The Jig is Up

That's right, I'm spilling the beans.

I just couldn't keep it in any longer.

I'm not good with secrets, can you tell?

So, how many of you figured it out from the picture? If you look closely at Penelope's shirt you'll see that it says "BIG Sister" not "LITTLE sister".

Yup, that's right....I'm Pregnant!

That is why I have been so very bad at posting lately...I am utterly and completely nauseated, all day and every day...what fun. I started feeling sick the week before Thanksgiving, which totally stunk because I was able to make all the food for T-day the day before but on the actual day I couldn't eat ONE thing. Stinky! On Christmas I received a wonderful migraine due to my changing blood pressure and had that beauty for 3 days, lovely just lovely. The toilet has become my new best friend again. I can't eat, I can't drink. I basically wake up, go downstairs to "watch" the kidlets, lay on the couch and look like death warmed over every day. I wear my pajamas all day long, and the next day and the next day. Mostly, until I feel like I can gather the energy to take a shower which is about every four days if your wondering. I know, completely gross, but true. I have been known to take a fast shower in the past, like 5 minutes and I'm outta there. Now, I'm lucky if I can get my hands up to wash my hair in 10 minutes. Not very fun at all.

Anyhoo, I am about 10 weeks along right now. I usually don't like to tell people until I'm out of that first trimester but I just can't take this nausea anymore. I wanted to ask you all if you have any, and I mean ANY, ideas or helpful tips or well, just ANYTHING that could help me feel better. I've tried sea bands and vitamin B6 to no avail and I absolutely hate ginger...it makes me nauseated (if that's just not perfect, right?) With Noah, I was sick until week 14, with Penny I was like this until week 20!!!!! I'm praying that it's 12 weeks and no more with this one.

I have a funny story to tell you about me and Wal-mart but I think I'll tell it another day, as my energy is dwindling and fast.

Oh, so that makes this little one, which we affectionately call 'Bean III', due July 26, 2010! Sorry, I kinda forgot that part!

Thanks for listening to me kvetch today, I really needed it.

And a Merry Christmas to You!!

Merry Christmas Eve to you all!!!!

And I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!!!

If you're wondering, here is a look at what is under our tree right now:

Yep, boxes!!!

We have had lots of special deliveries lately...yeah us! Mainly, because I live nowhere near any of my family so they all send us boxes of gifts to open on Christmas morning, Love Them! I don't know about you but I just love to get boxes delivered by the mailman, UPS man, or the FEDEX man!!!! My grandparents always lived far away from us growing up so my siblings and I always looked forward to getting a huge box from them sometime in December that was off limits to open, even for a peek, until Christmas morning. So, now tonight, once the kidlets are in bed (early I hope) me and the hubs will take to ripping open these boxes and placing all of the pretty presents under our tree (uh huh, that's right, it's finally up!) for Noah and Penny!

What fun!

And, just in case you were wondering who has been a good girl this year, it's ME! Yeah, I was good...well except for the occasional swear word when I messed up my sewing and had to get out that seam ripper...argh...I hate that! Santa was so sweet to drop off my present early. Wanna see what he gave me? Ok, I'm so excited I can't wait any longer to show you...

EEEK! Isn't she a beauty!!! A digital SLR camera...just what I wanted! Man, that Santa is good...he knows just what to get me EVERY year! This one's super sweet too, 15.1 megapixels of awesomeness! My old SLR is film so I am so excited to have a digital one where I can finally download my pictures right to my computer instead of dropping off (and buying) film. This one is a Canon EOS Rebel T1i. I could only take a picture of it right now for you all because I still need to play around with it. I need to get it all figured by tomorrow morning, er, maybe tonight...BIG photo opp tomorrow morning, you know!

Ok, just wanted to share my early Christmas present fun...and my wishes to you for a wonderful Christmas to share with your family and friends! Safe travels if you are on the road or in the sky right now too!!!

Merry Christmas!!

and a Big HO-HO-HO to you all!!!

Traditions!...Traditions!...Traditions!

Traditions, some people hate 'em but I love 'em! I think there is just something so nice about doing the same thing every year or every time a special occasion/day comes up on the calendar or in your family's life. I thought I would share a few of ours that we do around Christmas time every year, maybe to inspire you if your family doesn't quite do them or just so you can get an idea of what we do to make our house a little merrier this time of year.

First, I always buy everyone new Christmas pajamas. I try to buy the kidlets matching pairs that they can wear on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. You know, for super cute ripping-the-presents-open pictures.

We always make platters, and I'm talking about the weigh 12 lbs type of platters, of Christmas cookies for our family and friends.

We like to visit Santa, as you know from this post, and take pictures of this adventure for each of their memory boxes.

We make a photo calendar with pictures of the kidlets from the year past and give this to both of our families. We started this last year and hope to continue it until the littles go off to college. How fun, right? We buy additional calendars for each kidlet to put in their memory boxes as well.

On Christmas Eve, we read the story about the birth of Jesus and explain how on Christmas morning Baby Jesus will be in his manger in our Nativity scene. I have heard of some families wrapping the Baby Jesus up and putting him under the tree so that one of the kids opens him as the last gift to bring all the present opening mayhem to an end and the real reason for Christmas is then the main focus. I think we may start doing this...I think it's such a great idea, it's so easy for little ones to get caught up in the presents!

We also always decorate a gingerbread house! I just love this activity, it let's your kidlets go wild in the mess department...if you're willing to go there!! This year, just for Noah, we decorated a Choo-Choo. Why, here are some pictures from this year...amazing, how I just happened to have a few to share with you! :)

Getting ready to decorate...er, uh to eat candy!?!

Decorating the choo-choo...but we all know it's really about how much candy he can get in his belly first.

The finished product, with one green tongue to use as evidence

There's a Choo-Choo in there somewhere!!

Noah trying to crack a few nuts...another tradition we like to do in our home

And some random pictures of Penny since she was sleeping during the Choo-Choo decorating. Here is our Wild Thing in all her Wild Woman glory!

Whoa, she is one hyper little lady sometimes!

What traditions do you have in your family?

It's never to late to start!

Easy Girl Scout Tagalong Cookie Recipe...YUM!

So, here it is. Just like I promised! My super easy cookie recipe that will surely be a hit at all your Holiday parties or Christmas Cookie Exchanges. It's an incredibly awesome version of the Girl Scout Tagalong Cookie that I have in my recipe box courtesy of my sister-in-law, otherwise known as Aunt Gigi to the kidlets! We just call them 'The World's Best Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie You'll Ever Eat' at our house, but a Tagalong is what they remind me of and is much easier and shorter to say! Go figure.

Don't they look ridiculously good? Well, they are...I can't lie to you, they are the 'gone-in-one-day' type of cookies, the type of cookies that all your friends ask the recipe for when you bring them over for your annual Cookie Exchange! Want to make some and become the star of your next Holiday Affair? Ok, then here is what you need:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Peanut Butter (I like to use natural, not Jif natural...it's all we had when I made these...but REAL natural peanut butter,the taste just can't be beat!)

1 roll Ritz crackers

1/2 bar chocolate bark

1 Tbsp shortening

Waxed paper

**If you have a peanut allergy, you probably could substitute with another type of "butter" product and get equally amazing results. I've never tried though, it's just a thought.

Ok, so you have everything? Then, let's get on with the Goodness...

Use the whole roll of Ritz crackers and make a boat load of peanut butter sandwiches. Then, put your 1/2 block of chocolate bark in microwaveable bowl along with the shortening and melt via the package instructions. Then, all you do is dip and cover all the sandwiches in the gooey chocolate and place on a sheet of waxed paper to dry. That's it, instant gratification in the cookie-making world!

**Side Note** When you dip your sandwiches in the chocolate use a fork. That way it's easier to let all the excess chocolate drip off the side of the pan before you place them on your waxed paper!

Mmmm....soooo good!

Christmas Cookie Making at it's Easiest

Heaven.

Wintery Fun

With all the snow we have had here in Illinois recently we've had to get outside and have some fun. So crafting has been on hold to play outside! Hope you all don't mind, I have a super yummy recipe for some easy peasy Christmas cookies I am going to be posting next...promise! Instead of sitting inside by my lonesome at my sewing machine, we have embraced the chilly air and made snowmen and snow angels, went sledding and had some pretty interesting snowball fights with toddlers. Here is a look at how are December has been shaking up:

Every year we like to make a big snowman in our front yard. Here is this year's "Frosty" or as Noah says, 'Not Frosty just Snowman, Frosty is only in the book!' (Duh, mom!!!) Also, every night before he goes to bed he wants us to call Snowman on Snowman's cell phone (since all snowmen have one, right?) and tell him goodnight. My, kids have such imagination, love it!

Penny's first trip sledding.

We go to a local park that was built just for sledding (you won't find one of those in Florida!) and the hills are amazing! This orange sled in the picture above is like a rocket and the speed we go is ridiculous. Penny absolutely loved it. She's fearless.

See ya guys!

Daddy making the looooong trip up the hill with the kidlets.

Noah's first attempt at going down the huge hill alone...he LOVED it...no more riding in the sled with the Baby for him!

Playing in the backyard yesterday...

...so he could make these little guys. Aww, aren't they just so cute!?!

If you have snow by you, enjoy it...

Ours is melting already!

Adventures with Santa

We took the kidlets to see Santa today. It was a trip to the mall full of good memories for our family. I know the kidlets are little but I still think seeing Santa is a must do before Chistmas, I mean a way higher priority then say getting my Christmas tree up (seriously, maybe we'll do it this weekend.)

Hmmm...well let's see, first off it snowed about 4 inches here last night and this morning we had lots more snow, slush and all the other messiness that comes with snow, Ewww. Aside from the snow craziness, we found a parking spot pretty quick and hurried to bundle the kids up to race into the mall. The first 'memory maker' that happens not even 1 minute after we started to walk through the parking lot was Noah falling flat, face first in all the slush and muck. We picked him up and his face and coat and pants were dripping and covered in yuck! Good times. Not only was he upset, he was cold and wet too and we had no other clothes to put him in. Alas, once we were inside and had him take his coat off he was fine, wet pants and all. It was devine intervention that we happened to come in the doors closest to the kiddie playland. Thank goodness...not the best start to happy smiling pictures for Santa Claus, although this gave Clif and I lots to laugh about (after the fact) during our trip in mall insanity.

So, off to see Santa. I had been preparing Noah for Santa earlier this morning so he wouldn't be freaked. I told him, 'He'll be sitting in a big chair wearing a red and white suit'. 'You get to sit on his lap with Baby (Penny)'. 'He'll say "HO HO HO!"' 'He'll ask what you want for Christmas'. Noah's reply (he had thought about this for a while) 'a sled' and 'the Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Movie'...I totally am loving the fact that he only wants two things for Christmas, that's my boy! 'Then, he'll ask if you have been good. Have you?'

Noah and Penny actually seemed excited when they saw him from the line. It was really cute. And then, as we moved closer in line and it was finally our turn to sit in Santa's lap...Noah actually did it, he was so excited to sit in his lap! He was soooo cute. He answered all of Santa's questions, told him what he wanted and that he had been a good boy and EVEN gave him two, count 'em TWO high fives!! So absolutely adorable! Penny on the other hand was more like, 'who is this guy and why are you leaving me with him?' There was even a picture from the Santa photographer that had her reaching out for us with that 'don't leave me' terror in her eyes. No crying though, yeah!!

Here are some of the pictures from our trip to see the Man in Red:

Noah was lovin' the experience...Penny, not so much!

(Are ya seeing the wet pants!?!)

Schmoozin' with the Big Guy.

Pretzels?...Ok, now I'll smile for ya.

I hope your trip to see Santa is full of fun memories for your family!

HO HO HO!!!!

Gift Bow Hair Clip Tutorial

So, we went and had our Christmas pictures taken yesterday. Yes, I know, I am super extremely late on getting those done this year. We may be sending New Year's cards out instead of Christmas cards. I have even contemplated sending a Christmas card/picture via email but thought, 'Now really? Am I THAT person? What would Martha Stewart do in this situation?' I think we all know she would just get those darn pictures done and those darn cards sent out. Humrph...but really, to tell you the truth, I haven't done a whole lot of Christmas-y things around our house at all. Tree up? Nope. Fall decorations down? Nope. And it's killing me! But I have just been soooooo tired lately and sooooo not feeling myself. Hopefully that all changes soon as I have a bunch of Christmas presents I was planning on making the kidlets and they are all about half done...not good.

Well, since I haven't been doing much around my house, you all know I haven't been crafting as much lately either...as in complete lack of posts and projects...SORRY! To make up for it, I have a super cute Christmas/Winter bow hair clip that you can whip up in no time for your little princess. Please accept my apology!

I realized the morning of our Christmas pictures (read: yesterday morning) that Penny had no little bow for her hair that was Christmas-y or really that nice deep winter-y red. Lots of pinks and purples but not RED!!! So, I quickly came up with this and had it done in less than 30 minutes! Sweet, considering our appointment was at 11:45 AM!

A sweet bow for a sweet little girl!

You likey?

Ready to make this adorable little clip? Ok, here is what you'll need:

Little Girl's Hair Bow Clip

one roll of 3/8 inch wide ribbon (grosgain works best for non-slippage in the hair)

lighter or candle (to singe the ends of ribbon so they won't fray)

metal prong single clips (you can buy a giant box at Sally Beauty Supply for cheap!)

fabri-tac adhesive or your hot glue gun

4mm round pearl white jewelry decorations

rotary cutter or scissors (to cut ribbon)

Here are your partners in crime for this project.

First off, cut one 7 inch piece of your ribbon and 3 smaller 2 1/2 inch pieces of ribbon. Singe the all ends with a lighter to prevent fraying.

Next, go ahead and cover your clip with the 7 inch ribbon. I used polka dot red ribbon out of my stash (I was just a little too lazy and this idea was just a little last minute to go and buy plain red!) and just put the polka dot design facing inwards.

I like to start the ribbon gluing at the bottom half of the clip on the inside and work my way around the to the outside, then up and over the top, then ending at the inside top half of the clip...make sense? This way you won't glue your clip shut so it won't open. Hopefully the picture above will help get you started.

**Side note** Always use VERY small amounts of glue!! A little glue goes a LONG way!!!! Trust me!

Now, you have the whole clip covered...Mah-velous, just mah-velous!

Next, glue the two ends of the small strips of ribbon together using a VERY small dab of glue. Since I used polka dot ribbon I made sure my polka dots were in the inside. You can see in the picture above how the glue gets stringy like hot glue. That's OK, since we'll be pressing the center together anyways...you won't even notice the stringy-ness :)

Then, just add a VERY small dab of glue to the inside center of the loop. Press together for a minute and let the glue dry.

Now, just layer the loops on top of each other to form a bow with a dab of glue each. I did one straight up and down and then the other two crosswise.

Then, just add some little pearls to the center of your bow with a teeny tiny dab of glue and you're set...all ready for some of the cutest Christmas pictures EVER!

My model...wearing her new bow and trying to bust into a clementine.

Happy picture taking to you!

One Gift Bought...Check!

So, I realized that I never posted about one of my most favorite gifts that I bought for Penelope for her first birthday this summer! Which is ok, I guess, cause I can tell you all about it now since I bought her another one for Christmas. So what is this mysterious gift, you ask? It's the sweetest rag doll made by the coolest Etsy shop called Project Grab Bag.

You see, I was searching high and low this summer for a rag doll to buy Penny as her first official dollie ever. As you know, she only has an older brother so many of our toys are trucks, trains, cars, and other boy fun. We really didn't have anything girlie for her to play with...not that she doesn't enjoy all the boy stuff, I just really wanted her to have some girlie things...a dollie and this tea set, you know, so I could play with them too! It needed to be cute and cuddly but also with no buttons or other choking hazards too. My searching led me to Project Grab Bag and boy, was I excited!! Shannon, the dollie-maker, is the best! She makes every dollie with new and vintage materials and can even customize them for you! I bought one of her baby dolls as her first dollie but then couldn't help but have Shannon make a custom dollie of Penny in her likeness as well. You can pick eye color, open/closed eyes, clothing, hair color and style, etc. I was so happy with the result...and she was fast too. Check out some of the cuteness exploding out of her shop as I speak:

This dollie is so sweet, I want to buy her right now! You can see in the picture that each dollie comes with accessories too! A hat, scarf and cute little mary janes that you (or your little girlie) can take on and off and play dress-up with! Love it!

She even has boy dollies in her shop...you can't forget the little men in your life! I think I am going to have to get Noah one of these 'manly stuffed friends' for him to add to his bedtime collection.

You can even buy extra accessories for your dollies too, I just had to buy a pair of these Fuzzy Moon Boots...I so love playing with them (and one day Penny will too, haha!) Aren't they the cutest things EVER!?!

There are even cute little bunny slippers to buy too. Ahhh the cuteness, I just can't take all the cuteness!!!!!

Ok, so now that I've shared, you have got to get over to her Etsy shop. It is really too cute for words. You need to see it with your own eyes! And hey, tell me what fun things have you found for your littles for Christmas/Hannukah? I promise I won't tell them! I have been a little laid back in this department this year so any and all ideas would be great to hear!

Thanks x a million!

Eggnog Bread...Mmmm good!

I am always super excited for December to roll in because when I go grocery shopping I get to find Eggnog in the stores and then precisely fill my cart up with it! I used to hate eggnog when I was a kidlet but like so many people say, your tastes change as you get older. Now, I just love it!!! I always have to buy eggnog ice cream when the Special Edition holiday flavors hit the stores as well, that stuff is soooo good, especially with brownies (if you haven't tried this you MUST, it is to die for!)

I have a super yummy recipe for eggnog bread that I make every year (and eggnog cookies...another yummy treat for the holidays, geez I can't get enough of eggnog!), I like to make it in large loaves for my family and then lots of mini loaves to give out at my annual cookie exchange. It is so nice toasted with some butter. Mmmm...the perfect way to start your morning off right (or end your day...maybe this is why the loaves in our house only last a day!) You have to try this recipe, I am sure you'll fall in love with it too. Even my friends who aren't so keen on eggnog can't wait for me to make this every winter.

Eggnog Bread

1 cup eggnog

2 teaspoons rum flavored extract

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 1/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease one large loaf pan or 3 mini loaf pans. Mix together the first 6 ingredients until they are blended well. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to the eggnog mixture and mix until just moistened. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake large pan for 40-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Smaller loaf pans can bake for 35-40 minutes! Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan, and then let cool completely on a baking rack. Wrap tightly and store in the refrigerator for easy cutting! YUM!

Seriously Good!