One More Thing

I got all those people back who helped me find my four pounds. Our family managed to give 8 people the horrific stomach bug. Unfortunately, all of them lost about 5 pounds so we're still not really even, because I gained and they lost. Just trying to share the love.

The Scope of Things

Not sure if I'm going to post many pictures from Christmas...maybe my top 5 or 10. But for now, I give you an idea of what Christmas was like for us....this is just the candy. And it's not even all of it! Thanks goes to all my family and my husband for helping me find those four pounds that I thought I had misplaced. I will try to go slow on eating this stuff, but the quicker I eat it, the quicker it's not a temptation, right?

Merry Christmas

Probably won't blog again till the new year. Enjoy the last shot of '08. Hope you've been good and that Santa brings you lots of toys.

24 hours...we hope

About 3 hours after completing the gingerbread people, Ava promptly got a stomach bug. She puked three separate times on me before I figured out how to hold her without getting puked on, which she did two more times. Then she slept all night, and woke up this morning seeming to feel a bit better. But, it didn't last. Around lunch time she was standing in the kitchen and pretty much it just came out of nowhere. So sad for her. But I'm happy to report that this evening she FINALLY kept down a little dry cereal and water which is a big improvement. Hopefully by tomorrow morning she is back to herself, and she didn't share the love with anyone else. Keep us in your prayers, mainly because there's a small event happening in about 24 hours from now that none of us wants to miss...
This has been the scene for the past 24 hours. Ava up on me, with a towel over her and a waterproof lap pad over that. Then she has this little quirky thing where she pulls her T-shirt over her nose when she's sleepy, not feeling well, or relaxing.

I Shall Not Be Pressured!

...Pressured into the feeling that I must do a gingerbread house every year or it's just not Christmas. We decided to do something simpler this year just because I didn't feel like doing the whole homemade gingerbread house. We decided instead to make gingerbread people which was still a lot of fun and MUCH easier. Again Ava does not seem to understand the the candy goes on the cookie and not straight into the mouth. Of course, what is cookie decorating without snacking on some of the candy in the process???

Elle's finished product

Goodies

Please don't hate me because I'm posting more pictures of food...mainly food with a lot of sugar involved. I'm a baker....I like to make dessert thingys....and take picture of them...and post them for all to salivate over.

Getting my helpless children in on the act of poisoning the world with sugar....one bite at a time. By the way, Ava did not get the concept of decorating the cookie. She thought the cookies were just a new Christmas decoration and that the stuff we were decorating with was put there as her snack.

Christmas wreathes...so yummy...pretty much the same recipe as rice krispie treats.

Truffles I made for our elders and deacons. They were pretty to look at but not sweet enough for me....I will tweak them for next year because the presentation is pretty and they are easy to make.

And if you think I'm done with pictures of desserts, probably not. We will be making gingerbread people on Monday and then "Santa cookies" on Wednesday. Happy gaining!

A few moments of rest

I am beginning to cherish more and more when the girls go off somewhere together and play. There is usually at least one child holding onto my thigh for dear life and one whining about something, so a few moments of quiet play without me are rare and precious. The other day I was working in the kitchen and it was so nice to see that my tupperware was finally getting the reorganization that it needed....meaning it was all pulled out of the cabinets and strewn around the kitchen floor so that they could play where it had once been. But it gave me a few moments to concentrate on recipes and not entertain two bored chitlens so I'm thankful.
*** Post note The frig is not usually that nasty looking, but Ava had spilled her milk earlier that day and it had gone EVE-RY-WHERE and I hadn't had a chance yet to clean it up! It has been cleaned up since then so you can all go back to knowing what a perfectly clean house I keep.

Painted Ornaments

I love when I stumble into a craft project. I'm not looking for it but it just finds me. I found these plain clay ornaments at hob lob a few days ago and they were 50 cents each. I took six and then laid them aside for a few days, not sure of how I'd use them. But as is typical of me, I couldn't sleep that night because I was thinking up different designs that I could paint on each star. To be fair, I gave one to each of the girls and let them do what they wanted on it. I think I'll make it a yearly tradition for them and eventually we'll have a whole tree just of the painted stars. I had a wonderful time painting my stars and loved how they turned out. Elle was very proud of hers too! Ava painted and enjoyed it for about 27.8 seconds before she tired of the process. Oh well...I am learning to chill out of these craft projects and everyone is much happier!

Elle's ornament

Ava's ornament

My ornaments...I think the multi-colored dot one is my favorite.

Dinner with the Neills

Greg and Kris Neill invited us to their house for dinner and a Christmas Lights Walkway in Marble Falls last night. They have a son that is a year older than Elle and a daughter in highschool. Back when Shawn was a whippersnapper, Greg was his youth minister. Elle and Ava both LOVE playing with their son and the three of them had a great time together. After dinner we headed to the lake and a beautiful christmas light display. It was free and Santa was there too. It was a lot of fun and we stayed way later than we should have but it was worth it.

A Month in Review

It's been a busy busy week. Really it's been a B-U-S-Y month! I like lists so here's my list from this month:
Dec.1st- Bunco at my house
6th-MASH Christmas party
7th-1st Sunday Potluck and then MASH at my house; this is when Shawn sprained his ankle
13th-Church Christmas party
14th-Open House at my house
18th-Neighborhood Christmas party at my house
19th-Go to Marble Falls to see the Neills
20th-Deliver Christmas to a needy family :)
23rd-Head to a friends house for a Christmas Eve's Eve dinner
24th-Worship and Christmas Eve!!!
25th-Head to Tyler
31st-Return home, go to worship, and celebrate 2009!

There were quite a few other little things that happened this month, but the ones above were the big ones. I am pretty sure I'm going to have to take it a bit easier next December....this just about did me in. On a positive, I got to try out LOTS of new appetizer recipes and make EVERY one of my favorite desserts as well as try out some new ones. As much work as it has been, I can say I truly love entertaining and having people over. My hope is that people will feel very comfortable at our home and feel that they are getting to know us on a deeper level by being in our home. Anyway, it's been a fun month and now the best is coming....we are all excited around here. 2009 is only a few days away and I've already begun compiling my personal to-do list for 2009 and it's interesting. I'll share it as it gets closer...or is already here! Enjoy this next week!

Snow, Sweets, and Santa

Yesterday we tied for a record hi with 80 degrees and then it snowed last night. As everyone here says, "Only in Texas." Either way, I was truly giddy. I couldn't sleep because I knew it was snowing. Every few minutes, I'd get back up and go watch it again. At one point around 11 pm I went out in the street in my pajamas just to watch it fall and feel it. I can't explain enough how much I love the stuff! The girls got to "play" in the snow today...there was mainly sleet left on a few things in the back yard but they were still intrigued. Ava cried when we came back in because she was fine freezing to death, but Elle and I agreed it was more fun to watch it from inside! It was in the 30's with 20-30 mph winds.

When did my 4 year old start looking so grown up???

In totally unrelated news, I made cinnamon rolls from scratch for dinner tonite. If you follow my blog, you know I love to take pictures of food I make and post it...so if you're on a diet LOOK AWAY! They were wonderful and the girls were SO excited that we were having this for dinner! I did try to balance it with eggs and cheese though. Yes, I know, mother of the year award for giving my kids such highly nutritious dinners.

Elle and Ava have really started playing well together. They called me in to see what Elle had done to Ava yesterday and I had to grab my camera and get a picture. They piled every stuffed animal Ava had, on top of her....they both thought it was so funny.

Lastly, I'm calling this the official Santa picture for 2008 unless we stumble upon Santa again before the 25th. Shawn took the girls to the library last week on the day Santa was going to be there. I would have gone too, but I was having my cavity refilled. Anyway, Shawn didn't bring a camera so a nice mommy there took my kids pic and sent it to us on email. I thought it was a pretty good picture. Shawn said that the only reason Ava got on his lap and is smiling is that he was handing out candy after you sat on his lap....that is wrong in so many ways!

Cankle for Christmas

Unbeknowst to me, Shawn must have written Santa and told him that he wanted a cankle for Christmas....I know weird that he just wanted one? But, anyway, Santa, being the man he is, didn't want to disappoint so he gave him one, and early at that. Wasn't that nice?

I think he's writing Santa a thank you note.

Couldn't go without an artist shot.

Ewwwww gross...no not the hairness of his foot and toes...look at the bruising and swelling...gross!

In all nonseriousness, he sprained it playing basketball with guys from church on Sunday night. We took him to Stat Med on monday morning and after 2 hours of waiting for the one dr. on call to look at a simple x-ray, it showed that it wasn't broken. It seems to be a bad sprain and hopefully within a week, he will be walking without a crutch. It is getting better ever day. Note to self: buy two ankle support thingys before he thinks of playing sports with the guys again.

Refill

Yesterday I had to get a cavity refilled. There's nothing like paying for a cavity twice. The first dentist who filled it left a small gap that could have caused major problems. I didn't ever notice it until my current dentist showed me last time I was there. So, it had to be corrected. The aftereffect, which I had to go to Walmart with, was a half paralyzed face. Lovely.

New Tradition

As I said a few posts ago, I am starting a new tradition this year at Christmas. The girls don't wear PJ's to bed so I though it would be wasteful to spend money on Christmas PJ's. Instead I made them monogrammed shirts that could be worn past Christmas and coordinating tutus that can be used for playing dress up. I decided that I would give them a Christmas outfit on December 1st to usher in the "season." They loved their tutus and their shirts fit perfectly and looked great. I enjoyed making them knowing that not only was it made by me, but I saved a lot of money and will get lots more use out of these than some cute PJ's. Who knows how long we'll do this tradition...I guess until they decide to start wearing PJ's again.

They were very confused about why they got to open a present but it wasn't Christmas yet...I'm sure I'll be explaining that one for the next 23 days.

Talkin

Shawn took the girls out tonite since I was hosting Bunco at my house. While out Ava said two really cute things that I just want to remember so I'm writing them here. First, as they were driving Ava said "Daddy, love you whole world!" Shawn asked "You love me more than anything in the whole world?" and she said "Uh huh." PRECIOUS! Then later, as they were driving through a parking lot, Elle said "Daddy we went through this parking lot the other day and there were 3 men outside smoking!" (She is really into pointing out people who smoke and we talk a lot about how bad that is and how when she gets older her friends might ask her to do that and she should say NO!) Shawn said "You saw people smoking!?" Ava said "Yeah. Not posta do dat." My 2 year old already knows she shouldn't smoke! Whoever said a two year old can't comprehend what we teach was misinformed! He speech has really picked up in the last couple of weeks...that's good and bad. She can communicate so much better now and it's so sweet, but everybody needs to watch what they say in front of her because she'll repeat it in a heartbeat!