Good Day

Today has just been one of those really good days. (Except for about the past hour where I have been feeling SO extremely nauseous, I'm not sure what to do with myself.)

Jake and I were able to sleep in this morning, until about 9am because the girls were at grandma and grandpas. That was wonderful. It's amazing what an extra hour can do for ones body and mind. I had cinnamon and brown sugar toast for breakfast, with a big mug of vanilla mocha latte, and watched a show online for a bit before getting ready for church.

As I said yesterday, the kids had their Christmas program at church today. Ivy wore her garage sale Christmas outfit and looked so adorable. Grandma had given her a shower this morning and washed her hair with conditioner as well. I am telling you this because if you know Ivy, you know what her hair is like. It is the most wispy, thin hair in the world, and it is so hard to keep anything in it. But, if it is washed in the morning (and then conditioned as well), it dries nice and is easier to "style" it a bit. So this morning, she was able to wear her hair down with a couple of pretty clips in it. Her hair is getting pretty long (relatively long, from our perspective) and it looked so nice. Thanks grandma! The kids just did a great job singing and then our pastor finished up with an excellent message from Matthew 2:2.

After lunch, we all came home, I put Genesis down for her nap and then decided to clean out Ivy's toy closet under the stairs. Jake lounged next to me while I cleaned, and Ivy sat at the dining room table and played with stencils and play dough almost the entire time I worked on cleaning her closet. We chatted, laughed and just had so much fun enjoying being together. Then I made ALL of us turkey sandwiches (I know, I know!) and we sat at the breakfast bar and ate our sandwiches and mountain dew. Then I cuddled up on the couch with Ivy for a while and read some Arch books to her... until I got incredibly sleepy and had to leave her to go take a nap. It was just a wonderfully cozy afternoon.

We ended the day by going out to eat at Avanti's in Pekin. My in-laws came with us, and were also joined by Victor and Lacey who had just returned from a nice little vacation down to North Carolina with her family, and also Naomi and Phoenix. The food was great (I got lasagna) and fellowship so fun. And now it's Christmas week! I'm so excited.


I have been meaning to post this recipe for No Bake cookies for a couple of days. I made them for our cookie exchange we had this last week and they were so good. It is my friend, Trina's recipe... she used to make them a lot when we lived in Branson.

No Bake Cookies
2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
Cook these four ingredients together, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil; boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
Add:
1 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt
1/2 c. peanut butter
3 c. oatmeal
handful of coconut
Spoon mixture by spoon-fulls onto wax paper. Let dry.