Happy New Year!

Am I late to the party??  ;)

Of course I am.  I can't say my life has been terribly busy; it's more that this blog has taken a much lower priority than homeschooling, menu-planning, reading other people's blogs...haha.   Here's a rather lengthy catch-up post to bring this blog up to date.  Expect another one of these in about two months.

I helped throw a shower for a friend of mine expecting a little girl (who has since been born and is unbelievably adorable). Here's the Pooh cake I made.  

Thanksgiving:  

I made my husband's employees cinnamon rolls for Thanksgiving.
They do such a fantastic job, I wish we could do more sometimes.  

This was Fall 2011.  But....our whole family got together this past Thanksgiving and took pictures,
so we got to recreate it....

Here is our family, Thanksgiving 2012.

My middle daughter turned 6 on Thanksgiving. I have a twin sister, and every seven years or so, our birthday falls on Thanksgiving.  Honestly, it's really no fun, so I feel bad to have handed that down to my daughter.
But we made a cake and sang and I don't think she really cared!

Birthday Party:

My two daughters were born a week apart, so they get the joy of sharing birthday parties every year....just like Mommy and Aunt Jenny.  ;)  This year they wanted a Princess theme.  It was a TON OF FUN!  We had their friends come dressed up in fancy dresses then painted nails and did updos (complete with little tiaras) on all of them.  Then we took them to Corvette Diner for some dinner and fun!

A princess has to get used to picture-taking.
They were all pros at this!

Here is one of the birthday girls and some friends. We had a blast! 

More pictures.  See, told you they were pros with the camera! 

They all got some straws stuck in there hair by our lovely waitress. 

We came back to the house and ate princess cupcakes!

 Disneyland - one last hurrah!  

We were watching my son ride a roller coaster, and my daughter suddenly decided she wanted Minnie Mouse hair. This was the best I could do, even after breaking one of her plastic hair bands.  

I love this picture of my youngest daughter's face.  =)

A little hard to see, but here are my older two on the Thunder Mountain Railroad. This ride is a hoot! Goes WAY too fast for the limited restraints they offer, so you fly all over your seat.  I can't stop laughing when I'm on it.

Here's my youngest and I on the ride.

 ER visit:

During a Christmas Cookie Exchange, my daughter was playing with a friend and got pushed over in a chair.
The result = six stitches! This was a first for Mommy and I had to call in reinforcements (thanks Mom!) to stay calm during the ordeal.  But what a joke that was.  My daughter took the whole thing like a champ and never even cried.  We showed the nurse pictures of our Disneyland adventures, which kept my daughter distracted while she received the shots.  

While the awesome doctor was stitching her up, we took some pictures to show her.
She loved seeing what was going on.  Thank goodness for brave children!!

Christmas:

Here are my girls wearing there pretty Christmas dresses from Great Grandma!  

On Christmas Day, we went to the home of my twin sister and her husband, up in the Bay Area. My sister is an incredible hostess and amazing cook.  For Christmas appetizers, she served pears wrapped in arugula, blue cheese and prosciutto (WOW) and puff pastry topped with creme fraiche, shallots and thinly-sliced apple.  Siiigh.

She also let my daughter put together his veggie tree. How cute is that!  

Here's a quick glimpse at the spread.  We started with a pear/blue cheese/candied walnut salad. The main course was turkey, baconed brussel sprouts, parsnip hash, cheesy potato pizza, crescent rolls from scratch (courtesy of moi), and cranberry sauce.  It was very drool-worthy.

Growing up, my grandma always gave us granddaughters new pajamas for Christmas. My mom has carried on the tradition, and this year she had them personalized (since my sister and I tend to name our children with names that will NEVER be found in a souvenir shop).  They loved them!  

  

Thought I'd end this post with a cute pic of my son and Flounder, one of the dogs we watch occasionally.
She loves the kids and always manages to sneak into their rooms at bedtime.

Hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year!
And January.  Hope you had a good January, too.  =)