Featured.

Okay, allow me a little brag moment. If you don't want to hear it, don't read on:)
I follow a few sewing blogs and have made items from their tutorials. I add them to flickr, because it is fun to share and see what other people do too. Well, two of the sites I follow have featured my pictures of multiple things I have made! I was so excited! A few months ago makeit-love it showed off my pettiskirt made for Avree and a dress I made for Abs. Then today craftinessisnotoptional showed one of my barbie dresses, a ruffle bib and felt food. I was so excited to open it up and see my creations!! Thanks for allowing me to brag:)

another one bites the dust!

Catching up...

So this is our last few weeks. Nothing too exciting, except Christmas, of course:)

We had our annual Laidlaw family Christmas party, usually held in Vegas, in St. George this year. Ben works with a guy who plays santa every year. Grows his hair and beard out all year, bleaches it all, bought a thousand dollar suit and such. He says he goes to Vegas Christmas Eve and makes a killing. Well, he was nice enough to squeeze our party in between two others he had scheduled. He was amazing!



Abby asked for a pillow pet. She was one of the first to jump on his lap.

Jack on the other hand was a little more cautious. I didn't think he would actually sit on his lap. I think this face says it all. Well, he warmed up to him and asked for trains. The rest of the night and the whole next day all he could talk about was seeing Santa. Which is pretty funny considering he was terrified of him!

He was fascinated by the sleigh bells.

There were many more pictures... and tons of the adults, but I will save those for blackmail, haha:)

Then Santa gave out Great Grandma Laidlaw's presents to all the kids as if he had brought the gifts just for them. It was a hit, the kids thought it was awesome Santa knew just what to bring them. It was funny, one of the younger kid's present was near the bottom and when his name wasn't called for a while he started to cry:( but he soon got his and life was good again.

Then the kids acted out the nativity. So cute.

Wow, Abby was so serious. I explained it was a reverent time and not to goof around, she took me very literally:)

This was Christmas day. Abby got her pillow pet and Jack got trains, so everyone was happy:)

The snow. Abby BEGGED to go out in it, so we finally got the kids dressed and let them out. She loved throwing snowballs... mostly at Jack, of course.

Jack didn't last very long out there... he refused to put on gloves and he cried that it was too cold. So right after this picture, being in it for less than five minutes, he came back in. Oh well.

Jack and his trains.

Oh Jack, you make me laugh. He has recently started building his own tracks. Only in straight lines. He will stretch them from the kitchen to the front door or one side of the living room to the other. And he will spend hours crawling from one end to the other, pretty funny to watch.




Oh, and if you try and make it connect or help him build one he throws a tantrum. At least he is happy:)

Finally.

I finally felt decent enough to get the christmas tree up. Good times. (on a side note, I thought I was feeling better... super good last night and this morning, but not so much by tonight... oh well, got a little accomplished! :) I didn't even care how it looked. Halfway through, I realized I needed to decorate the top being they couldn't reach, haha. I love how all the decorations are all clustered together. All the candy canes are by eachother, all the red balls are by each other, etc. I think if I changed it Abby would notice. But that is okay, I like it this way. Gives it... character, right?


And I finally got a little sewing done. Haven't done that since before thanksgiving... I was having withdrawls:) I made Abby and Jack bears for stocking stuffers... Still need to embroider their faces but that is an after bedtime task.

Mmmm...

I LOVE food blogs. Scrolling through all the pretty pictures of food. I can just feel the weight coming on. I found a blog, thanks to Jayelle:), that is amazing. Beautiful pictures, practical food. Heaven. I spent A LOT of time on the site yesterday and bookmarked a ton of recipes. (my pictures dont do justice ... just check out her site)

First I started with Garlic knots. Horrible experiences making bread and rolls. This was a breeze. Worked out perfectly!



http://annies-eats.com/2010/09/29/soft-garlic-knots/


Broccoli cheddar soup for my broccoli monster. A-k-a Jack.



http://annies-eats.com/2009/11/05/broccoli-cheddar-soup/

And while my knots were rising I threw together some banana bread. Anyone watch Cooks Country or America's Test Kitchen? The reason I look forward to my antenna's Saturday programming. Best shows ever. Even on PBS, not a huge fan of them normally. Anywho, the premise of the show is they take commonly made food and test it hundreds of ways to find the best method, the one that will come together in the best way. So, she had this on her blog and it is from Cooks Illustrated, the people in charge of the 2 shows.

http://annies-eats.com/2010/08/30/banana-bread/

Warning: Click the links and search her site at your own risk, it is likely to consume your morning/afternoon/night or all of the above. Enjoy!

Run, run fast as you can...

As of late, Jack is OBSESSED with the gingerbread man. Just ask Grandma or Grandpa, they read the story multiple times to him each visit. And he is to the point of reciting the main lines of the story. Love it. I caught him telling winky (his penguin) and puddles (his dog) the story in the backseat the other day. How is he growing up so fast?! Slow down!

Also, I love that he calls himself 'Jackers'. We were at the playground the other day and a kid maybe five or six asked him his name, he replied 'jackers' and the kid looked confused and asked again. This happened several times. Finally I just told the kid his name is Jack, but he calls himself jackers. The kid said 'that's so weird' and just walked away. Well, I think it is cute.

Okay, really I just wanted to show off this picture and so I racked my brain for a Jack story. haha:)