It's Late, it's late, it's late. . . .

but not too late.  (Queen)

We have been working working working away like crazy trying desperatley to get ready for Christmas travels and gift giving. However we have still had some time for a little fun. Two weekends ago we went to Zoolights with Eric's sister and her family. If you live in AZ you need to go, it really is super cool especially if you like Christmas lights!

Peacock my FAVORITE bird

Rockin the Moby Wrap



This is how I want to light our outdoor trees next year.  White LEDs on the trunk and regular white light snowflakes in the branches.  Good luck hubby!





My favorite tree, beautiful pink LEDs

Then this past weekend, we headed up to the town of Carefree for their Christmas festival.  To be honest, it was not great or good even, but they did have snow and a sledding track for the kiddos, so our friends The Gage's older daughters Reagan and Giovanna, had a blast and the grown-ups got to catch up, then we all headed over to Blu Burger for dinner.  4 adults, 2 babies, one toddler and one young child. . . . . I don't think the restaurant was super excited to see us, in fact the first restaurant we went to "claimed" to only have one high chair. . . . what??!!. . . . anyhow, we had a really good time at dinner and any restaurant should know that if you see a group where the children are equal to or outnumber the adults, you should jump for joy because it means a large alcohol tab:-)  Ha!

Anyhow, other big news, Owen is doing AWESOME!  We recently had a physical therapy visit and she was ecstatic to see that he is cruising and even independentley standing for a few seconds.  Her only advice is to keep doing what we are doing. . . . and then she did give us some strategic positioning tips for cruising to encourage turning and stepping and having to let go with his hands.  Feeding is going MUCH better than it has been, although it took a while to get him to accept any chunks in his food, we are now eating chunky foods 3 times a day and also eating 2 chunky snacks!  He loves his cottage cheese and I even can tolerate it enough when mixed with a lot of fruit!  Also, the "melt away" fruit and veggie puffs (which don't really melt away if you ask me), well he has always had trouble with them, but now he chows down on them, I am so proud of him pinching them up and putting them back to his molars for chewing. . . . those are Mary the OT's words not mine, but I am proud of him:-)  She is very excited about where he is at both with his eating and with his fine motor skills.  She says that developmentally Owen is only 1-2 months behind in most "skills" categories which is huge obviously since he was born so early.  He is so determined, and I swear growing taller everyday!  And, biggest of all, he is NOW using his walker to walk!!!!!!  And he gets it!

In other news, we are getting closer and closer to finally moving into our new house!  We cannot wait and in between baking, knitting, sewing, painting, and blog surfing:-)  I have also been trying to pack a box here and there.  This weekend I am going to try and finish off the guest closet, linens, and kitchen stuff that we can do without.  Tonight I tried a sugar cookie recipe from The Hungry Housewife and they are delicious.  Tomorrow afternoon during naptime I am going to make a second attempt at royal frosting.  (1st attempt being Owen's birthday party)  I have decided that my original problem was that the frosting was too runny, hence it never fully dried, hence the cookies got stale sitting out FOREVER!! and then the colors bled.  So I have found an actual picture of what the frosting should look like (MUCH MUCH stiffer than what I made) and asked for help at one of my FAVORITE stores The ABC Cake Decorating and Baking Supply and I am now ready to go!  I will upload some pictures when complete.  Here are some of the other cookies so far



Spritz cookies mmmmmmmm, my favorite!  Not too sweet, buttery crumbly, yum!  Super cute platter $12 HomeGoods Temecula!



Royal Cinnamon Shortbread, my favorite also

Special K bars, again my favorite!  Super cute footed platter $10 at HomeGoods Temecula . . . . . . thank you Christine

Alright, I could lie and tell you I'm off to bed, but really I'm off to finish a very cute hat for a very special someone:-)