Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  It was the first time in my adult life that I have actually spent Christmas Eve night in my own home.  Bryan and I decided that now that we have our own family that  our kids will have Santa at their house and I am glad.  

Banks left some of our homemade decorated cookies out for Santa.

We woke up on Christmas morning to see that Santa had left Banks a train table, a firetruck, and Elmo tool bench.  He was so happy!

Later that morning, we headed to my parent's house to open gifts with the Butlers.

Georgie was so excited that Papa made her an end table/wardrobe for her American Girl doll clothes and accessories.   It even has a lock and key.  A girl has to do what a girl has to do when there are 2 younger brothers in the next bedroom. 

Leigh Anne had this painting done of Banks!  Oh it is so pretty.  The picture just does not do it justice but let me say, we LOVE it!

My Daddy also made the boys "treasure chests" with lock and keys too.  They were so excited to see that they had gold coin chocolate candy in there too!

That night, everyone came over to our house for dinner.  

Georgie and McKenna

These little boys never get tired of a train table.

My table

As usual, Georgia found a way to stay behind and spend the night.  She and Banks had a blast getting every tiny car we had and putting them all on the train table.  It was fine with me because it kept them busy long enough to get the kitchen cleaned.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas.  Bryan worked a TON over the past 10 days straight so we are looking forward to him having a week off so we can spend some time together.

We are heading to Vicksburg Saturday, so stay tuned for pics from our visit with the Johnstons.

Cousin Cookie Decorating Party

All of the Butlers are finally well and school got out early today, so it was the perfect day to decorate and bake some Christmas cookies.

I had the table all set with the supplies. 

 I baked about 20 cookies this morning so we had some to decorate and I had plenty of dough in the fridge, in case they wanted to roll some out and bake them.  And boy, let me say they did....the pictures of that are coming!

I actually got to decorate some at first, ,while Banks was still sleeping. 

When Banks woke up, he was SO excited to see everyone in the kitchen doing an activity.  He said down and got right to business.  Georgia Anne helped him get things going. 

After we had decorated all of the cookies, I got the dough out and they boys were ready to roll and cut some of their own. 

They all had such a BLAST!  Banks and Jack went first and had the biggest time....and made the biggest mess. 

Daniel waited until he could have the space all to himself.   I think Daniel stood up there and rolled and cut out cookies for about 30 minutes.  He kept asking for "more powder".

This is how Banks looked after rolling out a few cookies!  Can we say Flour Bomb?!!

Georgie was more into decorating the cookies and she did an amazing job and was so creative. 

Some of our finished cookies!

And look who wanted to help clean up!  Banks loves to sweep and when he saw me trying to clean up, he ran to the closet and got "his broom" and went to work!  Sorry for the no clothes, I had to remove the flour bomb clothes and my Mom was upstairs getting him a new outfit. 

I also want to share the icing recipe I used and it worked great!  It hardened in about an hour and the kids found it very easy to work with.

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

assorted food coloring.

Mix sugar and milk until blended.  Add syrup and extract.  Add food coloring. Beat until smooth and glossy.  

This makes just enough for a small bowl of icing.