A Day in My Life

Carlee and I made some really wonderful cookies yesterday. They tasted so good, before baked and after;) Matt is even eating them and he rarely touches the sweets I make so they must be good. I took an already yummy chocolate chip cookie recipe and made it even better. Make some this Holiday if you want, here is the recipe (I cut it way down though).

Oven 350/bake 10 to 12 minutes
2 Cups butter
4 eggs
3 Cups brown sugar
1 3.5 oz box instant french vanilla pudding mix
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
5.5-7 Cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons soda
butterscotch chips
coconut
chopped pecans
Make like you do any other cookie recipe. Enjoy:)

After making cookies, dinner, and a big mess, Carlee, who only took a 10 minute nap in the car, fell asleep on the couch. It was funny to watch her dose off as she sat next to me while I was nursing Dani. She is holding her dolly Starbright.


I get to see these two ADORABLE faces every day. I am so lucky!!!










And this face too...

What more could I ask for? Merry Christmas to me.

What's Up

Matt surprised me with tickets to the off Broadway production of Les Miserables at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, New Jersey (about 20 minutes from Hoboken). He got tickets from the radio. It was a fabulous show! Truly breathtaking. The story is incredible and touching. The music is beautiful and powerful. It was such an awesome time. Thanks for taking me Matt! (And thanks to Ryan and Rachael Wood for babysitting so we could go!)
Other happenings:
Counting down to Christmas. We are going to Oregon on Saturday for Matt's Christmas break! This count down my mom made and sent us. It is a cookie sheet and you put a magnet on each day, cool huh!

She also sent us ginger bread boys and the stuff to decorate them so we had fun doing that. Can you guess which one is Carlee Marie's?













I want to cut my hair like Emma Watson's. What do you think Matt? (ya, right.) She said this about her new cut and this is how I feel about really short hair too: "Dear all. Cut my hair off a few days ago. Feels incredible. I love it. I've wanted to do this for years and years," Watson wrote. "It's the most liberating thing ever. Hope you like. Big love from Emma." It is liberating to have short hair that is so easy to manage and do. I use to have mine as short as her's. I want to cut it like that again and never grow it out because growing it out from that short sucks.

Thanksgiving

This is long overdue but I just don't have the time. Our little family has been sick this week (except Dani, thank heaven)with colds, the stomach flu and Carlee with Croup. YUCK! It is good to experience the bad every once and a while to appreciate the good. Here are a bazillion pictures from our quick Thanksgiving trip to my home in Price, Utah. We had a super good time and had some firsts while we were there too. Dani did great on her first flight. Dani got to meet all her family for the first time including her Great Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen Dani was blessed by her daddy in my old home ward and got to have several of her uncles join in the circle and her grandpa too. She wore a dress that her Aunt Kara got for her and Carlee wore a dress that her grandma made for her. After the blessing Matt took some family pictures: Grandma with all her grandchildren... and a more realistic picture of Grandma with all her grandchildren. I had to post both of these because I love Carlee in the top one. This is Aunt Kara who has three boys and hopefully a girl on the way but for now she likes to buy lots of girly stuff for Carlee whenever she gets the chance. Carlee loved it!
So for those of you who are wondering what you do in Price, Utah for fun over Thanksgiving, here are some ideas: Have a wicked fun dance party in your garage (yes we really did and it rocked!) For proof, just look at the happiness on Carlee and her grandpa's faces. Have a blast swimming at the pool at the Holiday Inn, they won't mind. No pics of the pool party though:( Go shopping at D.I. and try on silly stuff (yes, we really did that too). Oh, you want proof? K: If you do that you'll still have time for the usual stuff like the big feast and family, game, and movie time, which we did. Top: Sister-In-Law kara and sister Angie and Cyrie. Do we look alike to you? We also enjoyed a Christmas gift exchange since we won't all be together for Christmas this year. Carlee got her first Strawberry Short Cake doll, oooh! Other firsts that happened while in Utah: Dani really enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and started really smiling and cooing at everyone. She also went two nights in a row sleeping 10 hours! She also didn't poop for 12 days straight and finally broke the spell with some help from a glycerin suppository. And last but not least, Carlee escaped the pack n' play for the first time!