Breakfast with Santa

Every year Trey's company hosts Breakfast With Santa- a Saturday morning event for families that allows kids to get their picture taken with Santa, eat doughnuts, play games for prizes, and make some cute Christmas crafts.  I think it's great- Especially because this way we don't have to go to a mall and wait in a long line to meet Santa. 

Last year Charlie was just 8 months old at Christmas.  I can't believe how much he has grown in one year!  He couldn't play any of the games but he loved Santa! 

This year.... was another story.  He didn't want to have ANYTHING to do with Santa.  We couldn't get him to sit in his lap, to take a candy cane from him, or even to sit in our lap for a picture.  Santa just freaked him out!  We got the cutesy Santa pics last year.. this year we got the typical toddler tantrum Santa pictures.  And I love them!

There.  That'll just have to do! 

The rest of the Breakfast was a hit!  Charlie LOVES doughnut holes, so he was in heaven. 

We played Put the Ring Around the Christmas Tree game...

Toss the Beanbag in the Wreath game...  (He was a pro at this!)

We colored...

LOVE this face!

And we stopped to drink some juice. 

We also did some sticker crafts!  He still loves stickers!

All in all it was a fun time... minus the Santa part.  Maybe next year he'll be more interested in St. Nick! 

Cookies!

Here's my 1st post that doesn't involve my Charlie or Trey or family activities... Something else I love- Baking!  Ever since I was little I've always loved to bake- it seems to run in the family because we all love to do it.  And not the easy stuff either- the yummiest of goodies all made from scratch.  There's something special about using God's most delicious ingredients and making something yummy to enjoy with your family. 

A few months back, my mom and I had a blast learning how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing for my friend Taryn's baby shower.  It is not a quick & simple task, but the cookies turned out so cute!  Royal icing dries hard, so you can package them or stack them however you choose!

I decided to do the same for Christmas Cookies this year- and to give them out to Charlie's friends at school.

I absolutely adore The Pioneer Woman's website/blog- I check it daily.  She posted a fabulous tutorial on Christmas sugar cookies with royal icing here. 

The recipe I used was perfect- super easy to roll out & are soft & delicious!  Definitely a keeper.

Next you make your Royal Icing & mix all the colors.  Luckily Hobby Lobby sells food coloring gels that come in every color.  

Then comes piping the outline on-

Then you 'flood' your cookie with thinner royal icing.  This is where it gets fun!

And of course the best part is actually decorating the cookies!  I had a blast doing this... and it definitely put me in the Christmas spirit. 

I know these will be eaten by 20 month olds who would have been more than happy with store-bought cookies, but I had a blast making them and at least I have extras for US and now I have my first food blog!  

Hope everyone else are enjoying some delicious Christmas treats too! 

6 years of Marriage, 13 Years of Us

Saturday we celebrated our 6th Anniversary together!  6 seems like such a short amount of time to be celebrating since we've now been together for almost half of our lives.  Trey & I met at church camp & started dating 13 years ago-he was a 15-yr old sophomore at Midland High school, and I was a 16-yr old junior at Midland Lee High school. 

 We went to 3 proms together, attended high school football games together even though we went to rival schools, celebrated our high school graduations together, and went off to A&M together in the fall of 2000. 

After graduation we got engaged and moved to Houston to begin our new lives together. 

We got married on December 18, 2004.  Our wedding was perfect and intimate- spent with our family and friends. 

On March 18, 2009 we welcomed our precious son Charlie into the world.  He is our pride and joy!

In April 2011 we will be welcoming our 2nd son, Henry into our family. 

What a wonderful journey the past 13 years has been!

Happy 6th Anniversary to my Hubby- may we always feel as blessed and loved as we do today!