Candy, Cookies and Craziness

Tis the season for Christmas baking! Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy baking and making holiday treats and that's part of the reason that I do so much of it this time of year. However, I usually bite off more than I can chew when it comes to it and I never can factor all the issues that the kids have while I am trying to get it all done! All the baking and candy making that I am going to do is now done!


I decided that part of my gift to Caleb's 13 teachers, Leah's 2 teachers and 2 bus drivers and several other of my friends would be chocolate treats. This meant lots of candy making that I normally don't do. I spent a couple of days last week making 3 batches of buckeyes, chocolate truffles, a whole bag worth of white and chocolate covered pretzels, fudge and a double of recipe of peppermint chocolate bark. The kids help some with this, but mostly their job was taste testing!


This week, I made cookies. I didn't make quite as many cookies as I have other years, but still enough to keep me busy for a couple of days. I made a double batch of sugar cookies, a double batch of peanut butter kiss cookies and a batch of Russian Tea cakes. The kids were able to help more with the cookies. They really loved making cut out cookies, Alissa tried to join in too. However, after the first couple of pans, they were done and off playing. This was nice and allowed me to finish the rest. Later they returned to help me, I was almost done with the cut-outs, but thought of another thing that they could do. I decided to have them take all the wrappers off of the chocolate kisses! This was a great project for them and their reward was getting to eat one. However, when I had my back turned Alissa had climbed up on the chair with them and decided to shove them in her mouth as fast as they could unwrap! When I caught her, she was less than happy about having to get down away from the candy!

Cookie making fun!

The kids did a good job!!

The cookies that they kids made are done and Alissa is ready to dig in!


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Paper unwrapping fun. Alissa climbed back up to see if she could get some more when I wasn't looking!

Caleb unwrapping candy. I first assigned Leah to the candy unwrapping because Caleb was off playing. He came to see what was going on and Leah assigned him the job of throwing away the papers. He happily did that for awhile, but soon Leah couldn't keep up so I had him help unwrap too!

The kids decided that they would make a face as they were unwrapping the candies!

The next day, the kids and I did ice the cookies. I did most of them, but I did save out several for them. It was so cute. Leah was an icing machine and had a lot of fun with it. Caleb was Mr. Perfectionist and wanted every last speck of the cookie covered and got mad that it wasn't going just the way he wanted. Alissa just wanted to eat the icing. When I helped her put some on the cookie she just ate it off the spreader, then off the cookie and then handed me back the spreader for some more please!

Leah had a lot of fun icing!

Caleb is putting a lot of concentration and frustration into cookie icing!

Time to eat the icing! Thanks mom!

Alissa did try to ice the cookie even if she did lick it off as soon as she put it on!

Yes, in the 45 minutes that the kids iced cookies, Caleb did two!

Finally time to eat some cookies!

Caleb eating one of his masterpieces!

Christmas Ornaments

As with our Holiday traditions, we let the kids each pick an ornament each year for the tree. I must admit that I really enjoy this tradition although I am not sure that Rod would say the same. There is something about most men and shopping that just don't always go together, but he is still very willing to make the trip to the store for the kids. This Saturday we made our annual outing to the store. On the way, I asked them each what kind of ornament that they were going to pick. Surprise! Leah said that she wanted a princess and Caleb said he wanted a tractor. If they kids keep with these trends much longer, I am going to have a tree covered with princesses and JD tractors! When we got to the store, Leah picked a Barbie ornament and Caleb picked a tractor. We gave Alissa several to hold and she had a good time checking them all out. All of the others she was willing to easily give back except the one that we bought for her! It was nice that she was able to pick out her own this year.

Each of the kids pose with their ornament!

The kids each get to put their own ornament of the tree!

Each ornament up close on the tree!

Thanksgiving Fun

No, I did not give up blogging, but things have been so busy that I haven't taken the time to do any. Sorry to my faithful readers! Finally all the Christmas decorations are up and the house is back in order (really it's just not complete craziness), so now I can try to get back into my normal routines!

I know that Thanksgiving has been long past and now everyone is thinking about Christmas, but I wanted to post a few pictures from our Thanksgiving adventures. I didn't do a great job taking pictures at Thanksgiving this year, but I did get a few I wanted to share. We had a really good Thanksgiving Holiday. It was busy with some travel, but worth it for the time spent with family. We were at my Dad's on Thanksgiving day and then Rod's family over the weekend. We had lots of yummy food!

I did some baking on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Caleb and Alissa enjoyed licking the bowl!

Caleb started licking my mixer when I wasn't looking!

My Dad and Jean bought the kids each a goodie bag for the ride home. The kids enjoyed their costumes!

After our Thanksgiving meal with Rod's family on Saturday, the Kids got up early to go hunting with Daddy and Pappy!

I hadn't planned on Leah going hunting so we didn't pack clothes for her. It looks like she has a hunting dress, but that's just one of Pappy's shirts over her coat!

Caleb's Open Preschool Open House

Caleb had his first preschool event last night. It was an Open House and the kids had a singing performance planned. He seemed pretty excited about it, to my surprise. He looked so cute coming in and standing on the stage singing. He was more into singing than I thought he would be, but he was very somber and serious during the entire process. We were able to get some really cute pictures of him.

The last song that the kids sang was "If you are Happy and You Know It". Caleb was losing attention by this point, but still trying to sing some too. Well at some point, Caleb fell a little behind the rest of the group. He ended up singing out and gave himself a couple of small solos. I uploaded the video for you all to enjoy!

Too Fast

They say the older you get the faster time flies well if this is true I certainly don't want to get any older! Time is already flying by and it's amazing how quickly the children are growing and changing. This week was Caleb's birthday and on the same day Leah announced that she had her first loose tooth. We were excited for her, but I really didn't think much more of it. She had just realized that it was loose and I figured it would be a few days until it came out. I picked Leah up from school on Monday and as soon as she saw me she gave me a huge grin showing me the hole where her tooth had been. Leah lost her first tooth at school. I was happy for her, but I must admit that it was a little bitter sweet for me. I was an emotional mess by the end of the day realizing that my boy was four and Leah lost her first tooth. I couldn't help but think about when that first tooth came in when she was 6 months old. I guess I am a just a big old sentimental mess! :)

Leah on November 9th minus one tooth

Mommy trying to getting a picture of Leah's first teeth. Leah's 6 months old!

A blurry picture of Leah's first two little teeth!

Soon Leah will be missing two teeth. Her second tooth loose and is quickly working it's way out. I asked her to try not and use her tongue to play with it too much at school today. I wouldn't be surprised if she looses this one today.

Happy Birthday Caleb

Yesterday, my little baby boy turned 4! It's still hard to believe. We've had a very event filled weekend and day yesterday celebrating. It's amazing how quickly time flies. I think Caleb really enjoyed his birthday party and his birthday. He ended up with a ton of toys, which he loves, and some clothes too. He's been playing with his new toys non-stop and I have left most of them all over my living room floor until today. I figured that everyone would like to see some pictures from the excitement.

Caleb wanted spiderman on his cake this year. He also wanted a tractor, but I didn't know how to incorporate those so we ended up with two separate cakes.

Here's the tractor cake. We used it to celebrate at home on his birthday! The cat may have tried it earlier when no one was looking and boy was I mad!

Caleb and the cake saying cheese to the camera .

Cake and Icecream!

Opening presents at the party

Painting fun at the party. I always have to have a craft that the kids love and the parents hate!

Of course Caleb picks Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday dinner. He actually loved the pizza and ate 2 pieces.

Trick or Treat

Last week flew by in a whirlwind! All of the Halloween festivities made for a busy week and lots of fun for the kids. The kids have enough candy now to keep them sugared up for months. Leah got candy from her bus drivers and had a big Halloween party at school. They did the traditional Halloween parade with the kids around the school. Caleb, Alissa and I did go and watch the parade. It was very cute. Leah's school party and trick or treat were both on Thursday. It was a busy day, but the kids were wired. I was very thankful that there was not any school Friday. On Saturday, I took Leah and Caleb to a Halloween Party at the YMCA. They had a good time playing games and eating treats. The best part for them was getting to dress up again. This time they both dressed as something different. As you look at the pictures, you'll notice that Caleb is dressed as 3 different things. He thought that this was great!

On Thursday when Alissa and I went to watch Leah's parade at school, we went to the park by the school where we knew the kids would be walking. We got there early and walked around the park. Caleb had to dress up since Leah got dressed up in a costume so he was a dragon. Many of the other kids siblings were also dressed up so it's good that I let him. While we were waiting for Leah, Caleb decided to go and play in the grass. I didn't realize that there was a huge mud puddle in the grass where he was playing and of course he falls directly into it. It was a good thing we did have multiple costumes or he would have been trick or treating in a mud covered one!

Leah's parade and her teacher. The teacher's were all dressed as dalmatians and the principal was Cruela Devil.

Here are the pictures of Trick or Treat. We always go trick or treating with my brother and sister in law. We don't really have a neighborhood and the kids love to go trick or treating with their cousins!

I only got a couple of pictures from the Halloween party at the YMCA. They looked cute in their other customes!