Decking the Halls

To start the busy holiday season, I did one of my Cooking/Baking Days. I've been doing this every now and then and it's really making my life easier. I make a ton of things (dinners, sides, baked goods, etc) as well as get parts of things ready (cook and dice chicken, brown ground beef, etc). I make a huge mess of my kitchen and have the crockpot, bread machine, oven, and waffle iron going all day but I end up with so much at the end of it. When I know it's a busy day or when the kids are going crazy at 5:00, it's much less stress to have pulled something out of the freezer in the morning. I've been able to give meals to new moms from church and MOPS too. I also made a huge batch of whole wheat waffles that the kids love and I can heat up for breakfasts without having to make the big mess. (I do this with pancakes too.) Anyway, I love to cook so I usually don't mind making dinner but this has truly been a life saver for me. And it's fun. :) To read more about it check out these blogs here or here

Getting ready for Christmas! My mom collects Nativities from around the world. I've kind of started doing the same and I love setting them out every year. We have two that the kids are allowed to play with and it's neat to see them act out the story- even Blake talks about baby Jesus. It helps them remember the real reason for Christmas. This is our VeggieTales one. :)

I should take pictures of all of them... but here's our Willow Tree Nativity. Decorating the tree

Blake and our neighbor's snowy friend, just his size!

Nathan, Blake and Natalie holding hands while watching TV. :)

Buckeye Balls!

Evan still isn't crawling on all fours, but he can commando crawl wherever he wants to go and is pulling up on everything! 10 months old now!

My friend Leigh Anne was moving so we watched her two boys for the day. We made gingerbread cookies together.

Decorating (and eating most of the toppings! :)

Up next: Natalie's birthday!