From Aprons To Toolbelts......

....and a little fun in between!!!

It is pretty amazing what you can jam into a couple of days, when you set your mind to it!!

Sarah and I finished the baking and had a lot of fun in the process.....there was only one thing missing....Nick....but I talked to him this morning and he said that he and his Dad did some baking of their own!!

We ended up with 12 dozen cookies, and 2 loaves of pumpkin bread....Our pantry is officially stocked with goodies for our house guests over the holidays. Of course we did have to dig in and taste a couple for ourselves.....just to make sure they were okay.......

Sarah and I made three different kinds of cookies......

The first cookie(pictured on the left)is a White Chocolate Cherry Chunky.....this recipe I found online courtesy of my favorite southern chef....P@ula Deen. When I was in the grocery store I could not find the candied cherries the recipe called for, so I used dried cherries instead....I guess it worked, becasue they tasted really good!!

Those chocolate cookies in the middle are actually, Homemade Oreo Cookies....recipe compliments of one of my favortie bloggers.....she SHARED it on her blog last week....they looked so good, I needed to try them out myself. Trust me, if you make these, you will not be disappointed!!

The Italian cookies, I had made once before and posted the recipe.....if you missed it, click HERE. I just added a little food coloring to the icing to make it a little more festive!!

Unfortunately, or Fortunately....depending on how you look at it, Pat has been working like a dog....with Mortgage rates as low as they are right now, his phone is ringing off the hook....he actually had so many applications on Friday, that he pulled an all nighter and never went to bed. Saturday morning at 6am,I walked down the steps and found him still at his computer submitting online applications....he then, after not sleeping all night, had to spend the day visiting clients to pick up documents needed for all the files. He never went to bed until 8pm last night....36 HOURS STRAIGHT....I do not know how he did it!!

That being said, I have been doing all the cleaning, shopping, wrapping, and baking with Sarah in tow.......we really did accomplish a lot in two days, but the one thing that has been weighing heavily on my mind is the kitchen set that we bought for her. It was the first gift that we purchased and has been sitting in my garage in the unopened box. I have been asking Pat to put it together, and his answer is always......"Don't worry, we have time"

Do you all remember Sarah's stroller with the missing part the morning of her birthday? I did not want a repeat performance, nor did I want to be up on Christmas Eve putting this thing together. So this morning at 5am while my poor husband was trying to catch up on some much needed sleep....guess what I was doing.....

Putting together a kitchen set......



With a little elbow grease, the directions and a half pot of coffee...60 screws and bolts and those 28 pieces of wood became a kitchen! It took me about an hour and half....the last step was the worst...the hinges on the doors...I could have used an extra set of hands...but I manuevered and got the task completed without the assistance of Pat or Nick....this was definitely a first!!

After this little project, I was more than ready to hang up my toolbelt...the rest of the day was filled with wrapping, cleaning, and grocery shopping to get all those last minute items for our special meals. After all this, we still were able to squeeze in a little outdoor fun....here is our girl running around our backyard that has become a winter wonderland.....

Sorry for the abundance of photos... I was kind of excited to actually get outside and play around with the camera again...plus, I am not sure how much I will post between now and Christmas....maybe only one more, so I wanted to squeeze these photos into this post....these were straight out of the camera....no editing....that is a rarity for me. I am usually trying to cover up or cut something out.....being outside made a huge difference....the natural light seems to be much easier to work with...I have been having major issues with indoor lighting!!










I hope your weekend was as productive as ours!! We are officially DONE with everything.....now it is time to celebrate and enjoy!! Some of our family will be arriving on Tuesday afternoon......we are really looking forward to their arrival....Nick is especailly excited....he is counting the hours until Eddie walks through the door!!

Happy Holidays!!