Christmas Cookies

I had a little post planned for today. It was about all the Christmas cookies we've been baking and it included a recipe. Then this morning at 6 a.m. while I was putting away dishes I came upon this.

It's not real, but a 6 a.m. it sure looked real. And I am pretty certain that my little scare took 5 years off of my life. I'm also pretty certain that I know who's behind this.

Still think she's innocent? Don't be so sure. Yesterday, while I was making dinner (also known as not giving my sweet princess her much needed adoration and constant attention) I caught her out of the corner of my eye walking around the kitchen nonchalantly carrying the mouse. Innocent, I think not.

Ok, on to the originally planned post..cookies! We've been getting ready for Christmas.

We cut down our tree. I don't think we'll be making this a yearly event. I'm pretty sure I got frostbite and I can't stop thinking of The Lorax.


We've been doing Christmas projects.

And of course, we've been making cookies..

lots..

and lots..


of cookies. Maddox wanted gingerbread dinosaurs instead of gingerbread men. We still haven't decorated them. I am not a big fan of gingerbread or molasses-ey cookies so I didn't want an actual gingerbread cookie recipe. After a lot of searching I found this one and made a few changes.

Ginger Spice Dinosaurs

Adapted from Whimsical Bakehouse

3 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1-2 teaspoons ground ginger (I used 1 b/c I'm not big on the ginger-y flavor)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 stick butter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a small saucepan, melt together butter, honey and brown sugar. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and beat with mixer until dough forms. This dough is quite gooey. Plop the gooey dough onto a piece of saran wrap.

Maddox called it his dough baby.

He didn't want me to put it in the fridge to let it chill. He just wanted to keep loving on it.

I let Maddox's dough baby chill overnight and then it had to sit out for about 2 hours the next day before it was soft enough to roll out. I would suggest only chilling it for an hour and then check it's firmness.

Roll out the dough and cut out your cookies.

Bake at 350*F on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 12-15 minutes. These harden a lot after cooling so be careful not to over bake! I would start checking them around 10 minutes.

After the dinosaurs we made our family out of cookies. I don't think I'm going to be able to bring myself to let them get eaten. I guess we'll just have to use them for ornaments on our Lorax tree.

Gingerbread Houses

We've been doing A LOT of baking around here. I mean, tis the season, right? The kids don't seem to mind.

I'm actually pretty sure they love it. Look how innocent she looks. Who does she think she's fooling?! Oh, that's right, everyone.

Last week we made some gingerbread houses, which can actually turn into a pretty long process with a lot of waiting involved.

Bella got impatient and started gnawing the legs off poor little Gingy. See, she's not as innocent as she would like you to believe!

When it was finally time to decorate the kids both got little graham cracker cottages to decorate and Maddox helped me with the bigger gingerbread houses.

Bella was doing more eating than decorating.

That's right, show 'em the real you, my sweet little princess.

I was so proud of their little houses. They did them all by theirselves and I think they turned out really good!

And that's Bella's little cottage in the middle with it's two remaining little m&m's..so cute..right?

Happy Birthday!

Happy LATE birthday Papi...
thank you for being so patient with me, for the extremely hard worker you are, for my 10 minutes, for all you do for our little family, for having all the answers to all of Maddox's many, many questions and for being the best dad and husband ever. We love you SO much!!

Home again

We've been on vacation.

We went back to Georgia for my big brother's wedding. We got to see friends and family, spend time at the beach and eat good food.

Then there was the wedding.

Maddox was the cutest ring bearer ever,

Bella ate her weight in grapes the size of her fist,

And we all got to eat some really good food. It was awesome.

I'm pretty sure Bella was having quite the fist-sized grape hangover the next morning. She parties hard.

It was ridiculously hard to go from this..

to this. Yep, ridiculous. But after two weeks home we're finally settled back into our little routine, it is December (my favorite month besides April), we are getting ready for Christmas and I'm pretty sure we're going to have a white one and I'm definately sure we're going to eat some good food. :)

Slackers

I've slacked off on this blog a little. Okay..a lot. In my defense we've been busy-ish. So here is an extremely picture heavy post of what we've been up to...


Summer campfires,

Sugar comas.

Cooking..

soft pretzels.

They were enjoyed by all.

Resting up,

carving pumpkins,

baking,

homemade caramel apples,

being cute,

being not so cute,

washing dishes to earn their keep,

actually washing dishes to earn one of these beauties. They were enjoyed by all.

Bella's Birthday

So Bella's birthday post is a little late. Since she had an early birthday party we just decided to keep it simple on her actual birthday.

Cake and ice cream.

And presents.

She got her first doll. She picked it out at the store. She managed to pick out the most noisy one there.

And shoes.

Books.

Her first tutu.

I can't even believe that in 1 short year my little baby has gone from this..

..to this. She loves that doll.

I love your crazy little personality Bella Mae! I love your determination and independence. I love your feisty-ness (most of the time). I love your growl. Happy Birthday my little gremlin. I love you!!