Christmas Cookies

Our final Christmas activity with the kids was decorating cookies. I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe, refrigerated the dough overnight, divided it in half and rolled them out for Nate and Evie to cut out their own shapes. I made icing with powdered sugar and milk to decorate. Here's how it went:

 I put the icing in squeeze bottles this time because every time I let them use icing bags it just squeezes out the back. The bottles worked pretty well and kept them from putting too much icing on the cookies too. I need to get my icing a little bit thinner next time though. It was kind of hard to squeeze.

 I'll keep trying the bags occasionally until they're able to do it that way, but I like the squeeze bottle idea.

 They added some assorted sprinkles to decorate. I look forward to the day they're old enough to go all out with colorful icing and creative designs. 

So proud of the finished product!

Leaves

The kids have loved raking and playing in the leaves this year. Evie calls the pile of leaves her bird's nest. Silly girl!

A little help from Daddy.

Where's Evie?

There she is! The game that never gets old.

Nate doesn't look quite as thrilled to be covered with leaves.

Occasionally the leaves do get cleaned up.

Crispy Christmas Cottages

The thought of making gingerbread houses intimidates me. Maybe we'll tackle them someday when the kids are older and more able to help. So when I came across this Crispy Christmas Cottages recipe, I was excited. It looked very do-able, and it was! I made the rice krispie treats Friday morning, and the kids spent Friday afternoon decorating them. The only problem was that they wanted to eat them too. That's a lot of sugar! I'm usually happy just to use sugar to create fun things, but I guess there's not as much fun in that. :)

 The pre-decorated cottages.

New use for old things. We used some leftover Halloween candy to decorate.

 Taking their time to get their cottages just right. 

 The finished product.

 Our little village.

 And where was Simon during all this? Snuggled up in the Moby wrap so I could be hands free. Loving my Moby!

Visit with the Winklers

We were blessed by a visit from Elizabeth, Matthew, and Ethan last weekend. I realized after they were gone that we only took one picture with Simon in it. I completely forgot to take any with them holding him. I guess Elizabeth and I both have baby brain - she's expecting baby #2 in June! Can't wait to add another cousin to the bunch! Anyway, we had a wonderful time. It was so sweet to see how much Ethan had grown. He's such a happy boy and a good baby. I miss this family! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 Ethan with his big cousins. Evie insisted on silly faces for these pictures!

Plus Simon.

Evie with her Aunt Liza. 

We had beautiful weather while they were here, so Nate got some soccer lessons from Uncle Matthew.

 Sliding with Uncle Steve.

 Sweet boy!

 Love the gap in his teeth!

Sleep Deprived

When Simon woke up this morning he had soaked through his clothes and swaddling blanket, which really isn't unusual. I'm pretty sure he has peed and pooped through more clothes than Nate and Evie ever did! But when I went to change him I realized I had only fastened one side of his diaper in the night. The other side was wide open. No wonder he soaked through everything. I was feeling pretty silly that I'd done that, but Stephen was quick to console me: "At least you put a diaper on him." Yes, at least I put a diaper on him. So maybe I'm a little sleep deprived, but we're doing all right. At least Stephen hasn't eaten soap on his toast and washed himself with butter in the shower (thank you, Modern Family). Isn't it all worth it for this sweet little guy anyway?