all is calm....all is bright....

merry christmas to you and yours......from don, cindy, austen and......

champ. 

$15 at target......

and a whole lotta happiness...and i can keep it up after christmas because it looks more like winter than christmas. at target...in the dollar spot...gotta love that!''



glass ball ornaments
felt clothes and purple pompoms for garland and girly purses and shoes as ornaments. scarlett loves it and calls it "my tree".... 

two words....oreo balls

i made these little lovelies on sunday. wow.....i don't think i have ever made an easier sweet treat before...pulverize a package of oreo cookies, mix with a package of cream cheese, roll into little balls and dip into melted milk chocolate. finish with some squiggles of white or dark chocolate and voila....pure heaven. the first picture are the ones i made with mint oreo cookies and drizzled with dark chocolate...ooh.
these are made with regular oreo cookies and drizzled with white chocolate. i will be bringing these for christmas eve this year. so if you are part of my family and are coming to the christmas eve party, you will get to try these.



in other news....austen and his flag football team won the league championship last night. he is quite the football player and had turned into quite an impressive athlete. he is so skinny and wiry that he was really good at evasive maneuvers and it was really hard for the boys to get his flag.
they didn't know until the end of the night that they had won the championship because they had to wait for the (previous) number one team to finish their game. that is why they have two different t-shirts on in the pictures. the second picture t-shirts say league champions on them. great job austen.... 

meet my neighbors...

fabulous people, they are. tina is my personal trainer and three times a week she kicks my butt in her basement gym. but it works and i am 20 lbs lighter. (thanks, tina). she is 4 months pregnant and i can't wait to do newborn baby pictures. we did a photo shoot last weekend to try to get a good picture for a christmas card for them. little eden just does not like to have her picture taken...or maybe it's just me. i think that's it, she just doesn't like me...or that big black camera that i stick in her face.
i did manage to get some good ones in of mom and dad...
and even a few good ones of eden too. but she tired of the session quickly...and let us know in no uncertain terms that she was done....

happy holler days... 

a little christmas quiz....

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate by far..

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? he wraps them in santa paper...

3. Colored lights or white lights on tree/house? white on both...

4. Do you hang Mistletoe? no...

5. When do you put your decorations up? we try to get them up just before thanksgiving...if not, the weekend after thanksgiving...

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? turkey and all of the trimmings...

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? lining up as a child youngest to oldest to come into the living room on christmas morning...

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? what truth?? i still believe...

9. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? lights, garland and mostly reproduction antique victorian ornaments that we have been collecting since we were married with a few kid made ones thrown in...

10. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? not usually...

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? love it...but hate the long winter...

12. Can you ice skate? yes...

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? probably when i got my senior class ring for christmas when i thought i wasn't getting one at all...

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? the traditions that we have formed as a family and just the coziness of the whole season...

15. What tops your tree? A paper angel..but we need to get a real topper..

16. What's your favorite holiday tradition? baking christmas cookies and passing them out to our neighbors...

17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? giving...but that doesn't mean i don't like to receive too ;)..

18. What is your favorite holiday dessert? anything with chocolate in it...

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? do you hear what i hear? and the carol of the bells..

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? yum..

21. What is your favorite Christmas special/movie? a christmas story...with ralphie and the red rider bb gun... 

he is so sick....

poor little baby. between 6:00 pm last night and 2:00 am this morning, i think this boy threw up 12 times. he kept asking me "when am i going to stop throwing up, mom?" what do you tell them???
we pulled his mattress into our room and he slept at the foot of my bed so i could hear if he was getting sick. it works out good this way because he is with me but not in bed with me (i would freak if he threw up in my bed). i can always tell when he is about to throw up because he just starts thrashing in the bed and it gives me time to get to him and make sure that bowl is under his chin. don slept in the spare bedroom because he had to get up at 4:00 am for work this morning. he is scared to death that he is going to catch this. so much for the flu shot. austen woke up this morning at about 8:00 am with a 102 fever but the vomiting was done and over with...thank goodness...and then he fell back asleep at about 9:00 and slept until 11:30. he is asleep again. his cheeks are so flushed from the fever. he hasn't moved off of the couch all day.
being home from work has enabled me to get 3 loads of laundry done, most of the presents for christmas wrapped and dinner won't be out of a cereal box tonight. however, i know that work is going to suck when i go back tomorrow because everything will be left for me to catch up on. oh, well, the joys of motherhood.


sleep tight little man... 

santa's little elf....

got a few christmas card pictures done yesterday. we also made about 15 dozen cookies and i had a photo shoot with leanne and her family (she does my hair). very productive day, i would say.
i love this picture of us with champ...mostly because he is licking the face off of austen. i would have picked this picture for our christmas card but you can't see enough of austen's face. all you can see is champ's tongue.
i also got this picture of the littlest elf, miss scarlett. she is darling. and was very cooperative for the photo shoot with her mamma and daddy. candy canes and santa hats always work for a bribe.
just look at this sweet family of 3 1/2....:)


i got a new camera today. my old one just was not working very well lately, struggling to focus and it was very difficult to get a good shot off. i bought it at costco and was able to return it for an exchange for the new upgraded version of the canon digital rebel, the xti....it is a little different than the old one so there is a little to relearn, but nice new features. i tell ya, costco is the way to go, no questions asked return policy and since i saved my receipt, i got the full amount that i paid for my digital rebel and was able to upgrade at no extra cost to me. gotta love that. i made a pot roast today...for the first time...ever...i didn't even know what to do or how to make it... thanks, kelly for the instructions. everything turned out delicious. and don was once again amazed at my culinary prowess in the kitchen.