A Child is Born

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." 2 Nephi 19:6
Wishing all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I am taking this time off to spend with family, friends and those I love in remembering the real reason for the season.

(Be seeing you in 2009.)

"I"

Heather at This is the day... had a great idea: post a comment on her site saying you want to play along and she would send you a letter, then you get to list ten of your favorite things beginning with your assigned letter and what letter did she give me, ...."I".

So here we go.........

1) Idealistic. Sometimes my head is in the clouds, but I also know when it is time to get to work and make things happen.

2) IHOP. Do I need to say anymore about the kids eat free after 4pm? Didn't think so.

3) Intelligence. Yes, I know that most days I am teetering on the edge of stupidity, but I do have moments of brilliance.

4) Intuition. Once I became a mom I really learned to rely on the gut feeling and it has never steered me wrong.

5) Identity. I feel that I have a strong sense of who I am, my purpose in life, that I matter to many people and that I can make a difference.

6) Imagination. I love that I dream, I create, I see beauty in ordinary things, and that I have passed that desire/trait on to my kids.

7) Infinite. I have much love for my family, loyalty is something that I treasure and the love that I feel for my family is something I want to be infinite.

8) Irreplaceable. There are so many moments in my life that I treasure; the day I married my husband, the days my kids were born, these moments are what keep me going, I want a life filled with them.

9) Influence. I try to be a influence for good in all things. I want to know that in some small way, I made a difference.
10) Internet. The one thing that can bring the world together, help make and keep friends and help with all that homework....."Let's go Google it?"

Gingerbread Cookies Try-It-Tuesday

I have had alot of you ask for the recipe to make all these lovely Gingerbread Cookies and they are wonderful, as long as you do a few tricks! So here we go....Gingerbread Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

3 1/2 cup flours

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cloves

1/3 cup water

Cream butter and sugar thoroughly - takes about 3 minutes. Beat in molasses and water. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Dough should be still sticky but smooth and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Place in a greased bowl and chill overnight. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 1/2 inch thickness (very important to keep them thick) and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes, just till they start to crack. Cook longer if you like brickettes instead of cookies. Let cool completely.

Frosting
1 16 oz pkg powdered sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

3 egg whites at room temperature (very important to be at room temp.)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients until smooth, if it is too dry add a drop or two of water till it is nice consistency. Icing dries very quickly so keep covered with a damp cloth. I usually place some in a ziploc baggy and cut of the end and just squeeze it out all over the cookies and decorate with your favorite goodies. If you make the frosting a little less stiff by adding more water it does not dry to rock hard - break a tooth- consistency. You will have plenty of frosting so goop it on.

Store them in a covered container and they will remain soft for weeks. I have never had any remain around that long but they stay good for a while.

Enjoy!!!

Blog tags

I love that I can find out what people are Googling and then coming to see me under. However, I can not understand the appeal of a certain post that seems to be of particular interest to many bloggers from around the world, "Bill the Cat". I did this post and used that particular character to capture the intense sickness that I was enduring at that time, little did I know that he had such a following.

So what phrase do you get the most hits from?

Thank you High Schoolers

It was a bad day at school for the Sweet-boy. Seems that some of the kids think that it is funny to tell on him after every recess. So today when they all came in after recess and started telling the teacher that he had hit them, she questioned how that could be when he had been in the class the whole recess with her. Turns out that they all thought that it was a great game to play, called getting SB in trouble. Let me just tell you that I have a zero tolerance for bullying, especially when it is my kids. So when he came home he was really sad - I do not blame him. But, luckily we did have something to look forward to, a local High School DECA and FBLA group had organized a "Read with Santa" event and 50 lucky kids from the district got to attend and Sweet-boy was one of them.

We arrived at the school and got signed in and then the anticipation for Santa to arrive and get this party going started. Sweet-boy led the cheering and he was so excited I thought that he would just burst. He was the first one to sit on Santa's lap and when Santa was going on about the cookies that Mrs. Clause was baking SB said, " Yeah, yeah, now I am going to tell you what I want for Christmas." To which the Santa replied, "Oh, yeah?!" I about bust a gut laughing over that one.

(sorry the pictures are blurry they are from my phone)

They broke the kids out into groups and all the centers involved doing something that in the end you got to eat something that contained at least 50% sugar.

Cookies and Chocolate Milk - Sugar!

Writing letters to Santa, then you got a candy cane and a pencil.

Candy Cane - sugar, pencil - not edible.

Then they took the kids to the school library where they got to read with a reading buddy.

Sweet-boy picked out his reading buddy cause he had yellow hair too. He also told me that he thought that was what he would look like when he was a big kid - maybe?

In the end the kids got a stocking bigger than them, stuffed with books, candy, a t-shirt, a stuffed animal, and a fleece blanket that the big kids had tied. But in the end, I got a kid that felt great about himself. He got to have fun, to be himself and the older kids all knew his name at the end of the night. He was the sweet-boy that I get to love and enjoy each and everyday.

What a great night!!!!

Decking the Halls

Over Thanksgiving Holiday, Sweet-boy could not wait to get our house festive for December. He gets so excited and can hardly wait to get out the lights. I think it has something to do with the fact that when he was a small boy he would get a strand of lights to run around the house with, plugging in here, stringing there, so he loves it when that box comes out. (I know what a great mom that I gave a 1 year old something to stick in the outlets and drag around the house and still encourage each year.)

The kids love to decorate their tree with all the many ornaments that we have gathered throughout the years. My favorite is the picture frame ones of them from baby to current year that we have on the tree. I love to see how they have changed each year to remember how fast time flies and that I need to enjoy each and every minute.

So we began the task of decorating the tree.

Then the ceremonial placing of the stockings and the kids pictures with Santa. For another great story about the Santa pictures click here.

We take a break to make gingerbread cookies and get that sugar buzz going.The last and most important of all the decorating comes next, the wreathing of my car.

Yes, I put a wreath on my car and not just any wreath, a light strung, ribbon embelished, berry wearing wreath. Everyone gives me a hard time but I love it, kinda my signature thing during the Christmas Season. Plus, I love that when I drive around people smile as I drive by, I am spreading some holiday cheer.

(Doesn't my car look like it is smiling?)

Merry Christmas from my home of chaos to yours.

Back by Popular Demand

After the give-away and in the comments it was mentioned that some of you really enjoyed these posts.

So without much ado I give you -

I need help

And

Beauty School Mess up

And

My Secret Terror

Let me just warn you that these are not my proudest moments, but I share them so that others can learn from my horror or experiences.

Enjoy!!!

And the Winner is???

I want to thank everyone that came over to comment and share the fun of celebrating my 150th post. So without further ado, the winner selected in the most highly-technically advanced method is:

My lovely assistants' grabbing a hand written name out of the brown paper bag.

And the grand prize winner is.............

I will be contacting you via e-mail to get your snail mail address. If for any reason she does not want to receive her gift we have selected alternative winners.

Do you want to see what Elena won, of course you do. A wonderful Scentzy Kitchen/Bathroom light and scents to go along with it, this Christmas plaque and some yummy milk chocolate mint sandwiches. Thank you to everyone that participated. I had so much fun doing this and learning that my favorite posts are yours too, so join me December 8th for a re-post of the top requested posts: Beauty School Mess Up, I Need Help and My Secret Terror.

Merry Christmas!

The Comments are Closed.

Okay, it is time for me to close the comments section on my 150th post and draw a name. Thank you to all that came and played and check tomorrow for the big winner!!!

My 150th Post Give-Away

It's a Give-Away!!!!

I cannot believe that it has been 150 posts since I started this whole blogging thing. I look back and boy did I not have any idea what I was doing, but you have all been so kind to let me know how to upload things, where to find the HTML screen and been so kind on your comments when I know that I have spelled things terribly wrong. In the end you shared the ups and downs of my life with me and I want to give a little love back. So leave me a comment on this post on what you have enjoyed most about my blog, comments that I might have made on yours or anything that you want to share that you have enjoyed while visiting this house of chaos. I will leave this post up for 5 days and on Friday we will have a drawing for something really nice and random that you will win.

So comment away, comment often and may the best commentor win.....

Who doesn't love a little gift and early too!

♥♥♥A special thanks to Debbie at Blog Around the World for the shout out!♥♥♥