Kid one-liners (and more)

Micah

As I'm cleaning the kitchen in the early evening, and after a no-nap afternoon he comes up to me and says...

"Mom! What are you trying to do to me?!"

His new favorite conversation...
"Hey mom?"

"Yes Micah"

"Hey Mom?"

"Yes Micah, what do you need"

"Hey Mom"

"Yea buddy, I'm here what's up?"

"Hey mom... hey mom... hey mom... hey mom"

One thing's for sure- he sure does like me. :)

Hallie
Whew- where did this 'tude come from!?

Micah was trying to give her a train to play with and she didn't want it.  He started crying and she responded to him with,

"Whatever Micah!"

And as she's walking away she again mutters, "whatever!"

As we were buckling into the car she lifts herself up in her seat and says,

"Look Mom! I'm growing bigger and bigger into a flower!"

Matter-of-factly says, "I'm going to be a princess flower!"


Did I mention Micah had a huge break-through this week?! (No, sadly still not potty trained, but that day will come.)  He figured out how to use the pedals on his bike! We've been working with him for over a year now trying to get him to use the pedals, and he's well on his way! While he still uses his feet Flinstone style on flat ground and inclines, he's finally getting the motion!

AND he has struggled coming down indoor play structures- you know the one's with the big "stair" type.  He'd climb up but then would be freaked out because his feet didn't touch right as he swung them over.  We would work with him each time, but we just couldn't get him to do it on his own.  But his last week, he figured it out! He was so excited- and so was I for that matter! No more funky body contorting to help him get down! Hooray!

We're so excited! It's so great to watch your children and their different personalities develop.  They are each so unique!

Christmas Eve Part 2

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve with Tyson's family and thanks to my SIL, Kristen, I have some photos of the craziness which we all love... and the craziness of my hubby whom I love as well. :)  Since I'm such a slacker with the picture taking lately I officially stole all of these photos from her blog.  Thanks Kristen :)

We had a great time.  It was great to be there and not have any looming moves in the mix and to just have a nice relaxing holiday.

Sweet Deal for Amazon GC

Have you all heard of

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They are one of the many sites out there nowdays offering a "daily deal" which comes to your inbox every morning. You can personalize your location so you can get great deals near the city you live in. You can also set the settings so you DON'T get daily deals in your inbox every morning if you're overloaded with "junk mail." But this is definitely one you don't want to miss out on!

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Are you still here, still reading? If so, stop and run now before they run out.

And to be totally fair and honest, I will also get $5 in deal bucks when any of you purchase a deal AFTER using this link to sign up. So help yourself and share it with your friends as well!

Christmas Eve Part 1

We started out Christmas Eve for a quick round of exchanging gifts and chowin' down on cinnamon rolls and sausage souffle at my parents before my youngest sister left to celebrate Christmas with her hubby's family.  Make sure you watch the video on the bottom, paying close attention to Hallie on the left of the screen at the end of the video... while I seem to make a lot of empty promises about blogging more, I really mean it when I promise this time.  So, I PROMISE you won't be disappointed if you watch the end of the video!

Told ya. :)

Christmas Day

I'm slowly working my way back into the blogging world (once again!), we'll start simple with a ton of random Christmas day photos from my parent's house...

Merry Christmas!

I *wish* I could remember what they were singing! I'll have to break out my new camcorder for some Polar Express songs to make up for the lack of story here ;)

No photo shoot is complete without an authentic "cheese" from Hallie...

Again... lack of a story- I'll have to make up for it soon :)

Rock star in the making...

Classiest couple in the house, along with the funnest game ever! I haven't played a video game in a couple years, but I was HOOKED on this one! Took me straight back to the original duck hunt years!

Cousin cuddle time...

Lot's of coloring, relaxing, and fun!

I absolutely LOVE this next one! She's flinging all kinds of attitude at Maddie, either that or she had too many cookies ;)

The Santa goods...

Even mom loved her Santa goods... that's some serious bonding going on there!

And last and most definitely least, the world's worst Christmas portrait... ever! I can't believe I'm posting this, but the only reason being we discovered we only have a couple pictures of all four of us in the last year.  So here's to a year of more family photos- even if that means you get me in all my glory with no make up and Tyson with a goofy look! :) Maybe we'll get better with our poses over the year :) And now that I went into that much detail in one photo you're bound to look even closer- so don't and just glance at it- k!? :)

Merry Christmas!

Avery's Visit

We were lucky enough to have our 8 year old niece Avery come stay with us for a couple days last week. We had a great time, she was a great shopping partner, we hiked and hiked, wrapped presents, and crafted it up. She is such a funny girl and we loved having her here!

As Avery called it, "going paparazzi." :)



Day 24 – a recipe

Shared this before, I'll share it again.  MMM... mouth is watering already!

Almond Puff

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

2 tblsp water

1/2 butter or margarine

1 cup water

1 tsp almond extract

1 cup flour

3 eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut 1/2 cup butter into 1 cup flour. Sprinkle 2 tblsp water over mixture; mix with fork. Found into ball; divide in half. On ungreased baking sheet, pat half into a strip 12" x 3". Strips should be about 3" apart. In medium saucepan, heat 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup water to rolling boil. Remove from heat and quickly stir in almond extract and 1 cup flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Beat in eggs all at one time, until smooth. Divide in half; spread each half evenly over strips, covering completely. Bake about 60 minutes or until topping is crisp and brown. Cool. Frost with Confectioner's Sugar Glaze and sprinkle generously with nuts.

Confectioner's Sugar Glaze

Mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tblsp butter or margarine, softened, 1 to 1 1/2 tsp almond extract or 1 to 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 to 2 tblsp warm water until smooth.