Christmas 2011

Christmas day was the BEST! We woke up to Santa at my parents house. I love doing Santa over there because there are other kids and it looks like a toy store Christmas morning! Santa brought Kade a train table this year, along with some other smaller toys. Santa hit the nail on the head with the train table! Kade still hasn't stopped playing with it! Bryan and I were waiting and waiting for Kade to said "WOW, look at dis!!!!!" And not long after he saw it he did! Mom and Aunt Kelli cooked the traditional Christmas morning breakfast and we lounged all morning. After cleaning up Santa and breakfast it was time for the present CRAZINESS! There are so many people and so many gifts it is overwhelming! My parents surprised us all BIG TIME when we found out they are taking all of us on a cruise in July!!!!!! Kristen and I started screaming so loud!!!!!! It is going to be so much fun! It was so much fun. We stayed all day playing, napping, eating, eating, and eating! Christmas night we all played games and ended up staying the night again. It was a great Christmas spent with all the people I love so much!

 

Like Father

 

Like Son...

Christmas Eve

This Christmas goes down as one of my very best ones ever. I do believe that it is due to the face that I have two precious children to celebrate with. We had a wonderful Christmas eve. We started by waking up and having monkey bread for breakfast (I think this is going to be a new tradition) We then got ourselves ready and went to an early church service. We normally like to go later in the day, but this worked out better for cooking Christmas dinner with my mom.After Church we went over to Nanny and Pappy's put on our comfy clothes and rested, played, and cooked all day. It was so nice to just relax and enjoy the entire day. We ate our incredibly yummy traditional Christmas dinner, cleaned up, and played until it was time to go to bed. We put out milk and cookies for Santa, Nanny read Kade "Twas the night before Christmas" and off to bed so that Santa could come visit! Brad, Kristen, and the girls got there after Kade and Ella were in bed and we redid the cookies and book reading. "Santa" has always rang his bells during the book reading and Ashlyn was so precious this year when she heard the bells. She was ready to dart upstairs and go to bed immediately! While they were getting ready for bed, still nervous that Santa was so close my mom heard her tell Hailey, "This is freaking me out!" Christmas is so magical at their age! With the kids in bed, the adults played games until it was 'safe' for Santa to visit!

 

I had to post this. Kade was tired of holding Ella and threw her down :)

 

I made him try again so I could get at least one picture!

 

Here is the thing, I am BIG on tradition. I hate breaking traditions. Everyone knows it.I am crazy, OCD about them. Every year on Christmas Eve my Mimi read us "Twas the night before Christmas," from the same book. My mom now has the book and since she is now the grandma it is her duty to read. The thing is we couldn't find the book before bed. We looked and looked and couldn't find it. I was PANICKING (you know, like my 2 year old had any clue that she was suppose to read from this one particular book.) We couldn't find it and Nanny had to pull it up on the iPad to read to him. It is funny now, but on Christmas eve...that's another story :) And no Mom, you did NOT ruin Christmas ;)

 

Sweet sisters getting ready for Santa!

Christmas Cookies!

This is our second year to bake Christmas cookies with Kade, and I can't wait until next year when Ella can join in. This year I tried a new sugar cookie recipe and I have to say that it was THE BEST RECIPE EVER. I hate how the cookies always lose their shape when you put them in the over. These didn't and they were so good! I will be using it from now on. I am going to put the recipe here just so that I don't ever lose it! I get to print my book after just a few more posts so hopefully I will have it forever! And we can use the same recipe for years! Kade did great and thought it was so fun! And just like last year he ate the sprinkles as fast as he could!

Sugar Cookie Recipe:


*Makes 2-3 dozen sugar cookies (about 2-3 inch size)
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened to cool room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest (from about 1 lemon)
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, almond extract and lemon zest; mix. Add two cups flour, baking powder and salt. Mix. Add remaining flour and mix just until flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and soft.
The dough can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week or it can be rolled out right away. Dust a counter with powdered sugar or flour and roll the dough to desired thickness (I prefer my cookies on the thick side so I roll my dough out to about 1/4-inch, maybe even slightly thicker than that). Cut the dough into shapes. Place the cookies on a lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes. The cookies won’t appear browned on top (or on bottom) when they are done baking so don’t let them overbake! I find 7 1/2 minutes is about perfect but if they are even lightly browned on bottom, I decrease the time by 30 seconds. I like them super soft with not even a hint of browned edges or bottom. This way they literally melt in my mouth.

Seriously, they were the best. 

Christmas Break

Kade is only in "school" 2 days a week, but he is off for two weeks and we are enjoying his "Christmas break" with a lot of relaxing! I love, love this time of year :) After his Christmas party we came home for some down time!

 

I love days like these with my babies :)

My girl

I feel so blessed that I am the mama to this beautiful little girl. What a JOY she has been!

 

Excuse the spit up :)

 

She loves her jumper! But has to be propped up because she is still so little in it!

 

BUNDLE OF CUTENESS!

 

She has been sick so we have been snuggling a lot :)

 

She had her first ride in the jogging stroller facing forward, and LOVED it!