in remembrance of cinderella.

today we remember cinderella.

all of the good times we had with her.

her beautiful gloves.

blue dress.

that time she spent at the officer and belle's wedding.

how she danced then.

how much fun she had with her sister, sleeping beauty.

never again will she hold hands with her prince.

never again.

why??

because i am the mother of a chewer.

my child's oral fixation has to do with his mouth.

must. have. something. in. his. mouth.

poor cinderella.

maybe she can get replacement hands like luke skywalker

did when darth vader cut his off.

maybe not.

no!! he didn't!!!

....yes. he did.

ah, the power of the pioneer woman cookbook.

gets you excited about life.

eating the great recipes, that is.

we've done the cinnamon rolls.

best things ever.

hands down.

i made the french breakfast puffs today for justin to take on his trip tomorrow.

my husband is going to be with two of his best friends from high school(both girls, btw),

as well as their new husbands(for those of you who know them, i'm talking about amber and

ashley-aka "the pretty ladies", as emily calls them).

you know tomorrow is new year's eve, right??

and i'll be home with the kids.

but he's going for amber's 30th birthday party and she came for his...after missing her own

hubby's battle of the kansas city blue's bands...so we sacrificed.

justin can barely keep his eyes open beyond 10pm, anyway.

back to the recipes....

tonight i made pw's chicken fried steak.

mmmm.

delicious.

i do fried chicken every now and then,

so this was hardly a task for the non-cooking woman that i am.

but justin bit into and about died...

he said it was better than chili's.

i definitely think not, since that is the only thing i eat at chili's.

i didn't get the outside coating on there as well as it was suppose to have been.

still he loved it enough to say,

"i need to tell the girl that sent you that book 'thanks'!!"

so, i told him her name and that her e-mail was in my addresses.

we're tight, afterall(oh, rachel i hope you're laughing as hard as i am right now!!)

so he got on the computer and sent her an e-mail telling her thanks.

and she read it to her family at the dinner table.

thankfully, her family consists of her husband and a toddler that doesn't understand why

her parents were laughing so hard at the dinner table.

(um, this isn't them laughing at it, but i'm sure it was close to this! :)

photo from her blog, no. 17 cherry tree lane. isn't it so cute?!?!?)

so, once again, thank you rachel for drawing 3 different names and picking mine last!! :)

christmas day pt. 2

after we had finished opening presents at home and talked to germany on the phone,

we headed out for a snowy trip to gra and pop's house.

aiden taking his new "howdy howdy" for a ride on his shoulders.

i know you must be thinking, "man, she loves her carseats."

i know there are a lot of photos of them in their seats,

but i like the fact that they are strapped in,

not able to run from me when i break out the camera.

and the natural light.

playing with their new leap frog toys.

i'm all about learning toys. block time with the cousins. you'd think they never see these kids.

this was the main attraction this year.

aj's first christmas.

he was too cute for words.

i don't think i have heard this kid cry since the day after he was born.

hanging out with uncle perry.

meal time with mary anne.

the best of the 14 shots that i took.

well, okay, i only took 3.

the parsonage is a bit small,

so we always go next door and have our family meals and do gifts there.

carrie grace showing aj his new wall art from aunt susie.

they told me that he really likes dr seuss,

so i'm glad i used that old seuss book illustration for his project.

and of course mom did like her photos,

just like i said she would.

and she liked her sleigh ride painiting(the header on my blog).

she called last night and said it was hanging up in the kitchen.

almost time to leave and i finally got to snuggle with the little man.

the blase's.

the coulter's.

the whyte's.

..and the blizzard that we drove through on the way home.

christmas day pt 1.

at the whyte house....

last shot of the tree this year. waiting for aiden on christmas morning.

scarfing homemade cinnamon rolls.

she's un-american. doesn't like cinnamon rolls. i don't know whose kid she is.

santa ate a cinnamon roll, too.

jen, there's the pink ornaments!!

i will have to find a better bowl for next year.

our ode to germany.

she and her family are in the air as i type, on their way to the states.

so excited.

hopefully the roads will clear up so we can see her next week. em loved her doll...it was what she was going to ask santa for.

that is if she hadn't been covering her face the whole time he was talking to her.

next year we decided we are going to start a whole new "santa" talk.

as in, st. nicholas and what we can do to be like st. nick.

buying gifts for others on the angel tree or christmas crusade with the police dept.

they can still see santa if they want, but i'm just not a fan of the whole santa bit.

i love shopping for others, especially people that have nothing.

i'm excited.

aiden's tigger game.

and more importantly, his howdy howdy from germany.

air force sent a shirt for justin to represent the navy in. :)

he use to have one very similar to this when he was active duty.

he loved it.

i had small note pads with a pen and sharpies.

love new writing utensils.

we called germany this a.m. and told her merry christmas and all.

great to hear you, nat.

can't wait to see you!

i will post christmas in canton photos tomorrow.

my bed is calling my name.

christmas eve

i'm sure by the time many of you see this,

christmas will have already come and gone.

i , however, do my best to add a new post everyday.

so here goes.

my day spent with cinnamon rolls did not end as planned.

we were suppose to see amber and ashley that night.

apparently my "taste test" time was a bad idea.

i ate too many cinnamon rolls and then had pizza for dinner.

ugh.

i felt super bad.

so jus got to go play by himself.

it was after midnight by the time justin remembered to take photos,

so these count as christmas eve shots. :)

missed you girls!!!(and you too, justin g and sequius!!!)

traveling to granny and papa's in the snow blizzard.

thankfully they just live on the other side of town.

we did a lot of sliding around.

it was nice to take it slow and get some sight seeing in.

jason and heidi weren't able to be here this year, but we had plenty of company.

josh added on this year...with his girlfriend lori and her 4 kids.

kory, lori, josh, kyle, tyra, kayla(who was working)and josh's kids connor and maisie.

somehow lori ended up at the "kid's table".

oh, and we added a friend in, too.

tim's new co-worker, kif(keef).

he's from the congo in central africa.

he's been here since 2003--such a nice guy.

i think he speaks better english than justin...but don't tell justin i said that. :)

connor and granny.

josh didn't get the memo he's suppose to be in the photos, not taking them. :)

he's using rena's(my fave mother-in-law)canon rebel.

not a digital, but i enjoyed taking shots with it!!

i had to pass it back quick.

finding his new best friend.

woody.

a firetruck to work with his police car.

thanks ja and heidi!!

he loves it!

at thanksgiving, lori blurted out, "darn i forgot the jello!!!!"

she had made one for our dinner...and jason gave her a hard time about it.

"i was looking forward to jello!!", he'd say.

then add, "did it have fruit? yes?? man!!! that's my favorite!!!"

i told rena that day that she HAD to get some boxes of jello for her stocking.

so that's what she got.

ha ha.

this photo explains it all.

little drummer boys pa-rum-pum-pum-pum is LOUD!!

the cousins playing.

emily begged and begged to go play in the snow.

i told her when we got ready to leave, i'd let her run around for a bit in it.

it was 18 degrees people.

2 seconds in that is too long.

while running around, she had her last present brought to her.

a full length mirror from granny and papa.

one for her to do her singing and performing in.

she was sooo excited.

HOWEVER....

she likes to throw these satanic tantrums when we leave places...

she wanted to stay and play in the snow and not go home.

her daddy thought the best place to put the mirror was inside the truck so it wouldn't

break in the bed of the truck....

and it was.

until she kicked it.

and it shattered.

as did justin's patience.

not pretty.

she spent the rest of the evening in her room.

and had to call her granny and papa after they got home from christmas eve service to

tell them sorry for breaking it.

nothing ruins christmas eve like breaking a mirror.

believe me.

aiden and his friend, howdy howdy on the way home.

we slid and skidded around town and finally made it home.

not before running through 4 red lights, though justin will argue it was only 3.

and not before a new light on our dash popped up saying we have yet one more

problem with our truck.

great.

5 bananas and a grilled cheese later(no joke--the boy ate all that!), aiden got to play with his firetruck and his howdy howdy.

emily and daddy read the christmas story while aiden somewhat sat still.

we said goodnight to the kids,

watched aiden tuck in woody on the pillow at the end of his bed,

and listened to two separate rooms of singing, story telling and "howdy, howdy, howdy!"

til they both zonked out.

merry christmas to all

and to all a goodnight!