little bakers

I am getting behind on updates again... we had such a wonderful Christmas!  But I didn't want to leave out the things we did leading up to it, so here is a little glimpse!

The kids and I had fun one weekend making my great grandma's special sugar cookies.  This is something I have done every year with Andrew, and it was fun to include Kerigan this time.  She had a blast (as you can tell!  Ha!)

"cookie" is one of her top favorite words!  Ha!

Andrew loves to dump the ingredients in and spin the mixer on high speed!

I have to catch him before everything splatters all over the kitchen!  And we had to share and let Kerigan dump some things in!

Her expressions were just priceless!  Especially how she's looking at the sugar here!  Ha!

She's mesmerized by the mixer!

Andrew is such a big boy now.  He was so careful and good at helping me... he gets better and better every year!

After a couple of hours chilling the dough, we could roll them and cut them out!  This was after Kerigan's nap and she wasn't quite as into this part- although she did enjoy taste testing!

Andrew loves to do this.  Except he wants to put the cookie cutter right in the middle of the dough!  So much for strategy and trying to use every amount of dough possible!

He was so proud of himself!

He wanted to do the rolling, which I had to help with a little because otherwise we would have had very uneven cookies!

I just love his little helping hands

Little miss decided she liked the finished product!

Ga Ga came over to help with frosting- the hard part!

It was a 3 generation project, which is so special to me because of this being a family recipe.  Just one of the many fun traditions I love doing with my kids this time of year!

More Christmas fun to come!

macy's santaland

We have made it a tradition during the season to stay with Craig's brother's family in Minneapolis and visit Macy's Santaland and the lighted parade downtown.  I was so excited now that Kerigan was a little older than last year when we were here, but she was less than thrilled the whole time!  I couldn't even get her to stand still in this picture!

This was one of the few times she let me put her down!

The theme is "A Day in the Life of an Elf" which is quite fitting since Andrew is so into his Elf on the Shelf this year.

Kerigan- not so much.

I love how in all the pictures Andrew is clutching his little note to Santa with what he'd like for Christmas on it.  Those of you who read my blog know that when I was little my parents always took me to Minneapolis to see the display (which used to change and be a new theme each year), and see the REAL Santa.  I think it is fun to continue the tradition and see the REAL Santa in MN.  He is the best looking one around, after all.

The Elf mailroom!

And the classic Santa pic- complete with screaming child.  Andrew's face makes me laugh.  Pretty much everything about this picture makes me laugh.

And we thought the goldfish crackers might cheer her up, but she just gave us a nice view of them in her mouth- HA!

Precious.  Turning his special letter over to the REAL Santa... there's something so magical about a moment like this.

The trip is never complete without a trip to the Marketplace for a Macy's sugar cookie.  They are the best cookies I've ever had!

Kerigan has started this squinty smile thing... just wait til the pictures of her at Christmas!  Ha!

Where's Kerigan???

There she is!  (And yes, she cheered up once she got some pizza and a sugar cookie!)

And continuing with tradition, my sister in law and I always hit the stores during the day while the kids stay with the guys.  This was no exception.  They took them to Sky Zone sports.  I hated missing out on seeing Andrew there, because I knew he'd be having the time of his life.  My brother in law was sweet and texted me pictures!

How neat is this place??

One of the best parts of the trip for me was... we had not seen snow in almost 2 years since last year it never snowed at all.  We happened to be there for the first snowstorm in MN... and it was so awesome!

Sweet Brooke, playing in the snow!

We came prepared, as you can tell by Craig's snowman PJ pants!  Oh well, at least they are warmer and fit with the theme better than his famous pizza ones!  Ha!

Cousins had an awesome time playing in the snow together!  (I won't say the trip home was easy... but it was definitely worth it and we made it home safely!)

Before leaving town we had the most delicious brunch at one of our favorite places... the Original Pancake House.  This is Kerigan with her Aunt Darlene.

The boys

The girls!  This is a sweet story... Jack and Andrew got to have a slumber party and sleep together in Jack's room.  Brooke was sad because she wanted to have someone stay in her room too!  We said someday Kerigan will be big enough to have a slumber party with her too- Ha!  So cute.

All the kids with Uncle Keith

Saying goodbye is always hard.  Andrew loves his cousins so much.  He always says that Jack and Brooke live too far away and he wishes he could see them every day.  We had an awesome time as always... and we'll be back again soon!  We can't stay away from Minneapolis for too long!

american girl

I never want to forget this day with my little girl.  It is something I have dreamed about my whole life.

While daddy and Bubba went on rides at the MOA, Kerigan and I hit the 2 story American Girl store- we were both in heaven!

We will definitely be bringing her back here as a tradition for her birthdays and eating in the tea room.  You can bring your doll and it sits at the table with you to eat!  So girly and fun!  I cannot wait!

This was the first thing she did when she picked up a baby.  My heart could just melt into a puddle looking at these pictures.

It is so neat because they have everything on display so the kids can play with it.  It's very "hands on!"  My kind of store!

People might think she's too young for her first American Girl doll... but seriously people??  She knew just what to do with these babies.

It even surprised me watching her play.  She played with all this stuff for an hour (while I took pictures- ha!)

Everyone in the store was having a fit about her.  I had to admit she was pretty darn cute.  One lady said she looked like a little dolly, and I told her that she IS my little dolly!  Ha!

I loved my babies growing up.  I had a special one named Anna that I carried everywhere and pushed in a buggy.  I still am in awe that I now have my very own real life dolly to dress up, and take to places like this.  I am blessed beyond belief.

She just kept amazing me with everything she did with the babies.  She put it in the carrier (which she is getting for Christmas), and she would put the little teddy bear beside it.

I think it is just a girl's instinct to know how to be a little mommy.  I was just in heaven watching her.

No words.

She wrapped the babies and patted their backs... put them in their crib, put her little finger up to her mouth and gently said "Shhhhhh."

This baby looks just like me! 

(Brown hair, blue eyes... this is the baby she will be getting from Santa).

Be still my heart.