I love to cook, I really have a good time doing it. Deserts are fast becoming one of my favorite things to make. Being Christmas time I was reminiscing about my favorite thing my mom used to make, chocolate covered peanutbutter balls. So of course I decied I needed to make all of these for our neighbors just like mom used to do. The recipe is really quite simple and we had most of what we needed so Nyah and I set to work this morning. After the peanut butter balls were in the fridge cooling Nyah wanted to make cookies to, how can I refuse a girl after my own heart? She really is cute with the whole helping thing, at least until she starts sticking her fingers into batter, eating said batter and then going back for more . . . oh well the finer points of cooking will eventually sink in I guess. Here is everything I made today, 50 PeanutChoco Balls and 75 cookies.

Thanks to Shonette I finally got our Christmas tree up. Unfortunately Bella seems to think it means Christmas has come early for her, she has eaten 6 ornaments so far. Most of them have been plastic luckily, but she did eat part of a glass one I think, so I’m really hoping she’ll be ok. So far no complications, luckily. I sprayed the entire tree with sour apple spray to hopefully keep her from eating any more, but if you come over to our house don’t be suprised if there’s ornament pieces all over the floor!

Looking for some inexpensive fun with the kids I corralled Sicily, Hannah and Erin and we ventured downtown to look at the Temple lights. Thinking it was going to feel like 20 below I bundled the kids up with several layers, coats, hats, and gloves. Suprisingly the weather was very plesant!



Hannah Stepping on cracks to break her mothers back


Nyah clinging on for dear life



Sicily being just one of the kids, playing on the wall

Why is it that some kids just KNOW when things are gross? Almost everything is gross to Hannah, always has been. She never liked even finger painting because her hands would get dirty. Not my girls. It seems they have no concept of gross or germs. A few nights ago Nyah finished her milk and went in the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed. I followed mere seconds later to find Nyah pulling her toothbrush out of the toilet water and was about to stick it in her mouth! EWWWWWWW! Ew ew ew ew ew ew gross! Aparantly I had not moved fast enough and she thought she’d start brushing her own teeth but needed to get it wet first. Needless to say I took the toothbrush away before it touched teeth, but Nyah couldn’t understand why. As I was explaining Jasmine came in and asked what happened. I told her Nyah had stuck her toothbrush in the toilet so I had to throw it away, and Jasmine asked why too! Am I doing something wrong here? At 9 years old she doesn’t know that toilets are disgusting germ filled cess pools? Ugh! So I explained all over again, lets just hope I don’t find them eating yellow snow at some point!

Nyah has always had an interest in helping me cook. She really is a good helper. Many times I have heard her playing cook, “and now I add a pinch of this and we have to put it in the oven to cook”. Today she made her own little “kitchen”. She moved the garbage can and was using it as her stove (I cleaned everything after she played with it) and was pretending to add all of the ingredients (she says that word quite well for being 4) and made soup (which coincidentally I am also making for dinner)

Nyah came out of school on Monday and immediately opened her mouth, stuck out her tounge and tried to catch snow flakes. I couldn’t help but smile and take a picture.

Jasmine has been for lack of a better word, obsessed with Zac Efron for quite awhile now Yesterday I was in the kitchen and I hear Nyah and Jasmine coming up the stairs. Jasmine says “I have a HUGE crush on Zac Efron” I just find it so cute, and so reminiscent of my younger days. It’s so much fun watching her grow up and starting to have crushes on boys. One day in the car Jasmine told me she has a new boyfriend in school. I asked if he knew she was his girlfriend. She said “Well duh! No mom, that would be too embarassing!” I had to supress a laugh and explain that he should really know that, and usually the boy and girl decide together that they’re boyfriend/girlfriend.