The Great Cookie Extravaganza 2016

This past weekend we had our annual cookie baking day. It showed up in my timehop yesterday that I posted about the cookie extravaganza 7 years ago, so we have been doing this awhile! My post from last year is HERE and the year before is HERE. I actually went over to my sister's house on Friday night and made some dough for the peanut butter kisses so that we would be able to start right away Saturday morning. I literally spent 12 hours straight at my sister's baking and decorating cookies. We tried a new recipe this year for Funfetti Shortbread Bites and they turned out really good. Like dangerously addicting good. We made sooooo many cookies and I still need to make snickerdoodle and my sister needs to make chocolate chip. My sister has a deep freezer full of frozen cookies at her house! I know it seems ridiculous, but we all use these cookies for holiday parties and for gatherings throughout the month. They freeze really well, too. I actually only ate maybe 3 cookies all day long which is kind of nuts, but don't worry there are plenty more for me to eat!

Aspen looooooves cookies.

Shortbread bites and peanut butter kisses

Gingerbread and sugar cutouts

If you take a phone break, Everly will use Hershey kisses to decorate her cookie

Such a mess!

We even got Alex and Kory to decorate some. I made the family ornaments!

Hot Chocolate Run 2016

This past Sunday my sister and I ran in our 3rd Hot Chocolate Run in Scottsdale. We ran our first one 5 years ago and have been doing it every other year since. The entrance fee is kind of pricey but you do get a nice jacket and some yummy chocolate after the race. Also, it is one of the only 15k races out there. They also have a 5k but I would never spend that much for such a short race. The 15k is good because it is not as demanding as a half but more challenging then a 5 or 10k. Also, it is a great, easy and flat course. The weather was perfect on Sunday which helped as well. Our first Hot Chocolate run is HERE and our run from 2 years ago is HERE. The first time we did this run it was our first distance race. I had never run more than 4 miles before deciding to train for it with my sisters 5 years ago. Then two years ago I was 3 months post-partum and still nursing and my sister was also pregnant. It was nice this time to really push myself and I ran it at an 8:30 pace which was my best yet by more than a minute/mile. I finished 25th out of the 305 women in my age group so I am very happy with that and couldn't have asked for a better day!



Pretty big crowd. Over 3k runners in the 15k

Staying warm before the race

Sharing my chocolate bowl with Mae

Done!

Children's Museum

Last Saturday my sister invited us to join her at the Children's Museum of Phoenix. She is a member there and had some extra passes and we are so grateful she invited us to join her and Mae. We have been several times before but it has been a while, over a year, since we have been back. My sister splurged for a couple special activities that day including making "snow" and decorating a giant gingerbread man. As much as the girls are pretty easy going, it was still quite the event wrangling them around the museum. They loved decorating the gingerbread man, but would have been just as happy eating straight frosting and candy. They also loved the noodles and were non-stop giggling as they ran through. Aspen and Mae definitely got some practice in the sharing department which they both struggle with at times. We don't get a ton of just "girl" time since Everly and Teddy are inseparable so it was really fun to just have a girls only day. Thanks for inviting us Krys and Mae! Here is a quick little video and some pictures:

Ev and that cape...

Chev Evie

three cheesballs

two seconds later Mae saw the dog behind her and was gone!

Cousin S'mores Night!

Last Friday night I invited myself over to my sister's house for a s'mores night. she has a cute little back patio with a fire pit and the kids (and us) have been wanting to do s'mores since we had them nightly at our family reunion in Lake George last summer. One thing we did in New York was substitute Reese's for Hershey's in some of the s'mores thanks to my cousin. If you haven't done this yet, you need to try it. Sooo good. I picked up all of the goods to make s'mores at Target, my sister obviously provided the fire and then my other sister brought over the hot cocoa. Kids around fire is always a little interesting but they all did pretty good. Aspen and Mae were content just eating jumbo marshmallows and at one point Everly tried to swipe half a Hershey's bar so they were pretty hopped up on sugar but it was a fun way to enjoy the cooler temps. We also brought over a holiday glitter bath bomb because my sister has a big tub so the girls had fun. It totally looked like piss because it was yellow but it smelled really good and the kids liked it. We have one more Santa bath bomb that turns green that we are saving for Christmas.

All the goods

starving kids!

yaaaaaaaaaaaasssss!

rub a dub dub 3 girls in a tub

 

 

Home Depot Workshops

We have been to two Home Depot Kids Workshops the past two weekends.  Thanksgiving weekend the kids made a super cute holiday picture frame. It was a simple build and we are totally going to use it to put the Santa picture in once we take it. Since it was kind of an "extra" workshop in November, it was really quiet at home depot that day which is always nice when wrangling up several kids. Last weekend the project was a holiday candy dish and was also very cute. Everly did such a great job at hammering all of the nails in on her project. We went to a different home depot for this one and it was pretty busy but they had snacks and a certificate when you finished. They also had a 10th workshop pin which Everly should have gotten like 9 workshops ago but we just found out about it so that was cool. She will get another one at her 25th workshop next year.

 

 

trying to entertain these two during the workshop

She's so cute!

Christmas Cards 2016

I used the family pictures we took early fall (here) to make our Christmas card for this year. I am still labeling and sending them out, but I have them all made so that is an accomplishment! I got the majority of the cards at Costco when they were on coupon and upgraded slightly for the cardstock version vs. the photo paper version. You can get like 50 cards for $35. I also used a couple of codes for free cards from Shutterfly just to have some fun ones. Our main cards I actually did a full folding card which I have never done before. It gave me room to write a little family update and include a picture of the pets on the back as well. For my Shutterfly ones I did one simple card with rounded corners and another horizontal folding card. I really like them all but it helps to have such cute kids in all of the pictures! HERE are the cards from last year. I love this time of year and can't wait to start getting Christmas cards from family and friends in the mail.

Front and back of the main card

Basic Shutterfly card with rounded corners

This one is probably my favorite, so if you get it, that means I really like you because I only have 10. Haha!

Shutterfly Photobook: Disneyland Trip 2016

I finally finished the photo book from our trip to Disneyland back in October. I take so many pictures that it has been taking me a lot longer to put these together just because I have to decide what to actually put in the book. I also had to get all of the pictures Justin took which sometimes slows me down. I love making these and looking back through how much fun we had. Also, this is the first time I have been able to use the new Disney template from Shutterfly. They didn't have it a couple of years ago after we went. It does cost $5 more but it's not like I go to Disneyland every weekend so it is worth it to me. Can't wait to get that orange box in the mail!

 Click here to view this photo book larger