Little bakers

I've cut back on yearly traditions. We know this, though, right? I've written about this before. A few have stuck around, and one of my favorites is decorating sugar cookies. I've spent a lot of my time finding good recipes, techniques, and even tools to do a decent job without a lot of frustration. This year, we didn't do a cookie exchange with anyone and we don't really have a reason to have dozens and dozens of them, so I just made one batch. I grabbed a few for me to decorate and then handed the frosting over to the girls and let them do their child magic. 

She's cute, but she didn't decorate. She's more like our comic relief.

I love them. Imperfect, beautiful, touched with their love cookies. I learned while watching them that they are very neat, almost to a fault. They didn't get any on their clothes and hardly any frosting got on the table. In fact, I had to keep reminding them to put more frosting on each cookie because I hate throwing it away and we all know it's more fun when the cookie is loaded down with sugar. 

We didn't do the white base because of lack of time (that's a whole additional step that takes time to dry) but again, they are just for us. It doesn't matter! 

Also, the girls have already requested heart cookies, so we will be baking and decorating again come February. I'm already excited about it.

My imperfect few, blurry and all

Josie's on the left, Audrey's on the right

The one time of year that dirty dishes are kind of pretty.

Christmas!

This Christmas was the best yet. I'm pretty sure. No, I'm positive.

My parents took Josie and Audrey to the lake a day before the rest of us came out. It helped with my brain functioning when I had so much packing to do. They played outside, made me birthday cards, and did some baking before any of us even showed up. 

Side note: isn't the picture below just a little breathtaking? Her sweet profile looks too old, though, I'm not ready for her to look like a preteen.

We got there on Wednesday night and pretty much went to bed. Right away on Christmas Eve (Thursday), we headed outside to enjoy the calm, perfect winter day. It was seriously the most perfect gift that we could get. So thankful we could enjoy it!

Afterward, we headed in to see my grandma. We sang some Christmas carols with/for her before heading back home to have lunch and get ready for church.

After church (candle lit singing with a great message and they even had busy bags for the kids so they behaved and we could pay attention!), we headed home for our traditional appetizers supper and then presents! But first, I forced everyone to take family pictures, and we learned that my parents' wall colors do not do us any favors.

Amelia didn't have too many gifts to open (we've learned that it's just not worth it when they are so little... only took three kids to figure it out) so she enjoyed the wrapping paper while the rest of us enjoyed watching each other open gifts.

It seemed as though most of my gifts were rather large, so my view was a bit deceiving. The room wasn't actually packed with presents, although there were a lot. We all seem to think it's more fun to wrap every single piece separately - more to open that way!

The girls got great gifts and were coloring on the table with their new paper and crayons immediately. It was actually pretty relaxing and fun instead of stressful and overwhelming (like previous years, again, we're learning).

On Christmas day, almost all of my mom's family came over and we had soups and snacks to munch on all afternoon while some of us worked on a puzzle (I think it's a new tradition as this was the second year in a row we've done it) and the kids played their hearts out. I was too busy socializing to take many pictures... .

The girls did get their stockings, which was fun, but we don't put a ton of emphasis on it so it was fairly anticlimactic. The best we could do was pictures in jammie's and Amelia stuffed in her stocking.

Millie made this face. A lot. It's her prequel to a smile and it makes me and everyone else laugh over and over.

After two busy days, we took Saturday off and enjoyed our new gifts and the beautiful weather. All of us headed outside to play in the snow, too.

Wipe out. It needs to be said that Josie has hit the beginning of a super fun stage with sledding. She's completely into it and has no fear. She's up for it anytime and can go up and down the hill by herself (which is HUGE, am I right, parents??). Audrey isn't quite there yet, but she still had fun.

That night, my parents treated us by putting the kids to bed and us younger adults headed out to the bar/grill in Elizabeth. It was practically empty but we didn't mind. It was just fun to sneak away and have a burger and cider (beer).  

And then it was my birthday. The girls surprised me by being extremely celebratory and excited for me. They hugged and kissed me over and over and sang Happy Birthday to me at least four times throughout the day. It was a quiet day with us staying at the lake until the end of the day when we headed home. Honestly, I'm happy with quiet days like that to celebrate another year passing. Having my family (parents, sister) with me makes it feel more fun than just a random day at home with the kiddos. My mom made me ice cream cake (because December birthdays don't usually get those) and Josie gave me her gift to me, the new Avett Brother cd/dvd. She was just as excited as me to have it.

Christmas couldn't have been more fun, honestly. As the girls get older and more aware of traditions, the meaning of Christmas, and the excitement of each part of it, us adults get to enjoy it with them that much more.

As cheesy as it sounds, I know that these are the days I will look back on and miss.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Deyle's! 

We are busy celebrating with family but just thought we should share our Christmas card with you all. We hope and pray that your Christmas is peace-filled and enjoyable and that we all can focus on the true reason we celebrate. 

Happy birthday, Jesus!

moms group and pumpkin patch (two thumbs up)

I recently joined a moms group that is specifically for moms in our city, instead of being from the general area. Lately, I've been feeling displaced from our community. With two other major cities connected so closely, it's easy to make friends through an organization (primarily our church which is 20 minutes away) and then have to drive 20-40 minutes to see them. More and more, I've been looking for ways to connect with moms that live near us. A quick google and facebook search led to this mom's group so I decided to check it out.

It's quite the organized group with membership fees (pretty minimal), mom's night out events, and organized events for the kids along with smaller weekly playgroups. We probably won't be able to attend every event because man it seems like there are a lot of them (no complaints - it's nice to have the option). We did get to go to one of the organized kids event last week that was so.much.fun.

There is a pumpkin patch just north of our community, probably only five minutes away. We met some of the other families out there to play the games, go on a carriage ride (with Clydesdale horses), visit their mini petting zoo, and pick out a small pumpkin to take home.

But don't let that seemingly simple list fool you. It was so much fun. They had a ton of different games (like 10 varieties of bean bag toss) with playground equipment, mini golf, a mini maze, hay bales set up all over to climb and slide down, covered wagons to play in and around, a huge checkers board, a huge connect four game, and a mini haunted walk for toddlers (not scary, but fun for them to walk through). On top of it all, this farm is right on the river so there were a lot of old trees and it was a perfect fall day with a light breeze and cool but not freezing temps. It was a very pretty setting.

Do you see how wonderful this place was? The girls loved it. I'm sure we'll go back year after year.

Life size Connect Four:

Mini golf:

Covered wagon, which we lovingly referred to as Laura Ingalls Wilder's home:

Sweet tire horses that kind of blew the girls' minds:

On the wagon ride with the huge Clydesdales. Of course the girls had to sit right in the front:

A bunch of toddlers from the moms group:

The girls with their take-home pumpkins (Audrey was so excited to pick one out but it was  hard to find one she could actually pick up):