Christmas Cookies.

You may be wondering why I am only just now blogging about Christmas cookies. Well, it's because I'm late. I've had other more important things to post such as 2 year pictures, and besides my Christmas cookies that I thought were santa's turned out to really be pumpkins. What humliation! It's taken me a long time to get over it. Now that it's a new year and all, I'm looking up and forward. So I can post about humiliating things that have happened in the past. Such as thinking the cookie cutter was a santa head, when come to find out, it was a pumpkin! Guess you'll just have to take a look at these mighty tasty cookies that we didn't eat to find out...

See, if you turn the pumpkin VERTICAL it looks like a Santa face, and the stem of the pumpkin is part of his hat. But if the Santa is turned HORIZONTAL you can definately tell that santa is really not a santa at all, but instead a halloween decorative cookie cutter pumpkin. How was I to know? The candy canes kept falling apart! And stars? How are stars Christmas-y? Well, except for the one great star that shone bright for the shepherds to find Jesus. But that was not a cookie star.

Anyway, most of these cookies did not get eaten. I think they were too flour-y tasting. I did use a recipe I had from a cookie cookbook. I'm guessing the cook author likes flour. Or maybe the editor made a typo

At any rate, today is a snow day. The community in which I work is all out playing while I'm inside writing about cookies. I could be at home, in my bed, in my pj's, (will someone please send a letter to my office stating that wearing pj's to work on snow days can actually increase production?) and reading a good book while drinking Starbucks Pepperming Mocha. With whipped cream. Full fat. On a side note, actually this whole post is a side note, I had a coupon for a free skinny latte. So I tried one. Hated it. Give me all the fat you can pack into that cup! That should be one of the quotes they put on the back of their cup. I think that's all I have to say for today. Lucky you. Let's see what Dawson was doing on cookie day...

2 Year Pictures

God has really blessed us! Our friend Steph (you can find her about 2 posts back) works at Celebrity Kids. It's a really nice portrait studio. They are currently in the process of moving from their current location to a new building. Because of this, they needed some helpers. So Steph asked Jason if he would help her husband Josh do some work at the studio for the move. In exchange, they would do FREE pictures for us!! And the following pictures are the result of that wonderful exchange! ...

The next picture is my all-time favorite in the whole wide world...
Same one in sepia...This is the 11 x 14 we have for our home portrait to hang up
Aren't they amazing?! This is a little plug for Celebrity Kids-they do an awesome job! They also use photshop, which is a huge difference between the quality we have seen from the pictures we paid for from places like Sears and J.C. Penney.
We have LOTS of prints. These pictures are not print quality because they are low resolution, so if there are any in particular that you really want, just leave a comment and let us know and if we don't have that one in print, or in the size you want, we will just order it from Steph. We have a few that we want to order ourselves. And I don't think individual prints are that expensive. We have lots of wallets, and the next size up is 5x7.
Enjoy!

Friends Are Friends Forever...

Just wanting to post some pics of our friends. Thought they'd feel special seeing their smiling peeps on the blog you know.

This is Josh and Steph. Josh works with Jason. We are going to California with them in February.

Here's Ashley and Andrew. I work with both of them. In a round-about way.

Neither of these guys have a baby yet. And becaues of this reason...Both of whom we've suckered into babysitting Dawson for us at one time or another. ha!

Ashley and Andrew were just over a few weekends ago. When Dawson decided he was going to copy everything Jason and I were doing...

Isn't he funny? He's saying so many more new things now. He loves bebast! (breakfast).

Oh! And I wanted to finally get the story straight about his little accident he had last week. I got the right version now. Which is nothing like the original in all it's chaotic content.

His class was playing in the gym. Dawson was playing right behind the teacher and she didn't know it. She saw Hailey (another toddler in the class) running toward her and she said "Hailey, I bet you can't get me", and she started running backward... then... *bam*... down went Dawson. So that's the story. I don't know how the other one got misconstrued but it must have been handed down from generations that way.

What do YOU do?

When it's cold outside...

This is what we do.

Because we get bored.

Believe it or not, Dawson put the underwear on his own head!

Dawson Update:

I went into panic mode today while at work because I had been worried about Dawson and the fact that his nasal passages were occluded. (Can you tell I've been reading too much?) I called Jason up, and I cried "What if Dawson has a septal hematoma?" *sob, sob, sob. He's thinking "what?" But he tells me it's okay and if I really want to take Dawson to Redi-Med and have him looked at, go ahead, to at least calm my fears and stop my tears. So I did. In we go and I pour out my heart to the poor nurse who's just trying to take Dawson's temperature. (He had no temperature by the way). Then the doctor comes in and takes a look at him. Dawson wouldn't let him look up his nose while he was sitting on my lap so I had to make him lay on the patient table. Begin the screams and tears and thrashing. (By Dawson, not by me). Soon enough the doctor was done and said his nose is just swollen, but there's no hematoma and his difficulty breathing is most likely sickness which looks viral so just keep doing what we're doing! Run-on sentence!

And I nearly had a breakdown right there in the doctor's office because I was so relieved. Amazing how much ease of mind and heart you can get just by hearing a doctor say "he's fine".

He does have a black eye though. But it's not occluded. Because that's not possible.

FINITO!

I wanted to post good news since the story of Dawson's recent misfortune was such a bummer. So here is the good news: We finished decorating Dawson's room! Hip-Hip Hooray! I'm actually quite excited about the turn out because for two parents who don't watch HGTV and are clueless about the ways of decorating.... I think it turned out looking pretty good!

Here's the before. I did some without flash because even though I'm not a photographer I feel that gives you the reality of the coloring in a shot. Listen to that! Can someone publish that?

So Here's a large before shot (without color diffusing flash) and then a couple more smaller pics from other parts of the room.

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for.... THE REVEAL (cue applause)

We thought it would turn it pretty hodge-podge but after we got done, I thought it all pulled together real nicely! We used the leftovers of the blue paint to paint his letters on the wall and his bookshelf and we found the car decals and pictures at Target and Hobby Lobby. A decorator has to LOVE Hobby Lobby. We got everything 50% off! Now I would just like to find curtains...

I'll give you an update on Dawson real quick while I'm at it- When I got home from Bible Study last night Jason had already put Dawson to bed (after fighting him with decongestant drops and motrin). He slept until about midnight and we did another round of drops. That poor nose is really clogged! When I left this morning at 7:00 he was still asleep! He made it through the night from midnight till 7:30. Thanks to all of you who love Dawson and have been praying for him!

The Phone Call.

Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. I received a phone call at work from Jan, Dawson's daycare supervisor.

Dawson had an accident in the gym. He had fallen and cracked his head pretty hard on the gym floor and he was pretty banged up.And there were lots and lots of tears. It wasn't serious but I should try and come and get him if I could. So I left immediately. When I got there, he was in the infant room and he wasn't crying but he was being changed. One teacher guarded him so he couldn't see me yet until he finished getting changed, for fear that he would have a breakdown so I told them I would go down to his classroom to get his things. When I returned Dawson was sobbing and sobbing and they said he had heard my voice. When I saw his little face my heart just broke! He had gym floor burns on his forehead, his nose was swollen and bleeding and his lip was swollen. He calmed down as soon as I took him. He was silent the whole car road home until I said Mommy take you home and we'll watch cars. Then the rest of the car ride he repeated over and over "watch cars" "watch cars" except it sounded like he was pinching his nose when he spoke because his nose was so swollen and he couldn't breathe from his nose. We got home and I tried to clean him up the best I could. We laid down and watched cars. Then daddy got home. He was as upset as I was. He asked what happened and all I can remember from the chaos was that Dawson was playing in the gym and he and two other toddlers were running around. The one little girl, Kelsey, fell and Dawson tripped over her.

Now that story might change. Like I said, it was real chaotic when she was telling me what happened. And I also remember her saying she didn't see it all. So now, daddy mommy, and Dawson all laid down and watched cars together. When it neared bedtime he got a bath, and he was laughing and playing with his bath toys. (how sad! a happy little gimp!) And we knew bedtime was going to be a real trial, because the kicker is, he's also sick! I had to stay home with him on Monday because he was miserable. He's been real clingy and whiny and now we were adding pain to that. Poor baby! Needless to say, he didn't sleep very well through the night. He kept waking up coughing and crying and Jason and I were up and down with him. At 4 a.m. this morning, he wouldn't quit crying so I went and got him and we had to force him to take some motrin. We put him in bed with us and by 5:30 he fell asleep. Just in time for my alarm to go off at 6:00 so I could hop in the shower to get ready for work. Jason is home with Dawson today. I just called home and Dawson is laying in our bed.... watching cars...

Smiling's My Favorite

In order to honor the request of my sister, Boppity Jean, I am going to make this blog more anonymous by using fake names and going back to my original blog title. My sister is afraid of those with questionable mental health happening upon this blog and stalking or killing my family. I wonder what constitutes stalk value in a person? Anyway Boppity, I’m doing this for you…

 

THE LURKERS.

Just before Christmas some friends of ours called and wanted to come over and bring Jim’s pizza.

 This is a picture of Jim’s pizza after being nearly completely devoured. Jim’s pizza is a delicacy. Known only to those few who have had the pleasure of living in, or near, Jollyville Indiana where we are all from. Which is why we feasted on this greasy monstrosity with our friends, the lurkers when they came over. These friends of ours are great.

But they are LURKERS. Well.. used to be. And I told them so myself when they came…

See, they openly confessed to reading this blog but never posting any comments. *gulp* I know. That was my reaction too. So I picked on them the whole night and called them lurkers. Now all that has changed. Because not too long after that I was reading the comments on my blog and found this:

-The male side of the lurkers said…

I hope you and your family had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We wish we could’ve hung out with you, but we couldn’t find the time as were continuously on the go! Thanks for hanging out with a couple of weeks ago! –The Two Lurkers

And this:

-The femaile side of the lurkers said…

Here is my buckeye recipe, although yours were delicious! 4c powdered sugar, 1tsp vanilla, 1 and ½ c creamy peanut butter, ½ c margarine; mix well and roll into balls. 6oz choco chips, 2 Tb solid shortening; melt together and dip balls into it with a toothpick. Cool and store. Hope you had a great Christmas!!—The Two Lurkers

Aha! Thoroughly ashamed of their lurking status, they rose to the occasion! Great job guys!

And this is how we have been able to remain associated with our friends, the lurkers.