Cookies and Reindeer Food Fun

On December 10th (wow - SO BEHIND) we had a play date with Logan's long time "girlfriend" Izzy. Her older brother Malcolm came too (although Logan kept calling him Michael.) Along with his their mother, Kari. Kari did not come empty handed. She was in charge of cookies and frosting. 8 DOZEN cookies later - 7 dozen of those done by Kari and I - we had a TON of decorated cookies! ha!

The second activity was reindeer food. Because we of course know that reindeer need to eat on Christmas Eve as well, right? I was really looking forward to it. Logan really thought it was great fun on Christmas Eve to sprinkle it in the driveway. I think next year I'll let him put together a bigger jar to spread out and maybe a little jar for Abby as I'm sure she will be toddling after big brother by that point. :) Here are some pictures from our fun morning.

LumberLogan

Who needs a lumberJACK when you have lumberLOGAN! LumberLogans are much cuter and very helpful. We helped cut up wood from an 80 foot tree my dad cut down. This will be our wood supply for our fireplace for probably three years! There was A LOT of wood!

I don't have a ton to write (I'm feeling like utter crap with this cold from the dungeons of hell, so photos will have to do!) ENJOY!

Big Boy at School

Logan got this backpack at his first birthday and we have never had too big a reason to use it, but I finally thought it a good idea to use it to carry all of Logan's winter stuff to and from daycare. He was such a doll and looked like such a big boy wearing his backpack. He was quite frustrated when I wouldn't let him wear it in his car seat. Wow - I'm such a bad momma! HA! He is growing so fast!

Thankful for Parents Day Out and Logs

A Parents Day Out .... ahhhhhhhh .... it was pretty nice for the most part. Here was our schedule of events:
7:00: wake up and get ready for the day
7:50: head to Auburn Hills to pick up Detroit Pistons tickets
8:57: pick up tickets
9:10: breakfast at Big Boy
9:45: shopping at Kohls...
10:15: head off to Great Lakes Crossing for some serious shopping done for Christmas
10:20: realized that Great Lakes Crossing doesn't actually open til 11
10:30: off to Target...
10:57: back to Great Lakes Crossing while Nathan deals with grumpy Lindsey (poor guy - I was a hand full)
11:02: realized Toys R Us Express is crappy compared to a real Toys R Us
11:07: buy a couple things for Logan at the Disney store and leave because I kind of think Great Lakes Crossing sucks now
11:15: off to Old Navy
11:50: returning stuff to Kohls from the earlier shopping trip
12:00: off to The Palace
1:45: tip off - it was a great game and Nathan and I had so much fun! The Pistons lost in double overtime and after the game we were both able to take a free throw shot on the court. We both missed, but Nathan missed worse than I did so I'm the free throw champion. I know it is a week argument, but it works for me! Here is a picture of us after our shots.

4:40: started our drive back to Ann Arbor
5:45: shopping at Toys R Us - a real one! Much success!!
6:45: shopping at Meijer
7:30: Nathan doing some plumbing and me some cleaning
8:30: watching "Grown Ups" and laughing a lot!
11:00: SLEEP!!

Whew! That was a busy day!

Logan had a great day at my parents house - he and Grandpa were busy moving logs from a huge tree he cut down a week ago or such. That will be our fire wood for the winter! (I really have the greatest dad!) Logan had a good time playing down by the creek and helping Grandpa roll the logs up and out. Logan always has a great adventure out at his grandparents house!

Ahhhhhhh - it was a great long weekend of Thankfulness! I hope you all had a great one with your friends and family!

Extra Post - STOP APOLOGIZING!

You may have guessed I wrote all 5 blog posts for this week on Monday and have them set to publish each morning, but today I have a bonus post, hot off the presses!

A friend posted this on Facebook and I couldn't NOT share... it is so true. Here is the original post. The message is worth retyping below:

_______________________________
The other day I was reading a beautiful blog post and the writer was giving us a tour of her living room and her pretty Christmas decorations. It really was lovely. But then in a blink of an eye it happened.

She apologized.

For her table.

Her table that she thought was ugly.

I hadn't even noticed.

Until of course she pointed it out.

And then I was sad.

Because the beautiful moment had disappeared.

Poof.

Just like that.

Ladies, why do we do this? I see it time and time again and believe me I'm guilty of it myself as well. Focusing on the negative only draws attention to it. Why do we want to do that? Let's face it we all have things/stuff in our lives that maybe isn't our idea or as fashionable as maybe we'd like but it's ours nonetheless. And while we may be embarrassed by it and feel the need to make sure others are aware of our embarrassment someone else may be looking at your table, or couch, or bedspread or carpet and wishing they could have something half as nice as that. They might be saying to themselves, gosh if they think their couch is hideous there is no way I'm inviting her to my house to see mine.

I caught myself the other day apologizing to a girlfriend for the blandness of my builder beige walls. Why did I find it necessary to point out my discontentment when I know that negativity breeds negativity. I don't want that. I want to instead focus on the fact that I have walls that give me shelter and a place to put my head at night.

How can we be apologizing for something and grateful for it at the same time?

Let's instead try to focus on the positive, especially during the holiday season when it's so easy to be envious of what someone else has.

My challenge to you (and me) is to pay attention to your words this week to see if you can catch yourself apologizing for something your maybe not so happy with. Then turn that negativity upside down into something beautiful and gratuitous instead.

We can do this.

Stop apologizing.

Let the moment happen.

_________________________________

This is SOOO me. I am a people pleaser (like my friend how posted it on facebook) and I am always trying to apologize away my often clutter, sometimes messy, usually dusty house.
Am I apologizing that Nathan and I work all day to support our family?
Am I apologizing that we choose to play with Logan every minute we can rather than do the dinner dishes?
Am I apologizing that even after Logan goes to bed Nathan and I would rather cuddle on the couch and watch a show on the DVR than pick up?
Maybe. Maybe we should... but really... do I need to apologize for it?

I can recall in recent memory at least 3 times I apologized for our messy house, 1 time I apologized for our well loved dining room table, 1 time I apologized for our drafty windows (yay for them being replaced on the 21st,) and 1 time I apologized for.... well I can't remember, but I'm sure there was something! ;)

It is an area I really need to work on for sure! Do any of you?

Thankful for cookies and great-grandmas

On Saturday morning we were up and out pretty early and headed down to Adrian to visit with Logan's Great-Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. It was a great visit and we were able to see both grandparents, but when we got to picture taking time Grandpa was taking a nap.

It was a nice visit and Nathan's sister, Christina and her husband, Oliver and our nephew Liam came by and we all got to spend time with Grandma. When the three of us were visiting Grandpa's room before he took a nap Logan was showing him how far he could jump off Daddy's lap. Our little dare devil! Always running and jumping and climbing on anything he can find. :-)

Then we headed to Nathan's parents house for our annual Cookie Baking day! It was a great time!

Logan was all business with cookie baking

Logan and Liam were all about helping and were so focused on the "stuff" that they had a hard time posing for a picture to show off their super cool aprons.

Taking a nibble of butterscotch chips.

The girls (minus Caitlin) baking up a storm!

Logan was such a helper... so much so that momma was sweating up a storm trying to let him "help." ha!

Some of the cookies

Getting ready to roll out some sugar cookie dough.

He took a break to do some dancing and jumping. He is a blur in this photo, but look at those ups! ha! Such a jumping bean!

Logan and Liam getting ready to roll out some more dough.

He did so good following what everyone else was doing. Here he is getting ready to put some flour on the rolling pin.

Working hard with their dads

It was a great day all around and I can't wait to see what a great helper Logan is next year when we have the 2011 Cookie Baking day.

Thankful for Grandma Hunt

Friday was Grandma's birthday! I don't think she would mind my saying she turned a very young 62 years old! How many 62 year olds can give a very active 2-year-old a run for his money on the days they watch them?.... Or right - that would be my awesome Mommy!

The festivites included her going Black Friday shopping (I even offered to go with her, but she declined as she likes to go solo. FINE BY ME! Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!) A quick doctors appointment, breakfast with my dad, some more shopping and probably an afternoon nap in there. Then we all headed into my brother's house for a yummy family dinner!

We decided on lasagna, broccoli, apple/walnut salad and french bread. I volunteered to make a homemade lasagna! Laying in bed Thursday night I realized we forgot dessert and since cheesecake is my mom's favorite I thought I would make a New York Style cheesecake. Note to self: if I choose to make this again - I need to make it a day ahead of time. Not the late morning on the day of the event! OOPS! More on that later.

The lasagna recipe I choose to try was Joy Behar's Lasagna Recipe from The View. I must say this was YUUUUUUUUMMY!! Like seriously - a.ma.zing! I will say the recipe was not proof read when it was posted and the list of ingredients forgets the tomato sauce and oregeno listed in the directions below. (I used a small size can of tomato sauce and would suggest using more and also I forgot to buy fresh oregeno so I used a little dried. Also - Meijer was out of garlic so I didn't use any, but did put some garlic powder in the sauce.)

So the lasagna was fan-freakin-tastic if I do say so myself... the cheesecake. Not. So. Much. It had good flavor, but poor texture. It didn't have enough time to set up so the outer two thirds was set up and was quite nice, but the inner third was not! oops! Oh well... this is the recipe I tried. The flavors were good, but I would probably skip the lemon/orange zest and just stay straight cheesecake. I also made a raspberry puree... Wolfgang Puck Style. It was quite good, but I probably could use less fresh lemon juice.

We had such a lovely time celebrating and watching the kids play and have a good time (for the most part.)

We are very blessed people to have such an amazing woman like my mom in our family. I can't wait until this Saturday when my sister-in-law take my mom out for manicures and dinner! FUN!

Logan loves when my mom puts his belly on her head and shakes her head back and forth... leads to much laughter and screaming on both sides! ha! Love you Mom!!

Next up: Cookie Baking Day... 18 different kinds and over 50 dozen cookies. EEK!