Holiday re-cap

Our Christmas was celebrated the Sunday before because that was Jimmy's only day off and he had to work on Christmas eve and Christmas day. We had peppermint hot cocoa, banana-nutella french toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs. What a brunch!!

The night before we opened our C.E presents from Jimmy's parents (p.j.'s) and we wore it all day! We loved, loved our p.j's. It's such a cool tradition and it's something we look forward to every year! Kai looks like such a big boy in his p.j's.

After brunch we opened presents and spent the day playing with them. Kai was having so much fun, even Cassia had fun watching him play with his toys (and hers). My sister bought Kai a train set and he went nuts for it and still is. He asks to play with it every day. He got a steering wheel toy from the grandparents that he likes to play with in the car. He carries around his farm truck that he got from his cousins.

Cassia got the cutest clothes from her stylish auntie and grandma. Jimmy surprised me with a big hat box of Lush products, yay Jimmy...what a way to make me feel like a person again. (For those who don't know me, pre-babies, my bathroom was a mini bath and body shop. I had to have a variety of scents to mach my many moods. Seriously, I had about 30 soaps, lotions and perfumes to choose from. After babies, I had like 4.)

I also surprised Jimmy with a gift box from Khiel's and a travel coffee press for him to use at work.

So, that's a brief of our holiday. I will post more pictures when I find the SD card that Kai lost.

gingerbread house

This is a bit late, but I finally have time after all the baking and package mailing to post some pics. These are pictures of this year's gingerbread project that Jimmy had to do for work. It's cute and kids loved it!

Roaring water

I just got back from the grocery store and Kai couldn't wait to try his new water so I opened a pouch for him and took a sip. That tastes like juice! I had to look at the ingredients and yep it had corn syrup and Splenda! Why did they put corn syrup and Splenda in a drink that is suppose to be water?!?

Ok, so I should have read the label at the store, but I had a coupon and wanted to try a new product. Plus all you parents know how hard it is to shop with kids in tow. So back to the water. I am very mad and disappointed that it has all that extra sweetener in it. I don't know why I was expecting only water in a product that has 'water' as the product name. I don't really want to give my son sugar in his water.

He drinks only milk now, he used to drink water, but now only Olvatine and milk. Occasionally, as a treat we give him 100% juice diluted with water. I will try giving him plain water again, but really if a product has high fructose corn syrup in it there is really no need for extra sweetener like Splenda.

snow, snow, snow

I'm all done making chocolate treats and cookie doughs are made. I let Kai play in the snow for a little bit today. He really loved it. I think he like the hot cocoa afterwards even more! I had a few minutes and thought I'd share some photos of the kids and holiday things.







This is Cassia enjoying her new car / walker...beep, beep.






















Kai having a little fun in the snow.












These are Jimmy's ornaments on our living room wall.

chocolate and 'buddy'

It has started to snow here. It's always so beautiful before people start to walk in it, then it gets dirty and ugly and makes you wish it would all melt and go away.

I've been busy making chocolate treats everyday, it's so much fun. I can't believe I didn't ever try making candy before. Jimmy taught me a few basics and I haven't stopped making chocolate things since he showed me how.

Kai has been sneaking chocolate from the advent calendar his grandparents sent him. I told him he could open one a day and he replied with 'my chocolate, two mommy'. We've raised a chocoholic! Ever since, I let him watch Open Season that is all he wants to watch. It's 'Buddy mommy, watch buddy", all day long! It's a good movie so I don't mind watching it everyday, I think we will have to buy it for him when they take it off of our cable's on demand menu. Now to figure out how to get the song "teddy bear pic-nick" out of my head.

Cassia had her 4 month check up on Monday and everything is good, except the shots that she got gave her a little fever. I hope it goes away soon. I'm not used to my babies getting sick from shots. Kai didn't ever get sick from any of his shots, I guess every kid is different.

On Jimmy's day off we finished our shopping. I will be baking like a mad woman this weekend to get the packages out on Monday. Last year we sent them out really late, so this year we want to send them early.
I tested out a new sugar cookie recipe that uses buttermilk and it's pretty good. Very buttery and does not have that eggy taste I dislike with most sugar cookies. Here it is(of course I made a few changes as always):

Simple Sugar Cookie

4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 sticks cold butter, cut into 1/4 cubes
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.Combine the dry ingredients and pour into a food processor. Add cold butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

2.In a small bowl, combine vanilla extract, eggs,and buttermilk. Pour into the dry ingredients and pulse until a dough ball forms.
The dough will be very sticky. Divide dough into two equal portions and wrap each portion with plastic wrap and flatten into a thick disk. Chill for four hours or overnight.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a floured surface to desired thickness (thicker the dough softer the cookie, thinner dough crispier cookie) and cut out desired shapes with your cookie cutters. If dough becomes too sticky put it back in the refrigerator. Bake on lined cookie sheet for 10 minutes.
Let cool before trying to remove from pan.