Getting Ready for Christmas

To start off our busy day, this morning I decided to make pancakes for breakfast and as an added Christmas touch I added a few sprinkles.

Today we are cleaning up around the house, taking a trip to the dumpster to get rid of all the trash before Christmas (because I'm sure there will be plenty after Christmas), making sure the inside of the house is straight and in order and then later we will take our goodies out to neighbors as we carol.

What kind of plans do you have for the day? Are you completely prepared or are you still baking and cleaning?

Bake Day #2

Bake day #2 consist of Spritz Cookies, Snack Mix Squares, Merry Berry Bars and since we didn't get to make the Coconut Bars yesterday, we'll be making those today as well.

Since I love to see pictures others post with their blogs, I post lots of pictures when I can. Enjoy!

Matthew, Micah and Josiah adding

sprinkles to Spritz Cookies.

Jonathan and Kaitlyn sprinkling cookies.

Lots of busy hands.

Joshua waiting anxiously

Joshua gets a little help from his big

brother and gets to decorate some too.

He's so proud of his cookies

Josiah, Kaitlyn and Joshua

decorating a larger tray.

Smile!

Christiana pressed all these cookies.

All hands on deck to break pretzels

for Snack Mix Squares.

Snack Mix Squares

Finished Spritz Cookies

Bake Day #1

Today we are starting our first bake day, it actually takes us more than one day to fix all the goodies we make for caroling. The first thing we are making are Peanut Butter Balls. I let Christiana head up this recipe and she did a great job. The other tings we will make today are Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Coconut Bars (these taste a lot like an Almond Joy candy bar), Oreo Truffles and Turtle Bars (to die for and my favorite). Tomorrow we will work on Spritz Cookies, Snack Mix Squares, and Merry Berry Bars. If any of you are interested I can post some recipes, just let me know which ones you may be interested in.

Here are some pictures from this morning. I'll post more tomorrow.

Micah creaming the peanut butter

mixture with Matthew looking on.

Joshua again eating more than helping.

Christiana helping Joshua use the mixer.

Matthew, Kaitlyn, Jonathan and Micah

rolling peanut butter balls.

Christiana doing a great job dipping the

PB balls in chocolate.

Christmas Lights and Hot Chocolate

Every year we try to find some really cool Christmas lights to go see. This year we traveled to Kodak to visit Shadracks for their light show, then inside to warm up and have hot chocolate. Afterwards, we drove on into Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg to see their lights as well. It was fun to see all the kids eyes light up as they watched the lights and listened to the music that coincided with them. We always enjoy doing stuff like this together as a family and making memories as we go.

Of course this is only one of the few things we do each year, there are many more. What are some things you like to do this time of year with your family?

Lights

Lights reflecting off our hood

Kaitlyn

Matthew warming his hands.

Josiah

Having Fun on the Ladder

The weekend after Thanksgiving we started decorating our home for Christmas. There was a large wreath that the girls made out of a Hula Hoop that they wanted to hang up on the wall in which they needed a ladder. So my husband, Jim, brought the ladder in and afterwards the boys had fun climbing all over it. Some found they were a little scared, one not at all, can you guess which one wasn't nervous?

Jonathan, a little nervous about

being up so high.

Micah quite nervous as well.

Josiah a little nervous.

Jim thought he'd have fun with the kids and decided to put the rocking horse up there for the little guys.

Matthew very nervous about

being up on the horse.

And of course, our little brave man who

had NO FEAR at all.

Wordless Wednesday- Where's the Slide?

Wordless Wednesday - Where's the Slide?

SNOW!!!

So we finally got some snow. It was only about an inch and a half to two inches but at least the kids were able to sled and make snow angels. Here are some of our pictures.

Snowboard covered with snow on front porch

View from our front porch

Daddy's truck warming up for work

Another view from our front porch

Another view

Micah

Kids happy it snowed

Jonathan making a snow angel

Kaitlyn sledding

Josiah snowboarding

Matthew

Christiana sledding

Christiana

Jonathan

Kaitlyn sledding with Joshua