Alana's quilt

I had some left over material and needed something to do with it. My Mom suggested making a quilt. It just so happened I was planning a trip to OH to stay with them for a week with the kiddos so I packed it all up and brought it with me. We went over my Grandma's house and she showed me how to cut the squares out and get it going.  What a fun day that was. I never thought in a million years I would do a quilt!

My squares didn't actually line up but it's all good. Adds character

Alana picked hot pink for the backing of her quilt

Here she is all snuggled up in her quilt. I think she likes it.

Nothing a little love can't fix

So the hubby was having a bad couple of days. So in order to cheer him up the kids and I decided to make him a cake and his favorite meal to let him know that we loved him.

The kids decided to use the Garfield cake pan my Aunt just gave me.
I forgot to take a picture before we cut into it.

Dave's Favorite meal. Chicken Kastu, steamed rice, and mac salad.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ok. So for whatever reason I was in a baking mood yesterday. So I made 2 loaves of whole wheat bread and then decided to try my hand at cinnamon rolls. Having never made anything like that before I wasn't sure what to expect. They actually turned out pretty yummy.  Though next time I will be adding more cinnamon and sugar mixture to it.

rolling out the dough

adding the cinnamon and sugar

rolled and cut ready to rise overnight in the fridge

fresh out of the oven

ready to be eaten

Making ice cream

We got a few inches of snow last night and the first thing I thought of was making some ice cream using the snow.  My Dad used to do that when I was little and I loved it. That is one of my favorite memories as a child. Every winter I would always want to make ice cream using snow but we never had an ice cream maker. So this past summer we bought one. We made ice cream using ice and rock salt but that just doesn't have the same texture as using snow. I am so happy that I got to make it today with Tyler. I hope that these times will be great memories for Tyler when he gets older.

Chopped chocolate for our Chocolate chip ice cream

the snow bowl next to the ice cream maker

mmm. Chocolate chunk ice cream ready to be eaten!

baking cupcakes!

Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeremy got Alana this cupcake maker that makes mini cupcakes. We thought we would give it a try using the cupcake mix from Grandma and Grandpa p-corn.

 Mixing the egg

 Tyler patiently waiting for them to be done

 Yummy cupcakes

 Alana liked this one because it looked like a heart

All done. It's been a very messy but very fun morning :)

Thank you Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeremy for the awesome cupcake maker!

family

We were fortunate enough to spend some time over the holidays with my family. It is wonderful when we are all together. The kids love playing together and we adults love getting together and sharing stories about our lives. It is hard being so far away from my family especially around the holidays.

 William, Alana, Elizabeth, and Tyler

Dave, Becky, Jeremy, Myself, Grandpa, Grandma, Amy, Tyler, Alana, Elizabeth, William

 This year was a little bit rougher for me than the years past. Dave had to work the 24, 25 and 26 which made for a long Christmas home alone with the kids. It reminded me of what the holidays are really about. It has nothing to do with the gifts you receive. It has everything to do with spending it with family. Looking back I would have done things a little differently. I would have taken my in laws up on their offer to have myself, the kids and dogs down to celebrate with them rather than spending it home alone with the kids. The kids had a great time, which is wonderful, but I know they would have had an even better time seeing their Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle on Christmas and had a nice Christmas meal instead of chicken nuggets, broccoli and apple slices. I have a much greater appreciation for family and have realized that I can't do everything on my own and that some times "toughing it out" just doesn't work. You need to be surrounded by family and people who love you and care about you; Be it blood relation or friends that feel more like family.

Tyler's turn to start singing.

I tucked Tyler into bed tonight and I heard him singing. He is actually singing The Black Eyed Peas song. Though he heard it on a music show with Dora and a few other characters singing it. I couldn't resist taking video of it.