What I Learned

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, mainly because I never can keep them. Last year I made a resolution to make our bed every morning. *gasp!* It's true, I have a terrible habit of not making the bed. I probably made it about a month before I failed. I have gotten better, though. I guess that's the point anyway, to continually improve.

So this isn't a "what I'm going to do in 2012" post, more of a mindset I want to have.

See, the other day Sweet P reminded me of something. We were doing a simple, mundane task, the laundry. Here's the thing, the very sound of the buzzer going off on our dryer makes me annoyed. There is never an end to laundry, it just keeps coming. I wash, dry, fold and put away and start the whole process over. It never ends. That's probably my biggest pet peeve.

Anyway, Sweet P was helping me put clothes in the washer and was having an absolute blast!



She wasn't thinking about the next load, or the load after that, she was just having fun throwing the clothes in (and taking them back out) and pushing the buttons.

She lives in the moment.

Sure, it's kind of the only way she knows to live but it's still a good lesson. A lesson I want to carry forward in 2012, to live in the moment and to enjoy it, no matter how simple or mundane it may seem.

So, I hope you have a very happy New Year's Eve and cheers to an awesome 2012!!

Advent Week 3 and 4 Recap

This is a little late coming but here's the update of the remaining Advent calendar activities.























We always save the story of Christmas for Christmas day. So that wraps up our Advent calendar activities for 2011.

You can see week 1 here and week 2 here.

Christmas Vacation

Howdy folks! I hope you all had a great Christmas! Here's a little recap of some of our Christmas vacation in photos.



I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for a little while but I'll be back.

Until then, have a great week!!

Merry Christmas

It's a little late in the day for this post but here's a little Merry Christmas love from our family to yours.

Hope you had a blessed Christmas.

TDT

Do you remember that sneak peek I gave you guys a while back?

Well, you're not going to find out what it was all about here. You'll have to go check out Tasha Does Tulsa to see what I was working on!

That's right folks, I'm guest posting at TDT today! I know, I can't believe it either but it's true.

Check it out here and come back and let me know what you think!

A Visit to See Santa

I know I said I'd post week 3 of our Advent activities today but we're having a bit of a situation at the house so hopefully I'll get it up later.

Until then, Sweet P's visit to see Santa. This was her second visit to see the Bass Pro Shops Santa - we took her last year too.

She was excited as we stood in line. She even waved to the reindeer and Santa.



Then it came her turn to sit on his lap. Although there were no tears, she was obviously not too thrilled about the situation.



And here's her picture from last year's visit.



Tonight, we're baking Christmas cookies and decorating them. Wish us luck!

Ritzies - A Christmas Tradition

Day 17 on our Advent calendar was to enjoy Ritzies so I decided to share this simple "recipe" with you in case you need a quick, tasty treat to snack on or give as gifts. Mom made these many times when I was growing up and I thought everyone had heard of them but apparently I was wrong, so here you go:

You only need three ingredients, 4 if you want to get festive:
Ritz crackers
chocolate almond bark
peanut butter
sprinkles are optional but very festive!

First, line a baking sheet with wax paper. It makes clean up a cinch. Then make little peanut butter sandwiches with your cracker, peanut butter, cracker.





Once they're all assembled, melt some almond bark. I used a little dish and put two cubes in at a time. A lot of people use a double broiler, but that's more mess and more dishes to clean so just microwave it. I do it for 30 second incriments, stirring between each until it's all melted.

While you're waiting for your chocolate to melt, grab a plastic fork. You are going to be amazed at this next tip so brace yourself.

Break the middle two tines off. Now you have your own fancy, chocolate dipper!



Back to the ritzies. Put a sandwich in the melted chocolate to coat one side.



Flip it over with your fancy dipping tool to coat the other side. Then scoop it up and tap a few times on the side of your dish to shake off some of that excess chocolate. It also makes the tops look all neat and tidy.



Lay it on your wax paper and repeat with the remaining sandwiches.

If you want to add sprinkles, just remember to sprinkle them before the chocolate sets. I made about 10 at a time, sprinkled, did 10 more, sprinkled and so on.



To make about 30 ritzies, I used 2 sleeves of ritz crackers, about 6 cubes almond bark and I have no clue how much peanut butter and it took about 30 minutes.

After you dip all your sandwiches, put the baking sheet in the fridge for about 5 minutes to set the chocolate then they are ready to eat.



These make cute, easy treats to give as gifts too.

Advent Calendar Week 2 Recap

Last week I posted days 1-7 our advent calendar activities. Here's week two.

go to Winterfest

I'll post week three on Thursday. Hope you're all having a great week before Christmas!

crazyjoy = sighting (revealed)

Just so you know, there's only 6 days left before Christmas! Are you ready!? I am so looking forward to celebrating with my family this year!

I'll have an update on our Advent calendar this week, but for now, it's time to reveal the crazyjoy challenge word photos for SIGHTING.

One of the activities on our calendar was to take Sweet P to see the lights at Rhema. If you're not familiar with Rhema, it's a local church that puts on one of the biggest (if not biggest) Christmas light displays in Oklahoma. It's pretty spectacular.

We haven't made it out the last few years but made the trip this year. So my photo was sighting the seasonal lights at Rhema.



Check out Anna's later.

If you want to join in the challenge, just submit a link below to your blog post with your picture. You have until Thursday at noon - Oklahoma time. Anna will post our favorite submission on Friday.





Have a great week!

crazyjoy =

Happy Friday!

The new crazyjoy challenge word is...



I've had some questions about how to join in the challenge so if you're interested, all you need to do is take a picture of your interpretation of the word (craft it, draw it, make it, find it, whatever you want), post about it on your blog and then submit your link on my post Monday. Anna and I will post our entry's Monday with the link tool but you have until Thursday afternoon to submit your link. Make sense? You can link up to the post on your blog if you want, not required though.

Anna and I alternate every week and announce our favorite entry each Friday so check both blogs in case one of us misses something.

Here's the rundown we post every week:

1. Think on the word, photograph it, draw it, make it, whatever you want to do to represent it
2. Come back Monday and I will post my and Anna's photo and you can link up through Thursday with your interpretation
3. Then check out Anna's blog on Friday where she will post our favorite entry and the new challenge word

 And last week's favorite entry for dark goes to Andy!

Now go out and have a great weekend, see some sights and come back and share your pictures!

Winterfest 2011

Or Embrace the Camera - Winterfest Edition (with Emily).

Or, How to Wear Out your Child

Any of those titles work for today's post.

The BOK Center, in downtown Tulsa, puts on Winterfest every year. I don't know how long they've been doing it but it's a pretty big hit. They have live music, an outdoor ice skating rink, food vendors and a gigantic Christmas tree. It's really pretty at night but it's also pretty fun during the day.

Last Saturday the weather was gorgeous so we took Sweet P down to check it out. So, this pregnant lady not going to ice skate, the husband has ice skated once and hated it and there was no way we were going to attempt getting a 16 month old to wear skates - if they even had her size!

So what do you do? Well, aside from people-watching and just being out and about?

You pose for some pictures and laugh when you come home to notice the wipe-out in the background...



You find the hill next to the stage with live music and have a dance party.





You get lots of kisses.



And you watch your husband and daughter run/slide up and down the giant hill until they're both about ready to collapse!



Oh, and don't forget about getting a family picture next to the gigantic Christmas tree!



You can find out more about it here.

Puppy Chow - A Christmas Snack Tradition

In yesterday's post I told you about our Advent calendar tradition. Well, one of the food-related doors we opened had a card for puppy chow. Have you had puppy chow? I'm sure just about everyone has. Have you made it? If not, the purpose of this post is to show you how easy it is. I'm pretty sure the recipe is quite standard but I've given it below in the event you don't feel like googling it.

Here's what you need:
9 cups - Crispix cereal
1 cup - chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate, not semi sweet)
1/2 cup - peanut butter
1 1/2 cups - powdered sugar

Don't you just love my festive measuring cups!? I do. Mom got them for me for holiday baking - thanks Mom!

Anyway, get a big pot - one that has high walls so you don't make a huge mess when you stir the cereal around - and melt the chocolate chips. Then add the peanut butter and stir until combined. Next, pour in the cereal and gently fold/stir until all the cereal is coated.

Get a big plastic bag, like a gallon bag or I just use a clean plastic shopping sack, and pour the powdered sugar in it. Then dump all the cereal in the bag, twist the top and give it a good several shakes, spins and rolls. Open it up and grab a couple warm little treats and eat them up. They are great with a glass of milk.

That's it! Once it's cooled, store in an airtight container our separate into little baggies and give as gifts.

Advent Week 1 in Review

We started an new  Christmas tradition last year with Sweet P and decided to continue it this year. We have an Advent calendar house-like-thing that has little door to open each night.



So we decided to fill each door with a variety of activities to do, Bible verses to read, movies to watch, songs to sing and dance to and food to eat to open each night.

Here's the first seven days:















I'm curious, what traditions do you have or Christmas treats you always make?