Christmas Eve

Today was a fun and special day for our little family of four!

It was the perfect day!

We started off the morning by having bacon, eggs and strawberry muffins.

After breakfast and some playing the kids had a bubble bath to get ready for church.

 

We headed out to our church's Christmas Eve service.  I had tears in my eyes half the service.  I felt so blessed to have my family sitting right next to me!  The kids did a great job sitting still and being quiet during the service.  They were super happy when we lit the candles and sang Oh Holy Night.

It is a memory I will cherish forever!

When we got home from church the kids got to open their one gift of the day...their traditional PJ's!

As you can see, after the pj's were put on the craziness began. Holy Hyper!!  These two kids were super pumped about all that is to come!

The best picture I could get of the four of us in our new pj's is this one.  Daisy Mae was confused....clearly she is facing the wrong way!

Dad took the kids out to sprinkle reindeer food.  It was sleeting a bit, so he carried them.  They were just laughing and giggling the entire time!

Once we fed the reindeer the kids picked out cookies for Santa.

They included a glass of milk in case Santa wants to dip his cookies.  They also decided to leave carrots for the reindeer.

And of course Layla wrote him a letter!

Gary and I can hardly wait until the morning!  We can't wait to see what Santa has in store for these super good kids.  Gary's extended family and my parents are coming to celebrate with us tomorrow!  We are excited to spend the day surrounded my family.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!! 

Christmas week in our house!

We have had a busy and fun week.

Gary is on vacation, so we have been hanging out as a family of four all week long.  It has been awesome.  I am posting a day by day journal of our week for our memories.

Monday

Monday we went to see a movie.  The kids both LOVE Alvin & the Chipmunks, so we went to see ChipWrecked.  It was a super cute movie, but I was ready for the squeaking to be over.  The kids had a great time and they sat still the entire time.  And when we got home guess what movie they wanted to watch??  Thank goodness we have multiple TV's in our house.

Tuesday 

Tuesday the kids had dentist appointments.  

I love this picture I took of the kids in the waiting room of the dentist office.

The kids both got great reports at the dentist. I am so happy all the brushing is paying off!

We did a bit of last minute shopping on Tuesday also.  It is wild out there.

Wednesday

Wednesday we baked cookies.  Holy mess.  I don't know why, but for some reason the cookie baking didn't go so well.  I guess I didn't let the dough get cold enough.  Whatever...I can't even begin to tell you the issues we had with our baking session.  The kids had a super fun time, and that is all that matters!

See what I mean....the kisses fell though.  I'm a ding bat. They really didn't need to cool on a wire rack.  Dooooh. Anyway. You live and you learn. haha!

Wednesday Night

Wednesday night we went to the Texas Motor Speedway's parade of lights.  It was about a mile long Christmas light display.  The kids were Oooohhing and Ahhhhing like crazy.  It was so fun!

Thursday

Thursday we decorated the cookies we baked.

The kids had a really fun time!  I pretty much decorated 2 cookies and they did the rest.  I gave them full decorating privileges.   They ate and decorated....

Hayden pretty much ate sprinkles right off the plate.

Layla is a great little cookie decorator.  She had the most fun of all!!

Of course the best part was eating the cookies.

We saved a few cookies for Santa Clause.  

Last night the kids were crazy little heathens.  Gary and I decided to put them to bed early -- 7:00 pm early and they BOTH slept until 7:00 am.  All this Christmas fun caught up to them.

Today is Friday.  

Christmas Eve Eve.  I'm not sure what today holds, but I know for sure Layla and I are giving each other pedicures.  We both need fresh new festive polish on our fingers and toes. 

I hope you have a great day!!

Christmas Card 2011 plus some...

Today I am sharing our Christmas Card for this year.

This card perfectly portrays our family.

I'm also sharing the kids Santa picture for this year.

My Christmas gift from Hayden's preschool was this picture in a frame!

How stinkin' sweet is that??

I'm not gonna lie. I teared up. 

My heart melted right into a puddle.

And this one???  

Oh wow...I have no words.  This is typical Hayden.

Merry Christmas!!!

jalapeno ranch dressing/dip

My parents hosted Christmas on Sunday for my Dad's side of the family. 

A week or so ago I asked my mom what I needed to bring and she requested I bring chips.  She told me she got her hands on a recipe for Chuy's jalapeno ranch dressing.  I thought about that dip for over a week.  

Have you ever had it?  

It is so good and it's a festive shade of green.  It's perfect for this time of year.

We all loved the jalapeno dip and the bowl was empty in no time at all.  She gave me the recipe and Gary and I made it last night. 

This is what you need:

1 1/3 cups of mayonnaise

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup chopped jalapenos

1 small can chopped green chilis

1/2 cup cilantro

1 packet ranch dressing seasoning

I poured all the ingredients into my blender and blended them up.

It's that easy.  

Gary and I tasted our batch and decided to add more cilantro and jalapenos.  

We like it spicy!

We made bean and cheese quesadillas and they were so good served with the jalapeno ranch dip.  I think the kids are starting to like spicy food because they enjoyed the dip too!  

Thanks to my mom I am sharing this great recipe with y'all!

A peek of our home during Christmas time ...

Our house is all decorated for Christmas.  I have pretty much the same Christmas theme every year.  My favorite Christmas things are reindeer, and I always decorate with red and gold.  I love to check last years blog posts to see how my decor changes from year to year.  As you will notice my style is a bit simple and functional.  I like to do just enough decorating to make the house festive.  I'm not the best decorator, because I'd rather be in the kitchen cooking.  I do have fun decorating, however I think could stand a few lessons. 

I love our tall skinny tree.  She is 9 feet tall and she came fresh out of the box 4 years ago.  This year her lights didn't work.  Gary (being the sweet man he is) cut off every single light and re-strung this tall lady!  Bless his heart.  I would have thrown her in the garbage and bought a new tree, but he saved our pocket book some pain!

The kids favorite part of our tree is this silly old gold star.  I was thinking I needed to get a new topper for our tree this year and Layla gasped in surprise.  "Mommy, Christmas trees must have stars!!"  So the gold star it is!

a few of my reindeer ornaments

Our mantle is always fun to decorate.  This year I decided to use lit garland.  I love it so much.  Our house is so cozy at night with the tree and the sparkling mantle.

Hayden insisted the nutcracker remain on the mantle.  He usually doesn't belong there, but Hayden insists he is protecting us.  Also the silly rooster match holder doesn't really mesh with my Christmas decor, but it belongs there. We have gas logs and the matches are stored up high right there for easy access for us adults, but the kids can't reach them.  The rooster holder was my grandmothers.  She hand painted it and I love it.

I wanted a simple center piece for my breakfast table.  We eat at the table every night so I didn't want a huge bulky centerpiece.  This glass bowl filled with read and cold balls is perfect!

Layla loves this little angel.  She has a place for a tea lite candle.  She looks so pretty at night with her candle burning bright.

Since I mentioned Layla....

She loves having a tree in her room.  I think this tree is PERFECT for her.

Hayden loves his Christmas tree too.  He always asks to sleep with the lights on, but we always end up turning them off.  He like to lay in bed and play by the light of the tree instead of sleep!

We have these fun little door knob hanging friends.  The angel hangs on our front door and the reindeer on the backdoor that leads to the patio.  They have little bells on them so you can hear the jingle when you open or close the door.

I love buying cinnamon scented pine cones every year.  They smell so good!!  These pine cones were just plain ole pine cones but I added a few balls to their basket to liven them up!  They are in the kitchen/breakfast area on the bakers-rack. 

My formal dining room table is suffering a bit this year.  I really haven't done too much in there, and now the table runner is holding all the Christmas cards we have received.    I usually set the table with fun dishes, but I'm not feeling it this year.

Here is a quick look at the outside.  The Santa is on the front porch and the snowman is on the back porch.  I need to take some night time pictures.  Gary hung clear lights all the way around our house.  I love the look of clear lights!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!