'Tis the Season for Cookie Decorating

I have yet to attend one of the Dustin's big cookie decorating parties where family and friends are invited over for an afternoon of fun decorating cookies. A party was in the works this year, but didn't quite make it to the itinerary. Luckily we were able to squeeze it in between events. 

Although I have one of the cutest little nephews, he sure is a stinker and unfortunately isn't letting mom eat dairy products. Throughout the week we've been altering recipes here and there so she can eat the same things we are. 

 So on Sunday afternoon this temporarily-vegan momma set out to make dairy free dough for the sugar cookies. 

 Somehow I was wrangled in to the the tedious task of cutting out the cookies. I was excited to finally have a helper when JP showed up!

 He was super excited to cut out objects, but we ended up re-rolling his dough a few times as some of the objects were over lapping and some just fell apart when he picked them up. 

 

Once we had all the cookies baked, we stashed them away until we found a good time to frost them all. The cookie eaters didn't have to wait too long to devour them as Aunt Em and Grandma made frosting and spread out the decorating supplies Monday morning (before breakfast!).

 
This snowflake was one of the cookies JP helped to cut out. And he was SO focused on frosting it that it took...at least 7 minutes to complete. And before anyone could tell him differently, he ate it. And it took twice as long to eat as it did to frost.

 I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed frosting cookies. There would be more but a lot of the "bad ones" were eaten before they were allowed to dry...

 Hunter was SO focused when he was decorating. That's a side of him I hardly get to see!

 
 I love getting my picture taken with my kids - especially when they are looking super cute, like Hunter!

 You can tell by the overload of frosting which ones my children did...

I have quite a few pictures of Uncle Cameron....And they ALL have turned out like this...Sorry Cameron!

My Handsome Nephew Stevie

I know there will be a BUNCH more pictures of this handsome little guy to come, but I've been resisting the urge to post a few pictures of him until I had some of him under the tree....But he's too cute to not share!

The last time I saw this little bugger he was about a month and a half old and still wanting momma all the time. I'm so glad I was able to snag a few (hard to get!) smiles from him!

I'm in love with this one though! I had to edit it a little as I was trying so hard to get him to smile that I wasn't looking through the camera when I shot it. Although he appeared in the bottom corner I was delighted to capture this happy face!

 I don't normally get many photos taken of myself - but here I am shushing both babes, and loving it!

 Again....If ONLY the babes could smile at the same time...

 Although Charlotte is 7 1/2 months (ALREADY?!) little Stevie is on the brink of out-growing her. 

My First Real Christmas Tree Adventure

This year we are celebrating Christmas in Whitefish with the Dustin side of the family. In their house, they set up a real Christmas tree. For as long as I can remember, my family has had an artificial tree. As I recall, it was always a lot of fun to spread out the limbs and a battle as to who place the top piece on the tree...

Anyways, we arrived late Saturday evening and first thing after breakfast Sunday morning, Grandma, Uncle Cameron, Perry, the boys and I set out to find "the perfect Christmas tree." I've never been tree hunting before, but I can imagine it's a lot easier without snow....

 Hunter and JP enjoyed riding in sleds while us big people walked. 

 The house is situated at the top of a hill, the drive way up to the house was a lot of fun for the boys to sled down. 

 The first one we found looked like a beauty until Perry pulled back the little tree next to it and found one side of our "perfect" tree was a little lacking in branches.

 We trekked through the woods, with the boys on sleds, before looping around to the road again. Along the way I flipped Hunter off his sled in an attempt to catch up to the rest of the group, but with no luck. He was stuck in a shrub crying because his mitten fell off. 

 Eventually he calmed down enough for us to get the mitten back on and to catch up with everyone else. While Perry and Grandma continued their search for the tree, Uncle Cameron sent JP down the road on the sled, and though I attempted to do the same with Hunter, he was still a bit upset. Instead of going to the bottom of the road, he and I turned around and headed back up the road in search of Perry and Grandma. Of course we passed them and had to turn around again. At one point, I was left with both Hunter and JP on the road, while everyone else was in the woods so I trekked them in on foot (since pulling two sleds and watching out for the camera was impossible to do). Unfortunately the snow was fairly deep and hard for them to get around in....JP found himself "swimming" up snow mounds, which slowed us down even more.  Eventually we made it back to the road and decided to go back and get the first tree we looked at...AND after some arguing as to where it was located (because no one would listen to me, Miss Compass) we finally found it.

 Perry and Hunter took the first few saws at it...

 And then JP took a few saws at it as well.

 Cameron and Grandma also had their turns sawing down the Christmas tree. 

 I also took my turn and attempted to saw the rest down. I'm pretty sure I was close, but not enough to knock it over...

Once it finally was chopped down, Perry and Cameron hauled it up to the shop to dry out a bit, while Grandma and I toted the boys back to the house to warm up. 

I'm not sure what I expected when we set out to chop down our own tree, but I'm glad the weather was PERFECT! 

Monkey Shiner Babblings

M - Hunter, can you take your stool out of the kitchen so I don't trip on it?
H - I'm not strong enough.
M - Yes you are.
H - No! I'm not strong!
M - You pick up the stool all the time. You are pretty strong.
H - *On the verge of tears* No, mom. I'm not strong! He *points up* is strong. Mrs. Stiff says I am weak and He is strong!
M - Good thing He can help you then. *Hunter proceeds to remove the stool from the kitchen.*

M - Jim, can you take two more bites of your food and then you can be done?
J - Uh no. I'm full.
M - You mean you don't want the rest of Papa's ice cream cake for dessert?!
J - No, I think we should just try again tomorrow to finish our food.

M - Hunter, please get off the bed. I don't like you jumping and rough-housing on my bed.
H - But I want to be on the bed! I have my pants on!
M - Irrelevant....get down.

I only heard part of the conversation, but cracked up when I heard them talking about "The Naughty List":
J- Hunter I think you're on the Naughty List.
H - No, Jim, we BOTH are.
J - Nope, I'm pretty sure it's just you....
H - I am not! There are presents under the tree with MY name on them!
J - We could take them back....

"In a Little Stable" Song

The other week after dinner, JP wanted to practice the song, "In A Little Stable," which he and Hunter sang at their Christmas concert. Sometimes we would interject with the wrong words, just to see if they knew the right words to their songs. Perry and I didn't realize how fired up JP and Hunter would get!

Sometimes my camera acts ridiculously and stops recording, even when I don't tell it to... Kind of annoying so here it continues...

Hahaha "Put your stable down!!"

And here's how that song went at the concert...JP forgot to practice the second verse I guess!

Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesodillas

I've been all about making new foods lately. Thankfully Perry and the boys have been good sports about eating all the new dishes. Some have been good, some not so good, but at least we're experimenting! However, last night I stumbled upon pure yumminess! I'm not a huge ranch fan, but Perry, Hunter, and JP are, and they're huge bacon fans too - double bonus! This has definitely made it to our favorite list!

Here's where I found the original recipe, but I made a few changes of my own. Very rarely do I ever cook for just myself, so I altered the recipe to feed my family of 4.

Ingredients:
4 Tortillas
1 Chicken breast cut into thin strips
1 Package of bacon with strips cut in half
Shredded cheddar cheese
Ranch dressing
Mushrooms (optional)

Cook the chicken in a frying pan with a little bit of oil. While the chicken is cooking, you can also cook the bacon which ever way you choose. I cooked mine on the stove over low heat, and season it with Alpine Touch. When the bacon and chicken are done cooking, heat a frying pan (large enough to fit the whole tortilla in) over medium to low heat. Place tortilla in the heated pan and lay the shredded cheese over it evenly.

While it's melting lay strips of the chicken and 4 pieces of bacon on one half of the tortilla. If you are adding any extras to the quesodilla like mushrooms, now is the time to add them. Drizzle ranch over the top. Once the cheese is melted, flip the cheese only side onto the "loaded" side and cook until the bottom is brown, and then flip over and brown the other side. Repeat for the rest of the quesodillas.

*If you want to speed up the process, you can use pre-cooked bacon or bacon crumbles, and canned chicken. Left over chicken and bacon works too!*

I think I might add tomatoes to mine next time and dip it in buffalo wing sauce....yummm!

Hunter & JP's First Christmas Concert

After months and months of practice, Hunter and JP finally had their Christmas program and it was so cute! Here's a couple videos of them singing. 

This first one is JP's class singing his favorite song, "10 Little Angels in the Band"

I'm not sure what thing song is, because he never practiced it at home. Can you tell?

It looks like Hunter has to pee!

 We were super lucky that my parents picked the correct side to sit on because we had perfect views of both our children! JP was on the end right in front of us and Hunter was on the end closest to us. Glad our last name starts with D! The girls in JP's class were adorable. They were in the front row with all the boys behind, and they were constantly lifting up their dresses, and JP's teacher was constantly pulling them back down. Adorable!

 Hunter was unbelievably excited when he saw Nola, the little girl on the end with the red curls. She and Hunter attended the same daycare last year. "Mom! She talked to me!"

 All the little ones!

Hunter and his teacher, Mrs. Stiff.