Festival of Lights!

Fun times with our good friends TJ, Chrissie and Tyler.  I think we were all a tad hesitant about taking the boys out on a Sunday night and getting home late, but we had a great time! I know I am glad we decided to go look at the lights and get into the Christmas spirit.  The weather here is so weird- we were pretty cold last night (although I was informed it was only in the 50s, it sure felt cold to me!).  Today it was mid-70's.  There's just no way to predict what to where from day to day.



Getting my bake on.

As I'm sure many of you who know me are well aware, I love to cook.  I am fairly adventurous in the kitchen, although I'm married to a meat and potatos, plain food kind of guy, AND I have the pickiest toddler on the planet, so I try to remain somewhat tame in my cooking endeavors.  But baking, especially Christmas baking, well it's ON.  I love getting all wild and crazy- the creaming of the butter and sugars, the drizzling of the chocolate, oh man do I love putting together the pretty little tins of yummy's to pass out to neighbors and friends. Love it.  And while on most occasions, I get silly pleasures from making healthy, yet tasty, dishes, let me assure you there is nothing healthy about any of these cookies....but oh my are they tasty! 

So yesterday was the big day.  Round 1.  Round 2 will take place next week, as I wanted fresh stuff to take out of town with us.  I made 3 cookie doughs the day before, wrapped them up and popped them in the fridge.  It was the first time I did that, and it sure was a time saver. Pretty much all the baking was done in one afternoon. I had quite the little system going on.

Without further ado....my goodies.

(If I have a recipe online, I will make it clicky to the recipe in case anyone wants any new and delicious cookie recipes)

            Chocolate Chip                                            Snickerdoodles
(only the BEST chocolate chip cookie ever,                         (I tried a new one this year. It's very, very good,
Alton Brown's "The Chewy". My fav choco chip                  but I will remain on my quest to find the perfect
cookie recipe of all time.)                                                       Snickerdoodle recipe. I'm looking for puffy,
                                                                                                like I had as a kid- these turned out flat. If
                                                                                              you a perfect puffy snickerdoodle recipe--I 
                                                                                               want it!)
Oatmeal Crispies.  Pioneer Woman's Oatmeal
                                                                            Crispies.  You will not be able to stop at one.

Oh geez. Stop the press.  Stop what you are doing right now, bow down, and all hail--this shortbread cookie.  I happened upon this recipe a few years back and it will never leave my holiday baking arsenol. These cookies seriously melt in your mouth.  Truly, really they do.

Chocolate covered pretzels. :-)


Snowballs. One of my favorites. A tad messy,  but worth it in the end.

Oreo balls.  They're pretty simple, and taste a lot like a chocolate truffle.



Cake Balls!  These are of the red velvet variety.  Quite good I tell ya.  These were for Matthew's classroom party today- I was in charge of desserts.  They were a huge hit!



So there you have it.  Drooling yet?

Festivities!

We had a blast at a party with friends this past weekend.  Some women I met through the local playgroup threw a fantastic pajama party for the kids (and, ok adults).  I can't believe all they had there- a snow machine, Santa, crafts, food, gift exchange.  All in all, a great time!

The reaction to the snow was perfect: joy! They loved it.

Although Matthew was slightly preoccupied with mowing the lawn.

In the front yard, waiting for Santa.

Watching Santa drive up.

Quite the arrival Santa made. 

Matthew may have been excited to see Santa, but he was not excited to actually meet him.

Santa read Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Mommy and Matthew

 My favorite boys.

Matthew is completely obsessed with the car he got in the gift exchange.  Here he is (with full-on morning hair), playing with the car as soon as he got up in the morning.



Coloring time!

He cracks me up.  At the end there is was "draw Matthew", which I then have to do (stick figure, because I can't draw). Then it always turns into, "draw Mommy. Draw house. Draw daddy. Draw gaga. Draw choochoo."  His new thing is "umm, how 'bout...." he says it all the time.  Today he also made me "draw Kissy" (Chrissie) and "draw ty-ty" (Tyler)--our friends.  So funny.

Such a boy! He's always finding something to "fix".  I'm not sure what he thought was wrong with the crayons, but he insisted he fix them all. Then more "draw Matthew". 

I don't know why the videos look so dark on blogger, they're not dark when I watch just the file. Just another thing I'll probably never figure out about using blogger.

Good things

Don't you just love it when good things happen?
I know I do.  This has overall, been a rough year for me.  I was just saying to Mike the other day, "well, at least we know 2011 is going to be better then 2010."  My 2010 had plenty of highlights to it, but for the most part it felt like it was just one bad thing after another.  I realize sometimes I get down in the dumps about it, so today I thought I'd focus on the good things that have happened this week.

• Matthew has started sleeping a bit later.  His wake up time had been earlier since we changed the clocks, but suddenly this week, he's granting me a few more moments of peace in the morning before he gets up.

• Matthew has had zero puking incidents this week.  We re-started him on Zantac last week (or the week before, can't remember) and he is doing so much better.  I love it when there's no puke to clean up.  I love it so.

• I got my car back! Did I mention the fact that I very carelessly hit a parked vehicle? I hit it in such a strange way, it's really hard to re-tell the story and make any sense.  Let's just say I did not rear-end it, but I did come out of it needing a new rear bumper. Not to mention a new side-panel from the dents. Ouch.  It looks pretty again.

• Matthew's new cowprint carseat is in the shiny fixed up car and it's pretty darn cute.

• All my Christmas decorations are up inside and it is just so cozy, warm and festive in here.  In the evening, when the lights are all on and the smelly candles are burning, life really is perfect.

• I finally got good news about my liver!! My liver enzymes have come down from over 1500 to 100/200 (normal is under 40).  There were some scary moments, and I don't enjoy that I have to have a blood draw once a week,  but I seem to be on the mend.  As long as they are back in the normal range by January,  this girl doesn't need a liver biopsy. Yes! 

•  Matthew's teacher told me today that he is "so smart. I just can't believe how smart he is. He knows all his shapes and colors, and he know's his letters! Did you know he knows his letters?"  No, I did not know that, but man it makes a mommy proud to hear good things about their kid.  He likes to hide his knowledge for some reason :-).  Last week I heard him on three separate occasions count to 13.  I was surprised!  If you ask him to count or show him something to count, he won't do it, but if he's playing by himself and he thinks no one is listening....bam!  1-13 just like that!

• I did not gain any weight over Thanksgiving week/weekend.  In fact, I lost a pound when I went to weight watchers on Saturday! Woot!  See? One really can have yummy food that is fulfilling and healthy all in one!  You just have to know how to cook.

• My heart rate has been in a normal range for at least a week. I hadn't had any of the palpiations (from the Grave's) in a month at least, but my heart rate was still on the high side (not too high, just high).  This week it's been normal all week! Makes me feel like the radiation really must be working!

• I've successfully made three new recipes for dinner this week, that all turned out yummy!

• I won the lottery!  Dang. I wish.

I'd say that's been a great week.

(I am purposefully omitting the part where Matthew came home from school with that nursemaid's elbow thing again, had to go to the ER and then the pediatrician's office the next day. I do not think this qualifies as a good thing. Although, good thing, it's fixed now.)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

a

Can't stand the cute

I haven't spent much time mentioning the world of cloth diapers on here.  I know most people reading don't really care.  In fact I also know there are quite a few who would label anyone in this "day and age" kukoo for using cloth.  I know most of my friends and family are not of the green living, budget friendly variety.  So, I don't mention it. 

I actually do have a bit of an addiction to the world of cloth.  There are several blogs I read, mostly for the awesome giveaway contests they tend to have.  What I have learned over time are the main reasons for switching to cloth. People who use them tend to be: (1) eco-friendly, green-living sort of folks (I would say this is a large part of the community. These are the ones who will give you the statistics on landfills and chemicals in disposables.); (2) people watching their budget (me); and (3) people who use them out of necessity.  I'd say the top "necessity" reasons are those who can't afford disposables (let's be honest, disposables are expensive...even store brands, even with coupons) and those who have babies with skin that just can't handle the chemicals in disposables.  Yes, there are actually babies who react poorly to them, and cloth is really the best solution. 

 I admit, using cloth diapers did not initially appeal to me.  I did some homework and decided the cost difference would be worth it (let's remember we're a one-income family. We did not make the choice lightly for me to be a stay-at-home mom, but we knew it was what we wanted for our family and we knew it would mean keeping a budget, and yes, even making sacrifices).  Even still, there have been more then one occasion where something gross happened (all you need to know) and I thought "what the what? I'm crazy.".  And then I remembered it's pretty gross in a disposable diaper too.  (Also I cheat and use flushable liners a lot of the time, which makes clean up 90% easier).  As for cost, well, there are lots of people who cloth diaper who spend large amounts of money on them (you would not believe what some folks would pay for certain dipes!), but there are also ways to do it that save loads of money.  The clincher for me was I plan to have another kid (still confident this *will* happen for me!), and I'll already have diapers for that kid.  With the exception of maybe 2 diapers in my stash (one- the lining came apart; two- the velcro is worn (easily replaceable if only I could sew!), the rest all still look like new. You'd never know someone's been peeing and pooping in them.  For realz. Also, it's not an all or nothing thing for me and my family.  He uses disposables for school, when traveling, and on a few other occasions--still not enough that it makes anything cost a whole lot more.

Another thing I've learned, it is so easy to get sucked into the cute factor.  This weekend there have been a ton of fabulous deals, and although I should hope my kid is potty trained within the next 6 months, I couldn't stand it.  You all know I cannot pass up a good deal!  A local store here had sales, a $10 off coupon they sent out, and qualified for "small business Saturday"--which meant I got to buy 2 new diapers, basically for free.  I took this opportunity to buy 2 I haven't tried before because they're more then I would spend, and also because we really didn't need anymore.  But free is free, and cheap is me! Weeeeeee! 

It's cow print! And lined with the softest fleece I've ever felt! And so cute on my boy!

This is what the cloth diapering world would call a "fluffy butt".

Now listen.  I'm not asking you to like it.  I'm not asking you to understand it.  But I don't ever, would never, critize you for the choice you make as far as what your kid poops in--so it'd be nice if people wouldn't criticize moi for the same thing. 

And what I am asking is, please, please acknowledge the CUTE! Hee hee!

The best part of Thanksgiving

How I managed to forget to show you my favorite part of the day is beyond me:

That's right.  A man who will clean up after Thanksgiving dinner.

It's ok to be jealous ladies. :-)