Pre-order anyone??

Click over to the Layouts and Projects Blog! But hurry...these are on pre-sale only until Monday!!

Sugar Cookie

Gingersnap

Madeline

I should have pre-ordering available for these kits no later than Sunday! Because I just got word that my BasicGrey 2 scoops order should be here early next week. These kits will be shipping out the week of the 7th!

From my MS girls!

A big thank you to Greta and Elizabeth for the very thoughtful Christmas gifts! I got 2 adorable handmade cards. 2 Starbucks gift cards and 2 ornaments!! thanks guys...you're the best!


UPDATE---Jonnine (also from MS) sent me this adorable card also!! I just went through the rest of my mail this morning. HOW CUTE!!! Thanks Jonnine!!


And this also came to me from Kelly Jo!! I'm so lucky to have such great and thoughtful friends around the country!!

Thanks guys!!

Santa's coming!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
xo-Noel, Jason, Jacob, Nick and Luke

He's better than a Doctor, he's Santa Clause!

We are all kings

There is a fun little thing we do in our house. I forget how it started but we are all "kings of something"...kind of designating us each special in our own way. Nick is King of Cozy, because he is the snuggle bunny. Luke is king of desserts, because he licks his dessert plate clean. Jacob is king of green spaghetti, because he loves spaghetti with pesto sauce. Dad is king of coffee, self explanatory. But today in the car I got the best one. Luke said "Mom, what are you king of?" I said I didn't know, what should I be king of? He replied first with "King of Queens"..LOL! Then he changed his mind and said "no mom, you should be King of Love". Aww....super sweet!

The Nutcracker and do it yourself eggnog latte!

Today was the long awaited day to head to Sacramento for the annual production of the Nutcracker! We took the boys last year and believe it or not, at 3 and 5, they sat through and enjoyed the whole thing. The talked about going again throughout the year so I got tickets for us to go again. Don't they just have that "Bad News Bears" look about them??! There is nothing perfect about my kids....in every group photo, someone is in a choke hold!


Luke was really excited!


The show was good and very similar to last years as far as set design and costumes. The boys made it all the way through again with little complaining, although at one point I did have to whip out a package of m&m's for a bit of a distraction. Oh and at intermission Jacob said "when will this torture end"...but I think he liked it! LOL! but they followed the story line and asked questions, so it was fun


So if you are a fan of the $4 Starbucks latte like I am, I have a very quick and easy treat for you! Fill your morning coffee mug a little over 1/2 way full of eggnog (I suggest the light version). Put it in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. It is important to heat the eggnog alone...I have tried to heat it all togehter and it's not that good. After the eggnog is heated then stir in your usual favorite brew and voila....homemade eggnog latte!!


Oh and for my own selfish reason I need to jot down a few cute things the boys are still saying. Luke is "king of besserts" and likes them "gimantic"! ...translation: he is the king of desserts and like them big. Take a look at his photo above and you can guess how much enthusiasm he has when he says this too! Nick still calls his little finger his "finky"...which I love!

Probably my favorite Christmas movie scene ever!

I can never get through this one with a dry eye!

my "semi-homemade"goodies

So I'm in charge of deserts for our family get together this weekend. So I decided to make several things including cookies. I'm going to share my favorite, and fairly easy steps for festive, delicious crowd pleasing cookies that keep for weeks!

So I love to make chocolate covered graham crackers, oreos and pretzels. And my husband loves peanut butter balls (think homemade recess peanut butter cups) or as my kids call them "chocolate rocks".

First step for the crackers and oreos is to dust them off of any crumbs so you don't dirty up the chocolate.


If you want to decorate the tops with colored chocolates get a couple squeeze bottles and slowly melt them in the microwave in 15 second intervals with the tops off. Fill them...heat them...squeeze them up...repeat, until it's all melted and smooth. Put your waffle iron on low and lay several thick dishtowels on the top to keep the bottles warm and the chocolate workable. **NOTE** check your squeezbottles periodically to make sure the bottoms are not getting to hot. Last year I left one on to long and went to use it and the whole bottom squeezed out.


I forgot to take a photo of my chocolate pot...but here is the Michales version, which is where I bought it. $15 with a coupon. And sooooo well worth it! Just buy a bunch of the Wilton's chocolates, throw them in, melt them and then dip. I use a fork. You want to get your item covered completely and then tap it so the excess chocolate and any air bubbles with come off. Air bubbles are not really a big deal....they just kind of look "not perfect"....Martha S. would not find them acceptable...lol!



You do need to work kind of quickly. Make sure you line your cookie sheets with waxed paper. Get your cookies, etc...in the chocolate and then drizzle or sprinkle as you like. Then off to the fridge to set them up. If you take too long the chocolate will start to turn white, so the sooner you can get it to the fridge the better! Leave them in there about 20-30 minutes.


When drizzling the colored chocolate don't worry about going off your cookies, when they harden you can just snap the excess off to even them out and make them look perfect!


So here are all my finished goodies! I made enough to pass around to the neighbors too! Next week I'm hoping to have time to work on the pretzels. I love to do those in white chocolate with white sprinkles!


You can store all of these items in Ziplocs for weeks! the chocolate is fine at room temp, so just put them in a dark room or closet out of the sun if you want to store them for awhile! If you have any questions just email me!

Merry Christmas 1975 style!

Yours truly....1975! Man...people sure knew how to dress in the 70's didn't they!

Have fun people!

I saw this over on Kristi's blog and I just thought it was so much fun I lifted it! This is how I used to live...fun every day. I want to live fun again. Now that the boys are older it's getting easier and I'm finding the fun with them. But watch it the whole way through...it starts off slow and then they kind of remind everyone to "have fun"!

glumbert - Best wedding first dance ever