Happy Birthday Colie

We celebrated Colie's birthday yesterday. It is so nice having them back in Georgia!! Everyone came over to my house and my Dad brought over his panini maker. Seriously...YUM!! Dinner was amazing! I bought all the fixings so that everyone could make their own sandwich. Then we lined them up in front of Dad and he made them all into perfection. :) After dinner we watched Colie open her presents and ended the night with dessert. Not a typical cake for Colie...she wanted that amazing pumpkin bread I wrote about a while back. Because the top had the yummy cinnamon topping on it, I could only fit in 6 candles. Colie was pretty happy. :)

 The girls made this for Colie...I drew the letters and they colored them in. 

 The food! It's seriously making me hungry again. :) 

 Colie and Nan

 Opening presents...one of her cool gifts was the entire Willow Tree Nativity set from Mom. 

 I gave Colie a funny card and when we all started laughing Natalie decided to start laughing too. Pretty cute kid! Then when I went to take a picture of Colie, Natalie leaned in. I don't know where she came from! :) 

Happy Birthday Colie!!

Little Artists

My brother got Natalie an easel for Christmas and we finally put it together. The girls love it! I bought Natalie some paints to use and had Heidi stick with the chalk. Then the next day while Natalie was at school I let Heidi have a turn. Natalie spilled blue paint and then Heidi spilled purple paint. On the carpet. One right after the other! You would think that a.) I wouldn't have put an easel on carpet and b.) I would have moved it after the first paint spill. Oh well...it's still on the carpet but the paints are put away. Yay for markers! At least they are washable. :) The good thing is that they both love to color and it occupies them for a long time. Natalie is really good too. 

 They can both color at the same time! So great!!

 Natalie is very focused!

 Her first work of art

 Heidi's turn painting

These two are Natalie's. The one on the left is with paint the one on the right is markers. I have to tell you though. While she was drawing the one on the right she was looking at stuff in our family room. Our ceiling fan, the clock, a lamp, our trash can and even an end table with my pink water bottle on it. I'm pretty impressed. 

 These are Heidi's. The one on the left is markers and the one on the left is paint. She likes H's...there are usually a few on everything she colors. :)

I also tried a cool thing on Natalie's hair that I found on pintrest. The link if you want to try it is here. Basically I put her hair in three buns and then had her sleep in it. It turned out so pretty! I really can't get over how much I love her hair curly. She wasn't in the mood to let me take her picture...she usually isn't. Here are a few that I was able to get. 

 Heidi wanted to have her picture taken so she put on Shane's beanie. I can't help it...I have adorable kids. :)

Addicted

I found a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread on this blog...Cook, Eat and Be Merry about 2 months ago. I've probably made it about 5 times....at least. It is AMAZING! It makes three loaves and I try to give two away. But the third one is all mine. I barely let Shane and the girls have a bite! I leave a knife on the pan and every time I walk by I pretty much slice off the tiniest of pieces. I really can't stop eating it. I made this loaf last night! I did give my girls a slice though so that makes me feel a little better. :) If you want the recipe, you can follow the link to the other blog. I just add one thing to make it my own. I butter the pans and then sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mix on it. Kinda like when you butter and flour a pan. Then when it's done baking, I add butter to the top, cover it with the same cinnamon/sugar mixture and throw it back in the oven to broil for a few minutes to make it all crunchy on top. Seriously to die for!! Make sure you watch it when you broil it though because it will burn quickly. (My Dad gets those!) Just watch it till it is bubbling and golden brown. Let me warn you though...if you decide to make it...you won't be able to stop eating it either!! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! Last night we spent the night in. We took the girls out for ice cream. We went to Baskin Robbins and they were closed. Not happy about that!! We ended up at Brewsters and had to eat outside in the freezing cold. The girls didn't care though. I bought them noise makers this year and when we got home they ran around the house being loud and crazy.  We put them to bed and thankfully they are really sound sleepers cause we had fireworks going off in our neighborhood all night! Dane, Renita and Gracie brought over pizza and we spent New Years Eve together. Gracie watched tv while we played cards. Such a fun night! At midnight we all had our champagne and Dane and Gracie had sparkling cider...Dane was driving. :) We played another round of cards and then went to bed. Way too late for me!! I was soo tired this morning! Although I did take an amazing two hour nap today....heaven!! We spent today at my parents house watching football. No one makes football food better than my parents! 

 Playing with my new iphone 4s...thank you Santa!!

  

The girls with their favorite flavors...vanilla for Heidi and Strawberry for Natalie

  

 Gracie's spot for the evening

 Playing cards...that's my kinda fun :)

 Cheers!! Happy New Year!

 Trying to be artistic. :) I just thought it looked pretty. 

Me and Gracie