Star light, Star bright

So, The man went on a TOTAL splurge and purchased me a new camera for Christmas. He bought me the ENTRY LEVEL Nikon, d3000....even though it's entry level, it does SO much more than my point and shoot camera EVER did and I couldn't be happier. The amount of detail and the vivid colors are AMAZING!!! While I was flipping through my images tonight I found this one of some pretzels that I took. My mom bought us a tub of holiday shaped pretzels, and the star is Lucy's favorite shape! Hope wherever you are, you have stars shining down brightly upon you.

A photo a day?

I have made a new years resolution this year....something I NEVER do. Mainly becuase I think they are promises that we make to ourselves, that we KNOW will usually get broken, and then we throw ourselves a little pity party when it does get broken! This year is different. I got a fancy new camera (a Nikon!) for Christmas, and have decided that I want to TRY - key word here is TRY - to take one photo of the little princess every day. I thought it would be interesting to document just how much she changes over the course of one year. So far, she's stood like a good little girl in front of the same wall every night before getting ready for bed. We'll see how long it lasts....but we're three for three so far! I'll post one photo a month on this site so anyone in bloggy land can follow too! Here's hoping you don't have to throw yourself any pity parties this year! :-)

xo~

Christmas Traditions

I love traditions. For as long as I can remember on Christmas eve my mom would prepare a full spread of snacks for us to graze on all night.....till we couldn't keep our eyes open for Santa anymore! We continue that tradition in our house - actually, since the man and I moved back home my mom has spent Christmas eve at our house so we can all wake up together on Christmas day....and so we can graze on delicious snacks all night! Of course, we always have way to much food! I had a pretty major surgery on December 20th, and I haven't had much of an appetite, so it just figures that we bought lots of good stuff and of course didn't prepare half of it!! To say the least, I haven't had to cook at all this past weekend!

We also have a tradition of having Christmas with my moms side of the family the Sunday before Christmas. When my grandma on my moms side was still alive we'd go to her house on Christmas day. That was until my cousin Katie started having kids. Once she had kids, grandma decided to switch Christmas at her house to the Sunday before Christmas. That way no one had to leave their house, OR their toys on Christmas day to come to her house. It was the best idea she had had in a long time! This year my cousin Katie and her husband Ian hosted Christmas. They have a gorgeous home with an amazing great room and kitchen that Ian added on - and it's perfect for our huge, loud, sometimes obnoxious family! We eat, chat, some of us nap (snoring included!) and this year we played catchphrase. I think everyone had a great time! The photo above is of all of the grand daughters and spouses of grandchildren over 18 - we got cookie exchange cook books and have vowed to have a cookie exchange next year - maybe a new tradition?!?!

Here's hoping that whatever traditions you and your family have, they are done with lots of love and laughter.

~xoxo

Peppermint Meltaway Cookies

Nothing says Christmas like to smell of pine and peppermint! Since I don't think pine flavored cookies would taste very good, I thought I'd share my all time favorite peppermint cookie recipe ( compliments of Land-O-Lakes)! They are SO easy to make and one batch yields about 50 bite sized bits of deliciousness.

COOKIE

1 cup of butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

GLAZE

1 1/2 cups powedered sugar

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 -2 tbsp milk

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

couple drops of food coloring if desired

DIRECTIONS

Mix the butter, powdered sugar and extract in a large bowl until creamy and smooth. Slowly add the flor and cornstarch. Once well mixed, cover and refirgerate for 1 hour.

Preheat over to 350, remove dough and form in to small 1 inch balls. Place them about 2 inches from each other (although they do not flatten or expand much) and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Remove from cookie tray and cool completely before icing.

**some people like to drizzle the icing on top. I prefer to make my icing a bit thinner and "dunk" the cookie in the icing to create a delicious layer that covers the top of the cookie.

ENJOY!

Babies are coming

As many of you know, the moto at our house when it comes to having babies is ONE AND DONE and, as much as everyone would like that to change, we continue to live by that moto! Not so for my TWO sister-in-laws! Within a few days of one calling me to tell me she was pregnant, the other was telling me while standing in her kitchen. I could not be happier for these two girls and their families! I could not be happier that it is THEM and NOT me!!! I can't think of a better Christmas gift, can you?! Here's to spoiling new babies in 2011!!!

Congrats girls (and families!) - I love you both!!!

My, how time flies!

Our Birthday Girl!

I can't believe that our sweet little girl is 2 years old now! Where has the time gone? I know I don't post much on here anymore. It seems that lately, I've been working a lot, both at the office and at home. I think the more mobile Lucy gets, the more tired we get!! Lots of changes have taken place since our last posting. I think the biggest one is that we placed Lucy in all day childcare at the church. We LOVED having her at Jo-Jo's for day care, but she needed the interaction with other two year olds and it's a great Christian learning environment for her. It started out pretty rough, crying every day, clinging to mommy and daddy, running down the hall after us....but now, she could care less if we stay or go. She runs in every morning, lunch bag in tow, eager to start her day. What a blessing it has been for us to watch her grow so much in a little over a month. We had a VERY SMALL birthday party. My mom (Da-Dah) and Silas's mom and step dad (Mimi and BobPa) came over for dinner and presents. We all pitched in and bought Lucy a bounce house (with a slide!) to play in. She LOVES to bounce and will bounce on just about anything (couches, beds, people,) so it was the PERFECT present for her. We had our niece Tennie over for a play date the weekend following her birthday and the girls played dress up (with HIGH HEELS from Mimi!) colored and bounced their little hearts out! All in all, we had a terrific summer and we're sorry to see it end, however, I am happy to welcome fall!

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day everyone. Yes, I realize I am a day late, but I was busy being a mommy yesterday! I have had so much fun being Lucys mommy over the past 20 months. It's so hard to believe our little sweetie is almost two! She greets me every morning with a HI MAMA and a great big hug, followed by WHERE'S DADDY? She is becoming quite the little talker, uses big girl manners (please and thank you), runs, climbs, tells us NO, throws fits when it's time to come in from playing outside, eats us out of house and home....you know, all of the things a toddler is supposed to do!

For my second Mothers Day we woke up and decided to surprise my mom with the gift of US at church with her! We decided to take the grandmas to breakfast, and it's not cheap ($22 per person), so we opted not to give them a material gift this year. So, I figured, if I wasn't giving my mother a material gift, I could give her my time. I know it's not much, but I also know how much my mom enjoys her church and how much she wishes I would go with her more often. So we went. I cried during church. Not sad tears, not happy tears. A mixture of both. Happy because I was there with my mommy, and I had my sweet daughter with me, but sad because my moms mom wasn't there with her to rejoice in the beauty of the morning with us. I know she misses her, and I do too. I know that Lucy is missing out on having GiGi watch her grow up, and that makes me sad. Not just on Mothers Day, but every day. ANYWAY, so after church, we hurried off to breakfast with S's mom, step dad, my mom, and us. It was just lovely. The food is always good, and the company even better. After Lucy's nap, we met my oldest, dearest friend Kelli, and her two boys at a park near her house. She's divorced, and didn't really get to celebrate mothers day because, well, it's no fun when you have to buy your own mothers day gift. We had frappuccinos while the boys and Lucy played on the play ground. It was nice, and low key. I wrapped up my day by going grocery shopping like I do every Sunday!

Lucy and S surprised me with a gorgeous 60 inch strand of black pearls and smothered me with lots of love and affection all day long! What a perfect day, surrounded by the people I love the most.

I hope however you spent your mothers day, it was filled with lots of love and laughter.