Made with Love

Last Friday we joined Nana to make cookies for Valentines Day!  This is becoming a new craft we do with each holiday - something I think both Ashtyn and Nana look forward too.  Once again, it amazed me how well Ashtyn does decorating the cookies.  So careful not to waste any sprinkles and so careful to place them exactly where she wants them.  She did however this time eat a LOT of frosting, cookie dough and sprinkles, but that's half the fun!

 eating cookie dough...

 eating frosting...

 and a mouthful of sprinkles - YUM...

 Here are the masterpieces...

 what do you see on this sweet baby's mouth?...

 Pink FROSTING!  Eli loved sucking our fingers to get as much frosting as he could...

We ended up giving away plates of our beautiful, handmade cookies. One plate we delivered to Matt at work, another plate for the break room at Matt's work, which I am sure was appreciated and another plate for Butch, Grandma and Emmie.  It's always such a fun activity to do to celebrate the next holiday coming up as well as keeping Ashtyn busy which is always a task at hand.  We will see if Eli shares in the same appreciation for decorating cookies - for now he just played on the table sticking anything sweet in his mouth.  Hope everyone enjoys their special LOVE day - Happy Valentines Day!

Christmas Traditions

We had a weekend full of Christmas traditions.  We finally got the tree up on Friday morning.  It took me all morning to get it out of the box, straighten the branches and get the lights in working order - but it's up!  Ashtyn LOVED the Christmas tree- she's been asking me for days now - "When we have Christmas tree?"  She hung out under the tree the rest of the morning...

Eli even thought the tree was pretty cool.  I had him laying on the couch so he could watch me and he scooted all the way to the end and then reached out to the branches and proceeded to shake them.  It's a good thing he's not mobile yet or I don't think we would have a tree up this year.

Eli was fussy on that morning - what's new though!  So I thought the only way to finish getting the tree up was to put him in the baby carrier, which seemed to suffice until I bent over and one of the tree branches stuck him in the eye - Whoops! But once the tree was in working order I put him in front of it and it kept him content for quite a while.  He sat there and just screamed at the tree - happy screaming though!

I finished decorating the tree Friday night after the kids went to bed - I wanted to enjoy this part and I am neurotic when it comes to the placement of ornaments and so on...So when Ashtyn came down the stairs Saturday morning she was very surprised.  She said "Oh, that look so pretty mommy - good job!"  She was so memorized by the tree.  She just sat there and looked at it for a good 20 minutes.  Then she starting playing with the ornaments, so we had to have a little chat about not touching, just looking!  Hopefully all the ornaments will stay in one piece...

On Sunday we went over to Mimi's house to make Christmas cookies with all the Aunts and Cousins - another Christmas tradition.  Ashtyn once again was the "sprinkle" girl!  Brooke and Ashtyn did great at adding the sprinkles to the sugar cookies - I think Mimi approved, except when we did orange sprinkles, that didn't go over that well.  Apparently orange is not an approved Christmas color! 

We made a ton of cookies as usual - and by "We" I mean my aunts (I was on baby duty the whole time) so the credit is all to them.  It was different this year though with Pam and the girls in Mexico.  I am sure they were having fun, but we definitely missed their company.  The cookies are delicious and beautiful as always - YUM!

Spooky Cookies

Today, Ashtyn helped Nana make Halloween cookies! My mom loves to make sugar cookies and decorate them which we typically do around Christmas, but we thought we would start a new tradition and start decorating cookies for Halloween to give away to our cousins and friends! We made pumpkin cookies and decorated them with orange frosting and sprinkles.

I was very impressed with my little artist! She helped Nana roll the dough, cut the cookies and then of course she did a wonderful job decorating. She was very careful of what she put on the cookie - Most kids just dump the sprinkles on in a big pile - not Ashtyn, she slowly placed each sprinkle one by one just where she wanted them! It was so cute! I love how much attention she has for details - just like her mama!

Ashtyn also enjoyed eating the cookie dough and the sprinkles and the m&m's and the icing! Let's just say she had tons of sugar today! I think the cookies turned out very cute and now we can give them away for Halloween presents - there is no way we can eat all of them. Ashtyn will definitely be ready for Christmas cookies this year - she is so fun now that she can actually take part in these activities and enjoy them! Eli, however just played on the floor trying to stick his feet in his mouth - but I am sure next year he will dive right in! Thank you Nana for the fun day!

Labor Day Parade

For as long as I can remember I have been going to the parade in Louisville every year for Labor Day. We sit in the same spot every year and watch the same firetrucks, cars, school bands, cheerleaders, floats and horses go by. I of course had to introduce Ashtyn and Eli to the same ol' tradition. So we headed out this year to the same spot right across the historical museum, sitting with the rest of our family and watched the famous parade go by. Ashtyn had tons of fun this year being able to share in the candy fun - she would wave to everyone thinking they would throw her candy and when they did she would run after it! We got a ton of goodies from the parade - even a soccer ball!

This picture is so precious to me - I remember every year enjoying the parade with my great grandma and now my kids get to experience the same. I hope they will learn to love their Mimi as much as I do...

The four older cousins - they were so great helping Ashtyn get candy!

Labor day came and went very quickly - but we enjoyed the day hanging out with family and then getting to just enjoy a quiet day at home resting. Now it's time to enjoy the beautiful Colorado FALL - my favorite!

Easter Egg Dying...

Dying Easter eggs has been a tradition I have know, since I was a little girl. Every year all the Aunts and Cousins meet over at Mimi's house to dye eggs, and the tradition continues... It is definitely a lot more chaotic this year then I remember when there was just the 4 of us kids - Kevin, Mari, Allie and I - I guess when you add 5 more little ones into the picture that is bound to happen - let's just say there were ALOT of cracked eggs this year! This year Ashtyn was old enough to finally understand what was going on and was able to participate. She would drop the egg in the dye and then would have to stir it - and then when it was done, she LOVED putting stickers on them. Ashtyn and Nana did a great job of decorating her eggs -

Even Uncle Kevin got back into the spirit and decorated some eggs himself...

I think everyone had a great time and it's always fun to be around the family - Mimi just needs to get a bigger kitchen to hold all of us!