smiles

Pike, Great Grandpa & Great Grandma
This picture is priceless.

Christmas Cookie Favorites

Pictured above are my favorite Christmas cookies and candies. One of my favorite things about the holiday season is baking an assortment of cookies while listening to Christmas music and then giving half of them away while consuming the other half with my family. These are my Christmas cookie staples. Starting on the left and going clockwise we have: Peppermint Patty Cookies- Farm Chicks Cookbook, Lemon Bars- Cook's Illustrated, Peanut Butter Balls- Cooks.com, Chocolate Crinkles- Martha Stewart, Winter Almond Bark- Martha Stewart, Peanut Butter Blossoms- New York Times, Homemade Almond Joy- Joy the Baker, Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies- Barefoot Contessa and in the center is a Butter Cookie with icing- Cooks Illustrated.

Merry Christmas!

summer

Those glorious days of summer; 90 degree crisp air, rays of sunshine beaming on my face, the cooling effect of the river on my toes, a BBQ with family and friends and an ice cold Coca-Cola...that's what I'm thinking about.

are these the good times?

I've been thinking a lot lately, contemplating the joys and sorrows of life. So many times these days I am counting down the minutes until bed time. I go to bed exhausted and wake up exhausted. I look forward to the day when my kids will simply sleep! Yet everyone I talk to says, "they'll only be little for a short while- savor the moments." I try. I try real hard. But sometimes it's hard. What is it that I am to be savoring? Is it the fact that my little darlings adore me right now? Is it the fact that they say and do the funniest things without shame? Is it the simplicity of their lives at this stage, that they can spend all day pretending to be Flower and Sunshine? Well, whatever it is, I am going to keep trying to savor the day. I don't want to look back and think, "if only I took the time to play, laugh, love, teach, etc. my kids." I have been blessed with three adorable kids. They have tons of energy and thoroughly wear me out EVERY day. They also bring me more joy than I could have imagined. I am in love with each of them. And with this in mind, I'm off to bake cookies with them. Sure, it will take three times as long, make twice as big of a mess and possibly not even turn out but I'll be making memories with my kids!

in a nutshell

Wow. I did not realize time could fly so quickly. Everyone says the older you get, the faster time flies and it is so true. I don't want it to fly any faster though. So maybe I should just stop here. Stay 24 forever. Keep my babies as babies forever. Hmmm, if only it were possible.

Stephen and I are happily insane. Well, maybe it's only half of the time that we are insane... Our kids keep us this way. You see, kids bring this balance of ultimate joy and love and sheer chaos and insanity. One moment they play together quietly in their room, skip down the hall to give you a kiss and say they love you and the next moment they are yelling at you from the other end of the house while kicking and screaming because their arm is stuck in the neck-hole of that dress that must go on or because one sister took the toy that the other wanted to play with.

Pear will be 4 in February. She loves to dance and sing. She loves to dress up, have her hair fixed, go shopping and pretty much do anything girly. I caught her shopping on Gap.com the other day. I must have left my browser open and sure enough she managed to find the girl clothes and was sitting at the computer shopping. Yep, that's my girl! She is currently learning to read and is doing very well. She can read short stories and I find her reading words and signs when we're out and about. Other than her daily reading lesson, we don't have a whole lot of structure to her schooling yet. We are just using everyday life and situations to encourage learning. Pear loves to color pictures and she makes the most adorable, alien looking Backholm family. She colors a picture for Stephen to take to work almost every day. He's taken one or two and put them on his office walls but I'm afraid she might be disappointed if we go and visit him and she doesn't see all 50 of them. Pear is continuing to grow in kindness and gentleness. She loves her siblings and will often greet Jovie with a hug after Jovie wakes from her nap.

Speaking of Jovie, this little 2-year-old girl is a kick. Her most spoken phrase is "I'm hunger mommy." She never tires of eating. In her mind, she runs just as fast and jumps just as high as her big sister. Jovie is Pear's little sidekick and they will play and play and play. Jovie loves her little brother tremendously. Unfortunately, sometimes she expresses that love in ways that aren't as enjoyable for him. She has a certain obsession for Pike's binky. Jovie hasn't had a binky since she was 1 but ever since Pike came along, she has to have it. Not in her mouth, not to suck on, simply to have it in her control and hold it. Jovie will hear Pike waking from his nap crying and she'll run in the bedroom, grab his binky through the crib slats and run back out of the room with it leaving Pike awake and crying longing for the said binky.

Pike, our biggest blessing this year, is probably close to the best baby I could have asked for. He is always happy and content. He likes to snuggle and give me kisses. He loves to go for car rides. Ahhh, a breath of fresh air! He has made life so much more fun and I am so thankful for him. He loves to laugh and play. He loves to roll across the room. He is a momma's boy but he is much more friendly to others than either of the girls have been.

Viking Hat...

I recently spotted this hat featured in a recent Real Simple magazine. I wanted the hat but I didn't want to pay the $50 price. What to do, what to do? Make one of course! I dug up an old sweater that I haven't worn in years, used some scrap fur from the fabric bin and voila! Oh, and might I add that on Pike's first time sporting the hat, I had a couple of people ask where we got the hat and upon saying that I made it, they said, "you could get a good little side business going you know."