Across the sky and down from heaven, that's the way we make a 7

Ella's long-awaited birthday PaRtY was last weekend. She was such a sweetie and was really patient and understanding with Mommy's inability to pull off another birthday bash in December. We of course celebrated on her official birthday, but I know she's been anxious and excited to have a party with her girlfriends. That's right, we ushered in a new era by having the 1st ever all girls party. We decided on a party at Polka Dot Pottery, which was also a new thing for us because we've never celebrated the kids' birthdays away from home. But it was really FuN! I tried to think of a theme that encorporated her wintery birthday and painting so...I made snowy mitten invitations and had the pottery place set aside mugs for the girls to paint. The favors revolved around the stay cozy theme***cupcake socks, glittery snowman lipgloss, and hot cocoa, cider and marshmallows to enjoy in the mugs they painted, and some other little treats. Ella was in rare form all day, half stinker, half SwEEt hEaRt. She was embarassed of me because I thought one of her friends was in 2nd grade so I got the "oh Mom" look, which was another first. She giggled, said a couple of potty words which inspired giggles from her friends and glares from me. It was really fun to watch her interact with her girlfriends, and bittersweet to realize how much she's grown and changed. We had lots of snacks, sparkly pink lemonade, brownies, ice cream and cake. I didn't feel any creative juices flowing so I just recreated the same pink and white cake I'd made for her "real" birthday, but made some white chocolate snowflakes ** as a special, wintery touch. And speaking of cake, this cake was a nightmare! Let's just say this isn't my first rodeo, I bake ALL THE TIME! But I've never, ever had a cake crack before, especially after I frosted it! I came up from the basement after watching a Friday night movie with the kids and the pink cake was showing through the yummy, cream cheese icing  ~ it was cracking all over the top, no!!!! It was already decorated so I did my best to patch it and then I prayed. I seriously prayed for that cake, another first. I was so nervous to see what it looked like in the morning, but against the odds, my poor, wounded, birthday confection had survived the night. Now if I can just get it to Polka Dot Pottery in one piece....thank goodness it made it! And the rest is history. It was a special day for my special girl.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day

I used to force bulbs indoors during winter, but haven't in the last few years. I love the thought of something blooming inside when it's cold and snowy outside. I found a beautiful pot on sale and it came with soil and amaryllis bulbs. It was orginally 30 dollars and I got it for 7, what a deal! And the best part is that it actually bloomed! The flowers are a beautiful, rich, red color ~ perfect for Valentine's Day, and a perfect splash of sunshine on these cloudy days.

Blog to Book

This blog has taken the place of scrapbooking for now, which is kinda sad because I miss the creative outlet. But I can at least console myself that I have the memories preserved in black and white, even if it doesn't have buttons, great paper, ribbons, brads, rub-ons, stamps, paint, ink-rubbed edges...But having all of these memories and pictures on a computer freaks me out. Computers do weird stuff, so what if something happened and *poof *, it was all gone?! I have nightmares that all of these precious memories will get lost in cyberspace (I don't really have nightmares about it, but it sounds dramatic, which is what I was going for). So Iooked into getting my blog printed into a book a few months ago, but have been putting it off, until... I was on the blogger help page trying to figure out why my text color and font wouldn't change, and I saw a few people commenting that their blogs had been deleted! Noooo! I told Todd it was 70 bucks to print out just one year, and I thought he would laugh at me for spending that much. But he was actually more excited about it than I was! He really thinks our kids will treasure this someday, and I think he's right. He said "can you imagine if our parents had written down all the cute things we said, how they felt about us, where we lived, what our yard and house looked like, who we played with..." Boy, if I didn't know better I'd say that sounds sentimental:)

Oh, and here's my 2 cents about it. It's basic, super basic. The pictures aren't as big as I thought they'd be. I of course was expecting options to change the color of the text, you  know, maybe chocolate brown and pumpkin, or turquoise and coral, or that it would print out the fun fonts I've used. Nope. It's black and the post headers are blue (seriously, that's the best they could come up with?). I got the soft-back cover, it's an extra 10 bucks to do hard-back and I wanted to see how it turned out before spending even more money on this thing. Over all, it's great because it's your blog, in a book, how cool is that?!

Happy Birthday Papa!

The kids wanted to say HaPpY BiRtHdAy to their Papa! I would say something sweet about him, but since he set his ring-tone to play the "Oompa-Loompa" song when I call, I think I'll pass. I called to wish him a happy birthday today and he was laughing when he picked up. "I'm with a bunch of guys, that ring-tone cracks everybody up!" Glad you could have a laugh at my expense (this is definitely not the 1st time), I'm not short, I'm just fun-sized. I love you Dad, but you're a pill.
Dad, don't forget to pause the music on the bottom of the blog so you can hear your birthday greeting. I know you're technologically challenged, so I just wanted to help you out a bit. 

You know what they say about guys with really big feet...

...really big shoes:)

Miracles... believe in them

Those of you that have been praying for sweet baby Ella and following her progress will be amazed, shocked, grateful, hopeful - you just won't believe it...Looks like she will be going home. There was literally no chance she'd survive the heart condition that led to her premature delivery, no chance that she'd make it without God's healing touch. What a miracle, honestly there is no other word for it.

Movie Night

When the weekend rolls around and it's Movie Night, pOpCoRn is definitely mandatory, but Movie MuNcH takes it to a whole new level. My friend Erin gave me this recipe, she said someone brought it to their Block Party and everyone loved it and asked for the recipe. She was right, it's a hit! Be careful though, it's one of those things you just can't stop eating even if you try really, really hard. I'll give you the original recipe, and then in {brackets} I'll tell you the way I tweak it a bit for my tastebuds.

Movie Munch:

1 bag microwave, buttered popcorn, or you can make it with your popper and butter it

1-2 TB peanut butter {since Dawson is allergic to peanuts, I omit it for his portion, or you can use almond or cashew butter}

1-12 oz package white chocolate chips

1 cup Cheerios {I like broken up pretzel rods}

2/3 cup M&M's

{I also add 1/4 cup chopped salted cashews sometimes}

Once popcorn is prepared, melt white chocolate in a double broiler or on low power in the microwave, stirring often so it doesn't seize up. Add the peanut butter to the melted chocolate, stir until smooth. Add Cheerios {or pretzels} to the popcorn, pour white chocolate mixture over and stir gently, removing unpopped kernels if you see them. Add M&M's {and cashews} and toss gently. Lay out on a parchment lined cookie sheet to cool in the refrigerator for about an hour. Break up into clusters. YuMmY!

Couch Tator-Tots, enjoying some moments of vegetation

Some images are disturbing, viewer discretion advised

Ella doesn't get to have bUbbLe baths very often because of Dawson's skin, he has all sorts of rules about soap and suds. She was tired after her 1st day back to school after break, and she worked really hard practicing piano, so I told her I'd get her a nice, warm BuBbLe bath ready ~ all to herself. So I got her in and sat with her so we could visit. She put BuBbLeS all over her face and started making these hilarious, horrifying faces. I was laughing so hard there were tears streaming down my face. It was kinda creepy how much the bUbbLeS changed the structure of her face, it's like she'd been transformed by a make-up artist for a movie. Plus those fangs added just the right touch, it freaked me out! I don't know how such a pretty little girl can wind up looking like a deranged werewolf just from a bath. I'm telling you, she could be in one of the Twilight movies, either as a school-aged vampire or a werewolf in training.

Rise and Shine!

Ella's been having a tough time getting up in the morning, and let me assure you, this is a new development. She's been waking up bright and early, chipper as can be, since she was a baby. And she has good company in the morning, our other jovial Ruffling, Charlie. Unfortunately, they don't need a lot of sleep, therefore I don't get much either. But she's been dragging in the morning - you know how it is in the winter, it's cold outside but your bed is all warm and cozy, it's still dark outside in the morning, no sunshine to ease you into the day. Makes it tough to just roll outta bed with a spring in your step. So after a couple of days of waking her up for school only to find that a complete grump had replaced my cheerful chatterbox, I thought I'd let Charlie do the dirty work. It was so cute, I laid him on her chest and she slowly opened her eyes, smiled, wrapped her arms around him and let her heavy eyelids find a few more moments of peaceful rest. A rare, quiet moment for these 2 spark plugs, and just what my heart needed to start the day off right. And by the way, isn't she {beautiful}?

I break for Christmas!

Here are some pictures of our little Holiday hiatus! I know it's kinda weird to be posting pictures of Santa and hoLLy, jOllY Christmasy things in January, but I didn't want to jumble all of these pictures up with the ones from Christmas day. Our little Christmas vacation was so FuN! We looked at Christmas lights, we had pizza at Flying Goat 3 times, we went on night-time walks in the snow. We 4-wheeled, sledded, played dress-up, baked cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, cupcakes, pecan bars, brownies...The kids had pretend birthday sundaes, candles and all (apparently we don't have enough real birthdays in December), the kids wore Daddy out, and Mommy felt rested and relaxed with Daddy's help:) We did our advent box, celebrating and remembering Jesus IS Christmas. We saw Santa when he came by our house with the Fire Dept. Dawson was worried so he changed his mind over and over about going outside to meet him, and peeking out the window in between going in and out. Santa wound up being a bit of a pervert which was hilarious and disturbing all at the same time. Ella had her 1st sleep-over and rung in the New Year with her favorite girl, Olivia. We watched The Grinch and Polar Express way too many times, played in the snow almost every day, had dinner with our besties, stayed up really late (even though the kids unfortunately don't care that it's Christmas break and wake up too early). Todd killed things on the X-Box, I sewed and watched girl TV. It was blissful to have our little (okay, medium-sized) family all huddled together in the house for the most MaGiCaL time of year.