CHEWW, CHEWW!

Trains normally sound like like choo, choo. But during the holidays we hear CHEW, CHEW.

A few days ago we made these candy trains. Daesha did it all by herself! I just had to give her instructions and she did it! Way to go Daesha.

Here are the directions to make your own. They are so easy!

You will need:
1 Piece of cardboard 24x4 in. covered with aluminum foil
4 Three Musketeers (engine and cars)
4 sticks of Balck Licorice (tracks, couplings)
24 Peppermint Rounds (wheels)
24 Red Hots (center of wheels)
6 Tootsie Rolls (logs)
1 Life Saver Roll (engine)
1 Chocolate Kiss (smoke)
1 Candy Orange (cow-catcher)
1 Gum Drop (headlight)
1 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (smoke stack)
Assorted candies... M&M's, gumdrops, mints, red licorice, what ever you like to fill the cars.

RECIPE FOR ICING (makes enough for 3 trains)
3 Eggs
1 lb. Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
Mix all and beat for 10 minutes. (Keep covered with a damp cloth when not in use.)

CUT CANDY BARS
* Cut off 1/4 of one bar for the top of the caboose, the remaining 3/4 is for the engine.
* Cut 2 bars in half, for the cars.
* Cut off 1/3 of one bar for the engines cab and the remaining 2/3 for the caboose.

ASSEMBLY
* Place small dabs of icing on the bottom of each train piece to adhere to cardboard.
* Ice on the peppermint wheels and then the red hots.
* Cut several licorice sticks length wise in fourths. for the tracks and couplings.
* Ice the 1/4 piece (cab) or the engine on the back og the engine.
* Ice the life savers together. Ice along the topfront of the engine and place LifeSavers.
* Ice the orange slice to the front.
* Ice a gumdrop on the front for the headlight.
* Ice on the peanut butter cup for smoke stack and the chocolate kiss as the smoke.

Decorate the cars and caboose how ever you like.
HAVE FUN CHEWING!

To our dearest friends and family

This year has been pretty uneventful for our family. Daesha turned 4 this year and loves to play with her friends. She is our little social butterfly, and also our little diva. Keegan turned 1 in June. He is a handful. He gets into everything! He never walks anywhere.. He runs. He can say a few words but last week said his first sentence. He said, “Get down Mom”. He also eats a lot of food. He can out eat Daesha any day. And comes close to out eating me.
Ted has been busy working his full time job at Boart Longyear. He has been there for 4 years. The last 6 months Ted has been doing some real estate investing. He has really been doing a lot and learning a lot too. Our goal is to have him leaving his full time job and doing real estate. In fact, our first big break was just last week. Which is why I am so late getting out our Christmas cards. We have been moving! We have purchased a foreclosure for a great price!

Side note: We have a bit of a delay in the move. We still will be getting this house but might not be in until after the new year. As soon as we have signed I will post pictures.

Santa's got it in the bag!

Incase you were ever thinking that growing a big white beard and working for one month out of the entire year was a good idea. Well, one particular "santa" here started on December 1st. And will work every day Monday through Sunday until Christmas Eve. He arrives at the local mall at 10 am. And leaves at 8 pm. He takes 2 45 minute breaks each day. I wanted to ask what he made in the single month of December. But I didn't. Then theres the children who's parents drag them to the mall screaming just to pay 25 bucks to get a picture with santa and in return you get a candy cane and a stupid book about satelites and how they can track santa on Christmas Eve. I think this must be the worst job EVER! None the less this Santa was very sweet and talked to Daesha way longer than he needed to.

While waiting in line there were fun things for kids to do and activities to learn about satelites. Daesha has seen satelites in the sky. She loves pointing them out with her Dad when we go camping. But for some reason today she was afraid of satelites. She wanted to know if one would fall on our house and she said they looked scary. She must have thought they were just a light in the sky. And didn't realize it was a big metal thing. After alot of comforting and explaining she still went to bed tonight scared of satelites.

Daesha's letter to Santa. All in her own words.

Making Ginger Bread House's

Today Kim came over with her kids and we made ginger bread houses. I baked the ginger bread a couple days ago and made the frosting. I couldn't get the frosting to thicken up. I dont know what the deal was. It worked fine but it just wouldn't hold it's shape when we used the decorative icing tip. Anyway, Kim and I put the houses together and handed the rest over to the kids. Daesha, Brandon, and Colton did such a great job. They were so creative. Keegan hung out in his chair and ate candy. While Megan crawled around the table crying. Poor Megan just wanted to see what everyone was doing. We had several bags explode and some accidental globs if icing all over the houses, table, and kids. They had a great time. I think we will be making this an activity with the Adams every year.

Daesha visits the Dentist

Daesha loves to go to the Dentist. She actually has said that when she grows up she wants to be a Dentist. At her last check up the Dr. found 2 cavities. They were pretty deep. Last year Daesha had a small cavity and it was fixed without anesthetic. But Daesha was crying the whole time. So the Dr. thought that maybe we should try and give her a medication that would make her drowsy and she wouldn't remember the appointment at all. So we did. And she did pretty good. She held perfectly still while humming the whole time. She didn't want the mask taken off (not sure why) But, once I got her in the car she kept trying to talk to me and I couldn't understand a word she was saying. She was so funny. She was so mad that I couldn't understand what she was saying. I couldn't resist pulling out my camera and recording Daesha trying to eat a hashbrown. Once she gets it to her mouth she says, "Thanks". So cute. Once the medicine had worn off completely she started to cry. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she wanted to go back to the dentist so they could fix her tooth. I told her that it was fixed, and explained that the medicine made her forget. She was really mad and said she was never going to take that medicine again.

I used to be a good mom before I had kids

Ok I must say right at the beginning that I swear I didn't mean for this fun little play time with the kids to turn out so bad.
Ted left today to Elko. So most know that Daesha gets to sleep with me while her Daddy is gone. Its a fun bonding time for us. Tonight before bedtime we had all the lights out and we were sitting on the floor around Daesha's little camp lantern. I held the dim light up to my face and using my scary story telling voice I started to tell my two kids a story about a boy who smelled something stinky. I ment for it to be a funny story and it was until the end when you must conclude the story with a GOOD SCARE! I had worked up a great BOOO! And both kids laughed and giggled. Ok so I wasn't scary at all. Then Daesha grabbed the light wanting to tell her own scary story. It went something like this.

Once there was a girl that was so evil (did she just say evil?) that she didn't have any friends. Everyone thought that she killed everyones cats (WHHAAAT!!) But she liked cats. She even wanted to buy kittens but her mom wouldn't let her because she didn't want her to kill it. One night she heard screaming (ok I am getting scared) She went to look out her window and.....
Daesha had flipped the switch off on her light. I screamed! Then Daesha screamed. Then Keegan cried. I was REALLY scared. Just the sound of her childs voice talking slow and deep had me creeped out from the beginning. But she really had a scary story. And the GOOD SCARE was way better than mine.
After I stumbled for the lamp and had it switched back on Daesha says, "ok, I am seriously turning on the lights"
I started to laugh while poor Keegan is still crying. I told Daesha that she really had her mother scared. Then she laughed. But both of us still looked toward the stairs just to make sure nobody was coming up to get us.

Happy Birthday to Ted

Yesterday was Teds' birthday. He isn't one to make a big deal with his birthday or anyones elses. That is something I have a hard time understanding. I always get excited when a birthday comes. I really like giving gifts and especially receiving them. He could care less. So I didn't plan ahead and make special plans for his day. We went to dinner at Texas Road House. Daesha loved eating handfuls of peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor. When we were done eating the employees brought out a saddle and made Ted sit on it. They announced that it was his birthday and how old he is. And asked everyone to give him a birthday "YEE HAW". He was a good sport and sat on the saddle but he was not happy about it. He would only sit sidesaddle, what a girl!
(sorry you deserve that one babe)

Last year I did a post with pictures of Ted throughout the years and shared a bit about him. You can read that post by clicking here. We also went to the festival of trees. Here are some pictures of some cool trees.

Ginger Bread Bakery

Blown Glass Tree

Grinch stealing trees and presents

Tree decorated completely with marshmellows. Take a close look it's really fun.

My favorite.. the Twilight tree.

Christmas is coming!

The first day of December! And my favorite holiday is coming, I LOVE Christmas. I love the traditions, decorations, music, smells, and memories of Christmas's past. Some of our traditions we didn't stick with and have moved on to new ones. But each and every Christmas was special. One of the best things about Christmas is making ginger bread houses. The smell that fills the house while the ginger bread is baking is so amazingly perfect!
While wasting time on the internet I found some really cool houses. Some were completely covered in icing. They were neat but I like the look of the brown ginger. Anyway, I decided I need more practice. These houses are so cool! I hope to carry this tradition on with my kids.

even though you can't see any of the ginger bread, this last house
gets my vote for 1st place!

What Christmas traditions do you share with your family?