"T" is for Taylor

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mason James

Mason just LOVES his little red Converse High Tops....so much that he will search the house over for them and then bring them to me to put on his cute little feet. He giggles as I put them on and it just cracks me up! Today of course, right after his bath, he took off half naked in search of his beloved shoes....so here he is in all his glory! I just had to take some pictures of my sweet little boy....

Pretzels!

My kids LOVE making these pretzels...just like the ones you get in the mall. Today we got a bit carried away with spelling their names, but it was great fun! I am a huge fan of Aunt Annie's Pretzels....these are just as good, YUM!

MALL PRETZELS courtesy of Allrecipes.com

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.
Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan.
After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets, and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.

Disney World Pictures

We had a fabulous trip to Disney World. It was so nice to get away from the cold of Colorado and enjoy some beautiful, warm weather.

We spent most of our time at the Magic Kindom and at the great pool at our hotel...the kids loved swimming about as much or maybe even more than going to the parks. We did visit the Animal Kingdom which was also really fun. Epcot was not really our favorite, but maybe it's just the kids' ages. It seemed to be geared toward older kids/adults.

The character dining was also fun for them. We had dinner with Cinderella, breakfast with Mickey and lunch with Winnie the Pooh.

Our friends, the Thayn's came to visit us on our last night at Disney World. We went swimming, had pizza, and then took the riverboat to Downtown Disney for ice cream at Ghiradelli. Yum! I think I went to Ghiradelli 3 days in a row....just couldn't get enough.

On the "Magical Express" headed for our Disney Hotel. The kids were soooo excited!

Our first night there....checking out the Magic Kingdom.

The carousel was our first ride of the evening.

Mason LOVED it!

Celestia and the Stepsisters. They were quite hilarious to listen to! --by far our favorite characters to meet...Celestia even thought so!

Dinner with Cinderella and crew...

Kisses for Jack.

On the Train at Night...it was cold that night.

Breakfast at Mickey's

A fountain outside our Hotel Room.

Cute girl.

At Nemo's @Epcot.

Celestia enjoying the flowers outside at Ghiradelli in Downtown Disney

Celestia outside Ghiradelli's.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Today I've been scrubbing the house down.....my way of giving myself permission to go away...like to Disney World! I have this great expectation that we should always come home to a clean house....maybe so I'll actually WANT to come home after having so much fun away from home.

Anyway, you heard right, we are headed to Disney World on Monday for 6 days. Just us and our 3 cute kids. This will be our first "official" Family Vacation. I am SO EXCITED I can't even stand it. We've never been there before, but have only heard great things. The kids are super excited as well. Celestia has been counting down for a while now.

If you have any suggestions on where to eat, what to see, etc...please post a comment for me!

I will post all about our adventures when we get back!

Monday, January 19, 2009

It's another BOY!

Woohoo! We're excited!

Due date: July 5th

Warning: My babies never come on time or early, so we're guesstimating July 14th?

We'll see......for now though everything is looking great, measured right at 16 wks 1 day.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Oh yeah, I should probably tell you all..........

I'm "prego" as in "great with child" as in I'm gonna have another baby!

Yup, just thought I'd let you all know I'm Pregnant with #4! Can you believe it? Another baby?

So look forward to next weeks post. I will hopefully find out what gender this little one is on Monday. That's right, I'm almost 16 weeks already! Due around the middle of July.

I am so good at keeping secrets aren't I?

Friday, January 2, 2009

Happy New Year!

***Blogger is not letting me upload the last few pics...will try again tomorrow...more Christmas Day pics to come***

Well, it's a new year, yeah! I celebrated in bed...yep...sick in bed all day New Year's Eve and New Years Day. Yuck. At least today I am feeling more myself, but as I write this, David is going to bed early saying he feels like he's going to throw up...oh, how I hope he doesn't really get sick.

Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas. My parent's and Mikhail came out to spend the week with us and of course we had lots of fun. We took the kids to "Pump It Up" an inflatable indoor playground where they had a blast.

Here's Mom getting in on the fun....

Mason with his serious face on.

Jack with big smiles coming down the slide with Uncle Mikhail.

Celestia ready for more...

Christmas Eve the kids did a little Nativity. Jack and Celestia played Joseph and Mary, and of course Uncle Mikhail played our Donkey. They had a great time acting it out and we adults had many laughs watching it. They were just so funny...come on what do you expect from a 2 and 4 year old? Too cute. I got it on video for them to cherish in the years to come :)

Awe, look at those two. All dressed up and no where to go...we took the kids to the movies on Christmas Eve to see Bolt.

Here is our little Live Nativity!

Awe, Christmas day. Jack was the first one up. I heard him running down the hallway at 6:40am and I just knew where he was headed (usually to my room to wake me up), but this time he was off to see what Santa had brought downstairs. I jumped out of bed and caught him already with the chair pulled over to the light switch and lights on full blast. He was blinded by the light, thank goodness. I quickly turned off the light and took him back upstairs to get Celestia so they could all go down together.

It is so fun to see their excitement on Christmas morning. It was especially fun having my parents and brother here too to share in the fun.

Jack loved opening presents.

My Dad and brother attempting to make a snowman out of really dry snow...just add LOTS of water and it will eventually form something....

Oh and I have to just add this great picture...my new shoes!!! If you can't tell by the picture....these are some awesome Hannah Montana crocs David's grandpa bought for Celestia for Christmas...nice, huh?...size 4 in girls (Celestia is barely an 8 in toddlers)...wait a second....I think that's just my size, SCORE! So check out my new Bling! (that is a cool word to use this days, right?) I thought you'd all be jealous...