Sales, L-O-V-E and Cookie Dough

Lane's parents and our niece, Katie, came to visit and watch the kids for a while today (thank you all so much!!). It's always nice to have a chance to get out to run a few errands alone and have a dinner date. We went to the grocery store, then I went in several stores to look at sale items. I found two casual Christmas dresses for Alexee and a cute plaid shirt and moose sweater for Crosby for next year. I also went to Hobby Lobby and bought holiday tissue paper and gift tags on sale. Now if I can just put them somewhere that I'll remember I have them next year!? I picked up a square canvas and purple and white paint to do a painting of A's initials for her room, and I got the letters to spell "LOVE" and cute scrapbook paper to cover them with. The kids like craft projects (so do I!), so this will give us one to work on for Valentine's Day. We were in the mood for Mexican food so we decided on dinner at Cantina Laredo. Now that we're settled back in at home I'm making these simple desserts, an idea from Heather. You just press refrigerated cookie dough into a ramekin and bake. Cool slightly before topping with ice cream (and hot fudge or caramel if you have it). Yum!

Holiday Trip to Mo & Granddad's

The day after Christmas I took the kids to Flippin to visit my parents and grandparents. My sister and her family had been there, but they left shortly before we arrived (except for my niece), so we missed seeing them. Rhett was excited to get to play with Jaiden for several days though. Since my family had celebrated with dinner and gift-opening earlier this month, this was just a chance to hang out at their house and spend some extra time together. My parents did have one other gift for the kids that will be kept at their house for visits: bean bags! I never had a bean bag, but I think the seem fun. The kids did too, but they honestly had more fun with the big boxes that the bags were shipped in! They played jack-in-the-box with the boxes, and they used the bean bags for everything BUT sitting. They had wrestling matches, built towers and played "Giant" with Granddad (where he was the giant and they attacked him with the bean bags to try to knock him down. There were lamps teetering and pictures knocked crooked on the walls, but no one got hurt and they all thought it was super fun!).

This picture was right after they opened them, and it was never this calm again. I took some pictures of the jack-in-the-box and giant games with Mom's camera, but I guess I didn't take any with mine. C was so cute trying his out.

Jaiden brought the new dollhouse she got for Christmas, and Alexee enjoyed playing with it.

Great-Grandmother "Mo" Nina stopped by to see us and brought a loaf of fresh homemade bread, still warm. The kids tackled her for a picture. These are 3 of her 19 (I think that's right!? Maybe I've lost count?) great-grandchildren!

While we were home, I found one of my old dolls in the attic. It's a neat doll because it is actually three-in-one. One side is Little Red Riding Hood and then you flip the dress over and the other side is Grandma and the Wolf (Grandma wears a big hat, then you take it off and turn the head around to reveal the wolf). Dad is a good story-teller, and had Alexee's full attention by acting out the story with the doll. I posted several pictures because I think the expressions on both their faces are funny.

The wolf was almost too scary for Lex!

I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do. Somehow I didn't even get a picture of my mom! The weather was cold and we stayed inside a lot, which is also unusual. The kids did go out to feed the horses with Mo (and Alexee got to feed Captain D the cat), and Rhett went to work with Granddad for a while on Tuesday. Rhett and Jaiden stayed one extra night and we met to get R today. This afternoon Lane took the older two to see Tangled while I stayed home with Crosby. It has been a fun-filled Christmas break, and we still have a few days to go! It will be hard to get back into the daily routine.

Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning started at 6:30 a.m. here. We'd asked Alexee and Rhett to wait upstairs for us to come and get them so that we could have the video camera ready and see their faces when they came in. A few minutes after 6:00 we heard little feet running in the hallway upstairs! We hurried up to get them, and the fun began! (I'm not sure C was quite ready to get out of his warm, cozy bed but he quickly warmed up to the idea of gift-opening.)

Santa left four separate stacks of goodies for the kids and Bogart in front of the fireplace.

Santa brought Bobo a variety of sticks/treats

Inside this package was a world atlas.

Alexee got a pink poodle Webkinz. Rhett likes to do the Webkinz stuff on the computer, so he helped Alexee get hers registered. I think she named it "Alexee". :)

One of the things R asked Santa for!

Alexee had asked for a new doll. Santa must have known she likes purple.

Crosby got several balls, including a basketball with goal. His hair is getting long and sometimes it looks wild, but I like it!

R got a Nintendo DS. He's been wanting one of these for a long time. He's been having a lot of fun with it already.

After the Santa gifts were unwrapped, we moved to the entryway for the kids to open their gifts from us.
Rhett has this book and Alexee likes to borrow it for me to read to her. Now she has her very own copy with her name in the front cover. Such a sweet book.

R and A got fleece-lined Crocs. Rhett's are tan, Alexee's pink. This little Christmas gown is the one A has worn for the last two years. She had newer Christmas PJs, but insisted on wearing this with her "pretty girl jammie pants" to keep her warm (since the gown is more of a long shirt now--ha!) I love it though. She not new fuzzy pink princess slippers and once she put those on with this outfit she looked so cute I could hardly stand it! :)

C got a big toy bin for his room, PJs, a sock monkey jack-in-the-box and a Cedarmont Kids DVD

I think this is funny of Bogart sitting by his stocking stuffers, licking his lips.

The kids' excitement made it so fun for us.

I'm so grateful for my family!

Merry Christmas from The Garners!

After all the gifts were opened, we cooked our traditional Christmas morning breakfast: pancakes, bacon, cinnamon apples and coffee cake. I didn't take a single picture of the meal or us eating it. It was hectic just trying to cook and have everyone stay seated to eat. After the blessing, Rhett said, "Crosby was throwing scrambled eggs at me through the WHOLE prayer!" This made Alexee laugh. :)

Then we all stayed in our PJs and spent the day at home together...playing with their new toys, taking naps, watching movies, etc. I put a roast on that morning so we skipped lunch and had a yummy dinner of roast, potatoes, corn and rolls. A good day!

For Karson

My cousin and his wife just welcomed a sweet baby boy to their family a few weeks ago (they have two cute girls). I didn't get a chance to go meet the baby while we were in town this weekend...hopefully next trip. I did this painting for his nursery and sent it home with my cousin. They're going to have so much fun with a little boy around!

Baked French Toast

This is a recipe I mentioned earlier this month. It was actually in a cookbook that I had and just didn't know it. My neighbor made it for our Neighborhood brunch, and it was so good!

Baked French Toast
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1 tsp. syrup
3 tsp. vanilla
6 eggs
3 cups milk
Pre-sliced fresh French bread (Cobblestone)

Melt butter in bottom of 9x13" dish. Add sugar and syrup and mix. Take whole loaf of bread and smash on top.* Place bread in dish. Mix eggs, milk and vanilla and pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake uncovered at 350 for 1 hour. Add powdered sugar and cinnamon to top.

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*I'm not quite sure what this step means, but my neighbor's looked really nice in the dish (it didn't look "smashed"). Instead she had the pieces overlapping slightly so that it looked wavy with a neat texture...if that makes sense at all. I wish I had a better picture of hers, but you can see it if you look closely on the brunch post. It's the dish at the back by the polka-dot glass.

Christmas Eve

Here's what Christmas Eve looked like at our house this year:

9:00-11:30 a.m.--Lane was at car dealership with my vehicle. It had started making a loud screeching sound in the front right wheel, and Lane didn't want me to drive to my parents' house without having it checked out. (Thank you, L!) Good thing, since they said I needed new front brakes. While he was gone, the kids and I made Snickerdoodles for Santa. As soon as L got home, the kids opened one gift each. Rhett: a bird house from my grandparents, Alexee: new pink flannel snowman sheets, Crosby: a bag of plastic balls.

Noon--We all went to Panera Bread for lunch, then Lane dropped me off at the door of Kroger (along with everyone else in town and some of their visiting relatives) to get a few things for the weekend. We needed milk, and we decided to put on a roast for Christmas dinner.

Afternoon--Crosby and Alexee took naps, Rhett watched a movie, Lane watched tv and I did a blog post.

4:00--We left for the 4:30 Christmas Eve service at our church. It was starting to rain, and I was hopeful that it might turn to snow since we were staying home for Christmas, but no luck. The kids did great at the service, even Crosby! I didn't think he'd sit still for more than two minutes, but he sat in my lap for the entire hour. He was so sweet. I think he liked all the loud Christmas music and the candles.

5:30--Sonic to get drinks. We happened to hear the guy in the car next to us order a bag of Sonic ice and we thought, "Oh, what a good idea! Let's do that!" Sometimes they don't give you much ice in your drink, which is always a disappointment. Now we have a bag at home to add if needed. We were excited about this. :) It's the little things...

6:00--Back home, kids had dinner and their sonic treat (shared an Oreo Blast), upstairs for baths and bed so Santa could stop by! Of course there was great anticipation around here. Rhett and Alexee couldn't believe that Christmas was finally here! I didn't know if they'd be able to fall asleep, but they did. Crosby went to sleep quickly as usual. After the kids were asleep, Lane and I watched most of It's a Wonderful Life and ate popcorn and had our Sonic drinks. (I was so glad I had already done our gift-wrapping!) I fell asleep about 2/3 through the movie, so I hope to get to watch the rest of it tonight.

So with all that said, here's the day in pictures...

All the kids were invited on stage to sing a few Christmas carols and hold jingle bells. They even had fake snow falling from the ceiling! Rhett went on stage, but Alexee didn't want to go. It was raining when we got to church, so I left my camera in the car and just took a few with L's phone. I love candlelight services--always so neat.

I love how his hair look after his bath!