Annual Bake Off

It wouldn't be the holidays without the smell of baked cookies wafting through the air. I don't know if Sebastian likes the cookie preparations, the decorating or just eating the cookies better. But as you can see, we didn't wait for the cookies to cool down before they disappeared off the cookie sheet. Of course we had to break in the new oven as well.

Here chickee chick chick

I thought this was a cute picture of Ava and Mom Mom. She was playing hide and seek with brother and was darting between Mom Mom's legs. She looks like a little chick hiding behind mother hen (sorry Mom).

Out with old and in with the new

Santa brought me my Christmas present early this year. Not really. We went out the day after Thanksgiving to shop for a new stove. This was the first time in years that I went out on Black Friday (at 4:30 a.m.). I swore off going out on Black Friday ever since I got up one year to stand in line for a digital camera and then found out an hour later that the store was sold out of the cameras before the store even opened. But this year, it was worth standing in line because the money we saved on the sale, we were able to buy a three year warranty for free (for the stove/oven).

We were going to wait after tax season to buy the stove but we couldn't pass up the sales. Besides, I finally earned a brand new stove because every house we've moved in, we took the old appliances. The stove we had was about 12 yrs old and only three burners were working. The oven door was practically hanging off it's hinges and did not cook/bake evenly. The three burners is really my fault, I accidently burned out one of the heating coils by submerging into water and not letting it dry all the way. I short circuited the heating coil and thus the fourth burner hasn't been working for about a year. The new stove/oven is high tech. Dual ovens and convection oven, five burners, computerized panel, flat top stove....the list goes on. How sad am I....my heart was pounding with excitement when the new stove rolled through my door. Once I learn the features, I may become one of those chefs you see on Foodnetwork!

Since the new appliance wasn't delivered until 6:00 p.m. and hooked up by 6:30 p.m., it was too late to start any dinner. I couldn't prepare something beforehand so we all got our coats on and went to Applebee's for dinner. Go figure!



























Okay, so the secret is out....this is how we get our dinner every night. The elf behind the oven extends his arms towards the front of the oven and when I pull the door down, I just reach inside for the casserole dish.


























Sebastian getting a little Electrician 101 (aka. being nosey and curious)


























Lights, camera....action!

These boots were made for walking

Ava has been bugging me and playing with her new snow boots for two weeks now. I say play because the boots were still tied together from the store and had the tags on them. Ava figured she couldn't walk with the elastic strings attached so she would just lug them around the house. Well finally when we received the first snow fall, she insisted on putting her snow boots on. The only problem is that she has to practice walking in them because she's not use to something covering half her legs. She could barely bend her knees and the carpet friction kept slowing her down. I can see carpet burns/brushes on her nose in her future.

Christmas Card Mock Up

I was playing around with the greeting card templates on my computer and this is what I came up with. The kids were getting ready for their evening bath and I made them pose on the stairs. It won't be too long before I have to stop bathing both kids together. But they still look so adorable. I made a "mock up" of a Christmas card but I think I'll do something a little more "formal". {:-P As you can see, the design quality isn't great because I had to cut and paste from another application. I will have to subscribe to iphoto or iWeb to be able to import the pictures with the card stock designs. I know....so technical. I don't even have time to figure it out yet.

Siblings on Speakerphone

Sebastian was over at Mom Mom's house and called to see what the plans were for the day. I put Sebastian on speakerphone because Ava liked hearing his voice through the telephone. This is only a short segment of a very looong phone conversation. In fact, Ava couldn't keep her sticky fingers off the phone and we kept disconnecting the phone (hanging up on Sebastian) several times!

Santa Sighting

We were at Walmart a couple days after Thanksgiving and we heard the familiar "Ho Ho Ho" a few aisles over. I made the kids run back to the car with me so I could grab my camera (hey...how was I to know there was a photo opportunity?). We finally tracked down the source of the jovial laughter and let's just say Ava's initial reaction wasn't too warming (see photo #2 below). She only loved Santa from a distance. I couldn't get her to budge from the shopping cart (okay, she freaked). She settled for a candy cane though. I guess we won't get that photo of Ava on Santa's lap this year.





















































Why do we torture our kids? Why do we think they see Santa as a happy figure? When in reality, this is what they probably see Santa as...... (I guess this is one of those "payback" moments)