a little bit of baking...

Every year I try to make my gifts to my friends, neighbors and family. It usually consists of toffee and lots of other goodness, but this year I was wanting to mass produce faster and not have to take all day doing it. Well it still took all day but at least it's something new. With the help of my sweet Kate we started baking....

I got this idea from my friend Jami's blog... you should go check it out! And here I am trying to figure out what the heck I am doing.... anyway... I loved spending this sweet time with Kate. It's a memory I will cherish and maybe just maybe it's a memory she will pass on to her kiddos.

But I will say... our chocolate fudge filled cupcakes with peppermint icing turned out divine! and I am in love with these little jars, I can't believe they are just now making their entrance into my life. I have already found lots of uses for the left over jars.... you will see in my next blog post. Look how they turned out...

Oh our big big tree.....

Every year we have bought a real Christmas tree at The Troop 80 Boy Scout lot. Every year since we have been married in fact. We get bundled up and to get us in the mood Josh has his favorite song "Is that You? Santa Claus?" by Garth Brooks (and no, we do NOT like Garth Brooks other than this song) that he has played every year and danced around the room to. It is a sight to see. I have an ocd problem when it comes to picking out the perfect Christmas tree..... It has to be the biggest we can fit, really full and fat and almost without any flaws.... sometimes hard to find.  But oh I WILL find my tree.

and.... this year. I had to have this enormous tree because none of the others were sufficient to be in my house! Lets just say to put it lightly it was a difficult tree to get in the house, to get in the stand, to keep it from falling over, and to be straight. In the bottom picture is after a battle Josh had with the tree, and lost. He was now cutting off about a foot of the tree and saying not so cheerful words. Don't worry I sent the kids out of the room for this event..... and it was an event. But it always ends up working out even if we have to wire the dang thing to the wall! And it's glorious!

elf yourself!

Go pause my music before you push play so you can get the full enjoyment of these videos!!

or you could do this one!

and my favorite....

Give thanks with a Great Wolf heart......

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks, With a Great Wolf heart, Give thanks......" Well, at least that is how Kate thinks the song goes. Cutie girl. We had a great thanksgiving and are truly blessed with a great family!

We had and ate more than enough food to feed a small village. I am still stuffed. And notice my cutie birds, yep I made them. Thanks to Jami Nato for some inspiration!

Family Photo opp!

and another...

Great time with a great family!

A trip to Nonnies......

We hopped on a plane and headed south to Nonnies house. The kids were so excited they had never been on a plane before that they could remember. She lives south of Houston in a small town called Alvin. We rested and watched movies and ate yummy food. Then we headed to the beach for two days of fun. The first day we were in search of crabs, found lots of little ones but could never catch a big one. The other fishermen said it was too cold for the the big ones to come to the surface. The kiddos didn't care, they were just thrilled to be there. The second day we tried out fishing and that didn't pan out either but the kids loved gathering up as many sea shells as they could and trying to build the biggest sand castle/fort they could. Lots of good memories were made at the beach those two days. Memories I'm sure my kids will never forget. Oh, and I forgot bathing suites so that is why you see them in soaking wet clothes. oops.

Happy 70th Birthday! Uncle Geary..

Last weekend most of my family headed down to Austin to surprise my uncle Geary for his 70th birthday. My cousins planned a big, fun party to Roast and Toast him at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort.  We all had so much fun catching up after not seeing some of them for many many years. Family came from all over the United States. It really ended up to be such a great weekend with lots of good memories made. Turns out we have a pretty competitive family to put it litely.
The best part of the whole trip was the surprise party. To see the shock and surprise on Uncle Geary's face was priceless. The food was amazing and the stories were hilarious. Josh and I left the party thinking that was one of the neatest things we had ever been to.  It was so fun hearing stories of him being a good daddy, loyal friend and a bit of a stinker of a husband. My favorite and the one I laughed hardest at had to be the Coffeepoto el broko, no workie!  Good Good times......

just keep running.....

I did it... After 13 weeks of training, I ran my first half marathon! Yep 13.1 miles. However.... I did not do it in my desired finish time but I can say I finished. And that in itself is a big accomplishment to me.
There are so many emotions actually being there with 30,000 runners that I wasn't prepared for. I was so nervous and almost physically ill. I was so excited and scared all at the same time. When I walked into my corral, I looked in front and as far as I could see there were people and then I turned and looked behind me and there were more people as far as I could see. The energy was overwhelming and intoxicating. Once they said 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.... and we took off, all the nerves went away and it was so fun!... For about 10 miles anyway,... then I started not doing so hot. Oh well. I have already decided that I will be running Oklahoma City. I have proved to myself that I could do it, now I want to improve.
( and I will just say this,... I found no hidden comfort in those socks. they lied. )