Oh sweetness.

Can someone tell me where the time has gone? My little love is 7 months old. As in, it's-time-to-start-planning-his-first-birthday 7 months old. Yes, I'm crazy. And it suits me.

But maybe I'll disregard the inevitable destiny of my last born marking a year of life with our family with the hope that I can pause time -- or perhaps stop it altogether -- with my lack of preparedness. Surely that will work. Certainly I can at least slow the sand in the hourglass with my procrastination.

((sigh))

Who am I kidding? I've already bounced a few party themes around in my head. But I'm determined to let it go for now and instead to focus my thoughts and energy in the present.

The present of my now 7-month-old son.

The present of my amazing 4-year-old son.

The present of my beautiful 6-year-old daughter.

The present of my loving husband of 8 years.

Christmas is a mere 13 days away. I can't help but be thankful for the gifts and blessings in my life. And I'm not alluding to those which can be found under the tree. But rather, the loved ones who surround me daily. Those who I've been charged to care for and love. I'm so grateful.

Seven months with our sweet baby E and I find myself swimming deeper in love with each passing day. He's an amazing baby. The perfect third child. His big brother loves to make him laugh. His big sister loves to be his mommy.

My life is complete.

I'm so undeserving of the countless blessings in my life, but I resolve to greet every morning with a fresh and renewed commitment to love them each with a deeper, limitless love and steadfast appreciation for the way they consume my heart, each in their own perfect way.

Happy 7 months, my sweet baby E.

Love,
Mommy