It's baaaaaack!

So my baking obsession is back! I've been eyeballing a LOT of recipes on a few of my favorite websites, and my plan is to do some baking either tomorrow or Sunday. I figured I would wait until the end of the vacation so that I could take leftovers to work with me, seeing as most of what I want to make will not be appetizing to the boys.

I started off simple yesterday, with Pita Bread that I knew at least Raegan and I would eat. Mine did not turn out nearly as pretty as the ones from Annie Eats, so I'll just link you to the recipe and mouth watering picture here. Raegan and I both plowed through several pitas last night, and I think I'm going to take the leftovers tomorrow and make little individual pizzas for the two of us for lunch tomorrow.

I think my plan for tomorrow/Sunday is going to be potato soup. I can't decide if I want to use this recipe, this one or this one from the Neelys. The last one sounds the most interesting to me, but it would take the most shopping, what with the celery and beer. At this moment I'm leaning towards the Slow-Cooker recipe, so that I can use the fabulous crockpot that my parents got us for Christmas again this week.

Hope you all have a safe and fun New Years Eve! Our plans tonight include leaving Raegan with my mother-in-law for a couple hours (Zane is with his mom this weekend) so that Luke and I can go out to dinner. No big partying for us, but that's just the way I like it. See you all next year!

A Call for Action

I read this post last week, and I cannot get it out of my mind. My heart goes out to this woman and her children for everything they've gone through in the last couple months. I cannot even imagine how she is feeling, and I know that it's only through God's grace and strength that she is continuing on. If you read the post from Pennies on a Platter you will see that there is a way that you can help the King family, other than just through your prayers (although those are powerful too!) Please consider visiting Pennies on a Platter daily throughout the month of January, so that money from your click will go to the King family. I'll be posting this on my Facebook wall also, in the hopes that I can convince as many people as possible to help. If you feel so inclined, think about doing the same, and mentioning this family and their plight to as many people as you can.

Christmas with the Kelleys

Okay, this marks the last Christmas picture post that I will be making for 2010. :) My goal for today is to get pictures deleted off of my camera, and maybe even print some off. I would like to change out the pictures in the frame in our living room (the most recent one in there is from the summer!), and FINALLY get around to filling this cute frame I have for Raegan's room and get it hung. We'll see. I don't really feel like going to Walmart this soon after Christmas, so I might wait until later in the week.

Waiting to open presents

Dresses from Granny and Grandpa

Khloe opening her present from Granny and Grandpa

Zac and his family (minus Ryan, who was being held by Grandpa)

Zane got books about Greece and Rome from my parents

Helping Ryan open his gift from us

Raegan opening her dolly from Khloe

Raegan really got the hand of opening presents, and helped me open the crockpot my parents gave us

All the grandkids!

Well, according to Google, I am out of storage for photos on this blog. I seem to remember that happening to someone else's blog that I read. Yes? Is there any way to add pictures without having to pay for extra storage? 

Christmas Day with Luke's family

Christmas Day with Luke's family was fun, but a little overwhelming. As always, we had about 20 people there, and that much noise in a small space is kind of chaotic. Present opening was insane - I'm amazed we even got any pictures of it. Afterwards we went home so that Raegan could take a nap, then went bowling with most of the family. I think this is the third year we've gone bowling, and it's a tradition that I love!

One of our gifts from Luke's parents was a bunch of meat from the Glasco Meat Locker. Yum!

Raegan got a phone from her cousin Jacy

Baby Jacy tries to open her present

Zane's aunt Robin got him a "Hobo Tool" :)

Raegan likes her phone!

Zane examining the Halo set he got with his Uncle Waylon

Jacy loved her Pillow Pet

Hmmmm, who should I call first?

After the present opening chaos

Raegan thought for sure that these balls were like her new one at home!

Mommy trying to take an artsy shot hahaha

Zane's thoughtful pose

Action shot

Raegan managed to keep herself pretty entertained, even without bowling

The lighting on this picture was too bright, so I just messed around with the colors a little.
I think it looks kinda cool.

We left the high chair over at Kent and Sharron's, so we had to give Raegan a "Redneck High Chair" for dinner. :D

Christmas Morning

The tree on Christmas Eve before Santa delivered his gifts

The stockings were hung by the...uh, stairwell with care :)

Raegan got a trike from Santa

Zane got a mountain bike from Santa

Posing with the new gifties!

Checking out the stocking

Raegan was SO excited about the book and crayons in her stocking

Zane got Raegan a bouncy ball

As you can see from the video, Raegan also LOVED her ball!

Luke and I got Zane a heated blanket for his bed

Raegan kind of got the hang of the unwrapping thing

Our other gift to Zane was Halo Reach. I think he *might* have liked it!

I do *what* with this instrument?!

Ooooh, I see now!

Raegan's first ever piece of candy. She sucked on it for about a minute. I think it got too strong for her because she made a face and handed it back to me.

Christmas morning can sure wear a girl out!

Next up is pictures of Christmas Day presents with Luke's family, and bowling (as is our yearly tradition with the Jones/Bowles clan).

Christmas Eve

As usual, I took waaaaaaay too many pictures this Christmas. So this post is just from our own family's Christmas Eve last night. We ended up going to look at Christmas lights, eating sub sandwiches, watching A Garfield Christmas, and then Despicable Me after Raegan went to bed. Zane's mom brought him back a little before 6:00 last night, so he was able to do everything with us, which was really nice.

Zane enjoying a little sub sandwich goodness

Being silly with Dada

More sillytimes!

Raegan was wound UP last night!

Showing off one of the movies we were watching

A Garfield Christmas! (The networks took it off TV years ago, and it's my favorite from my childhood, so I bought it on Amazon or somewhere like that a couple years back)

Raegan still doesn't ACTUALLY watch television (which is really just fine by me!)

And finally, I leave you with a video of Raegan showing off some more of her increasing language skills. We taught her to say "ho ho ho" when we got out the stuffed Santa the night we decorated the tree. And for whatever reason, this is the week that she decided that signing is AWESOME and WONDERFUL. She is so stinkin' proud of her ability to sign and get what she wants. She also does milk, which isn't shown in the video.

 

More pictures to come, but right now I need to go cut summer sausage and cheese and make apple salad for Christmas with my folks tomorrow. I hope you all had as wonderful and memorable of a holiday as our family did.