New years eve nap...

Look very closely in the corner of the pink and lime green...it's Sarah Claire. No, she's not playing hide and seek, she's sleeping! Ha!! It's been a really big week for this little girl. She officially started crawling, is pulling up like crazy, goes from laying in her crib to sitting, which prompted the crib mattress to be moved down last night and another tooth popped through bringing the total to 7!

She was fussy and sleepy around 10 this morning so I gave her some milk then put her in her bed. She played and laughed and talked and probably crawled and stood up...times like these I really wish we had a video monitor, but we don't. Then about 30 min later, it got quiet and when I went in to check on her...this is what I found. A sleeping babe...sleeping sitting up with her head in her bumper. Don't worry she was breathing fine. I wanted to move her but Matt said "never move a sleeping baby" or something like that. We kept checking on her, eventually her arms dropped down, but she slept this way for 1 and half hours!

Thanks to Kristen and bestie, Abby for the Baby Legs...so fun! Can't believe this paisley pink princess will be 10 months old tomorrow!

One snowy day...

One snowy day...Ollie's Grandaddy took him up the hill down around the corner.

Down the hill they went, snow flying everywhere...one snowy day.

One snowy day...crash they went and flip and turn.

One snowy day...Ollie and his Grandaddy got "all snowed up" and had the ride of their lives (well for a while at least.)

Angel sugar cookies...

Ok, it's been a year of Sundays since I posted a recipe. Since I am a stay at home mom this week, I have time to do things like...cook, clean, organize, rest, love on my kids, husband, etc.
My Matty got me this cook book for Christmas...quite possibly might be my favorite gift. I really LOVE to cook, you know when I have time. I visit this gal's blog every once in a while but mainly enjoy her recipes and photographs. So I was super excited when she released a cook book this year.

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of sugar cookies...I honestly prefer my cookies or well anything with chocolate. But I decided to give this recipe a whirl tonight and they were a big hit in our house.

I give you Angel Sugar Cookies: (via Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman)

You'll need:
2 large eggs
1 c. canola oil
2 sticks of butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for the tops of the cookies
1 c. powered sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla
4 c. plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Directions: Mix first 6 ingredients in your stand mixer, cream them all together nice and fluffy. Then add in the last 4 ingredients, mix well, then refrigerate for 1 hour. Then pre-heat oven to 350 F, using a cookie scoop or spoon drop balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. This is the fun part, take a glass and smear butter on the end then dip into sugar. Use the glass to flatten the balls of dough, dipping again into sugar each time. Repeat until all are flattened, then bake for 9 to 11 minutes until the cookies are just barely turning brown around the edges. Allow to cool before eating, you know if you can make it that long!!!

She says it makes 18 cookies, not sure what size she was making but ours were about 3 inches wide and it made 40!!! These are so much lighter than normal sugar cookies, light and fluffy and yum! Enjoy!

Christmas jammies...

Just because I could...I did...bought my kids matching Christmas sock monkey jammies...sadly not a single pic was taken of them together in a posed fashion...but you get the idea!

Christmas Eve...

The Hannams came down on Friday to beat the snow to spend the day with us. We had a great time, opening presents, eating our Christmas dinner a day early, hanging out, decorating giant ginger bread sugar cookies. We went from zero pets to 4 pets in a matter of minutes as our house now owns 2 pillow pets and 2 zhu zhu pets! What fun! I got a cool fish eye lens for my camera...excited to figure out how to use it!

The extended fam...right before bedtime!

Merry Christmas!!!

Ollie's 1st Christmas...2007...notice the outfits...

Last night...Christmas 2010...Sarah Claire's first Christmas. Not sure why I look so sleepy?!

I pulled out the above pic yesterday to show our family and look at how similar and cute our two babies look. Then noticed that my sweetie had on the same shirt that he did 3 years ago. So I quickly grabbed my green sweater and then we snapped a few pics. My how we've grown as a family in 3 years. Perhaps it's time to hit up the after Christmas sales at Old Navy for some new shirts!!!

Merry Christmas friends and family...thankful for the birth of our Savior!

Promise to post more Christmas and SNOW (about 4 inches on the ground as I type) shenanigans...very soon!

Christmas card outtake...

We had a "photo session" if you will first thing yesterday morning. This is pretty much how it went! I think I was able to get a few good shots but man it was tricky! Thought to myself...this is why people pay big bucks to have someone else make their family look perfect.

Seriously, thanks for hanging in there with me on the Shutterfly post. I was able to create our family's photo card for free this year (yes it is my year for the card) b/c of that post. It was a $100 value...can't wait to see them. Until then, hope you enjoy this outtake!

You can fly with Shutterfly!!!

Merry Christmas season...I am super excited to tell you this afternoon about all the incredible deals and showcase some of the fabulous products that you can get and/ or give to your loved ones this holiday season from Shutterfly. Three years ago we gave my dad a really cute photo mug with Ollie on it...when he was about Sarah Claire's age. My dad loves this mug, it is totally one of his favorites. We need to get him one with the princess on it. If you or someone you are close to is a coffee drinker this is totally a gift you might want to consider giving.
Another great gift is the photobook. This one is totally a classic. Matt gave me one of these about 5 years ago. It is so sweet, it highlights our adventures on our old sailboat, The Water Weasel. I love this book...I just re-organized our home library in our new house a few weeks ago and I was so excited to be able to "display" this book on our shelf. We look so young...and a few friends have looked at it since I've had it out. These are such a great way to preserve photos with a flair of a book. Maybe someone in our family will receive one of these for Christmas.
The third Shutterfly project that everyone these days is working on is the photo Christmas Cards. We have already received 3 of these in the mail and I love displaying them on the pantry door. They have so many cute cards this year. I've got my eye on a few that I absolutely love. Like this one "Joy and Love"...certainly fits our life this year.

Thanks for "listening" to me talk and share about some of my favorite Shutterfly products. Hopefully you can find just what you're looking for...I sure did!

The evergreen and snow...

Due to the 20 plus ceilings in our new house we decided to get a huge tree this year...oh my it is a beauty!!! Love looking at it...we had a super fun time decorating it this Saturday as the snow was falling outside our windows.

Snow...yes it snowed like 3 inches here on Saturday is was a precious suprise for all of us...Ollie enjoyed it oh so much. He's going to be a pro with the snow before winter is over. The snow is going away slowly but man the wind is whipping tonight and lows in the teens...burrrr! So thankful to have a warm home...hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!

Christmas cutie...

Moving on to the good stuff...SC was uber cute as we picked out our Christmas tree on Saturday. So excited to see this little girl enjoy opening presents in a few short weeks. She is so fun these days: starting to finally scoot and move, says Olla and Dadda, a lot... and now has 6 teeth. She loves big people food and is a pro at blowing bubbles with her mouth. We love our 9 month old!

Thanksgiving re-cap...

Oh my...a destination Thanksgiving was our plan this year. We hit the road for Pigeon Forge, TN. Sadly, Ollie got the stomach bug on Monday. We decided to keep on trucking on Wednesday thinking he was better...what a mistake. We made it there barely...Ollie and his mom got sick in the car.

I'll spare you the "juicy" details, but everyone ended up getting sick, I mean everyone. We're looking forward to a holiday re-do this Christmas...praying you and your family do not get this yucky bug, whew!

We managed to make it out of the house on Thanksgiving day for a short while to Gatlinburg to a mtn stream and to ride the Sky Lift...but soon back to the cabin for more rounds in the bathroom. Yikes a Bee...hoping your turkey was better than ours!

this boy...

here are some recent Ollie stats just to keep you updated...

~He is learning his letters hard core...starting to sound things out...just a teensy bit. Please note I tried to teach him these this past summer and he just wasn't ready...but he is now, they are all about it in his class at school!

~He is learning to be inquisitive and empathetic and can read between the lines: conversation the other day:
me: Hey Olls does your throat hurt a little?
olls: No, yours does Mommy?
me: yeah buddy
olls: I'm sorry, Mommy.

~He is super tall still, he's grown a whole inch according to our May and November markings on the door frame at our new house. His 4T pants are almost too short, should have gotten 5's I guess.

~He is super excited about any and every little thing these days...gets that from his Mommy. We're headed to the Mtns for Thanksgiving with my family and he wants to eat literally on the side of the mountain.

~He is still a super sweet brother, although he has had to sit in time out a few times recently for being too "rough" with SC. It was bound to happen.

~He has a wicked cowlic (sp.)...might have to start going uber short at the barber.

~He is turning into a boy...right before our eyes!

Happy Thanksgiving week!

A hiking we will go...

Last Sunday we hit the trails and "hiked" a little around lake Brandt. SC's first time in the hiking backpack...she loved it...fell asleep in it...and then fell out of it...yikes...but she's ok. Olls had a great time finding sticks and such, throwing things into the lake. He got a bit tired of walking by the end, but overall did a great job! What a beautiful day!

school picture day...

Last Wednesday was school picture day for the kiddos. Of course I had to snap a few shots of the kids in their fresh, fabulous fall outfits. This girl is just growing up too fast, 8 months old now!

The boys and their sweaters...so cute!

Ollie was not feeling the photo shoot at 6:40 am, I can't wait to see how their pics turned out...they took them together and separate...of course!

a pirate and a princess...

Not sure what they were looking at...had to snap the shot while they both were sitting. SC was originally going to be a bear "Sarah Bear" but it was warm that afternoon and her costume was very fluffy, so we had a costume switch at the last moment. Maybe she'll be a Christmas bear!!

Halloween 2010 was a really fun event for our family. We had a neighborhood party with games, pizza, candy and of course trick or treating. Sarah Claire was the smallest baby at the party although there are many babies yet to arrive...we are so glad to live in an area with so many fun families!!! Can you figure out what Matt was???