Kick Off To Baking Weekend...

Every Year for Christmas I head over to Williams-Sonoma and buy their Hot Chocolate and Vanilla Marshmallows.... I am telling you it is goooooood....


But this year I decided to try making my own marshmallows.. it was a risk but I found the recipe on Heather Bailey's sight....
So Friday night started off with me attempting to make my own marshmallows... I also found it extremely difficult to take pictures and cook at the same time..especially since I am not exactly the best cook.

I laid all the ingredients out.. I had to go buy a candy thermometer and a saucepan big enough to make the marshmallows in. Then I ended up going to THREE grocery stores to try and find the White Rice Flour with no luck.. but I put out a distress call to my sister in law and she found it at Sprouts..(Thanks Becci!!)



So everything started out simple enough.... ingredients in saucepan and then saucepan on stove.... but then...
it just seems like I can't make anything without some little thing going awry.. just a tiny fire was started... okay.. well maybe it was a medium one but Kyle came to the rescue because I started panicking and he just waltzed right over and turned off the burner and then put some water on it.. oh yeah..turn off the burner..
*note to self* next time you buy a new saucepan Cara you might want to check the bottom to see if there is any cardboard packaging on the bottom.. sorry I didn't snap a picture of the fire for you all as I was a wee bit busy.. but here it is smoldering out..

Watching the candy thermometer till it got to "soft ball" stage was kind of fun..good thing the candy thermometer had that labeled.. unless I would have had no idea when it was ready. Guess that is why you get a "candy thermometer"Look how fluffy and yummy that marshmallow fluff looks...

Then I decided to make it festive with some red food coloring swirled in.. It was pretty intense at first but once I sprinkled the rice flour/confection sugar mixture on the top, they looked perfect.


The finished product.. Not bad right? They were just as good as Williams-Sonoma and it was an extra bonus that I got to brag that I made them..

Just need a cup of hot chocolate and a great book...

Love how cozy this chair looks.. makes me want to learn how to knit...

Off To See Santa

The kids were so excited to see Santa this year, they are at that perfect age... so much fun.. they made out their lists to Santa...We went to dinner with some frinds and Luke decided to drink his cup of Ranch...crazy kid..
so I guess that is a "ranch mustache"..gross..Lists in hand..waiting in line.. I have noticed lately that Luke is starting to put his hand in his pocket a lot.. too grown up for me.. he looks like a little man...

They had these really neat scenes behind glass for the kids to watch in this tunnel area where you waited in line.. they also had fake snow blowing above our heads onto the crowd periodically.. it was really cool.. the kids had fun just waiting.. and it wasn't even that terribly long..about 40 minutes..

First gimpse of Santa...Hailie was so cute reading Santa her list and Santa was incredibly nice... I wasn't sure how she was going to react to him because in past years it hasn't gone so well.. she was a little shy at first but then we ended up getting a really cute Santa picture...

I love this time of year.

The Gingerbread House....

Luke came home with a homework assignment to color a picture of a Christmas family tradition..
It was so cute he grabbed the gingerbread box to color his picture...

The kids had a blast decorating it..

My Beautiful Princess...

Okay I am gushing...and I know that I am probably biased but I just think Hailie is the most beautiful little girl... She had her Christmas Program on Friday night and she was so excited.. Here she is with her teacher Ms. Charity.. she just adores Ms. Charity and so do I, she really is the best Preschool teacher. Here is Mr. Luke hanging out with mommy waiting for the program to start....cracks me up..and then since Luke use to go to the same Preschool as Hailie he ran into some of his little friends..so cute... they were just chatting non stop.. you know important stuff like their favorite Star Wars guys...

The pastor of the church always does this long drawn out speech every year..God love him but my goodness...

So this guy in front of Kyle looked exactly like the guy from the movie Dumb and Dumber...you know the blonde one..I kid you not..the shirt he was wearing..his hair..his face..I mean everything.. we were dying.. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of his face though.. Kyle was cracking me up..can you tell we were bored.. we are so bad..

My baby being led up the stairs....

These two pictures were the only ones I could salvage fromthemillion I took..they were horrible..my camera is the worst.. I know you have to hear me complain about the camera again..but really..

Grandma Kathy gave the "star" of the night a pink rose.. so sweet...

Then Mommy and Daddy picked up some Golden Spoon to celebrate!! Their frozen yogurt is the best..if you haven't tried it.. you really should. Not sure if it is just a local AZ thing or not though.

Last game of the season

Hard to believe the season is over already.. I felt like Luke really enjoyed his first soccer experience..

Telling coach to put him in because he just knew he was going to "score three goals this game"

Making sure everything is tucked in before he brings it...Look at that smile... taking a bad spill... mommy's reaction...He got right back up though and was in there trying to get the ball...

Hailie was really involoved in watching the game..can't you tell ...

Great season baby.. we are really proud of you!

Thanks for the amazing pictures Geoff!!! We all know how I feel about my camera... this weekend was jammed packed with activities.. I will post more later.. but the whole weekend I felt it was all I could do to stop from throwing my camera into a wall..