The follow-up

Sophie is the paci queen. We had a snow day yesterday (and today) because of the horrific storm that came through on Sunday. Good news for me though, Craig's flight to the UK couldn't make it out so he has to go another time! Hurray!!! I really didn't think I'd make it through the week with all the horrible snow and too many snow days. I'm constantly daydreaming of warmer weather and escape from real life.

Look my daffodil is peeking it's head up! Actually since this picture was taken we got 9" of snow so it's buried under all that right now. Brrrrr.....

Look! My bulbs are coming up! These are those tiny little purple irises.

Well, since our last post I got my haircut and highlighted and instead of chopping it I did some fun red highlights. I'm liking them more as they fade a bit. It's something I've always wanted to try but haven't done before. I don't like any sort of color that I have to maintain.

Also you can see the cookies we decorated. I love that I finally figured out a way to decorate them so they don't look super goofy. I think they look kind of like little conversation hearts. Also I tried out a new recipe for sugar cookies that Hailey gave me. They are amazing. I'll post the recipe if anybody wants it.

You can see from the crazy frosting on my nose pic that Craig and I got into a bit of a frosting war while decorating the cookies. He had a seashell shape on his cheek out of purple frosting. I included that pic though and the other I took of myself so you can see my new hair color.

My Funny Valentine

Here's Katie's breakfast and Valentine.

Here's Taylor at breakfast. Can't you just feel his excitement?? hee hee

I was going through old pix to fill a photo book for Katie and I found this awesome collection of great Craig moments!! I really love the tiny one of him being a "super missionary" see if you can "I Spy" it! I would have scanned them but seeing as I'm allergic to printers I couldn't get ours to work so I had to get creative and just do a collage and take a pic and then download it.
We went out to dinner on Saturday for Valentine's day. We tried a new restaurant that we'd heard about and it was amazing! I also got to get my haircut. It's been a really good holiday!

Craig and the kids got me these great necklaces! I really like them! The necklace from the kiddos even came with earrings (I'm so relieved it doesn't say "#1 Grandma" like the LAST necklace she got me!).

Just a couple minutes ago the doorbell rang. I thought it was a kid to play with Taylor but, even better, it was tulips for me from Craiggle!! Here's our Valentines to each other also.

You can't tell in this pic, but these are pink waffles. Katie was soooo excited that I made them for everybody this morning for breakfast!

This can go in the photo collection at the top of the post! I got Craiggle this chocolate rose with his Valentine! We've had a great day already and it's only about half over. Taylor, Sophie and I are going to the school in a hour for Katie's class Valentine party. Taylor is so excited to go to "Daycare" (they have a play room for the older siblings and since kindergarten is only every other day here we are gonna need it today, can you tell I feel robbed?). I should really get a job so he can go EVERY day since he's so excited!!

Then we are doing eggs and biscuits for dinner (pink heart biscuits, of course) and then we're decorating and delivering heart cookies for FHE. Pretty exciting!

Serve these for dessert!

I made these Magic Cookie Bars a couple weekends ago. I wish the magic was related to weight loss but unfortunately I think the opposite is true. These bars magically disappear!!! They're addictive (like crack cocaine I would guess).

So if you want an new addiction or just something REALLY yummy here you go:

Magic Cookie Bars

1/2 c. unsalted butter

1/4 light brown sugar, packed

2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1 c. chocolate chips (I like the minis for this recipe)

1 c. butterscotch chips (you can use peanut butter chips or mint chips if you want)

1 c. shredded coconut

1 c. pecans coarsely chopped (you can use walnuts)

1 2/3 c. sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350. Place butter in 8" square pan; heat in oven until melted. Combine brown sugar and graham cracker crumbs in a bowl and sprinkle evenly over melted butter. In layers add chocolate chips, coconut, butterscotch chips, and pecans. Pour condensed milk over top. Bake 30 min. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

What's for dinner?

I discovered a recipe to Calzones (one of Craig's favs) and it's become a standard at our house. Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 c. water

2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp sugar

3 c. bread flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp powdered milk

I usually use hot water and bloom the yeast with the sugar for about 10 minutes while I'm combining the rest of the ingredients. Then I use the dough hook on the kitchen aid to very briefly knead the dough. Next I roll out the dough into a 16x10 rectangle and lay it out on a cookie sheet (covered with foil and spinkled with coarsely ground cornmeal). You can use any toppings that you like. I like to use pepperoni, pizza sauce, chopped bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, red pepper flakes, chopped onion, mozzerella and parmesan cheese and dried italian seasoning. Cut the sides of the dough into strips and layer or braid the strips sticking them together with a pastry brush and water. Lastly lightly brush the whole calzone with melted butter and sprinkle on parmesan cheese, italian seasoning and a tiny bit of garlic salt. Bake in the oven at 350 for 35-45 min. We serve this with warm marinara sauce for dipping. Make sure you make enough for leftovers!

Snow Days

Look! He did it(well, actually Craig pulled it out)! He lost his second tooth!Hurray!

What a big hole! I bet the teeth that come it are going to look gigantic!

Here's our snow from yesterday.

This is Sophie's sled. It's how she gets to the bus stop. Very handy.

Here's Taylor and Katie in their snowfort.

The top to our silly little lamp blew off. boo. I hope we find it when all the snow melts. We dug around the base and couldn't find it. I guess it's probably not as hard as trying to find a needle in a hay stack, but still....

Look, our front step is entirely gone!!

The snow goes as high as Craig's hand and the little thing at the bottom is a ruler (check it out! It's from when I was kid! "Dare".

On Tuesday a huge blizzard was forecast. We were all a little skeptical because they keep forecasting a foot of snow and we'll get 3". Well this time it panned out. We ended up getting TONS of snow! We had a snow day yesterday, of course, but I was really surprised that we had another snow day today. I guess some of the backroads have yet to be plowed at all. We have been plowed out in our neighborhood. Shoveling the drive yesterday (and shoveling off the deck) was quite a chore. Feet of snow, powdery in top and compact on the bottom. My shoulders, forearms and wrists are sore. Craig's are sore too. We shoveled almost all of it but were lucky enough to borrow our neighbors snowblower to tackle the bottom of the drive where the plow had piled up a huge, heavy mountain of snow. Our neighbors mailbox was completely lost in the snow. They dug it out, but it's encased in snow now. Needless to say we didn't get mail yesterday.

Everybody's teeth are falling out!

Sophie wants to lose a tooth too. I'm hoping she won't for a while!! She is getting her 2 yr molars in though. We're ALL feelin' that.

Man, our Tooth Fairy handed out dollar bills this time!! She must be LOADED!

First tooth! Thanks for the tooth boxes Yaya. We've had them for years now, it cool that Taylor is old enough to use his!

We're so glad our gorgeous daughter isn't a shark anymore! Just in time for the Orthodontist appt I set up for Feb 8th.

Yesterday Taylor lost his very first tooth!!! The day before Katie lost one of her last teeth (her "shark tooth", since it has a permanent one growing in behind it). I was surprised a couple weeks ago to discover while reading a book with Taylor that his bottom two front teeth were loose. I still can't believe he's already lost a tooth! Man, second time around it really sneaks up on you! It helps he's been acting older this week (less crying for no reason, I hope and PRAY that sticks). I may actually live through this parenting thing. It's been kinda rough recently. I don't think having small children brings out the best in me. I'm really fighting against my lack of freedom to do anything without major entanglements. I know I'd be so sad if we didn't have the kids, I'm so glad we do and I really do love them so much, I'm just excited to do more stuff TOGETHER and a little less indentured servitude. Anyway, that's the blunt, honest truth of it! Pretty exciting about the teeth, huh?!

Christmas and New Years

Sophie is trying out some new running shoes! Looks like a perfect fit!

AHHHHWWWWEEESOMMEEE 'stache Craiggle!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ( I probably don't need to tell you this look lasted all of a couple hours).

We bribed Hailey and Steve to stay just a little longer by making cookies on Sunday afternoon after church! It was hard to let them go, but luckily we'll be headed out there in a couple weeks.

We thought it was going to be warm on New Year's day since it'd been in the 50's on New Year's Eve (at 11pm) but unfortunately it was really, really freezing! Our trip to the park reminded me that am so grateful to not have been a pioneer! BRRRRRR.... Don't you love Hailey's Russian hair! So funny!

We went to a nearby park that has some fabulous running paths to "enjoy" the weather. It ended up being bitterly cold, but it was really fun watching the guys throw rocks into the river and break up the ice. Also Jack found the lichen that Steve was hunting for ("camoflage", I'm sure it doesn't come as a big surprise it was hard to find, with a moniker like that!). I'm so glad that everybody was a good sport and genuinely had fun.

This is at the park we went to (Roselle Park), they have an old silo that has concrete steps that lead up to a look out. It was fun running up the stairs and the kids had fun jumping on the platforms and making a huge racket. Doesn't Craig look nice in a week old beard? Think how dark it'd be if he grew it longer! I encouraged him to grow it long and put beads in it!! HAHAHA! You all do know that he grew it because at the beginning of break we went out to Chinese and the fortune cookie told him to "Be adventuresome and try a new look.". Mine said to take a trip to an exotic location....where should I go????

Uncle Steve is showing the kids "Tripods"...or something else. Maybe something from "Desipicable Me".

Breakfast was a fun event, eaten in shifts. Amazingly, we fed everybody off one batch. Thank goodness for the new skillet I got for my birthday (thanks Mommo!).

Happy New Year! We had the kiddos celebrate at 8:30pm with party pipes and a countdown, lots of cheering and clanging of pots and pans and a toast (and we played Auld Lang Syne)! No fireworks in the street this year, we must be in a "no fireworks" state again, I didn't see any in the store.

Now we all have snuggies!!! Ha! I love that Sophie really wears hers! You should hear her say "snuggie", so funny!

Isn't Katie's Rapunzel wig fun? Thanks Yaya!

Check out Taylor as an astronaut! Isn't this fabulous!! Santa brought the costume and helmet, Grandma sent the boots!

As a tradition the kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Taylor opened this Star Wars laptop from Grandma Howell! He was so thrilled. It's still on the top favs list! Katie was thrilled to shrieking with the mini Molly American Doll and book set from Mom and Dad and Sophie opened her snuggie, also a winner!

Our snowman looks like he's losing his balance! so funny! The next day the balls fell down in a line and then they melted away! How surreal to have such a warm holiday in MI!

Sophie was sucking on this bacon, too funny. I was relieved that she had quit stealing the sugar packets off the table behind her! (This is from our tradition to have breakfast out on Christmas eve. It was horrible last year and painful again this year. Craig loves the tradition. I am ready to drop it and just go to the gym instead!).

This is before all the crying and whining started! The food was great, the company was challenging. I was ready to walk out after ordering. I think next year we'll just go out to brunch or something.

It was so fun to have Craig home for the holiday. Look at the cute snowman they built! Thanks for the snowman kit Mommo!

They watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", such a great Christmas activity!

Sophie got ahold of some markers and colored herself. It was funny that they matched her birthday (from Auntie Hailey, Thanks!) sweater so perfectly! Funny baby! (she's gotta quit coloring herself, it's quickly becoming not so cute).

We went to see the Christmas trees at the Frederik Meijer Gardens. It was NUTS the night we went but really cool. Different trees decorated from all different countries and the green house done with lights (made me miss SC so much and remember last Christmas when we visited Marty and Jess in FL).

We went in to check on Sophie one night and found her like this! Looks cozy, huh? Too funny!

Okay, quick clarification, Craig was off for a week between Christmas and New Year's Day. It was heaven having him home. We were on our own for Christmas but lured Leisy and Kent and Hailey and Steve to our place for New Years. It's sad to be back to the old routine, but it was so much fun to have everybody here! Really the best way to celebrate New Year's Eve! Thanks for coming guys!