The Most Wonderful Time of Year...

Christmas Eve Morning

Desmond Family Christmas

Caroline with Uncle Rob 

Charlotte showing Papa her marbles 

Presents and lots of them!

Cousins! 

Opening with Dada 

That was a lot of work!!

 

 

 

Christmas Eve at my brother's 

 

Christmas Morning

Santa came!! 

This girl absolutely LOVES her dolls.  I was removing a new doll from its box with scissors and she said, "Don't hurt her!"

Before she opened a gift she said, "You wanna see?"

And after she unwrapped she said, "Ta-da!"

 

For the rest of the day, she took pictures with her real kid proof camera! 

Caroline felt it was necessary to sleep through the excitement of Charlotte opening her gifts so she opened her gifts later in the day.

 

Merry Christmas to All!

 

Homemade Gifts

I love easy DIY gifts.  Here are some gifts I made for Charlotte this Christmas. 

Play makeup

Recently, Charlotte has been getting into my makeup bag so when I saw how to make pretend makeup I jumped on it.  I cleaned out some old cases and filled them with nail polish.  I had an unused makeup bag and new brushes lying around so the only cost was 3 bottles of nail polish from the dollar store.

 

Scented Playdough

Chocolate, peppermint, coconut, gingerbread, and while it may not be scented she had to have some PINK playdough.

 

 Pre-K workbook

 

I filled a binder with a variety of preschool learning worksheets.  She loves playing school! 

 

Recycled star crayons

She is ALWAYS breaking crayons so I melted all those little crayon pieces in a star silicone baking pan to make new crayons for her stocking. 

Scrap Paper Christmas Wreath

Here's how to get this beautiful wreath: 

Cut a wreath shape from cardboard; we used cereal boxes from our recycling bin

Paint

Paint a bow

 

While the paint is drying, cut out pieces of paper

Charlotte also used different shaped scissors 

Glue small pieces of scrap paper on to the wreath 

Add bow

Proudly show off your hard work! 

Thanks to Jess for capturing this great shot of the 2 most important men in my life!

Colby Christmas Party 2012

Cashberry Chip Cookies

 

I made these for my friend's cookie swap party this past weekend.  They were delicious so I thought I would share the recipe.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white chocolate/vanilla baking chips
• 1 cup chopped cashews
• 1 cup dried cranberries
  

Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Use a mixer to cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.

Mix in the eggs and vanilla.

Slowly add flour mixture just until combined.

Once that's all mixed up just add your cranberries, chocolate chips, and cashews.

Drop heaping teaspoons of the dough on an ungreased cookies sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes or so (just get them out when they're as soft as you like). Cool on wire rack. 

Enjoy! I got 40 cookies out of this dough.

Caroline ~ 6 months old

Happy half birthday to our sweet happy girl! 

 

 

Rolling from back to belly.

Sitting unassisted as long as she has a toy to keep her occupied.
Breastfeeding every 3-4 hours.  She had her first meal yesterday, avocado.
Still sleeping through the night with a good three hour nap or two 1-2 hour naps.  She is great at falling asleep on her own which is a blessing.  I love how when I am holding her she will lay her head down on me, suck her thumb, and fall asleep.
No teeth yet which might be why she's still sleeping through the night.
Some of Caroline's favorite things are Charlotte, peek a boo, thumb, teething toys, dancing, and being outdoors.

Solids!

Daddy and Charlotte gave Caroline her first "meal" this morning.  She had a few bites of avocado.

Success!

Big sister Charlotte having her turn!

Fork Print Christmas Trees

Charlotte painted pine needles on Christmas trees by dipping her fork into green paint.

 

Adding thumbprint ornaments

It wouldn't be complete without a pink and purple tree!

Spin Art Christmas Trees

Start by cutting out Christmas trees from green paper (of course my girl had to have a pink tree!)

 

Add paint

Spin!

We did swirls and blobs of paint to get different effects 

We created a beautiful garland to hang next to our tree