The Best of Christmas 2013

I'm back!  We finally have internet service again so I obviously have some catching up to do.  I bring you some of the highlights of Christmas!

 Silly Ty, playing peek-a-boo with me!

My beautiful ring from Nick's Mom & Dad - custom made with the ivory from Nick's elk.  Nick had a matching necklace made with the other ivory for our anniversary.  I LOVE them!

Despite Mackenzie's face in this photo, both kids were SO excited to see Santa - they clung to him the whole time he was at the party.

Grandma Mac with Santa

They're big enough for an actual kid table now!  Although I think they all ended up sitting on laps at the big table by the time we were all done!  

The girls - Bitty, Me, baby Ella, Mackenzie, Merrilee, Katie, Ella

The boys - Ty, Brian, Nick, Rylan, Randy

The McEnroe clan

Beautiful morning sun dogs over a hog barn at my parents farm.

We had a great time sledding.  

I think all Mackenzie had to do was flash her sweet smile at Grandpa and he gladly pulled her back up the hill.  

Going down with Uncle Spencer

Love that missing-tooth grin!

The crew

Launching myself off the jump.  It felt much bigger!

 Sweet sweet Ace!  He really is getting gray, but he still plays just like a puppy!

The best part - lots of stolen snuggles with Elliana.  She is such a honey!

Grandma, Elliana, Rachel, Andrew, Grandpa

Mackenzie singing in the church preschool program.  She's in the back row, kinda in the middle, the tallest one.

Rylan was a cow in his program.  Sweetest, most handsome cow ever!

Presents!  Mackenzie has been asking for a Bitty Baby for quite some time and she got it for Christmas.  We were hesitant to spend that much on a doll, but the reaction when she opened it was completely worth it, ten times over!  She had tears in her eyes, it was so awesome!

There is a whole other post about Bitty Baby coming.

Rylan was super excited about his gifts too - Legos.

And a Rainbow Loom

We made so many great memories this past Christmas - it was just awesome!

Another Snow Day

More sub-par phone pictures from another snowy day!  I wish I had access to all my good photos, but I only get internet on my computer when using my phone as a hot spot, and it would be too much data to upload photos on here.  So for now, I guess it still works to upload them with the Blogger app.

Anyhow, here's what we did on our snow day at home yesterday!

Our selfie - we were watching the Today show in bed and they were discussing a new documentary called 'Selfie'.  It's about mothers and daughters and their idea of beauty.  Mothers and daughters were challenged to take selfies and see their own true beauty.  I hesitated, because I often don't feel beautiful first thing in the morning, but then went for it.  Here's our selfie!  (we had to make sure the bear was in the photo too.)

After breakfast we all snuggled back into bed to watch The Price Is Right.

We made cupcakes!

We played lots of Guess Who?!

The kids built towers and pyramids with blocks.

I just got these blocks last week - I love them!  They are made by the company Uncle Goose and are made in Michigan.  They have tons of different options for their blocks; classic, bugs, all numbers, all caps, nursery rhymes, presidents, and over 15 different languages.  I've been giving these to lots of kiddos lately, but I had to get these Dutch ones for our house.  I'm 100% Dutch and although I only know a few words, I needed to have these.  We will bring them to my grandparents on our next visit to get the pronunciations correct.  

Laundry is a given

Daddy even got in on some Guess Who at lunch time!  (oh and yes, I still have all my Christmas stuff up - I think it's coming down this weekend)

Mackenzie was helping me with the laundry and she had just carried a warm load into the living room.  I watched as she dumped some of it out, crawled in….

…and cuddled up to all the warm clothes!  She had no idea I was snapping these photos.  It was so funny, but the best part was that right then, Rylan walked through the living room, saw her and very nonchalantly said, "huh, well that's not something you see every day."  I about died!

But the best part of my day were these cupcakes!  I tried a new recipe and it's my favorite cupcake I've ever had!  The cake itself is a doctored up cake mix and the frosting is super easy and out-of-control delicious!

Cupcakes:

Make a box cake mix, but instead of following the exact directions, make these changes:

-use milk instead of water

-use melted butter instead of oil and double the amount 

-add an extra egg

-add 2 teaspoons vanilla

-fill cups 3/4 full

-preheat oven to 350, but reduce to 325 when inserting pan

-bake for 25 minutes

Chocolate Mint Frosting:

-3/4 cup butter, softened

-1 2/3 cups powdered sugar

-pinch of salt

-2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

-14 chocolate mint candy (Andes), chopped (14 candies is half of a 4.67 oz package)

-green food coloring

Beat butter on low speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until creamy.  Add vanilla, beat 1 minutes.  Gradually add powdered sugar and a pinch of salt, beat 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.  Add chopped candies and green food coloring; beat 2-3 minutes, until creamy and blended.

Spread on cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with remaining package of chopped candies.  Then try not to eat every cupcake in one sitting!

French Toast Roll-Ups

More photos from the phone, but better than nothing!  Check this out, I pinned a recipe on Pinterest at night, and we made it for breakfast the next morning - that never happens!

French Toast Roll-Ups!  SO delicious!  I found the recipe here: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2013/05/french-toast-roll-ups.html

Not quite as simple as regular french toast, but definitely worth it! 

1. Cut the crusts off some bread and flatten them a bit.

2. Fill with whatever you'd like!  We did cream cheese and fresh fruit.  Rylan decided he'd like to try peanut butter and fruit next time.

3. Roll them up and pinch the seam shut.

4. Dip in french toast batter and cook in a skillet.

5. Roll in cinnamon and sugar.

6. Enjoy!  We topped them with a little syrup, but you don't need to.  They were SO good!!!

We also enjoyed ours with a side of Daddy's famous scrambled eggs.  It's true, mine don't compare.  I swear I can make them exactly like he does, but they aren't the same.  As Mackenzie would say, "Daddy is a scrambled egg genius!"

A Snow Day

We had a snow day the other day- and it really wasn't that necessary. It was super windy, but it barely snowed and didn't look bad from any windows in our house. But I'm not complaining, it was glorious to stay home all day, especially since I've had an awful head cold. (Any ideas how to itch the inside of your face?) 

Anyhow, I spent a lot of the day lying in bed, but the kids found lots of ways to stay busy. They actually played really well together today - hallelujah! 

They jumped matchbox cars through flaming hoops.

Rylan helped Mackenzie with her Lego Friends set.

They played in the fort we made - why have I never thought of putting a fort here before?! It's perfect!

We played a couple really long games of Memory.

They played with Play-Doh. The new Play- Doh Plus compound in the cookie/frosting set is amazing! It's creamier and actually smells sweet like frosting - I was so tempted to taste it!

It was a wonderful day - much needed rest for us all I think. 

Phone Update

We still have no Internet, but I have a few photos on my phone to share! I will eventually catch up with our lives - including all the Christmas fun! But this will suffice for now.

Mackenzie painting with her new paints from Kaity and Spencer.

Our pinochle cheat sheet - Nick and I learned how to play over Christmas!

My new little tree! It came in the mail with my monthly order of Honest Company products! As a gift - they sent out trees - what an awesome surprise! We'll keep it inside until spring, then transplant to a big pot outside for a couple years until its ready for the ground.

My sweetie with her newest pets - Cookie the meerkat and Cherry the puppy. We saw them at the store and she instantly fell in love. My heart and my brain had a brief battle of love vs logic but them remembered we told her she could spend some of her Christmas money! Perfect! Cookie and Cherry have come with us every day since. 

And that's it because I recently cleared everything off my phone so not much to choose from! 

A Bit of a Hiatus

Not because I necessarily want to, but we currently have no Internet service t our house. Right? How can that be? Our previous wireless provider is dropping their wireless services and the next best option wont have all their towers up until the end of the month or something. We have 3G on our phones, but I'm not blogging with my thumbs. So you'll have to wait until we get this figured out. Maybe I'll justify a trip or two to Starbucks for a latte and some free wireless, but don't hold your breath. Hopefully I'll have lots to post when we finally get back online. 😉