Merry Christmas Eve, Eve, Morning!!

I can not believe it is already time for Christmas! It has completely snuck up on me this year!

I'm finished with my shopping, but still have several things to do, and tons of wrapping to finish before all of the Christmas AND FAMILY CHAOS begins!!

Today is officially the last day for me to finish all my odds and ends, relax, and most importantly... prepare for being in a Christmas Celebration bubble for the next three days! My dad's Christmas is tomorrow morning, Ryan's immediate family is tomorrow night, our family is Christmas morning (the folks always come over to see the girls excitement- and eat breakfast!) And then we have Christmas again with Ryan's extended family that night, and then we will finish Christmas off with a bang, driving down to good ole' London, KY for Christmas down there with my family and our mom.  Whew! I'm worn out just thinking about it! 

Please tell me we are not the only ones running around like mad on and around like Christmas! What do you do for your family gatherings? Although, we always have a wonderful time and love having a reason to spend time with all of our families!  It's one of the most special times during the year! 

This year has been exciting for me already, becuase the girls came home with some Christmas ornaments! I love when the girls come home with things they have made at school, especially things I can't wait to get out year after year!  We will have to turn this into a tradition now... since we really don't have any yet! What traditions do you have? Please tell me, and hopefully we can steal some of them for our own!

These are Sloanie's...

 And this is Chaysie's... It took some major finagling to get her to stop wearing it as a bracelet!

I also love all the Christmas cards during this time! We have received some beautiful ones!

And then, there's ours....

Take a good look! This is the only one you will see! I always plan on a Christmas card... but never execute it! Which is exactly why no one received one this year! And I just couldn't decide which one to use, out of all the great pictures we took!!

See what I mean!? My children cooperate so well! Not to mention the combination of snot and vaseline under Sloan's chin!

It started off so well with them posing, (only individually of course)! I was so excited thinking they actually wanted to take some pictures... But, like always... I don't know how hugging always ends up chocking each other!! 
And of course... Sloan only wanted to be beside the flower ornaments...

And then of course, Chayse had to do the same!

As for Sloan's big singing debut...

It was originally cancelled due to all the snow and ice- but that didn't stop Sloanie... she was bound and determined to get out there and sing! It's all she's talked about for the past month! Luckily, they changed the date and Sloan's heart was healed when she found out she could sing in her program! How adoreable!

She was soo excited to see all of her family that came out to see and support her!

And of course, she was the best one! So, I gave her flowers to make her feel like the star of the show! (which she was of course!) aren't your own kids always the best one!!!

And then there's Chayse... who's always the star of wearing out Trey and Brady!
I think she succeeded with Trey... check out his face!

and not to mention... check out her socks she fought me over wearing! Obviously she won!

She was on a mission to completely wear them out, and would not settle for anything less... especially if she succeeded in getting her lipstick on Brady!

 She's chasing him down!

Persistence!

OK... so now that we have gone over that... lets get down to business!
If you are in need of some last minute gift ideas... I have one for you!
Simple, easy, super cute, cozy and affordable (around 20 bucks- if you buy on sale like I did!)

We love these blankets!

Our cousins, Alle and Amy made one for Sloan for her 1st Birthday and we have loved them ever since! And since the girls fight over the only one we have... I have made them each one for Christmas!
It was easier than I expected!
step 1- get two pieces of anti-peel fabric in the size you want (make sure they are the same size)... I used around 2 yards.
step 2- lay both pieces of fabric together (the way you want the blanket to look) - so the right sides of the fabric should be showing, the wrong sides of the fabric should be touching on the inside of the blanket. (and the edges should be lined up... not like below)

step 3- cut strips into the sides - however wide you want, and long you want (mine were about the length of my hand and about 2 inches wide)

step 4 - cut out the corners, where the strips meet and having the same length of the strips

step 5- tie the two strips (the top and bottom) together into knots

step 6 - finish tying all the strips into knots... and viola! You have a blanket!
I would cut a few at a time, then tie... cut some more, tie... that way you can fold it up and come back to it...
(Tinkerbell and Rosetta are displayed for portion size of blanket)... although we did finish our little tea party, just three of us, after I finished the pictures...

Once folded... you have the perfect blanket!
All business in the front...

and party in the back!

A true mullet blanket!

And last but not least... the hot chocolate recipe as promised!

Ingredients:

2 pounds Chocolate Nestle Quick

1 Box Carnation Instant Dry Milk

1 8 ounce Jar Cremora (Coffee Creamer)

1 pound Powder Sugar

and a wonderful helper to mix... or two!

Directions:
Combine all ingredients together in a large pot/bowl...

 Hopefully, everyone who received one of these from us... puts really hot water in the mix... to kill the germs! (Fortunately, we washed our hands well before we started this project!)

pour into individual containers to pass out as cute, fun, thoughtful little gifts... or pour into a large container for safe keeping for yourself! Or, better yet... do both! (but make sure to double the batch!!)


Also, don't forget to include the directions on making the perfect cup for drinking!
1/3 cup mix per 1 cup water.

Mix and enjoy!!

OK, so I'm going to leave you with this photo displaying the weather around here lately, and of course showing two perfectly content and odd little characters! 

Chaysei - for some reason... loves, loves, loves.... Jim! We are all a little confused by it actually! But, have concluded it's because they both love food and everything having to do with it!

And Jim... well, he's just a character all together!

Snow, ice, "bermuda's" (Jimmy's shorts), and a florida hat...? The sad part is... this is not an unusual sight for jim! He's always in his bermuda's! Hot, freezing, rain, snow, and yes, even ice! The bad news for me is... my husband is very similar to him! And the even worse news for me is... my girls have some of his genes!!! Maybe I'm the strange one... I married into the family, and I'm even stranger because I love Jimmy-bo just about as much as Chaysie does! Strange I know! 

 But then again, how could you not love this CBA-Pharma investor!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!!
FYI... I hear its suppose to be a white Christmas too!!! I LOVE IT WHEN IT SNOWS!!! Especially... ON CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!! And Happy Birthday to Jesus!!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Peace, Love and Happiness!!!

apples, apples, and more apples

hello hello blog! It's been so long! And for no other reason than I just have not been able to find the time to escape and update.  But, nonetheless, it has been lingering in the back of my mind... (amongst other things!)

Especially since my friends have told me my blog was actually helpful to them!

They were inspired to go to the Orchard and buy their cheaper pumpkins there, verses the unexpected, expensive Krogers! Hopefully they did the math aside from trusting my figures! (Thanks Becky and Bryan for the feedback- and for reading my blog for that matter!) And please say a little prayer for them on the 7th with their induction! - We can't wait to meet baby Kennedy!

OK, back on track from my little side note.  So, here is just one of the millions of things we have been up to! (Don't worry, you'll be hearing about the other stuff too! - Sometime at least! - I'm sure you can't wait!! right?!)

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy, and perhaps make some apples for yourself (or for someone else)!

So, as promised... here is what we did with our orchard apples!

The girls were in charge of unwrapping the caramels and putting them in the pan.  You can tell, Chayse didn't want to wait for them to be unwrapped before she ate them!

  

 (and don't worry, the stove was not on yet.)  Although, I did realize this is a great way to keep them occupied! I might need to start doing this on a regular basis!  They sat there concentrating and playing together for a good 45 minutes! (I should have taken advantage and gotten some things done around the house, but instead I just stood there snapping away at the photo ops!)

After the bag of caramels were unwrapped, we added 2 tbls of water, turned on the stove and stirred until melted.

We placed the apples in the sticks,

Cut some out for fun dipping,

added the caramel...

which sloan decided to wash off... (I mean who wants to be healthy and eat an apple without anything extra on it!? - what kind of mother am I, for forcing the caramel on her over the healthy plain version!?)

Now, Chayse on the other hand... the more food the better!

Moving on with the dipping...

and of course decorating... 

and leave it to Chayse for picking, playing, and licking the caramel!  She's so precious!!

And the long awaited for, beautifully decorated, much anticipated, final product!

But of course, we bypassed the directions of waiting a couple hours for them to harden in the fridge.  So instead, we opted for taking them out back and devouring every last drop!

Well, at least that was what I had planned, but I should have known it was just going to be disastrous! Just after the first bite we had a sequence of questionable events... 

1. How do you even tackle eating this apple? 

2. How do we prevent it from sticking to everything?

3. How do we clean this off our face?

 4. Can we just pick off the sprinkles instead?

5. Forget it! This is just too much work!

The next day the chocolate covered apples went over much better!

They were much easier to master!

and much more enjoyable!

Good thing Sloan's only 3! Otherwise, she would probably have a meltdown if she were older and I put this picture of her on here! How hilarious is this one!? I couldn't resist!  (and not to mention the picture of chayse chowing down too! but, then again, I have several of her cramming food in her mouth!! That girl loves to eat!)
Anyway, let me know if you all decide to tackle the sticky mess of caramel apples this fall, or if you do anything else with your apples!

*Just a tip - if you go the caramel route... make sure you have a spatula on hand to clean up the mess! Water doesn't do anything but create more of a disaster!

OK- so now that updating the blog has been crossed off the list... its time to move on to the next thing...

1- Chayse is turning 2 in less than 2 weeks! What am I going to do!?
2- Sloan has new bedroom furniture finally (we found at a garage sale!) So, now, I only need to decorate those bare walls... in princess pictures...
3- I want to paint my cabinets, paint the walls, make drapes, and slipcovers for the couch, chairs and cushions in the kitchen all for under $100...
4- Fix the 'death valley' slide on our new swing set, so the kids (and I) will not be afraid to fly down it and continue tumbling down the Mount Everst of a hill we have!
5- and, of course, not to mention the daily 'to do tasks' that I only tackle every other couple of months or so...
for instance... vacuuming my house! (I think I actually heard my carpets crying out for my help! It's so bad, I had a dream about it the other night!!)

But of course, blogging, taking care of kids, husband, house, packing snacks, lunches, groceries, putting away laundry, and of course, finding the time to go to a CBT meeting that Jim has been wearing everyone out about attending, are much more important than my kids eating 5 month old food off the ground!

Aside from all this chaos I sort through on a daily basis, you obviously now realize only the fun things take precedence! (Especially when it comes to sweets!) So, needless to say, vacuuming will continue to be pushed to the backburner!
Maybe one of these days I'll be able to have a live in nanny, chef, maid, butler and pay them from the money tree in the back yard!