the end of break

Well, Christmas break is almost over for the girls and I don't think it can come fast enough. Kylie has been asking for the past week when she gets to go back to school. I keep telling her Tuesday, but it just cannot come fast enough for her. I asked her why she was so anxious for school to start back, and she said its because she misses her friends and teachers. Kenzie is ready to go back also. She has worked hard over Christmas break to get all of her spelling words for next week memorized she can ace her test. She said she can't wait till she gets her bonus words so she can get them learned so she can score a 104. I think she also misses her friends also a lot, she just won't mention it.

Gabryle will probably be bored the first week of them back at school. He has gotten used to them being home all day, and having other little ones to play with. However he will probably be glad to have Mommy back to himself while everyone else is at school or work. It will be more quiet with the girls at school again that is for sure. I bet he will be glad though to be able to play with his toys by himself for a while. Especially his new blocks he got at Christmas.


I think Kylie is mostly just ready to show her friends her new clothes that she has gotten over break. Plus I think as much as she will not admit it, enjoys the school lunches better than what I fix for lunch. (Mostly sandwiches over break for lunches at home.) It will be nice though to get back in the normal school schedule again. It is much easier getting Gabryle down for naps while the girls are at school than when they are home. Plus if he doesn't sleep before we pick the girls up I can just leave a little early and drive the long way to school and he falls asleep and will sleep till we get back in the car after the school bell rings and we have the girls in the car.

Till Next Time!!

The Wisdom of Kylie

According to Kylie, when she was little, like she is now but at the age of 3, she has gone to a doctor, and there were two nurses. One checked her heart beeping and the other gave her two shots in the leg and the one who gave the shots was not nice. The last time she had to have shots was before she started pre-k so its been a good six months to nine months now since she had that done. 

Some of the things that come from her mouth I have the hardest time not laughing at because it is so funny. Earlier today she came up and asks, "why do you have thoughts in your brain in your head?" Now that one I did laugh a little at. The little sayings like this I think make it all the more fun when Kylie starts rattling off the little sayings she has. 

Just thought I would share her wonderful 4 year old wisdom for today.

Till Next Time!!!!

Christmas

 Hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a very nice Christmas here at home this year. The kids had a last tearing open presents, and spending the day lounging around the house this year. Jamie and Amaurie came over for a visit and to exchange gifts and Jerrod and I fixed us a nice Christmas dinner with chicken, stuffing and all the fixings.

The kids seemed to have a good Christmas. Kenzie got some science experiments (a make a volcano kit, dig a gem, and grow your own crystal kits), and a moon, some games and I think her favorite, a new charm bracelet, along with 2 new charms. She has already got all of her gems dug out of the little sand block that had them hidden in it. Her volcano is setting up and as soon as it is finished hardening we will explode it! She is excited about it. Her crystals we will start this afternoon. We all played one of her games last night before bed, trouble, and had a blast. Kylie was even able to play it and did good about not being a sore loser since she didn't win. (Gabryle played my last turn which won me the game! He will be on my team from now on!)

Kylie got some new Disney Princess toys, Barbies, a camera, and she got a charm bracelet also with 2 charms. She was thrilled about the Bracelet! Kylie has been wanting a charm bracelet for a while now because Mommy and Sister have one. We got her 2 charms, one that says Mommy's girl, and one that says Little Sister. She thinks she should get some more today with some of the money she got from Christmas, but we shall see. She also got a set of Disney Princess dolls that she didn't have yet. It came with Aurora, Snow White, Tiana and I believe Ariel. The Ariel doll is made to use in the water, Aurora is made to sleep with (her body is very soft), and the other two are just normal dolls like barbies.

Tool man Gabryle
Ready to fix things

Gabryle got some Sesame Street toys and a tool set, and a train whistle. He absolutely loves his new cookie monster toy he got. He comes with 3 cookies and you feed them to him and he will count them as you feed them to him and talk to you. The cookies fall down into a backpack on his back and you can get them out that way. It's really cute. He also absolutely LOVES his new tool set. He walked around all day yesterday with a drill or screwdriver in his hand tyring to fix things. It even has a tool belt that he can wear and another hard hat.

 This week we'll just relax around the house and let the last week of the girls break be low key, and a lot of relaxing.  I kind of think Kenzie is ready to start back to school. She's worked hard over the break learning her spelling words and is ready to go back to school to pass her spelling test. Hope you have a wonderful New Year!!!

Kylie's New Barbie

Till Next Time!!!!!

Kenzie, Kylie and Amaurie

Kids playing with their new things

Kenzie's new board games

It's Christmas Eve!!!!

It's Christmas Eve, and the kids were up early and excited. Kylie was worried at first when we woke up this morning due to the fact that Santa had not come yet to give her a present. I quickly assured her that it was only Christmas Eve and that he would in fact visit her, but not until tonight. This quickly satisfied her and we started fixing breakfast.
Every Christmas Eve we have some things that we have started as some holiday traditions. While Jerrod works, periodically throughout the day the kids and I check the NORAD Santa Tracker online. The girls find it fascinating to see the places that Santa has already been to. I kind of find it interesting too honestly. The girls were up early this morning and as we checked it for the first time around 7:30, and he was in New Zealand.
Tonight, after dinner and before the kids go to bed we will all sit in the living room and read The Night Before Christmas. The girls love the story, and they have been looking forward to it for a few days now. Kenzie has already told me that she plans on going to bed way early tonight so Christmas Day will come even quicker. Before bed the girls will set out the cookies and milk for Santa, and they have already started debating on whether they will put out ones that Kenzie decorated or the ones Kylie decorated. I made it a point to tell them that no matter who decorated them, Santa will love them.
Kylie is also excited about all the presents and everything with Christmas. Her biggest concern though, is how will Santa get into the house since we have no fireplace. I assured her that Santa has a master key that works for all houses that have no fireplace, so he can get in and out with out having to wake someone up to get in the house. We started that explanation with Mackenzie, and it has stuck with explaining how Santa gets in without a fireplace and it works.

Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Till Next Time!!!

New Recipe

This year the girls and I tried a new cookie recipe for our Christmas cookies. I didn't want to do our traditional Sugar cookies we have done every year that are usually store bought. So this year we made some Cut Out Chocolate Chip Cookies. They actually are not that bad! I was a little hesitant at first, but I think it was worth it. It's worth putting the icing on the cookies. I didn't use a prepared vanilla frosting but instead made a powdered sugar icing and I think it worked just as well. The recipes are below. Enjoy!


Till Next Time!!

Cut Out Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened 

1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

1/3 cup granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 large egg yolk 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels, divided 

1 pkg. (16 oz.) prepared vanilla frosting, colored if desired 

Directions

BEAT butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg yolk. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in 1 1/2 cups morsels. Divide dough in half; cover. Chill for 1 hour or until firm.

ROLL half of dough to 1/4-inch thickness between two sheets of waxed paper. Remove top sheet of waxed paper. Cut into shapes using cookie cutters. Lift from waxed paper; place on ungreased baking sheets. Chill for 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.

BAKE in preheated 350° F. oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread with frosting; pipe with melted chocolate.

TO PIPE CHOCOLATE: Place remaining morsels in heavy-duty plastic bag. Microwave on HIGH (100%) power for 45 seconds; knead. Microwave for additional 10 seconds; knead until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to pipe chocolate.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Powdered Sugar Icing


1 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP milk or water
1 TSP vanilla
food coloring if so desired

Mix sugar water or milk and the vanilla together until smooth. Add additional sugar if to thin, and a teaspoon of water or milk to thin as desired.
Mix in food coloring then frost on desired food.

Lazy Days

Keeping the girls busy during the holidays sometimes is not the easiest thing to do. The girls are used to having a packed day of scheduled school activities while they are there. Today we stayed home and let Jerrod keep the car since he works 8 am to 9pm, which is no biggie. The girls have played in their room, played some video games, and read some books. Gabryle has chased the girls around, rearranged the games, and taken a nap, along with coming up to me and giving me hand shakes, high fives, and kisses and hugs. (you can never beat your own kids hugs and kisses!!!)  They've also been pretty good at sleeping in too. Granted Jerrod has had to be at work at 8 every morning this week, it's still nice that the girls try to sleep in till he leaves. If they do wake up they usually stay in their room and play with a toy or read a book. Gabryle has come in our room the past few mornings around 530 or 600 but falls asleep once he gets up in bed between me and Jerrod.
This evening we sat and ate dinner in the living room tonight, and after we finished eating we played some Super Mario. The girls love to play the coin battle, so we put that on and played a few levels of the coin battle. We had fun and then we tried a new level on it, the roller coaster level as they call it. (It's level 8-7 for those of you that know Wii Super Mario Brothers.)  Gabryle thought it was the most entertaining thing he had seen! We were all laughing hard and had a great time.
I even let them help me this morning fix our dinner. That was I think the highlight of their day. They both helped me wash the potatoes and then Kylie would hand me one, I would cut it into 4 pieces then Kenzie would put it in the crock pot (we had a rump roast with red potatoes for dinner).  Anytime we let them help in the kitchen, whether it be me or Jerrod, they absolutely love it! They don't care what they are helping with as long as they get to help. I think they have a favorite of helping when I bake cookies or bread or cake. Of course what kid doesn't like to help when it involves sweets.


Till Next Time!!!

Homemade Colored Sugar!!

our 3 colors. Purple, Green and
yellow.

Christmas is less than a week away and the girls are ready to make cookies for Santa. One thing I forgot to get and really have no big worry of going to the store to get is colored sugar. I am not a big fan of the holiday shopping madness. I did research online and found you can actually make colored sugar in your kitchen.

Green colored sugar we made

All you need is some Sugar and some food coloring, whether it be the liquid food coloring, the Wilton Gel Food coloring or the packets of dry food coloring. (If you use the packet of dry food coloring, mix it with a few drops of an edible alcohol based clear liquid.) I used the Wilton Brand Food Color Gel. It's what I always use for decorating and need to color things.

Yellow Colored Sugar we made

Put the desired amount of sugar you want colored in a clean dry bowl, then add as little or as much of the color you desire. Start mixing well with a fork until the color is mixed evenly throughout. After a little bit I just used my fingers once the majority of the food coloring was coated in a little sugar. It seemed to mix better using my fingers. Once you have the desired color set it aside and let is dry completely! Once it is completely dry you will need to break up the sugar and then store in a Ziploc baggie or a Tupperware container and use when needed.

Purple Colored Sugar we made

It was quick and easy to do! I always have plain white sugar and always have food coloring around, so it will be great knowing I can make colored sugar whenever I need, and in a specific color if needed.Hope you give it a try!
All in all, this year Santa's cookies will be made entirely from scratch. I have a sugar cookie we will try, along with a new Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe we will try, that allows you to roll it out and cut out shapes like sugar cookie dough. I'll let you know how that one turns out also!!

Till Next Time!!