Mitch's Birthday weekend

   In the middle of December Mitch had OSHA training for work in Mt. View. That worked out perfect for us because it gave us the opportunity to visit his family in Evanston before Christmas (Evanston is only like 40-45 minutes from Mt. View). We left on Friday night after Mitch got done with work, so that we could go to Utah for Mitch's birthday. We went to Utah the next day with Mitch's family and ate at Rodizio's. It is a Brazilian restaurant that reminds Mitch of his mission. The serve different kinds of meat on swords. Then we did a little shopping at all of Mitch's favorite stores. Mainly Best Buy and Cabelas. At Cabelas Mitch found a flint and steel that he has been wanting for a while. I immediately shot it down and went back later to surprise him with it. He was a little grumpy with me after I told him no, so he was pretty surprised the next day when he opened his present. After shopping we went to see the lights on Temple Square. There were way too many people there for my liking, but it was still nice to go see them. The girls were so worn out, but we had a great day.

   Sunday was Mitch's birthday so we went to his Grandparent's house and had dinner. Mitch has a tradition of always asking for the same thing for his birthday. He loves tuna casserole and always asks for it. So that is what we had along with his tunnel of fudge cake. Mitch's parents got him a really nice GPS for hunting.
   Monday we put in a new closet for his parents. It was a Christmas/Birthday present. My brother-in-law does custom closets, and so we bought stuff from him to do it in their closet. It was fun for Mitch to figure out how to do. Marly and Maddi both loved helping. We hope his parents like it. The girls and I spent the next couple days hanging out with Mitch's mom. It was nice to relax with her. Before we left they had Maddi open up a couple of her gifts. She got an Ariel Mermaid doll, and a baby Rapunzel doll. She loved them both and had to go to bed with Rapunzel that night.

Mitch's birthday cake Tunnel of Fudge

Love this cheesy face

Sorry not the best picture, but still good

Marly's favorite at dinner was the pineapple

  Maddi had to help unwrap the gift

We didn't have 28 candles. Sorry hun!

Mitch's parents' gift was nice enough it counted
 for both Christmas and his birthday. Hence the
two wrapping papers

   

The birthday boy and his little girl

She loves the movie and was super
 psyched to get the doll

Even though it was bed time she had
to play with the doll for a while

She has the Ariel princess barbie and was so
excited to get the mermaid version

Marly loves to get right in on the action

The finished product

Ward Party

     My posts are a little out of order, but I knew if I didn't get Christmas done before this one it probably wouldn't get done. In the beginning of the month our Ward had its Christmas party. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I was asked to be in charge of the desserts. I spent a lot of time figuring out what I wanted to do. My mother-in-laws party was great practice for the Ward party because we had already tried out the mini cheesecakes and knew what it would take to make them. I decided to do the raspberry swirl and oreo mini cheesecakes as well as different kinds of cupcakes.  I had a couple friends make a few batches of cupcakes, but I decided to decorate them all myself. I made over 120 cheesecakes and 200 cupcakes. It was a lot of work, but kind of fun. Next time I will delegate a little more. =) The cupcakes were cookie dough with cookie dough middles and cookie dough buttercream, mint chocolate with a mint buttercream, snickerdoodle with cinnamon buttercream, and  s'more with marshmallow creme center and a graham cracker buttercream. I think the mint chocolate ones were my favorite. I found most of the cupcake recipes from yourcupofcake.com. The others I found on pinterest (if you don't know what that is then you have a lot more time on your hands, it is addicting). I didn't get pictures of all of them. Silly me because the others looked gorgeous as well. 

My refrigerator was full of cheesecakes 

Most of the ingredients

Snickerdoodle cupake with cinnamon buttercream

While I was baking Marly snagged half a stick of butter
and started going to town on it.

She was loving it

Then I took it away from her 

Mint Chocolate with Chocolate center

Christmas has come and gone!

    Wow! Can we please slow down a little bit? I can't keep up. We just had Thanksgiving dinner it seems like, and now Christmas has come and gone. I saw on someone's facebook status that there was, "365 more days of shopping til next Christmas". I don't even want to think about that. When Mitch and I were first married he told me that on his mission someone told them that we shouldn't focus on the past or worry too much about the future, but that we need to live intensely in the present. I have loved that quote and it is what I try to live by. Time goes by fast enough without me worrying about what is next in our lives or what things I haven't gotten done.
    That said I still remember this time last year I was miserably pregnant living without my husband. Now I almost have a 1 year old on my hands. This was our first Christmas here at home with just our little family. It was wonderful. Well most of it. On Christmas Eve I was trying to finish up some of my sewing projects (Christmas stockings) and Maddi was standing there watching. I turned off the machine and was threading my needle when all of the sudden Maddi reached out and turned it back on while standing on the pedal. Needless to say the needle got me good. It went all the way through and got the bottom again before I could pull it out. It still hurts a little today. After taking care of my finger (which thankfully wasn't that bad) I showed Mitch what he needed to do to thread it, and he was able to sew his very own stocking. We were both pretty pleased with how it turned out. I was able to finish the other stocking once the ibuprofen kicked in. Then we finished wrapping a couple presents and got to bed.
     On Christmas morning we woke up got ready for Church, went had a wonderfully uplifting Sacrament Meeting, then came home got comfortable, and opened our presents. The girls really enjoyed themselves and spent the rest of the day playing and having a great time. They both refused to take naps, so that meant that no one else got one either, but it was an absolutely wonderful day. Mitch smoked a roast and we made funeral potatoes. In the late afternoon we decided to take the girls outside, so we all bundled up and played out in the yard for a while.

    My parents were nice enough to come bring us our presents Friday night and then heading home to be with my other siblings for Christmas Saturday afternoon. It was a quick trip, but the girls really loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa Winters for a little while. The first two pictures are the pajamas that my mom makes for the grandkids every year. That may not seem too difficult but there are 21 pairs of pajamas to make. I thought I would try my hand at making something this year and I thought it came out pretty good. I made Maddi a bean bag chair and I also made both girls a hooded towel with an "M" on it. We also got Maddi a Dora puzzle, Candy Land, and sweet looking boots.  Marly got a rocking horse as well as her hooded towel.
    Grandma and Grandpa Revelli really know how to spoil the girls and we were able to go visit them a couple weeks earlier. Maddi got to open a couple presents at their house and they sent the rest with us. That is another post because it was also Mitch's birthday, so as soon as I am done here I will post that one. From them Maddi got an InnoTab (it is an Ipad for kids), two games for the InnoTab, Dora dress up clothes, and some cute little outfits. Marly got a Little People zoo set complete with all animals, a talking book, and a very cute outfit.
    Mitch built us a new computer a few weeks ago, so we really tried not to get each other too much. He got me a pair of slippers, a spinning cake stand (for decorating) and a new alarm clock that works with my phone. I made him a family calendar for his office and also tried to order him something he asked about months ago, but without my knowledge they canceled my order and by the time I figured it out there was no time to order it and get it before Christmas, so he was minus a very vital present. I ordered it and will give it to him when it finally gets here.

Our homemade stockings that I will never forget.
Next year I plan to put decoration on the outside. Mitch's is
the "Papa Bear" sized one in front.

   Overall we all got spoiled and it was such a wonderful Christmas. I hope everyone had a wonderful time as well.

Maddi seems to have forgotten how to smile normally for pictures

We got several of these poses. Marly is still good at smiling though

They didn't even know where to begin

Marly quickly got the hang of ripping off the paper to find out what was inside

I was so excited to play this with Maddi. Who doesn't love Candy Land?

She was so excited this year and it was so much fun

The loot before the girls tore into it

Mitch picked out these boots for Maddi and she immediately
had to put them on.

"I get another one????"

Maddi when she first came out of her room, she was still half asleep

Maddi hurries from one present to the other.

I love my little family!!

Maddi seemed to think everything
was for her, so she was happy to
"help" Marly open her presents

This rocking horse was so cute and Marly loves it

Love this kid

Such a happy kid and look at those teeth!

Daddy helped Marly on the slide

She dipped her face in the snow and wasn't quite sure what to think

Maddi's towel

Marly's towel

Our computer died!!

    Well like a month ago our computer decided to die! We finally got the parts that we needed and Mitch rebuilt it. Thank goodness I married such a smarty. =) There have been a few happenings lately and I guess I need to fill you in on some things. First in the beginning of November we helped throw a party for my Mother-in-law Debbie's 50th birthday. It was a surprise party and we really got her! It was a little stressful helping to plan it and making the cake, but everything turned out great and it was a lot of fun. Maddi and her cousin Jade get along so well, and they have so much fun together. It was a great weekend and we are so glad that we were able to be there to help celebrate a wonderful woman's birthday! More adventures to come. =)

Jade had to give Grandma a hug as soon as she came in

Then the cousins who already hugged before this had to hug again

The boys had lots to talk about (technical stuff)

Grandma and Marly

It was actually pretty fun decorating the cake, although it would have been more fun if Marly wouldn't have been teething and crying all day!