Do we look alike?

People say I look a lot like my mom and my dad, and nothing like my sister.... So how can I look nothing like my sister when she looks like my mom. The last time we had a picture the 3 of us, was when I was in labor, wow.... what a good time for a photo, and it was pretty cute too. I looked at this picture and was looking at things. I hold my hands just like my mom, I have my sisters chin, we all have the same nose. Thank you mom for taking the picture, although you don't like getting your picture taken, it turned out great. Your the best. You have given Nikki and I a wonderful life with lots of love. You always put us (well the g-kids now....) first and we could never ask for more.

family photo

We did a family picture, first time ever. We did this photo for a family member who lives in Arkansas. She called and requested it. This is the first family picture since our wedding in 2000, but in 2000 there were no kids, so we thought after 7 years and 4 kids later it was time for a new one. This is my whole family with my gma Rene (my moms mom.) Thank you for the request, it was well needed.

Christmas moments......

a few fun moments from the holidays.....

The girls got big girl cameras and the scary part is they are actually really good at taking pictures with them, so good that they take pictures of eachother.

Aunt KC, Uncle Steve and Aiden got them the star station that you hook up a camera to your TV and as you sing you see yourself on the tv, holy ham it up. Gracie is at a stage where she loves to look in the mirror to see her hair, what she is wearing or what her lip gloss looks like. So we are excited to hook this up.

Aunt Kiki got Emma tinker bell wings, yes wings. She wanted them so bad. She goes up to Papa and says you got batteries? Papa says why? Emma says cause my wings no working. I can't fly with them so I need batteries so I can fly like Tinkerbell out of Cinderellas castle. We felt so bad she said it with such sincerity.

Titan & Bluez love to open their presents, new bones. They actually rip off the paper and put it to the side until they get to the bone. They couldn't wait for their present so they were nipping at Gracies present as she is opening it, impatient kids....impatient dogs.....

Grace got funky hair extensions from Aunt Kiki and loved to model them ( Emma and me modeled them too.)

Merry Christmas....

We hope you had a great holiday. Ours was a little different this year than in previous years.

It was the first time since 1987 (yes 20 years) that I got to spend the actual Christmas day with my dad. I have spent time with him around the holidays, but this is the first one in 20 years where it actually was the day, and it was the best Christmas he has ever had. He got to see Emma and grace open there Santa presents, go to their Christmas program, go to my family Christmas with my mom and Randy and it was almost to much for him to handle. He cleaned my house and salon for me on Christmas eve, and got to feel the spirit of church 3 days in a row.

Emma and Grace were in their 1st Christmas program at church on Christmas eve so it was the first Christmas I have missed in 14 years with Randys side of the family. They had to memorize 2 songs and 1 scripture, and...yes they did it. We practiced every night at bedtime for about a month. It was hard to see my little girls up there, but amazing at the same time. They were a little bouncy (but all kids were) but they said all their parts. Thye looked so big and grown up, Cory and I just looked at eachother and smiled when it was all done. Our families were there to see it all, so was the video..... HAHA!

Cory and I are thankful for everything we have in life.... a strong faith with our Lord, a loving family, a beautiful home, 2 beautiful children, great jobs and a wonderful relationship. Thank you God for all you provide, the least we can do is worship you on YOUR day.

5 under 4

When they get together there is no slowing them down. With my family there is 4 kids under four years old, with Corys family there is 3 kids under 4 years old. So getting cute photos is hard to do. My girls are at the age where you just tell them to sit and smile, and they do it, well they are use to me by now. Katie just is on the go, but if she is with Grace it is fine. Boys on the other hand are..well.. boys..... They have a hard time sitting still and getting them to smile is another thing. They did good. Aiden does a cheese smile now which is pretty cute. In the picture the girls were trying to figure it out.

Caramel Toffee Apples.....

My new favorite recipe I thought I would share.....

CARAMEL TOFFEE APPLES

Take your slow cooker and set it to LOW

Put the following ingredients in the slow cooker and stir every 15 minutes until melted ( it will take about 1 1/2 hours.) During this time, it is a nice smell throughout the home while it cooks.

1 bag of baking caramel drops or unwrapped caramels
1/4 tsp. pumpkin spice
3 tblsp. of apple juice

Take 1 bag of heath toffee bites and buy it in a rimmed bowl

You can either slice your apples ( leave the skins on) or leave them as whole apples. You will need about 5 large apples. Insert a fork into the slices or a popsicle stick into a whole apple. Dip the skin only into the caramel sauce and then roll apple in toffee bits. Put on wax paper, cool 15 minutes.

They are great as whole apples or slices. If you do whole apples they will last longer than the slices. It is amazing. All 5 of our apples were gone the next day. The caramel sauce is amazing, nice and creamy.

My husband requested them again the next day..... after we just finished the first batch.

ENJOY!!!!!!

well...maybe...I'll check...OK!

I am in the middle of the busiest day I can recall in years, my legs are hurting and I still have 7 hours to go. The phone rings, its my mother in law. What are your plans for tomorrow? I am still trying to figure out the next 5 minutes let alone tomorrow. Why? Whats up? Well dad is off this week and we wondered if we could have the girls for the day to have a Christmas baking day. I was like, OK, sure.... When do you want me to drop them off? Well, we will come get them, WOW even better, this sounds great to me now, my legs are starting to feel better already..... Well, dad needs a haircut too before Christmas. I knew there was a catch (haha). Great trade I would say. I give dad a 15 minute haircut, and they take the kids for the day. How do you say "no" to that? It was great. The girls had a blast baking all day (as you can tell from the pictures), I got my last minute stocking shopping done, made a trip to the bank, had lunch with my hubby w/o the kids, stopped for a fountain Mt. Dew and then came home because Cory said he was going to pick them up for me. Wow, am I dreaming? Thanks for the break today, it was great!

Forgot to BLOG

Sorry it has been a while since I have updated my BLOG, it has been a little busy around this place. We have had a lot of fun this last month, and this is a little piece of what we have done. ENJOY!

First Snow Play Day...

So we wake up to 8 inches of snow with not a lot of breeze so why not take advantage of it, that is what my husband would say. Me, not so much a snow girl. So after dinner daddy said he would take them sledding behind the 4 wheeler. So they did. They hooked up there sleds behind the 4 wheeler and away they went. Daddy made a snow sleding path throughout the subdivision and they went sleding. We can do that now because we don't have many neighbors, it is actually a lot of fun. After that the girls made snow castles in the back yard with there sandbox toys. It was quite the day. I ended up taking all the pictures, afterall I don't own boots.

Catching Snowballs...

Yes thats true..... my Big Boy, Titan (AKA Great Dane), loves to catch snowballs. Nothing is cooler than catching him in action when he jumps higher than Cory. They were outside yesterday for 2 hours playing, and he has been sleeping all day now, a little to much for that old man to handle. Great Danes don't normally like cold, but this boy loves it. He actually catches the snowballs and eats them. For you dog lovers nothing is better than when your Great Dane jumps up to give you a hug (and knocks you down in the snow in the mean time) and measures about 5-8 inches taller than you. Look close at the picture and see how much taller Titan is than Cory when he jumps.... now thats a whole lot of Puppy love.

Banana Bread Bad went Blueberry Bread Blessful!

OK, so we did our holiday baking and it ended up ok at the end, but our first item was a mess. We made banana bread with a new recipe. I was so in the mood to bake, so the girls did it with me. They put all the ingredients in, mixed it up, and then we tasted it. Gracie says, "Momma, it will taste better after we cook it, right?." So I tasted it, whoops! What did I do? Well I accidently put in 1/4 cup baking soda instead of 1/4 tsp. Holy Salty....... So we threw that out and moved onto Blueberry bread, and that was amazing..... So bananna bread bad, went blueberry blessful

Lets see SANTA....

SANTA was a different feeling this year. Last year no way did they want to even look at him. This year we went twice because they forgot to tell him something. The first picture was when we were waiting in line and they were scoping out the situation. They were so excited that they had no problem even waiting 45 minutes to see him. They told SANTA they wanted a big girl camera like mommy & a leapster with a few games to play. The funny thing is they have said those 2 things all along and have never changed there minds since they have seen them in the store. Then we got home and they forgot to tell them about the play cottage they want. So a few days later we went back with a friend and her kids, and we waited in line again. I hope they keep up the "nice" and not the naughty charm, SANTA has a lot to live up too. That is love, I waited twice to see the imagination of 3 year olds come out from a guy in a red suit.... SANTA.

We want to dress like daddy!!!

So I was lying in bed one morning to the sound of little girls giggling. They were saying things like.... we like daddy, I like vroom vrrom shirts too, daddy likes corona...me too, this is not fitting right..... so I got up and said "I here trouble"... I look in the closet and they are putting on Corys Corona bum around pants and his trans am shirt. They thought it was the coolest thing ever to wear daddys clothes or should I say pajamas..... Why read a book or watch TV when you can play in mom and dads closet and try on clothes!

Tired little Tiger

Emma had surgery On Dec 3 for her Kidneys, she did so well. They placed plugs (kind of like stints for kids, to explain it well) b/w her kidney and bladder to block bacteria from going back into the kidney after it empties into the bladder. Her ureter goes both ways and it is only suppose to go one way, down. They ended up doing both kidneys (we only planned on one side, but he thought it was for the best.) She got a special pair of play clothes (surgery gown) that had tired little tigers

all over them. She went to sleep like a trooper, but waking up was not as successful. She woke up before we got to her and seeing your little girl so dazed, confused and upset was the hardest part. She got a little sick from the anesthetic, but not as bad as her mom has in the past, YUK! She was sleepy for a few days. She wanted to show everyone her owie on her hand from her IV. She was very pale for a few days and I didn't like that. Gracie was so concerned and didn't understand why she was so tired and sick. It was so bad, that when Emma got sick, Grace started gagging and getting sick too..... yes, TWINS for sure. Thanks for all your prayers.....