One Sweet Fundraiser...and a Long Night

We recently began helping out with our youth group at church again. We came up with the idea of making giant heart shaped cookies to sell for Valentine's Day. If each youth group member sold five, they would have enough money to pay for the camp that they want to attend in August. The group's goal was to sell 100 cookies. This may not seem like such a big deal, but the reality is that our church no longer has a kitchen or a facility appropriate for an undertaking like this. We decided that we would meet up at different adults' homes and break the kids into small groups to do all of the work.

This process was broken into three parts:
1. Dough Making & Heart Shaping
2. Heart Baking
3. Cookie Icing and Decorating

The biggest and most arduous of these tasks was the dough making and heart shaping. We started on the Friday night a week before the cookies would need to be made and iced. We met up at Nicole's house to begin our adventure. There was a great group of girls that came that night to help. They stirred dough until their arms felt like they would fall off. We did manage to stay focused by having a few mini dance parties and eating some pizza.





We made enough dough for 40 cookies. We thought this was a great start, but we didn't take into account that all of those cookies would need to be rolled out that night as well.





The kids all started drifting off either to sleep or went home around midnight, and that is when the real work began. Nicole and I stayed up until 5:00 AM rolling, shaping, and cutting out all those hearts. By the end of it, we weren't sure why were helping out at all anymore. There may have been some temporary bitterness involved.





By Sunday afternoon, we were feeling up to more baking, so we split the kids up and did some more. This time, we made sure to get the kids to handle the process from start to finish.











The next weekend, we met up on Saturday morning to bake and ice the cookies. I had a small group, but they were really hard workers. I even convinced a few adults to come over and volunteer their time as well.


At the end of the experience, we were dead tired, but we made over $1400 in profit. That's a success in my book any day.

J. Brae's 28th Birthday

Bradley's birthday was the weekend that we were working on the Valentine's Day fundraiser.  I knew this ahead of time, so I knew we would need to be free Friday night to celebrate.  This was also the weekend that Mom and Dad would be out of town on a cruise, so Bradley got two birthday celebrations.

Wednesday night, we went to steak night at Greek Brothers with everyone.  This was perfect for Bradley because steak is his favorite food group.













On Friday night, Emmy and I took him to Shogun's for sushi.  I love sushi, so this was a treat for both of us.











Happy 28th birthday Bradley. Thanks for choosing to spend your years with us!

Love You Most

So since we've been back from Disney, Emmarie's favorite movie is Tangled.  We DVR'ed it spur of the moment one day, and she has literally watched it 35 times (at least) since.

Our favorite part of the movie is the song "Mother Knows Best."  She has me sing it to her in the car, when we walk, and at night before she goes to sleep.  It's kind of sad since it's a song about a mom scaring her child into staying with her because the world is too scary to be part of.  I jokingly told my kids at school that I was teaching it to Emmy now so that one day when she's 16 and we are arguing, I can play it and she'll just stop and think, "Oh yeah, Mom knows best!" (Wow! That was a run-on.)  I'll let you know if my Pavlovian experiment works...Psych 101 wasn't my best class.

But I digress.  Our second favorite part of Tangled is how they tell each other that they love each other.  So it goes like this.

Me: I love you Emmy.
Emmy: I love you more.
Me: I love you most.
Emmy: I love you most too.  I love you more.

Makes me smile every time.  I tried to get her to say it on film.  It's not the best video quality and she get's a little off topic, but you'll get the picture.

Friday Funday

Sometimes on Fridays we like to go out and have a good time. 

This good time might not be as "cra cra" as it used to be.  These days after school, I go out with these two cuties.  Mr. Gattis is their favorite place to chase away the demons of the week.  It also has two of my favorite things--pizza and games.

Julie and I like that we don't have to pay for the girls' buffets yet, so it is pretty cheap as well.

Who couldn't have a good time with these two?








Let the weekend begin!

Hospital Visit: Papa Bo & 'Bumble Bee'

My grandfather gave us quite a scare recently. A man that I have never really seen sick a day in his life spent quite a bit of time chilling at the hospital. This was quite unusual for our family,and although we knew that God would take care of him, we felt like a few visits were needed. Since he was in the ICU, Emmy could not go into the room. She and Bradley hung out in the waiting room while Kari and I went in to chat with Papa. It was really nice getting to spend some time with the two of them, and we left feeling encouraged.

Emmarie Update

So.....
It's been a while since I updated the blog with Emmy's progress. It may have been October when I last posted.  I just can't be sure. (It was. I checked) 

Here is what is going on in the wonderful world of Emmy:

• She is still extremely stubborn and independent.  You cannot tell her what to do.
• She loves drinking "spite."
• She is still "trying" to potty train.  We do a great job in the morning and at night, but during the day, queen Emmarie cannot be bothered with something as menial as going to the restroom.  It's a work in progress people.  I want to yell/scream and force her, but she is stubborn.  I know that if I do that, she will still be in diapers in middle school.  And frankly my dear, I just can't afford that kind of therapy.
• She still loves her babies, but she has a whole horde of Minnie and Mickey dolls that she totes around everywhere.  We argue every morning before leaving for school because she thinks that she needs to take those dolls with us EVERYWHERE. 
• She is getting a little taller and slimmer.  She can still wear her 18 month jeans and sweat pants, but they are becoming high waters.  She wears 2T clothes, but when I buy new stuff, I have been buying 3T so they will fit longer.
• She adores giving hugs and kisses.
• Nana is still one of her favorite people.  The rest of are in the running for a close tie for second place.
• She would watch Disney Jr all day long if I let her.
• She can identify all of her letters by sight, but she still gets confused sometimes when she is doing "K", "U", and "Y"
• She LOVES to sing "Jingle Bells."  She knows the whole song, and even though it is already February, she is still singing it.
• Tangled was our favorite movie from mid-November to late January.  She loves Rapunzel, and both of us know most of the words to our new favorite song, "Mother Knows Best."  It is not out of character for us to sing it in the car, in the kitchen, or as we get ready in the morning.  She now is binge viewing The Little Mermaid, and I AM LOVING IT.  It's my favorite, so I feel like it's making us closer. ;)
• She saw Frozen twice in theaters and that was all it took for her to be hooked.  Watch out because I know what we will be watching non-stop as soon as it comes out in late March.

I am sure there are a hundred more things that I could write down because I want to remember it all, but there just isn't room for all of that here.

I did keep up with her monthly photos...for the most part.  We missed November, but since we were at Disney that week, I feel like we could just use one of the thousands (literally) of photos that I took that week.

These are from month 29!   I love how she looks like such a big girl at Disney.





In December she was officially 2 and a half.  It's a little bittersweet for this Mommy.



January brought month 31.  It might be getting a little crazy to count by months.  I should go on record and say that I just tell people she is two or two and a half.  I am not the crazy mom that tells people, "Oh she's 31 months now!"

Christmas Break

So, Emmy and I really enjoyed our Christmas break.  When I am off from school, I try to maintain a healthy balance of productivity (around the house) and relaxation.  Although we didn't feel the greatest for a  few of the days, I feel like we really found a great balance this break and enjoyed our time together.

Here are a few photos from our time off.

 This beautiful Snowman was created by Emmy for Mommy and Daddy for Christmas.



Kari, Emmarie, and I made Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve eve.  It was a lot of fun, and Emmy really got into the spirit of decorating the cookies.







She really got into the spirit of eating the cookies too.  SURPRISE SURPRISE!





After Christmas, we spent a few warm days outside playing with her new scooter. (Thanks Ollie!)  I love how she looks like such a big girl here.



Lots of time was also spent playing in the new playhouse.  Everyone had got to spend some time in there with the princess.  Sometimes we were in there at the same time.



There was some random silliness and fun too.  This was after I took her to see Frozen for the second time.  She wanted to pretend that she was Elsa.



We also went to Grannie Nelson's house for a few days to visit.  Unfortunately one of her friends passed away, so she was out of town for part of our visit.  While she was away, Aunt Kathy and I organized and put some of her things away in the living room.  She was so appreciative and happy when she got back.



I know a little girl who really loves to visit Gigi's house.  As you can see from this photo, we drink lots of hot chocolate while we are there.




It was an amazing Christmas break, and Emmy and I really enjoyed our time off.