Christmas morning

I promised pictures. In no particular order...

Christmas morning.

Ajojo sent the robes. Very soft, and worn every night!

Grammy sent these outfits. We had to stop unwrapping just so the girls could change. Hello Kitty is still very cool in this house!

All I want for Christmas is a lamp?? Yeap. She's in heaven.

Now the girls are asking to go to Borders to spend their gift cards. Then they want to spend their Christmas cash and get more Barbie things for the My House that GG got from Santa.

How was your Christmas? We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Recipe: Eggnog Quick Bread

I made this quick bread on Friday for AB's class. It was a hit. A few of the moms have asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd share it with you, too.
It comes from Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking (1993 edition)

Eggnog Quick Bread

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dairy eggnog (not canned)
1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted
2 t rum extract
1 t vanilla
2 1/4cups all purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t nutmeg

Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom only of 9x5 loaf pan. Beat eggs in large bowl. Add sugar, eggnog, margarine, rum extract and vanilla; blend well. Add flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into greased pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 - 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Oh, it snowed last night

Ok, maybe not last night. Tuesday I think it was?

And Wednesday after school we went out and celebrated.

I do believe I got in 40 minutes of Wii Fit that day.

Add 45 minutes outside in the balmy 9 degrees...

This is the small hill that we are trying to get up to no avail.

This is the year AB wants to do it all by herself. Up & down.

After several attempts she finally asked for my hand.

In which case the camera had to be put away... Weeeeeeeeee!

GG is a pro on the small and big hill.

She rolls over at the last minute before hitting the pond.

Good girl!

I have mice!

And they are the cutest things you ever did see!

I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures, these are
from rehearsal.
The bunch are cheering on the
Mouse King fighting the Nutcracker.






Unfortunately, (for the mice) the Mouse King
dies, so they drag him away to do whatever mice
do when their king dies.


I think one mouse has eaten too much cheese!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hope you have a fabulous day!

It's a boy!

No, not me. My cousin and his wife welcomed a beautiful baby boy. Jacob arrived early this morning. You can get a peek at him by clicking on the title above.

Congratulations Bert and Dawn! May you enjoy the many joys of parenting. God bless you!

`

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

How lovely art thou branches.

Yesterday, the four of us went Christmas tree shopping. There is a place that we try to get to every year. Prairie Elf Christmas Trees is located SouthWest of Lawrence. It's a fun family experience. We take a ride out to the trees from the parking area/warming hut.

We brought a blanket to keep warm on the ride. They do have several on the hay bales, too. Walk around and look at the different trees. The girls looked for snowballs in the trees (yes, they actually found them in trees!) Once you find the perfect tree, you can cut it yourself or have one of the guys cut it for you. We will cut ours next week.

We picked this one and tagged it. Next weekend, after I make room in the sunroom, we will go and cut it down, bring it home and start decorating. It's not as tall as past trees. Which, being the one who climbs the ladder to put the lights and star on top, am not complaining.

The warming hut has warm cider, cookies and popcorn while warming up. They have cute/simple crafts for the kids to make which is free. They have beautiful wreaths for sale, too.

Happy Shopping!

I have never gone shopping on Black Friday. Guess the frugal gene hadn't stepped up yet.
I did stay up until midnight last year to shop at Kohl's. Does that count? I didn't get everything I wanted, or the color/choice I wanted. There is no browsing on this day. Buy it or lose it! I put these into the learner's category for shopping on this day.

Today I am hanging out with the girls. We are making some of our Christmas gifts so will work on those today. And pending the weather, we will go downtown and look for Santa on top of Weaver's tonight. Why does that man seem to get stuck on top of the rooftop every year?? The same rooftop. The firemen have to bring the ladder truck and rescue him.

The girls also are ready to put the fall decorations away... chop up the pumpkins for pies, muffins, etc... And get those CHRISTMAS decorations out! Could be worse. They could go on the stores' schedule. Luckily, they both get Thanksgiving and are patient to wait till it's over to move on. Greta told me this morning that she is glad that we have these holidays once a year. Why? "So that we can appreciate them that much more." Smart kid.

Speaking of Pumpkins. The pie from scratch was incredible! Pumpkin Patches and More is where I found this recipe. It is a really neat site. It has locations of patches, recipes, fun tidbits, the works...

Whether you were out there at 0 dark hundred shopping, shopping online, or just hanging out with your family, enjoy the rest of this wonderful holiday weekend! Happy Thanksgiving!

~Carol

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Click the above link to see the girls message to you. Or click HERE






Our pumpkin pies. Made from scratch! A great accomplishment for me!

Have a lovely day!

Patrick Dempsey ~ Unscripted

~Head on over to Beading Mom to enter her giveaway. Avon is selling a cologne for men with McDreamy's name on it. I'm betting it smells err.. DREAMY. : )
Click on the above link or click HERE.

It's an Anna day

Mom finally finished my leggings! Now I am a real actress. Greta's should be done soon. And then Mom will knit the matching handwarmers. My debut is next month in "A Kansas Nutcracker".

I love dressing up. Princesses are my favorite.

This is JackJack. I love him... most of the time.

Better late than never, right?

Okay, so I let practically the whole week slide by... I apologize. I know that you know that I'm not blogging every day so I won't feel too guilty. (maybe just a little)
And not only do I have goodies to share that I found, but you, my friends, are calling me and giving me even more information to share! Thank you! (and a big hug to you, too!)

Kathy shared this: (and a BIG Happy Birthday to EK!!)
~ www.restaurant.com $25 coupon for $2. coupon code: surprise Hurry as it expires today. With most of the restaurants you have to spend $35 for the coupon to be valid. It's still a great deal when you do the math.
~ Kathy has been having a ball since she joined us clipping and saving (and freebies, too)... she's clipping those Sunday papers and printing out coupons at www.coupons.com You can also get there from the link to the right of the page... inside tip: if you go there, I eventually get a little check back when you print/use coupons from that link. Trust me, I won't be retiring from my day job anytime soon. LOL

Natasha is sending me a really cool site (hint hint, N) it has to do with RedBox and more free codes... yippee! Will post when I get it. : )

True Lemon ~ The girls and I love this product. We put it in our water all the time. You can bake/cook with it, too. Click on the link and you can get a sample to try for yourself. Our sample had lemon, lime and orange packets. I'm hoping someday that they come out with a variety pack at the store. After you get the sample, you can buy True Lemon at Dillons.

Gain share the love contest I found this at freebies4mom You can win coupons for detergent, laundry enhancers,

Where's Mr Jelly Belly? contest: win $10,000! or other cool instant prizes.

BuildABear Contest ~Taken from the Official Rules: Total of 100 prizes (One Prize/party per winner): A scheduled Build-A- Party ® at Build-A-Bear Workshop ® Prize includes: party leader photo to remember your party, party favors for Guest and Guest of honor, choice of undressed animal and choice of accessories and outfit up to $250 per party (excluding any applicable sales taxes).

All You Magazine ~ want some more coupons cheap? Get one or two issues free. You can also find this magazine at Walmart. I just bought a two year subscription from my daughter via her school fundraiser. Some months are golden and you always make your money back with the coupons you clip here.


~I know that we are all supposed to skip shopping at Walmart. And I do most of my shopping at Dillons now. Gotta love those double coupons. But when you visit Denise at her site www.thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com you'll see why I just have to drop by Walmart on occasion. Denise does an amazing list of the specials and matches the coupons for you. She also does Target and CVS.


So, get out there and save some money!

Halloween

We Carved Pumpkins ~

The girls designed them ~

Tony & I carved ~

The girls approved.

We went Trick or Treating

We went over to friends' home for dinner and then took the girls out for Trick or Treating around the neighborhood. The pumpkins were filled and legs got tired. We went back to the house where the girls sorted their candies and we all drank some hot chocolate. Yum mm... The kids had their choice of marshmallows, the adults had their choice of flavorings... who knew rum and hot chocolate could mix so well.

We saw someone taking their kids around on a golf cart. Hmmm....

To aid in identification: Anna was a Sherbet Fairy (I don't know either) Greta was a Princess Fairy (her own design)
Their friends were a witch and Hannah Montana

**I'm still learning to add pictures and type at the same time... apparently it takes some talent, which, I may be lacking...**

October pictures

As this weekend progresses I will get those pictures up. In the meantime...

We've been to the pumpkin patch this month. Two of them. The first was a family venture. We all picked our favorite (everyone has to be able to carry his/her own).

The second was a preschool trip.

It wasn't nearly as sunny the second trip. In fact, all the kids got to do was play for five minutes before we scurried them to the field to pick their pumpkin and get back to the shelter for a half hour of rain, thunder, lightning, wind, more rain... and finally a freight train passing by! And boy did it get chilly. The teachers had some songs that include a lot of jumping to keep everyone warm.

Why would we take them in a forecasted day of rain? you ask? The forecast said cloudy, no rain, and clearing up! Which it did clear up by the time we got back to school. The kids still had fun. No one complained.

We also went apple picking. A friend brought to her family's orchard and we picked lots of apples and pears. We also got to feed the neighboring Longhorns, by hand. They had a limit of how many they could be given... I think the girls added one or two extra.

Well, we are off to play soccer. It's the last weekend, so will bring the camera and see if I can get some more action shots of the girls. G has really improved and I think she is beginning to enjoy it. (Just don't tell her that)

Have a great weekend!

Tell us what you are dressing up for Halloween! (leave in the comments section)