Will's Christmas!

He is 'riding' this huge puppy that he LOVES!! He now uses this puppy as a pillow that he has to carry out of bed when he gets up. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!!










He got a basketball goal from his other Grandparents and he loves that too. He is actually getting pretty good at shooting. The first couple of times he did this under-hand thing that was quite funny hitting Dad about seven feet behind him.















His face just makes me laugh in this one. This is a pretty fun book that he gets to push buttons that make a bunch of Micky Mouse noises.










Santa stopped by at my Mom and Dad's house and we got to try it out again..... you can see how well it went over.


Let's just hope next year's Christmas Santa vising goes better...

After all of the festivities, he napped so long yesterday! He took two very long naps. He hasn't napped twice for about two months now. So, with Will being well rested and a billion new toys, I'm hoping to get things back in order!

Merry Christmas!

Do you ever try to wrap your head around how much God loves you? I try and just can't imagine it. He gave me a glimpse of how much He loves me by giving me my son. The love I have for Will is only a fraction of how much God loves me. And you. Can you imagine giving your son's (or daughter's) life up for a stranger? Now I know we are no stranger to God but never the less, having your child die just so someone else can live in eternity? If you can imagine that, then try knowing that your child will live a life where He will be beat, tormented, and crucified to save others from death. Granted, Jesus had many, many followers who loved Him and stayed by His side that He did have a great life and saved us Christan's from death. I just can't imagine knowing my child would have such a hard life and the most horrible death. That is how much God loves us. Amazing isn't it?

This is the day that we celebrate Jesus' birth. The man that would end up saving us from our sins. I thank God that He gave us his son for us. That He gave us just a glimpse of the love He has for us. So today, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Never forget the love God has for you. Wishing you all safe travels to and from your celebrations.

Sugar Cookies

Here's the step by step process of these delicious cookies:

1 c. Crisco butter or veggie, doesn't matter
1 c. sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbs. milk
1 Tbs. Vanilla extract
3 c. All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

~Beat shortening and sugar in large bowl on

medium speed until smooth and creamy

~Watch it very contently until it is smooth and creamy (Will tried to put mascara on earlier in the day, hence the black on his face.)

~You may want to throw a knife in at this time too.







~Add egg, milk and vanilla until well blended.

~ Mine are added one at a time because Will added them. I measured them into a small bowl and he put it in the mixer. He's such a great helper!

~Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to already creamed mixture at low until well blended.

~Here is another time you might want to throw in either plastic wrap or a measuring spoon.


~The easiest way to cut sugar cookies out is to go a head and roll the dough out on waxed paper
before putting it in the refrigerator. You will need

to put another piece of waxed paper over the top. It does not need to be perfect, just a little thinner to refrigerate quicker. If you have the time then don't worry about and stick the whole bowl in the refrigerator until firm (about 1 hour).

~ Heat oven to 375*F. Roll out completely and cut with whatever desired cookie cutter.

~Bake 5-9 minutes or until done.

~Ok, so with Will's help, these are the few items that ended up in the mixer at one point during

mixing. Luckily this time, the tablespoon

didn't end up in half... It did last time.

~ While cookies are baking, get your tractor and disk and stack cookie decorations on top of disk and carry it around. It's great fun!

~Here's some Santa cookies I made. Pretty cheesy I know but whatever. The beard took forever because the tip was to small but he turned out pretty cute...

~Santa's belly! I saw this on another blog somewhere and thought it looked pretty easy.

~The snowflake only turned out cute in this way. I tried several different other ways to frost it and it just didn't turn out.

~The mittens were quite easy and very cute! I love color flow frosting. It is much easier than anyone would think and it turns out so professional looking. (Okay, as professional as I can make it!)

Last years Resolutions and more...

Only two and a half weeks until the new year starts! This year has flown by. In some ways I am very glad for this and others I think "Where did my baby go? He's a toddler now, a big boy." He is so crazy and fun and talks a lot. TV has become a favorite activity for Will. While I know this isn't good, it still keeps him out of the kitchen while I try to cook supper. This is a good thing because he has also taken to pulling the chair up to the counter top or stove to 'help' Mom. NOT GOOD! A year ago Will wasn't even walking yet, and now he loves to run and fall on his belly seeing what kind of reaction he gets.

Well I wanted to wright about last year's resolutions. My New Years Resolutions were to blog more (check) and to read the Bible from cover to cover, or start anyway. I'm not putting a check next to that one because I have only gotten to Leviticus on the 11th chapter (think). Leviticus has been a hard one to read so far because it is all about the laws and types of offerings. So it does take some time to really focus on reading so that I can understand as much as I can.


Even though I haven't gotten very far in the Bible, I do believe that my faith has grown a great deal. I feel like I owe most of that to a couple of of my co-workers. These two are very knowledgeable on the Bible and religion in general. They are my go-to people when I have questions about what I have just read. It allows me to really understand what I just read. They have also given me other books to read to understand the stories of the Bible. I guess if I am making excuses to why I haven't read more in the Bible, this would be one of them. Since these books are lent to me I feel like I have to read them first to give them back. Remember, I'm a slow reader! Overall, I am very happy with where my faith has gone over the last year. I truly find the more I read and the more I pray the more positive things happen in my life. When I'm having a down week or two where I don't read anything and I put off praying for the important things then I see negative things pop up around me.

As for blogging more, well hello! I think I have very much made this a successes. I love going to my 'stat' corner to see how many people red my blog in the last couple of days. (December 10th there were 84!!!) I love it! I love that I have things that people care enough to keep coming back. I'm not sure if some are irritated that my baking has slowed down and it's all about my life and my adorable son or not, but it's still fun to see I have loyal readers.

As for this next year's resolutions, I don't really have any made. I can think of two off the top of my head. One, continue my growing faith. I believe you ever know enough. I'm sure even the Pope learns new things from time to time. Secondly, loose weight! I know I can't start this resolution until March and I will probably loose a good 25-30 within a few weeks. I'm sure that loosing weight is on so many people's resolution list but I want to get back to my pre-Will weight and then some. I would love to be even smaller than our wedding day. That was the lightest I have ever been. I know its going to take some serious work as I am such a junk food junkie. But, I will make it. It really irritated me that I never made it down to my pre-Will pregnancy weight.

After today's work I am off for over a week! I love hording my vacation days until the very end of the year. Over my days off I am hoping to get the crib in our room (not sure how but we will re-arrange until it fits!) and get Will used to sleeping out of his little cage. The anxiety of not having things done for this baby girl is really starting to get to me. When time is involved I have anxiety. It's really the only time I have anxiety issues. I can't handle being late and I want things done now for when this baby comes in over two months! It doesn't help matters that Dennis and I can't agree on a name for her. I really don't want to settle for anything less than my favorite name. He chose Will's name and I let him have so much of what he wants that I just think I should get this one thing. The name I have loved longer than I have even known Dennis. I know he will love the name once she arrives and we call her by her name. The good thing is we do agree on a middle name. It's a start.

P.S. This is the last post without a picture for a while!!! I can't believe I have posted twice without a picture!

Baby #2 26 week update:

I have been poked and prodded like all pregnant woman at the 26 week appointment. The best news of all for the appointment, I've only gained 17 pounds! Not really sure how that has happened as I have not in the least bit tried to keep it under control. I eat what I want, when I want it and figure I'll worry about starving myself after the baby is here. I did that with Will and gained 40. It's not a bad number to gain but not good either so whatever.

The baby is measuring about two weeks a head of schedule. I am 26 weeks 2 days or 4 depending on if you go by ultrasound or not and measured 28 1/2 weeks. Dr. says as long as it is within two weeks then all is okay. If in a month when I go back I am measuring even more than two weeks (four or five) then we would have to do another ultrasound to see what would be causing this. (I'm not at all disagreeing with seeing this little girl again and making sure she is a she!)

I had the lovely breakfast of that orange drink that tastes like flat orange soda. The taste isn't all that bad but you try choking down an entire can of flat soda. It's not all that easy, especially on an empty stomach. This is the gestational diabetes test. They draw blood and I wait a day or so to hear back the results. When I was pregnant with Will I failed the first test because I was told I didn't have to fast so I ate breakfast. I failed it by a mire 4 points too. So I made sure not to have anything before doing this test.

Then I got a shot in my butt. Okay hip but none the less, its still in a sensitive area and would rather blood be drawn any day. This is the Rhogam shot that I have to get twice every pregnancy to ensure that we can have more children if desired. I'm sure everyone knows what this is but just in case you don't... If you have a negative blood type then there is a possibility of the baby having a positive blood type. If this happens then my body will produce these anti bodies that fight off any subsequent pregnancies. So, not a fun shot to get but very necessary shot to get if we want more kids.

Overall it was a great appointment and was pretty normal. I did ask what she was thinking for an induction date. I know it is WAY a head of time but the curiosity was just killing me! As of now she is thinking the 12th and that is what I was guessing she would say.

Makes me laugh!

When Will watches TV, I have to make him scoot back. He is like "Lucky" off of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, you have to constantly tell him to get back from the TV. He does though, he'll go sit on the ottoman or on the floor. It's funny though, this is how he relaxes to watch TV. Crossed ankles, just chillin out. He was actually watching the above mentioned movie when I took this picture. He didn't even want to look away from the TV. It's a good thing he likes to play as much as he likes TV.

Help Daddy?

There is only one bottle fed calf at our house and Will wants to feed it! He didn't because I think it was about 20 degrees that evening and Momma didn't want to go outside!!

<------ Is where I keep hearing a mouse and saw it earlier today!
I'm going to kill it!

Swell much?

I didn't swell much with Will in my pregnancy until the very end where I was just retaining water. I am only 25 weeks pregnant now so I find it hard to believe that I am already swelling so much. I have always had Cankles so I am used to the un-prettiness of my legs but this is pretty bad.

I realized the other day that my collar bones were not sticking out as much as they usually do. Even at my heaviest weight (not pregnant) my collar bones will stick out like crazy. I take this as a good thing because then it makes me look thinner than I am.
This was my feet last night after I took my socks off. Again, normal pregnancy swelling I guess but for me at 25 weeks, I find it crazy.

My sister and Mom were concerned about it so my Mom gave me her blood pressure measuring thingy to borrow to check off and on. Last night it was still normal but high for me. Even pregnant I usually will run 110/ 70ish give or take some and last night it was 129/79. So, I'm not worried about it for now but I will keep an eye on it as high blood pressure would not be a good thing for baby or me.

Multi-colored swirl pt. 2

Lets see if I can describe how to do this with no pictures to help my directions.

Doing this swirl is much easier than trying to do the two different colored frosting's. It is truly easy!

You must use a piping bag for this one. No doing it cheaply by using a zip lock baggie here! If you buy the plastic disposable bags (the ones I usually use) they have a wonderful crease on two sides of the bag. The gel type of food coloring is what is needed. Take a toothpick full of the coloring and slide it from the tip all the way up the bag (as full as you will fill it with frosting.) You could easily do both sides to get more of a colored swirl. What you see here is only one side of color. Fill your bag with frosting and swirl! Yes, it's that easy!

These cupcakes were made for Wills last day of his daycare that he has gone to since he was born. They were chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting (hence the swirl).

As a side note, I am very sad that Will had to stop going to his one and only daycare. I know that I shouldn't get so hooked to a daycare but since she saw Will more than Dennis. She may have even seen Will more than I do depending on the week! I felt like I was taking Will away from a parent or grandparent. This is why I have been so emotional about it. The good news is that we have found a daycare that will take both kids. Wills first day is today! So, Mama is a nervous wreck and I am praying harder than I ever have that he makes the transition well and enjoys going there. Once again, I lucked out that Dennis had to take Will this morning so no tears for me. Yet.

Almost a month later...

On November 8th we had our first snow. It wasn't much but we had to go out for about 5 minutes to play. Will would have nothing to do with his mittens! He needs to get over that by tomorrow afternoon since we are supposed to have another 2".

Will and Katie playing in the snow. It was quite early in the morning, as soon as he woke up we went out to play!
"WOW"

I just love this one!