Merry Christmas

(This picture is from last year around Christmas-time when we went to Mexico. I love it! Feliz Navidad!)

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas! Enjoy this time with your families! Jon and I will be spending Christmas Eve with my family (always a tradition, crazyness with Dad's side of the family). Then on Christmas day we will go to my parents early in the morning and watch Laney open her gifts-then go back home and get dressed (still being in our jammies that is), and head on over to Jon's parents for a Christmas feast. Yummy. Jonny and I are getting spoiled with food this year at both houses. Christmas Eve-Prime rib! Christmas Day-Brisket and a plethora of amazing side dishes prepared by Jon and his sis Amy. Bring on the food!!!

Merry Christmas!

p.s if you haven't seen DespicableMe you need to. My favorite part is when one of the little girls is at the amusement park and wins a big, fluffy unicorn-then runs off screaming in a deep voice "It's so fluffy!!". Jon and I laughed for days, and we scream that at each other at least three times a day. I can totally see that being our little girl. Haha ;)

p.p.s Remember that post about my home-made dress for my friends wedding? Well the photographer posted MANY more pictures of the wedding and there are a couple close ups of my dress that I wanted to share with you all. (You may have to scroll down quite a ways to get to them, but the wedding was beautiful so you may enjoy looking at them all!) :) Click HERE to go to the site.

Yoj to the world!

Yes, I said Yoj. The reasoning for this is because I drove up to my parents house the other day and my Dad had put up the Christmas flag....and being my Dad and just wanting to get it done he put it up facing the wrong direction. So when you drive up to my parents house instead of seeing "Joy" you will see "yoJ". The new Christmas carol in my parents home is "Yoj to the world!" :) I know, we are silly, but I love it. And a week later my parents still haven't changed the flag-it will probably stay like that until they take it down. I love it. I love them. I love my family! :)

Speaking of family....only 4 more days until I get to squeeze this bundle if joy!

Please excuse our hair....we had just woken up :)

AND sister time! Woo hoo! I've needed a good shopping partner. Garrett, Jill and Laney will be here for about 2 weeks-and we are very excited!

Enjoy your families during this wonderful time of the year! I know I will be doing just that! :D

Happy Birthday

"Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to my Jonny
Happy Birthday to you!"

Last week was my hubby's birthday....and here is what he requested for his birthday cake...

Kahlua Cheescake! I have to admit....it was a VERY tasty alternative to regular ol birthday cake. Good thinkin' Jonny ;)

And for all you who are drooling right now (and you should be) here is the simple recipe!

Heavenly Kahlua Cheesecake

1 1/4 cups crushed graham crackers

1 cup granulated sugar - divided use

3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa - divided use

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

2 large eggs

1/4 cup coffee, brewed

1/2 cup coffee liqueur

2 teaspoons vanilla extract - divided use

1 cup (8-ounces) sour cream

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 ounces milk chocolate candy bars, grated

1. Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C).
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa and melted butter in a small bowl; mix well. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until firm but not browned; cool
3. Raise oven temperature to 375°F (190°C).
4. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, mixing well. Beat in remaining 1/2 cup cocoa. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in coffee liqueur, coffee and half the vanilla. Pour into the cooled crust. Bake for 30 minutes, or until almost set.
5. Raise temperature in oven to 425°F (220°C).
6. Combine sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar and remaining 1 teaspoon of vanilla in a small bowl; mix well. Spread evenly over the hot cheesecake. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes.
7. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Refrigerate, covered, for 8 hours. Carefully remove from pan and garnish with grated chocolate. (and I added some whipped cream too)
   

Enjoy!

Sew Easy....

One of my best friends got married in October and I was blessed to be a part of the special day. Emily, the bride, decided that she would have all of us bridesmaids make our own dresses (gasp!)-yes, MAKE our own dresses! You have to know Emily for this idea to work in your head at all, or even a little. She is her own unique person, and that is exactly why we are such great friends til this day. She wouldn't care what I ended up making, just as long as I was comfortable and had fun:) Anyway, back to the dresses, I didn't want to look like the girl with obvious "home-made" dress. The bride sent us our fabric that we were to work with. Me, not wanting to show up in a toga, asked my mother-in-law for some much needed assistance..I mean, I'd only been "sewing" for about a month by then-and the last project I attempted with my mom I sewed the pockets of my skirt completely shut..oops!. (hence why I asked my mother-in-law for help...mom proved herself to not be the greatest of help in the "making of clothing" department. Sorry Mom! I loooove you :) :) ) So I ventured out and looked for a pattern. Ifound one, but once we opened up the package and carefully unfolded the masses of tissue paper, we found that I had bought a pattern that was for sizes 10-16....ya....that's not really gonna work. So we called around and found one (the last one at Beverly's in the sidewalk sale bin! woo hoo!).

The sewing began......and continued.......and continued....and who knew that you could actually put "boning" in a dress yourself!? Pretty spiffy! (yeah, I said "what the heck is boning?" too. But if you've worn a dress with those hard stick things that always poke you in the ribs then you know what boning is...-and it's not as hard as you would think to install!)-however I would not particularly like to venture into that experience again willingly. :) Anyways, the dress was completed-thanks to my WONDERFUL mother-in-law! I would've been lost without her, and more than likely wearing a "wrap" dress in the wedding.

The wedding day arrived....and I was pleasantly surprised by the dresses of all my fellow bridesmaids! (and no, I'm not just being polite or nice) :) They ALL turned out very cute and stylish. Here is a link to the photographers site with a picture of all us girls (it's the last one in the line-up of pictures-but you get to see how beautiful the bride looked) :). You can't tell very well, but you can get the gist of what all the dresses looked like. I have a closeup of my dress...but it is in another cyber-world at the moment and will have to wait.

The wedding was beautiful- and no one walked down the isle in a toga! However, knowing Emily, she probably wouldn't have cared even if one of us showed up naked, just as long as she knew we were having a good time ;)

A little bit of this...and a whole lot of that!

A whole lot of that being of course little miss Delaney Rae :) I have tons of pictures-so I'll keep the writing short and simple...I had a blast with laney bug and her momma. I miss them a TON-but they will be back for Christmas! Yippee!












And a little bit of this had to be added in :)

Guess who's coming?!

MY SISTER IS COMING, MY SISTER IS COMING!

I'm kind of excited... :) Jill and Laney are coming to visit this Wednesday and are staying for a whole week! Yay! We are going to the Fall Festival in Exeter on Saturday, of course going shopping, and having lots and lots of family time! I can't wait! Doesn't look like I'll be working much of next week :)....hehe. Pictures and more to come following the visit!


......and I still don't have internet. My patience is wearing out.....

Delaney Rae and the big land of Texas

My mom and I went to Texas last weekend and got to spend some much needed time with my sister, brother-in-law and niece Delaney Rae. We had such a good time. The weather was perfect (yes, perfect in Texas! The high was 90, and the low was in the 60's). It felt a lot like being at home here in the Valley. Anywho, I wasn't there to take notes on the weather, so I'll get a move on...I was there to celebrate my sister's birthday, and to spend some time with her and little miss Laney Bug. She is getting so big (Delaney, not Jill;)). She is no longer a baby!-she is officially a little girl. And a crazy, wild one at that. One thing that made me laugh so hard is when she hears people laughing she starts to do her own"fake" laugh so that she isn't left out.

She is also saying more words...here are a few:

Mum (yup, not mom, it comes out Mum-and it is the cutest little voice you have ever heard when she says her mommy's name)
Jen Jen (but it sound more like Shhhnnn Shhhhnnn)
Daaaaaaaaaaa DA! (and she says it just like that....holds out the first daaaa, and then yells the second da!)
yuck
backpack
Pop Pop
and her newest according to my sister is "whoa"

Haha. I could sit and watch her for days. I miss watching her twice a week :( Every week I looked forward to spending time with little laney bug. :) I'm glad I got to be her Auntie Nanny for a year.

So our trip to Texas- We went to the park early Saturday morning. Laney went on the swings, walked around the playground, stared at her shadow, and went down the slide! Then we hung out at home and while Laney took her nap Mom, Jill and I went out shoppin! Woo hoo!
On Sunday we decided to take an outing to the Dallas Zoo! It was a little warm, but I guess it was nothing compared to what it has been there. So we trekked to the Zoo and Delaney got to see all the animals that she reads about in her books. She can make all the sounds of the animals, and when she saw the monkeys she got a huge smile on her face and went "oooo, ahhh, ahhh" in monkey language :) Super cute. She had a good time, then got to eat some cherry ice cream at the end to cool her down a little bit. Yummy.

I did not want to leave! I miss my sissy and laney so very much! :( But I am very thankful that I got to visit them and see their new home. I enjoyed Texas a lot more than I thought I would, if I'm being completely honest. They have a cute little home, perfect for the three of them, and where they live is a wonderful little (or maybe big..not sure) town. I can't wait to get back there!

Here's some pictures...I wish I could put up all two hundered and something photos :)

Eating ice cream

pretty little face

Grandma brought her new clothes...she LOOOVES new clothes!

This is how she walks around the house with her blankey

Laney showing us that she has a nose just like Mr. Elephants :) She's so smart.


Sleepy Laney...isn't she the cutest little girl ever!?

Laney looking at her shadow :)

Swings, her favorite

:)

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE