Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We had a great Kelly Christmas, with Grammy and Poppy here to celebrate with us. We opened gifts (lots of them), went ice skating, had a great turkey dinner, went on a very snowy walk, and played and played and played. Couldn't ask for more.





This picture was from last weekend as the girls were ready to go to church for their Christmas program. After the program, Maggie puked all over herself...at church. : )

Gram and Pop are here! The girls love to get horsey rides on Poppy's back.

We made the trek down to the Mall of America to see Santa. It was a long wait, but the pictures turned out great!

The highlight of the trip to MOA was that Maggie got to pick out an American Girl doll as her gift from Grammy and Poppy. She was beyond thrilled!

This morning, opening the first of lots and lots of presents.

Maggie, about to open her ice skates from Grandma and Grandpa...definitely the #1 gift of the year!

Bella was not so thrilled with all the present opening. While she did receive some new nail clippers, bone ornament from Maya, and Greenies treats, she was petrified of all the commotion. She was super snuggly and calm. It was great!

The aftermath.

The girls in their skates, which were worn around for over an hour. They finally wore us down and we took them skating at a nearby park. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!

There are no words...

For the love of Bella

The snow is flying, the wind is whipping, Bella's potty spot fills up continually...the things we do for the love of Bella.

Winter Blast!

We love the names that the weather people give to the storms...Winter Blast...Weekend Whopper, etc. Well, this current storm is definitely living up to all the names we've heard. We're currently in the middle of a 24 snow fest. We're expected to get 14+ inches by tonight, then add in sustained winds with gusts to 30-40 mph which makes for blizzard like conditions and an extreme cold front coming on the backside of the snow. We're talking about highs below zero for the next few days. That part sucks. Work was cancelled this morning which was delightful (and it hardly EVER happens so that's saying something). We have no place to be so LET IT SNOW! The only downside is the amount of shoveling that's required. We just came in from several hours of shoveling the driveway (and a little playing on the big snow pile in the cul de sac), only to have the snow blown right back on. Bummer.

I took this picture from inside the garage. You can see how high the snow was against the garage door! Thank the Lord it is the lighter, fluffy snow and not the wet heavy stuff!


Getting started.

Daddy's goatee (sp?) was coated with snow and ice...the girls thought he looked like Santa!

Mags LOVES the snow. Maya, not so much...notice she's not in any of the pictures - she lasted about 3 minutes outside, 2 minutes of which she stood with her face to the garage door so she didn't get the wind. : )

This is our backyard...notice the retaining wall...its probably 6-7 feet tall and you can see how high the snow has blown and drifted.

This is what's left of our fire pit. It'll be totally covered soon.

This is the biggest storm we've had since we've lived in Minnesota. If it's gonna snow, let it snow! Aaron just discovered our heat isn't working so he's back out to check the vent outside to see if its covered in a drift and to do round 3 of shoveling. The girls are up in our bathtub, with swimsuits on, playing "mermaid" and "Hawaii". Bella and I are snuggling in the living room by the fire. What a great day! Stay warm everyone!!!!

Play-doh

Yesterday Maya and I made play-doh. It was actually a request by Maggie's teacher for one of their centers. I think they're making "cookies" or something. Anyway, the request was for scented play-doh. I've made play-doh before so what the heck. I ended up making 3 batches...peppermint, raspberry, and chocolate.

For the first 2 (peppermint & raspberry) I used the recipe her teacher had sent out:

Combine and boil until dissolved
2 cups water
1/2 cup salt
food coloring
scented extract (vanilla, almond, peppermint, etc.) - use A LOT of extract. I thought I used a lot and the smell was very strong when it was just the boiling water and salt, but when you added everything else and it was done, almost no smell. Oh well -live and learn!

Mix in while VERY HOT
2 T. cooking oil
2 T. baking powder
2 cups flour

Knead until smooth (about 5 min.) and store in an air tight container.

Then I remembered that I'd seen a recipe for chocolate play-doh somewhere on one of the blogs I read. I swear it was "edible", but I couldn't find that one. I did find this one though from My Montessori Journey. It smells divine - like brownies, but believe me, you do NOT want to eat it. I tried a tiny bite just to see if it was, perhaps, edible. It was a no go. : )

Mix together thoroughly
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup salt
2 t. cream of tartar

Then add 1 1/2 T. cooking oil and 1 cup boiling water. Mix and knead until you have a smooth ball of dough.

Happy playing!