BIRTHDAY BOY!

My baby is TWO today! I cannot believe that 2 years ago today I was in the hospital giving birth to my little man; those 2 years FLEW by! wow!My precious little baby; born 4 weeks premature, spending 9 long days in NICU is now our happy, healthy, hyper toddler!With Judah's birthday being so close to Christmas (hello, 2 days after!) we had a low key day and are planning his 'parties' for later this month.

He opened his presents this morning...I made a mental note to get birthday wrapping paper but I lost the note; I don't think Judah minded though:)
Joe and Ethan went to Target yesterday to get Judah's birthday presents (don't judge - there's LOTS of great clearance day after Christmas!)

For Judah's special birthday dinner we had chocolate chip pancakes, sausage and oranges...hmmm:) Judah loves breakfast food!
Happy birthday my baby! I LOVE YOU!

p.s. there will totally be more birthday posts after he has the 'eat all the cake and get messy' parties*

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas blog-sphere! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and are looking forward to another great day tomorrow on Christmas Day!

10 on Tuesday - Wednesday Edition

1. I have a really really good excuse for not posting yesterday......3 letters for you: F. L. U.

2. Yeah, I got a wonderful 24 hour flu bug; at first I thought it was food poisoning but then it continued after I 'emptied' my stomach (euphonious way of saying puked) with a fever so good ole flu it was!

3. I started feeling weird Monday night and was 'emptying my stomach' all day yesterday and woke up today feeling MUCH better! By mid afternoon I felt about 85% and now in the evening I'm getting closer to 95%!

4. I BETTER be 100% by Christmas Eve!

5. We have a fun-filled Christmas Eve and Christmas Day schedule with no time for sickness. no time.

6. Our trash can disappeared while I was sick - it was at the curb for trash day Monday, then I got sick, then I went down to get it today (Wed) and it was gone! You can see where it was sitting in the snow but it's not there....weird.

7. I called our Association property manager and left a message; I'm worried she's gone for the holidays and we won't hear back for a while!

8. Judah will be TWO on Monday. TWO. ummm weren't you just born?

9. Judah is talking up a storm lately! TOO CUTE.

10. I have a few last minute things to finish before the Christmas weekend; I better feel better and feel productive tomorrow!!

Easy Cookies

That's what this recipe is: easy. Really easy:) And that's why I love it! Sometimes I like to spend time measuring and mixing and taking my sweet ole time with baking. And other times I want to eat the cookies now! This recipe is for those occasions when you want instant gratification OR don't have a lot of time to bake.

I made these for a cookie exchange last week - at first I felt a tad guilty that I wasn't slaving in the kitchen for hours but then I realized who I was exchanging with: fellow MOMS. Most moms I have met don't have an over abundance of TIME so an easy cookie recipe it was:)

I call them my 'Cake Mix Cookies' and I just so happened to take pics while making them last week - how convenient :)

Start by combining cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Pick your favorite cake mix - I used Classic Yellow to make a snickerdoodle and German Chocolate to make a delish chocolate treat! (I made 2 different cookies) Combine cake mix, eggs and oil together....Roll into little balls and shake around in cinnamon/sugar mixture...and put on cookie sheet....Smoosh the balls a glass (my fave part!)...and bake for a mere 8-9 minutes! Then you get these beauties...I LOVE these made with Yellow cake mix - they taste just like snickerdoodles! I packaged 3 chocolate and 4 snickerdoodles in a bag and attached the recipe for the cookie exchange. Yummy.

Here's the actual recipe:

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pkg cake mix (I’ve used Pillsbury and Duncan Hines brand before)

2 eggs

¼ cup vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees; line cookie sheet with parchment paper

2. Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl; set aside.

3. Combine cake mix, eggs and oil in large bowl. Stir until well blended. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place balls 2-inches apart on cookie sheet. Flatten balls with bottom of glass.

4. Bake at 375 8-9 minutes or until set. Cool one minute on cookie sheet then move to cooling rack and cool completely.

I LOVE trying out these cookies with different flavor mixes - I haven't found a bad one yet! Happy Cookie Making!

10 on Tuesday - Cookies!

1. We made sugar cookie cutouts the other day as a family....way fun! 2. I set up our table with cutting boards, lots of flour, cookie cutters and we got on our aprons (minus Joe...)

3. The boys LOVED cutting out all the shapes! This was Judah's first year doing cookies and he caught right on.
4. Joe's mom passed on a bunch of cookie cutter that she had been given; I think they're 5th generation now!

5. Ethan enjoyed rolling the dough out and using plenty of flour:)
6. Joe would roll out Judah's dough and then Judah would 'push' the cutter in - he (Judah) would get so excited when the shape would come out of the cutter! We filled up many pans with beautifully (although not all the same thickness) cookies!

7. Aren't my boys cute? I think so:)
8. We cut them, baked them and cooled them.

9. We never got around to frosting them....I'm fine with that though - less sugar for the boys and less cleanup for me! It was QUITE the mess to clean up as is!

10. ALL the cookies are gone. You read right. We ate them all:) hmmmm.

SNOW!

WOW. That's all I have to say about the AMOUNT of snow we got (and continue to get) today! It started late last night and hasn't let up since! It is beautiful:) We just saw on the tv that we've gotten 16-18inch so far! WOW.

Of course, the boys wanted to go out in it (and I did too) so we got ready to play around 10 am this morning. This is what we were greeted by:
SNOW! We could barely open the door - you can see my blue snow-panted leg pushing the door:)

Judah and I ventured to check out the new fluff...there was a lot of it!
Judah still isn't too sure of it; he wants to be outside with us but doesn't want to be IN the snow. He's a trooper though:)

Ethan had a BLAST!
Lots of snow castles! He doesn't realize when he's cold because he's having so FUN!

Gotta love the rosy red cheeks:)
Later that day (lunch-ish) my brother Tyler came over to play - the boys loved playing with their uncle outside! His car got stuck on the street after the plow came by so we got to dig him out...30 minutes later he was on his way:) Only to be met by a 4 foot snowplow drift in front of his driveway! Thankfully, he dug himself in:) I'm glad that we didn't have to drive anywhere today!

Snow, snow, snow. We have an abundance:) They are comparing this to the Halloween blizzard of 1991..now that makes me feel old because I remember that! Good Ole Minnesota for YA!

p.s. I noticed today's date: December 11, 2010...12-11-10! SWEET. Yep, I'm a numbers geek. Deal with it:)

Muddy Buddies....Puppy Chow!

Remember last Tuesday when I said I was so excited to make 'puppy chow'? Well, I made it and it didn't disappoint! It brought me back to my high school days for some reason; I must not have had it since then! With the Christmas season upon us I thought this would (and will be!) and great appetizer to bring to those Holiday parties! I'm all about easy and saving money - this one especially helps with the $$ for us - we get the cereal and peanut butter on WIC! Double score:)

Go ahead and try it - I made a half batch yesterday (simply because I had 1 gallon bags not 2 gallon) and it is wonderful!

Image from Betty Crocker

Chex Muddy Buddies
*from back of Rice Chex Box*

9 cups Corn Chex®, Rice Chex®, Wheat Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination) *I like Rice Chex, nice and light*
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar


1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.

2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.

3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Could it get any easier for a delicious chocolate-peanut-butter snack? You don't even need the oven or stove - Oh yeah:)

I'm joining in the Holly Jolly Blog Hop from Natalie over at Extraordinary Love! Have fun hopping around and finding lots of great recipes for this time of year!

10 on Tuesday

1. Judah LOVES his rain boots. He wants to live in them, sleep in them, everything in them.

2. Judah cries when I have to take off his rain boots.

3. These rain boots are blue with red firetrucks on them - absolutely adorable! THANKS Theresa for the great boots!

4. Today at lunch Ethan came over to me and gave me a kiss on the check and followed it up with: "Mommy, I do that because I love you"

5. Doesn't that melt your heart? Mine's mush thinking about it:)

6. The other night Ethan asked me "Mommy, why are you soooo beautiful?" (insert: awwwwhhh:)

7. How do you respond to that? I did the same way I do to most of his 'why' questions: because God made it (me in this case) that way. He seemed satisfied with that and I felt pretty the rest of the night:)

8. We got our Christmas cards from Shutterfly! They look AWESOME but our text is really small - that's what we get for trying to cram a bunch of words in a small space...ah well. That's what reading glasses are for right?

9. Our next 3 weekends are BOOKED! It should be fun though; lots of family fun!

10. I picked up some rice Chex on WIC the other day and am SO excited to make some puppy chow from it! Remember that from back in the day? They call it Muddy Buddies now though - sounds a little more appealing:)

Denial? Or blond?

I'm going with denial because my hair is clearly not blond right now (I'm actually really dark right now...I love it...but I regress....)

This morning I was signing Ethan up for more swimming lessons at the Y and filled out the registration form; no biggie. Name, birthday, class number I got it covered. Sign and date the bottom and we're golden.

Later this afternoon I stopped by the bank. I went inside, filled out my deposit form, waited in an unusually slow line and got to my turn. Handed my papers to the teller and did my transactions. I'm outta there.

This evening I met my great friend, Heather, for a dinner date and was a few minutes early. I tinkered around on my phone (don't we all do that to waste time?) and something caught my eye.

THE DATE.

Today is December 6th.

I've been writing...

November 6th

...all day. NOVEMBER? really? I guess I missed that month! I find it hilarious that I did it not once, but TWICE today! And nobody corrected me either:)

Ah Well. Hello December:)

BRRRR

I have a perma-chill. brrrrrrrr. It's cold here. real cold. I just head the weather man said it will feel more like mid-January this week than early December...I wonder if that means mid-January will feel like early March? A girl can dream...

I think I need some hot-chocolate and a blanket:)

brrrrrr.

My little Puppies

Ethan and Judah were given home made winter hats last year from my Grandma; they are adorable little puppy hats!

They love wearing them and I love that they keep them on!

TOO CUTE!