kiss me I'm Irish

My Great Grandma Judy went to Ireland.
And she brought me back....

This super cool hat!
How many hats can you say have horns to poke your mommy with?
My new super cool Ireland hat does!
Thanks Great Grandma Judy!

Fake Turtles

Early in the week when I went to my Moms Group cookie exchange. I fell in love with Fake Turtles! Thanks to my mommy friend Kari (I love you!!) for sharing this ridiculously easy kinda of addicting treat.

You only need three ingredients:
Rolo candies
Pecan Halves
Mini Preztels

Line a cookies sheet with aluminum foil.Place the Rolos on top of the pretzel.Put it in the oven for 4 minutes at 250 degrees,just enough to soften the Rolos. Remove from oven and press a pecan half into each Rolo, smushing the chocolate down. Refrigerate and enjoy.

or become completely addicted, that is what happened to me the moment  I tasted the goodness of the fake turtle.I might need to seek  help. Is their Fake Turtle Anonymous?Seriously?

I will let you in on a little secret I don't even really like pretzels or nuts but.....

I LOVE ME SOME FAKE TURTLES

Thanks again Kari for sharing your Fake Turtles with all of us!

a little bit of Christmas... six days early

My mother  (aka Grandma Outrageous) came to town. We celebrated a little bit of Christmas six days early. The night before our little bit of Christmas we made Fake Turtles with the intentions of us giving them away in cute little Christmas tins to all our friends and family. Well they are literally mouth watering goodness you can't just eat one. You can't just eat five.....They are ridiculously good. Needless to say I had to buy more of all three ingredients so we would have enough to share the goodness with all of our friends and family.

* I promise friends and family I will make more and share the goodness (thanks Kari for sharing your recipe)

While we were munching on our Fake Turtles in complete bliss we watched a Christmas movie Elf which is becoming a tradition in our family.

We laughed.we munched.we laughed.we munched. Well you get the idea. I think I will be avoiding the scale until the new year.or until I hit the gym for a good month straight. Then maybe I will have the courage to hop on the scale.For now it's the holidays and I am going to eat has many fake turtles until the new year.

The next morning we opened up gifts and I made sweet potato waffles (another favorite new recipe I discovered) We had a lovely little bit of Christmas six days early. Because of distance had having four sets of  families. It makes it difficult to be able to spend the Holidays with all four sets of families.I can't even remember the last time I had Christmas with my mom. Kinda sad.

I think my mom and my immediate family (my man and little man) will make this a family tradition. It may be six days early but we can still celebrate Christmas together.We were sad(sniff sniff) to have to say goodbye this afternoon.but thankful we  were able to have the last twenty four hours together.

It felt like Christmas...Six days early.

 
In case your wondering that is a whistle in Owain's mouth 
not a pacifier,soothe,binky,nuk

meeting the BIG guy.....

Last year Owain missed out on meeting Santa Clause.
We weren't gonna let him miss out this year.
No way!
Weeks before he met the BIG guy we read lots of Christmas books to prepare him.
If you ask Owain "what does Santa say?"
He will reply in a jolly sort of way "hohohoho"

I thought our first meeting with the BIG guy went pretty well.
Considering while we were in line pateintly waiting our turn.
a little girl was in front of us kicking and screaming
as her mother and grandmother pushed her onto Santa's lap.


Less Words Wednesday

Our little man last December

mini brownies with a twist

This morning I,Owain and my mini brownies with a twist ventured out in the rain to meet some of my lovely mommy friends and have a sinfully yummy cookie exchange. I have a weakness for sweets and boy was I in heaven. Everywhere I looked their were cookies galore!I happily traded my mini brownie's for toffee popcorn (snacking on some at the very moment...YUM!),chocolate covered pretzels,nutty cookie,chocolate cookies,sugar cookies and much much more! Sinfully yummy cookie exchanges are awesome! My husband (who doesn't have a sweet tooth like I do) agrees he has already had several nutty cookies within the first five minute of us being home.
My mini brownies with a twist turned out sinfully yummy.
They may not look picture perfect like I imagined they would.

but they are tasty. If you are a chocolate lover. These are for you!
Are you ready for the twist?
In each mini brownie I put a resses peanut butter cup in the middle.
They are sinfully gooooooood!
and trouble!

What's your favorite Holiday Cookie?

traditions

I thought while I had a minute while my mini-brownie cup cakes with a twist are baking. I hop on real quick (I only have ten minutes) and share with all of you  one of our new family traditions. Every year we take our little man to Hallmark to pick out his very own Christmas ornament.

Any guesses as to which ornaments our little man picked out......

If you seen my last post you might of guessed.....

Yup he picked a Choo Choo train.
Surprise Surprise

Our next stop was Starbucks.
Owain had hot chocolate for the very first time.

I might regret this decision in the future.
The next time I order a coffee  hot chocolate from Starbucks
he might insist on his own.

This is one of our new family Christmas traditions.
I love Christmas!
What is one of your favorite traditions?

beeeeeeeepbeeeeeeeepbeeeeeeeeepbeeeeeeeep

Mini brownies are done!

obsessed

My almost two year old (I can hardly believe that one....geez where does the time go?) is obsessed with trains. Any time we drive by a rail road crossings he gets really excited and starts asking repeatedly "mooore  moooore chooo chooo"Sometimes we get lucky and a choo choo will come racing down the tracks. Owain's eyes widen his jaw drops and he is incomplete awe of the train. The second the train is no longer visible. He repeatedly asks "mooore mooore choo choo" This can go on the whole car ride to wherever we may be  going on any day of the week. Sometimes daddy will drive us the long way to our destination just so we can go by not one..not two but THREE rail road crossings.Increasing  our chances for seeing a choo choo.

With Owain's love obsession for trains. When I saw a ginger bread train kit at the store. I just had to buy it.Originally I planned on buying a ginger bread house kit but the train was flipp'in cool and I new my little man would think so too.

  We attempted to put it together this  morning.It was a little bit of a challenge the darn train would not stay up. Each time the train fell Owain would say "fall fall" while doing this.....

After lots of frosting we managed to get the train to stand  mostly up.

Our one of a kind Choo choo.

your probably wondering how is it a one of a kind when the train came in a kit?
Well it is when your silly mommy puts the roof of the train in the front instead.
Making our first ginger bread train an original. one of a kind.

Priceless

Heading out to the woods to find our very own Christmas tree.
Priceless.
While daddy climbed the steep slippery  hill with saw in hand.


I stayed behind watching our little man walk in the snow.
Repeating over and over again "snooow snoooow"
Priceless.


The three of us.Our little family posing for the camera
with our very own Christmas tree that my strong witty husband cut down.
Priceless

Owain's face has he watched daddy bring in our very own Christmas tree.
Priceless.

Moments like these are....Priceless