Coolest mail suprise ever!

We received a letter from an anonymous author with a return address that we don't recognize, from a state that we don't know anyone from.


















Look what was inside!!!













We really can't believe it! We've googled, and searched the address and we just can't figure out who did that for us. It was an amazing gift of kindness and generosity and we sure wish we could thank that person!!

Playing in a winter wonderland

Let's see how many shots it takes

to get a good Christmas card picture :)

















(the cute little guy in the picture is Cavan's best buddy Noah)




























And finally the money shot














Christmas is already so much fun this year! Playing the "Santa card" is very handy ie: "Santa doesn't bring toys to little girls who won't pick up the ones they already have"

Chloe is really starting to understand what Christmas is all about, it really ignites my own childlike excitement for the holiday. It doesn't hurt that I have a Kitchenaid mixer waiting for me under the tree. I've wanted one for years and I braved the 5am black friday Wal-mart madness to get it, now if only I could open it now to make Christmas cookies.....

The strep throat blues

Well, we were pretty unfortunate because we picked up strep throat as a family. Brock started first, I had never seen anything like it. His whole face and throat was so swollen he could barely move or talk. We tried to quarantine him, but the next morning I woke up in Chloe's bed with a sore throat, and inevitably the kids had it too.

I think we are close to recovery. Now is the fun part of going through the house to clean up the toddler tornado's messes that occured while we were passed out on the couch!

Needless to say I haven't been taking many pictures lately, but here are some cute ones:

Virtual Makeovers

Have as much fun as Chloe and I did at kaaz.com

Cooking with mommy

One of my favorite relaxation activites is to curl up on the couch and watch cooking shows, and now Chloe loves to watch them with me. She asked me if we could make the food from the show we were watching which happened to be churro's, I decided we'd better do something with a smaller level of difficulty, and so today we made fruit pizza. Chloe mostly eats the ingredients and licks the bowls and spoons, but it's good times for mother and daughter!



Chloe "helping" by cleaning the bowl











the end result











Fruit PizzaPrep Time: 30 min Inactive Prep Time: hr min Cook Time: 15 min Level:
Easy Serves:
8 servings Pizza Dough:
1 package store bought sugar cookie dough
Toppings:
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large peach, sliced
1 large green apple, sliced
1 large orange, sectioned
1/2 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
6 ounces fresh blueberries
6 ounces fresh raspberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup chocolate syrup


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Flatten cookie dough onto a 6-inch pizza pan. Bake until firm to touch, about 11 to 15 minutes. Cool. In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and sugar. Spread the baked cookie with the cream cheese mixture and decorate with sliced fruit. In a small bowl, combine melted white chocolate with chocolate syrup. Top the pizza with remaining berries and chocolate mixture. Slice and serve immediately.

Trick or Treat!

We had so much fun on Halloween! From the moment Chloe woke up she was carrying around her pumpkin bucket and wearing her red sparkly Dorothy shoes. She didn't understand why we couldn't trick or treat in the morning. Cavan wore his costume and hat and never tried to take it off. He learned to say "trick or treat" very quickly :)

The cute little cell phone boy is Cavan and Chloe's best buddy Noah, as you can imagine the kids got lots of compliments on their costumes!

Our new house, and the pumpkin patch...

These pictures could officially be two blog posts, but I'm a mom of two wild children so I have an excuse to lump these pictures together!