Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Holiday Crunch!

Christmas is fast approaching. 15 days. Wow. It feels like life has been in fast-forward. Between the shopping, the scrapbooking projects, the endless cookie baking and lots of fun family Christmas activities, everything is just zipping by!

Maddux was sick yesterday, again. Breuklyn is getting an A+ in germ sharing this year. She never gets sick, but Maddux does. Of course, a little snuggle time on the couch helps speed up the recovery time.

Oh, the baking. I keep thinking that I will lose interest, but I thoroughly enjoy the baking process. I have lots of platters of cookies to make for Brad's employees and our friends and neighbors, so I just keep going. I'll post the Day 9 Recipe for Cardamom Cookies later. They are super yummy and definitely different than a standard Christmas cookie.

This is proof that my family is not living on cookie dough. I know that there are some concerns. Hee Hee. Granted, friend chicken isn't exactly the healthiest meal ever, but I did serve corn, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli with it. Better?

I know that I write a lot about the conversations that I have with Breuklyn and Maddux, so let's take a moment to give Paizlee a shot at the spotlight. Hi, Paizlee. We are trying to teach her animal sounds. She is obsessed with the neighbor's kittens so everything in her world says EEE-OOOOWWW! Just that loud. What does an elephant say? EEE-OOOOWWW! What does a dinosaur say? EEE-OOOOWWW! What does Mommy say? NO! Hey, now.

Every year, my grandmother made hard candy. Every year when I was growing up, my mom, sister and I made candy. Now, I make my own hard candy while talking to my mom and sister on the phone who are also making hard candy 656.99 miles away.

I just about did myself in with the cinnamon flavor. I forgot that I wasn't supposed to use the entire bottle of flavoring because it makes it too strong. Brad had to step in because I couldn't stop sneezing long enough to stir. For subsequent batches, when the sugar would reach 300 degrees, I would call him in to do the flavor stirring. He's such a good guy.

Have a happy Tuesday!

7 comments:

Jessica Harrington said...

Oh Estee! Paizlee has changed so much!!
She is looking like a little girl now!!!

for so long,,she just looked like a cute chubby blub...i couldn't quite tell what she was going to look like!

What an Adorable Cutie!!! i bet you are sad that she is growing up so fast!!!

shopgirlaudi said...

Super cute pic of all the kids together. I hope Maddux is feeling better. OMG!!! How big does Paizlee look in that pic???!!! Such a beauty!!! They grow up SO fast.

Lal said...

Awww, those are just the cutest pictures EVER! You NEED to scrap those and then show us because I want to see :)

Anonymous said...

Paizless is just adorable! She's one of those gotta pick her up and squish her kind of baby's. I take it the smell was too strong for Brad as well?

Melissa S said...

LOL! Brad is hilarious...:)

3left Feet said...

Paizlee is such a cutie! bah who am I kidding! All your little people are cute.. wait til they become teenagers... thats when the horns pop out!

Thats so cool you make hard candy too?? thats awsumm!

Susan said...

You are such a good wife and mother. I know that when I look at your photos the thing that they bring to mind is what a wonderful life you have created for those sweet little ones. They will always remember those memories and the cookies and the cute decorations. Your are what all moms should strive for. Thank you for sharing with us all your photos, I for one love to see them.

I have an off base question. What photo software do you use and do you like it or do you wish you had a different one, if you do which one do you wish you had. I soooo need one that can do more then crop and take out the red eye...LOL....hubby has yet to ask what I want and I think I want a good software program for editing and altering pics. Do you print your own or go to a lab??

Sorry for the 20 questions