i heart hillside cafe.

i am so excited about this place. it's about time we have something like this on our side of town. my friend told me about it 3 days ago and i have already been there twice! (IT'S IN THE OLD COFFEE PLANTATION ON WARNER AND 48TH)

i got these cupcakes for the kids for an afterschool snack. they gobbled them up. $2 ea.

i love the natural decor.
didn't try these... don't care for nuts in my brownies, but i loved the stamps and the cake plate so much.
the menu: yummy breakfasts until 2. they also have lunch starting at 11. dinner is starting in feb. i had the croque monsieur... DELISH. i also ordered a kids meal, grilled cheese and fresh cut french fries, only $3!!
cute baskets of candy...
S was eyeing those lolipops. she didn't get one.
hurry over there and try it out! it will be worth it :)

little chef

this little chef prepared a wonderfully impressive dessert for us the other night. she cracked open the coconut, filled it with her own vanilla pudding with coconut milk, and added a sprinkle of coconut shavings on the top. voila!

S: daddy, my teeth shut my tongue.

translation: so you bit your tongue?

S: yes.

wintery wonderland

highlights from our trip to indiana.....

1. spending time with gram and gramp
2. spending time with friends and eating at our FAV restaurant... and by some miracle the kids all sat quietly and happily at this non kid restaurant for 2 hours!!! we couldn't believe it.
3. getting to go to the American Girl Place in chicago with noni. we even ran into a friend there, she sat down right next to us at lunch! small world.
S finally decided on Molly. she loved her long hair and glasses.
D was very excited to do some shopping for Josefina. she even got her hair done.

(thank god for gift cards!!)
L loved going back for her second time. Chrissa was happy to see some old friends and get some new clothes. since she was the doll of the year for 2009, we couldn't get any of her signature clothes, but she wasn't too depressed with her new purchases. noni and i were on the lookout for a clearance section but the employees just stared at us in disbelief.
they were pretty pooped after a long day. they actually slept on the way there and some of the way back.
4. playing left right center. D won this game. she added the winnings to her american girl fund.
5. staying with the timkos and learning new video games, throwing snow at eachother and having a new appreciation for grilled cheese and hot soup (when taking a break from the snow).
6. silly adult time after the kids finally passed out.

7. late night trips to marsh to get my new fav ice cream. (thanks for the new addiction ingrid) the problem is they only sell it in the midwest. if you are ever in the midwest you have to try this.
8. grammy's breakfasts
9. forgetting that things actually freeze if you leave them in the car overnight.
10. getting to visit with our favorite priest... Fr. Phil. he told the kids to "do all the right things" i think they love him beacuse he gives them lots of candy. i love him because he lets me look at all of his thousands of pictures.
11. getting the kids all bundled up.
12. having hot cocoa at grammy's
13. making snow people.
we had such a great time with everyone. and it was fun to be in the cold snowy weather, but i have to say it was pretty nice coming home to 75 degree sunny weather and spending all day in the backyard. (i'll be biting my tongue in a few months when it is blazing hot)

our christmas pictures (for real)

The Milk and Honey Maternity Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Milk and Honey Maternity Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love this! I need it!!

the annual christmas video....

more christmas joy...

and a variety of fabulous family christmas pictures. we really rocked it this year with family photos, aside from the beautiful ones my sis took, the rest were pretty awful. oh well, it makes me laugh looking at them...




we also got to have a special visit from santa. he called each of their names and gave them a special early gift. S was on the fence about the whole thing, but not willing to take any chances, so she happily went along with it. she was eyeing his beard pretty closely. (it was real)



D struck a familiar pose...
going on the 4th christmas gift opening celebration here... things got a little crazy.
Paully was thrilled about our matching plaid disney jammies! (it was a joke) each year i try to find the most obnoxious jammies to wear over to my mom's christmas morning.
here are the girls with their cousins at my dad's. they were all super hyper!!! we were on our way to christmas mass where S did the first reading. she ROCKED it!!! she read very slow, deliberate and clear. i was so proud.
well... no pony this year. :( but i did get several darling things that i LOVE! especially the cake plate from my cousin made just for me!

crafts

my friend michelle, yes she's my friend too, yes she's that cool to be referenced on 2 blogs (maybe more?) in 1 week!!!! anyway, she sent me this link and let me tell you this really was fun to make. we got our ornaments at wallmart in a tube of 50 for $15. i also added a $3 box of mini ornaments to mine. make sure you get the shatterproof ornaments.

a peek at a possible christmas craft...
i heart my vintage christmas coffee mugs...
in the process of the wreaths.... i also added feathers to mine. probably won't do that again next time. also, i'm not that great with bows, no patience. that's more sar's department.
newlyweds.

don't panic!

i keep telling myself. i know i can get everything done. the good thing is that it's all fun stuff to do. except for cleaning the house. not so fun. but i do need to buckle down and get crafting!

another good thing is that the kids are filled with the good kind of christmas excitement (some more than others... not naming any names...insert 3 yr. old's name here)

D made her own version of "i love you more" in the car the other day... here are a few verses...

i love you more than a ghost full of food.

i love you more than scooby doo.

i love you more than if i were going to a birthday party.

i love you more than an elephant.

kind of random, but i was particularly flattered by the birthday party verse... she really likes those.

i heart silver cleaner...

thanks to some help from this little missy...

we were able to shine up these beauties....
my spoons from paris, a butter dish i found at a flea market and this awesome thing i found at goodwill. i'm not sure what it is, but i like to think of it as a fancy cupcake stand.

looks like christmas around here...

so we got our tree up (i will be hitting the after christmas sales for a huge pre-lit artificail tree) , got some decorations up, plans to make cookies tomorrow, did the advent wreath 2 sundays in a row (yeah), and even got a litle christmas shopping done. it was a productive weekend. here are some scenes from our house...

we were down to one non-broken nativity scene. now we don't have any that aren't broken. i guess they are just too tempting to pick up and walk around the house with.

some stocking holders (haven't made the stockings yet) but i do have all 7 holders ready to go.
and last but not least... our huge charlie brown christmas tree. paul drove all the way up to greer to cut it down. it is dripping sap all over the place and cut the children as they were trying to hang ornaments, but hey, i did say i wanted a tall one.

2009 chritmas list

some things i am hoping santa will bring to ME! (so selfish)

1. a pony just like max (except maybe white or black or a paint)

2. a flat cheese grater

3. a 6 or 8 slice toaster

4. a new 4 or 8 slice waffle iron

5. my own cake plate just like sarah's (except not with her name on it)

6. a cool, romantic adults only weekend away

7. world peace (even if it starts at my house, including 1 WHOLE day without even 1 loud high-pitched scream)

8. an anthropologie gift card (mulitple increments of $100's please)

9. a new knife set

10. a happy and healthy family for all of 2010!!! (and beyond of course)

i am off to a good start. i wanted to have all christmas decorations, including the tree, up by today. a good start for me anyway. i got the fall decorations down, paul brought in the christmas decorations from the garage, i got my christmas cards designed and ordered, and i found my christmas plates hidden in the cupboards (but didn't get them down yet). the tree is going to have to wait i guess. i was always for having a real tree, except for the last several years, the smell has worn off in just a few days and turned into a weird rotten water smell coming from the tree water, the tree ALWAYS dies and is totally brown by the time christmas rolls around, it makes a huge mess, and we end up spending around $70-$80 on a tree every year anyway. so this year i thought i would get a beautiful pre-lit artificial tree. p scrubs disagrees. he wants to go and chop down a real tree for the price of the permit, $15. the problem is i don't want to drive that far and wait that long. the only place left, he says, is in greer. that is too long of a drive to go and come back in one day. so we will have to wait and see what the master decides to do. see how much i sacrifice??? (i hope he is reading this...)

twilighters

these girls joined in on the new moon hype. not that they got to see it.... they just wanted to dress like vampires. well, they thought they looked like vampires anyway.
note to self... don't leave poisonous cleaners right on top of the toilet. it could be dangerous.