A Look Back at '07

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We Wish You A Ghetto Christmas

One of the gifts Alan and I bought Cole was the handheld V-Smile game system and a Shrek game cartridge for it. When Cole opened the game we found that someone had taken a razor blade, cut open the inside compartment where the game was and stole it! Of course Cole was disappointed and Alan and I were pretty ticked off. I hope some little kid in the ghetto is enjoying his stolen Shrek game for Christmas because our child isn't. Can you even believe the nerve of some people! ?

Santa Was Here!

Santa definitely found our house this year. He even left powdery footsteps by the fireplace.

Cole in between his skull island set and the shark ship.

Santa surprised Cole with this Black Pearl ship, which was his favorite gift! We asked him what his 1st, 2nd and 3rd favorite presents were and this ranked 1st and 3rd place, lol.

Captain Cole sailing thru' the living room.

Santa brought Carson this cute Fisher Price play and learn house. He loved it and crawled thru' the little door all day long.

Cole is such a good big brother and was teaching Carson about all the things his little house can do.

Santa is so smart! He knew Cole wanted rainbow suckers in his stocking even though he forgot to tell him that.

Hmmm, what's in the envelope to me? That would be Matchbox 20 concert tickets! Woohoo! Thanks Honey! I love you!

Cole and Carson got this huge truck from some of their cousins and they both love it. I was surprised at how well they played with it together. It's so sweet.

The boys also got a wagon from my parents. I can't wait for a warm day to take them out for a walk. Right now it's in the family room and Carson stands behind it and uses it as a walker and cruises all around. When he is walking around he gets the funniest little proud look on his face. It won't be long now until he's walking on his own.

We were very very spoiled this year and want to thank all of our family for the lovely gifts they gave us. Thank you, we love you!

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas this year!

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Hooray! We made it to Christmas Eve! Cole was buzzing with excitement all day. Finally it was time to get ready for our annual Christmas Eve dinner party at my parents home. Every year my Mom out does herself with her preparations and this year was no exception, the food was delicious and the house was so festive. One of the annual traditions is that the kids act out the nativity which is the evening's highlight. This year Cole was the star and he was the cutest little star ever. He took his role very seriously. Carson was supposed to be the baby Jesus but he was a bit too rambunctious so we had to use the stunt double doll. Then the boys opened their Christmas Eve jammies and we drove home, went to bed and waited for Santa's arrival.

My Mom's Christmas Eve gift to us girls were these adorable sock monkeys.

Ashley the adorable Angel and Morgan as Mary.

Twinkle, twinkle little Cole.


Wise Men???


Carson: the cutest Christmas baby.

Rudolph The Red (and Green) Nosed Reindeer

I saw the idea for these adorable reindeer cookies on a few of my friends' blogs (thanks Hilary, Jan and Monique) and thought it would be the perfect project for Cole and I to make. I picked up this cute apron and chef hat set at Home Goods a few weeks ago and busted it out for the cookie making festivities. Cole was thrilled to have his own hat and apron. I have to confess, I cheated and used the Pillsbury already made peanut butter cookie dough instead of making my own. It was Cole's idea to make green nosed reindeer too (they can't all be Rudolph). The cookies turned out quite cute, I think these will definitely be a part of future Christmas traditions.


Chef Cole

Christmas Greetings

From our Family to yours, we wish you a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You Wanna Watch What?

Last night Alan and Cole were sitting on the couch watching TV (well actually Alan was channel surfing) when all of a sudden Cole says, "Dad, you passed Hairy Puppets". Alan and I looked at each other wondering if we had heard Cole correctly. Alan asks him again what he said and Cole again tells him to go back because he passed Hairy Puppets. We are both totally bewildered. Neither of us have any idea what show he could possibly be talking about. So, Alan starts flipping the channels backwards when Cole shouts out "Stop, see this is what I want to watch, Hairy Puppets". Alan and I just looked at each other and started to crack up, it was Mary Poppins.

Yummy Easy Christmas Candies

CRUNCHY CRACKER CANDY
35 Saltine Crackers
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (I used more than this, I also used milk chocolate)
1 cup chopped Walnuts (I used pecans)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place crackers in foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan.
Place butter and sugar in saucepan; cook on medium-high heat until butter is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring occasionally. Bring to boil; boil 3 min. without stirring. Spread over crackers.
Bake 5 to 7 min. or until topping is golden brown. Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips; let stand 3-5 min. or until chocolate is softened. Spread chocolate evenly over ingredients in pan; sprinkle with walnuts. Cool. Break into pieces.
Mmmmm, Tastes like toffee.

The next recipe I got from my friend Holly's blog. They are delicious! And sooooo easy. Definitely my kind of recipe!

OREO BALLS
1 pkg. Oreo cookies
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 pkg. chocolate chips, melted for dipping

Slightly crush entire package of Oreos in a large ziploc bag (Cole loved doing this). In a mixing bowl, combine Oreos and cream cheese. Beat until completely combined. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and set aside (I refrigerated them at this point). Melt chocolate chips. Dip oreo balls in melted chocolate and set on wax paper to harden or put in fridge to harden faster.

Christmas Craziness

Oh my goodness, the craziness of the season has totally consumed me. I finally finished my shopping on Wednesday and hope to avoid the stores until after Christmas at all costs, although I'm sure there are last minute odds and ends that I will need to run pick up. I feel like my brain has been totally scrambled, the last three times I've changed Carson's diaper I have tried to put it on backwards, oh my, I need help, lol. Anyways, this weekend I am hoping to get around to our baking, I tell ya, I'm totally late in the game this year and my excuse is that this is my first Christmas with two kids. Do you buy it?

Here is a photo run down of some of the fun holiday activities we have participated in over the last week:

Saturday we went to the Bellagio with friends to see the Christmas display in the atrium. It was gorgeous! They do an amazing job every season and this was no exception. The kids had fun running around checking out the larger than life penguins, reindeer and trees. After, we braved the cold and went out front to view the dancing fountain shows. Those are my favorite, if it wasn't seriously freezing out I could have watched them all night.

Cole, Haley "Jane" and Lindsey

Carson, the cutey bug

Cole had his winter singing program at school! Oh my goodness, they were so sweet! I seriously teared up! There is something just so cute about little kids singing. I was so impressed that they knew the words to so many songs. WOW!


Monday was his Santa party at school (and the last day until January). He had a great time. They made cute crafts and got a chance to visit with Santa, Mrs. Claus and a couple of elfs.




Wednesday night my sister took Cole to the Magical Forest at Opportunity Village. It was Cole, my sister and her family, my Mom and nephew. They had a great time. It was all Cole talked about on Thursday. The highlight for him was of course the train ride. I was smart and sent my little camera along with Cole so someone could take photos for me, lol.

Cousins: Morgan, Brett, Cole and Ashley

Gretchen and Cole

Our Christmas Baby

Carson's first Christmas!!!

Gingerbread House

Sunday night we had our 2nd annual gingerbread house construction extravaganza. Since Cole was a seasoned pro at this he needed very little help. He did a fine job decorating and then as soon as he was done he started picking all of the candy off the house and began eating it, lol. Our house is pretty sad looking now.

Breakfast With Santa

Last Saturday was our ward's Christmas party. This year they did a breakfast which was a nice change from the typical ham dinner of years past. The activity committee really outdid themselves with the party. They had several stations/rooms set up with different activities and the families rotated through out them completing fun crafts. And of course no Christmas party would be complete without a visit from Mr Claus himself. Carson was not too impressed by Santa. Cole gave the cheesiest smile ever (honestly, I didn't think it could get worse, lol). Cole brought a toy catalog with him to show Santa all of the things he wanted but we convinced him to leave it in the car, lol. Such a silly boy!

A cute craft, the kids made reindeers with their hand and foot prints:

Cookie decorating:

That "surprised look":

Pinecone Christmas tree craft:

Meeting Santa! Check out Cole's smile, lol!

The Surprised Look

This is the surprised look Cole will have on his face Christmas morning when he sees the shark ship that he is asking Santa for. What a goofball! He practices the face several times a day so that he gets it just right. It's a crack up. So Santa, if you're reading this make sure that your elves are making a shark rig ship especially for Cole.


Another version of the surprised look.


A sweet little face that I rarely capture in photos these days.