Christmas Baking

Jenna and I started Christmas baking last week with a new recipe for cookies. My favorite kind of Hershey Kisses are the Candy Cane type which, thankfully, are only available during the Christmas season!

If you also like these type of kisses, I recommend you try this recipe for Candy Cane Blossoms.

Jenna was responsible for unwrapping all of the
Hershey Kisses and for rolling the cookies in the sugar
before baking. She did a great job!

Another job of Jenna's was to put the Hershey Kisses
on the cookies after they were finished baking.

As you can see, ours turned out very similar
to the picture on the Hershey's Website!
Jenna even added some creativity by mixing red and green
colors. She was so proud of these cookies!

While celebrating Christmas in Atlanta this weekend, Jenna helped Mimi do some more Christmas baking. Mimi found this adorable apron and was so excited to share it with her. Of course, Jenna wasn't interested in wearing it. We finally got her to put it on for a few minutes so we could get some pictures.

Does she look cute or what?

Mimi and Jenna with their aprons on

Do you think Jenna was getting aggravated
with all the pictures???

She was ready to start baking again!

Christmas is coming quickly, so hopefully we'll still have time to do more baking. If not, we can always resume in January!

Jenna's 3rd Birthday - Celebration #4

Jenna's 4th celebration was a first for us--a birthday party with her friends. We invited 9 friends from school and church, and 5 were able to come, which ended up being plenty! She was so excited about having her friends at her house! To add to the excitement, we woke up to snow falling on the Saturday morning of the party, which was just beautiful.


We spent the morning getting ready, though, so she wasn't able to play out in it...maybe she will next time.

Daddy led a round of the Hokey Pokey, to start the party. The kids seemed to love it!

I found a picture of a Hello Kitty cake online, so I replicated it. It was delicious...chocolate cake with chocolate and vanilla icings! Yum!


I had plenty of assistance while helping Jenna to open her presents!

The house quickly turned into a playground with running, shouting, etc. A tornado whipped through the living room, but somehow we missed seeing it!

It lasted 1.5 hours on the dot; the kids were starting to get restless at that point. I did manage to get a picture of Jenna with her school friends (the one from church had already left). Aren't they all so cute?

Here's one of just the girls...

Jenna's wondering, "Where did all my friends go?"

So, at the end of the day, I asked Jenna what her favorite part of her birthday party was, and she said:
Yep. The M&Ms! I have a feeling next year's celebration(s) will be a little more simple, if this is what stood out in her memory!

Jenna's 3rd Birthday - Celebration #3

The 3rd celebration for Jenna's birthday was a special meal at home, candles and singing, and giving gifts. We kept it low-key since she'd had so many other celebrations.

Her choice of dinner was just like any typical kid: hot dogs (turkey kielbasa), macaroni and cheese, and green beans (I added this to give some nutritional value):

One of my good friends from work found these candles that spelled out JENNA. How cute is that? Jenna loved them and was so excited to see another opportunity to blow out candles! Notice how the jelly bean colors happened to perfectly coordinate with the letters!



Jenna had picked out a Hello Kitty theme for her birthday invitations, so when I saw this plate, cup, bowl and water bottle set, I knew she'd love it. I think her expression is so cute!

Her big present was a piano keyboard. This is the next day, and it's the first thing she wanted to do when she got home from school. Hopefully, we'll be able to start her with piano lessons soon.

Jenna's 3rd Birthday - Celebration #2

For Jenna's second celebration, Randy and I went to her school to be there while she shared her homemade cupcakes with her classmates. She loves her friends, and we enjoyed watching them all interact!
It turns out, it was another little girl's birthday the next day, so each child was given 2 cupcakes and some goldfish to counter-balance the sugar. They all really got into the cupcakes...or should I say icing?
Randy was quite the hit of the party. Here you see him with a few kids one minute, then surrounded by them the next!


Luckily, they had their weekly Gym Bugs class afterward which gave them a chance to run off some energy...and that they did!

Jenna's 3rd Birthday - Celebration #1

Jenna's first celebration was while we were in Atlanta. She was so excited as we brought her "cake" out--really it was iced Ghirardelli brownies made by Auntie Mary Ann. Yum, yum!


Jenna added a few sprinkles to it to give it the finishing touch:

She was getting really excited in this picture!

She received many wonderful presents, but I love this picture of her, her great-grandfather, and the guitar he bought for her!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

We had a wonderful time visiting with family in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. We always have a delicious dinner at a beautiful table with great memories. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Everyone helps prepare the meal.

What a beautiful bird!

The lovely fall table--minus the food (at the buffet)
and the people (getting food).

Jenna opted for Cheerios rather than the Thanksgiving meal;
she didn't know what she was missing!

Papu, my almost-91-year-old grandfather,
makes a wonderful pecan pie--and looks great too!

Part of our Thanksgiving Tradition is
browsing the Black Friday ads and developing a plan of attack!
We've begun training Jenna at a young age.

She especially enjoyed "shopping in the dark"--as I had described it--with her mom, her Mimi, and her Auntie Mary Ann. (We left later than anticipated, so it wasn't really dark.) We enjoyed some of her favorite treats-- a "clocolate" Dunkin' Donut and chick-n-minis at The Cow Place (AKA Chick-Fil-A). She had a ball, and we got some great deals too!

The Chick-Fil-A we went to is a Dwarf House,
so Jenna loved the miniature door!

We went home in early afternoon to make sure Jenna had a good nap before the family celebration of her 3rd birthday...more on that to follow!

Jenna's First Haircut

I've trimmed Jenna's hair here and there, but it's starting to grow too much and really needed a professional cut. We have a friend down the street who cuts hair, so we thought it would be less intimidating for Jenna if we just took her there for her first big girl haircut.

She panicked with the unknown, just as we thought she would, so it was a good thing we weren't in a public salon. She cried for a while, but ended up settling down when her daughter came out and began to sidetrack her. She then calmed down enough to eat the lollipop I'd brought for her, and all was well. Here are a few pics...

Her hair had gotten really long...

Here's a few shots of the haircut. Notice the little girl keeping Jenna distracted.



Here's the "after" shot. It looks really cute on her!