Merry Christmas!

Gifts are bought and wrapped, Christmas carols have been sung, ginger bread house is made and the cookies are done!!

Last weekend we made Christmas cookies with the Zarates. Dominic did a great job and Tavi, Anna and Marisa had a lot of fun.

Dominic concentrated very hard placing his reindeer eyes on his cookies.

Tavi made cookie/pretzel people.

Anna and Marisa made snowmen.

I think we used four rolls of cookie dough!

We are ready for Christmas! I am off until January 2nd and am looking forward to some rest and relaxation.

Two more days - I hope everyone has a great holiday. And remember Anna, he's always watching.....

Merry Christmas!

Last Minute Gift

Need a last minute gift for a foodie? Try this recipe. I don't know if you can even technically call it a recipe since there isn't much cooking involved but I can tell you then turn out great. Two ingredients - pretzels and rollo candies.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Unwrap the rollos and place them wax paper or aluminum foil.

Put them in the oven for a couple of minutes - just watch and when they appear to be melting pull them out. Push pretzels on top of melted rollos.

Let them cool. If you are in a hurry place them in the freezer for a couple of minutes. They are delicious and can be made in minutes!

Better than chocolate covered pretzels because you get the caramel too.

I made them last weekend and they were a huge hit!

Tavi, UArts Amazing!

Tavi just got accpeted to the University of the Arts www.uarts.edu AND got a scholarship! WOOT! This is (as of right now) Tavi's first choice and she is so exicted!

We are so proud of you Tavi!

Making a Statement

Martin got new glasses. The new ones make more of a statement then the ones he has had in the past. I asked him to send me a picture. This is what he sent me.

Yes, he's a four year old.

Then he sent me the real one. He's dressed in workout clothes and at the gym so it's hard to tell exactly how they look but what do you think?

And yes, he will be pissed when he sees I posted this! Cheers!

It's Not Thursday

I can't get that in my mind. It's Wednesday - only Wednesday. The good news is I realized today that our office is closed on Christmas Eve (I kept getting confused on what days we are open). The bad news is I get New Years Day off but will have to come in on the 2nd. Boo. One day and then a weekend. Oh well, it's just one day.

Last night I got Anna, Tavi and my family's presents wrapped. I still need to wrap Marisa's gifts and get the box wrapped for Martin's family. And I am still waiting to receive a couple of gifts that I really hope get here in time. Other than that we are ready for Christmas! Actually that's not true. We won't be ready for Christmas until this gross weather goes away. I do not want a 70 degree Christmas!

8 days until Christmas,
5 days until a 9 day break from work,
and 10 days until New York!

Martin goes to the doctor today about his shoulder. Let's hope he's just being a wuss and it's nothing serious - I mean that in the nicest way Martin!

Can't Focus

We had a lovely weekend that, like usual, went by too fast.

Friday night we bought a car. Yep, we finally did it. We had put it off as long as possible but it was time. We got a great deal on a 2006 Ford Focus with a four year warranty. Getting the warranty was HUGE. And the money we'll save driving to get the kids in a car with good gas mileage will be great!

Saturday we tried to finish up Christmas. We got Martin's family done and now just have to pack it up and ship it to California. We are officially ready for Christmas - except for DAD. He's impossible.

Saturday afternoon we went to see Jeannie and brought her some soup. She is getting better every day - she'll be up dancing soon!

Sunday I helped Katie decorate her Christmas tree. Hopefully she'll post some pictures on her blog IF SHE EVER BLOGS AGAIN :) Her tree looks great! Once the tree was decorated we went to Jeannie's to take her pups for a much needed walk/run.

Last night was Dad's birthday party. We ate, drank and played hand after hand of Apples to Apples. It was fun to get the whole fam together.

After last night today has been sorta rough. It's hard to focus on work and I keep getting bad news. My gas bill went from $40 last month to $140 this month and it looks like the insurance will be more on the Focus than it is on the Explorer. Arg. Not happy.

Today is T-Fin's birthday. I hope you have a fabulous day, Dad. I love you!

Thanks for Nothing Frosty

Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone said it wouldn't snow. They were right. Mississippi and New Orleans got it all. No fair. It did get pretty cold though. So cold that this morning Talem stole Layla's warm bed.

Kicked her right out of it. It was pretty cute though - last night they were both crammed in there together. You can tell Talem is in charge at our house!

This weekend we are going to try to finish up Christmas and get the stocking stuffers for the girls. I started wrapping last night which is one of my favorite things about Christmas time! Christmas is almost here!

We will also be checking in on poor Jeannie. Her surgery yesterday went well but she is in a lot of pain today and hasn't been able to sleep.

Everyone keep her in your thoughts. You can do it Jeannie! Just think about the jumping jacks you'll be doing soon! We love you!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Don't forget T-Fin's birthday is Monday! In lieu of gifts go to Books-A-Million and buy lots of stuff!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Wouldn't it be lovely to wake up on Christmas morning and see all of the trees outside covered in snow like our Christmas tree?


Know what would be better than that?

Waking up tomorrow and finding out that the office is closed due to snow.

Here's hoping!

Weekend Wrap-Up

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This weekend we got the house (almost) ready for Christmas.

Friday we picked out our tree and decided this year to go with a flocked tree. Because we bought the display we got it half off!

I thought since the tree was white, colored lights would be pretty on it. We bought three boxes and got all the way home before I realized that I needed colored lights with WHITE wire, not green. Back to the store I went but was unable to find colored lights with white wire. So we had to go with white lights.

Martin helped me put the lights on the tree but then we realized that we hadn't bought enough. Back to the store I went to buy more lights.

Then the girls helped me hang all of the ornaments while we listened to Christmas music.

The tree turned out very pretty! I wasn't able to find the lights I wanted but I did find this:

How many people do you know that have a Mexican nutcracker??

Then we made our gingerbread house. We make one every year but I think this year's turned out the best.

The rest of the night was spent cuddled up with the babies in front of the fire watching tv.

Saturday morning Martin had an appointment at the eye doctor and got some new glasses which he really needed! The appointment took forever so we were rushed all day long. After the doctor we went to the Humane Society with the red sweater crew - Jeannie, Roscoe, Sam, Sissy, Katie, Jake, Martin, me, Marisa, Anna and Layla - to have Stacey take Christmas pictures of us. With a group that size I was expecting total chaos but it actually went pretty well. I'll post the pictures when we get them in.

Saturday night was Jeannie's trim the tree party. She got some awesome ornaments including a rooster tree topper. Her tree looks great but I forgot to take any pictures of it!

Sunday was a lazy day. I stayed on the couch with the girls watching television until about 12:30 when Martin got home. We took them to lunch at Cocina (we hadn't been there in forever).

I ordered the lunch fajitas.

They were only ok. The food isn't spectacular there but these are!

The pomegranate margaritas are worth going there for. They are delicious and not too sweet!

The girls got chicken fingers and a hamburger and were quite content.

Katie let them play photo hunt on her iphone after lunch which was lots of fun.

Tavi had an incredible weekend visiting University of the Arts. She had her audition on Saturday during which her contact fell out! Aside from the contact fiasco she said her audition went very well. She got a call back audition and interview and felt like she nailed it. She loved the school and the campus and got to play in some snow while she was up there. Now we just wait to hear from the school!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Everyone done Christmas shopping??

Just In Time

Tavi got her braces off just in time for her audition this weekend at University of the Arts.

Doesn't she look amazing??

Good luck this weekend Tavi!!