Happy New Year

It's hard to believe 2010 is coming to a close. What a year! What an incredibly fast year! So many things happened to our family this year.

Chris started a new job with Whirlpool back in January. It keeps him busy and challenged. He is taking on many new endeavors in this job. I am so proud of his hard work and efforts. I know he will continue with great success in his career.

Tommy started school this year! He has just blossomed since the start of school. He enjoys it very much and Chris and I are proud of what an independent young man he is becoming.

AJ turned one and started walking! We lovingly refer to AJ as our meat head. He always knows how to make us laugh. Tommy and AJ are so different from each other, yet compliment each other well. We are so enjoying watching these two boys grow and interact.

I continue to be very active with our local MOMS Club chapter. This past year I was elected as Administrative Vice President. I will be heading up our biggest charity event in March, a silent auction dinner to benefit a few of the children in our chapter. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.

As a family this year we traveled to Disney World and had an amazing time. I will never forget how nervous Chris and I were to take this on with a 3 year old and 9 month old. But I know we are both so glad we did. We created such wonderful family memories we will both cherish always. I know we will continue this tradition for years to come.

Now, here is a review of the year in pictures. I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures as much I did finding them. It made me remember so much over the past year, and really how much I love being a mommy to my two boys and a wife to Chris. Happy New Year!!

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was just so much fun in our house. I had a hard time sleeping on Christmas Eve, I kept waking up in excitement. I finally got out of bed a bit before six to make monkey bread for everyone. I tried so hard to be quiet, as to not wake anyone, but before I knew it, Tommy was greeting me in the kitchen. After some morning hugs, I instructed him to wake up daddy. We ended up torturing Tommy because AJ, who is usually up with the birds, decided to sleep in on Christmas Day! We did everything to try and occupy him to give AJ just a bit more sleep. But by seven, we had to wake AJ up.

Let the chaos begin! Tommy didn't know what to do with himself, and AJ couldn't stop putting the bows all over himself. I think we were done opening presents before the sun had even risen, but we had a blast. They both loved their new toys. We spent most of the day setting them up and playing with the boys in our pajamas no less, a perfect day.

Mid afternoon, I started preparing our big Christmas dinner. I can't tell you how much I loved being in the kitchen listening to Christmas music and hearing the laughter of the boys. Tommy received a toy story scooter from Santa and I think rode it most of the day in the kitchen because we had way too much ice in front of our house for him to go outside. I didn't mind at all dodging him while I was preparing dinner.

The holidays are exhausting. There is SO MUCH TO DO! But seeing the boys' faces during the holiday is so worth everything. My parents always made the Christmas season so magical for my sister and me, and I just hope I can do the same for my boys.

Waiting for AJ to get up to open presents!

Finally able to start!

Toy Story 3 landfill!

Lotso Huggin Bear

Batcave!

Rex and Lotso!

We obviously don't understand the sit and spin yet.

Tommy and AJ

Here are a few pictures of the boys in their Christmas outfits before Church.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began with Malcolm, our elf that has been with us since Thanksgiving, leaving to go back to the North Pole. However, before he left, he filled our stockings and left the boys a note by the fireplace. He told them they had both made the good list, but that Santa watches all year so they should always listen to Mommy and Daddy. Malcolm left us all sorts of goodies and didn't even forget the dogs. They received bones and new treats! He did, however, play a trick on Mac and Daddy. He put coal in their stockings, but this time it was chocolate coal! We had a fun morning going through our stockings.

We then went down to Mo and Papa's house for the rest of Christmas Eve. Tommy and Papa had been feeding the reindeer in the woods all fall. They needed to have lots of food for their trip on Christmas Eve. So when Tommy and Papa went out on Christmas Eve to feed the reindeer one more time, there were gifts waiting for them! The reindeer wanted to thank Tommy for keeping their tummy's full!

Tommy and my parents kept track of Santa all night on the norad tracker on the computer. Tommy thought this was so cool. He even started to rush us home because he knew he had to be asleep before Santa came to his house. Tommy also instructed Chris to go through a red light because he needed to get home! Christmas Eve was truly magical.

The stockings filled by Malcolm

The note Malcolm left the boys

Tommy looking through his stocking

AJ going through his stocking

Tommy giving Molly her treats

AJ giving Mac his bone

Chocolate coal for Mac and Daddy!

Enjoying their treats!

The presents from the reindeer

Merry Christmas Kara

Kara is taking a well deserved nap on the couch so I briefly took over her blog. I just wanted to say Thank You Kara for orchestrating one of the most amazing holidays I have ever seen. Kara’s goal was to make this Christmas perfect and magical for the boys, and she’s been focusing on it ever since Thanksgiving. She succeeded with impressive attention to every small detail, from coal in Daddy’s stocking on St. Nicholas Day, to letters from Malcolm the Elf on Christmas Eve morning, to reindeer tracks and special reindeer gifts on Christmas Eve night. Christmas morning was perfect. There was so much “Christmas magic” in this house that I thought these little boys' heads were going to explode. A few times, during especially exciting surprises, we saw Tommy gulping for air, as if he had to remind himself to breathe because he was too excited and he thought he would forget. Thanks again Kar for working so hard and making everything so wonderful. Your efforts didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated. Tommy, AJ and I are very lucky. Can’t wait to see what kind of magic you create next year…

Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours, we wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Last Minute Easy Christmas Cookie Recipes

So if you are like me, you may have put off baking until the last minute. I hate baking. Actually I don't hate it, I love the idea of it, but then when I get in the kitchen and have to measure and wait for things, I just get impatient. I enjoy cooking so much, but I'm just not a baker.

About a week ago, Tommy and I did make cut out sugar cookies and decorated them. But for some reason I felt like we needed more cookies. So I found two easy, virtually no bake recipes, and they are so delicious. Plus you won't be in the kitchen all day either. So if you have if you have a party or Christmas cookie exchange these are great to take with you and everyone will love them!

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients:

A box of cornflakes
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butterscotch chips
Red and green sugar (just for decoration)


Directions:

Lay down a sheet of wax paper and cover with a layer of cornflakes. With a double boiler, melt the peanut butter and butterscotch chips. Once melted spread all over the cornflakes. Sprinkle with sugar. Let cool. Once the mixture has cooled, you can break them off just like bark. So simple, and so delicious! The best part is when you start to break them off, sometimes just a bit of the bark comes off, not big enough to count as a cookie, so you must eat it, so good!

The next recipe I recently had at a MOMS Club night out. It's called cracker bark. It is the perfect amount of sweet mixed in with saltiness. Delicious and easy!

Cracker Bark

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 sleeves saltine crackers

12 oz. chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips)

Toffee chips (this is the for the topping, you could use any sort of candy bar you like, we like heath.)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets with tin foil. Layer each cookie sheet with a sleeve of crackers. This acts as the crust. Boil the butter and brown sugar together. Drizzle and spread the hot sugar mixture of the crackers. Bake in oven for 8 minutes. After removing from oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over bubbling crackers. Once the chocolate chips have soften, spread over crackers. Top with candy pieces. Place in freezer until hard. Then break to desired pieces. Enjoy!!

St. Joe Snowmen!

After a visit to Santa we walked around a bit to look at a few of the snowmen. We didn't see to many of them because it was so cold when we were down there! We plan on going back soon to look at them and walk the lighted bluff, so stay tuned for more photos of the snowmen!

Santa!

We took the boys down to St. Joe to meet Santa. Santa has his own little house in the downtown. Tommy was very brave and sat on Santa's lap. AJ, who never has stranger danger, wanted nothing to do with Santa. Chris held him so we could get a picture of the boys with Santa.

Tommy keeps asking Santa for different things...things Santa had no idea about before! So we had to explain to Tommy that he is confusing Santa and he will have no idea what to bring him if he doesn't stick to his previous requests!! So again, Tommy asked for a Mr. Potato Head and other Toy Story things. I think Santa can handle that!