Holiday Recipe time!

Shelly had this fun recipe challenge on her blog. I would love to play along.

(my mother-in-law's awesome Christmas cookies)

Sandy's Butter Cookies
1/2 lb. butter (butter is BEST)
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter, add sugar and mix well. Add other
ingredients. (Sandy uses a spritz tool to make
her shapes, I roll them out and use very small cookie
cutters) Bake at 375 for 5-6 min. (I usually do 8-9 min.)

Butter Frosting
1/3 cup butter (soft)
3 c. powdered sugar
3 TBS. cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix together. I separate the frosting and
make it into different colors w/food coloring.

Christmases past

Christmas Eve at Grandma's is and was the best (Christmas Eve 1980- I am in the cute yellow pj's)


Christmas 1957
My Grandparents weren't even 25 yet in this picture-my dad is the little guy standing in front of my Grandpa. He and his sister Carrie are Irish twins in every sense, they are even both born in 1953. (Jan and Dec!)

I can't believe it's just a week until Christmas. This is generally where immense panic would set in and I would run around and make sure I had enough and everything was even for the kids, etc. Thankfully this year Mark and I made a spreadsheet in early November and that has been so very wonderful for keeping things straight.

When I was a kid we so looked forward to Christmas Eve at my Grandpa and Grandma Erickson's. I still do. My grandparents are only in their early 70's so I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with them and my kids know them well too. Christmas Eve was so fun because we got to open our new PJ's from my Grandma, open a present from one of our cousins, and eat tons of good food, Grandma would read the Christmas story from the Bible and then sometimes even Santa would run through for a minute on his way to deliver our presents! It was so much about the anticipation of Christmas morning too. (more about them later)

Kendy G

A little about my little brother. He's a cool guy. He's getting me the new Josh Groban CD, Noel and I am so excited. He knows I love Josh Groban! Kendall is 7 years my junior and my first brother. (Zane is 19)

A few years ago he went on a mission to Santiago, Chile and he now has a great insurance business in Wyoming. He's right now trying to figure out how I could work for him from here. We get along great with only the occasional sarcastic comment. (we are both good at those) He's a great guy and I am so happy he has found a great girl, Chelsi. He's leaving to go visit her in VA tomorrow. Have a safe trip and remember who you are. ;) Yes, I am the bossy older sister. I can't help it. It's my nature. Anywho, we really like Chelsi and we hope things continue to go fabulous for them.

Ryan did great at his 3rd grade program tonight. He had a line in the program and he must have practiced it 500 times. He did wonderfully!

A few wintery pics

It's been a crazy week but I at least wanted to show off my cute niece and nephews and post the super easy Christmas card I made. I am working on a few but this was super easy with a template from shabbyprincess. Oh, and isn't my sister's country/primitive tree cute? It's even cuter in person.

On the mend again.....

As I type this, everyone in my family is healthy. Hooray! It's amazing how quickly I take being healthy for granted. Kate got feeling better at about noon today and we have had a nice evening. The only downside to the night was that it started snowing. I have enjoyed not dealing with the white stuff the last few days.

We have several things going on this weekend and I really hope to get a good picture of my kids in the front of the Christmas tree. There is never a good time to get Zachy to cooperate when I am trying to take his picture.

Have a fabulous weekend and stay out of Walmart on Sat. if you don't want to pull your hair out. :)I like crowds less and less as each year goes by.

2/4 thus far.... (don't read this if you are eating)

Zachy had a nasty stomach bug on Monday-Tuesday and Brynn has it so bad tonight. She finally dropped off to sleep just barely. I am so glad. She was hurting badly from dry heaving. At least she uses a bucket. After throwing up in a bowl that I provided Zachy, he decided it represented his "yuckies" and wouldn't use it anymore. After that it was just towels. UGH. I have done a lot of wash in the last couple days. I am so happy he is better. 2 year olds aren't good patients. I really hope we don't go 4/4 this time, but I am planning for it. Or 6/6. That would be really bad.

Oh, and to the people eating dinner at the Sam's Club food court the other night, sorry about the projectile vomiting coming from my 2 year old. He really didn't warn me that he was going to do that. Yikes. :o

Starting off December with a bang-

Today was a good, productive day. I ran Brynn to her church activity this morning, ran to the Humane Society, ran home to get my new washer installed (yahoo), ran to lunch with my parent's and Mark, ran home and put up the Christmas tree and some lights, ran to Walmart to do some much needed grocery shopping, and ran home to get the kiddos to bed and crash into my chair. I'm tired. I know a lot of people are really busy all day every day but I prefer my Saturday's quieter. We just didn't stop today.

I am excited about my Seattle tree. There are always Seattle Seahawks ornaments for sale at huge discounts after Christmas around here. Since Seattle and Denver are the closest NFL teams stores have a lot of their merchandise and it doesn't appear that there are many buyers for it. Mark is a HUGE Seattle team fan so we made our own Seahawks tree so he wouldn't feel homesick for WA. :)I also like our regular Christmas tree. My sister Amy has the cutest country/primitive tree (I will make her send me a picture to post) and I want one like that but my kids get so excited about their old ornaments that it makes it fun for all of us.

In other news this week Ryan earned his Wolf Badge in Scouts. Ry, we are so proud of you! You should see the awesome bird feeder he and his dad made. :)