Confetti Party! (or Happy New Year!)

I spent some time on New Year's Eve making these confetti poppers. Let me save you some time and say that all you really need is some confetti and a cup and you can have a super fun confetti party. The pictures below really do a good job of conveying how much fun we had!

Grandma

Christmas day we celebrated and visited with my wonderful grandmother, who very sadly passed away yesterday morning. There's a lot I'd like to say about her but none of it really does her justice so it's hard to know what to write. I loved her very much. 

Christmas Morning!



Scones for Christmas morning breakfast



Paige and Owen did a great job opening presents







Santa brought Paige a house!



Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve was a little more hectic this year than it was last year but we decided to surprise the kids by going to see the model trains again. Paige and Owen were very excited to see everything and I felt a little bad about having to leave. They actually didn't mind though because we needed to get back to get ready for church and dinner with my family, two things they get very excited about. Paige still doesn't quite behave for church so she provided entertainment for a lot of people. At one point she was spinning around and fell into a pew...

There were tunnels to crawl through under the model train setups

This was a track where kids could hold down a button and move Thomas themselves

Owen has a look of pure concentration...



All dressed up for church!



Everybody!



Pat was checking to see where Santa was on his journey...Owen had no trouble going to sleep that night once we explained that Santa doesn't come until kids are asleep



Mom's Birthday!

My mom had a big birthday this year so we went all out with the celebrating and it was phenomenal. A lot of time and planning went into it and everyone that attended contributed in some way so it was amazing to see how great the day turned out. Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

Playgroup Christmas Party

This is my first post of 2012 and I'm still talking about December 2011! Well, stick with me because we did a lot and saw a lot of people last month so I'm going to be catching up for awhile. We don't get to see our playgroup friends as often as we used to (*sniff*) but we were all able to get together for a Christmas party a few weeks ago! We decorated cookies and the kids had a gift exchange. We took lots of pictures to document the event!

The big kids



The little kids





All the kids!





Decorating cookies (i.e. dumping sprinkles on heavily frosted sugar cookies)









Pat fancied up this picture of me and Paige



Owen opening a present



Art Museum

I took Owen to the Art Museum last week for the first time! We met my sister Jamie and her boyfriend Nigel there to walk around for a bit and it was pretty amazing watching Owen experience something so new to him. Owen lasted longer than I thought he would and was well-behaved the entire time. I did have to step in a couple times when he got excited and forgot he couldn't get too close/touch the artwork but there were no mishaps/alarms/guards reprimanding us. I can't wait to take him again soon!



Owen and Aunt Jamie



Owen took this picture of me in front of a painting I liked.





Posing!



This is one of my favorite pictures!  We were nearing the end of our visit at the museum and Owen was just so tired he had to lie down for a minute.



Desserts!

I let myself get behind on posting and now I'm all backed up! I'll be posting things randomly and out of order to try to catch up. I'm going to start with a post just about some of the treats we made this month.

Spiced Apple Cream Cheese Coffeecake (sidenote: this recipe calls for cardamom which is so expensive at the grocery store I almost skipped putting it in (even though it's one of the major flavors in the recipe) until we found it for a cheap price at World Market. Get it there!)

A slice of the coffeecake! This recipe was so good and even though it had three layers and lots of ingredients it wasn't actually that hard to make.

Meatball cookie-this is not a very good picture but I forgot to take a picture until we had only one left and my camera battery was so low I had to take it while the camera was plugged in to the wall.

Peanut Butter Cup cookies-not sure of the official name of these but these are super minimal effort for a super tasty result. I ran into my neighbor at the grocery store one day and she convinced me to make them. Just a pouch of peanut butter cookie mix and a bag of peanut butter cups.

Sugar cookies-we needed more cookies for Santa so we decided to make these with the kids. Next time we'll make them first and let the kids decorate them...Paige just munched on the dough and Owen spent the whole time trying to roll it out. We had fun though as you can see by the mess!

And We Waited...

We've had to get our cars fixed a couple times recently and I think it is now one of Paige and Owen's favorite places to go because...
1. There is room to run
2. They have complimentary bagels from Panera on Mondays which is when we always go
3. They have a large television
I get to read bad magazines while they watch cartoons.  So if you're looking for some wintertime entertainment...there you go. You're welcome.



Figgy Pudding!

Every year, my mom and I make a "traditional" Christmas dessert that we've never made before. This year we tried figgy pudding. We used a "modern" recipe to avoid the weird/unavailable ingredients that were used a long time ago. I don't think anyone will say it's their favorite dessert ever but I was surprised I liked it as much as I did and it was even better the next day. In past years we've made a yule log, rugelach, sugarplums, fruitcake, a gingerbread house and rum balls.

Topped with whipped cream!



Out of the oven! (also cooled...)



Outtakes

I post our Christmas card outtakes every year so here they are! We took our traditional picture in front of the fireplace and tried in front of the Christmas tree but ultimately went with some photos we got done at a studio. Enjoy :) Also, here are outtakes from past years... 2010, 2009, 2008


The kids looking for Santa



In this picture, Owen was already getting up to get the camera because he wanted to see what the picture looked like

We had a lot of issues with Paige's bow because she kept taking it out between pictures and when we would try to put it back in really quickly it always looked crazy

This might have been the winner if the lighting had been better and that Reese's ornament wasn't so prominent...

Boots!

At some point, every little kid figures out how fun it is to put on an adult's shoes and try to walk in them. It's cute. Every time! 

Winter Parade!

One of my favorite things about our town is that there are so many community events. Most recently we went to a parade that was followed by fireworks and free rides on a carousel! The parade was great and even though the fireworks were a little too close for comfort (Paige was terrified by the noise and part of a firework flew into the crowd! Aaah!) the carousel ride made up for it. The last time I tried to take Paige on a carousel she wasn't too pleased but this time I had to pry her hands off while she was sadly shouting "horsieeeeee." 

Getting bundled up!

About to sit down for the parade

We ran into our neighbors there and got to hang out a bit before walking home

Fun on the carousel

Listen!

Just in case you wanted to hear the best sound in the world.