A Christmas Purse

Its finally that time of year when its OK to carry a Christmas purse. I just finished this baby and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I followed the Moda Bake Shop tutorial {found here} with a few changes. Some intentional, some happy surprises. Lets just say I learned a lot.

I used a combo of Michael Miller Funky Christmas and random Christmas fabrics from Joann that I had in my stash.

One side is red...

The other is green...

I am absolutely in love with the polka dot lining...

And plenty of pockets on the sides, the perfect place to stash binkis, cars, pretzels, sharks, mints, and Star Wars guys.

Now I need to Christmas-ify the rest of my house! Cant wait.

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

The bird is in the brine, the frog eye is first on the morning agenda, and I cant wait for my friends to get here tomorrow and let the feasting begin!

I have so much to be thankful for, my babies, my husband, my family, my friends, my job, my Boden cheetah print peep toes. The list is a mile long. I am so very very blessed.

My Boys

A Banner Birthday

We have had a bunch of house guests recently. Living so far from family means whenever someone comes to visit us, we absolutely love it. Among our recent guests was Brads Bro and his wife (check out her blog here, she has great recipes!) We had such a fun time eating out, sight seeing, chatting, and of course shopping at Sephora. Seriously we were in there forever, and could have stayed longer. Love that place.

Anywho, my wonderful sister-in-law made me a super cute "autumn" banner for my birthday. I love it! It appropriately hangs above my desk and sewing machine.

It has leopard print AND glitter AND sequins. She knows me well.

Thanks Ade! I totally love it!

My sweet Baker boy

Almost four months old and he is just as sweet as he looks!

The Birthday Boy

He is three!

We took a birthday trip out to Frying Pan Park. Luckily we saw our friends in the elevator and they spontaneously decided to join us! More on the park later...

So excited for presents! (Yes, its Christmas wrapping paper. Trust me, he didnt care!)

The best present of all, "Star Wars Toys!!" He LOVES all things Star Wars these days (even though he has never actually seen the movies. Just bits here and there on You Tube). I swear he lives and breathes Star Wars 24-7. I have a feeling this is not just a phase...
Some facts about the birthday boy:

• He is way tech savy. Can work my iPhone, the laptop, and You Tube with ease
• He can identify most military aircraft (B-2 bomber, A-10, F-15,18,16,22,117, and so many more!)
• His vocabulary is out of this world, seriously. I mean what 3 year old knows what a vegetarian is?
• He loves his little brother "Bakey"
• Starts many conversations like "Mom, lets talk about _____". Usually the topics are Phantom of the Opera, Star Wars, or Dinosaurs.
• Knows 4 knock-knock jokes, and cracks himself up!

It was a good birthday for a very smart and super sweet not-so-little boy.

A Perfect Run

I had a great run today after work, I went about 4 miles. The weather was perfect and you can't beat the view. I snapped a few photos on my way while listening to Pandora, gotta love Pandora. Check out the highlights:

The Capitol

The Washington Monument (or the Washington Mommy-it, as Avery says)

WWII Memorial (or the Morial according to Avery)

Mr. Lincoln Memorial

I finished up at Arlington Cemetery, but forgot to snap a photo.

I love where I live!

Oh and congrats to me! This is my 100th post!

The perfect fall cookie

Super soft and totally delicious:

Ginger Molasses Cookies

This is one of my all time favorite cookies. I remember one year in the late 80's when these babies won the blue ribbon at the Yavapai County Fair. My mom entered these, some other food thing I cant remember, and a dress she had made for me. I loved that dress! I can still see it hanging there on the wall of the fair display. Well my mom won blue ribbon in all categories she entered and so she got the super big rosette ribbon! I think I entered my barbie collection that year. Do kids still enter collections in the fair? I hope so.

Make these cookies soon, they are the perfect fall desert!

3/4 C oil

1 C sugar, plus more for rolling

1 egg

4 T molasses

Mix first four ingredients then add:

2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t ginger

Stir together until combined. The dough may look too dry, but keep stirring and it will all turn out nicely.

Roll into tablespoon size balls, then roll the balls in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Dont over bake or they get hard!

This recipe doubles nicely!

The Spooks Swoop and Swirl with the Phantom

We love three things at this house...

1- Spinning,

2- Phantom of the Opera, and

3- Spinning while listening to Phantom of the Opera.

We hold any number of things while spinning, it can be toy jets, pens, dinosaurs, or pieces of paper.

Avery found these sheets of paper and started to spin, he realized they looked like ghosts so we drew ghosts on them. He loved it!

He started off slow,

But soon gained speed!

The Phantom was really belting it out!

He spun with equal enthusiasm!

A final pose for the grand finale!

A note on Phantom of the Opera: I dont know WHY he loves it so much, but he LOVES it! It is on repeat from 7 am till bed. I try to limit the number of times it gets played in a day (it is forever stuck in my head now) but he knows how to launch iTunes and tries to play it himself if I dont do it for him.

Today during the song "Prima Donna" he said, "Mom who is the Prim Obama?" It took me a few minutes to figure out what he was talking about.

I guess for now we will just listen on repeat and spin till his little heart's content.

Photographer Avery

Avery knows his way around my phone almost as good as I do. His latest skill is taking pictures with the camera on it. He takes candid shots of me all day without me knowing. Let me tell you there have been some pretty unflattering photos, but dont worry they wont be posted. But I love it when I turn on my phone and discover pictures he has taken that I had no idea about. Its so fun to see things from his perspective. Here are a few samples of his work from the other night. He was wedged in between the couch and the ottoman in "good place for boys to sit" (his words not mine). The white thing on the ground is his "togi" aka his favorite blanket.