Merry Christmas!

We hope you are all enjoying the holiday with family & friends. We've taken over 185 pictures these past two days so we will be uploading new posts soon! Oh, and maybe I'll finally have the chance to write (yes, write) our holiday newsletter. Expect to see those some time around the new year!

Fighting...over vegetables???

All of our friends complain that their kids won't eat hardly anything. Then we have our boys. They are food crazy! Ian eats at least 1800 calories on any given day. That's amazing to me. Nathan isn't too far behind. Play dates can be a nightmare for me because I spend half of the time trying to keep Ian away from food. I promise we feed him!


The boys are devouring veggie tray leftovers from an event I hosted the previous evening. Raw vegetables are an absolute favorite in this house. I think they love veggies because they often come with ranch dip.


I tried to steal a few pieces and a fight practically broke out. Next time I'll be sure to take my share before letting Ian see the vegetables.

Time to Cut that Hair

I don't know what makes me think that I am qualified to cut my boys' hair, but I do it anyway. Ian has had the professionals cut his hair a few times. Ryan let some guy at the NEX barber shop shave almost all of it off once. I'm guessing that it's the control freak in me that thinks I can do a better job.

Ryan was off at the store when I decided to cut the boys' hair a couple of weeks ago. In case you're wondering how I'm able to get them to sit still for me, I put on Beauty & the Beast and parked a chair right in front of the TV in the middle of the family room. Whatever works, right?


Just for kicks, I took a picture of Nathan's hair halfway through the hair cut. Sorry that the quality of this shot isn't too great. I love his curls, but Ryan says I am not allowed to let it grow that long anymore. :(


Post-hair cut fun! I have no idea what was so funny, but they were more than happy to pose for these pictures.


I love the spaghetti sauce stains on Nathan's face. I was working with a very tight timeline--finish dinner, cut the hair, vacuum the carpet, change them into pajamas. I guess I forgot to wash his face before the "photo session" this time.


This is such a cute picture! It's rare that I am able to get them to both smile and look at the camera at the same time.

30 by 30

With less than six months to go until my 30th birthday, I'm feeling the pressure to lose all of this extra weight. Do I think I am going to lose 30 pounds? No. Am I going to try to lose 30 pounds? You betcha! To give you some perspective, if I were to lose 30 pounds I would weigh less than I weighed when Ryan and I were married. Not a lot less, but I would weight less. I think that's the main reason I am not convinced I'll lose the full 30 pounds. However, 30 by 30 sounds better than 25 or 20 by 30. Wish me luck! Oh, and I'm going to give this Weight Watchers Points thing a try. My first official diet!

The Boys' Tree

Ryan received this small tree from his mom back in 1998. He was celebrating Christmas in New York and his mom was thoughtful enough to send him a tree and a whole bunch of bulbs to decorate the tree. Last week was the first time that tree came out of the box in 9 years! I discovered all of the bulbs with their price tags on--guess it was just too much work for 19-year-old Ryan to decorate the tree.


Ian thought it was great that he and Nathan were being told that they could decorate this tree however they saw fit. It has helped cut back on the number of times they've touched the "big" tree too.


Nathan carefully considered the placement of each bulb that he put on the tree. Ian, on the other hand, would hang two or three from the same stem.


This little tree continues to be decorated daily. They will take off a few bulbs and move them to new locations. The whole tree was knocked over during a play date the other day. I love this tree! Why didn't I think of this last year?

It's Beginning To Look A Little Like Christmas

We finally began to decorate for Christmas last weekend. We made it as far as setting up our artificial tree. The boys thought that they should help Ryan set it all up this year. After all, they are almost 3 and 4 years old.


Aren't they cute?


They sat so patiently while Ryan put the tree together. It only has lights on it for now. Those movers of ours thought that it would be best to rearrange all my Christmas decorations that were all in their perfectly labelled boxes while we were in Florida. Wasn't that just so sweet of them? Maybe this weekend I'll have the chance to tackle the shed and dig through all the holiday boxes. Fun times!

Cookie Swap

You know it's the holiday season when you begin baking at 8:30 in the morning. I made 8 dozen cookies Tuesday with Ian standing guard about 75% of the time. I'm sure he stole a cookie, but I never actually caught him in the act. My camera battery died before I was able to take pictures of the tree-shaped cookies and while I was taking a picture of the boys decorating their own tree cookies. Let's just say that they REALLY must love sprinkles.


The bare cookies--before the painting of each individual cookie began.


My first batch of star cookies. I just love the clear Wilton sprinkles.


The cookie swap! I doubt any of us will be losing any weight this week. Oh, well.

Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1. Cream the margarine and add the sugar gradually. Beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
2. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt gradually to the creamed mixture, stirring in by hand. Cover and chill dough overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Roll dough out on a floured surface to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into your favorite shapes. Place cookies onto the prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 6 to 8 minutes or until cookie has a golden appearance.