{Completely Smitten}

... with this little girl.

She has snuggled in my arms now for 69 days.

She is just over 2 months.

She sleeps through the night 11-12 hours.

She already rolls over.

She has the most heart-warming smile.

She coos and talks.

She loves her daddy, and gets excited when she hears his voice.

She loves to be held, and loves to nurse.

She is content almost all of the time.

We are all completely smitten...

You make our life better Tessa.

Our family feels complete with you in our life.

  I count my blessings... 

  I am grateful to be your mother.

  

The Christmas Mess at Holiday House...

Warning lots of Photos.

Every year my grandmother calls me on Christmas.  Every year she asks me, "did Santa bring the Christmas mess?"  Every year, I think to myself, "that is so true."  Christmas is a mess.

Today, it took me:

10 hours to clean

2 cat naps while nursing

3 diet cokes

and a partridge in a pear tree

to recover

Every year I think to myself....

It was all worth it.

I hope you had a very merry holiday.

We sure did.

Christmas Eve started with our famous pancakes.  Skinny Pancakes of course, we just spruced them up for the holidays.

Jex knows how to make them so he was my big helper.

Here are a few other variations if you are interested.

Halloween Skinny Pancakes

Breakfast in Bed

After the pancakes, it was time to start cooking.  I was making homemade rolls for Christmas Eve dinner.

Click here to find out all about the bread recipe that I use.

I also made Sweet Potato Souffle(my personal favorite), and potato salad.  I have this wonderful recipe that I got from my friend Calli Potter.

Here it goes:

1 bag red potatoes cubed and boiled.

1 Green pepper chopped

Green onion chopped

1 package bacon cooked and chopped

Mix together and add dressing:

2 C. mayo

1/4 C. sugar

1/4 C. vinegar

Refrigerate, and serve cold.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

After the baking was done, it was time to PARTY!!

We had a great night at the Bradfords.  We had dinner, and played Bunco.  It was so much fun.  A new tradition for sure.  It was complete with prizes and everything.  Some of the prizes were CASH!! So much FUN!!!

After we exhausted our children, we took them home to await the morning. 

They left cookies for Santa... and he left them a note.

They made sure the reindeer were fed...

and then they were off to bed.  I was so sad when I went to check on them, and they were fast asleep.  You see... they missed the magic of Christmas.

IT STARTED TO SNOW!!

It didn't stick, but it never snows in Arkansas; only on Christmas Eve.

It was time for Jonathan and I to put out our spread.

We leave our gifts under the tree, and let Santa leave his in the middle of the Family Room.

We buy our children 5 gifts...

Something to wear,

Something to read,

Something you want,

Something you need,

... and something FUN indeed.

This way expectations are never exceeded, and are always met.

We have asked Santa to bring one gift.  It may be one together or one separately.

What did Santa bring this year?

What a Surprise.  A Backyard Trampoline. 

Gifts from Mom and Dad...

  

Something to read...

After they opened it all, we cleaned up... and were off again.  We had breakfast and gift opening at Nana and Papa Bradfords. 

Then after a good long nap, all the guys came up to our house and put the trampoline up.  IT WAS COLD!!  Isaac waited out there for 2 hours, waiting and waiting for his turn.  The kids are spending a lot of time outside.  Even in the cold.  Santa did good this year.

Then after a little jumping, we had dinner at our house; complete with a brown sugar ham which is Jonathan's favorite.

A few games, and off to bed again.

Saturday, the guys hunted in the morning.  The girls antiqued in the after noon.  (I can't wait to show you my new treasures,) 

Then we went to Garvan Woodland Gardens to see the lights.  AHHH!! I forgot my camera.  It was beautiful, and ranked right up there with Temple Square in Utah.  It reminded me of home.

We had a beautiful Sabbath, complete with another nap, and a photoshoot for my friend and her beautiful newborn.  Here is a sneak peak...

Which brings me to today... and the Christmas Mess.  It really is a Mess.  The house is a mess, the kids can kind of get a little messy(whiny), I am a tired Mess... but I really must say it is one of the most beautiful messes I know.

Happy Holidays... and I hope you find yourself looking forward to a wonderful new year.  (A beautifully messy one)

One more sick day

Yes... I started with the yucky gumbo last night myself.  It has not been fun, but I am trying to keep myself going.  There is much to be done for Christmas.

Jonathan stayed home and took care of the kids while I slept most of the day.  I tried to play catch up tonight.  I am washing sheets, and disinfecting bathrooms and such.

Hopefully tomorrow won't be to crazy with a few of these things crossed off my list.  I still have presents to wrap.

To get my mind off the blaring headache, I thought would share another fun part of our Holiday House.  I got this idea from Krysta.  Along with decorating her kids doors, she put a few decorations in their rooms.

I remember decorating my own room for Christmas when I was a girl with a few left overs, and extra lights.  I thought the kids might also enjoy it.

Here are some photos of their rooms DECKED for the HOLIDAYS:

Boys Dresser

Krysta hung ornaments from her kids windows and it was so adorable that I had to copy.

One more fun little extra:

Girls lights and Ornaments in their window:

A few fun extras in their room:

It has been so much fun having Christmas all over the house.  I haven't even gotten sick of it all this year.

I am leaving you with one more fun addition that I scored at a Thrift Store this year.  I paid $1.oo for it.  I think it is to hold Christmas cards, but I added photos from Christmas's past.  I just love it. 

Well... I am off to bed and hoping for a sick free day tomorrow.

Peace on Earth

and Sweet Slumbers

Sick Day at Holiday House

Jonathan and I had a movie night last night.  It was interrupted late into the evening with Jex crying "help" from his bedroom.  He was loosing his dinner.

It wasn't long after that Jonathan started doing the same.  I have sequestered them both to my bedroom.  They are not allowed to come out.  Sure... I am still playing mommy to both of them, but I am avoiding the plague at all costs. 

I will have to make a jaunt to the store for more clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, and lysol.  Oh.. and some lotion for my overly washed hands.

I have been thinking about some of my favorite Christmas trinkets when I was a girl.  I loved when my parents would pull out all the Christmas boxes.  There were a few things in there that were very special, and I couldn't wait to see each year.  One was silver bells that played the song, "Silver Bells."

I think my kids have the same feelings.  I wanted to share a few of our favorite Christmas Treasures.

Every year, I give the kids an ornament.  They get so excited when we pull them out.  They want to talk about each one.

Our Christmas books are also very special.  They love reading them.  We try to read one each night.  I also found a new place to house them this year, check this out:

I found this little beauty at a thrift store.  It was painted green so I spray painted it black.  When I was almost finished, I found that it was numbered and stamped.  I looked it up, and it is worth $250.00.  Did I really just paint this?  Oh well, I love it.  It houses magazines when it is home to our Christmas books.

The kids also love our nutcrackers, and really enjoy playing with them.

 

Santa's watch is very special.  It helps Santa have enough time to make it all over the world.

This is our newest addition.  It is our bubble light night light.  This was more for me.  We had bubble lights on our tree when I was a girl.  Just a little bit of nostalgia for myself.

My kids have their treasures, however my favorite happens to be:

My Fireplace and Mantel.  I love decorating it.  What did I do before I had a fireplace mantel?

A few close-ups:

Well, I better go... Stella just lost her lunch.  AHHH!!! I hope this day ends soon.

Happy Holidays

  from the sick Holiday House 

Homemade Treat week at Holiday House

We had a nice weekend here.  We finished up all of our treats.  Here is what we made the rest of the week:

24 oz.  Cocktail Peanuts

1 1/4 C. chunky peanut butter

2 12oz pkgs.  milk Chocolate chips

48 Large Marshmellows

2 cans of Cherry Frosting

Chop peanuts fine

Microwave 1 pkg. choco chips with 1/2 peanut butter add 1/2 chopped nuts and spread on a big cookie sheet and place in freezer

Melt Marshmellows and frosting in the microwave and spread on top of chocolate and place in freezer

Melt the other half of chocolate chips and peanut butter and add the other 1/2 of the nuts.  Spread on top of frosting and place in the freezer.

1 cup butter

2 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 C. light corn syrup

1 14oz. can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Dash of Salt

Combine ingredients in a heavy pan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.  Keep at a rolling boil and cook until soft ball forms in cold water(about 15 minutes).  Pour into buttered 7x11 in pan.  Cool and then cut into squares wrap each piece in wax paper.

This is my favorite cookie recipe.  I just stumbled upon it.  My husband finally shared his secrets with me.  I stumbled upon it in my hubby's wallet.  It is an old wrinkled piece of paper from his mission.  He used to make these in his in the mission field, and they are tasty.

I divided the dough in 1/2 when I was finished and added mint chips to half, and toffee chips to the other half.  YUMMO!!  But you know how I love a good cookie.

2 1/4 C. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

Sift those together.

Mix:

1 C. butter

3/4 c. brown sugar

3/4 C. white sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 eggs

Once mixed add the dry ingredients one cup at a time.  Then add the chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes.

Then we piled them all on to nice plates.

Then we covered them up, and tied a bow around them.

and attached this little picture, and delivered them to our neighbors.

Homemade treat week is definitely a new tradition.

If you were a fly on the wall...

at our Holiday House today.  This is what you would have seen:

Spending time making White Chocolate Jex Chex Mix for day #3 of Homemade Treat week.

My new picture wall.  Isn't it cute.  I have been holding out for this project until I could afford the floating shelves.  I found them at a garage sale for $2.oo a piece. Two of them were brown so I spray painted them.  I had the frames.  I just spray painted them the color that I wanted.

Tessa getting a bath in the sink.  The kids think this is hilarious.  I have a bath tub, but I haven't made it to the attic to rummage for it.  Oh, how she loves to bath.

A mommy who couldn't resist snapping some photos all wrapped up in her towel.

... and then a mommy who couldn't get enough and had to have some under the tree.  Even though poor Tessa was so tired, and ready for bed.

I wanted more like this, but remember she started rolling over at 6 weeks so it was hard to keep her on her belly.  This is the best shot I got before she would do her little trick.

A tired girl...  (mother, why are you doing this to me?)

If you were a fly on the wall in my house today you...

would have laughed your head off as you watched me dance, and fold laundry at the same time.

If you were a fly on the wall... you would have appreciated my clean house that took me until 11:30 tonight to clean.  I love cleaning in peace and quiet, just me and my music and.... a little dancing.

I am off to bed.

Sleep tight...

don't let the sugar plums bite.

P.S.

This is what we made for Homemade Treat Day #2. 

They are so easy... Very kid friendly.

The best part... you can sneak a few Rolos along the way.