The family is smitten....

Easy Peasy

I love to bake. I love to bake even more when the recipe is easy! Nothing can get easier than this one! Merry Christmas and happy baking!

Linnea's Devil's Food Cookies

1box devil's food cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

mix and bake for 7 minutes. Let cool and drizzle with icing (I put green food coloring in mine and a drop of mint extract to make it a little more holidayish)

Please help

My sister lives in Washington and they just got hit hard by storms and floods and the area is in need of some real help. My sister is taking donations, 100% of it goes to flood relief for the farmers. In return, if you make a donation of $30 or more, you get one of her pieces of artwork. What a great thing just in time for Christmas! For more information, go HERE to visit her site, and her artwork, and the information you need to make a donation. Please pass this on as well. If you have a blog, go ahead and put a link in to her site, lisauntitled.com! Thanks so much!!

Just wanted to say congrats to Kara and Sam...baby Kate was born last night! Cant wait to see her! (Austin was a peach sleeping here last night, by the way...)

"You are corrupting him"

My friend Kara is in the hospital, as we speak, giving birth to baby #2, a little girl named Kate. So, because her first born would not do well in a labor and delivery room all day, I have had the chance to take care of him. Right now, he is talking to himself in the crib in Chloe's room! Anyway, we just spent the evening preparing him for what he is about to encounter having a little sister. Sam said we are corrupting him, I say we are just preparing!

Deep breaths

Take a deep breath. Have you ever been startled by something and it takes a while to get back to normal? Your whole body shakes, you cant breath? That is how I feel right now. Take a deep breath. I was just cleaning my home and there was a knock at the door. I opened it and there was a female sheriff standing there. All the horrid thoughts ran through my mind. They are coming to tell me something happened at school. They are telling me Bryan didnt make it to work. What is going on? I was freaking out. She said "Hi"...."yes, can I help you?" Meanwhile, not knowing what was about to come out of her mouth. She took her clipboard thing she had in her hand and said those words..."I am looking for the wife of ..." and then she said it...his name...and I didnt know who it was. Deep breath. All the air felt like it was sucked out of me. She could tell I was freaked out. She told me sorry. I could tell it was something bad, and she had to go do this to another family now. I told her, I dont know that name and have never heard it before. She said, thats fine, she has another address to go check out. Man, what a horrible job to have to do. So, now that I am breathing a little bettter, and not shaking anymore, I think I am going to go call my loved one and tell him I love him. Makes you a little more thankful than before.

I have a fondness for all things vingtage, or vintage inspired...jewelry, clothing, furniture....I welcome it all. My problem...my life as a stay at home mom of 3 has a budget that does not let me indulge in this fondness. So I dream. I dream of having a beautiful little girls room done up in glorious furniture with pictures all around....I sometimes put on my apron in the kitchen and dream I am back at my great-grandmothers home (where I believe this fondness first came about) eating gumdrops from her crystal dish. One day I will indulge in these daydreams and have a glorious time doing it. Meanwhile, its window shopping, or ebay shopping, for me. I did recieve a beautiful gift yesterday from my father, though. Every year, he has a tradition of giving us an ornament...the official White House Ornament (he lives near the capitol). Every year I anticipate the arrival of the new ornament. So, when it came yesterday, I was so pleased to see that it was a picture of the first White House wedding...Grover Cleveland. The White House must have known that I needed a little vintage touch to my tree this year...so thank you Dad...and thank you White House!

Happy Birthday Hana!

Seems like just yesterday, I was getting ready to go to the hospital...scared as could be. Bryan and I were so young and I was not sure if I was going to be a good mom. 8 hours later, little Hana Faith was born...9lbs 1oz...I remember the nurses weighing her and saying "my what a big girl she is". She has been the happiest, and easiest, child. She has brought so much joy to our lives. 6 seems so young, yet so old. She is such a great big sister, and an awesome helper to me. I still recall when I was on bedrest for so many months when I was pregnant with Chloe, she helped me out so much, and she was only 3! So, Happy Birthday to my little princess! Here are some pictures from the past 6 years!

Another giveaway

Apronista has another giveaway this week. Its from The Farm Chicks. All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment HERE. You can also be entered twice if you leave another comment on what you are thankful for. Check it out!

Apronista giveaway

So, I had mentioned earlier about a website called Apronista. Every week they do a giveaway. They have a featured item every week and all you do is just comment on what you like, and you are entered! This week, the featured apron is a vintage pin-up inspired apron and gloves. Check them out HERE! I guess if I dont win, another item added to my wish list!

And Time Goes By So Slowly.....

13 hours in the car...what a long trip. But it was all worth it! We drove up to W. Virginia early Friday morning and got there 4pm. We went straight to dinner. I am blessed to have a family that grew up close with each other (my mom has 4 sisters) and a Grandfather that loves us all enough to get us all together. We realized that this has not happened for 10 years and probably wont happen again. At least when it does, some of us will not be around for it. So, we all got together at the Greenbrier. If you have not heard of it, it is amazing. It is in WV and has so much history...from being a hospital during WWI to having its own bunker/bomb shelter below....the decorating in this place is huge too. Grand majestic doorways, bold colors, stripes, flowers, granite, words cannot describe it. The place is so huge, yet every dining room and sitting room was done differently. One room at breakfast was purple and the girls thought it was so cool. Plus, everywhere you look are huge chandeliers! So, dinner was amazing, then we went to bed, since we were so tired. Breakfast in the morning, amazing again...the boys went to play golf, while we went to the famous sulpher springs...it supposedly has healing powers to it. Then we took the kids swimming (When I say we, I mean my sister and I. She and I are the only ones in the family who has kids and she lives in WA and we hardly see each other). The pool was amazing as well. Big pillars, tile all around it...the girls took a nap afterwards while I got ready for dinner. Bryan came back, and I took the girls to meet my sister and her daughter, Stella, for a tea party. Every day at the hotel, they have a Tea Party, so we partook of the tea and tea cakes! Hana and Maddison thought they were so grown up! Dinner that evening was a private one, so that we as a family of 28 could enjoy each other. We had a big family picture taken, and one of the 5 of us! Everyone laughed and cried! And the food was amazing, as well. Sunday we drove to my Dad's cabin, Angel's View, and saw my grandmother. The girls had a blast at dads...between the cold weather and being able to wear hats and scarves, to walking in the leaves, to playing in the "nest" to seeing Hana on the wall.....it was great. His place is on top of a mountain looking over the valley...takes your breath away. So, it was well worth the trip, even though it was short. I took tons of pictures, so I hope everyone enjoys them!!!

Angel's View pictures

Lots of pics...Greenbrier

Grandma, Grandpa, and the 5 girls! (for those of you who dont know, my mother is the one on the bottom right!)

Christmas wish list....

I have become a little obsessed this past year with aprons. It brings a kind of nostalgia back....remembering the years past of baking with Grandma's in the the kitchen....I sometimes feel like if I wear a cute little apron in the kitchen while baking, my finished product will turn out better. Not sure if it really does, but I like to think that. I have come across many websites with vintage aprons, some that have monthly contests for homemade aprons. I love to just browse these and get ideas. Some day I will be ambitous enough to make my own. It wouldnt be that hard. I just have a hard time actually starting a project like that. It takes too many steps...the first of which is the hardest...going to the store to get material! So, I have just purchased all of mine. On that note, there are a few of which I am in love with that I have yet to purchase for myself. I keep thinking if I do it, my baking will improve. Want to help improve my baking? Trying to figure out a good Christmas gift? My wish this year is from one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. They have the best aprons! I have a top 10, but will narrow it to 2...maybe 3! My top 1 is the "Bowl of Cherries Half apron"...I think I love this the most because it comes with a matching childrens one. How much fun would that be to have matching aprons with Hana in the kitchen???!!! I think next would be the 3-D Toile apron...very classy! And, if I had to choose #3, it would possibly be the Meyers apron...I love them all! Check them out at Anthropologie. The other thing I am in love with is Purl. If I had an extra couple hundred dollars, I would spend it here. They have a huge collection of vintage fabric that is to die for!! I could become crazy apron making lady with it!!! Once again, another fun thing to check out if you have extra time!!!

What a fun filled day!! I never knew how busy I would be on Halloween now that the girls are in school! We started the day by attending the parade at school that went through all the classrooms. Hana's class was supposed to dress up as scarecrows....she told me that she was going to be the cutest one there....I agree!! This is the 2 of them in the morning...(Maddison had to be Dorothy...her Wizard of Oz obsession continues....and I am proud to say that her dress is the first dress I have ever made...not too bad!!!) ....She wore the dress ALL DAY!

Hana, doing her best scarecrow impression! Hana's class waiting for the parade to go through their room Later in the day, I was able to get a sitter (thanks Kara!) and go help out with the Halloween festivities in Hana's class. It was so much fun...Hana was happy and surprised that I was there! Here she is with her "BFF's" Outside they had a game where they had to try to eat a doughnut off a string....

Later that night we went to "Trunk-or-Treat" at church...I even got into it by wearing the costume mom made me when I was little! The girls begged me! Hana had to be Strawberry Shortcake (again, a costume my mother made!!)