Category: Home Life

Thanksgiving weekend my sister Tahni and I created this little masterpiece. The tallest one is about 3″ high. SO CUTE!!! Click the photo below to see the step by step action – the prep work was done by me and it had to sit overnight to have stable walls.

It was great fun and is now the centerpiece on the kitchen table. SWEET!

Jessica and Randy came down for the work Christmas party and what that means is a food, shopping and talking fest for Jessica and I. It’s AWESOME!!!

On Thursday we picked her up at the hotel and headed for Grapevine Mills. We hit all the key shops for kids and then headed over to Steak and Shake to split a Frisco Melt. This is a tradition for us since she doesn’t have them in Denver. We headed home to give Nadia a nap and then we planned out what specialty cupcakes we were going to make. This time we tried the “Chocolate Molten Cupcakes” from the cake mix doctor book. We prepped everything including homemade chocolate ganache for the centers and waited for the guys to get back from work. Making a new kind of cupcake is also a tradition.

Then we headed to Pappasito’s dinner. YUM!! Mike and I never go alone anymore since so many guests crave it. After that we got Nadia to bed and put the cupcakes in the oven and sat down to try some of the drinking chocolate I gave Jess for Christmas.  Here we are about to eat the cupcakes fresh out of the oven.

Friday we picked Jessica up and hit a couple of Half Price Book stores. Jessica had great success and even found an out of print cookbook. They don’t have HPB where she is so we always go to a couple when she comes to visit so she can get books for the girls.

Then we had to split up to get ready for the big party that night. Here are a few shots from the night. They had a green screen with a photographer and so Mike and I did a special Cat in the Hat for Nadia.

It was a great visit, but it always makes me sad to say goodbye. See you next time Jess and remember our chant. “less than a year, less than a year!”

When my cousin Jen was here for a visit in November she documented a step by step photo journal of me making a Curious George cake. (Thanks Jen!) The cake was for our friends the Carmans going away party. Little Miss Clarity loves monkeys, so I thought it would be appropriate.

You can click on the photo above to see the whole slide show and I will just show a few of the highlights below. Here I am cutting the cake in half after it had cooled a bit.

Iced and ready for the piping gel transfer. Thanks to Mike for finding the image online and making it the right size in photo shop.

The first color is done.

Adding the border.

What do you think?

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year which is great because we don’t have to travel with all the “kid stuff” and everyone can just relax. Papa and Grandma came up from Houston, Tahni came up from College Station and Bayli and her friend came down from Denton. We of course had enough food to feed an army, but we ate leftovers for days! Tahni and I made a mini gingerbread village, but those photos will be in a future post. I am once again using the gingerbread as the centerpiece for the kitchen table.

On Friday we headed over to the Partridges for brunch and we got a chance to see Evan and Courtney which was nice since they are living up north now. Here is Grammie with half of her grandkids and the only great-grandchild.

Nadia and Papa had a blast watching videos by Laurie Berkner while the cooking was going on nearby. I love the fun they were having caught in the play by play.

Here are the three sisters.

Tahni and Nadia having a blast playing.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend with good food and lots of laughter. And that’s the way all family get-togethers should be. 🙂