Christmas Cookies

I went back and forth whether I wanted to make Christmas cookies this year because things have been so insane, but then thought to myself things are always busy and we needed to make them. I really loved the recipe we used last year but thought we would try a different one this year.

We used the recipe from Gavin and Co for her grandma's sugar cookies. They were pretty yummy and I know Kinley had a blast decorating them. I am pretty certain she ate more of the decorations than she put on the cookies, but that is what it is all about! At one point she dipped her finger in the frosting and said, "Mommy this is yummy!" Yes honey it is yummy, it is pure sugar. This is probably the only time of year I will let her eat this much sugar. She really isn't a sugar girl so it is perfect.

I thought having the dough sit in the fridge would be a pain in the butt to role out but honestly it was so much better when it was cold. The second it got warm I could not get the shapes off the counter; so cold dough is the way to go. The only suggestion I have is when you are getting ready to roll the dough out put a decent amount of flour on the counter, the roller and and the cookie cutters. It made it so much easier to have everything floured (is that a word).

We had such a great time and it was 100% worth the HUGE mess it made in my kitchen. I am so glad we decided to make cookies, plus it gave Kinley and I some one on one time while Zander was sleeping.

Our Year in Review

Well this isn't too late :). We are still technically in the first week of the month. We had a pretty amazing year in 2015 and are definitely excited about what 2016 is going to bring us. For now though...our 2015 review.

January

We enjoyed a quiet new years day in as a family.

Kinley went to her first gym class at the Little Gym. She definitely loved it but to be honest it was a little expensive in my opinion for a one year old.

February

We had quite a few fun snow days in February which gave us some much needed family time. We baked home made cookies and Kinley enjoyed eating all the chocolate chips. This was her first taste of sweets. She was a fan!

My mom came and as always we had such a blast! Of course it was too short but we look forward to her coming again soon when baby boy arrives.

Kinley had strep again (and our nanny quit) which was not exciting, but I do love all the cuddles! I know someday she is going to not want to snuggle with me.

March

Matt and I enjoyed a wonderful date night which does not happen often enough. That is one of my goals for the new year to have more dates!

Kinley started daycare at an in home that we LOVE! We are so thankful for Ms. E after having such struggles with a nanny. I truly believe everything happens for a reason and this was a huge blessing to us.

Kinley had her first swimming experience. What a blast! She loved it!!

I celebrated turning 33 with my two favorite people and it could not have been better! I also started a new job that I really enjoy.

April 

April was defintiely bittersweet for me. I stopped breastfeeding Kinley. After starting my new job it was just teh right timing. I still miss it and am very excited to breastfeed this baby boy. Kinley and I had quite the journey.

We celebrated a great Easter with Matt's family. His grandparents came to visit later in April which we always enjoy as well.

Kinley enjoyed her first carnival. She rode the train and went down the big slide with mommy.

May

We had our first zoo trip and ended up buying season passes. Kinley loves animals and we knew we would get back often. We didn't get as much as we liked but hopefully a few more times before baby boy comes.

Kinley and I traveled to Colorado for my sister's wedding shower. We had a great time spending some time at my nephew's baseball games and hanging out with family.

We took Kinley strawberry picking for the second year in a row and she was all about it this year. She picked the berries right off and ate away. Good thing I brought a spray bottle to clean them :).

June

Kinley went to the beach for the first real time. She has been before but not where she could get in the water and enjoy it. She did not want to leave.

We all traveled back to Colorado for my sister's wedding. I was the matron of honor and Kinley was the flower girl. She did amazing and we all had a fantastic time. Here are some tips for traveling with a toddler.

We got back from Colorado and Matt and I enjoyed an adult wedding of our two friends Chelsea and Tony. It was a much needed night out.

Matt celebrated his last father's day to an only child. Little did he know :).

July

I wrote one of my most popular posts. 3 car seat myths busted. If you have been following me for a while or know me you know car seat safety is a passion of mine.

Had some beach family pictures done by the amazing Lori Woodhouse Photography. I was quite frustrated with the windy evening we had but of course we ended up with some priceless memories.

We took a road trip up to Baltimore to see a wonderful friend of mine, Erin. Kinley and Bodie are only a few months apart and are the cutest when they are together. We don't get to see them often but we try for at least once a year.

Kinley graduated from her first story time class at the library. She was so proud.

I really started to embrace life as a working mom around this time. It is hard work but over all very rewarding for me. I hope the rest of us working moms will learn to embrace their role too.

August

Another beach trip in the books. This time we headed down to the Outer Banks where my step mom and her family were. I wish we could've stayed longer. Hoping they make another trip this year.

Kinley enjoyed her first ice cream eating experience.

Kinley got strep yet again. But this time it really made me thankful for the midnight screams. It is so sad when your children are sick.

September

The big announcement. Kinley is going to be a BIG SISTER!! We could not be more excited for our family.

Deciding on some must haves for baby #2 and letting go of the mommy guilt.

October

We closed on our first house as a married couple. We owned the townhouse, still do, but did not purchase that together. This house is ours and couldn't be more special.

Matt and I celebrated 4 wonderful years of marriage. It has been the best.

Kinley went trick or treating for real for the first year and jumped in many piles of leaves. We also had a blast at the pumpkin patch this year.

November

We celebrated another friend's beautiful wedding. Yay for another date!

Kinley turned 2!!! Wow time flies! I also took that time to reflect back on her, my first born, and how much I love her.

Had some more amazing family photos done. I was sure this time we were not getting any good ones. Kinley threw up on the way there and the entire shoot she fussed and clinged to me! Come to find out the poor girl had an ear infection. BUT....of course there were some amazing photos.

December

We did a few family holiday activities, looking at lights and making cookies were the highlights. We also found out that our baby girl was really a baby boy. Boy what a shocker!

Celebrated an amazing holiday with my mom here and Matt's family. My dad and step mom were even able to come visit for a day.

We ended the year on the couch with a movie and in bed by 10pm. Exciting life we lead I tell you, but I wouldn't change it for the world! Goodbye 2015!

We are so exited to see what 2016 brings us and our family! We know one thing is for sure we will be adding an amazing boy to our family.

Goodbye 2015

Christmas has come and gone and we are about to say good bye to another year. It truly is amazing how fast the years go. People tell you when you have kids to not blink and you really don't realize that until you are living it yourself. I still am amazed every day Kinley is 2 and I am already 24 weeks with this baby boy of ours. We are definitely blessed.

We had a great Christmas. If you've been reading you know my mom was in town, which was such a great time. She seems to always visit us in the winter but has never been here on Christmas. It was so wonderful to have the time with her. I ended up with more time than I though too. I went to check her in for her flight on Monday (thinking she was leaving Tuesday morning) and come to find out she didn't leave until Wednesday morning. I was so shocked! The entire visit I was thinking she was leaving on Tuesday morning. It was pretty funny. Then her flight got canceled on Wednesday due to snow in Chicago and she didn't leave until Thursday. Such a great time and wonderful memories that were made.

It saddens me Kinley doesn't get to grow up with my family near but I love that she really enjoys the time now when they visit. It warms my heart. 

We didn't do a whole lot when she was here but we did get to the Botanical Gardens for the lights, which was worth it! Kinley really enjoyed it as well. Watching her enjoy the holidays is special. I always dreamed of the day I would have kids to spend these days with. It sure is true when friends tell you the holidays are better with kids. 100 times more chaotic but that chaos is worth every second, and to be honest I kinda like it. Is that weird?

My dad and step mom were also down for a day so it was great to see them too. My dad recently had quadruple bypass surgery 5 weeks ago so I was very excited to see them. I was a little worried about him traveling so far with him just having surgery but he says he is feeling pretty good and each day gets better. The weather was about 80 the day they were here so we had a blast enjoying the sun at the beach.

Overall we had a wonderful Christmas and we all enjoyed each other's company. I am always sad to see family leave but I do like to be on a schedule so it will be nice to get back to our schedule and not so many cookies on the table. I have eaten way too many of those this break.

Next week we go back to the dr for a check up on baby boy. We are having an ultrasound done because at the last one they couldn't get pictures of his heart. I will be confirming he is a boy and he is healthy. If you didn't know we thought he was a she for the longest time. You can read about the shocker here. It is about time for another update so I will be doing that next week after our appointment.



Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! I am sure I will be sleeping at midnight, at least that is the hope. It has been rough here with the 2 year old molars coming in.

Christmas Week - A Few Family Photos

I am so excited it is Christmas week! What is even more exciting is my mom is coming into town on Christmas Eve. Getting through these next 3 work days is going to be tough, but then I am off for 6 days!! WHAT??? Yes 6 days! I am so stoked!

My mom hasn't visited for awhile. It is coming up on a year I think. Being so far away is hard. Luckily we have been back to Colorado and she has seen Kinley but even the last time we were there was 6 months ago. Kinley has changed so much in the last 6 months. We can't wait for Thursday!

She comes in on Thursday morning and we will probably run some last minute errands and then let Kinley nap. I will be putting her to work on the pile of presents I have to wrap. Does anyone else hate wrapping presents? I really am not a fan. Luckily for me my mom is and loves wrapping, little does she know that I have saved all the wrapping for when she comes :). I am hoping wrapping with her will make it a little more enjoyable since I can't be wrapping while drinking wine :). We Matt also has an easel to put together for Kinley. We never had our "big" gifts wrapped when I was younger and I loved waking up and seeing that with all of the wrapped presents under the tree, so that is the tradition we have started for Kinley. Last year Matt put together a kitchen and we of course didn't wrap that. She was a little too young to understand last year but I think this year she is going to be soooooo excited when she wakes up.

Thursday afternoon we are going to go over to Matt's parents to open presents and celebrate Christmas because we are going to have Christmas at our house this year. I am very excited about that! My mom loves to cook so we are planning on a full menu with many yummy dishes.

Of course Christmas will start bright and early with opening presents and a yummy crock pot casserole we are going to try. Lets hope it turns out. At first Matt wanted to cook a casserole in the morning, though it takes 3 hours. So I asked him if he was getting up at 3AM to start breakfast :). He declined.

We want to go check out the lights at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens at some point while my mom is here. Have any local readers been? Is it worth it? Please tell me it is! I am kind of kicking myself for not getting Christmas Town tickets when they were $14! There is always next year right! Plus Kinley will enjoy it even more then and we will have little man with us too. Did you see news on us having a boy! We are still shocked!

Other than enjoy the time together we don't have any other plans. We actually might make these amazing sugar cookies again! If you haven't checked out the recipe go do that! It is worth it. Hopefully your dog won't eat all of them like ours did and you will get to enjoy them. Hence why we might make them again.

Cheers to hoping these next few days fly by for everyone and your holiday is blessed! I know ours will be. Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

I love our Christmas pictures so much! Lori Woodhouse does it again! Thank you! 

The BEST Sugar Cookies

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had pretty unforgettable one! I can't believe there is only one more weekend until Christmas! And even better my mom comes on Christmas Eve. I can't tell you how excited we are for her to spend Christmas with us.

I worked all day Saturday but on the way home I really wanted to go see some Christmas lights. It was totally last minute but after we finished eating dinner we packed Kinley up and headed to a street that was full of beautiful houses. My friend had told me there was a street at the ocean front that goes all out with the lights. They definitely did not disappoint and Kinley enjoyed every minute. If you are a local reader it is off of 43rd and Pacific.

Sunday we had our family fun day! I love Sunday's with the family. It is the only day we all three get to spend the whole day together so we soak up every minute that we can. We went to Target and grocery shopping, made sugar cookies, made a few special deliveries of cookies and made a wonderful Philly cheese steak dinner with side salads. Perfect day.

I found the best sugar cookie recipe on PB&J Babes blog. I love reading her blog and her kiddos are the cutest. You should definitely go check her blog out. The recipe was super easy to make and the cookies are the best I have ever had. I highly recommended making these as soon as possible! And the almond extract is a MUST. It makes the cookies.

Christmas Butter Cookies

COOKIES

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 sticks butter, softened

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

ICING

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-4 tablespoons milk

Festive sprinkles

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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until well combined.  

Add vanilla and almond extract, and then the eggs.   

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture while beating on low speed until smooth.

Scoop the dough by rounded tablespoons and roll into 1-inch balls.  Place them evenly spaced on a non-stick cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown at the edges and puffed.  Cool 3-5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

While the cookies cool, prepare the icing.

Combine softened butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar, adding milk to thin as desired.

Once the cookies have cooled it is time to frost and decorate! 

She wanted the two colors separate....at first :)

 

Yep you caught me eating all the sprinkles mom. 

All finished and looking so pretty! We had such a great time making these cookies! I hope you enjoy these as much as we did.