The Stoufer Family

Christmas Baking 12/8/10

Each year for the last 3 we have baked up a storm of Christmas goodies. We exchange goodie plates with neighbors and we share them with our co-workers. I was beginning to feel a little behind schedule due to our trip. Usually by the 2nd weekend after Thanksgiving we already had several things baked. So, when we finally had a free evening, we started our Christmas baking.

One of the things we make are pretzel/Hershey kisses/m&m candies. The kids line the cookie sheets with pretzels......

then unwrap the kisses and out a kiss on top of each pretzel. We usually do Hugs, Mint, and Candy Cane flavored kisses......

then we bake them for a few minutes in the oven and top each kiss with an m&m. They then have to cool and harden over night.

While the kisses were cooling we decided to use a new "toy" we bought after Christmas last year. I found this tool that cuts the cookies and then presses a picture imprint on the cookie.

While the imprint cookies were baking we started making some cut-out cookies from the short bread dough. We had to show Samantha how to do it once, and then she did it like she was a pro. I think cutting out the cookies is Marc's 2nd favorite (only to frosting them) part of making cookies.

My kiddos made some pretty good looking cookies if I do say so myself. ;-)

While I was at The Dollar Tree one day the previous week I found these cute aprons. I thought "What the heck, they are only $1 each", so I bought 4 of them. When I asked Daddy Marc if he was going to help us bake I had him put on his apron. His response was "Since when does "Honey, help me bake mean having to wear cute matching aprons?". Silly man! ;-) I think we turned out really cute! :-)

Now that we have round 1 of baking done, I am not feeling quite so behind schedule. The things we made turned out pretty darn yummy if I do say so myself. :-)

Santa Parade 12/4/10

We love going to the Santa parade in downtown Rockford! We have gone most of the last 4 years. It is usually cold, but what a fun way to get into the spirit of Christmas!

While we were waiting for it to start I decided the kids looked so cute all bundled up in their snow gear I had to get some pictures of them.

And of course some with us too.

The parade last about 30 minutes. We get to see lots of cute kids from various boy scouts, girl scouts, sports clubs, etc in addition to police/fire, a few companies and businesses, and of course, Santa! All of the "groups" have most of their kids walk the route passing out candy. Most of the time we get candy for 2-4 people from the same group. The amount of candy the kids got is amazing! I think it is almost, if not more than, as much as they got on Halloween!

It is a lot of fun to tell a bunch of strangers Merry Christmas. this year we hadn't gotten much "Christmas" stuff done yet, so this parade was kinda the thing that put me in the Christmas spirit. :-)

Christmas Decorating 12/3/10

We usually put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving but since we weren't home that weekend, we had to wait another weekend. Marc kept nagging us to put up our decorations because "everyone else has theirs up". ;-) I told him that "everyone else didn't just get back from vacation". So we finally out Marc out of his misery and put the tree up. Both kids helped us spread the branches out on each branch of the tree and put them on the tree pole. Marc id a great job, as usual, but Samantha wasn't so sure about the feel of the needles at first, but then got used to them.

Daddy and I did the lights while the kids had nap/quiet time. After Marc came upstairs he helped Daddy put the garland on the tree....such a big boy and a big helper!

Love the fact the both kids are old enough to do at least a little bit of the decorating. This year we had the kids hang their own stockings on our stocking holder.

Every year for the last couple of years we have let Marc put the topper on the tree.

It was SO fun watching the kids decorate the tree. Daddy and I didn't do much, just the breakable ones, while the kids put the rest of the ornaments on. After wards I had to go back through and rearrange a few, but for the most part, they did great!

It is always so fun to watch the kids and their excitement over the Christmas decorations! :-)

November Cuteness

Just a couple of random cuteness pictures of my kiddos from November.

I was prepping a craft for my preschool class. For the craft the kids were gluing on red pom poms for Rudolph's nose. Samantha decided she needed to be like Rudolph.

I went to a friend's house for a "party" that she was chosen to host. It was sponsored by Pedilyte. She had to buy ingredients for and we prepared 3 meals for us to bring home and put in our freezer to be used if someone gets sick. One of the recipes called for chopped ham. Samantha felt like she had to stand guard over the ham.

I just thought it was cute that both of my kiddos have footie pj's. They both look so cute, and warm, in them!

Marc used some of his unused gift money to but the Kinect attached to the Xbox 360. This is a system where your body is the controller. There is a game that is kin of like an obstacle course where you have to move side to side, bend down, jump up, etc, etc, etc. Samantha wanted so bad to do it, but she wasn't quite tall enough for the sensor to detect her, but she had fun trying. (sorry for it being sideways, I don't know how to flip it).

These are just a couple of the random pictures of cuteness that occurred in the month of November. :-)

Trip to Arkansas 11/23/10-11/29/10

Several months ago we found out that Marc's grandmother Stoufer wasn't doing too well health wise so we decided it was time to plan a trip down to Arkansas to say our good-byes. :-( We headed down over Thanksgiving break. By doing it then Marc only missed 2 days of school, which were easy to make up.

We decided that Samantha was big enough to have her own carry-on bag now. When I saw a cute purple one on clearance for $8, I couldn't resist. She loved it and felt like such a big girl!!

We flew from Grand Rapids, MI to Kansas City, MO (instead of Fort Smith, AR) on our 14th wedding anniversary. Marc surprised me by having a chocolate mousse cake delivered to our hotel room that night! Yum! (and it was free!!!)

We flew into Kansas City because it saved us $400 a ticket for a total of $1600 in savings!!! Since we were there, we surprised Marc with breakfast at our old neighbor's new house. The Thatcher family lived across the street from us for 7 years. They moved to Kansas City this past summer and we have missed them terribly! We enjoyed a great breakfast, the kids had some play time, us adults got some catching up time, and Miss Johna (who used to be the children's librarian) gave Samantha her own, personal story time. :-)

The night before we left we found out that Marc's grandmother was admitted to the hospital again. Our plans were to go see her on Monday on our way back to the airport. While we were having breakfast we found out that his grandmother was going to be transported via ambulance on Sunday to get her ready for open heart surgery. That meant she wasn't going to be around on Monday any more so we had to adjust our plans. We left KC and went to Branson's hospital to see her.

After driving for what seemed like forever, through rain, fog, and tornado watches/warnings we finally made it into Fort Smith late on Wednesday night. The next morning was Thanksgiving. We headed over to Marc's Nannie & Papaw's house for lunch and family time.

Marc and Samantha looking at a book with Papaw.

Samantha with Aunt Jennifer

One of my favorites!!!

After lunch we headed back to the hotel so the kids could take a nap and rest up. After nap time we headed over to Marc's Dad's house for dinner and time with other family members. Talk about being stuffed by the end of the night! ;-)

Samantha with Uncle Paul

After dinner we did a photo shoot of all of the various families that were there.

Then we got a picture of Bumpa and most of his grand kids.

On Black Friday, we stopped at a couple of stores (not early!) about 10:00 and found lots of good clothes deals for the kids. After stopping at the stores we headed over to OK to spend the day with Marc's sister and her family. The kids ha fun playing with their cousins and I enjoyed "shopping" with my niece's old clothes that don't fit anymore. Best Black Friday shopping trip ever!! We ended up with 3 trash bags full of "new" clothes for Samantha and Marc. :-)

On Saturday we headed to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party for Marc. He was excited to be able to celebrate his birthday with that part of the family since he has never been able to before. We had a coupon for free "birthday" tokens for Marc. He was very cute counting his loot.

We put all the kids at a table together to eat lunch......

an then the kids went wild spending lots and lots of tokens on fun games. :-)

Marc got lots of fun gifts! A big thanks to all!

Do you think a day at Chuck E Cheese wore my kiddos out?

On Sunday we went to church with Marc's dad. It is a Southern Baptist church. I learned that I am not made to be Southern Baptist. ;-) I thought the message that the Pastor delivered was great, but he didn't have to yell at me! ;-) After church the boys went and did laundry while Samantha and I went back to the hotel so she could take a nap. After nap time we headed to dinner with Marc's other sister, Trinity, and his Mom. At the restaurant there was a razorback that the kids rode (in case you don't know, they are the Arkansas Razorbacks). The kids thought it was SO cool!

The kids with Aunt Trin

Marc with his kids, his sister, and his Mom.

On Monday, we headed back to KC after lunch so we would be closer to the airport for our flight out on Tuesday morning. We had a very uneventful trip home and were glad to be home. It was a great trip. It was nice to see all the family. We went down to say our good-byes to Marc's grandmother and we find out that she is going to have surgery that will make her tons better. Great trip!

Happy 7th Birthday Marc!!

We did all of Marc's celebrating before his birthday so we tried to make sure his actual birthday was celebrated too. When he got up in the morning we put a candle in his breakfast Pop-tart. He had to make a wish and blow the candle out.

It was finally time for Marc to take the brownies you read about in one of my previous posts to school. I had to work in the morning on his birthday, but I arranged with his teacher to surprise him and come volunteer in his class for the last couple of hours of school. I wanted to be there to take pictures of him on his special day. He got the biggest kick out of passing out his goodies.

When I came in I surprised him with a balloon bouquet. I can't decided if he was really excited or a little embarrassed that I bought them in for him. ;-) I think he liked them though.

Every Friday during the school-wide assembly, they have any kids that have had a birthday during that week come up front. When they are up there the whole school says happy birthday to them and they get to pick out a birthday pencil. On their birthday they can also donate a book to the library in their name. Marc chose to donate a copy of the first book in one of his favorite series, "The 39 Clues".

I think all in all, it was a great birthday!! :-) I thank God for the 7 years we have been blessed with him.

Marc's Birthday Celebration with Family 11/14/10

Party time! We had my Mom, Grandma, and brother Jeff to our house after church to celebrate his 7th birthday. He told us he wanted a "Toy Story" theme this year so we found a cool cake holder, cake, and table decorations that were Toy Story.

We told Marc that he could pick whatever he wanted for his birthday lunch. He chose tacos so we put together a taco "bar" with lots of possible toppings.

Think he is spoiled just a tad? He got more in the mail a few days later!

After lunch it was time for the best part.....cake and ice cream! ;-)

Our big boy helped cut the cake and hand them out to everyone.

Marc got lots of great gifts and we all had a great time spending the afternoon celebrating our wonderful little man! :-)

Birthday Brownies 11/14/10

Marc wanted to make a special birthday treat to take to school for snack on his birthday. Good thing I have the 2 cutest little chefs ever! We made to boxes of brownie mix so each one of them got to make a box of brownies. They both helped pour the ingredients in the bowl and mix them up.