Christmas cookie baking with the Bean

So, I decided to attempt to make sugar cookies with Brenna.  I thought she'd get a kick out of it. I already decided in my mind that it would be about the fun experience and not the cookies.  We don't really need them anyway :) So I bought some cookie cutters that had a recipe on the box and away we went....

She was a surprisingly good helper. We haven't baked anything in about a month and her skills have really come along way (as well as her ability to listen to directions, which always helps)

 She was really into getting into the whole thing and actually started giving me directions of what we needed to do next.  It was pretty funny!  'Ok mama, now we need to....'

A little disclaimer was that I accidentally doubled the butter (WHAT?!?) but luckily caught it early enough to fix it.  Brenna was fairly patient with me as we had a repeat some steps, but I think she liked the repetition so she knew what was going on.  Which is how she knew what to tell me to do next...

So then we rolled out the dough and I was pretty impressed with how well things went....

until all she wanted to do was mash the dough.  Every. Single. Time. We. Rolled. It. Out. This child will barely play with playdough for more than 5 minutes (and that is with the adult actually creating the creatures to play with. She doesn't want to mess up her hands).  She was smashing and smearing and throwing.....ugh.

 So, anyway the first batch was a little overworked, but she helped.  And then she took a nap and Nick and I finished cutting out and decorating the dozens of cookies we made.  Whew!

I haven't made these in so many years that I forgot you had to decorate them before you cooked them, so we had about half plain, half decorated.  Not that it matters ;)

They both loved them.  They are pretty good!

Thanksgiving

We had a nice, low key Thanksgiving this year.  My cousin Pat drove over from Houston and hung out with us for the day.  Nick had a special duty assignment that took him to work in the morning, but he was back with us by 0900. 

I tried explaining to Brenna the idea behind Thanksgiving the night before.  I think some of it stuck with her because she woke up saying 'I'm thankful for salad...' which she actually hates.  I thought it was pretty funny though.

Jace wasn't really in the mood to play Indians.  Poor kid had his 15 month shots a few days prior, caught a cold from me and (as I found out yesterday) grew 2 molars.  

 Thankfully Daddy was home in time to make the feast of ham, turkey, stuffing, AMAZING mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.  Jace vigilantly watched the biscuits bake.

 We did get to watch the Lions play.  Jace is really into pointing at things and babbling excitedly.  Brenna loves to cheer for the football players and toss a football around.

Brenna was pretty taken with Pat, after a bit of a rough start and just kept telling him how she 'loves his eyes' of course he wasn't allowed to sit by her, though.... Jace warmed up to him, too.  Even allowed him to carry him a few times.  

We went to Denny's for breakfast the morning after and the kids ate absolutely everything we put in front of them.  Nothing follows up a good meal like another good meal :)

We can't wait to be able to spend the holidays with all our families again!

pumpkin carving

We decided to get some pumpkins this year and carve some faces.  We weren't really sure how it was going to go, since Brenna hates getting dirty, but we were pleasantly surprised that she even grabbed a spoon and helped me clean some guts out.  

Brenna was really interested in just rolling the pumpkins around.  Jace just looks threatening ;)

 As I'm sure it goes in 99% of pumpkin carvings...Nick did all the work!

 Brenna's pants were a disgusting mess as she was slipping and sliding all over in the pumpkin guts on the tarp.  She actually though it was a great time!

Our masterpieces.

our "camping" trip

Nick and I decided to go 'camping' with the kids.  We've had a tent and 90% of the supplies that we've never used.  So, we set the tent up and unrolled the sleeping bags in the backyard.

Brenna got a kick out of snuggling in the sleeping bag with Nick.  She loved falling asleep and waking up with him (every 5 minutes, trust me, no actually sleeping occurred)

Jace just wanted to climb on me.  

 Silly kids

random fall catch up

With the start of fall, we've been getting outside a lot more, which Jace and Brenna love. 

 This is really the first time Jace has been able to explore.   He started off really unsteady but quickly mastered the little hill and rarely falls.  He is so patient with himself, trying new skills over and over and over again.  He doesn't have a lot of fear of falling.  He knows where his belly is and will gladly show it to you.  He really gets a kick out of eensy weensy spider and (unlike Brenna who would only want you to sing it)  he loves doing the hand motions.  He's also a fan of wheels on the bus.  He can 'cheers' with his cup and doesn't understand that it is not something you repeatedly do.  He still trows food, but not nearly as much as before and has stopped throwing his cup.  He says 'Hi' is the softest, sweetest voice.  And I think he's working on 'milk.'  He has 6 teeth, and another slowly coming in.  He loves to have his teeth brushed!    

 Brenna loves digging in the garden, chasing after Bella and running after Jace.  She was trying to spy on the neighbor who was mowing his grass.  Her language is just incredible...she actually used the word 'frusterating' correctly in a sentence yesterday.  She is very polite and says 'please' (most times) and 'thank you.'  She loves the alphabet and recognizes letters, although not specific ones.  She still loves movies and is getting into acting me out.  We play Frozen often.  She still changes her name and yesterday wanted to be called 'washing machine' for the entire morning.  Nick was big-super-washing machine, Jace was little-washing machine and I was mama-washing machine.  I'm not sure where she comes up with these things....

 A man needs room to breathe....

I love baby naps

A throw back from our pumpkin patch trip last year.  We didn't go to the same farm as we found one about half the distance away.  It would have been cute to try to get this picture again.  Actually, we probably would have killed ourselves trying to get it and ended up with crying kids.  So, really it worked out better this year :)

Pumpkin patch

We had a beautiful 3 day weekend with Nick and took advantage of the nice weather and the chance that not many people would have the day off.  We went to a pumpkin patch and had a great time!

As more of Jace's personality comes out....this is a "which way do I go?" look.  As in, I'm outta here.  Catch me if you can!

Pretty much the only way to contain the curious little guy.  He's short enough that he could walk right under any ropes and he is so quick.  Something catches his eye and he is running.

Kids really got a kick out of the goats.

Family fun in the maze.  Surprisingly no one became frustrated or cried.  

This is Jace, making a break for the water.  

Brenna loved the pumpkins and they had a huge supply of little ones she could pick up.

 Brenna got to check out the turkey, but she kept asking where his face was.  I explained the turkey had a blue face.  I think her mind was blown.

We tried to get a picture of Jace hanging, but he can't quite hold on.  Or maybe he can't focus long enough to hold on....hehe.

 

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It was a little windy, as you can see by Brenna's hair.  She got a kick out of the wind.  Jace just wanted to run.