just before christmas

I'll try to sum up most of what's happened, but who knows, I tend to ramble on quite a bit. =) Here is a picture of my snow bunnies. They are loving all the snow. I ended up getting a kid shovel for my oldest and she loves to help me shovel the driveway. I think they look so cute all bundled up. Good thing she loves to help cause we can't keep up with all this snow that keeps falling. At least we'll have a White Christmas!

My sister Lisa came home for the holidays! We had our annual girls night at my mom's. Lisa has some good stories about getting to the airport, mix up on luggage, and making the flight here. =) To make a long story short, the snow delay in Seattle didn't stop her from getting home (a couple hours late), and now she's here safe and with the right luggage. We were able to have a kid free girls night for a few hours at my moms. I love it cause we all get matching pj's to wear while we're there having fun. Thanks for a fun night mom!

Later that week I met up with my sisters again just to see them and for a little christmas shopping. We did have a few things to return at the mall. I've never been a big fan of the mall or shopping (get what you need and get out), and I really do not like the mall the weekend before christmas. wow. I don't do very well in crowds and it was really busy. crazy busy. I knew their was a reason why I like to get all my shopping done before Thanksgiving and why I don't bother with black friday. =) I was able to return an item and use that credit towards a new fragrance that I've LOVED ever since I found it. Have you tried DKNY's Be Delicious? yummy. love it and now I have it. I think most of my old perfume that I have was from high school. lol. It was definitely time for a change.

Speaking of change. While I've been with my sisters in the last week, they made an observation about my shoes. Let's just say that my perfume isn't the only thing I've had since high school. haha. Lisa and Amy were ready to throw my shoes away. Well when it comes to shopping I like getting my girls stuff. So I've put together an early christmas shoe fund for myself and then grabbed Lisa for some "guidance" in getting out of my shoe bubble. Did you know I have never been to a DSW shoe store? We had a lot of fun, and they had great deals. Lisa made me sit down and she would pick out the shoes, then my girls would bring them back to me. I swear I tried on over 20 pairs of shoes, if not more. In the end it was a success! I came home 5 new shoes, and Lisa can't wait to raid my closet to throw away my old shoes. =) I took pictures of my new shoes. cute huh? we also discovered that the brand Mudd shoes are great for my feet, 4 out of the 5 ended up being that brand of shoes. crazy.

Just looking outside, I was going to shovel my driveway thinking that the snow had stopped, but no, now it's coming down a lot harder than this morning. good times...

Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday everyone!! I hope its full of lots of love and laughs. It's beautiful with all this snow, I just wish it would stay off the roads. hehe.

chocolate peppermint and pretzels

About time I updated. I just haven't felt like writing anything lately. Earlier this month I had a friend visit! My freshman roommate from college moved back to this valley in September and now works at the children's hospital downtown. Seems like years..ok it has been years since I've really seen her. She drove all the way to my house just to visit and literally hang out. It was...interesting. =) hehehe. I loved having her here, but my girls were like leeches! They wore her out! They played games almost the entire time. Chasing around the couch, throwing things back and forth, reading, tickling...good times and a lot of laughs. I hope I didn't scare her away, and hopefully we'll get together again soon.

What else....I volunteered to help in my daughters preschool class. The kids were putting candy on their own individual gingerbread houses. It was a blast. 11 kids, each with their own house and a ton of candy. They premade the houses using graham crakers, and stuck them to little milk cartons with hot glue. Then I was in charge of helping "smear" the frosting all over the houses and then helping them with putting candy EVERYWHERE. In the end, they were able to take home adorable gingerbread houses that they decorated themselves. (to me they looked like globs of candy) =]

Last weekend we had a nice visit from my hubby's brother, wife and 3 month baby boy (codename: camper). This is his brothers final semester for his undergraduate--wahoo! and then they will be moving back east the end of next week after he graduates. So this visit may have been the last in a while. They will definitely be missed, but they are doing what they need to do in their lives right now. My girls LOVED the baby, they wanted to touch him, hold him, make him smile. It was really sweet, and I did take few pictures. The baby's parents are very particular about pictures on a public blog (which is perfectly fine!), so I found one that I hope is ok!! wow my girls are such cheeses...hehehe. Good luck on your move, be safe. =]

Last of all on this long update (sorry). I was a madwoman in the kitchen today (dishes are still not done. lol). My sister Lisa told me about these cookies on foodnetwork.com, the Peppermint Chocolate Cookie, and White Clouds in chocolate. So I went to the store with my girls to get what I need to make these yummy treats. I tried to find my circle cookie cutter, but I believe my girls have "borrowed" it, so I ended up using a star cookie cutter for the peppermint cookies. And I've never made meringue before--that was a first. Let's just say both the recipes were a lot of fun to make and really not that hard. Both required melted chocolate...lots of melted chocolate, so I also dipped mini pretzels in the chocolate for extra. What was going to be a few cookies in a tin box ended up looking like a chocolate peppermint selection in a box. =] I put together a few tin boxes for some friends and I think they turned out a lot better than I expected. Honestly, the only thing that I've tasted are the white clouds and the chocolate covered pretzels. I had just enough of the peppermint cookies for friends, so I didn't taste those, but they looked rich and delicious.

That is all until next time. My sister is coming into town next week for the christmas holiday! I'm really looking forward to that, but she may go crazy being this close to family for so many days. hehehe.

What do you think?

Okay, I'm sending this out to get opinions. I have FINALLY made an appointment to take our first ever professional family portrait. I want to go with casual nice. So I'm planning on blue jeans for sure, and I'm going back and forth on shirt colors. I like black with dark red accenting, but not sure. What do you think? any suggestions on what colors look best for pictures? =]