More Snow Pictures

Update: Will finally got to make his snowman today, thanks to my Dad!!

Our house in the snow
Ryan still incapable of smiling normal

Sweet rosy cheeks

Boys playing in the front yard

Snow!

This is how Ryan poses for all pictures now

My sweet boy!

Heading to our sledding hill


All 3 sledding down the hill!

And now back up the hill! Lazydog had to be pulled up the hill.

Sledding today was really fun! The whole neighborhood was out and about visiting. Kids sledding, dogs barking, and adults chatting. One family had a firepit going in their front yard toasting marshmallows! This is the first really good sledding experience for Ryan and he loved it! He wanted to go over and over. Will just wanted to build a snowman and was a little disappointed that the snow is hard and crunchy instead of powder-y.

A New Post!

I thought at the beginning of the year that I would do better about blogging, but here it is the 22nd of January and I've only posted once. Oh well. I keep falling off the blog train. I realized I haven't even taken any pictures either, so I snapped this one yesterday.

Maggie and John Burton came over to play after school yesterday. By the time the siblings arrived, we had 6 kids in the house. It was so much fun!

Maggie has a special place in my heart. She is the perfect mix of a little girl. She can hang tough with the boys, but yet also appreciates Disney princesses with the best of them. With her short blonde hair and big smile, she won me over early in the year. Her mom Brigid is also a favorite of mine.

If you look close at John Burton, you can see his right hand is giving the "thumbs up" sign. This is classic JB. His smirky little smile and matter-of-fact personality keeps me laughing. His three yr old brother, Miller, is hilarious too! I am so glad we have this family in our life! Their Mom, Melissa, is my co-room mom. Needless to say, we have grown very close this year.

I really can't say enough great things about Will's class at school. We have made so many dear friends this year. Maggie and JB are 2 of them, but really, the entire class is special. 2 of the kids moved after Christmas break, so the class is down to 16! His teacher is such a blessing and she allows them to play and really just be Kindergarteners!

What's Cooking?

Something about this cold, snowy weather makes me want to stay home, drink coffee, and cook.

Here are some things I have made recently:

• White Chicken Chili
  
• Creamy Tomato Soup
  
• Iced Cheese Sandwiches
  
• Jessica Seinfeld Chocolate Chip Cookies
  
• Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs
  
• Old-Fashioned Chili
• Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie
  
  
  I received a much- appreciated Amazon.com gift card from my parents for Christmas. One of the things I have used it for is The Pioneer Woman Cooks. As most of you know, I am sucker for cookbooks. Old, new, good, bad- I don't care. I love them all. I read this book cover to cover last night and it is very interesting. Much more than just a cookbook. It is more of her biography. Great photography and delicious-sounding recipes. Plus, she is hilarious!! I can't wait to try some of her recipes.
  Have you made anything great lately?
  
  

A New Decade

Ten years ago I welcomed in the new millenium with friends at The Bound'ry, a Nashville hot spot (well, at least it was a hot spot 10 years ago...) I even remember the cute little black velvet outfit I wore. There was no question that I would be awake at midnight to ring in the new year.

Tonight I am welcoming in this new decade at home with some appetizers (baked brie, spring rolls, hot ham party rolls, and strawberry trifle,) the UT bowl game on the TV, and 2 little boys currently dressed in batman costumes beating each other over the head with styrofoam swords. I am already wondering how late I will have to stay up to keep JW from making too much fun of me. Ahh, the changes that happen in 10 years!

The media has made much talk about how this past decade has been kind of a downer for our country. September 11th got the decade off to a pretty bad start. The events that followed have changed many lives permanently.

Personally, these past 10 years have been pretty good for me. I welcomed my two precious babies into the world, and it just doesn't get any better than that.

I know the next ten years will hold many changes for our world and our family. I look forward to watching my boys grow and I pray that I will be open to the changes that God sends our way.

I could use this opportunity to make a list of resolutions and post them here on my blog for all to see like many other bloggers. But, I won't because they are all the same resolutions as many of you have: healthy eating, more exercise, weight loss, saving money, etc... Why set myself up for failure? I will instead chose to be pleasantly surprised when some of these things actually come to fruition. (see, I just listed them anyway...)

I wish you all well as we ring in this new decade. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.
Happy 2010!

Christmas Craziness

In the past week, we have survived 1 Christmas program, 2 school Christmas parties, 1 firm Christmas party, Christmas with my Aunt and Uncle from West TN, trip to Kentucky to see JW's aunt and extended family, and 1 playdate today with 6 kids in my small house! And we made all these goodies today! With some homemade Chex Mix thrown in there too. Whew! It has been busy, but fun. In them midst of all this my Nana is in the hospital with pnuemonia. She contends that she will be out in time to fry the country ham for Christmas morning breakfast. We'll see about that...

Hopefully we will survive the next 3 days of Christmas chaos and then stay at home and relax until the New Year. That is my plan.

Life is good and we are blessed. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. He is new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

The boys and I made our Gingerbread House today. We have done this the past 3 years now. One of my friends gave me a great tip- Hot Glue Gun!! Forget the icing that comes in the kit- just go with the glue gun! It was so much easier and everything really stuck instead of kinda sliding apart! I think it turned out pretty cute.

We made cookies today too. We thought we would need some to leave out for Santa. I was tired of the Christmas trees, so we went with stars and angels. The stars just have a simple icing with red and green dots and the angels have icing with yellow sugar glitter halos. This was my first time to try angels and I really like how they turned out- much prettier in person. The picture doesn't really do them justice b/c you can't see the glitter very well.

December Update

This is just a short update with a few pictures.

We have had a busy couple of weeks. We went to the Santa Brunch yesterday after church with my parents. It was lots of fun. They had a craft table and cookie-making table for the kids. The boys were really excited about talking to Santa this year. The boys then went home with my parents and spent the night while we went to our Life Group Christmas Party last night. Having Life Group adult-only once a year is really nice. We laughed that we could actually enjoy eating and have a real conversation without 15 kids destroying the house!

I thought this picture of the boys with Santa turned out great!
This was my first attempt at making Christmas tree cookies. It really bothered Will that the trees had no ornaments, but I didn't have much time Saturday morning before our get together. I hope to try again this week...maybe....maybe not...

Ryan in front of the tree in his snowman pajamas

Ryan and Will in their Christmas pajamas