Christmas Baking!

For fun, and for traditions sake, we had a few friends over to decorate cookies. It was great.

The Happy Cookie Bakers. Jackson, Jayna, and Zachary. I love that Jayna has to force herself to smile. HA!

One tired baker.

The Happy Frosting Maker
The Happy Decorators
Look at that tongue. Love the concentration.

.

The Happy Mommies.

My good friends Maren and Jordana.



VISITORS!!

Justin's cousin Sarah and her little boy Easton came over for a visit. They live in Ohio right now, but came to visit for Christmas.

Zach with his 2nd cousin? First cousin once removed? I don't know. Zach with Easton. I love how he is looking to see if he was smiling or not. :)

It is funny that years from now their age difference will be nil. It will be fun to show them this picture. :)

From My View

What I see when I am making dinner, or on the phone, or trying to walk across the room. Lucky me. :) I love them.

This makes me wonder what their view is like. Remember the days when you couldn't reach the cupboards to get a cup?

Awesome Winter Craft

I was hating winter and was talking to my sister Angie, complaining when she said she had a great project that she wanted to do, but couldn't because the poor thing lives in sunny California. This actually got me excited about living here! For a few minutes at least. Anyway, here is the craft she told me about that only us lucky Eskimos can enjoy!

ICE ORNAMENTS!

or Garlands or whatever...

1. Place cookie cutters on a cookie sheet with string through the top so it will be frozen in place.

(big hint: I have the 101 all you could ever want cookie cutter pack. Cookie cutters for all seasons, all the letters, numbers, and even some sport and dinosaur ones. It is an essential! Go to Michaels and buy it. Make sure you take your 40% off coupon and you get a wicked deal! Not expensive and so much fun! It is my new staple present for newlyweds!)
2. If you are as lucky as me, you can just use your outdoor freezer. Place the pan on the front porch and fill it with water. Leave there for about an hour...or 10 minutes depending on the day. :)

3. Bring inside and get the ornaments out. I did this by dipping the bottom of the pan in warm water that was in a bigger jelly roll pan. Sometimes it didn't work, so I broke the ice and then ran warm water over the parts I wanted unfrozen. Pretty annoying. If you find a better way, let me know. ;)

4. Tie the strings together and hang on your favorite pine tree in the front of your house. :) If you are as lucky as me, it will last outside for over half the year!

(Sorry this is a bad picture, but it was cold outside and I wanted to go inside. You can see the teddy bear and a few others on that tree. You get the point!)

Wouldn't a string of stars hanging across the deck be so pretty!?


And this is just a random shot of Zach's first stickmen...and women.

He drew the circles and bodies. Again, a very faint picture, but the are there. It was so cute to watch him try and draw a circle and then add the arms and legs and body.

Just Gross and Pretty Cool

JUST GROSS:

Walking outside your house and seeing this. Eew.

All the snow has melted off that part of the roof because of their heat. Pigeon heat. Eeew.

You can see here our house and our neighbor's house is the hot spot. Gross. The worst was when they all flew over me as I walked out. And then flocked right back to their little cabin.

No, I don't want no pigeon.

PRETTY COOL!

Freezing cool that is. We had a deep freeze. All of the trees had frost on every branch. It was gorgeous.

Another lovely view of the birds on our house...and our cutely wrapped candy cane poles that I have to take down still. Sad.

Isn't that amazing!

Makes you want to come visit...eh???

Tutus and Beads

Just a girly photo shoot. My friend Maria gave me tutus for the girls when they were born and I have waited for the day that they would fit them. They are still a little big, but when I saw some dress up beads at Walmart after Halloween, I thought they would look SO cute in pictures, so here is the photo shoot! Thanks Maren! It was SOOOOO crazy and quite a work out to take these pictures of my mobile twins. They almost fell off beds and dressers, so we moved it to the floor. Smart. Then they ran away. AH! Anyway, sorry for doubles of some of the shots. I just couldn't decide...the different colors are so cool and I knew my photographer sister would enjoy seeing them anyway!

This one was kind of awkward, but I found out that it works perfectly as separate pictures! I cut and cropped the picture so each girl is in her own vertical portrait, and it is great!

Look at those eyes Kara Beara!

Kate's Turn!