This is embarrassing....

Sooooo....it's been a while since I have last posted, I get it, I'm sorry. Honestly the only reason I am even posting anything is in hopes that my grandfather will read this blog. 12 years ago my grandfather introduced me to the wonderful world of the FIFA World Cup. I will never forget because I spent every last minute of free time I had watching the World Cup with him. I loved it. I want him to know that the kick off to the 2010 World Cup happens tomorrow and I will be watching and I want him to know that I will be thinking of him and that I wish I could be there watching it with him. I love you, Poppa. Let's go Portugal and England!

Christmas and a Birthday......and I didn't post

My deepest apologies for it being so long since I have blogged. What makes it even worse is that we have had baby's 1st Christmas and baby's 1st Birthday since the last time I have posted. I have quite a bit to catch you up on.

So in chronological order, Christmas is first. I had bad news though....Since it was his very first Christmas, we captured most/all of what happened on our video camera. I really only had a couple of pictures.

I thought this picture was adorable, Caden and Parker waiting to open presents on Christmas morning.

Caden also had an awesome/amazing first birthday. We could not have imagined anything better. At one point, I'm pretty sure that we had about 45 people over at my dad's house. I wish I had more time to write about everything. I will say that Caden's party was a Jungle themed party because that's basically all that I have to share that can sum up the party.

Birthday Boy!

My brother came to wish Caden Happy Birthday!

and my niece Chasey!

Daddy and Caden playing at the party

Very first birthday cake!

Eating cake for the very first time!

All done!

Starting to open birthday presents

"Yay, mommy! Opening presents is so much fun!!!"

Gag gift from my friend Greg, I'm pretty sure none of us could have predicted how much Caden would love this Crayon piggy bank.

Party favor bags for the guests

My very favorite picture of the whole day. This picture honestly made me cry.

*** I know that my blog background is still set to Christmas, I am working on changing that. Good changes coming soon

Imagine...

Imagine a world where your mother doesn't live anywhere close to you. And I am not talking a few states away, I am talking a 10 hour time difference. Like all the way across the ocean, and then some. I am talking about Abu Dhabi. The thought kinda makes my stomach hurt. In case you don't know where Abu Dhabi is....let me fill you in

That little red bubble with the "A" in it....yeah, that's Abu Dhabi!

Honestly thought, if my mother and my step father were going to be going anywhere in the Middle East, I am glad it is this city. I have been looking at pictures, and well....this isn't so bad!

Honestly though, it is almost selfish of me to get so upset about it because it is my mother and my step father that are really sacrificing so much. They will no longer get to watch their grandson grow up in front of their eyes, we will now be limited to Skype.

This whole Abu Dhabi situation isn't a for sure thing yet, but my Step Father's job might be sending my family that way. They will find out in a matter of days and then just like that, they will have to start making travel arrangements. It is something that would happen very fast. When my mom told me that it would happen fast, the first thing I imagined was myself standing there, mouth gaping open in the same place from the time she told me they were leaving to them walking out the door. My mother and I are very close, and it does make me horribly sad to think she might not be a part of my every day life. Right now we live with them. If they are to go, then they would be relying on us to take care of their house for them. They would be gone a total of 5 years, so we would be living in their house for five years. Rent free, just taking care of the utilities.

What would you do if your parents told you they were moving across the world?

the melt in your mouth kind of good

I am talking about Butter Cookies. But not just any kind of Butter Cookies....these butter cookies! This is the best picture I could find of them. Words just cannot describe their pure deliciousness. I make them once a year, I would make them more but its a special occasion kind of thing.

One of the best parts about these cookies is they are so fun to decorate and you can make it into a nice little family event. This is me and Jordan's brother's girlfriend Katie. We decorated the cookies this year for Thanksgiving.

Hmmmm....

I have decided to share this recipe with you because I just don't think it should stay locked up. Please do me a favor and make these cookies, you will thank me later, I promise!

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BUTTER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

6 Cups of All Purpose Flour

3 Teaspoons of Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Cups of White Sugar

2 Cups of Butter (4 sticks)

2 Eggs

6 Tablespoons of Heavy Whipping Cream

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

• Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl
• Add the butter, now this is the most time consuming part. I suggest letting your butter sit out for just a few minutes before adding it to let it soften up a little bit. I start by breaking the butter sticks up into smaller pieces and adding them to the mix. You will not be using any electric mixers or anything to mix this together. By grabbing handfuls of butter and flour mix, start rubbing the butter into the flour, finely. It will start to look more like bread crumbs if you are doing it correctly. Smoosh the butter into the flour.
• After all 4 sticks of your butter are mashed into the flour mix, add your eggs, cream and vanilla extract.
• Make sure your hands are washed and dive into that bowl with both hands, just start mashing everything together. As the dough becomes more thick, you will start kneading it together. You will know when it is all done.
• I separate my dough into sections to make smaller balls and then wrap up each ball into aluminum foil. You can do the whole thing, but you wont be happy about it the next day when you are trying to use the dough and its a giant rock hard ball. Little rock hard balls of dough are much easier to work with.
• Place all of your balls of dough that are in the aluminum foil into the fridge, this dough needs to sit over night.
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
• Start rolling out your cookie dough, you are going to leave it pretty thick, about 1/4 inches thick. This helps give the cookies their cakey feel/taste.
• Grab any cookie cutters you have available and start making any shapes of your choice!
• Place your cookies on a non-stick cookie sheet and back between 5 to 8 minutes. I prefer the shorter of the two times because I love super soft cookies.
• Next you can put icing on your cookies or just enjoy them plain! Hope you enjoy

This picture I am posting for everyone but mainly my grandparents, just so you can see all of his teeth he has now. He is beginning to look like such a big boy!

Snow? In Texas? Two years in a row?

Yes, yes and yes. Okay so I know I am a little late on this blog post but my goodness, the days are getting shorter. I promise, it's not just me. So last year it snowed and this year it snowed, tis a beautiful thing. This years snow was so awesome! I have a few pictures to share with you from our Houston Snow Day!

Doesn't it look like a blizzard! Because it totally was! Only kidding, I was being sorta unsafe (Caden was not in the car!) and took this photo while driving so I could get this effect. But really...

It was a peaceful, beautiful snow

And then it really did start coming down pretty hard and fast

The roof after a little bit of snowfall

The roof a little later, its got some real depth there!

Thank you snow, for sticking to the ground and giving little kids all over Houston the opportunity to make snow/mud men!

One of my favorite pictures of the day, the Texas flag mailbox with some snow on it

My beautiful friend Sarah enjoying the snow day with me!

So part of the reason why this snow post is so late is because I have been soo busy! Along with staying at home and raising an 11 month old boy, I have been having to do all sorts of Christmas shenanigans (not really, cause I love it!), birthday planning and back to school preparations. So its been go, go, go! And I am trying to keep up with this new little plan I have for myself. I would like to read and complete one book a week. I love reading oh so much. And I am trying to make this goal for myself so I will actually read and finish all the books I have picked out for myself. I buy books all the time, it is an addiction. If I am trying to just get out of the house, I will go to Barnes and Noble and just browse through the aisles until I see something that catches my eye and then buy it. I know the saying to not judge a book buy its cover, but I don't judge, I just buy! I honestly cannot say that I have read a bad book by working on this technique of mine but I have probably missed some really great ones by doing so. I also buy recommended reading so if someone has something they would like to recommend, I am all ears, or eyes.

I am going to leave this blog post with some pictures I took with my cell phone of my mischievous little boy to show how much fun he is having with Christmas so far.

Birthday Party Bliss

Bliss might not be the right word to use right now because Caden's birthday falls right after the Holidays, which I should have thought of sooner. I have a lot of planning to do in a very short amount of time. The only thing I have done is this...

The invitation, but see how I only have the date figured out. I don't know the time, I think I know the place. I haven't done decorations or anything! That is all I have! I'm actually kind of in panic mode. I actually designed and put together this invitation while we were in England and Caden was sleeping. I figured I could save a few pennies by designing and printing the invitation myself. I don't think it looks half bad. If anyone has any ideas on where to get some good party supplies, please let me know. I am off to do some grocery shopping so I can cook some Chicken and Dumplings tonight.

Santa Baby

Today was a very productive day! First we started off by eating some delicious breakfast at the famous Cracker Barrell. Like, seriously, delicious but it should come with a warning that even thinking about this restaurant can probably make you gain 5 lbs. So after we ate breakfast we headed to the mall to get some Christmas shopping done. We didn't really have anything particular in mind, we were just going to wing it.

First though, Santa was at the mall.

If your like most people, you will look at this picture and say "Aw, I can't believe he is smiling in the Santa picture! Aren't most babies scared at this age?"

I am very proud of how nice the Santa picture that I actually bought turned out. But it wasn't all smiles the whole time. My beautiful friend Sasha was along for this great adventure and I asked her if she would snap some behind the scenes photos. Here is your backstage look at how the Santa photo shoot really went down.

Getting ready to meet Santa!

"Hi Santa, nice to meet you! I've heard some really great things about you!"

Caden is just checkin Santa out at this point

Now he is making sure Mommy isn't too far away

Just checkin out his surroundings

"Hmmm" I think Santa is starting to look a little suspicious to Caden

"My what big, fluffy hands you have"

"Momma, I feel like I've stepped out of my comfort zone!!"

"Please come get me now!"

"No, seriously! I want down!"

"Mommmmmmmaaaaaaa!!!!"

"Oh! Thank goodness!"

"That was a close one"

"Thanks for the hat Santa!"

"Ya know? He wasn't that bad after all!"