Another Year

Happy New Year! Or it will be in less than an hour. We decided to have a quiet evening at home for New Year's. Grandma kept the kids for the night. Woohoo! It's amazing the house is completely silent. It seems so strange. Really nice...but strange.

We had our annual dinner of french onion soup covered in melty provolone cheese, fresh from the oven french bread, and shrimp cocktail....mmmmm. Normally we make cheese fondue too but we were feeling rather lazy this year and just decided to skip it (we did have 2 cheese spreads though). Rebecca stopped by after work and brought me a special New Year's treat...sushi! (Thank you Rebecca!!).

Dh and I rented videos and settled down on the cozy couch to eat, snuggle and watch movies. Apparently it was a little too cozy though, lol. Dh nodded off halfway through the second movie. So here I am ringing in the New Year alone listening to him snore away on the couch, lol.
Oh well truth be told, half the time I'm asleep when midnight rolls around. In fact sleep is kinda sounding good right about now *yawn*.

Well see you next year. Night.

Colby snoozing on the couch

Sebastian perched and waiting under the table trays trying to steal a piece of shrimp
Sparkling apple cider
Sushi...mmmm
Happy New Year!

Gingerbread Lane

Today Gwen was in her school ABC Christmas play. She remembered all her lines and said them perfectly. She was so cute. :)

For an after school snack I surprised the girls with Christmas brownies and hot cocoa with whipped cream, mini marshmallows, and sprinkles. Then after our snack we spent the afternoon decorating "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses and making little snowmen out of mini marshmallow's. We had too much sugar but so much fun.

Raven's Gingerbread House

Gwenny's House 'O Sugar





Gwen chowing down on her gingerbread house

And the Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney With Care

Ok, well we don't have a chimney but I finally got around to hanging up the girls' Christmas stockings. Or I guess I should say I *finally* finished making the rest of their stockings. After the family picked me up from work we had dinner together and then Raven and I hung out in my studio. She worked on making gifts for Grandma and for her friends while I worked on the stockings. They turned out pretty cute I think. *smile* I hung them up in the livingroom when I was done. Gwen was so excited when she saw her Christmas stocking (the bow on it matches her little bear I made her last week). She asked me if Christmas was tomorrow. She was disappointed when I told her no. I can't believe it's only less than 2 weeks away though. My how time flies. I better get working on the rest of my gifts or at this rate they're going to end up being New Year's gifts or next year's Christmas gifts.

Miss Clumsy 2007

So I am still the reigning Queen of Clumsiness. All others bow before me and seem more graceful in my presence.

This morning I woke up full of plans, ideas and energy. First it was get the girls off to school, then on to my new exercise DVD that I picked up at the library (so I could be on my way to a new slimmer although clumsy me), then it would be onto crafting....finally tackling the rest of my bountiful Christmas list of handcrafted and homemade goodies for everyone, followed by a relaxing cup of tea, a good book and then lunch. Ahhhhhh.

Never quite made it past the breakfast part though. It all started off so well. We had just gotten the girls off to school without a hitch, the house was clean, I was feeling good, a kettle of water was boiling on the stove just waiting to be transformed into a nice cup of tea, and Brian was at the stove cooking me an egg to make me a yummy homemade egg "mc muffin". All was right with the world.
And then clumsy me as I was making my way toward the refrigerator ended up tripping and falling over and ramming my little pinkie toe right smack into the tip of Brian's giant steel toed boot. I felt a pop, it bent clear to the right, and down I went. All I can say is OUCH, ouch, ouch. Okay I'm sure I probably said a few more choice words than that but I'll just leave it at "ouch" for the sake of tender ears (or I guess that would be tender eyes since this is typed out? Oh well I don't know. lol). Anyhoooooo....needless to say my plans all went flying out the window and I now have a very swollen, ouchie, bruised, crooked, sad looking broken little tosie.

So not looking forward to going to work tomorrow and standing on my feet for hours on end. *pout*

Anyways here a pretty picture of some snowflakes I stitched the other day but never got around to posting. Cause I'm certainly not showing you my ugly toe, lol. ;)





Ok, now off to eat a warm, gooey fresh from the oven chocolate chip Christmas cookie courtesy of the Pillsbury dough boy and my loving hubby Brian. Mmmmmmm. Chocolate always makes everything better.

Chocolate...it's what's for breakfast.

This morning I made the girls heart shaped chocolate chip buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. Gwen was so cute she hugged me after breakfast and said "I love you Mommy, thank you for making pancakes." Awwww. That really made my morning. :) Ella seemed to really like them and kept asking for more "cake" and by the end of breakfast was well covered in smeary melty chocolate. And Raven (the one who had bugged me to death to make pancakes in the first place) of course decided she didn't feel like pancakes after all and didn't eat a single bite. Not a one. Kids... *rolling eyes*. Gotta love 'em.

Cozy Monday

The girls were off school today so I decided rather than run myself ragged on my "day off" like I usually do running errands, cleaning house, and trying to keep up with everything and everyone all at once that I was truly going to take the day off today and relax instead. Especially since I've been rather stressed out lately and really need to take the time to relax for a change. The house looks a little messy at the moment. But that's okay.

Instead I spent the day making yummy hot chicken soup from scratch, baking blueberry muffins, curling up on the couch snuggling with Ella in a warm quilt while reading a book, playing Scrabble in the kitchen with Raven (she won by the way), teaching Raven to sew (she made a cute little fuzzy pillow) and hanging out with the girls in my craft studio sewing them little stuffed animals of their choosing (Raven a little pink flowery cat and Gwen a little blue flowered bear).

Gotta admit it's nice to have a cozy Monday rather than a crazy Monday for a change.

Woohoo...it's finally done!

So I finally finished Raven's knitted rainbow colored purse for Christmas. It is my first actual completed knitting project. I have about 4 other knitted projects going on in various stages but this is the 1st to actually be completed. It turned out pretty cute so I hope she likes it.

Now I'm on to a fuzzy blue scarf for another gift. I got quite a bit done on it today during my lunch break. Not sure if I'll get it done in time for Christmas but knitting is relaxing to me, my own form of zen so I'm not going to stress over deadlines. If nothing else it can always be a gift for next Christmas, lol.

A Stocking for Miss Ellie

I got up early this morning and got the girls off to school and got ready for work early so I would have a little time to spend in my craft studio before having to leave for work. I mended a pair of Ellie's pj's and a pair of Rebecca's pants, then I cut out 3 stocking shapes from some pretty floral fabrics I found in my fabric stash to make the girls new Christmas stockings (since we seemed to have lost a box of decorations somewhere in our mess of a shed that contained all our stockings...oops).

It turned out pretty cute and I'm happy with it. I think Miss Ellie will like it. I'm hoping to get up early again tomorrow and work on another one. I also have to finish knitting Miss Raven's rainbow purse for Christmas. So much to do, so little time.

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

Feeling rather festive today so today after school the girls and I made Christmas decorations. They made pretty paper chains, colorful paper ornaments (complete with secret wishes written on little slips of paper hidden inside each ornament), paper ginger bread men, and strings of popcorn for the tree (although Gwen ate all of her popcorn off of her string and proclaimed it delicious, LOL). They had a lot of fun and the house looks so cozy and Christmasy (if that's a word, lol). :)

Thanksgiving Blessings

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We went to my SIL's and BIL's place for dinner. Everyone contributed something to the meal. MIL made the turkey, ham, deviled eggs, and giant sized rolls and brought sweet potato, pumpkin, apple and cherry pie. Raven and I made the sweet potato casserole and scalloped corn, dh made the green bean casserole and greens, and SIL made the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, and the macaroni and cheese. We ate till we almost exploded.

It was a day full of family, fun, and food. I am so thankful for the people in my life. We are most blessed. :)

When Life gives you lemons make...pancakes!

It's the end of the month, the bills are all due, the dryer broke down, gas prices are up, and I'm left with a grocery budget of nearly nothing this week. So time to get creative.

The girls had a wonderful time at Boo at the zoo yesterday with their friend. They got to wear their costumes, see lots of animals, and stuff themselves silly with sugary candy. What could be better?

Afterwards they had a "sleep" over here. Although when you put 3 giggly girls in a room together overnight not much sleeping actually takes place, lol. I think they finally dozed off sometime after 12:30am, even after a gentle reminder that Mommy had to be up early to go to work the next morning. What I wouldn't give to have half their energy. *yawn*

In the morning though I realized "uh oh"... we are almost out of milk, out of cereal, out of bread, and are down to 3 lonely little eggs. Ack. What's a girl to do for breakfast??

Raven suggested pancakes. Perfect!

So I made a huge batch of fresh, warm, yummy buttermilk pancakes and chocolate chip pancakes (using what was left of the chocolate chips...apparently a little blonde haired gremlin has been into the bag lol).
Then we made strawberry tea sweetened with honey served in little rose decorated china tea cups and steaming mugs of dark hot chocolate. We set the table with pretty china, put a tiny vase with a single pink and white daisy for our center piece, surrounded it with little lit candles and served ice water in champagne glasses. The girls loved their little candlelight breakfast. The coco puffs were never even missed.

Last day of vacation

Today is my last day of vacation. :( I have really enjoyed being able to spend the past week home with the girls and puttering around the house. Not looking fwd to going back... but you do what you have to do. Gotta make a living somehow. Boo.

So I decided to spend my last day making a fun surprise for the girls. :) I dug around the basement and found some old wood scraps, dug around my fabric bin and through some of the girls' outgrown clothes for cute fabrics and made some things (with a little help from dh - put him to work doing the sawing and nailing) for their Barbie doll house. I made them a little Barbie doll bed, pillows, a blanket and mattress, a little matching cushioned chair, a kitchen table, chairs, a few misc odds and ends and two adorable little Barbie aprons. :)

They turned out pretty well and the girls were SO excited when they came home from school! I had a lot of fun making stuff and the smiles on their faces really made my day. :)