Blake Street Christmas

We've already had our first round of opening Christmas gifts before we leave for GB. Let's call this "Blake Street Christmas" as we'll also have a "Zarah Drive Christmas" and a "Westridge Drive Christmas." We just had a few to open amongst the three of us so we just woke up one morning and did it!

Letters and numbers for more educational bath times

A bus with legos inside as we LOVE buses right now.

And...my Black Friday purchase...a kitchen for Cade to cook while I'm cooking in the kitchen. He LOVES it. My family gave me a hard time about it being a girly gift. Hello, I'm a FACS teacher. I teach plenty of boys to cook. It's called a Life Skill, people. All people have kitchens in their homes. Boys and girls, men and women. And imaginary play is very important. So there.

Oh yes, and Cade got a new plate. And although it is a Cars theme, he was still less than thrilled to unwrap a plate.

Even the baby received some gifts. Cade got her a "Little Sister" outfit and we got some pieces of the bedding. Oh yes, and it's looking pretty official that she'll be named Reese. We've always loved that name for a girl.

You know you're old when one of your most anticipated gifts is a sauce pan that strains!!!

Keep the celebrations coming!

Christmas Festivities

So I was a bit confused about how the "Surprise" Date Night was going to work. When your husband says you're going out on a date, I mean, you just assume it's going to be just the two of you. Right? So when Matt said, "You know it won't be just the two of us on this date..." I was a bit confused. No, how would I know that? Several of his guy friends pooled together to do dinner on the plaza with their wives/significant others followed by a limo ride to look at lights. It was a fun surprise despite the rain!

The gang. These guys pulled off a great evening...and even had some sparkling grape juice for me to drink!


In other Christmas festivities, we hosted our church small group Christmas party at our house with Chinese food and some games.

Matt and I had to duel each other in the game...and of course...I wore my Christmas jumper for this event.

It's hard to tell what's going on here...


We finished off the evening with a few rounds of the Newly Wed Game. Matt and I are always terrible at the Newly Wed game.

We have a wonderful group of friends from church and I'm so glad we have this group to share life (and Christmas festivities) with!

Cade's Visit to Santa...

...where we didn't actually meet Santa. The Heine's always know about fun and exciting things to do in KC and clued us in on how fun it is to go to Crown Center to see Santa! We joined them for a LONG line into the play place. Cade was definitely wearing down by the end of the line.

But once we got inside...he was good to go! He loved running around and playing on the slides and with the funny mirrors.



However, this was the only Santa we had an up-close encounter with. Not because Cade was afraid...but because he refused to get back in the line for Santa after playing in the play area. Yep, there was the huge line, then the play area, then ANOTHER line (significantly shorter but Cade still wasn't having it) to meet Santa. I was completely worn down from fighting Cade in the first line so I was content to let him just keep playing and then be done. Without officially meeting Santa. So any other day besides when Santa's around, I'm sure you can just walk in and play at Crayola Land. We'll have to just try that next time!

Even though we didn't meet Santa, we still had a great time walking around Crown Center and enjoyed our first trip to Fritz's!

It's a train-themed restaurant where the train brings you your food! And you get this super-cool train conductor hat!

While Cade did not really enjoy wearing the hat, he did like watching the trains move on the tracks at the restaurant delivering food to people. And any restaurant that serves hotdogs and fries is fine by him!


All in all, we really enjoyed the outing and appreciate the Heine's, yet again, helping us take advantage of all that there is to do in KC!

Welcome, Friends!

In a continued effort to meet my goal of 5 posts in December, I will now blog some mediocre pictures that I took while having a far better than mediocre time catching up with friends!
Jamie and DeAnna came over to play with Cade...

and eat some Dairy Free Stuffed Shells (recipe from Lauren's blog). Shells were okay. I feel like anything J & TW make is better than whatever we eat when they come to my house...but maybe it's just me?


We spent an evening with the Harwood's and got to meet their two-week old baby boy, Rivers. Jason and Stephanie moved to Seattle in 2007 so we feel lucky that we do get to reunite with them every Christmas when they make their annual trip to Kansas! We went to visit them when they first moved out there, remember?

Cade enjoyed getting to play with the Harwood cousins while we were there. They have the ultimate "grandparent house" as they have every toy imaginable.


Peggy also popped into town for the night to catch up and do some coloring with the Cade man. Thanks for taking a break from your fast-paced college life to enjoy a peaceful Friday night with Cade and I!


I'm over-joyed that Monday will come...and my alarm will not be going off at 6AM. Glorious. Very excited about what the next few days hold. A trip to Crown Center to see Santa, our church group Christmas party, a playdate with some friends on Monday, oh, and Matt has a "surprise" date night planned before we head to GB on Wednesday for Christmas. Surely I can squeeze out another post from all that fun stuff?!

Inspired by 8th Graders

Every semester my 8th grade FACS students participate in the MTMS Dessert Challenge. For this "challenge" they get to pick out their own recipes (in groups of 4) and make them for a panel of judges (other teachers and principals). It's fun to watch them take such pride in making pies from scratch or creating a multi-layer cake. Grocery shopping for this event is a nightmare, but I usually do walk away with a few recipes I'd like to try again myself. This year's winner...Oreo Balls...from a group of 4 boys. I've never attempted to make cake balls...I hear it's quite complex. I had one (advanced) group of girls venture to make cake balls from a cake they made from scratch. This resulted in their group (and me) staying after school until 4:30 one day. And actually, their cake balls were quite ugly. The boys on the other hand, easily finished within the 44 minute class period. And they were good. I attempted to make the recipe for our staff cookie exchange. Don't tell anyone...but the boys' turned out much prettier than mine. But they do taste great! And they were considerably easier than other cake ball recipes.

Scrape off icing from a pack of oreos. Mix the icing with a package of cream cheese until fluffy and crush up the cookies in a ziploc bag. (Crush them up until they are crumbs. I left mine as chunky pieces and I regret it). Mix in the crumbs with the fluffy icing/cream cheese mixture and shape into balls. Chill them in the fridge for a bit.

Then dip in almond bark.

The dipping was difficult. There had to have been an easier way.

Back in the fridge until ready to serve. Perhaps I need to ask the 8th grade boys for some tips...

Find the recipe at cooks.com.

Shake It Cade

Just some random video to spice up your week. Ignore the fact that my child is topless...and it is winter. Must have been a messy dinner.



This is really Cade's only acknowledgement that he will be a big brother...recognizing the "baby" stocking. Other than that, he's straight up in denial.

'Tis the Season

It's always so fun to get together with my pretty friends!


FACS Teacher Love!

Kinley Jo fit right in with the bunch! She's ready to be a regular Wednesday night attender.

This year our annual G-Phi cookie exchange became a scarf exchange. As a whole, we're much better at picking out cute scarves than baking fancy cookies. It was a great idea and I ended up with a super-cute scarf from Kaitlin.

Now you should probably head over to Jamie's blog for a far more hip and clever recap of the night. What can I say? She's great.

I just had too much fun socializing with everyone (and drinking about 15 cups of Kelly's cider) to take more pics I guess! Thanks, Kel, for hosting the fabulous evening!

Timberwolf Spirit!

Nothing like a tacky Christmas sweater party with co-workers to celebrate the season!

This year, I didn't mess around with my attire. I borrowed a festive Christmas JUMPER that had been retired from my mom's extensive Christmas collection. And Cade is modeling his monkey hat knitted by my Grandmama. He LOVES to wear it!

It was a fun-filled evening at Emily's house complete with a BBQ dinner and white elephant gift exchange.

Everyone showed their Christmas spirit with excellent outfits.

But I have to brag a little, my jumper did win me 1st place in the sweater contest. Nothing beats a jumper! I'm petitioning for all the teachers to wear their tacky Christmas attire to school the last day before break...mainly because that jumper was crazy comfortable!

Thanksgiving 2011

I just realized this is only my second post in November...and now November is over. I promise to be less of a slacker blogger in December. I'll set a lofty goal of at least 5 posts in December. Goal-setting always helps me...but no promises...except for my earlier sentence where I promised. Whoops.

Anyway, Cade and I traveled around the world for Thanksgiving. He was a pretty great travel buddy (for the most part) and we really enjoyed seeing all of our extended family. Cade was able to brush up on every one's names and we've been reviewing pictures often to keep it fresh in his mind. He just has so many aunts to keep track of! I really did a terrible job of taking pics...so here are a few random shots of about 1/4 of our journey.

He loved watching Lion King (his favorite movie ever) in 3D on Grandmama and Papa's fancy new TV.

Aunt Pam hosted the Thanksgiving dinner at her house in Tulsa and went above and beyond with cute turkeys at each place-setting. She loves Pinterest!


Aunt Gentry entertaining Cade...or vice versa

Cade's Papa carves the turkey while my Papa looks on

Cade says he hates holidays that revolve around food...because he couldn't give a hoot about eating. My next child better come with a bigger appetite!

Papa, Cousin Zach, and Aunt Kizzie (AKA Pi Phi Barbie--eye roll to the Pi Phi sticker on the lap top)

Cade has deep conversation with Cousin Nathan

Christmas scarves from Grandmama in your college colors! We've got 2 Sooners, 2 Cowboys (girls), and 2 Wildcats! PS-I refused to make that stupid WC sign with my hand for the wildcat...that is dumb.

Grandmama insists she's lost weight in her hands from all the knitting.

My mom sporting her turkey pin. I have no shame in sporting holiday pins, even as a hip, young 28-year-old, thanks to my mom. She's given me a pin for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and even though it may be a little matronly I love wearing them because of her. I allow cheesiness and minor questionable fashion judgment-calls in the name of family sentiment.

My cousin Nathan did all the dishes...he's ready to be a husband I'd say! He and Brooke are getting married June 16th!

And finally...we ate PINK cupcakes in honor of our little girl--and future cheerleader--look at that flexibility!! Pink and bows?! Yes, please!

Hope you had a great holiday...and a great November at that!