New Year's Resolutions

No one could have explained to me how quickly 2009 would pass. It's been an incredible year. It was our first full calendar year with our daughter, and how she turned 15 months so quickly is beyond me!

January 2009

December 2009

We've seen friends move away from GTMO and have met some great new ones as well. I've fallen more in love with my hubby and have watched with mixed emotions as Baby Girl reaches milestone after milestone (SO proud but sad my sweetheart is growing up so fast). *sigh*

BUT reaching a new year isn't all about looking back (fondly or otherwise) on the past. It is about looking ahead to 2010 and dreaming about all its possibilities. I know most New Years Resolutions are given up by, let's say, February but that doesn't make me stop making them. This year I really feel like I can stay on top of the goals I want to accomplish.

2010 Resolutions

• Stick with the Body After Baby challenge.
• Organize the whole house so we know where everything is (I'm talking to you, Bill of Sale for the truck!).
  
• Put more of my personality into this blog. I love this blog and have fun with it but I don't always show my silly, sarcastic side. I would love to inject a little more of that.

I could probably think of one or two more, but these are my main ones. I hope you all have a fun and safe New Years Eve!! And here's wishing you a fabulous 2010!

Dr. Seuss Books Giveaway

Kohl's is at it again with their Kohl's Cares For Kids program. This time they have 4 Dr. Seuss books and their coordinating stuffed animals. I got all the books and a couple of stuffed animals from the last promotion (the If You Give... series) and absolutely LOVE their program. 100% of their net profit is donated to support children's health and education initiatives. How cool is that?!

You wanna know something extra cool? My good friend over at Momma's Playground is GIVING AWAY all 4 of these books! It's her very first giveaway so hurry over and enter! I am so excited for her having her first giveaway you'd think I was hosting it! lol I am totally going to order all 4 books if I don't win. Such a good cause and, not sure if it's obvious or anything (*ahem* Book Fan Friday *ahem*) but I love reading to Baby Girl. Anyway, go check out the giveaway and good luck!

Body After Baby Challenge - 2010's The Year!

Okay, so I don't know if you remember, but I said I was going to do this Body After Baby Challenge awhile ago. Yeah. That didn't last very long. I could give a million different reasons on why not... it's hard fitting in exercise when you have a child crawling around, it's hard to sit and eat right when you're taking care of said child, those cake pops I just made look way too good to just sit there and look pretty.... but when it comes right down to it, I just didn't do it. I could very well get in exercise by walking more or doing the 30-Day-Shred (I mean, c'mon, it's like 20 minutes, right?), I could easily make a healthy lunch while Baby Girl is napping, etc, etc. But I am not considering it a failure. You only fail if you quit trying, right? Right.

Anyway, so I'm pumped to try this again. I'm ready to feel better about myself. I am only about 12 pounds heavier than I was when I gave birth to my beautiful little girl 15 months ago so I don't have too far to go, but I'm super excited to get there.

My goals are pretty simple. I just want to be and feel healthier as well as feel better about how I look. As wonderful as it would be to look like I did before I got pregnant (funny for me to say since I didn't like the way I looked then, but looking back I looked pretty good!), I know that that may not happen. I know that your body changes while you're pregnant so I'm not going to expect myself to fit into my size 2 low-rise jeans again. Trust me, I won't be sad if that does happen, but I'm just not going to beat myself up about it.

I would love to do the 30 Day Shred workout at least 5 times a week or at least get myself out of the house and take a nice, long walk while pushing Baby Girl in her stroller. I also want to get myself to drink A LOT more water than I do now. I honestly drink very little water so I will be happy with any improvement and I'll work from there.

Well, now that it's out there I think I will be able to stick with it better. Now I just need to go take my measurements and my before pictures... I'll be back with my next Body After Baby post next week!

Lemonade Stand Award

Thank you SO much to Momma's Playground for giving me the Lemonade Stand Award! You are too sweet, Jamie!

The Lemonade Stand Award is awarded for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude. There are just a few rules for accepting this wonderful award:

- Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.
- Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Well, here are the 10 fantastic blogs that I wanted to give this award to. You ladies always make me smile and I enjoy coming back and checking out what new things you've been up to!

Saving The World One Cupcake At A Time

The Procrastinator Crafter

Frugal Family Fun Blog

Making The Most of Being At Home

Coffee, God, and Me

Triplets Plus Two Momma

Fun With Little Mouse

I Bleed Pink

Family Fun Fridays

Queen of Good Intentions

Muffin Tin Monday - Party!

I definitely have not kept up on this blog as much as I would have liked to, but it's been SO crazy this past week or two. I'm sure you all can relate to that!! But things are beginning to be back to normal. Baby Girl is playing with her new toys (as is our cat, Ali... she loves playing in the Disney princess adventure hut we got Baby Girl!), the house is finally clean again, and I am ready to change my focus to the everyday fun things. :) Beginning with Muffin Tin Monday! Yay!

This week's theme is New Years/Party.


I went pretty simple this week with bean and cheese quesadilla stars (well, some are stars and then I got tired of that and just cut them into bite-sized pieces lol), confetti (yogurt with sprinkles), and celebration milk (strawberry milk). I also got to use my pinwheel picks! The bean and cheese quesadillas were new for Baby Girl. She ate a few of them, which was wonderful considering how picky she's been lately. We'll definitely be trying that again soon.

To see what others have whipped up for this week, check out Muffin Tin Mom!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas...


...from our family...


...to yours!

Cookie Exchange

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already! I am so excited. Baby Girl was 3 months old last Christmas so she didn't really know what was going on. She doesn't know what Christmas means or anything yet, either, but she knows she loves all the lights and she'll be able to open her presents herself and all that fun stuff. I can't wait for her and hubby to open their presents tonight after dinner, hot chocolate, and a reading of The Night Before Christmas. *sigh* I love Christmas!

Today I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the cookie exchange I hosted this past Saturday. Well, technically the pictures are just of the goodies because I forgot our camera in the diaper bag that hubby kept with him since he watched Baby Girl, but that's okay. :) I had never even been to one before, but I really wanted to make sure there was one on island this year.

I ordered some gingerbread boy and girl themed decorations from Oriental Trading. They were super cute! I made some hot chocolate in the crock pot and some reindeer cake pops for dessert.

A couple of people volunteered to bring some hors d'oeurves and punch to help out, which was wonderful! It took a little bit of stress off and saved me a little bit of money! There were 10 of us that came and everyone brought such delicious cookies!


I made little recipe books with the recipes of the cookies people brought (at least those that people emailed me beforehand) for everyone to take home with them so they can make their favorites from the party.


It was really simple. I just printed them out with a cute little Christmas tree graphic in the corner, trimmed them down, punched a hole in the corner, and tied a ribbon to keep it together.

Oh, and of course I had some Christmas music playing in the background! :)

It was really SO much fun and I already know I want to do it again next year! Have a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Postcard Exchange

I have recently come across this postcard exchange, hosted by Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn. I think it is a wonderful idea to collect postcards from all over the world and turn it into a fun educational tool when Baby Girl gets a little older. This is a pay-it-forward exchange, so if you'd like to participate, please leave a comment (with your email address if yours is not on your blogger profile) so we can swap addresses, post about the exchange on your blog, and send out postcards to at least 3 other people.

My friend over at Momma's Playground had the wonderful idea to put some fun facts about your state (or country, base, wherever you may be) on the postcard. I would love to send a postcard to anyone who would like to participate (I live in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... for another year and a half).

I am really excited about this and am already thinking of ways to introduce this when Baby Girl is old enough! So many fun possibilities!

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas!

You know, I was super excited for last week and this week's muffin tin theme, but then this week came up and I couldn't think of anything! This week's theme is Christmas and I know there are a million things I could do, but I just couldn't think of what. Ever have one of those days? So since Baby Girl just isn't eating much lately (and being picky at that!) I made her a little tin. I also decided to give the Christmas tin a break and use the Christmas muffin liners that I had forgotten I picked up.


She had three crackers with turkey and cheese cutouts (1 angel, 1 Christmas tree, and 1 candy cane) and part of a cake pop. I made these reindeer cake pops (idea from Bakerella, of course!) for my Christmas cookie exchange that I had last night (I hosted and this was the dessert I took - besides the cookies). I didn't give her the pretzels, of course, but she loved the couple of bites of cake she got! :)


The reindeer were going to have black pupils instead of brown and were going to have a cute little smile (oh, and some of the pops had brown noses... not everyone can be Rudolph!), but my black edible marker ran out after the first two! BOOOOOO! :) Oh well, I still love them.

If you head on over to Muffin Tin Mom, you'll be able to check out what everyone else did for this week! Have fun!

Book Fan Friday

Wow, it's Friday already! Crazy! Today is so packed with stuff to do it's not even funny. But I also get to introduce Baby Girl to the wonderful story of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer! I love, love, love Rudolph. But honestly, I've never read the original story until I picked it up at the NEX a week or two ago.


(Ali was being cooperative so I decided to include her in the picture.)

Hubby had never heard the original story, either (written by Robert L. May in 1939), so we both thought it was so cool! Baby Girl hasn't seen the oh-so-popular (for a reason!) Rudolph special yet, so I'm definitely popping that in on Saturday. We're barely going to be home at all today otherwise I'd watch it with her today. :)

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash - Christmas Memories and Traditions

Man, I love Christmas time. For so many reasons I can't even begin to list them all. I love tradition and the story behind things/activities so I try to keep a lot of my family and Hubby's family's traditions, combine a couple to incorporate both, as well as create our own.

There is one thing that I loved as a kid and Hubby and I now do it for Baby Girl. My parents would buy me a new ornament every year so that when I grew up and moved out, I would have some ornaments to put on my very first tree. (I remember it would take forever to decorate the Christmas tree each year because my mom loved to take her time and talk about the story behind each ornament. And not just mine, but ALL of them. :) ) My parents would wrap the ornament and the tag would say "To: Christina From: The Christmas Tree" and they would set up the tree (we almost always had an artificial tree) while I was at school and would put the wrapped ornament underneath. Then it would be the very first ornament we put on the tree that year. We do this for Baby Girl now. Oh, another thing my mom always did was write my name and the year on the bottom of each ornament. Of course I have to do that, too. :) I love this tradition and it always brings back such wonderful memories. I really hope it's something Baby Girl cherishes as well and continues with the kids she may have one day.

Well, thank you to Tidy Mom for hosting the Bash today. I'm about to head over (with caution, mind you) to read the memories and traditions others are holding dear in their hearts today. I say with caution because there's bound to be a tear or two shed!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash - Christmas Recipes

Today's all about those wonderful recipes, old and new, that we all make for Christmas. I'm pretty late getting today's Holly Bloggy post up because, well, I am in the middle of making some of those delicious treats! Growing up, my favorite cookies were Chocolate Crinkles. I still love them! I also love Brown-Eyed Susans (that's what my mom called them - peanut butter cookies with Hershey's Kisses pressed in them). They were always my mom's favorite. I call them Brown-Eyed Ashlyns now, because of my daughter. :)

Today I've been making treats for my family and those coming to the Christmas Cookie Exchange I'm hosting this Saturday evening. I can't wait! I'm making Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies (the link has the recipe).


I am also making cake pops. I've made these a few times after seeing them on Bakerella's website and everyone who tries them LOVES them! I'm going to be decorating them like reindeer... hopefully they turn out even half as cute as these.

Simply Sweet Home is hosting the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash today (thank you!) so join me in going over and seeing what yummy things other people are making!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash - Christmas Crafts

It's been a little crazy around here the past few days, but I do have a few crafts to share with you! I've already shared a couple during the Monthly Craft Challenge - Christmas Edition (click to check out the pics!). I made a handprint Christmas tree and a hand/footprint angel. To go along with those handprint crafts, Baby Girl and I also made a handprint wreath.


I printed out a coloring page with the ornaments that spell out Merry Christmas and had Baby Girl color them before I cut them out and taped them on the wreath. We love it and it's hanging up above our computer.

There are some other crafts I really want to do this season (like make our own gift tags) but it's been a little stressful lately. Nothing major, just a few things that decided to pile up at the same time. Don't you just love it when that happens? Nothing that we will let get us down, though! Oh, totally go check out Blue Eyed Blessings (one of the sites I check out regularly) to see what other awesome Christmas crafts people are making this season!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash - Christmas Trees

It's day 2 of the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash! Today is about Christmas trees! I can't wait to go over to A Baby Changes Everything to see everyone else's Christmas trees. But before I do that, I want to share with you what our tree looks like this year.


I don't necessarily have a favorite ornament, though there are great stories and memories behind almost all of them. We do have what I think is a wonderful tradition when it comes to our Christmas tree that I've carried over from my childhood, but I'm saving that to tell on Friday, when the Christmas Bash will be all about Christmas Memories and Traditions. ;)

We don't have a theme for our tree, but I'm planning on buying a plain wreath during the after Christmas sales this year (if the NEX has any more... if not I'll find something online) and we're going to hang some of our favorite ornaments on it next year to highlight them. I had made a wreath that I just loved when it was just hubby, our cat, and me. I had made two snow people and a snow cat and had them sitting in the wreath. When Baby Girl was born I tried to make a snow baby out of stuff we had available on island, but it didn't work too well. lol But that's okay. When we get back to the states I will gather a bunch of supplies and make a new one. Or maybe next time we visit I'll stop by a Michaels and see what I can get... I'm already looking forward to it! But anyway, I'm getting off the topic of Christmas trees. :) Have a wonderful day!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash - Homemade Gifts

Today is the first day of the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash!!! Hooray! Okay, well today is all about Homemade Gifts and is being hosted over at Tatertots and Jello (love that name!). I didn't really make any gifts this year, but Baby Girl did receive something from her Granny Georgia. This is one side...

... and the flip-side of each of them.


She sewed together a couple of very cool placemats! At this age Baby Girl would only throw them if I tried to use them as placemats, so for right now we keep them with her toys. She loves the bright colors and I always identify the different letters/numbers/etc. when she points to them. We love them!

Please go check out Tatertots and Jello to see other homemade gifts people have made and/or received this year!

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Stories

I am pretty excited about this week's theme! We chose to create the tin around The Night Before Christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. (Pieces of mozzarella/cheddar cheese sticks.)

The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow, gave the luster of midday to objects below. (French vanilla yogurt with sprinkles in the shape of the moon.)

When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer. (8 pieces of chicken nugget.)

His eyes - how they twinkled, his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! (Fruit cup with cherries.)

He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. (Jell-o.)

And the milk? Well, it may not be part of the story, but Santa has to have milk with all those cookies left out for him, right? :)

Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what others did with the theme this week!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash

Okay, how fun does this sound... 5 blogs are joining together to host the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash all next week. Each day, you link up at one of the blogs with a post on whatever theme is going on that day. For example, Monday is about homemade gifts, Tuesday is about Christmas trees, etc. I found out about it at Simply Sweet Home. As soon as I read about it, I knew I was in! Oh, and to top it all off, they're giving away prizes, too! That's always some pretty yummy icing on the cake, right? It all starts off tomorrow morning, December 14th. Yay! I'm excited.

And of course I can't forget what today is... NATIONAL COCOA DAY!!! Okay, so I wasn't feeling incredibly creative for this, but of course I still wanted to celebrate in even a tiny way. Hubby had the good suggestion of eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs and we are going to be making some hot cocoa tonight after dinner. YUM! :) Our next little holiday I already have plans for! Thursday, December 17th is.... NATIONAL MAPLE SYRUP DAY!!! Hooray!

Sensory Tub

I was goofing off online the other day and really got inspired to do some new activities with Baby Girl. One thing I really wanted to try out was a sensory tub. I've seen these on numerous sites. I've always seen it done for older kids, though, but then I ran across From Babble to Scrabble, We're Going to Tot School and she did a sensory tub for her son when he was about Baby Girl's age. So I got all excited and made one for her. Did I have exactly what I wanted to use? No. But I didn't let that stop me! :)

I just grabbed the largest bowl we had, some random toys, the rest of our rice (sorry hubby, but at least we plan on going grocery shopping tomorrow!), and a measuring cup.


I put out a blanket and set it all out in front of Baby Girl. I didn't know what to expect or if it would even hold her interest. Come to find out, she LOVED it! She was having so much fun. If you have any ideas that would be good for an almost 15-month-old, or know of any good sites, I would love to hear about them! (You don't even have to have an idea for this to leave a comment and say hi, I won't mind. :) ) I've been going through the websites at 1+1+1=1 and keeping track of other good ideas, too.

Book Fan Friday

Thank goodness it is Friday!!! If for no other reason than another installment of Book Fan Friday! I caught some 24-hour bug that has been going around (at least I hope it only lasts that long!) and don't feel so hot so please forgive the short post this week. We're continuing our Christmas book theme this month with Merry Christmas, Curious George by Margret and H.A. Rey.


It is a very cute book about Curious George visiting a Christmas tree farm. I mean, it has to be cute, right? It's about Curious George and all the craziness he gets into!

Once again, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

National Christmas Card Day

Welcome! Today is NATIONAL CHRISTMAS CARD DAY! I needed something like this to get me off my butt and make sure I get my cards out on time. So what's on the agenda for today? Well, I need to go print off our Christmas pictures, buy some stamps, and put everything together to send out. I already have our cards printed out and the envelopes are addressed, so I don't have to worry about that. I'll reveal our Christmas card and photo on Christmas Day, but some of my family reads this so I don't want to ruin the surprise. :) For now, though, here's a cute Christmas picture for you!


Ready for the next holiday? Sunday, December 13th is... NATIONAL COCOA DAY!!! How fun! I really don't have a plan on what I'll be doing for it, but I'll figure something out. If you've celebrated National Christmas Card Day or plan on celebrating National Cocoa Day, I would love it if you left a comment. Have a wonderful day, everyone, and get those Christmas cards out! :)

Merry SITSmas!

Merry SITSmas everyone! The girls over at SITS (The Secret is in the Sauce) are celebrating Christmas early! I have gotten a lot of support from the wonderful people who are involved with SITS.

We recently took Baby Girl to see Santa. Let's just say she was not happy!! She was terrified a little unsure about sitting on some stranger's lap so I had to get in there with her. Hopefully she'll like him a bit more next year.


Have a fabulous Christmas and a wonderful and happy new year!

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies

I mentioned changing up a recipe a little bit for Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies in my National Cookie Day post. When I made them with the original recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, they were delicious, but hubby wasn't crazy about the cocoa aftertaste. It was better once the white chocolate went on, but I decided to play around with it a little. So instead of 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, I put 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa and 1 Tbsp. hot chocolate mix. DELICIOUS!!! It tastes like the first batch I made but without the aftertaste. Hubby said they were perfect. Trust me, the original recipe is wonderful, but this just suits our tastes even more. Here is the recipe with my twist:

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies

You will need:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 1 Tablespoon hot chocolate powder mix
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, cut up
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 3 ounces white chocolate (with cocoa butter), coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons shortening
• Finely chopped nuts, sprinkles, or nonpareils (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, hot chocolate powder, and salt. Add butter and red food coloring. Combine (by hand or food processor) until it resembles fine crumbs. Mix/process until mixture just forms a ball.

2. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough lightly until nearly smooth. Roll or pat dough to a 1/2-inch thickness. Using a floured 1-1/2-inch round cutter, cut out dough. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press scraps together and reroll.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes (20 worked perfect for me) or until centers are set. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

4. In a heavy small saucepan, melt white chocolate and shortening over low heat, stirring constantly (honestly, I didn't add the shortening). Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate. If desired, sprinkle with nuts or sprinkles. Let stand on waxed paper until set. Makes about 24 cookies.

Please don't mind the not-so-great dipping technique I used. I was short on white chocolate and had to maneuver the cookies around instead of just dipping. :) And I have decided that these are going to be the cookies I take to the Christmas Cookie Exchange I am hosting soon. I hope everyone likes them!!

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Morning!

Good morning everyone! It's time for Christmas Morning!!! Well, at least for the MTM theme this week. When I got out all my Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving, I realized that I don't have any Christmas cookie cutters!!! How did that happen? So I'm definitely going to be ordering some soon. They won't get here by Christmas, but they'll be ready to go next year. I am excited that I got to use my new Christmas tin, though! Baby Girl had...


Red and green yogurt, Nutri-Grain bar bites (they reminded me of Christmas cookies), and you can't have Christmas "cookies" without milk! (We always try to name the milk something silly for the themes since all Baby Girl really drinks is milk except for the occasional cup of apple juice or a sip of water.)

She's been picky about what she eats recently and won't eat much so I wanted to pick out some of her favorites. She ate pretty well! And of course she hung out in her pj's. :) Now I need to go and start planning next week's MTM. I LOVE the Christmas themes! :)

Another great thing about MTM is checking out what everyone else came up with! Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see!

Happy Birthday, Walt!

"Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children's approach to life. They're people who don't give a hang what the Joneses do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures, and they have a degree of contentment with what life has brought - sometimes it isn't much, either." ~Walt Disney

Today is Walt Disney's birthday! If you've been paying attention to some past posts, you'll know that I'm obsessed with a fan of Disney. I can't even begin to explain the feeling I get when I see pictures of Disneyland or Walt Disney World, let alone walking onto Main Street and seeing the castle.


"Fantasy and reality often overlap." ~Walt Disney

Today is going to be a busy day. Playgroup, pictures with Santa, Alabama/Florida game, and the Electrical Lights Parade. Oh, and hubby wants to watch UFC tonight. Among all that we are going to slip in a few Disney details because Disney pays close attention to detail and that makes every experience that much more special. We are going to watch Mickey's A Christmas Carol, I'm going to wear my Mickey earrings, and Baby Girl will wear her Princess jacket in case it gets chilly during the parade. I love bringing a little Disney joy into the every day. :)

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. And one thing it takes to accomplish something is courage." ~ Walt Disney

This whole lesser known holiday thing has been fun so far! Let's see, what shall we celebrate next... How about... December 9th, CHRISTMAS CARD DAY!! Sounds good to me! This gives me (or us, if you'd like to join me in this holiday) a date to have everything done and the cards sent out. Have a happy, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah day!

National Cookie Day

While getting my Book Fan Friday post ready, I almost forgot what else today means... it's NATIONAL COOKIE DAY!!! Yummy! Recently I tried out a recipe for Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies and they turned out really good. They just might be the cookie I make for the Christmas Cookie Exchange I'm hosting in about 2 weeks.


Today, though, I am going to tweak the recipe just a little to see how it turns out. I will post about my experiment tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Did you celebrate National Cookie Day today? I would love to hear what you did! Now for the next holiday... tomorrow, December 5th, is.... Walter Elias Disney's birthday!!! You know we're doing something special for that!! :) I have a few things in mind, so we'll see. I hope you join me!

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! This week, the Christmas books continue! A couple of weeks ago the NEX stocked up on some Christmas books so I grabbed up a couple. I was definitely tempted to get all of them, but managed to keep it to a minimum. :) One I thought was really cool was Animal Family Christmas by Wendy Wax.


It goes through the numbers 1-10 telling what animals put up what kind of decorations on their tree (cows put up corn, dogs put up bones, cats put up balls of yarn, etc.). Baby Girl loves animals so she really enjoyed it. Plus... it lights up! When you press the corner of the book all the little lights on the tree light up (of course 1 light shows up on the first page, 2 on the second, etc.). Every night when it starts to get a little dark outside, Baby Girl knows the drill and crawls over to the Christmas tree and points to it. Then she'll sit and just stare at the tree for a few minutes. She loves it and really got a kick out of seeing the tree in the book light up!

Just like every week, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Monthly Craft Challenge - Christmas Edition!

I was super excited to join in on Heidi's Monthly Craft Challenge this month! I've been doing a lot of crafts with Baby Girl's handprints lately and knew I just had to make some Christmas decorations with her!

I got a wonderful idea from a friend to make a handprint Christmas tree! Super cute.


And my favorite idea I had was to make an angel using handprints for the wings and a footprint for the body. I love how it turned out!


Head on over to see Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessings for more info on the Monthly Craft Challenge and to see what others did this month!