Teddy Bear Tea Party!

I really don't remember much of my life at the age of four. I am pretty certain however, that I didn't have Teddy Bear Tea Parties at school! Last Friday the kiddos in Mackenzie's class we asked to dress up like royalty. . .the "men" were to wear ties, and the ladies were to wear their finest royal garb! Mackenzie was so excited that she was allowed to be a princess for the day that she smiled all the way to school. I even let her wear the tiara that I wore on my wedding day! :)

The kids were also asked to bring in their favorite teddy bear to help them celebrate. Mackenzie brought in a bear that Matt gave to me many years ago. It's a white teddy bear angel, with beautiful white and gold wings. I was a bit antsy allowing Mackenzie to take it with her to school, but figured that at least it was being played with instead of just sitting on her bed. She never really paid attention to the bear, but after it accompanied her to school that day, she has slept with it ever since.

Here is a photo of Mackenzie enjoying her teddy bear tea party. The snack was none other than "Teddy Grahams" served w/"tea", aka apple juice.

We've been Baking!

We actually had some free time last week-end! Mackenzie insisted on watching cartoons, but I was SO tired of hearing the same "toon music" over and over. SO, how did I entertain Mackenzie you ask??! We baked, of course!

Mackenzie has become a major helper in the kitchen. . .almost too much of one at times. But last week-end was all about her, so she was expected to help! We started off the week-end by making homemade cinnamon rolls. YUM! Mackenzie was allowed to do almost everything. . .she still isn't allowed to touch the raw eggs or put things in the oven yet.

Here she is mixing the ingredients. . .

From the time she was itty-bitty, she has always stuck her tongue out when concentrating. She still does it, and it cracks me up!!!

The finished product. They were best the first morning they came out of the oven, but were still delicious reheated in the microwave!!


The next morning we made blueberry muffins. . .from scratch! I got the recipe out of a cookbook that was recommended to me by my sister-in-law. I purchased the book back in November, but I JUST got it last week! Apparently it was on backorder. The book came at a perfect time. .. we had a free week-end, and time to make a wonderful breakfast!

First she had to sift together the flour and baking soda. . .

Next she had to combine the wet ingredients. . .

Combine the wet and dry together. . .and. . .

Bake! YUM! Serve warm with butter or margarine!

The Twins!

I am still back-blogging as of yet. . .meaning that I am covering events that happened in our lives last month. Actually, it's a good thing. . .this month has been blessedly boring! :)

My sister and her husband welcomed twins to their (and our) growing family on December the 12th! Although we haven't taken the "formal" photos of the twins as of yet, I do have a couple of photos to share of them. They had a boy, named Kavan Roy, and a little girl named Lachlyn Rielle. At birth Kavan weighed 9+ lbs and Lachlyn was almost 7 lbs!!! My sister's belly was amazingly large before she delivered them!

Here are some of the pics we have. . .

This is Kavan! Look at those chubby cheeks. They just scream to be kissed!

Here's lil Ms. Lachlyn! She is ALL girl. So dainty and pretty!!
Mackenzie was SO excited that she got to hold Lachlyn all by herself. She would give her random kisses every once in a while, and was so gentle with her. It's amazing to me how big my BABY has gotten!
One more of Lil Ms. Lachlyn.
Another picture of Kavan. Isn't his outfit just precious??

Halloween Pottery!

Ok, so remember the last post where I gave hints about the pottery we were making for Halloween?? WELL, I picked it up yesterday, and boy does it look CUTE! I LOVE IT! Here are pics of the pieces we painted. . .




My sister-in-law, Kathy, and I made a scrapbook for our cousins for the bonfire they hosted last year. We had so much fun that we wanted to say thanks in an unique way. So we scrapped our pics. Well, once we finished, we decided that we liked our creation SO MUCH that we just had to have a copy. So I scanned in the pages, uploaded them to mypublisher.com, and ordered a couple of books for ourselves. It helped that I had a buy-one-get-one coupon. I LOVE SAVING MONEY. Anyway, the books were delivered yesterday too. It was a fabulous day. . .pottery was done. . .books delivered. . .you know. . .the little things that make me smile.

I LOVE the books. The quality is awesome!!! Take a peek for yourself!

Harry Pottery!

We have a local paint-your-own pottery place in town that we visited for the first time yesterday. My Aunt introduced me to the idea in her hometown in Kansas, and when we visit her, we also visit the pottery place. Luckily the place has been there since before Mackenzie was born, so we have made plates, bowls, mugs, etc. with her handprints and footprints. Well, my very cool Aunt (HI AUNT B!) sent me a photo of some pottery that she insisted I make with Mackenzie. Once I saw the photos, I totally agreed, but since we weren't going to be visiting my Aunt anytime soon, we ventured to our local joint.

The place was awesome, and operated in similar fashion to the one in Kansas, so we weren't completely at a loss for what to do. When I mentioned to Ms. Mackenzie that we would be going, she said, "I can't wait to go paint HARRY POTTERY". . .or maybe she meant "Hairy Pottery"!

Upon arrival, we had to pick our pottery - a big platter. . .

Next we had to pick our paint. . .black, orange, and green. . .

The final step was simply to get busy. Mackenzie was a crazy-excited woman until we got to painting, then she calmed down a bit. . .good thing too, or we might have had to pay for a lot of broken pottery! I promised in a previous post that I would take photos, and I did. . .actually, MATT took most of these. . .I sure love that guy!

Here's Ms. Mack waiting to have her feet painted. . .we thought it wise to do one at a time. . .

One down, one to go. . .
Here's the 2nd foot. . .Mackenzie was VERY good during this process. . .something that made us both VERY, VERY happy. The paint can be washed if you mess up, but then it has to dry, and it's a mess, and quite frankly, a big hassle.
While I was finishing the platter, Mackenzie painted her own little pieces. . .a cupcake, some stars, and a moon. . .
Look at that concentration!
Here I am adding the border to the platter. . .
Matt, the pro, was helping Mackenzie with the bottom of her crescent. Our goal is to write the words, "When you wish upon a. . ." and then write the word, "Star" on one of the stars. Then hang the two stars and the moon in her room. Cute, eh? It goes with her princess motif.
Can't you just see her little cogs turning? She is most definitely a little sponge. . .absorbing everything. . .I LOVE that face!

We will get the finished pieces back on Thursday. . .I will take MORE pics and post them for you to see!! Woo Hoo!

My sister's having TWINS!!!

We've know for a while now that my sister is having twins! How FUN is that?!?!?! Or rather, how much fun WILL that be once they are sleeping through the night??! I was lucky enough to go to her lastest ultrasound to get a peek at those precious babies. She is having a boy and a girl. . .both are doing wonderfully, and gave us quite a show while we were there. Baby "A" is the girl, and she is in the position to kick her brother anytime she wishes. I bet he will have something to say about that once they are born!

Here are a few pics that I took while we were there. . .

This one is one of my favs. . .the little girl was looking right at us!!!!

Taylor's 4th Birthday

This past week-end was very busy. Friday night we met with some fabulous friends at a wonderful restaurant in Old Town St. Charles called The Vine. The food was great and the company even better! We had so much FUN. Hanging around adults and having grown-up conversation allowed us to escape reality for bit.

We had a late night Friday night, and an early morning on Saturday. .. with about 4 hours of sleep we went to New Town in St. Charles for a photo shoot. (I am almost done processing the photos, and they will be online soon!) The family was amazing, and like almost all of our photo shoots, they made us realize how much we love our "job". . .the people we get to meet, and the memories that we get to share with them are amazing.

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Taylor. . .one of Mackenzie's classmates who turned four. Her birthday was so much fun, and very different from the others we have gone to this year. Her party was held at the Stuffin' Station, a place where you stuff your own "animal", give it a name, and love it forever. Ironically, it was located NEXT DOOR to The Vine! Here are some of the pics from the party:

Here is Mackenzie stuffing her Snow Tiger
This is the birthday girl, Taylor. Isn't she adorable??
Here's Mackenzie naming her Tiger. She named her "Chowder". . .where she got it I don't know, but I thought it was cute!
Here is the wish that went inside of "Chowder". . .
"Chowder" being stitched up. . .
Mackenzie's expression said it all . . .It's like she was thinking, "If I pacify her for one picture, she will (hopefully) leave me alone!"
After all of the animals were made, the kids played hot potato.
Then they tried to get "bees" aka clothes pins, into a jar.After the games, Taylor got to open her presents and see what kind of cool loot she was going to play with at home.

Here is the birthday girl blowing out her candle.

I was too busy gabbing with the other parents to take photos of the cake, but I got this pic on the way home. Notice the purple lips. One of the goodies in the goody bag Mackenzie received after the party was purple princess chapstick. It smelled like grapes and could be worn as a necklace. Mackenzie LOVED it as it filled her desire to be royalty!

Monster Cookies. . .YUM!

So I have been a little preoccupied lately. . .reading the "Twilight" Saga by Stephenie Meyer. If you haven't read it, DO!. . .I mean, seriously, the books are wonderfully written, and the storyline is amazing! I finished the 4th book of the series, and now that it is over, feel a bit sad. I started a new book, but it's just not the same.

Anyway, when I wasn't obsessively reading, I was still living lift to the fullest. Last Saturday we went to the birthday party for a one year old whose name is Blakeli. Blakeli's parents just bought a new home, so we decided to celebrate Blakeli's b-day and their housewarming all at once. We got Blakeli a gift certificate to our local paint-your-own-pottery place. Honestly, it was probably more for her parents than Blakeli, I mean really, it's not like Blakeli really cares about how cute her hand prints will look on a plate or bowl. I hope they all enjoy the gift certificate. . .we have painted pottery each Christmas with Mackenzie, and I love the pieces we have created as a family. I will have to post those sometime. . .but alas, I digress. Back to the party.

For the housewarming gift, Mackenzie and I went to Target for an adorable cookie jar. What home is complete without a cookie jar?! I found exactly what I was looking for and made immediate plans to fill the jar with a recipe that I couldn't wait to try. A month or two ago, while watching the Food Network, Ms. Paula Deen was making Monster Cookies. I waited, and waited for an excuse to make them, and when the housewarming party came up, I was elated! Trust me, the cookies were wonderful! Here are some pics of our labored (ha!) effort!

Mackenzie is ready to go. . .
Apron on. . .Check
Mixer. . .check
Ingredients. . .check
Slightly obsessive mom with a camera. . .check. . .


Adding the oatmeal. . .
I love drop cookies. . .they are so EASY! :)The cooling process. . .
The finished product. Isn't the cookie jar cute? I think I might have to go buy one for myself! With the chalk spot, you could put most anything inside the jar. Think of the possibilities. . .crayons, pasta, coffee. . .

Nathan is 22!

On Tuesday we went to Applebee's to celebrate the 22nd birthday of our Nephew (on Matt's side), Nathan. After a scrumpious dinner (we hadn't been there for a while, and the menu update was amazing!), we headed over to Matt's parent's house for some cake and ice cream. Now, keep in mind that my sister-in-law, Kathy, who also happens to be Nathan's mama, is one of the most creative individuals that I know. Seriously. Very, very, creative. So, what would YOU expect for a quick family cake/ice-cream get together??? Would it be this???? Look closely. . .do you see the details? The little 3-D presents on each plate. . .the little golf men. . .I mean seriously!


The little golf guys were cute. There were even little mini greens and itty-bitty golf balls.

Here is the master decorator herself. Isn't she precious?
The birthday boy. He was happy. . .it doesn't appear like he was, but he was, I promise. . .

We had triple-chocolate cake with triple-chocolate ice cream. It was so YUMMY!
Not all of us were awake to enjoy the festivities! This is Nathan's son, Aiden. I think he might be even more precious than Kathy. . .but only just a little bit!