Betty Crocker eat your heart out

It is no big suprise that my Sister is Martha Stewart, Betty Crocker and Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman all wrapped in one. She can go fishing,catch dinner~come home and cook it and bake you a dessert from scratch with rubharb she grew from her garden, while cleaning your house, diagnosing your ailments and telling you what medicine to take to feel better. Me on the other hand that's another story......I can put together an outfit in seconds......I am reallllllly good at loving my family and friends~AND I can talk your ear off.....BUT not great at cooking although I really try hard...Shawna makes her kids chicken noodle soup from scratch....even the noodles...I feed my child campbells chicken noodle soup~so when she told me that she was going to bake Christmas goodies with my cousin Krystal I was inspired....I can do this!!!!  I think I can I think I can.....so I call Anna and we decide we are going to BAKE!!! Anna is the Ethel to my Lucy....we are always trying some sort of crafting/baking/cooking and while our shenanigans usually don't turn out how we anticipated we always have a good time.

We headed over to her Mom Mary's house~ she had all the baking necessities. If we would have baked at my house we would have been fighting over my one measuring cup and hand mixer.... 

I was bound and determined to make almond roca....I found a really easy (or so I thought) recipe on the internet

so far soooo good ~sugar, butter, and karo syrup

this was the tricky part.....did you know they have candy thermometers? yeah me neither.....and let me tell you getting the butter stuff to 290 degrees without scorching it was super duper hard.....

my first batch of Almond Roca was gross!!! Frank wouldn't stop laughing while he tasted it....Anna's sweet Mom just kept saying "you did great!!!"

I could actually lie and tell you I made this peanut brittle but I won't!!! Mary made it~besides no one would believe me anyways!!

my second batch of Almond Roca....yeah me!!! it actually turned out like it was supposed to!!! How did THAT happen???

Anna made peanut butter bars with LOTS of chocolate chips!! it was so yummy but curiously came out of the oven missing a few pieces ;0)

Santa sent Jacob a video message....and let me tell you....the look on his face was absolute joy!!!

Mary has alot of fire trucks and cars for the boys to play with, and let me tell you these boys had sooo much fun.....they didn't even want to stop playing to have brownies and hot cocoa

So I got in a bit of a Christmas funk......but today our sweet neighbor's backyard and shed caught on fire, thankfully no one was hurt and the fire dept put the fire out before it reached their house. That puts things in perspective~

I am so thankful for my husband and son!!

We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.



Introducing......Jacob the Rockstar Evans

Jacob had his Christmas concert today!! He seriously is the CUTEST kid ever!! He did such a good job!! Frank and Jake seriously had to hold me down in my seat!! I wanted to jump up and a give him a standing

ovation at the end of every song!! The video is so shakey because I was trying to cry quietly without the guys knowing ~ I knew that would make fun of me ;0) so not only do I have the cutest kid in all of Beacon Hill Elementary, he is also the most musically talented!

Christmas is love in action

The Griswolds Christmas Vacation

Sooooo apparently we live across the street from the Griswolds.....Their house lights up the ENTIRE block. Every day I go outside and Mr."Griswold" has added more to his collection of Christmas lights. The first day he started out with the HUGE Santa and the lights around the roof. The Second day he adds Rudolph...The Third day he adds the lights to the tree...The Fourth day he added the white Christmas tree, and the Fifth day he added the window light. This has been a week long process people!!! He has just about started a riot in the neighborhood by making us all look bad!! I was sooooo happy with our cute little icicle lights and lights around the pillars in the front of our house~and then THIS!!! I wasn't prepared for the battle of the christmas lights Griswold style but next year it is ON!!!

Last week we made candy cane hot cocoa but my Sister gave me the idea to try candy cane Mochas.....seriously this is happiness in a cup right here....Jacob had his hot cocoa with a candy cane and I had a mocha and we enjoyed the Christmas cartoon "Prep for Landing"~ I wish he would stay this age forever!!! he is so much fun!!! on a totally random note....while taking my pics I have noticed some of them have a yellow tone to them that I am not digging. So if you are reading this and know how to help me get the yellow tint out of my pics~email me ;0)

When my Mom was here she bought me these really pretty candle holders for my Dining Room. I put some apple pie candles in them!!! They smell soooo good!

I didn't learn my lesson from my last Martha Stewart catastrophe~I saw an episode of her show where she glittered pine cones!! So since I can't resist a glitterfest ever....I tried it!! Shesh Martha Stewart makes everything look soooo easy!! My projects NEVER end up turning out like hers EVER!!! But I get an A for effort right!!

The pine cones have a cinnamon smell to them so combined with the apple pie candles...my house smells like CHRISTMAS!!!! that's right be jealous!!

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts

It's a wonderful life~

I have had the MOST amazing time playing with my camera. I can just play with it for hours and I actually caught myself reading the manual just for fun~hello nerdom

Bokeh!! I finally figured it out and actually didn't do that bad of a job~yeah me

Jacob is the best gift I have ever received and watching him at Christmas has really reminded me what the holidays are all about.  I usually get so wrapped up in all the gifts I have to buy and wrap and fretting over finances....but I am going to do my very best to not do that this year.  My new years resolution is to focus on the blessings in my life and not get lost in the hustle and bustle of life.

We watched Elf and then went to Starbucks and to look at Christmas lights. I didn't get the greatest pics considering we were in a moving vehicle~but we had a fun filled family night~

you can't really tell from the pic but the three wise men are dopey sneezy and bashful~

Jake and Anna have been really busy and we didn't get to celebrate my birthday with them so this weekend...they made tacos and got me a birthday cake~It was red velvet and it was soooo yummy!! I have never had red velvet cake before and let me tell you it was worth the wait~

I wasn't the only one who thought so~

So every year Diana buys me a subscription to Cosmo and Glamour for my bday/christmas present!! seriously she has done it for YEARS for me!! what girl wouldn't LOVE that right?? If there is a good article or interview with a celebrity we discuss it via text~so while we don't get to read them together like we used to it's the next best thing~Thank you D~you rock!! I am thankful for you~

Christmas is the day that holds all time together

Santa's COMING!!!

We went down to the train depot in kelso for the christmas tree lighting....the theme was "A Cowboy's Christmas"

Jacob Theresa and Gil......sooooo excited to see Santa

they got to make snowmen

and their faces painted.....here is a perfect example of the difference between boys and girls.....Jacob and Gil got vampire bats (not sure what that was about) and Theresa got a santa

They LOVED the hayride

This clocktower reminded me of Back to the Future

Jacob was reallllly concerned where Mrs. Claus was

AND....if Santa knew if he had been naughty or nice~

Christmas waves a magic wand over the world

Thanksgiving and my Birthday

I GOT A CAMERA....I GOT A CAMERA........I totally scored a new camera for my Birthday~can I get a WHAT WHAT!!! Thank you Mom for giving birth to me around Thankgiving so I could reap the benefits of the day after Thanksgiving sales.

since I didn't get my camera until after Thanksgiving I had to use my iphone...so I didn't take too many pics~this is Casey~Chad and Jessica's daughter...she LOVED Josh pulling her around on the sled!!

Jake is trying to figure out why I am making him wear all this snowgear when there is only 2 inches of snow outside.....Why??? because I was cold therefore HE had to wear a jacket and snow clothes......after Thanksgiving Dinner, Chad made a campfire and we all said what we were thankful for, it was a great way to end the night~

Ladies and Gentlemen!!! I would like to formally introduce you to the BLUE DRAGONS! While Denice and Robert were here....the boys had a jam session and decided to form a band, they were considering taking it on the road but sadly, the boys demanded too much money!

On my Birthday we went to watch Caleb and Matt race at the motorcross races, I had the best time playing with my camera....I love these two pics because it makes them look like they were traveling at warp speed!!!

Matt at the starting line

Jacob cheering on his buddies!!!

After the races we came home and watched Ramona and Beezus, the boys were none to happy but since it was my Birthday they agreed!!! I love the Beverly Cleary books as a child and my sister not only LOOKED like Ramona Quimby as a little girl but ACTED like her too!!! It was such a cute movie!!! After the movie we put up the Christmas tree, drank hot cocoa, and listened to Christmas music!!

only my child would make a superhero cape out of the tree skirt!!!

He made this ornament for me in 1st grade!!

When I was pregnant with Jacob my parents sent me this ornament~we didn't know he was a boy yet!

Frank adding the star at the top, my Aunt Rosie has used the same top of her tree since my cousin Debbie was born, and I loved that idea so the year Jake was born we bought this star and hope to use it till he is an adult~

the finished Christmas tree!!!!!

while researching cameras and photography online I found this really cool type of photography called bokeh~while I wasn't very good at it~it was alot of fun to try

our Christmas stockings....can you guess which one is mine?

It's not the years in your life that count but the life in your years