Feeling the Love

February 1st, I made these bags and hung them outside the kid's bedrooms as well as one each for me and Brad. The kids have been having fun putting cards in each other's bags every day. The very first day Alex would check her bag every 30 minutes. Before Brad even got home that day she asked me "why doesn't Dad ever put anything in my bag?" She was very excited when the next day she had a Wall-E valentine in her bag from her Dad with little candies taped to the card.

Along with cards we made decorations for our house.

Then yesterday we had our annual sugar cookie bake off. My poor kids don't get to bake in the kitchen much because the more I bake, the more baked goods I consume. AND I have a hard time with the hours it takes to prep, make and clean up, especially with two pairs of little hands helping me out. However, bake we did. I doubled the batch and gave the kids a third of the dough, freezing the other two thirds for later use. Yes, that means we'll be making sugar cookies at least three times this year, what a treat!
(I'll include the ultimate, soft sugar cookie recipe below.)

After making the dough we rolled it out...

Cut out a million hearts of all different sizes...

And put them in the oven to bake. In the mean time we whipped up the frosting...

And before too long the kids were in decorating heaven.
Frosting...

Sprinkling...

And naming every single one for a special Valentine (including themselves).

We have definitely been feeling the love these past couple of weeks and Valentine's Day is just about here.

Super Soft Sugar Cookies

2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter (room temp)
16 oz sour cream
approximately 6 1/2 cups flour (plus or minus)
I add flour until it doesn't stick to me as I kneed it out and add more as I see fit as I'm rolling out the cookies. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick.

Cut out cookies and bake at 400 degrees for 8-9 minutes

Cream Cheese Frosting

1, 8 oz cream cheese (room temp-very important)
1 pound powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter (room temp)
Cream cheese and butter, then add other ingredients and beat.

All dressed up

So I figured it was time for a new post so I didn't have to see Alex's hair cutting experience every time I logged on. Here are a few pictures I haven't had a chance to post until now of some new dresses for Alex.

Here's one her Grammie got her for her birthday.

This is a necklace her Auntie Anna made her, with a matching bracelet.

And then to top it all off my friend, Amy, made this cute bow for her hair.

She loves dresses that she can twirl in.

This is a dress that her Auntie Anna modeled in when she was 8.

And boy can it twirl!

Tears were shed...

Alex came downstairs for lunch today wearing her large curly blonde wig and kept it on for a good hour before I found locks of hair on my bathroom floor. When she took off her wig my initial reaction was shock, I wasn't prepared for the drastic cut she had given herself. From what I had found on the floor I didn't expect much, later I found the rest hiding in the garbage can under many layers of tissue. I cried and she ran and hid. Brad came upstairs to see what the problem was and assured me that "it's just hair" and not something to get so upset about. Then he saw what she did. Her hair was just below her shoulders and in this picture you can still see a little bit of the hair in the back that didn't get touched. She cut her bangs all the way to the top and gave herself even more bangs on one side. She told me "this is how all the high school kids wear their hair, I think it looks good." I took her right away to get it fixed because I didn't even know where to begin myself. The lady blended in the layers she had given herself and gave her a little under cut. Then parted it on the side and told me to pull it over and put it in a clip until it grew out. While she was getting her hair cut I smile at her in the mirror and shook my head. She smiled back and mouthed "I love you Mom". I love her too of course, I love her enough that I will not let her touch scissors again for a very long time. Here are the before and after shots. Not too bad except for those bangs. Thank goodness her hair grows fast.

This is why I like skiing

Because it's something we can all enjoy together as a family.

Alex amazed me. She was so confident in her skiing and you could tell she really enjoyed it this year. Mostly she enjoyed how independent she could be on the slopes. She proved that she could get on and off the coach's chair lift and ski down all by herself, and do it well. She gave me her own personal tour through the green and blue runs on the other side of the mountain that she had gone on with her teacher and showed off as she went off the usual path to climb the side of the mountain and gain some speed. She can't wait until she's old enough to go up on the buses with her friends and play on the slopes all by herself. She'll have to wait a few years for that though.

Johnny thought it was great that everyone there knew him by name. His name is taped to the top of his helmet for lessons and I hadn't taken it off yet. He loved that he had so many new friends on the mountain that day. As you might expect, Johnny had a little too much confidence. He was great at playing "green light, yellow light, red light" but he didn't like "yellow light" very much. He wanted to go fast, always trying to race you down the mountain instead of follow you through turns and practicing control. He could maneuver his way around with ease and nothing about it made him nervous. He wanted so bad to go on the higher lifts and steeper runs. He wanted to ride the lift all by himself and have the independence Alex enjoyed. Next year I'm confident that we'll all be riding the bigger lifts together.

Every time we went up for lessons I would alter between hot chocolate and apple cider because Johnny is a chocolate fan and Alex loves her cider. This time we brought up a thermas of each of them and they thought that was a real treat. They were excited to go up stairs and eat at the lodge even though they had been having so much fun skiing that neither of them noticed how hungry they were until we stopped to eat. I wasn't surprised at all when Johnny crashed on the way home. A lot of mine and Brad's favorite sports are things that the kids won't be able to really participate in until they get a little older. Skiing is one they can start out in early. It won't be long before we can all go up together and ski casually down the runs together as a family. I'm looking forward to that time.

Life is good.

The yays outweighed the boos yesterday so life is good.

Yay, we had our final ski lesson (sorry for the 4 ski posts in a row. We're going Friday too with Brad so this isn't the last one either.)

Boo, it was a freezing 14 degrees and felt even colder in the wind.

Yay, Alex went down some blue (intermediate) runs with her class.

Yay, I got to follow her for her first run.

Boo, she wasn't as good at turning as the rest of the kids and bolted straight down the slopes ahead of her class.

Yay, she steered herself in the right direction until the slope leveled out for her to stop.

Boo, I dropped my glove on my way down to catch up to her because I had it off to take pictures.

Yay, Alex likes to go fast, if only she could understand that it isn't a race and she needs to learn some fundamentals about slowing down and stopping. This is where I left the group to go find my glove.

Boo, she crashed and hit her nose, giving her a bloody nose on one of the runs.

Yay, I wasn't there for that.

Yay, she didn't let it affect her mood and she still had fun.

Yay, I caught Johnny on his last run. He really wanted me to see him ski today because I missed him last week.

Boo, they ended class early because everyone was so cold.

Yay, for a thermas that keep your apple cider nice and warm while you ski.

Yay, we made it off the mountain in time to catch Brad at the hospital visiting his Dad.

Yay, his Dad's knee surgery went really well.

Boo, I parked a mile away from where I was suppose to park.

Yay, the kids got to ride the elevator a lot.

Yay, Happy meals are half priced Tuesday nights.

Yay, for the little puppy happy meal toys the kids actually play with a lot.

Boo, we got home really late.

Yay, there was a message on the answering machine from a boy in Alex's class.

Yay, I got to watch her act both embarrassed, shy, excited and giddy as she returns his call.

Yay, Brad's teacher let him out of class really early.

Yay, the kids still made it to bed on time. Life is good.

Yay, Brad's coming with us on Friday.

Yay, I get to bring my new telephoto lens and take lots of pictures. I'm crossing my fingers for good picture taking weather.