Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The first part of December was so crazy for us it was nice to have a few days to relax. I almost forgot what a vacation felt like. For me it was the perfect Christmas. The weather was in the low 60s, we had plenty of Mexican food and Cinnamon rolls, and we spent a lot of time with family. Charly also enjoyed her Christmas by ripping open presents, playing with all her new toys, chasing my parents dog Hank around, climbing up stairs, playing at the children's museum, and just being her happy little self. Here is a few of pictures of Charly on Christmas Day:

Opening her first present!

Strip Tease

Its not what you think... this is a family blog- we like to keep things G-rated. PG maybe. So when I titled this post 'Strip Tease' it was in reference to this:

To Do...

I’ve been a busy little beaver here- between working full time, the Thanksgiving holiday in Utah (which for the first time in probably ever I didn’t stress out about as I packed), Christmas preparations and getting ready for our little girl to join us in January, I have kept my evenings jam packed with to-do lists. I am a devout list maker, and attribute my ability to navigate these happenings of late to my new adorable to-do post-it pad from Target. My husband thought $4 for a notepad specifically made for lists was ridiculous… well look at me now! Thank the lists.

So what have we been able to get done? Well…

Maternity photo shoot

Lots of sewing, including…

Crib bumpers. I used the prepackaged batting and it came with a simple pattern attached. The bumpers are made in 6 equal pieces rather than two long and two short. This should make storage later on a whole lot easier.

A crib skirt- tutorial courtesy of this site

It was super easy to follow and easy to customize for our crib, which doesn’t require as long of a skirt due to its low profile.

Some throw pillows (for the sofa sleeper-not the crib). I didn’t use a tutorial for these. I had some old throw pillows, cut off the fabric and used those measurements to construct new covers. I think they turned out pretty good if I say so myself!

Matt painted this dresser we bought from a yard sale in Roanoke, using a technique from this blog that I love

I love the little vintage vibe of this piece, especially the detail of the drawer pulls, with our more modern furniture.

A changing pad cover (and another on the way) from this tutorial

FYI- my elastic ended up being pretty snug. I’ll add an inch or so of elastic on my next one.

A Boppy cover from this tutorial

It was a surprisingly easy project, although for the second one I’ll use fabric with some stretch since cotton doesn’t move with the contours of the pillow so well. I used a 22” invisible zipper and it worked out perfectly.

I’m currently working on a bird mobile found on this site

I sewed my birds on the machine and haven’t quite gotten to the mobile assembly yet, but I’m excited to see the finished product!

We’ve also decorated for Christmas, which really just meant a garland, our nativity we bought in Mexico, our tree (live!) and a ridiculous amount of shiny wrapping papers. I have an obsession.

Whew. I’m tired just writing about it. Nothing gives me more satisfaction though than checking things off the ole’ list, so I’m feeling pretty good about things.

And speaking of feeling good- I’m just about 36 weeks along and still feel great, although definitely more uncomfortable than before. This belly has been growing a noticeable amount and the baby seems to be measuring right on track. I have no inclinations that she’ll come early at this point, but who really knows. Her room isn’t ready, despite all the progress we’ve made, but for some reason I’m feeling pretty calm about it. I know it will get done- and in the mean time, I’ll keep making my lists.

Sugar Cookies

It has been too long since my last post. Things have been so crazy the last few weeks and I have not had a lot of time to cook new recipes or blog. It is about that time of year to do fun Christmas-y things. In the coats household we have our tree up and the house decorated. This last week we had a sunbeam class party. As the kids have been keeping our class rules they earned stickers on a sticker chart. We told them when they go to 100 stickers they could have a class party. This weekend they all came over and we did Christmas crafts and decorated sugar cookies. It was kind of crazy, but we had fun. We made elf hats, Santa beards, and ornaments. They were most excited for the cookies though. So in honor of the Buena Vista Ward Sunbeams I am going to post a sugar cookie recipe.

This recipe comes from my Mother-in-law. What I love most about these cookies is they are nice and soft. I hate hard sugar cookies! I also love to eat the dough. I am eating some left over dough as we speak. So stop being lazy this Christmas, forget the premade stuff and try this recipe out. You won’t regret it! Here are some of the lovely cookies decorated by some of our primary kids!

Sugar Cookies

1 C. Butter

1 Egg

1 TBSP. Milk

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 ¾ C. Flour (sifted)

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

¼ Tsp. Salt

Mix Butter, Egg, Milk, and Vanilla. Then add the Flour, Baking Powder and Salt. Once dough is mixed refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll out dough on a floured surface. Cut out into desired shapes and spray a cookie sheet. Cook at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool and then frost.