Cinnamon Christmas ornaments

I found a recipe online to make homemade Christmas ornaments.  These particular ornaments also claimed to double as wonderful air fresheners.  So Grace and I decided to try them out.  The recipe was simple and straightforward.  You take 1 cup of cinnamon, 1 cup of applesauce, and 2 tablespoons of Elmer's glue and mix it all together to form a dough.  Then you make or cut out your shapes and either set them out to dry overnight or bake at a low temperture in the oven until they harden.  If you're going to hang them as ornaments, be sure to make a hole at the top using a toothpick or pencil before they dry...

Grace and I had a delightful conversation while we made them.

"Yook, Momma!  I'm a took-ee man!"  (Look, Momma!  I'm a cookie man!)

Grace informed me that "Fayff yikes Trissmush trees." (Faith likes Christmas trees.) 

Indeed she does.

 "Tween-ee wants a straw."  (Queenie wants a straw.) 

I never realized how much candy canes resemble straws...

 "Momma, you want a bell!  Dran-da-ee yikes a bell, too!" 

(Momma, you want a bell!  Granddaddy likes a bell, too!)

"Dray-cee wants a star!"

(Gracie wants a star!)

"Dray-cee wants a Teen-cur-Bell, too!"

(Gracie wants a Tinkerbell, too!)

"And Mee-mee can have a Teen-cur-Bell yike me!"

(And Mammee can have a Tinkerbell like me!)

What should we give Chloe?

"Kuh-Low-ee needs a bell." 

(Chloe needs a bell.)

What does Stephen want?

"Stee-bin wans a spa-choo-lah!" 

(Stephen wants a spatula!)

You're probably right.  What about Luke?

"Yuke wans a spa-choo-lah, too!" 

(Luke wants a spatula, too!)

Okay.  What about Aunt Bethany?

"Bett-ann-ee wans a Stee-bin!" 

(Bethany wants a Stephen!)

What about Nanna?

"Mann-uh needs a straw!  Dran needs a straw, too!" 

(Nanna needs a straw!  Gran needs a straw, too!)

What does Pappy want?

"Pappy doesn't get eeny-fing!  He was on the naw-ee list!" 

(Pappy doesn't get anything!  He was on the naughty list!)

Well then.  What about Daddy?  Does Daddy get anything?

"Da-ee gets to pay wiff me!" 

(Daddy gets to play with me!)

As a side note, the ornaments really were very easy to make although I found them to be a little "goopy."  And our hands were slightly brown and sticky from cinnamon until we washed up.  This recipe was super simple and convenient since I had everything we needed in my pantry.  It also made two cookies sheets full of ornaments - more than enough for us.  And I must admit that they do smell rather enticing.  Our tree is hung close to our front door and I've had more than one person ask if I had recently baked a pie or something...  Our house smells like Christmas and there's no better smell that that.  And we couldn't have had a better time than baking them up together.

Faith eats cereal

Faith got to eat her first meal today.

She waited in eager anticipation for it.

She really likes her new high chair.  A lady from Target saw me about to buy one that straps into your dining room chair and she came up to me and offered me this one for free.  How amazing and sweet is that?

So Faith ate her first solid food - rice cereal.  Yum.

Faith wasn't quite sure what that spoon was doing.

But she likes to chew on things.

Here's her first bite.

She's thinking about it...

And likes it so much that she decides to take over!

Don't take it away from me, Daddy!  I need more!

Soo-gur (sugar) addict

I decided to reorganize my pantry today.  My definition of "reorganizing" means pulling everything out of the cabinets, looking at it all, and then piling it all back in a new and hopefully more organized manner.  During this process, Grace decided to help.

She climbed onto the counter and said, "Soo-gar!" (Sugar!) as she sneaked a fingerful.

Then she smiled at me so sweetly and said, "I yub soo-gar!"  (I love sugar!).  Me, too.

Thereupon I removed the tempation from her reach.  And so she resorted to cleaning the countertops. 

With her tongue.

Hmmm. I believe my 3 year old is a  "soo-gur" (sugar) addict.  But then again, so am I.

Mmmm...hot chocolate!

I made splenda hot chocolate from scratch tonight to warm us up.  It's cold outside!

And I added baby marshmallows, of course.

Grace looks just like her Daddy.

Chocolate mustache and all.

It's so yummy she just can't resist.

And she gets a little caffeine rush.

Because it's mmmm...good.

We like cake

We really like cake.

And for Grace's 3rd birthday I may have gone slightly overboard with her cakes.

Grace really wanted a mermaid cake but I was afraid that just one cake wouldn't be enough for all our guests.  And I really wanted to go a little over the top with her cakes.  Just to see Grace's reaction.  I wasn't disappointed.

I must admit that I enjoy embellishing our cakes.  And since we were having a mermaid cake I decided to make a "tass-ull tate" (castle cake), too.  Ariel isn't just a mermaid.  She's also a princess.  And along with a crown and magic wand, every princess needs a castle.

Originally I was going to keep it hidden from Grace until the party, but she loves to help me in the kitchen so I decided to let her help.  And because she wanted her cake "spar-cully" (sparkly) with "speen-culls" (sprinkles), I let her have at it.  It was after all her cake.

I had planned to keep her mermaid cake hidden, as well, but Grace spotted it out of the corner of her eye and yelled out, "Dares two Air-ulls!  Dares two of dem!"  (There's two Ariels!  There's two of them!)  and ran over to get a closer look.

I couldn't have been happier with her reaction.  Grace sat beside her mermaid cake for the longest time and told Ariel that she was "bew-ful" (beautiful) and she "yubbed her" (loved her).

And in that moment, all my hard work paid off.  Her excitement and joy over her Ariel cake was so infectious and heartwarming.  And we had so much fun decorating her castle cake together.  

After baking 4 separate cakes and mixing I don't know how many batches of icing, I spent quite a bit of time on these two confections.  But I have to admit that they both surpassed my expectations.  And I may have a tough time outdoing myself next year...  Still, I will try...

Ball of chocolate

 Today I drove to my mom's house today to get the girls.

When I got there, I rang the doorbell since Grace loves to see "hoo's dare!" (who's there.)  When she saw me, she said, "Oh.  It's you, Momma" and walked back inside.  I wonder who she was expecting.

Then I gave her a surprise - my truffle from the rehearsal dinner at Melissa's wedding.

When she first saw it she thought it was a ball.  Then I told her to eat it.

And she realized it was "tlock-ull-lut" (chocolate).  Enough said.

Clock-ull-lut take! (Chocolate cake!)

This morning Grace woke up and informed me she needed to make a cake.  When I asked her what kind of cake she needed, she responded with "Uh clock-ull-lut one!"  (A chocolate one!)  Recently she's learned to pronounce words with Ls.  I love the way she pronounces certain words now.

So we decided to make a yellow box cake mix with dark "clock-ull-lut" icing. 

Grace was my helper and taste-tester.  I forgot her apron.

Daddy helped test, too.

You can look at Grace's face and see how scrumptious it tasted.

Soon the cake was baked and iced.  Grace kept licking the icing with her fingers.

I told her to use her fork so she piled the cake on it.

It was a really big piece!

And wouldn't all fit into her mouth.

So Grace looked at what didn't make it in on her first attempt.

And tried again.

She was finally able to smoosh it all in.

And ate it all.  See?  It's all gone!

I think this picture speaks for itself.  She really enjoyed the cake.

A birthday cake for Baby

I had two little helpers help me bake a birthday cake (cupcakes, actually) for Baby's birthday tomorrow.

They were both very diligent as they mixed the batter.  I think they were hoping to lick the beaters...(but they didn't).

Baby Luke supervised from higher ground.

Then we filled all the little cupcake liners with batter and baked them golden brown. 

And here's our final product!  A birthday bear for Baby! 

I'm taking it to the hospital tomorrow morning so we can eat cake after Baby is born.