Trying to catch up

I have been really bad about posting lately, so I'm trying to play catch up. I still have pictures from Thanksgiving to post. I know all the grandparents have been wanting to see video clips of Gracie's Christmas program, so I put them on first. It was this past Sunday night. She did a really good job. She said she wasn't nervous at all. I can't believe she got up there and sang a solo! She really enjoyed it, I wish I had her nerves of steel. She LOVES to sing, but she hasn't quite figured out how to sing in tune. Unfortunately she caught a nasty cold this weekend, which didn't help matters. But then again she is only four and I'm just proud of her for having the guts to sing in front of everyone. I was also proud of her for memorizing her lines, she knew them by heart since the second week of practice. She was so determined to learn her lines and solo, I just wish she was that determined to have good behavior at home. Oh well, you can't have it all. :)

Jumping to the microphone

Gracie Singing

Christmas Program

Fun in the snow!

We have the best backyard for sledding. We don't really have a yard in the back, it's just a hill. It is a pain to mow in the summer, but it is great in the winter! Grace loves getting out in the snow. She had a blast sledding and "painting" the snow. You just put a little bit of food coloring and water in a squirt bottle, and then spray the snow. She chose red for the color. By the time we went in it looked like a few small animals had been slaughtered in our backyard. Maybe we will go for a different color next time. The second picture is Gracie trying to sled while the neighbors dog was running around. We love Sasha, unfortunately Kingsley doesn't so he had to go inside while we played. The last picture is me showing off my unique wintertime style. I didn't have any boots, and I wanted to keep the snow out of my shoes. Scottie laughed at me and I think he was a little bit embarassed to be seen with me, but I don't care my feet didn't get cold. I may be wrong, but wasn't it in style in the 80's to tuck your jeans into your socks? I'm just trying to bring sexy back! :)

Cookie Time

Gracie and I made sour cream cookies with homemade frosting the other night. At first I was kicking myself for suggesting to make these, I usually HATE rolling out dough for cookie cutters. In fact I was having a mini breakdown while I was talking to mom on the phone because the dough kept sticking to the counter. I finally worked in enough flour and we were able cut out the cookies. We had a blast decorating them. Scottie even got in on the action and made a really good Patrick the starfish cookie. (That's a Spongebob character in case you didn't know) Grace did a great job frosting the cookies, although she had a pretty heavy hand with the sprinkles. :) I thought it would be cute to take some pictures of her in front of the tree. About 30 seconds after the last picture she stood up and all the cookies slid off the white plate. We would have used the 5 second rule ( I had just swept the floors) but Kingsley sheds so bad that the cookies were already covered in dog hair! I was so upset. Not only did we work hard to make them, now we only had half of them to eat. Let me tell you, they were GOOD!! These are so much better than regular sugar cookies. But the best part was making cookies and listening to Christmas music with Grace. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Fall Friends

This is a shout out to my twin Carrie who loves fall as much as I do. I know we don't look like twins, but trust me everything else about us is pretty much the same. We have a habit of saying the same thing at the exact same time, and of course using the same tone of voice. Maybe it came from the many hours we spent in her car driving to our education method classes, or driving to bible study every Wednesday night, or hanging out at the CASA coffee house. Here is a perfect example of our sameness (is that even a word?): for our social studies method class we had a homework assignment to draw our vision of what a s.s teacher would look like. We went to our separate apartments to do the assignment, and yes we came to class with the exact same drawing. I'm sure I have a hundred more examples, but you get the picture. We had a lot of good times in college!
*Anyway, Carrie and I both have a love for all things fall, but especially anything to do with pumpkins! So I wanted to post my favorite pumpkin food for her and anyone else who loves fall like us. I really miss you Carrie!!! Love ya!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Ingredients:
3 1/3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
2 cups pumpkin pie filling
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ingredients in the order listed. Bake in 3 ungreased loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour & 15 minutes (although I usually check at about 1 hour) Let stand for 25 minutes. Turn onto cooling rack to cool.

*You can also use this for muffins. Make one or two loaves and use the rest for muffins.