More Family

I love having lots of siblings. It is so much fun to see everyone. 

Uncle Josh and Aunt Sarah came for dinner last night. As soon as Martin heard they were coming he ran to his closet and found "them". He set them at their places around the dinner table so they would know where to sit when they arrived. 

My sister made these for Martin this year so he would remember them while they are far away. Aren't they great?!? 

Street Sweeper

Why does the street sweeper always come the day before they collect the trash? 

Jelly!

What do you do with lots of new homemade jelly to use? 

You make your husband's favorite Christmas cookies! 

Rainy Day Fun

I covered the boys' lamp with some fun ikea fabric. 

In used to look like this. It had a bunch of yellow stains on it. I am not sure where they came from. 

We collected all the trash, which you can see in that photo sitting by the back door waiting to go outside. 

I made grape jelly out of some purple grape juice that I had bought, but realized it was a terrible idea to let the boys drink. It leaks everywhere and stains everything. We only drink juice when we are sick (and I usually make their cups 2/3rds water). Recently, after they found out that Jared eats pb&js, they both have decided it is their favorite food. So, hopefully this jelly sets and I can use it for there lunches.  

Dinner

This is one of our favorite dinners. It tastes better and is cheaper than a restaurant. Cooking makes me happy. It is science experiments you can eat! 

Also, notice the polish pottery! It adds so much to a meal. Lettuce

Sour cream

Guac

Pico de gallo

Mexican rice

Chicken Enchiladas

Yum. I will get around to posting the recipe for these eventually... 

Bias Tape Maker

A sneak peak of an apron I am making for Christmas and some freshly made coordinating bias tape. 

This is one of my favorite sewing tools. 

Simply cut the matching fabric, feed it through this tool, iron it, iron it in half, and you have bias tape! This is so much cooler than the boring solid color bias tape they sell in stores. 

Also, Michelle should pick out fabrics for me all the time because these are awesome together. 

End of semester cleaning

During the semesters I let things pile up. This picture was taken after some decluttering had already happened, but you get the picture. You never know when you will need something. If I move it I usually forget where I put it. So, I just leave it for 16 weeks. I have done this since college. 

At the end of each semester it feels great to throw away all those papers that have been collecting and shelf the books. 

That makes me happy. 

Ps. It has so been two weeks since I cleaned my house due to a really busy week last week and illness. It really needed it. We have spent most of today cleaning (or taking books off the shelf...if you are the boy who knows better...but he has cleaned up every mess whe has made today). 

Boxes and books

Books and boxes - we love them both! And yes, that is my cabbage patch doll. The baby thinks it is hilarious to poke his eyes, nose, and mouth. 

I was just thinking that I have never taken the boys to the library... But when you own so many good books, what is the point when they are little? Should I take them? 

Sarlacc Cake

I ended all my cooking and baking this weekend with this beauty, a buttery cake smothered in caramel sauce (made with coconut milk) and some English cookie crumbs. It was incredibly rich. It happens to also look like the Sarlacc pit monster thing in episode VI in Star Wars, which we watched this weekend with our friends. :) 

Peppermint and Chocolate

Merry Christmas!! 

They are as good as they look. :) 

51

I am helping to throw a Christmas party for our ESL students this week. We are using:

51 pounds of green beans

4 pounds of bacon

12 pounds of Stuffing

40 pounds of turkey

50 pounds of sweet potato casserole

A few chocolate covered pretzels

24 Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese peppermint frosting

And lots of Christmas cookies!!

Even with buying the turkey, cooked for us by a local restaurant, we are only spending about $3 a person on food. 

We are giving away various Christmas things as door prizes. The boys and I spent all of Monday morning searching for stars, Angels, mini Christmas trees, candy canes, etc. It is extremely hard to find Angels that don't look goofy. Why is that? And advent calendars, especially nativity advent calendars are nearly impossible to find.