december via my iphone

i thought i would steal an idea from my friend brianne and post my phone pix from december. this way i will feel like i covered the high points anyway! :)

the first weekend in december we went to jacksonville to visit auntie jane and uncle bill. sassy joined us and we took a jaunt to the beach!
it was not too cold. for mikey anyway!




we had the whole place to ourselves!!! awesome


we let mikey draw faces on our shadows. i think he was being funny don't you!?

gotta love toes in the sand!!

december 15th we hosted our 2nd annual co-op cookie exchange. everyone brought cookies and munchies. it was such a nice day for the kids to run around and burn off all that sugar!



po is huge. almost as big as mikey. but nice and warm


i love our tree!! and yes it's artificial



mikey being mikey!



pecan pie baker extraordinaire



sassy was here for CHRISTmas and we made the best cookies ever!! instead of oreo truffles, she suggested using nutter butters. OMG!! they were fantastic!!! (note the cute apron she bought)



CHRISTmas eve at Next Level Church!! thank you Jesus for the gift of YOU and for this beautiful sunset!!




looks like Santa was hungry!


Legos from the Beans!


a Banjo from Sassy!



the worst thing about December was the loss of our sweet doggy zoe. she had not been doing well and went fast. it was hard to celebrate the season without her but we know she is in a better place. we love you zoe!



thank goodness we have these two nut jobs to keep our spirits lifted!


HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!! HOPE IT'S FILLED WITH LOVE AND LAUGHTER!!

it was a pinteresting kind of day...

so my pinterest addiction is slowing down i'm glad to say. (i'm guessing it's b/c of the CHRISTmas season) but i've still had all these ideas running around in my head. yesterday i took advantage of both of the kids having people over to play with to get some of them done.

this year i decided i was not going to buy any wrapping paper. i mean think about it. wrapping paper is trash. literally. you take it off package and throw it away. i have a bit left but i'll save it for my sister when she gets here. she always steals, uh i mean borrows my paper. i have been getting paper bags at the grocery store for a few months now. yesterday i opened them all up so i would be ready. and i bought a snowflake stamp and some green ink. here is the result not too shaby and i have some fun sharpie colors i'll put names on the presents with.

project #2 have you seen these? this is one of the first things i ever pinned. what a great idea. so i gathered my materials. and got to work. i didn't want a super long bookmark so i cut off the top 3 colors. i used a cute heart punch to make the hole for the string and used the extra colors as contrast hearts. looks pretty! but i didn't have any glue! what? so i had to use a glue stick of all things. but still turned out great! can't wait to give them as gifts.
still feeling crafty, i took out the pringles containers i had been saving. and i covered them with wrapping paper. (i had some scraps from last year) they will be used for the next project

ok here's the yummy stuff. (if you don't like peppermint, you won't be impressed) i made peppermint popcorn! oh man this stuff is so good! for 20+ years i have been making white trash for CHRISTmas. but it's kinda expensive to make and we are on a budget this year. so i found this recipe on pinterest and thought i'd try it. gathered my ingredients... and got to work! i have an air-popper and i put it to good use. made two big batches of corn. no added oil or salt. then i poured in half a bag of CHRISTmas m&m's. (that's my own addition) and i had a box of small candy canes. i processed them in the magic bullet type thing i have and made a fine dust with some bigger pieces left for texture and added color. melted one bag of white chocolate chips (i added 1Tbsp of oil to keep it smooth) in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each beep. here's where you have to work fast. i used a spoon and drizzled the chocolate over the popcorn/m&m mixture. then i would toss with two spoons and sprinkle with some candy cane dust. repeat until mixture is gone. i had to stick the chocolate back in the microwave once to melt it down again. toss, toss, and toss some more. then spread it on wax paper to dry. oh my so yummy!! i am going to put the peppermint popcorn into the covered pringles cans and give them as gifts!!

i have another project i did, but i can't post it. someone is getting it for CHRISTmas and she reads my blog!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!