The Christmas Dress... and Pic

Yes, I said Christmas and not Holiday...ok??  We celebrate Christmas and every year it is tradition that my mother gets Kyra and now Franny their dresses/outfits for the holidays.  And so, the hunt is on.  I saw some on Old Navy but I think they are gone b/c most of them weren't even on-line today.  Saw some on Children's Place but wasn't a big fan this year.  Tried to look up some stuff on-line but was unsuccessful.  And, of course, I want the girls to match.  Funny how we don't really care what the boys wear??  Thinking of going out at some point to try and find something matching...even if it's not your typical Christmas dress, you know??

While I am thinking about their dresses, I also have to think about the Photo for the cards.  If you don't know me, I will tell you that my cards usually go out on Christmas Eve and I make sure they say Happy Holidays and New Year (b/c I know they won't go out way before xmas and sometimes not until after...so Happy New Year here's a pic of my kids on my card!!)  I've done so many different things with them over the years...had some fun looking at the pics so I thought I'd take you down memory lane with me:)  Enjoy!! (I don't have the pic we used when it was just DJ but we'll start with the following year)

2004 (DJ almost 2 and Kyra was 6 mos)

2005 (DJ almost 3 and Kyra 18 mos)

2006 (DJ almost 4 and Kyra 2.5)

2007 (DJ almost 5 and Kyra 3.5)

 2008 (Max 6 mos, DJ almost 6, Kyra 4.5)

2009 (Max 1.5, DJ almost 7, Kyra 5.5)

And Finally, 2010 (Franny Girl 2 mos, Max 2.5, Kyra 6.5 and DJ almost 8)

Yes, this is the same sweater as last year... and, he could wear it again this year...lol...)

Four Day Weekend...or NOT..

I know most of the world had the pleasure of having a great 4 day weekend over Thanksgiving break.  And I naively thought I had one too... ha ha ha... not so much.  I had so many things to get done not realizing that I actually didn't even get 1 of those days 'off'.  And so, nothing got done and Franny's crib is still full of crap and so we didn't actually get her in there.  Boo!!

Here's how my 4-day weekend went down (this is after baking several pies/cheesecakes and rice pudding for sale):
Thursday (Thanksgiving)- well, that just says it all.  When you are cooking and 'hosting', you don't really get much of anything else done.  It was a GREAT day and I'm glad we were able to do it and spend the day with the MIL and her sister... but... would've been great to just get stuff done around here, you know??

Friday- had Baby J until about 1ish and then I really did do nothing (after being able to eat leftovers for lunch) for about an hour.  Got kids ready for their sleepover and headed out to Walmart on a bin hunt for our china.  Got some xmas presents and some baking ingredients too.  By the time we got back home, it was too late to really get things going in Franny/Kyra's rooms and Max had to go to bed... And Franny just didn't want to go to sleep... she is NOT fun when she's overtired and doesn't go to sleep!!

Saturday- mad dash to make cupcakes for my niece's b-day party that I was also working for.  She was having it at the place I do the birthday party hosting side job.  Also mad dash to get he 1/2 sheet cake baked and the buttercream made so I would just have to put it all together.  After niece's party, went to a bonfire at a good friends house.  Great weather and good times.  Though, had a bit too much wine or something... it seemed to affect me way too much that night (almost felt like I was back in college... think slurred speech, dizzyness, and basically passing out after drinking a TALL glass of water... YUCK)

Sunday- mad dash to put 1/2 sheet cake together, get Kyra to Nutcracker rehearsal and go to work at the library followed by my own Nutcracker rehearsal.  Didn't get home until after 7:30.  Yeah, not getting up to the room that night either!!

And so, aside from Thanksgiving, I basically worked every day over this weekend.  And not just at 1 job but 4 of them... geez... that was a LONG weekend and I'm even more tired!!

On a positive note- Nutcracker is in 2 weeks and that will be OVER!!!  As much as I love doing it and that I love that my kids love it, I will be so glad when it's all over.

New Goal- put Franny in the crib during xmas break.  go on, laugh, I know you want to... I'm a sucker and I know it.  She knows it too!!  I'm gonna need A LOT of wine that week:)

I also know that you all think I'm crazy b/c I want to start a Blog about the trials and tribulations of baking... but I think I've narrowed it down to 2 Cookbooks to go through.
The Dorie Greenspan Baking http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=dorie+greenspan+baking&hl=en&prmd=imvnsoe&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&biw=1224&bih=688&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4833208600077065188&sa=X&ei=AWjUTq3aIcHj0QHN8JDaAQ&ved=0CGMQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers
or the
 CIA Pastry and Baking.  http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Pastry-Mastering-Art-Craft/dp/0471443824/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322543300&sr=1-2

Anyone care to comment???  What would interest you more??

Also...still thinking about what to call the Blog...
Wanna be Baker
Trial and Error Baker
Bake my Mistakes
Bake (and mistake) with Me
Stay at Home Baker

Please feel free to shout out anything that comes to mind.  Maybe I'll have some 'give aways' with the outcomes...

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Good night:)

A Day of Thanks and some Pepsi Malfunction..

Today was a good day in our house!!  It was Thanksgiving and there was a lot of thanks to be had:)

Woke up this morning and the house still looked like a bomb had exploded.  Started on the stuffing and turkey so I could get it in the oven.  Hubby came downstairs and offered to be my 'bitch for the day'...lol.  And yes, he was.  I kept telling him what to do and he kept on doing it!!  I think I had only 1 moment of my own bitchiness but that was it.  I was CALM and we just kept on going until everything was done!!  House got cleaned...food got prepped...china was brought up (ha ha...story about this)...MIL and her sister arrived... apps were eaten... naps were had (Franny and Fran..lol).. dinner was eaten and so was dessert.. Pepsi was sent crashing to the floor and exploded all over.. Scrabbled was played and everyone went to bed!!

China story- made hubby go down into our crawl space to dig out our China...the stuff we got for getting married but has never been out of the boxes.  Thought we would use it today.  Turns out there is a major crack in the wall and water has been leaking in for awhile.  The boxes of each place setting was literally destroyed and disgustingly moldy.  And, we actually only received 5 full place settings.  What to do, what to do??  Clean it up and toss the boxes of course.  We used the big plates for the adults and the salad plates for the kiddies.  I even gave the kiddies their own 'wine' glasses (cheap wine glasses that I have stolen from our Myrtle Beach hotel...didn't care if they accidentally broke glasses).  They were thrilled to use them with their sparkling grape juice.  The adults used my good crystal glasses from Ireland:)

Pepsi all over the floor

Pepsi Explosion- in keeping with our pattern this week, Franny decided (at the end of our meal) to literally end it with a HUGE bang.  Yup...she managed to pull off a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi and it somehow ended on the lid and EXPLODED all over my floor.  I'm thinking that she's really a smart little booger and is trying to tell me I need to CLEAN my house.  And so, my floor was mopped today.  It was actually funny and I had a good laugh about it... but also bummed b/c she pulled over MY Wild Cherry Pepsi!!  Boo Franny Girl..

This is what was left..

MIL and her sis had a good time.  I was glad they were able to come up and especially hubby's Aunt.  She lives in Kentucky and he never sees her.  I met her once about 5 years ago.  She was up in the area to help out the MIL b/c she just got out of her rehabilitation place and basically needs the help.  MIL is having a hard time realizing she's getting older and unable to do things for herself.  You know, the basic things we all take for granted like being able to get up and off the toilet and couch??  I wonder how long she will last on her own once her sister leaves her to go home next week.  Hubby needs to take some days to go down and help his Mom go through her house and clean it up and stuff, you know??

We ended the night playing Scrabble with the big kids.  That was interesting.  Playing with hubby can be quite frustrating... he takes so darn long to form his words as he's always trying to find the word with the most points.  Him and I 'helped' out the kiddies so they would get words longer than 3 letters..lol... it was nice to sit down as a family and play a game.  Even with Franny girl trying to eat, play, sit on my lap and stuff.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

These turkeys were made using their feet as the bodies and hands as the feathers!