Valentine's Day Cookies

This year for Valentine's Day, I decided to be ambitious and volunteer to send in sugar cookies for Ellie's class party at school.  I'm sure her teacher didn't mean for me to make them (and honestly I have nothing against those thick, soft sugar cookies at the store... they are delicious), but I've been having the itch to use my creative side lately but haven't had much of an outlet.  So, I made my first real attempt at "fancy" sugar cookies.

First I did a "trial run" the weekend before Valentine's Day, making sure the actual cookies turned out well, and making sure I knew how to work the royal icing.  Here's my batch from the first attempt.  I think they turned out pretty well!  I made another large batch and let the kids and Garrett get in on the action next:

Garrett was actually really good!  He made these next two:

And then here was my final batch for the party.  They aren't perfect, but I'm still a beginner so there's that.  I'm sure those second graders really appreciated all my hard work (haha).  I don't usually go "above and beyond", especially for elementary parties, but this was really fun and I'm excited to make more sometime soon.  I just need to buy more cookie cutters!

When we lived in Florida, one of my friends in the ward started making these sugar cookies with royal icing, and she started having "cookie parties", basically a girls' night at her house where everyone would just decorate cookies and chat.  Sadly, I never made it to a party, but I'm totally going to steal the idea and attempt to have a cookie party at my house one of these days.  I really need to reach out and make some friends here.

Father's Day

Garrett worked a 14-hour shift on Father's Day, so I took the girls to the hospital to see him for a few minutes.  We brought cookies and homemade cards, and I FINALLY got to see where he works, haha.  I was starting to wonder if he worked for the CIA or something, I had never been there.  Anyway, I had the girls also fill out a Father's Day questionnaire, here are their answers:

How old is my dad?
Abbie: almost 32
Ellie: 25

My dad likes to wear:
Abbie: everything
Ellie: blue clothes from work

He loves to eat:
Abbie: pizza
Ellie: spaghetti and meatballs

His favorite treat is:
Abbie: cookies
Ellie: jelly beans

He is smart because he knows:
Abbie: all about us
Ellie: how to study a lot

His favorite movie is:
Abbie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (this was super random, he has never watched that with them)
Ellie: Frozen

My dad works hard at:
Abbie: work
Ellie: the hospital

My dad always tells me:
Abbie: to look for cars when I'm crossing the street
Ellie: to listen

I really love it when my dad:
Abbie: gets Dunkin Donuts
Ellie: shares his candy with us

If he could go anywhere, he would go ______ and he would take ___________
Abbie: to Cedar Key, and he would take his friends Tom and JD
Ellie: to Chicago, and he would take a test (this is hilarious because from January-June, pretty much ALL Garrett did when he wasn't working was study for his radiology boards, which were June 8-9 in Chicago.  His life pretty much revolved around that for months and months.  Ellie certainly noticed!  Haha.

It makes my dad happy when:
Abbie: we go to Epcot
Ellie: when I listen to him

If I could give my dad anything it would be:
Abbie: a fishing rod
Ellie: a white boat

My favorite thing about my dad is:
Abbie: loving him
Ellie: when we wrestle with him

Easter Sunday

We had a nice Easter Sunday.  The Easter bunny came, brought WAY too much candy.  The day was very nice.  Garrett had the day off, which was so lovely.  He worked last year, so this was a really nice treat.

Church was nice.  Olivia has finally started going to nursery.  She cries at first but is fine after about 5 minutes, thankfully.  We have some really great nursery leaders, I am so thankful for them!

We splurged this year and bought a real spiral ham, which was a nice treat (every year I'm scared off by the $30 price tag, but this year we sucked it up and now we have tons of leftovers!  I'm excited for those.).  One of my good friends came over with her two kids, since her husband was working a 24-hour shift at the hospital, so it was nice to have company for dinner too. (Oh and I also made these incredible deviled eggs with candied bacon... they were SO good.  I have always loved deviled eggs, and these were a real winner!)

I'm so thankful for Easter and the special reminder of our Savior's sacrifice for us.  Because of Him, we can be together forever as a family!  What a wonderful, priceless gift.

(#18. Make matching dresses for the girls)

Christmas gifts

Each year for Christmas, we rotate which siblings we are going to give gifts to.  This year, we had my brother and his family.  I decided to make them holiday banners.  I actually made 3 sets (one for us, and one for Garrett's parents) 

I still have to make a Thanksgiving banner for my brother (& for us) but I ran out of time.  I'll have to send that sometime in the next 10 months!

And for the nephews (they have 4 boys!), I made a set of bean bags (I actually made two sets - another set for another nephew on Garrett's side of the family):

They were fun projects, but a lot of work!!  Glad to have them done with.

Christmas

Picking out our Christmas tree:

Ellie was playing with a Nativity set that Garrett's mom made for us.  She came up to me with this pair and said, "Look, Mom!  Mary had a little lamb!"

Garrett made snowman pancakes for breakfast one morning:

Olivia enjoyed some treats that someone brought over:

Garrett and the girls made a cute little gingerbread house.  Thank goodness for those kits that you can buy at the store... no need to make the gingerbread or all the candy and frosting... it all comes in one box!

The Sunday before Christmas:

  

The kids opened new pajamas on Christmas Eve, thanks to Garrett's mom.

They were delighted to find that they included tutus!

They loved them

Santa called us on Christmas Eve!  He calls us every year from his sleigh to tell the girls to get into bed.  It is always such a thrill!                                                                                                                    (Thanks, Dad!)

Christmas morning was also a big hit.  The girls were up and in the living room at 4:30 but were quickly sent back to bed.  Garrett and I never fell back to sleep anyway though, so we were ready to get up when the kids woke up again at 7.

Santa was good to the kids.  He brought Abbie a 6-book box set of American Girl books (Felicity), a dress-up dress, and some rain boots.  He brought Ellie a Cinderella dress-up dress and a crown, and some Barbie coloring pages.  Olivia got two board books (Chick Chick Boom Boom, and Madeline, which Abbie LOVES to read to her), and some Goldfish in her stocking.

He also ate most of the gingerbread that we left by the fireplace, and chugged all of the eggnog.

Olivia also got a Little People: Princesses set, which she loves.

And Santa saved the best candy for me:

This was our first Christmas without extended family, which was a little sad but I have to say that I really loved it.  I loved being in our own house, starting some of our own traditions, and just relaxing without having to travel or be a guest in someone's home.  We did keep the most important Woodbury tradition (according to Garrett), which was to have pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve.

We had a lovely Christmas dinner with friends in the late afternoon (spiral ham, yum), and after that had an even bigger get-together with more friends for desserts.  I brought a sweet potato pie and it was SO good.

All in all, a very happy Christmas, made even better by the mild temperature.  Garrett's been paying special attention to the weather in Madison and it makes us so grateful to be here in Florida for another year and a half.  Not to say we aren't excited to go there, but... well, we are loving the warm winter for now. :)

Thankful Tree

We did a "thankful tree" during the month of November:

It was fun to sit down each evening and talk about all the things we are thankful for.  The girls especially enjoyed writing on their leaves.  Here are a couple close-ups:

(little piggy is Ellie's new small pillow pet.. now she has a big pig and a little pig)

(candy)

(milk)

November flew by quickly.  We went to Savannah for Thanksgiving; even though Garrett's parents have moved to Utah, the house is still available and furnished so all of Garrett's siblings planned to meet up there for the holiday.  At the last minute, Garrett's parents and little brother also decided to come back and join us, so it was a full house.  Garrett took a few extra days off before Thanksgiving so we could spend some extra time with them.  It was a fun time and the kids loved playing with their cousins.