Sour Cream Cookies (Cookie Day #7)

(You can find the rcipe on the 'Recipes from Posts' page located on the right side of the screen)

These might be some of the best cookies Ive ever had.....wow. Sawyer's friend Kendyl brought this recipe in and we knew it was going to be good because it was her Daddy's favorite and he was sure right! After baking the sour cream cookies, we made a rich brown butter glaze that the cookies were dipped in. The glaze made them velvety smooth and just heavenly! We had made a double batch so after all the kiddos took some home, Sawyer and I delivered some to all of our neighbors.

This was a flying airplane car that Sawyer likes to make and yesterday he wanted me to take a picture of it to put on the blog :)

I had bought a new nativity scene set from the Christian book store the other day that had lots of different people~that way, when we're doing the story, each of them get to hold a couple of characters rather than squabbling over them.

We've been doing the story everyday before lunchtime and the kids just can't get enough of it! They are quick to correct me if I leave out a certain phrase that I've said the other days but left out today. They love holding their two characters and placing them in when it's their turn.

Afterwards, I let them tell each other the story while I get lunch ready and let me tell you that we have some very creative children because I've never herd so many different renditions of the Christmas story! According to them, Mary and Joseph end up taking quite a few pit stops at different gas stations to get Diet Cokes and corn nuts......the shepards locate the star using 'sky map' on their phones and the inn keeper doesn't have a pool to swim in...... I bite my tongue to correct them because at the end of each story, no matter how they get there, baby Jesus makes it into the manger and they say, "The real meaning of Christmas is that Baby Jesus was born and was the best gift of all!"

Like Father Like Son

Undoubtedly Sawyer is Bill's son. You can tell by their stunningly handsome looks.

But if for some reason there is still a smidgen of doubt in your mind, this is the nail in the coffin:

Only Bill's son would climb on top of the fridge...

Contemplate his next move....

and then swan dive off with only a bribe of a dollar.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (Cookie Day #6)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies were the main event of the day today! Sawyer's little buddy, Dane and his family always make these to leave out for Santa and they were sweet enough to share the recipe with us! The chocolaty, brownie-like batter needed to have the dry ingredients hand mixed in. (Since having the Kitchen Aid, I have done about zero hand mixing, so my arms are out of practice) I was doing a pretty good job until I cracked my spoon in half! And of course the kids just thought that was the most hilarious thing they'd ever seen......so if anyone is trying to think of a good stocking stuffer for me, new mixing spoons would be a great one! After coating them in confectioners sugar, they bake into these deliciously gooey goodness!

Had some help with the eggs......notice the chunks of shell in the bowl.....lol

Aaaahhh....the best part of baking.....licking the beaters!

After all of my little bakers had each licked one of the chocolate covered utensils and were wearing most of it, I wanted to get a picture of them and I couldn't choose just one to post! So, you get to see them all! They are all a little different and really funny!

A Snipit from Papa Steve

Hi all:

Kathy & I sat down with Sawyer last night to watch the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (you know...Burl Ives). About five minuets in, Sawyer asks “where’s Jesus?” Kathy explains that not all shows like this have Jesus in them. Sawyer puts his right palm up in an explanatory gesture and says “but it’s Christmas.” Kudos to Bill & Carrie for this one!

Merry Christmas!

Papa Steve

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

Saturday night we put up the Christmas tree! We decided to put up our big tree downstairs this year next to the fireplace and then have the kid's tree upstairs. So, Bill struck up the Christmas music, got the fire place going and put the vanilla cinnamon scented air filter in and we were ready! Sawyer was running around out of sheer excitement as we were pulling the tree out of the box and getting down all the decorations. He just kept squealing, "It's Christmas, It's Christmas!" He was so excited, I thought for sure the poor guy was gonna wet himself...

We had bought a new pre-lit one from Costco a few weeks ago and were really excited to see how it looked! For the past four years we have been using a tree that we pulled out of my friend Erin's grandparent's trash....it was severely tilted and looked a little...weathered....but hey, it was FREE! We had received a letter a couple days prior from Costco saying that there had been some trees that wouldn't light up in the middle section and if so to bring it back. And wouldn't you know it, our's didn't light up.......ugh! How annoying! So feeling a little 'scroogy' I called Costco with my rant and rave on hand, only to be helped by the twin of Tiny Tim....just the sweetest young lady that was so apologetic and understanding about the whole situation! Since we would need to borrow a vehicle to take the tree back and since they didn't have any replacement trees, she said to just come in for a full refund and it was up to us either to keep or toss the tree! Thank God for companies that value customer service! (If the President of Brazil is reading this, take note!)

In the end, it looks just great!

Some of our ornaments didn't have hooks on them, but by golly he was doing to get them on the tree! I need to go down and do some touching up, because we seem to have large bunches of ornaments on the bottom two and a half feet of the tree for some reason and not a whole lot elsewhere....

Sawyer has been asking ever since Black Friday, when I bought candy canes, when we were going to put them on the tree?!? After we were all done putting up the ornaments, the moment finally arrived for the candy canes :)

After the mad rush of Black Friday was over and the adrenaline had worn off, it was time for one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season...(Drum roll, please).....Gift Wrapping! I just L*O*V*E it! Now, I only gift wrap by myself. I light a scented candle, turn on some good ole-Bing Crosby, lock myself up in a room and go to town!

Normally I have a theme of some sort to as to how I want the wrapped gifts to look underneath the tree. Not this year. All color coordinated efforts go flying out the window when you have a four year old who would really like to pick out the 'wapping paper'. So, we've got a roll of old school Santas, brown paper with gold stars, metallic black with penguins, and then a gorgeous dark purple medley with gold detailing (the one pick that I got). It looks like a hodgepodge....but when Sawyer saw everything wrapped, he just thought they were so incredibly beautiful!

Peanut Butter Kisses (Cookie Day #5)

Our latest cookies were Peanut Butter Kisses from Vanessa's family! What a perfect combination of peanut butter and dark chocolate! Yummy! I just loved how the kisses looked after we gently pressed them onto the warm cookie.....just ooey gooey goodness!

We needed to have over 50 dark chocolate Hershey's kisses unwrapped and I had a lot of little hands that were eager to help! They really had to practice self control as they were staring at this chocolate for what seemed like forever and weren't allowed to sample any until they were all done! But I had to say, they all did very good :)

My little elves, hard at work! It was nice that there was such a long lasting job for them to help with!

I have just been LOVING my Kitchen Aid mixer!! (Thank you mom!) I use it almost everyday either for baking with the kids or mashing potatoes or whipping cream....it's just sooo handy!!!!

This is what the kitchen normally looks like after every cookie-baking-morning! What a disaster!!! I long for the good ole' days in Brazil, when I had a maid.....

Happy Thanksgiving

Bill had been gone for 11 days for a medical drug study! While the money is nice, it's always hard when he's away. Also, everything in the house seems to sense that he's gone and decides to break down-the fridge in the garage, the oven, the fireplace.....ugh! But he's back now and we're so glad to have him home!

In preparation for Thanksgiving, the kids have been making different crafts, reading 'Thankful' stories and talking everyday about the different things that we should remember as blessings from God.

I always enjoy making pies with the kids to take home with them over Thanksgiving weekend! They made the cutest little apple pies this year that turned out to be very tasty!

Right before making their journey into the oven!

The kids were SO proud of their pies when their parents picked them up that afternoon! You can just hear it in their little squeaky voices as they exclaim, "Look what I made!!!"

On the way to our Thanksgiving dinner at Nana & Papa's house, Sawyer was holding his little pie in the back seat and says, "I'm going to eat this pie all by MEself.....ok mom?" and I said that was fine if that's really what he wanted to do. A few moments pass and he goes, "I changed my mind. I think I wanna share this with everyone." (Now, might I add, this wasn't said with a overly joyful spirit....more like a conviction of the heart that was hard to swallow but needed to be done :)

Thanksgiving day we headed to Bill's parent's house after I burned a really fun appetizer and made our house smell like a smoke pit....but we made it and we had a such a wonderful afternoon! Bill's Aunts and Uncles came up from Lincoln to spend the day eating, laughing, playing games and eating some more!

Aunt Becky was in charge of pies and they were beyond D-Lish!

Sawyer and his little cousin Taylor sat up at the island and had their own little party! And nooo....that isn't Sawyer's glass of red wine!

Uncle Mike, Sawyer and Alex battling it out in a game of Scooby Doo Jenga!

As always, we spent the rest of the evening rummaging through the paper scouting out all the good Black Friday deals before heading to bed early.....for our 1:45 a.m. wake up to hit Kohls by 2:00 a.m.!!! I just love Black Friday!*