The last day

It's the last day of 2008....who can believe it!! The year has went by so fast!! Thanks to mom for watching the boys last weekend so that we could go to a wedding. It was nice to play dress up, go to a wedding and drink free wine all night. But we are wimpy and old and came straight home after and went to bed....we still had a great time though!! I'll post our dress up pic probably tonight when I get the rest of my pics uploaded.
I'm headed to Best Buy after work for a new Wii game and then home for some NYE fun. I might even make special milkshakes for the boys for a toast to the new year...toddler style!! ;O)
I'm not sure if us adults will make it up to midnight or not..... I guess depending on how much game play that we are in to. We will be soaking our black eyed peas also to cook tomorrow for good luck. We haven't done that in several years so I'm actually looking forward to my hubby's great homemade beans!! I also have champagne for our toast tonight if we make it till midnight, if not I figure we can at least toast before we go to bed!
The boys have been so good the last two weeks. D has been on his first official school break and B has stayed home with us too!! Although, D keeps asking if he has school everyday. He hasn't realized the concept that he is out on Christmas break! It has been fun the last two weeks, but definetely a different world than I'm used to....let's just say, less house cleaning and errands and more playtime :o) But I'm not complaining....I could get used to this!! Thanks also to Papa and Dee for watching the boys today while mommy and daddy are working. D told B that he was going to get to "eat with the old people today, and that he had never done that!" D looks forward to going to breakfast with my dad everytime he keeps him, he calls it the "old people place" it's too cute!! So B got to eat with the old people too today!
I hope to get the rest of my Christmas pics posted soon. I left my memory card at work for several days while I was off so I couldn't finish uploading the pics.
I also have only one day left to pig out! I have been on a total break of exercise and healthy eating for the past week or two! It has been sooooo good and I've eaten so many yummy, unhealthy snacks!! But.....Friday I will be back on track! At least my first fitness test on the Wii fit said I was 3 yrs younger, yipee!! The countdown begins for our Disney cruise in March and I would love to be able to wear some Daisy dukes....hee hee....totally kidding!! But some nice shorts and maybe even a..............bathing suit.........yikes!! would be nice. We'll see!!
Well that's all for now, I won't be back probably till next year!!!
Hope everyone has a very safe, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Lots of fun, thanks Santa!

The boys made sure to put cookies out for Santa to eat while he was delivering the presents!
The boys are anxiously waiting to start opening the gifts.....hurry up daddy!!!!!!!!!!

The boys had a wonderful Christmas!! They were so excited to open all their gifts from Santa!

The boys kept taking the bows off the presents and sticking them on us!

D was excited to get the garbage truck he asked Santa for!!

B loved the Nascar that he asked Santa for!

I have many many more pics of course to share. I'll post a link once I get them uploaded. There are never enough pics of opening presents!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa gave them everything they asked for!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's an unedited pic of us on the very foggy beach in Gulf Shores. I thought B&W might help hide the fog.

We had a great trip in Mobile and we got to see some friends we haven't seen in quite awhile. But here are two short videos of the boys at Uncle Lewis' house. They love to go there and play all kinds of instruments. D played the harp, violin and trumpet. B seemed to like the piano. He just jumped on and started playing. The lighting was very dim, so I'm sorry for the dark videos.

It was great to see the beach, eat great food and spend time with family and friends. We took the boys to an IMAX movie also and they loved it. At first B started yelling that he was scared, but then he settled down and enjoyed Santa vs. The Snowman. If you haven't seen it yet and get a chance it's a great movie!!

Well we're back home and getting ready for Santa. We are going to make our cookies for Santa this afternoon!! Hope everyone gets just what they asked for from Santa.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!!!

Fam, Friends and great food!

Last day of work today until the holidays!! I am off six days, yipee!! We are headed home to AL to visit family, and friends tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing some people we haven't seen in quite awhile. We also get to enjoy my MIL's great home cooking.....chicken salad (D's most favorite), chili and even maybe some gumbo. MMM MMM good!! The high tomorrow is supposed to be 76! We might head to the beach for a little sand play or maybe take the boys to the Exploreum.
Then it'll be time to come home and get ready for Santa's visit!! I can't wait. The boys are very excited this year. D keeps telling me how many days left until "he has to go to sleep". Too cute! We'll definetely have to make some cookies to leave out for Santa. My SIL is having Christmas eve at her house with dinner and drinks. Then we'll head home to have our traditional yearly drinks, Rock BAnd, maybe even our new game system...;o), and some late night snacks! I'm going to cook a small dinner at our house for Christmas. I think I might try a few new recipes too!! I just love to experiment! I might not return to blog land till after Christmas. I do have to work the day after....yuk!! So incase I don't return till then.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND HAVE A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY!!

D can make that beat

D seems to almost be a natural at the beat boxing....you can actually hear a real beat in there! Amazing! He was beat boxing all the way home in the car. I asked him if I could video him when we got home and he said yes. He said he had to rest though, because his lips were getting tired....too funny. YOu have to excuse the horrible lighting, but I managed to get a short clip before he was too tired to perform :o)





I was up to my cooking experiments again tonight! I needed to take cupcakes tomorrow for B's Christmas party. I decided to make these snowman cookies instead.

I didn't have enough life saver gummies to keep up the ear muff theme so I used m n m's instead. I also added mouths. By the way, I did go back and give them ALL a mouth even though you don't see that in this pic. They looked really cute without mouths until I gave one a mouth and then they looked funny without one...;o{

My winnings burned a hole right through my pocket today but for a GREAT CAUSE!! Merry Christmas to me from my weight loss competitors.....thanks!! :o) I also had money left over to buy a few new clothes.....gotta love buying a smaller size and not bigger!!! yipee!!

Now for the end of my splurge day. What a great way to end it!!

Then I"m up in the morning to hit the elliptical before work and try to burn this whole container off!! The gym is closed today and tomorrow for new equipment installation! Very cool!! They are getting all new treadmills and ellipticals!! At least now I know why my monthly payment went up!! So it will be Friday before I head back to the gym, so I can't skip to many days. I have to get my workout in tomorrow morning because D has his first performance in a Christmas program tomorrow night. I hope my hubby is prepared to sit in the parking lot for awhile! I plan to get there very early to ensure my front row seating!!!!!!!!! :)

Then we are headed to Mobile to visit some family and friends this weekend! I can't wait! I hope the weather is warmer than the 39 we had here today! Maybe even a trip to the beautiful sandy white beaches.......

OH yeah!! Also, LESSON LEARNED!!! Don't wrap gifts with a brand new ring on your finger that is several sizes to big!!!!!!!!! I looked down and the ring was gone today!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!! I was frantic................luckily after searching several places.....I found it nicely seated in one of the boxes that I gift wrapped today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Scary!!!!! I almost had a heart attack and threw up at the same time!!!!!!! And someone almost got themselves a nice beautiful new ring!!!! Needless to say, I will be getting it sized immediately after we return from our trip home.

Good night!

I DID IT AGAIN!! ROUND 2!!!!!

YES, I AM THE BIGGEST LOSER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whew! What a relief!! I get an extra $136 in my pocket to help with Christmas!!
1st place again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I just get to decide what yummy stuff I want to eat this week to reward myself.....
1) My most delicious home made carrot cake!
2) Starbucks treat!
3) Mexican with lots of chips and salsa and cheese dip with a huge margarita!
4) A few cookies to taste that I froze from the cookie swap!
5) not sure what else just yet, but I know I will think of a few more!!!

My hard work paid off!! I have really gotten into my running routine and really enjoying running. I am thinking I might start to train for a 10K for next year. Amazing!
Just had to share my good news!

Results to be announced shortly!

So I weighed in this morning at work for the contest......yikes!!! There were 21 people in the contest. Not sure how many actually tried but we'll see.......will I be the biggest loser again??? I sure hope so!! I'll be sure to post when I find out shortly.......

fun, temptation, snack demon = bed!!

I might have a budding artist on my hands. Everyday when D brings home his school work, he has a whole page of drawings on the back of his papers. Mostly cars and trucks or people. Today he brought home a decorated paper bag with a Christmas frame in it that he made for us. On the bag "a pirate cat with swords" That is what he told me......and that is what I see.....amazing. !Probably not too coincedental that we watched Peter Pan last night!

When I got to work today I had a gift in my chair!! Yipee.. I have been wanting to do one of these with the boys but haven't been able to break down and actually buy one!
Of course, my sweet B wanted to mainly just sit and eat the decorations!

D was busy at work decorating the house and eating also as he went along.

Our finished product.....nothing fancy....but lots of fun!!

The hardest part for me was to not eat the left over candy that we didn't use! I'm still trying to fight back off the 3 lbs. I lost last week that found themselves back on me this week!! What in the world......why couldn't of the weigh in been last week!! My hands were totally swollen when I woke up on Sunday morning after the cookie party. I'm not sure, but it might have been the 5 or 6 glasses of pina colada punch that I drank!! It took me almost all day and lots and lots of water to be able to get my rings off! It was so wierd....anyway I'm still fighting the temptations this week. Part of me wants to just forget about it (that's the bad demon on left shoulder) and the other part(good demon on right shoulder) keeps telling me that I only have 4 days left! The hardest part is that this contest sucks at work, because there is no keeping up throughout the contest. I have no idea what other people have done...it is a guessing game and practice of self discipline. The other part that sucks is that I can look at food and gain 5 lbs.......seriously!!!! Anyway, enough of that. I just finished my 3rd workout this week. The snack demon is lurking in my head trying to figure out what I can go eat now......I"m going to beat him though and just go to bed!! Nighty night!!

Another year younger!!

So yes I have gotten a year younger!! Remember at age 35 you start counting backwards instead of forwards!! I have tried hard to restrain myself from all the sweets surrounding me! Believe it or not I have done really well. I only tasted prob 4 of all the cookies from the party and not a piece of my birthday cake yet! Sorry mom, I would love to eat the whole thing like I'm pretending to do below. But I am freezing me a giant piece to help with my sugar coma that I will be in after Monday's weigh in!! I will be sure to taste every cookie and eat my big piece of cake don't worry!! But I am working very hard on my will power for one last week! The cookies and cake are in the freezer!

I also got a few great gifts from mom and my friend Beth. And my sis gave me a gift certificate to get a manicure and pedicure!! Can't wait!! It's been such a long time since I've been to the salon! Dad and Dee gave me these great dishes. They can go in oven, fridge and freezer! They are great!My in laws sent me a beautiful locket that I can't wait to print two pics to put in it of my little angels!

I got this terrific arrangement of fruit from my BFF Teri! At least this is something I can eat now! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!

And most suprising of all was from my boys and amazing husband!! In the past when I have a suprise for the boys I have them sit on the couch and I bring the suprise to them. So B told me when they got home that he had a very special suprise for me! Then D told me to go sit on the couch....it was so cute!! He told me he had a suprise that would make me cry...what?? Not sure about that but OK. So in he walks with a jeweler bag and when I opened the box....OMG!! I was in pure shock!! The most beautiful ring! D was anxiously looking for my tears..." I thought you would cry mommy?" I told him I was that the tears are in my eyes.... I got up to give my sweet husband a huge hug and kiss and D said..."mommy, try again.." I think he was sure he was going to see big alligator tears. I didn't have those, but my eyes were so teary that I could hardly see!

As you can see, I had a most wonderful birthday! I thank everyone for all my birthday wishes. I also am so thankful for all the many blessings in my life, my health, my wonderful friends, my loving and supportive family and my most amazing precious two little angels and my gift of love from heaven...my husband. Thank you everyone!

Great Dec. Weekend!

The weekend started with Breakfast with Santa at D's school. We got there early and beat the crowd and got right in for pics with Santa for only $2. Can't beat that! At first the boys were scared but then D walked right up to Santa and sat on his lap. I had to carry B up there but once he got there they both started right away telling Santa what toys they wanted! I think the pic will come home today with D from school. I'll be sure to post it when I get it. Santa looked great!!

After breakfast D went shoppin in Santa's store. He gots gifts for B, Papa, and Aunt Jen. He had already bought for mommy, daddy and granny. He was very picky about what he chose! What a good shopper!!

The cookie party was FANTASTIC!!! It was so much fun that I can't even describe and I will definetly be having it again next year!! I made several appetizers and had drinks for everyone. People started arriving and picked their Christmas name tag to wear. SOme of the names were Reindeer names and others were like snowball, holly, cookie, ms. Claus. The names would be used later for the games. After everyone mingled for awhile we did some voting on guessing the number of m-n-m's in the jar, and best cookie display. We then put on a fashion show with a catwalk style runway so that we could model our PJ's to try to win best Christmas PJ's title! The runway was hysterical!! I only took pics but now wish I would of video'd the walk. Everyone was so creative with their walks and it was sooooo much fun! Each person added a pose at the end and it was great!!

Next we started with some games. I had everyone divide into three teams. It was already decided what team they were on by a small number on their name tag. The idea of the game was to blow up balloons and stuff them into the legs of panthose to create Reindeer antlers. Once your team was done the captain of each team had to put the pantyhose on their head to win. Everyone had a great time and played right along!! This game was so, so, so much fun!! Each team member won a candy cane with a scratch off ticket attached.

Next was the "plunger relay". You may have seen this on you tube. I changed the plungers to candy canes. The big ones with life savers gummies inside. The guests split into two teams. One team made up of people with a reindeer name and the other team not reindeer. Each person had to walk from one end of the room with candy cane between their legs and not touch it with their hands. There was a person at the other end with a roll of toilet paper between their legs and you had to stick the candy cane in the toilet paper! It was absolutely hysterical. I only video'd this event so I'll have to get it from my video camera and try to post it one day! I can't begin to describe how funny it was.

We also did a sock swap and played the left/right passing game. Everyone got to take home a new pair of Christmas socks.

Everyone then boxed up cookies of all kinds and took them home with them to eat and enjoy at home. I'm not sure if I'm leaving anything out at the moment but it was a blast!! People are already planning what cookies they want to bring next year and trying to think of new ideas for the party!!

This crescent rolls veggie appetizer dish was very easy too!

The olive penguins were a hit!! Very easy to make too! Just get a can of jumbo olives, a can of small olives, onion and chive cream cheese, frilly top toothpicks and carrots. Just slice the large olives down one side. Put the cream cheese in ziploc bag and pipe into body. Then use toothpick to attach the small olive for head and a slice of carrot for the feet. You can also cut a small triangle piece of carrot for the beak! Too easy and very cute, and edible too of course!!

I made a corn dip, spinach dip, cheese and meat tray, quiches and sandwich spirals from Sam's. A friend also brought a cheese ball. For drinks I served a pina colada punch, hot chocolate and bottled water and sodas. For desserts ( the cookies were to take home and not eat at the party) I made pretzel treats, a cupcake tree and rum bars. They were supposed to be rum balls but wouldn't stick together for some reason. So I decided to just press them in a pan. They tasted great anyway!!

The party was almost over and mom came out with a cake to suprise me and had everyone at the party sing Happy Birthday to me! It was very sweet! She could of left the numbers off the cake though..........:o)

The boys were intrigued by the Reindeer antlers when they got home and wanted to try them on. So adorable!

To see alot more pics from the party you can go HERE!

I also had a wonderful birthday and I got alot of great gifts!! I'll post more about my birthday later, but I do want to say a huge THANK YOU to my wonderful husband and most precious wonderful boys in the whole world!!

Our weekend

s

Cookie eve

It's the cookie party eve and I'm soooo excited!

BUT, I have other great news!! I think I broke my losing plateau!!! 3 more lbs gone!! For a total to date of 29!!!!!!!!!!! I am estactic and have been doing the happy dance all afternoon!!! One week till work weigh in. I have lost so far a total of 12 for this weigh in. I hope I can hang in there for one more week at least! Just one more week, just one more week and I might have a good little extra money for Christmas! I might have to freeze all my cookies from the party and splurge out on the 15th!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few more pics from our wonderful Thanksgiving day. My father in law is the official Turkey carver!

D enjoyed playing dominoes with MIMI!

Dad made a "to die for" cake called Tres Leches!! It was so great I ate the whole pan!! Just kidding but I sure wanted to!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few pics on cookie eve. I have started to decorate the tables. I'm not going to do too much though to take away from the cookies.
These are one of the cookies that I made. They are called cherry coconut drops! They are delish!

I also made these truly adorable penguins to help as decoration. They are edible too! Just olives and chive n onion cream cheese with carrots for beak and feet!!

Well better get off to bed. I have a busy day tomorrow!! COOKIES COOKIES EVERYWHERE!

Almost cookie time

Only 2 days till my cookie swap party! I am so excited. I baked my last set of cookies last night. I also attempted to make rum balls but they wouldn't stick together, so I decided just to press the mixture into a pan and make rum bars....we'll see. Anyway it's going to be so much fun, a bunch of girls in Christmas pj's, drinks, snacks and lots and lots of cookies! I can't give away too much info just yet, but I'll be sure to post pics afterwards!
I am going to try to get a few more pics from Turkey day on here tonight!
Saturday we are taking the boys to Breakfast with Santa at D's school. D was so excited when I told him. He had lots of questions.....how will he get here.....he can't fly without the reindeer.....how long will he be here......It was so cute! He is very inquisitive and very smart, so I have to be careful what I say to him. I told him Santa would be coming on a special sleigh and that's when he told me that Santa can't fly without the reindeer. Then he wanted to know how the reindeer fly...... :)
Here's a sneak peek at some cookies I made. They taste wonderul!!!

Orange Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
2/3 cup orange juice
4 ½ teaspoons grated orange peel
3 to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
ICING:
4 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp orange extract
1/3 to ½ cups orange juice

1. In mixing bowl cream shortening and sugar. Add the buttermilk, eggs, orange juice and peel.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in separate bowl; gradually add to the creamed mixture.
3. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
4. Remove to wire racks to cool.
5. For icing, combine confectioners sugar, orange extract and enough orange juice to achieve desired consistency. Spread over cooled cookies.
6. Makes about 12 dozen.

Just a quickie

My little pilgrim at his Thanksgiving feast.

Me and Mindy were putting 50 candles on Pat's cake! What a smoke stack when she blew them out!!!!!!!

This is the Cave at the winery we visited on the way home. They had barrels of wine stored in there.

The boys enjoyed making turkeys with apples and other fun stuff. B wanted to eat more than he put on the apple.

A quick photo of the cousins!!

This is just a quickie post with some pics. I have been very busy with Thanksgiving. We had a great time with all the family and I'll post more pics later. Now I'm planning for my cookie swap party this Saturday. I am getting very excited and I think it is going to be sooooo much fun!!