Avocado Heaven

If you love avocados you will LOVE this!! It uses a puff pastry sheet from the freezer section, fill it with avacado and cream cheese (a perfect pair) and top it with salsa. The possiblities are endless for changing up this tasty treat, you could do crab rangoon version and so many more. Check out the recipe here.

Is heaven glittery?

Our morning and evening drives home are always interesting. Recently I've heard Madelyn say, "Lady Gaga has pink hair." Well, I'm not sure how you know that but okay sometimes she does have pink hair. Five minutes later she followed up with,"How does God know how much breast to give us?" Shoot me now!!


This morning proved to be just as entertaining!


Madelyn: "Mom, is heaven glittery?"


Me: "I think heaven is the most beautiful place ever but I've never seen it myself."


Madelyn: "Maybe there is glitter everywhere!"


Me: "I hope you are right. Do you know how people get to heaven?"


Madelyn: "You get buried, then they put a rock on top, then you go in a cloud and zoom up in the sky, then God gives you a special drink."

Me: "That sounds about right!"

I love our time in the car, I learn so many interesting things!

Wordless Wednesday

Bliss

Can you see the MADELYN at the top??!! She writes it everywhere and I can't get enough!

Sleepy Saturday

Super tired! (By the way, that's a purse strap around her neck and shoulder)

Learning

Check out the desk that is now housed in our kitchen. It was mine, from a bazillion years ago! It's been collecting dust in our basement for a while now. For several months Madelyn has been making little booklets with letters, words, and pictures. She as overtaken the stapler and tape dispencer as her own. So we thought it was time to dig out the desk. And she loves it, and we love seeing her little feet dangle off the ground to sit at her desk! This mommy certainly loves all the fun "teacher" activities that will be in our near future!

Christmas Photoshoot

Experience the photoshop below...

Me: "Seriously babe, just one good picture, I don't ask much!"

He pulled it together finally!

Finishing up Christmas

Matt's family came to celebrate at our house later on Christmas Day. We sat down for a simple lunch and then some little girl I know was dying to open more presents! We all sat down to unwrap but for some reason this year instead of everyone taking turns unwrapping one at a time and having the opportunity to chat about the gift, we all opened everything at the same time. So it was a struggle for me to keep up with the camera! Example below, no one noticing the Ken is opening the KU wine glasses Matt was so excited he found for them.

Little Miss with some new crayons, yeah, she loves writing and drawing!




A new family photo for great grandpa.

Cheese!

Our little helper into everyone's gifts too!

And a fancy new dress for the American Girl Doll!

Christmas was amazing this year! We were blessed to have extended time with lots of family and see friends that we haven't got to spend time with for a while. Matt and I squeezed in a date night and we've had tons of fun playing several new games Madelyn received. We hope your holidays were filled with happiness as well!

Christmas Eve and Day

We continued on with our Christmas Eve tradition of allowing Madelyn to open just one present early. I think she's catching on that it is always new pajamas. Since this girl is in love with Ariel we had to have pajamas covered with the little mermaid!

Then we were sure to set out milk and cookies for Santa!

And of course, reindeer food and carrots for the reindeer.Then we headed out to look at lights, can you tell she is EXCITED! I love this picture! It definitely shows the fun that Christmas is with little ones.We packed the car with snackies and warm drinks. Hot chocolate for Madelyn and coffee for the rest of us so we could stay awake for 10:00 Christmas Eve service. Madelyn fell asleep about half way through the service but that's okay we had fun with the kids all in pjs and singing carols by candlelight. This year we've really been trying to amp up the real reason for Christmas with Madelyn. Which means we endured countless questions from her constantly and even tears anytime she would get sad that Jesus died.

On our way home from church we saw two "reindeer" cross the road right in front of our car about three houses down from ours. So we told Madelyn that the reindeer were probably looking for the next house and that we needed to hurry up and go to sleep so Santa could come. It worked perfectly!!

Christmas morning she slept in until 7:30ish and then we got up and crept down the hallway to see if the goodies were gone. Then she needed to see if the reindeer food was gone to. And finally to see if Santa came. The American Girl Doll is a hit!! She loves, loves, loves playing with it, dressing it up, reading to it, and dragging it pretty much everywhere!Matt opening up a new brown suit jacket and pants.
This man has been talking about getting into hunting for years, yes years. But he really never found the time for it. So I decided it was time for him. I walked myself into Bass Pro shop feeling pretty good that I could get some type of hunting gear that he would need, ya know, since I grew up with several family member hunting. Boy was I wrong. I quickly found out that I had know idea what I was doing or what were the most needed items. I did end up with a couple of generic hunting items that are hopefully helpful!

Christmas is always fun for me. I become an investigator, present shaker, spouse quizzer, child briber. And it rarely works for me. Especially this year! I really thought that I was getting clothes from Matt and Madelyn. Actually I was sure I was getting clothes which I was excited about. So I unwrapped the sweater box and was instantly confused when I saw Madelyn's pink tee ball glove staring at me. Hmm... Is this a trip to a baseball game? Then I picked it up and out fell a little black box. Okay... I hadn't anticipated that. I was speechless when I opened it to find a new ring with chocolate diamonds and strawberry gold. I couldn't believe he could pull that off without me knowing a single thing about it!
Matt visited the dollar store and picked up junk, I mean, a few gifts for Madelyn's stocking. A whoppie cushion and duck whistle are a hit at our house. In fact the whoppie cushion already blew out the side due to frequent use!

One more Christmas post coming soon!

Christmas Celebration 1

Here's the first of the Christmas posts. Actually, I had really good intentions of getting these all done before the new year but that didn't quite work out so here goes...


Bart and Courtney hosted my family's Christmas celebration and we had an awesome time! Lots of yummy snacks, desserts,and an awesome stuffed pork tenderloin were enjoyed by all.

This little girl couldn't wait to start opening presents since it was the first of several Christmas' and she loved helping everyone open their gifts. My mom opening her new fun overnight bag.

A jazzy new outfit.

Matt opening a new electric smoker, yeah! FYI- He has smoked meat for us the past two weekends which means I don't have to cook, yeah!

Mr. Fluffy, who now sleeps on her bed, under the covers.

Bart and Matt both also got remote control helicopters which provided our afternoon entertainment!

And it was zhu zhu pet city after opening, trying to put together all the little pieces, castles, cages, and carriages they come with, thank goodness for her Aunt and Uncle!

Let's play!

Who is more entertained, the four year old or the thirty four year old?

More Christmas to come soon...

Winter Break

Christmas break is for decorating sugar cookies, making candies and chocolates, and eating lots of yummy food.

Christmas break is also for making forts...


that stay up for days...

and days...

Although break is almost over we had a wonderful time enjoying lots of family and friends. Madelyn and I also did what girls do best, shop and do nails! Pictures of Christmas coming soon!