Twas the night before Christmas...

... and all through the Smead house,
the laundry was cycling
and the lysol was doused.

Karter started my early afternoon today by throwing up all over his brother's bed, floor, our hallway, and the bathroom. He wrapped up the night by throwing up all over our couch. He feels crumby, he looks worse then that. My poor buddy is sick for Christmas, he was SO excited about it. Our plans have been moved to next weekend, we rented movies and are going to do our best to make it a great weekend with this kids. I am just praying that whatever bug this is is gone by morning and that the rest of us stay healthy.

a funny thing tonight....

me "are you going to help put out cookies for santa gav?"
gav "why?"
Scott "you have to leave him a treat so he will leave you gifts"
Gav "oh, well can we leave him hotwings so I can eat the cookies instead?"

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

To all my blog friends, my favorite Christmas song ever and my wish for you this holiday season...


Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now

Christmas Cards!

I love our Christmas Card this year!

Check it out!

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!

Tomorrow, Scott and I will attempt to start and finish our Christmas shopping in one day. Phew, I need a nap just thinking about it! Because the whole point of this blog is to document my children's lives, here is a glimpse of what is on the boy's Christmas lists this year...

Karter's List

• a dog (Yea, I don't think so.)
• a panda pillow pet
• a video game(like a leapster or a ds)
• new wii games
• a four wheeler AND a dirt bike (keep in mind there are still training wheels on his pedal bike as we speak)
• A new frog towel (so he doesn't have to share the one we have)

Gavin's List

• a tractor- with only one seat (so he doesn't have to let his brother ride with him)
• a four wheeler- (but a small one because "I'm still little"
• a dog pillow pet
• a kitchen
• more tools
  
  AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST-- What Gav wants more than ANYTHING ELSE

• an "O" in his name (I am STILL laughing about that one)

It cracks me up! Where in the world are we going to find an "O" for Gav's name. He has already made it clear that "Gav'O" and "Gavino" are not options! lol! I'm not sure what store to look for an "O" but he might as well want a Hippopotamus!

Recipe Blog- Best Sugar Cookies EVER!!!

This is the doubled recipe!

I made these this weekend while it was "blizzarding" outside. I have been searching for years for a perfect sugar cookie recipe. I dont like "cakey" sugar cookies, and I dont really like "super crunchy" cookies either. I just wanted a recipe that was... well, perfect. And here it is folks!


1 cup butter, softened
6 oz of cream cheese
2 cups white sugar
2 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder


1.) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Divide dough into two pieces, cover and chill until firm, about 1 hour.

2.) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut in to desired shapes using cookie cutters and place the cookies at least 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3.) Bake for 7 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

A few things that I thought made this even better:

• Instead of rolling the dough on a floured surface, I "floured" my surface with powdered sugar.
• I divided my dough chunks into smaller sections because it made it easier to work with
• There is no reason why you couldnt make a large "log" of the dough, chill it, and then cut slices off to make your flat cookies.
• Watch your time, 7 minutes made chewier cookies while 9 minutes made "crisp" cookies.

Heres the website where I found them!
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/cream-cheese-cut-outs-ii/Detail.aspx