It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Yes, we love Christmas at our house. I finally broke down and decided that I either set up my tripod and get a good family portrait or do I dare say it (pay some one to do what I do) and take a picture of our family. I thought what's the worse that could happen, some one looking a way? I can't believe our little miss is already a HAM, every picture she smiled and laughed when the flash went off! Gotta love her!


I can imagine what she is thinking Um why are you dressed so funny Gpa? or um am I suppose to be so close to you because I don't know about you!


Before little miss saw Santa she got so excited, I love her expression its so great!

Chloe love the Christmas lights, I love the magic that comes with watching her during this Christmas season!



Pigtails last for a millisecond so I got to be fast, I love this picture because she knows that as soon as I am done taking this picture the pigtails are coming off, Come on mom quit it she is saying in her own way... gotta love the tude all ready right?

More pictures to come,

Have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Baking afternoon

Chloe's first real baking experience was great! as you can see she had fun tasting the candy.

Here is her contribution! she keept saying moe moe moe (more) as I was handing them to her her attention to detail was minimal... I love it she thought she was doing what mamma was doing!

Rollo Turtles are tricky, they look centered but when they melt in the oven for a couple minutes they move...

After the baking our little miss thought that it would be fun to wear my snow boots, after all who wouldn't want wear my awesome boots? she kept saying tuck tuck tuck (stuck) she wasn't able to walk.... gotta laugh! She also had to wear her apron I made for her, she thinks she's hot stuff in it and will walk around singing and twirling around... She has to grow in to the child's aporn I made for her!


After we made our turtles Chloe thought that it was time for her to get the oven mitts on, so after they were both on she went straight to the oven and tryed to open it don't worry the oven wasn't on and it wasn't hot any more...



here are the Christmas treats I made to give away, mint chocolate stars, supper easy, Thanks Michelle for the easy recipe, I have been using it for the past 4 Christmas's

Long story short: I have a cookie press, and I hate it, it doesn't work at all and I was press for time and didn't want to mess around with it any more so I made thumb print cookies, Since I wasted my time to use the dough as some sort of sugar cookie cut out I thought why not make thumb print cookies? They taste amazing with Raspberry Jelly, these are my new favorite cookies to make during the Christmas season, they are truly delicious.

I have always wanted to make Ginger bread cookies, I had the Molasses from last year that I didn't open so this year this was at the top of my list to make, oh my gosh I love them they taste amazing! the recipe is the mccormic's ginger bread cookie one

http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Desserts/Gingerbread-Men-Cookies.aspx

They taste great! It's always a great time of year to bake, and share your appreciation with those that serve you all year long. These treats are spoken for, After making 5 treat trays, and working on the treats for 3 days (here and there, not a straight 3 days) I am proud to give them away!

On a side note I did get together with friends and decorate them, Chloe liked sprinkling the colored sugar on the cookies for a minute and then decided that N.S toys were more intriguing than what mom was doing It's been a great Christmas to show Chloe all the wonderful magical moments this Christmas season has to offer!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's so fun to have a toddler around Christmas time, I forgot how everything is so magical to them and how full of life and joy they have. We got a new pre lite Christmas tree this year and every time it turns on Chloe say's ohhh weeee and will touch the ornaments, she has her favorite ones, Sleeping Beauty dancing with the prince and if you push a button her dress will light up pink and then blue, and it sings "I know You"


Daddy's little helper trying to help him "fix" her toy.

Cards for Soldiers

I love making cards for people, so when I learned through a friend that she makes holiday cards and them mails them over seas to our troops I found my "Holiday Project" with simple but elegant designs I made 340 cards to my friend, with a total of 650 cards we mailed to our local soldiers in Iraq. The green one was dry embossed with a strip of decorative paper with gold foil on it


This card was the easist to make, it had patterned paper on it with a stamped image



The Santa card was stamped with a holly background stamp and then colored in with some green shimmer chalk, to add to it a green scrap piece of paper and then a stamped Santa to finish it of.
I would love to know what you think about the cards I had made, I am always looking for your used Christmas cards to "recycle" them for next year, I will take the front of the card of and use it to make a new card. Please send me your old Christmas cards and I will recycle them for next year's batch of Christmas cards.

The steam Boat Pumpkin Patch is worth driving to if you live in the Iowa River Valley. It's pretty and so fun for the family they have a corn pit (like a sand box full of corn) a corn maze (which we got lost in so we cut through to the end) farm animals that you can feed oh yeah and a pumpkin patch. Pumpkins are .25 a lb so I had to bake and freeze three of them, and got about 12 cups to use!

I love this picture, this is Chloe's friend that went with us gotta love the corn!

yes a barn that has a rope you can swing on and jump into the hay, so fun!




Our sweet little pumpkin! have a great Halloween

dr, Daddy

me: Gar, Chloe woke up with a cough
Gar: take her to the dr.
me: um maybe you should cheek her lungs before we just take her to the dr
Gar: were is my stethoscope?

yep just a cold, no dr. visit, so nice to have dr. daddy always here to see what is a yukky cough.(not what she had) Chloe is just fine. I love these pictures they are so cute and so perfect, Chloe had to keep playing with daddy's toy. hum future pharmacist?
What is the diagnosis Chloe?

Chloe is getting so big, Her pig tales are such a great symbol of toddler hood! we had such a great October, Halloween is 3 days away I am excited for her to trick or treat at our local nursing home.


Our local park is awesome! I love it, this october it has been in the 70's all month except this past week. The sun was plentiful and welcoming us everyday. Chloe loves the swings, and goes down the big girl slide with out me helping her! it's so fun to watch her grow up so so fast!



Our park days might be coming to an end, so sad... Chloe will have to find other ways to entertain her self, like sitting on my lap while I am writing this post watching sleeping beauty on you tube, she's an angle sitting on my lap, so cozy on a yukky day like this. What a great night to just cozy up.

our pretty princess

yes, Chloe is going through the princess stage, I thought I had years to prepare for this but nope, every morning she want's to be cinderella, and dance with her princess doll (sleeping Beauty) and either me sing once upon a dream or have it play and dance to it, I love it!

Potty training is slow going, she know what to do and the concept of it but she is too busy to tell me when she has to go and so we are just keep at it and hope that soon she will stop and tell me, however now that she knows that she can have princess panties (huggies girl pull ups) that is all she want's to wear! oh if only i can get her to go into her big girl panties (underwear) that has cinderrella on it it would save us money... Soon I hope

Yes that is what she is going to be for halloween, if I could get her to dress up in anything else I would but what a cute cinderrella she will be!

cards any one

As you know I love to paper craft, and as usual I don't have time to mess with showing my art work, here are some fun cards I have been making or have made. yes I have started selling them although most of them I have been giving away as gifts, so here are some of my hand made cards. I should also say that I make them for Cards for Solders, it's a project that us card makers do for the solders over seas, we send them cards so they can write back home to loved ones, it's a great way to share your paper craft skills.

need some cards that have a bit more of a personal touch, let me know I will make some for you, or I would love to make your Christmas cards, email me or post a comment if interested and I will give you more info












As you know I love to paper craft, and as usual I don't have time to mess with showing my art work, here are some fun cards I have been making or have made. yes I have started sellilng them althought most of them I have been giving away as gifts, so here are some of my hand made cards. I should also say that I make them for Cards for Solders, it's a project that us card makers do for the solders over seas, we send them cards so they can write back home to loved ones, it's a great way to share your paper craft skills