Gearing up for Christmas!

This last week has been pretty busy for us. My mom had another surgery the beginning of the week to fix her bladder among other things. Getting old is looking more and more fun! She is doing well now! Then Hannah's last day was Wednesday. So we have been gearing up for Christmas day. Earlier this week Hannah wanted to write a letter to Santa. I know it isn't spelled right but she was so proud of it. And she did it all by herself. I'm going to keep it in her baby book because it is her first letter to Santa.

 "Dear Santa, I want a Hello Kitty [scooter]. Love, Hannah"

 She had to make sure it made it to him before Christmas and she insisted on putting it in the mail box herself! Thankfully I got it out before the mail lady came!

Presents! It's a hate/love relationship! I love giving them, and receiving them. I hate wrapping them! This year both sides of our family are putting emphasis on the kids instead of the adults. But since the number of kids keep multiplying the number of presents haven't really changed much! ;)

This year I got a little more festive and made bows for each present!

 And thankfully they all fit under the tree....barely!

Another family tradition we have is making a gingerbread house. Usually I get one big one and decorate it myself. Hannah did help last year, but I did most of the work. This year I thought it would be fun to have a little village of gingerbread houses. However as the week has gone by, I haven't really wanted to do them. So I let Hannah do one herself and the rest will probably not get finished.

  And it can get a little messy when the 5 year old is in charge!

but she was really excited about doing it herself. (I did have to help her a little with the frosting).

All finished!

And what would go great with Gingerbread houses than Christmas Cookies! We needed to make some for tonight and for my side of the family's party. Trey really just enjoys licking the beater!

 He has to make sure to get it all cleaned!

"It's yummy, Mama!"



Our favorite cookie in the whole world, Chocolate Chip!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

LOVE THE JACKSON FOUR!

December fun!

Hannah's first field trip was to The Children's Art Center for the play, A Year With Frog and Toad. I was able to go with her. She really like it! She also LOVED riding on the school bus for the first time. The play was pretty good, I thought. Though it wasn't my favorite. :)

Hannah with her friend Emma.

I tried to get a picture of the two of us, but it didn't turn out so great. Emma stuck her head in the way at the last minute and I couldn't get Hannah to sit up anymore, so I look all crooked.

This was Hannah's bus.

My step mom's family invited us to come to Christmas this year. I made a cake to take along.

Trey helped!

 Finished Snowman Cake

 As you can imagine, playing can get pretty fun sometimes. But clean-up is not so fun! Hannah can make her room go from spotless to this in about 5 minutes. Not joking. But getting her to clean it up can be quite to chore. So I stole an idea from a friend. My friend made her son a "map" to help him clean his room without getting so overwhelmed. This is mostly Hannah's problem too. (And that she is lazy too.) So I thought making her a "map" would help. And it did!

 It's not fancy, but it gave her just the encouragement she needed. I put pictures next to the words to help her know what the word said. Since she is learning to read at school, I made sure she read it to me before starting on her room. They I put little check boxes so she could check off her accomplishments and to keep her encouraged through the whole process. I didn't get a finished picture, but she took her map and colored all over it as a reward. She really like the map idea and we have used it several times.

Hannah meets Santa

I have struggled with the whole "Santa" thing since I first had Hannah. I don't like lying! And I don't think it is good to lie to your kids, even about Santa. Hannah's first Christmas I took her to sit on Santa's lap just so I could get the photo. But I haven't taken her since. She has drawn up her own conclusions about Santa being real. And she has only seen him on TV. That is until she went to the library with her class and Santa was there to visit with the kids. So, for the first time since we was an infant, Hannah sat on Santa's lap. She whispered in his ear what she wanted. After getting up she came over by me. I could tell she was super excited and just as she got beside me she told me in a non-library kind of voice, "Mama, he's real! Santa is real and I told him what I wanted and he's really real!"

Now my dilemma is what do I do. I can't deny that he was real in the library! I can't lie to her though and say there really is a Santa Clause who lives in the North pole and delivers toys on Christmas Eve. One of my friends once told me what she did with her son. She let him make up his own idea about Santa and just went with it. She didn't deny it or confirm it. And she also put a lot of emphasis on Jesus! I agree. I have always told Hannah that Christmas is about Jesus' birth and that is why we celebrate it. But now that she thinks Santa is real, I have to somewhat play along. I refuse to lie to her and use "Santa" as a tool to make her act good. So when she asked me if he is real, the answer is: "Only on TV is he real, like Mickey Mouse or Cinderella. There is no real Santa Clause just like there is no real Mickey or Cinderella! 

Hannah telling Santa what she wanted. It was really cute to watch her "whisper" it to him. She didn't want anyone knowing what she wanted. Thankfully I already know!

Hannah made a Christmas necklace as a craft.

She was very excited about the songs, craft, and getting to meet Santa.

Hannah meets the "real" Santa.

Trey's Play Date

Today we had a few friends over to play. We are lucky to have several friends with kids right around our own kid's ages. I haven't hosted a play date in a while. So it was nice to see Trey play with some of his friends while I was able to visit with the moms. I also made lunch for everyone. I made ham and cheese crescents and potato soup. The star of lunch was the crescents I think! I am still trying to prefect my potato soup and I am looking for good recipes if anyone has one they would like to share!

The kids played outside for a little while at first. However, since we don't have a very fun backyard they decided to come inside to play. Good thing Trey's room was clean! :) 

 Trey was pretty excited about seeing his friends.

Christmas Card Outtakes!

 Taking Christmas photos have to be one of the things I dread the most, but always have to do. I love having a photo memory of this time of year. Sometimes I try to get the whole family and sometimes it is just easier to get the kids. This year we were going to one of the whole family. We went to the capitol to take them and ended up having to leave due to the amount of people were there. So, instead of the whole family I decided to just get the kids in front of our tree. It was more work than I thought, but I will cherish the photos in years to come. Here are the best outtakes and the last one is our photo we used for the cards.

 This would have been a good one, but I wanted more of the tree in it.

 The kissing photo!

 Trey thought he needed to give Hannah a kiss too! She wasn't so excited!

 Hannah hasn't really prefected the smile yet! Sometimes it is little and sometimes it is REALLY big!

 Finaly after about 30 minutes of stressful posing and about 30 pictures later, we got a good one!

You won't see it in Better Homes & Gardens magazine...

I finally got around to putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. I was not very excited about it, but together with my family we had a good time. DJ and Hannah helped decorate the entire tree. I only helped with a few areas, mostly with Hannah's areas. She likes to put 5 ornaments on the same branch! I also helped with the "fluffing" of the tree, the ribbons, and the topper.

It's not something you would see in a decorators magazine, but I like it. I like the personal touch of it. Most of the ornaments have a meaning or story to go with it. Don't get me wrong here. I love the look of professional looking trees. I have a lot of friends who do a beautiful job on their trees and decorations. They can come do mine anytime! But I am not that creative and I wouldn't know the first thing to do. So I just do what I like. (And what I can live with for 4 or more weeks.)

This is also the first year to have our tree in front of the window. Before it was either across the room from the window or in a corner and only a small portion was in front of the window. So we had to decorate all the way around this year. I like it this way!

This year is the first year to have Christmas in our new home. So I really had to think about what I was going to do with the fireplace. In our old home I had a floral arrangement I put in the center of the mantel and then added some decorations around the sides. I couldn't do that this year though. I figured I needed to make two arrangements. Thankfully I had enough items from the fireplace and kitchen table arrangement to make two new ones for the new fireplace. This currently leaves me without an arrangement for my table, but I will figure that out later.

  

Again, I am not a professional decorator, so I did the best I could. They could use some help, and maybe next year I will fix them. For now I like them and they are going to stay that way! I am proud of the vases though! They used to be clear with blue rocks inside. I decided to paint them this year. I really like the way they turned out.

  

And yes, our dog has her own stocking. Lexi is a part of our family. Every year I buy her a bone for the stocking and a toy/snack for under the tree. I have learned not to put them under the tree until the day of Christmas or she will open them early! What can I say, I love my dog.

I found this figurine on sale earlier this fall. I loved it! It has an older girl and younger boy snowman. Just like my kids. And I just love snowman families!

I have some other decorations around the house, but they are mostly figurines. I didn't really feel the need to take pictures of everything. Hannah also has a small tabletop tree in her room. Her favorite colors are purple and pink. So her tree is white and has a rainbow optical effect and it is decorated in purple and pink ornaments. It also is home to her ornaments she has received from her grandparents every year since she was born. All the ornaments are plastic, therefore I don't mind her playing with them. It keeps her off my tree!

I don't bake pies!

Well, our Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful! DJ had Thursday - Sunday off. Hannah had a 5 day break from school. So lots of family time! This was the first year since DJ graduated from pharmacy school that we had time off together during the Thanksgiving break. I'm very thankful for his new job!

Thursday we had dinner at DJ's parents. As always it was a wonderful dinner feast! I stuffed my face, just as I do every year! Iva, Hannah and Trey played before and after. It brings back many memories of when I was a child, playing with my cousins during the holidays.

 Hannah and Trey. Hannah is wearing her Indian hat she made at school.

 Sophie and Lexi are sticking to the kids table, hoping for fallen scraps!

For preparation for my feast, I brined my second turkey Thursday night. On Friday I cooked the first turkey and packed it away for Saturday. I also started to make my pies. I figured out I am not a pie person. I LOVE to eat them, but I have a bit of trouble making them. My first problem was the crust. I couldn't get them right. My oldest brother has made pies before and so I called on him for some help. He came over and for some reason he couldn't make the crust either. So, I bought pie crust. Brandon thought I was committing a crime by doing so, but I had no choice. I then proceeded to make the fillings. I had to make the chocolate first because it had to set up before refrigerating. I followed the recipe perfect...except one step. I forgot to add the sugar. And since the chocolate in the pie was unsweet, the pie needed sugar. SO, when I realized I left it out (at the very end) I added it to the filling. I thought it was going to work, but it didn't. The filling never did set right and it tasted like crap!

The pecan pie I made was also not so great. DJ and I had a date night planned for Friday night. So I didn't have time to make the pie until after the date. It was 11 when I made it and I was exhausted and fell asleep. The timer woke me up, but the pie had burned on top. I was suppose to put some foil on top during baking if it got to brown. Oops! So the pie tasted good in the middle, but the top was too crisp. Bummer!

The rest of the dinner for Saturday was great! The turkey was perfect! And all the sides were yummy! I also make a caramel apple cheese pie (which turned out great!) and some banana pudding. That was also great! I gained 2 lbs. just Saturday alone! But it was worth it. (and I have lost all the weight I gained).

So now I am all turkied out! Once I am back in the mood to bake, I will be practicing my pies. I am determined to make a great pie! My grandmother didn't come out of the womb making perfect pies. It took time and practice (and patients) to make them, so I know I can too.  I didn't take any pictures of the family! I know, bad for blogging!

Brine Baby Brine!

Today I am making my second batch of brine for my turkeys. I am making two turkeys, one for the day before we eat and one on the day of! I got my turkey recipe from the Food Network's show Good Eats. Alton Brown is a genius in my opinion and I just love his show. I also love this recipe. I want to share it with you today!

Brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp. allspice berries
1 1/2 tsp. chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

Aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs Rosemary
6 leaves sage

Make your brine (minus the water) a couple days before and refrigerate. The night before you want to eat, soak your bird in the brine and water. Refrigerate over night, making sure the bird is completely covered with brine. You don't want uneven flavor! When ready to cook your bird, remove from brine and discard brine. Make your aromatics from recipe above. Microwave water, apple and onion together for 5 minutes. Then stuff them inside your fully rinsed turkey along with the rest of the aromatic ingredients and place bird on roasting rack. Cover bird with canola oil and place in 500 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then wrap breast meat with foil triangle and turn oven down to 350. Cook your bird until a thermometer probe (pre-inserted in beast of turkey before roasting) reads 161 degrees. This will ensure your dark meat is 180 degrees and your breast is at 160 degrees. Just perfect for both!

Here is a link to the recipe as well as videos:

Good Eats Roast Turkey on the Food Network

My 1st Thanksgiving Dinner

This year will be the first time to make and host Thanksgiving dinner. My mom, brothers, sister-in-laws, and nephews will all be here (just on my side). We are having Thanksgiving dinner with DJ's family on Thursday. My dinner will be this weekend. My oldest brother, Brandon, and I came up with the idea of potluck Thanksgiving. I will be making the turkey, dressing, corn, gravy, mac n' cheese, pecan pie, chocolate pie, apple caramel cheese pie, and banana pudding. Brandon is bringing ingredients to make mashed potatoes (to make at my house so they will be warm), deviled eggs, rolls, broccoli n' cheese casserole, pumpkin pie, cherry pie. My mom and youngest brother, Taylor, are bringing green bean casserole, vegetable tray and fruit tray for snacking. Then my middle brother, Matt, is bringing drinks and the cranberry sauce. I am really excited about all the food we are having. It may seem like a lot, and it is! But this is exactly how it used to be when I was growing up. The only thing that is missing is my Texas family. We used to have the WHOLE family at my grandmothers and she would spend all day cooking and my cousins and I would spend the whole day playing outside and stuffing our face and watching football. It was great! Banana pudding was her specialty! It isn't Thanksgiving without it.

Yesterday I started getting my list of ingredients together. There were several things I already had on hand, but I still ended up with a large list for the grocery store! I figured today wouldn't be too bad at the store. I went at 10 am. It was packed! I guess everyone else had the same idea! I was lucky enough to get everything on my list I needed. I even got fresh sage! It was the last package too! I have my schedule made out and I am ready.

I made the brine for my turkeys today. I am so excited about my turkey. In the past I have failed at making turkey. I didn't thaw it all the way through and parts of it ended up raw. But this time I have started thawing the turkey early and so we shouldn't have the same mistake! I am making two turkeys. A few weeks back, the stores had 14-17 lb turkeys on sale for 50 cents a pound. I bought two since they were small and I will make one the day before and one the day of. This way we will have enough to eat the day of and for sandwiches later on! I will try to keep you all posted though out the week on my preparations for the big feast!

A Baby Shower

Matt and Elizabeth

Yesterday I hosted my brother and his wife's baby shower. Elizabeth, his wife, is due in January. Matt loves the Lion King and she loves monkeys. So I did a cake to satisfy both taste. They had a great turn out and got lots of little things to help them on the way. The baby's name is Hunter Coltelee Dobbs. Matt's middle name is Colte and Elizabeth wanted Lee in the name after a family member of hers. I think it is a clever way to add both! Not to mention it was my suggestion! :)

Congratulations guys! Hunter will be loved and cherished! 

A Halloween Birthday

Iva turned 5 on November 8th. This past Saturday was her birthday party. Since her birthday is so close to Halloween, her mom decided to do a costume/Halloween themed party. She asked me to make the cupcakes. After looking at a few examples she decided on witch's hats. Betsy also rented a jump house. The weather was good and it was a huge success! The party was really cute and everyone had a great time. Including Iva!

The birthday girl!

Blowing out the candles. Since the cupcakes all had hats on them, we chose to put candles in a left over cupcake so she would have something to blow out.

Hannah jumping in the jump house.

Trey enjoying his witch hat cupcake. He didn't really want to smile or even look at the camera. This was the best I got!



I made Iva's a little more sparkly. Since she is the birthday girl, hers needed a little more pzazz!

Here's how I made them...

 Take sugar cones and trim off the bottom to achieve desired height for hat.

 Most of them trimmed easily. Some broke in the wrong spot. Good thing I bought extras!

 All trimmed and ready to cover.

 I made a pattern of the cone for easy cutting. Black fondant was my choice to cover the cones in. The directions I used called for them to be covered in black royal icing. But I can never get the icing black enough. So I chose pre-tinted fondant.

 I rolled it out thin and cut it using a pizza cutter.

 Then I rolled it on.

 Tucked under the bottom.

 And smoothed it out on soft foam.

 Thanks Duff for the pre-tinted fondant! It worked great!

 I put them in a large container and let them dry so it would be easier to decorated.

 I also made the rem of the hat with fondant. I used two cookie cutters and made these little donuts. I also let them dry.

 Glued on the top with buttercream icing I tinted as black as I could. Thankfully you couldn't see it! I then decorated the hats with a orange, green and purple. The finished product is what you saw above.

 Time for cupcakes. I love this recipe. I got it out of the Cupcakes by the Cake Doctor book. Yum!

They got a cute liner too! Then after the cupcakes were cooled I iced them in orange and lime green icing and topped them with the decorated hats. Iva's hat I added pearl dust to make it sparkle!