Christmas cookies

Yesterday was the start of Christmas baking. I decided to try Martha Stewart's recipe and whipped up chocolate and vanilla sugar cookie batches with the help of everyone. There were no pictures of that because it was a little crazy keeping 2 batches straight and everyone was being SO helpful!

Then it was time for rolling, cutting and baking. Scott wasn't expecting this step. The dough was chilling in the fridge and I think he thought it was setting like our jello does and he would get to eat the cookies after this step. He kept sneaking peeks in the fridge :o)

So here we go...

Rolling

Cutting

Decorating

Eating!!

Sydney kept right on decorating until the last batch was finished. She was a fan of the sprinkles. As you can see she did try an M&M which I neglected to wipe off her face before all the photos were taken. She has yet to try one of her finished cookies but I did catch her smelling the chocolate dough periodically. Scott was done after the first batch came out of the oven.

A sampling of our cookies

Burning some energy after the sugar high!

to the tree farm we go!

The last time we had been to the tree farm, Sydney had just been born and Scott was not quite two. It was also HOT! This time tree cutting was much simpler and the weather quite pleasant.

Oh yes...the sticks! I think the kids would of been happy just walking away with some sticks.

After cutting down the tree the kids played on the giant hill of dirt. Yes, sledding is possible in Texas without the snow.

Forget the clean hay for Sydney. She made her own slide down the dirt in her white pants of course!

Little Tree

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I had a little tree when I was teaching so we got it out this year for the kid tree. My plan is to make decorations for the tree with Scott and Sydney. They each picked out an ornament a month or so ago at the store. Scott fell in love with a giant red ball ornament and I convinced Sydney to get a blue since she also wanted the red one. Unfortunately, as of today, the blue ornament is no longer with us...

Thanksgiving part 2

Memaw and Papaw (aka Steve and Cathy) came down to Houston for Thanksgiving weekend. For some reason we didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving just the beginnings of Christmas...

An early Christmas present...

Final Soccer Game

It's hard to believe that this was a little more than a week ago. Scott's last game was at 10am and it was hot outside. Now I'm freezing. Typical Texas weather. Eric was able to make it back for his last soccer game and he got to see lots of action from Scott...

Sydney enjoyed playing with daddy :o)

The best part--the trophy!! Scott has shown his trophy to anyone that has walked through our door since then. He is so proud! He was declared most improved player which I can totally vouch for. He went from running away from the ball to running with the herd of kids and kicking the ball several times in the past couple of games! Way to go Scott!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Sydney is now 2! We ended up celebrating on her birthday since Eric surprised us all with an early return home last Wednesday night. She went to the doctor today for her shots and much to Scott's delight, did not cry. His fingers were in his ears and he kept saying he didn't want to hear the crying. Hopefully she left an impression so when he has to get shots in a few months he doesn't over react. Anyways she is now 33 1/2 inches tall and 27 pounds. Right around the 50th percentile.

Birthday breakfast at the newly painted kitchen table.

Opening presents...this activity took ALL day! She savors the moment.

Scott even got a present :o)

Jello cupcakes were a success!

Playing with Flour

One day last week both kids took long naps so I knew I needed something new (and messy) for them to do that evening. I was reading some other blogs and found this activity: flour and water.

Both kids got a container of water and bowl of flour.

It turned messy quickly on this side of the table.

The usual from Sydney--barely touch the stuff!

Now she's getting into the spirit of things!

Buddies

They have their ups and downs together but what siblings don't?! It's always fun to watch them having fun together. (As I'm typing this I hear yelling from the other room...)

A normal meal: lots of playing, talking, etc. but slow on the eating.

Relaxing on the "beach." I don't know where Scott gets this image. He has done this several times. We have never gone to the beach to lay around drinking cool beverages...

Blocks

I love it when I'm doing something around the house that needs to be done, dinner in this case, and the kids go off and entertain themselves. This is what I discovered upstairs when dinner was ready...

Scott's castle from another view.

He wanted another picture but oops! It fell down. Good thing that was funny instead of disastrous!

Sydney built herself a fine little tower as well.