What is it about little kids and cookies!?

I just love the sticky little fingers, and the mess of frosting... EVERYWHERE.

Miss Sophia making some beautiful cookies

These are probably the best invention ever.

No messy frosting bag, just easy squeezin' especially for the kids.

Pampered Chef rocks my world.

Look at those grubby little fingers! I just want to eat them! or the frosting that's on them :)
Delicious...
Cookie decorating was just so much fun with these little munchkins :)

Merry Christmas One and All!

The long awaited Holiday is finally here! It has been a fabulous Christmas with my siblings and nieces and nephews. And as a surprise our mom is flying up tonight! So it won't be a Christmas without her after all :) The only one we are missing is our brother Joel, we miss him and his wife Miia greatly, but Jon and I will see them soon! Hooray! Enjoy some of the best things about Christmas today!

Christmas cards and decorations.
The delicious cookies!
And the most important part of all... the birth of our dear Savior.

Merry Christmas!

Henry, Sweet Henry...

We've arrived in Alaska and already we've been busy playing with the nieces and nephews, decorating christmas cookies, and enjoying the snow! There was one nephew we hadn't met yet though. My sister and her husband had three girls and this past September they added Heinrich Paul Ward to the family. He is such a peanut and so happy! I just loving holding him, squeezing him, kissing those sweet little cheeks, and nuzzling his soft peach fuzz hair... nothing like a pudgy little baby to cuddle with!

I however was not part of this cuddle... this is a specific mommy and little one cuddle :)
Well hello there little peanut! He was beyond distracted by the huge black camera in his face
I love this little man. Do I really have to leave him in 8 days? Maybe I'll find a way to fit him in the suitcase...

i miss this face

This is nellie belly... the family dog. The neediest, friendliest, most affectionate dog I know. I probably miss her as much as I miss my family. I can't wait to see her stubby tail wag and have her rest her head on my knee with those big puppy dog eyes begging for a pat on the head. Oh to be a dog and enjoy those simple things :) have i mentioned I love this cute, furry thing?

Cookie Monster!

This year I had a crazy idea, why not bake cookies for every single one of our students!? Jon looked at me with a sigh and said "Go for it" So... I did! The reason I wanted to do this is because many of our students don't have much, at all. Many of them have no parents or have been left by their parents and live with aunts, uncles, or grandparents. They really have nothing and I figure if we can give them some christmas cheer why not? Sooooooo this is the second batch we did for all of our student, and we also made some goodies for the teachers as well.

The cookie cutting process, so long but I love the shapes!

305 frosted cookies all done today, we baked 135 last week for a grand total of 440... insanity.
So Many!!!!!!
The goodies for the teachers. Special K bars, cookies, and Pumpkin bars!

So far the response has been great :) Some of my students were afraid to eat them because they were so pretty. One of my third graders ate the sprinkles off one by one ( this is a 15 year old boy I might add) A teacher at Jon's school started crying because she was so happy that we would make cookies. It's been so worth all the work just to see the joy it's spreading. To think one cookie would make someone that happy. It's awesome!

Hope everyone else's Christmas Cookie baking is going well :) ahhh I love this time of year!

Oh to be an Auntie...

In less then two weeks I'll be seeing...

My two year old twin nephews Ben-boo and Sam-burrito (and my Brother and is 8 month pregnant wife... 3 boys... all under the age of 3 good luck Jess)

My sister Rebecca, her husband Eric and my three adorable, fun loving nieces Sophia, Grace and Little Mari-posa..... (whom I haven't seen in 18 looooooong months)

And this little man, Henry... I can't wait to hold my little nephew and smother him with kisses. It'll be my first time meeting this little one and I don't know if I'll make it 12 more days :)

I love my family, and I LOVE being an Aunt... there is nothing better :)

What is this thing?

So we found this guy in the ditch the other day. And we had NO idea what it was. We had some good guesses... wolverine, badger, freaky hairy mammal that could attack us... etc. But tonight we found out from our neighbors that it was.....

These cute little guys! Also known as a raccoon dog.
You can find out more about our furry little friends here!

The Lady of the Hour...

This is Amanda, one of my absolute favorite people in the world. And one of the best friends a girl can have :)

(This is an old picture, please excuse the perm... and the pinecones??)

Amanda has always been someone I can turn to with any problem. She gives great advice and is always ready to say something random that will make me laugh! I love her for that, and her laugh is incredibly infectious. We share interests in a lot of things, we enjoy Jillian Michaels, sharing "healthy" tips, getting the wax out of our ears with wax candles, traveling, and cooking and baking (although she far surpasses me in both cooking and baking). Lately we've both been discussing a bog we absolutely love. The Pioneer Woman, the woman is AMAZING. Seriously click on the side of my blogs where I'm a follower of her blog. But the great thing about The Pioneer Woman is she is an amazing cook and came out with a cookbook, she also went on a book tour to sign copies. She came to Minneapolis and I was devastated that I missed her!~stupid south Korea. But what I didn't realize is how truly generous and amazing Amanda is. I got this little surprise in the mail today from Amanda...

Amanda and her mother in law stood in line for 4.5 hours to meet Ree, and get some books signed... including one for ME!!!!!! This was the greatest gift EVER. I was in shock, crying, laughing, grinning, and trying to hold in all the love and joy I had for Amanda and the Pioneer Woman :)

Look at all the pretty pages!

I CANNOT wait to try some out! Thank you Thank you Thank you Amanda! You made my year :)

(oh and we really do need to get some more pictures of the two of us, because my selections is pretty poor, and I'd love one that is not circa 2007).