Christmas 2011

It was a busy but fun Christmas this year. We started things off Friday 12/23 and didn't stop until we got back from TN late last night. Benjamin was a trooper for most of it, he definitely had his moments but for the most part he seemed to really get into the whole Christmas spirit :)

David put a slide show together, I admit I got a little teary eyed the first time I watched it. I just can't believe how big Benjamin is getting. I'm so glad we got to spend time with all of our family around the Holidays. We made some great memories!

Just a warning, the video is 10min. long :)

More Pinterest Stuff

I saw a picture (on pinterest of course) for the pine rope around the light fixture, so David helped me get it up there. I think it adds a nice little touch. I also got the branch idea to display Christmas cards from pinterest too :)

Pearidge 2012

Every year we go to Pearidge tree farm in Hermann. It's so much fun and I look forward to it every year.
It was pretty muddy and cold this year but that didn't stop us!

Good thing Alison had a spare set of snow boots with her b/c it was super wet, but they were kind of hard to get on so Benjamin had a hard time walking in them














Quality time with Grandpa














David and our little tree for the kitchen














Awww...how cute














David must have been playing with the settings on the camera, I had no idea he was taking pictures in black and white but this one turned out pretty cute














After we picked out the perfect tree we headed back for some hot chocolate and let Benjamin explore some more




























And then a visit with Santa. I think he asked Benjamin if he had been a good boy this year and that's when he started clapping














Trying to warm up by the fire














This is the best group shot I got with all the kids. You can imagine how hard it was to get them all to look at the camera at the same time :)















Click HERE to see the post from last year :) Pretty crazy to see how Big Benjamin is compared to this time last year!

Thank you Pinterest

I have found so many ideas and recipes from Pinterest. I can't tell you how much I love that site! Seriously, if you're not on there yet-get over there NOW :)

How cute is this? It's my cupcake stand with ornaments. I would have NEVER thought of that on my own!



















When I picked Benjamin up from Alison's yesterday she was making fudge for the boys teachers at school (she's such a cute room Mom) It inspired me to make some fudge of my own. I pinned a cake batter fudge recipe a while ago so I finally made it last night and HOLY MOLY! This stuff is amazing! How cute are those sprinkles?

Benjamin

We have a VERY active boy on our hands. And it's starting to become a challenge finding things to stimulate the little grubster. I tried to get creative and make my own toy with pipe cleaners and clothespins. I thought it would entertain him for at least 10 min. But I was sadly mistaken.

Here is my fabulous creation














And then 2 min. later....














And then 1 more minute...














It's like he was looking at me saying, Ok-I pulled all of those weird furry stick things out of the bowl with holes, now what's next?

Next on the list of things to try, make home made play dough. David and I finally got around to it last weekend and it seems to be a hit.

It was actually super easy to make. And I already had everything needed to make it. Flour, vegetable oil, salt and cream of tarter. Don't ask me why I already had cream of tarter. It must have been from a recipe a while back b/c I don't remember buying it :)




























My cute little helper














Speaking of cute little helper, doesn't he look like an elf in this picture















Ok, back to the play dough...
Why did I struggle so long with what colors to use? I have two sets of food coloring, primary colors and then a neon set. I decided to go with neon green and neon blue after several unnecessary minutes of deliberation, I guess it was the libra in me-I'm terrible with decisions:)





























After he realized play dough does not taste good he had fun with it :) I've gotten it out a few times since we made it. So A+ for play dough :)

Next up-finger paint. We'll probably try that this coming weekend. I'll be sure to take a ton of pictures

Dierbergs Cooking Class is NO JOKE

I always stare at the people taking classes at Dierbergs cooking school as I walk by the window because it looks like so much fun. I finally took the initiative to make it happen and signed up! And not only did I sign up, but so did Katie and Racheal :)
It definitely exceeded my expectations. It was fun and everything was delicious.

Winter Chopped Salad















I got so caught up in everything that I accidentally forgot to take a picture of the amazing mulled wine and the even more amazing Spicy Shrimp Bruschetta w/Garlic and Lemon Aioli. I'm pretty sure the shrimp bruschetta was my favorite and that says a lot b/c generally I'm not much of a seafood kinda girl. Racheal loved it too, she actually pounded the table top demanding more Shrimp Bruschetta :) It was pretty darn funny.

I did manage to snap a picture of the main course and dessert

Baked Pasta w/Chicken Meatballs, Spinach, and Fontina














And finally the dessert, Warm Almond Cherry Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream














After we were done stuffing our faces, our awesome teacher offered to take a group picture (she was so sweet)
My friends are so pretty :)














I will definitely be up for a second class. Now the problem will be deciding which one.

Benjamin made up his own language

Can you understand what he is trying to say because I sure can't!!! He seems to think he knows what he's saying. It seriously cracks me up every time he starts his jibber jabber rants.

Getting ready for Christmas

I decided to get a jump on wrapping this year and wrapped the few presents I have so far. I decided to go with the natural kraft paper and use homemade gift tags and ribbon to decorate.
I bought Benjamin a cozy coupe for Christmas, I'm pretty excited about it. David and I put it together last night. It's not by the tree anymore, it's tucked safely away until Christmas morning. I hope Benjamin gets excited when he sees it :)

We took the gate down from around the tree and surprisingly enough, Benjamin hasn't messed with it. He'll walk up and look at a few of the ornaments but for the most part he doesn't pay any attention to it.

Benjamin's big gift this year is going to be a toy box. David's going to make it from scratch, I'm soooo excited about it! He also just finished making some book shelves for his room. I love the color all of the books add to his room














And Benjamin seems to like it too, the toy box will probably go under the bottom shelf, or maybe in place of his chairs



















Is anyone else done with Christmas shopping yet? I feel like I'm kind of slacking this year, I've usually made more progress by now. I still have soooo much more to do. Oh well, I guess it's only the 5th so I still have time :)

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart)

Apparently Benjamin likes George Michael. I had the Christmas station on and he didn't seem to pay any attention to it until this song came on...I'll let the video explain :)

Chocolate, Cinnamon, and Chili Powder ???

Why yes, that is what is in these fabulous cookies! It sounds a little strange but trust me-these babies are GOOD!














David is actually the one that pointed out the recipe in my Better Homes and Garden Magazine. I almost had a heart attack when he not only took a bite but actually liked it too! I guess he's expanding on his taste buds, it's a slow process but we're making progress :)

Click HERE for the recipe (I didn't buy the McCormick cinnamon and chili powder-I just used what I already had in the pantry)

Happy Thanksgiving

It seems like it's been forever since I posted. I guess it's been a busy couple of weeks. I bet the rest of November and the whole month of December is going to fly by.

We had kind of a short Thanksgiving this year. Benjamin has a nasty cough so we cut some of our visits short this year. We managed to make it to Mike and Katie's for a couple of hours as a family but that's it :( We had to pass on the Schulte Thanksgiving, and I had to go to my Grandma's by myself but it seems like he's getting better. Last night he only woke up once from coughing (which is a huge improvement from Friday!)

First, let me start out by showing off Benjamin's hair-do. David took him in the back bathroom and I heard the hair dryer so I knew it was going to be good :) I like to call it the surfs up do















After the excitement of seeing all the new faces wore off, there was a whole lot of this going on














But at least we were able to get one decent family shot. I felt so bad for him, he was definitely not feeling great. He didn't eat hardly any Thanksgiving food. He doesn't refuse food so I knew he wasn't feelin' like himself.



















I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving :) Only 29 more days until Christmas!!!!

Speaking of a Christmas count down, I made a Pottery barn knock of advent calendar. I found a inspiration picture on Pinterest (inspired from a Potter Barn advent Calendar). I decided I could make that and put my own little spin on it, and Voila...



















I'm going to put it on the desk in the entry way right next to a small fake tree, each day I'll take an ornament off the board and put it on the tree, SO CUTE! And WAY cheaper than the pottery barn version. Mine only cost a total of $23! In your face Pottery Barn!!!

Craigslist Find

David and I have been looking for the perfect hutch to put behind the kitchen table forever. Every time we stopped to look for one it was an epic fail. I'm just not willing to hand over $1000 or more for something I'm not totally in love with.
I saw this picture on Pinterest and instantly fell for it! I never even thought of just doing a buffet




















picture originally from iheartorganizing

I guess I was just bored one day last week and decided to search around on Craigslist. It's not something I do on a regular basis, but I'm so glad I did because I found a buffet that looked like it had some serious potential. I contacted the seller and was so happy to find out it was still available. Thanks to David and Brian they brought this little puppy home for me-Thanks guys!!!














Yes, that is a small Christmas tree next to fall pumpkins. I can't decide if I'm ready to go full blown Christmas yet. I think I'm going to leave the pumpkins out for just a little while longer :)
Now we just need to go to Lowes to look at their floating shelve options to see if they have a kit we can buy or if we need to make them ourselves. I definitely plan to hang two shelves above the buffet along with the wine glass holder. Slowly but surely we're making improvements :) One baby step at a time!

Weekend Recap

David and I decided to do a weekend getaway at the Lake. A big shout out to all our baby sitters! Benjamin was in good hands all weekend and we had a relaxing time filled with good food, movies, shopping, and wine :)
We stayed at Lands End, which is new to us. Normally we stay at the Towers if we're going to rent a condo but David found a pretty good deal at Lands End so that's where we ended up. The place was great...but we had a very weird room-mate.

Do you see anything out of place with this picture?














It's a creepy doll up in the cabinets. What the heck!?! I don't know if it's some sort of weird inside joke with the owners or if the place is haunted.














We decided to leave the creepy doll alone and we left for dinner Friday night, when we came home the doll mysteriously moved. I just told myself that it must have fallen over.














But just to be safe, David got up there and laid it down so that we couldn't see it anymore. I kept thinking I'd wake up and find the doll sitting outside our bedroom door. Seriously-it was really strange. But we survived, the creepy baby doll left us alone :)

We came home today and decided to bust out the new Christmas tree. Last year after Christmas we snagged a new tree for only $50. Nothing was wrong with our current tree, but the new one seemed to be a bit fuller and since I love a bargain we snatched it up. We put it up while Benjamin was napping and I expected him to be in awe of the magical tree that mysteriously showed up in his living room, but nope...he was more interested in our ipod. Crazy kid!



















And here she is in all her glory! For the past several years David and I have done a colored theme with the tree. For a couple of years it was silver and red and then we switched over to gold and bronze. But this year we went for a more homely look and put a lot of our childhood ornaments and a mix & match of colors. I think it's the best tree to date! I Love it! And yes-that is the same tree skirt I wore to work a couple of weeks ago :)



















Oh, and I tried a new recipe tonight. It's from Gina's Skinny Recipes: Low Fat Baked Ziti I really liked it. I think next time I might add some red pepper flakes to give it a little extra kick
Yummmm....look at all that cheese!

Birchbox

I'm slightly obsessed with finding fun and creative blogs. I've found a lot of great ideas from other blogs that I've stumbled upon. One of them being...Birchbox.

It's like a beauty subscription. You pay $10 a month and you get 4-5 samples shipped to your door. October was my first month but I didn't think to take a picture of the goodies. I was super excited to come home today and see my November box had delivered.

So here it is

• Anastasia Beverly Hills Lip Gloss
• Harvey Prince perfume (I LOVE this and think I might buy the full size bottle)
• Supersmile whitening toothpaste
• Zoya nail polish (Holly-perfect color for Christmas, maybe I'll fall into the trend and paint all my nails green with the exception of my ring finger which I'll paint red)
• Chuao Chocolatier-this sounds really interesting. It's a spicy and sweet dark chocolate treat laced with chipotle popping candy.

Anyway, you should check it out. I think it's a great idea to try different beauty products without having to pay the full price before knowing if you really like it or not.

Racheal and EJ

Yesterday one of my besties tied the knot and I was lucky to be a part of it! Racheal is now a married woman and is probably trying to recuperate from all the festivities right about now. It was a long day but it was a blast!

It was so great to see all of the hard work that was put into the wedding come to life.

I can't wait to see the professional pictures. I didn't get a chance to snap many of my own but here's a few that I was able to take...

The cute couple at the Rehearsal

She was going for Old Hollywood Glam, and she totally pulled it off!!!

A special shout out to Melanie my hair girl, she did a FABULOUS job! And Camille, who did my make up. She used an airbrush machine on all of us. Is it wrong that I've already looked up how much an airbrush machine costs because I want one and I want one BAD! She made us all look flawless! So lots of XOXOXO to Melanie and Camille!!!

I feel partially responsible for Racheal and EJ's wedding, Racheal caught my toss bouquet so it was only a matter of time!

I LOVE the look on my Dad's face. He's looking at EJ like, you have no idea what you're in for :)

Racheal and EJ had a photo booth and it was AWESOME! I probably had a little too much fun with it :) I have at least 5 different print outs!

This is by far my favorite! I love these girls!

Oh...and this is totally unrelated but I really think everyone should know that 103.3 and 102.5 are now playing Christmas music! Only 49 more days-WOO HOO :)