orange dreamsicle fudge

if you are anything like me, summertime means dreamsicles.  sure, winter time could mean that same thing, if I weren’t wrapped-up in a cozy blanket, reading a good book, knitting or crocheting, all with a cup of cocoa or spiced cider.

otherwise, a dreamsicle would be perfect!!

but, I discovered something whilst perusing pinterest, and we have since decided it is a winner.

(we’ve also made two pans of it.  in one week.)

orange dreamsicle fudge.

Here’s the link and below is the recipe.

(and might I suggest, you have a cooking buddy handy, because two people is helpful for this recipe!)

1.5 sticks) butter

2- cups granulated sugar

3/4- cup heavy cream

1- package (12 oz) white chocolate chips

1- jar (7 oz) marshmallow cream (or fluff)

1- tablespoon orange extract

orange (or a combination of red and yellow) food coloring

 

Prepare a 9 x 13 pan by spraying it with cooking spray (they suggest lining it with foil as well, but it worked just fine without.)

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cream, and butter over medium heat.

Continually stir the mixture until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.

Brush down the sides with a wet pastry brush.

Bring the mixture to a boil, and once it starts boiling, stir continuously for four minutes.

After four minutes of boiling, remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in the marshmallow cream and white chocolate chips.

Stir until the white chocolate has melted and the fudge is completely smooth.

Working quickly, pour about a third of the white fudge into a bowl and set aside.

To the remaining fudge, add the orange extract and orange food coloring, stirring until it is a smooth, even color. It is important to perform these steps quickly, because the fudge will start to set if you take too long, and the end result will not be smooth

Pour the orange fudge into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer.

Drop the white fudge over the top by the spoonful, then drag a table knife or toothpick through the fudge to create orange-white swirls. You can spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray and gently press them into the top to smooth out the swirls, if desired.

Allow the fudge to set at room temperature for 2 hours, or in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

To cut, pull the fudge out of the pan using the foil as handles.  (or not.)

Use a large sharp knife to cut the fudge into small 1-inch squares. Store Orange Creamsicle Fudge in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week, and bring it to room temperature to serve.

new year festivities and junk.

so I have had grand ideas for our little new year’s celebration.

we are historically known for going to bed long before midnight, and this year will be no exception.  we will start 9-12 church block which means structured bedtime at our house.

we still like to have fun things for the kids to do, and those are usually noisemakers of some kind.  this one year, it was sticking popcorn kernels up your nose, apparently.  so this year, I was trying my darndest to think ahead, and get something fun together.  you know, something that says, “you just had a rip-roaring good time, now go to bed without complaining, mmmkay?”

and then came racheal ray.

I am going to tell you this little story that is much too long and perhaps even a tad unnecessary, but I have to let you know how I got to rachael ray.

here, where I reside, her show comes on at 10 am.  that is the slot of another show I love(ed), and thusly, really didn’t watch too much of our dear rachael.  until a couple of months ago.  my favorite local show started evolving, the co-hosts found other jobs, and slowly but surely, 3 of the four hosts were gone.  it is a bit painful to watch.  it just isn’t the same.  so my 10 am folding the laundry, or cleaning the kitchen, or even some days, fixing my hair, tv viewing time has been going through a change.

that is how rachael ray entered my life.

and then there was this episode:http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/sabrina-sotos-new-years-eve-decorating-tips/

and I was sold.

sabrina sotos had my new fun, rip-roaring good time idea.

cascarones.

(or in normal person speak: confetti filled eggs.)

so here you go..

1.  get a bunch of eggs, like one for each person.  hold them tightly (but not too tightly) in your less-dominant hand and poke a hole in the pointy end with a nail.  stick that nail into the egg and twist it around, like you are mixing the egg up inside the shell, because, well, you are, and you need to!  then poke a hole, a little larger this time, in the other end.

2.  get out a clean bowl (and be thinking of recipes that require eggs!!  we have cupcakes and oatmeal butterscotch cookies currently on the countertop, and omelets on the meal menu.) and put your cute little mouth around one end of that egg and blow!  just like you are the big bad wolf.

(I know, my analogies are incredible!!)

3.  wash out your egg and let them dry.  I used a q-tip to get out some of the white that was left by the hole and my trusty blow dryer.

4.  spray paint those babies!! (if you want, but it is what all the cool kids do.)

I put mine on sucker sticks that I stuck into a block of styrofoam.

let ‘em dry.

5.  after they are dry, and not while they are wet like my hands can prove I did (I look like the freaking tin man over here!), take your eggs, and with an awesomely crafted paper funnel, fill your egg up, about half way with confetti.

6.  after filling your eggs, gently (cause these are eggs dudes), brush on mod-podge around the edges of your hole.  place a small square of tissue paper and mod-podge over the top of that.

7.  try to be patient, and let them dry.

(or go bake something with all of your eggs!!)

8.  now you have a choice, you can glitter these up, to try to camouflage your tissue paper, or you can leave them, or you can be awesome and spray paint them again!!

(I totally did.)

and then I was really patient and let them dry while I made packaging for them.

the story with these mess-makers goes something like this:

and my kiddos will be busting them over each others’ heads outside, and I will probably vacuum them off on the porch.

don’t they go well with these?

(another new year’s eve celebration essential…)

(click on the pics for supplies.) 

have a happy new year!!!

gunning for “mother of the year”.

I might just totally get it too.

so we had a little cold floating around our house before thanksgiving.  it went from peyton, to me, to ash, and it was fun!

so when december rolled around, and some of us were still suffering from some cold-like symptoms, still, I thought it was just that, the cold.

then ashley started to complain that her head hurt (here’s where “mother of the year” comes in).  complaints would start rolling in as soon as it was bedtime, and being the night-owl she is, I thought it was all a ruse so she would get to stay up late.  but the complaints stayed consistent, and being the great mother I am, I drugged her up with some good old tylenol.  I thought that perhaps, she wasn’t getting enough hydration, enough sleep?

so this goes on for a week, maybe more.  face it, I am running for “mother of the year”, I really didn’t keep track.

then one night, I start to realize that my head has been hurting too. 

(I was sure it was a result from the complaints and lack of sleep on my end of the deal.)

then my teeth start to hurt.

there was junk in my throat too.

then the pieces (the first ones anyway) fell into place.

I had a sinus infection!

then a light bulb went on in my little noodle; and it sounded like gru from “despicable me”.

“yight bulb.”

ashley had a sinus infection too.

so I took us, and our twin sinus infections to the doctor, to pay twin co-pays, and twin doctor bills soon as well, and got us a couple of prescriptions.

then I went and stocked-up on more drugs, cause that advil congestions relief is awesome.

things got better, kind of.

then ashley got all itchy.

ashley is allergic to penicillin.

so fun!

so our christmas break consisted of her, getting in her three doses of azithromycin, and ensuring that the doctor noted her new allergy on her chart.

I am so thankful thankful that I am able to instant message my doctor!

(and not have a new co-pay to pay…)

see, “mother of the year” material here.

kennadee

this is my sweet friend’s baby.

she has been a long waited addition for their family, a source of healing for them.

she is a beauty!

(and not that I am complaining about baby boys, but it was fun to have a baby girl to photograph!!)

and with some fun edits:

kennadee with her big brother kenner..

and yawning..  because it is so cute!!  my newest favorite.

the day dictionary.com helped me be a good mom.

so we’ll just say that there has a lot been going on around these parts.  sure, sure, you have most likely been busy too.  whatever.

but there was this one day, roughly two weeks ago (I know cause my antibiotic just ran out..) and ash was home from school after having a bad night, trying to sleep with a sinus headache.

(yeah, I am sure that I am in the running for mother of the year for that story.)

so, being sleep deprived and not feeling too well, she was understandably a bit emotional as well.  she came and snuggled in my lap, and started to tell me how she was sad and didn’t like going to school, that kids were mean to her, one kid in particular.

the situation was one that some might not think too serious, but in our family, there are certain words, language that is not acceptable.  in our home, we try to have an atmosphere of love, and we just don’t say certain things.

so this kid was apparently telling ashley that she was stupid and also an idiot.

(so here’s a tangent for your enjoyment, merrill and I still find occasion to use these words, when they fit, but we don’t say these words, we have changed them just a smidge so the kiddos don’t catch on, and if they do use them, nobody else knows what the crap they are talking about.  stupid = stubbid and idiot = idjuwit.)

I knew that it wouldn’t be enough to simply tell her, “well, you aren’t.”  I sat there, trying to keep my anger in check, my knee-jerk reaction from coming out first, and thought about what my response to her should really be.  we’d had problems with this kid previously, and I was trying to be wise in my approach, not wanting to dredge up past incidences and tell her that basically this kid was just what they were calling her.

then the thought hit me.

use the dictionary.

it’s an approach I’ve taken with lynn recently while doing homework, I make her work out the bulk of it instead giving her all the answers, telling her what or how things are.

(oh, and she loves it!!)

(that was sarcasm by the way.  it has been a while, I was afraid you forgot what my sarcasm sounded like!)

so we went to dictionary.com and looked up each word.  as I read the definitions to each one, I asked her, “are you any of those things?”

“no.”

“then you don’t worry about what anyone else says to you.  you know you are not those things.”

it worked.

and that is the story of how dictionary.com helped me to be a better mom.

oh, and it was also pretty great of me to go and talk to her teacher about the problem.  her teacher is a saint!

I mustache you question…

isn’t this line the cutest?!

(click on layout for list of full credits.)

echo park’s latest “times & seasons” has these great elements for both heritage/traditional type pages, and then stuff for the funny/silly/hairy variety.

perfect for a few pictures taken at lake powell with our fake mustaches.

(thanks jaclyn, those were a blast!!!)

so many more fun and exciting things going on here..  fun activities, darling pictures, silly stores, etc.

but those will have to come after I wrap all of those christmas gifts.

(and cram in everything else I let wait until the week of…)

I am aiming at getting that chore done before christmas eve.  there is nothing quite like staying up until 3 am (christmas morning, really) wrapping gifts, thinking about how all of this hard work and lost sleep will be in the garbage can within hours.

there’s some christmas spirit for ya!!

sweet baby luke.

one week old babies are now my new favorite.

they smell so good.

they sleep so good.

they are just sweet!

here’s luke:

funny story about sweet luke’s dad..

his dad and I went to the same school in the sixth grade.  his family moved into my neighborhood the summer right before sixth grade.  he and his very cute four brothers were like fresh produce at the grocery store.  all the girls adored them.  I crushed on luke’s dad pretty hard.

his family moved a town away, but we all stayed close.  we saw each other every once in a while, and then he and his wife moved into our neighborhood.

they are such a sweet family!

 

so happy I got to photograph little luke.

I’m dreaming of a toothless Christmas.

here is my sweet ash:

this time last night, she lost her first tooth.

in this pic her cheeks are still slightly tear-stained and her eyes a bit shiny.  she didn’t take to this development very well initially.

I can honestly tell you that my kids can bribe me.  sounds backwards I know.  but if they want something, and they have a loose tooth, they will get what they want just about every time if the words, “and I will let you wiggle my tooth” are attached.

that is how ashley lost her tooth last night.

I cannot recall what it was she wanted.

I just remember that I got to wiggle her little tooth.  then, it got stuck behind her other front tooth and she wanted it “back to normal”.  but that was not what she got.  I got it out of it’s stuck position in every way.  got it out of her mouth.

lynn freaked.

(she doesn’t like blood.)

her freaking freaked merrill.

ashley cried.

she looked at herself and said, “now I look ugly!”

she said she wasn’t going to go to school because, “everyone will look at me.”

we talked about that and decided that it wouldn’t be that bad.  today was a half day, so they would only look at her for half of the day.  by the next full day, it would be old news.

(but I am sure her classmates will still look at her.)

when ash initially told me she had a loose tooth, I assumed it was a bottom guy.  I am still weirded-out by the tooth-falling-out-order situation with this kid.  I mean, she refused to be born the conventional way (not that I am complaining.  I loved the c-section.  but it was pricey!), she is pretty stubborn about most things in life, and now, her teeth are going to fall out all wonky.

(totally kidding.  I am aware that there is no set order for this occurrence.)

I am just accustomed to the bottom middle guys taking the fall first.

the second emotion I felt when she first told me of her loose tooth was sadness.  was she really getting older and reaching another milestone?

I thought I told her to knock this business off…

and her perfect little teeth..

those perfect baby teeth…

(sigh.)

but now, I am loving this gap, and the cute little lisp that accompanies it.

she likes the perfect little nook in which to stick her straw.

she got over her sadness when we started talking about all the pros to this situation, like the straw thing, the tooth fairy, and how she would be queen of the day today.  popsicles also helped.  she picked out her own box at the store and promptly turned her whole mouth green. 

as part of the “queen of the day” arrangement we have here, tonight, she picked dinner: spaghetti and meatballs.  she enjoyed feeding herself spaghetti through her new gap.

I am hoping for the next door fellow (who is also loose) to fall out soon.  would prefer it to fall out before christmas, cause really, it would just be too cute!

sugar cookie bars: more “pinspiration”.

so when there was nothing better to do, I perused pinterest and saw that one of my friends had recently pinned a rather tasty looking treat.

I thought, “how perfect for my family!!  they love sugar cookies.”  I don’t so much love the mess.  whenever I roll out the cookie dough, little hands want some to either eat, or roll, roll again, then re-roll to make one nasty looking cookie.  a totally inedible cookie.

this recipe is perfect because you make the dough, spread it in a pan and bake it.  we love our sugar cookies THICK, with lots of frosting, so this was perfect!

I didn’t have any cream cheese on hand, so I made my usual buttercream and everyone was happy.

(although, I know someone might just fall over in shock, but I thought it was too much frosting.)

(gasp.)

here’s the pin.

here’s the recipe:

Sugar Cookie Bars

1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp lemon zest (optional)
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Add vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda and stir with a whisk to combine. Add to wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread on a greased baking sheet (use a 13 x 18 pan). Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean (they won't look done so do the toothpick test). Cool completely and frost.

Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 of an 8 oz block) softened
1 tsp vanilla (I used almond extract for half of the frosting)
¼ tsp salt
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
food coloring (if desired)
For frosting combine butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and salt. Add powdered sugar in 1-2 cup increments until combined, then add milk a little at a time and mix until smooth and spreading consistency. You may not need all the milk! Spread over cooled cookie bars.

so go and try them out, use some fun sprinkles!

our countdown to christmas.

so, sure, we have many countdowns to christmas.  many.  but how can you resist making another cute one?  this one will end up in the trash in the end anyway..

we have darling countdowns that grandma pitcher made years ago, reminiscent of the ones she’d made for her own kids years ago.  they are sweet, and something I have used, but have had trouble with, with the girls at different ages.

with the ones she made for us, you tie each treat onto a long fabric strip with ribbon.  my problem usually comes in with my hands (thank you genes and arthritis..).  it’s always cold, and sometimes stormy, which is a great little story problem that equals aching hands in my situation.  the second problem is one, two, or three little girls, who like to steal treats prematurely.  then I get ornery because chances are, my hands are still hurting after the initial 75 treat tie-ons, and then there is one (most likely more), treat to tie on.

(now I shouldn’t blanket blame all three..  it’s usually a certain culprit..  ahemashleyahem..  who likes to take their sisters’ treats and say that they did it.)

(it is also partly my fault, as they inherited my sweet tooth.)

so I started thinking about this waaaay back in november, and came up with a pretty sweet solution.

(bonus: it is also up cycling!!)

so if you can’t tell, we’ve been saving toilet paper rolls like they are spare change.

it didn’t take us long..  helps to have the hotel pitching in.

I placed three treats in each empty roll cardboard core thing, wrapped it in tissue paper (okay, merrill did), and then twisted the ends, and tied them off with some string.

(okay, merrill did that part too.  my hands aren’t hurting!!  sweetheart.)

I printed off papers that are brand-spanking new from jessica sprague + heidi swapp (genius combo.  can not go wrong there.).  cut them to fit my rolls (got enough for 4 from each 8.5 x 11 sheet), and then taped them on the back side.  I finished each one off with a number to identify just how many more days until christmas, that I printed off and punched with a 1 inch circle punch and stuck that on with a glue dot.

getting them all hooked-up together wasn’t as easy as I initially thought.  I tried glue-dotting the heck out of them, but they just wouldn’t stay.  it was too heavy.  so I resorted to my trusty old glue gun.

worked awesomely.

I took a small piece of ribbon and hot-glued that to the top roll to use as a hanger.

now, all the treats are concealed, and safe, until the right day comes.

the girls tear off one side and there’s the treats!

but really, I love these papers..

love these colors!!

trying really hard not to re-do the scheme of the tree this year….

and it would totally work, I re-painted the wall in the family room as one of my “keep yourself busy because merrill ditched us for two weeks” projects.

links to jessica + heidi’s new collections here and here.

dudes…  they are totally on sale now too, along with a ton of other products!!!

not boasting or bragging, just saying we are blessed.

we endured quite the storm here.

it was a great night for a windstorm of epic proportions to keep us awake.

(that was sarcastic.)

I had jury duty the next day.  (yay!!)

(more sarcasm.)

and the wind was howling.  so on top of noise, my mind starts going, worrying about all the possibilities of what the wind could do.  the only thing I worried about, that I could do anything about, was to check on the garbage cans.  that was at 2:22 am.

the garbage cans were fine.

(miraculously.)

when my alarm went off later that same morning, I instinctively went to my knees in prayer.

“bless and protect our family and friends this day.  bless the girls at school.  bless merrill at work.  help peyton and I to travel in safety.  protect our home in this storm.”

it seemed kind of petty to worry about our home, but a lesson that has been taught to me repeatedly is this:

if it is important to me, it is important to heavenly father.

so it wasn’t so silly to pray about my house.  I really didn’t want to come home later that day to find stress and mess waiting for us.

the girls and I watched as one tree toppled over.  it fell from one neighbor’s yard over the fence onto the other neighbor’s yard.  numerous other trees were already down around the neighborhood, fences down or panels blown out of them.  garbage, tarps, toys, branches..  just about anything you can imagine floated through our neighborhood.

our bird feeder was making all too much noise hanging from the rain gutter, banging against the eaves of the house.  it was slowly breaking apart, one piece coming off after another.  I decided to go outside and take it down.  so I grabbed the broom, but still couldn’t get it down (my height being my handicap).  so I grabbed the kids picnic table, and looked the part of a fool (or maybe you can picture a weather man on the news, standing outside in a hurricane to prove that it’s windy?), trying to walk while carrying a small table.  when I finally got it to where it needed to be, solidifying the image of fool, I climbed on top of the table, in my stocking feet, to get that bird house down.  to the horror of my children in the window watching me, the wind began to blow me, sliding me and my stocking feet off the table.  I eventually got the birdhouse down.  it did not survive.

as peyton and I drove down the street we noted more damage.  we only stopped because we knew we were supposed to, but the stop sign was bent to the ground.

my younger brother texted me to check on us.

“we are fine, but others around us aren’t.”

I received phone calls throughout the day, giving updates about damage and power outages.

when I got home at the end of the day, the winds were slightly calmer.  people were attempting to clean up.

our home was safe.  hardly touched.

so we had a two foot piece trim and a downspout fly off.  our bird feeder and hummingbird nectar holder were also casualties of the storm.  not a single shingle was shed from my roof.  but nothing more.

other people aren’t as lucky.  our old house had a tree on top of it and many good friends are having roofs re-roofed, trees removed from their yards. 

I had to laugh to myself, laugh to keep from crying, when my dad told me what he did as he got up early that same day.

“I told heavenly father what the deal was..  asked him to protect our family.”

our prayers were answered.

we do have trash to clean up, more leaves to rake.  and somebody’s kiddie pool to dispose of in our back yard, but we are blessed.

mayes family

this is my family.

(I must say that we are a good-looking bunch.)

all of those darling grandkids…

my grandpa with some of his great-grandkids.

my mom and dad, me and my siblings and their spouses..  oh, and merrill too.

and this is what happens when you tell everyone to kiss whoever is next to them:

(I especially love the front row..  ashley, james, cade pretending he’s gonna smooch levi..)

us kids and grandpa…  he was such a good sport.

mom and dad with grandpa.  grandpa was the only one who kept his eyes on the camera and didn’t talk while this picture was taken.  it took many tries to get this..

and then there’s mom and dad.  they have always taught us how important it is to be affectionate.

(I think it should be my mom’s new facebook profile picture..)

the universe discovered who I married and is now, most assuredly working against me.

once upon a time, I had a washing machine.  it lost it’s water level adjuster knobby thingie twice (once we retrieved it from the nether-regions of the washer, the next time, not).  it also made a horribly horrendous banging/clanging/serial killer is coming after you loudly sound as it spun and the load became un-balanced.  it also leaked something awful.  that leakage was worsened by the fact that the laundry room at this particular house does not have a drain in the floor.  those are quite convenient when you know the luxury of having one.  this old (as in former, and well, aged) washing machine of mine also had an agitator that resembled a new york city skyscraper. 

(i.e. it stuck up out of the bottom of the washing machine tub.)

now this agitator did not only agitate the laundry, it agitated me as well.

it liked to tie our clothing in knots.  knots so wonderfully tied that I could usually take one whole load of laundry out, in one knotty mound, and deposit it into the dryer.  one shot. 

(it was really quite annoying.  one sleeve being longer than the other?  that is not fashionable.)

now something must be said of how excellent my dryer is.  it could magically untie that massive knotted mound of wet clothes quite magically.  wonderful dryer..

(that is why I kept it around, and the washer..  well, not so much.  what did it magically do for me?)

that old agitating washing machine also liked to munch on drawstrings like they were rope licorice and get them all in a tangled, wet, tightly wound mess.  they would wind themselves underneath and around the skyscraper-like agitator.  that is quite the olympic feat to get that mess undone, especially when you are 5’ 2” and you are dealing with a super-capacity washer.

(i.e. it’s DEEP.) 

during it’s last few weeks with us, it started to smell something awful.  I later found that along with a leakage problem, it also had a drainage problem.  old water would get stuck inside the washer, and well, I discovered that it smelled like fish tank water.  fish tank water that has a fish or two (or ten) swimming and eating and pooping in it for a good month.  that little issue made our laundry smell not so freshly laundered.  it was quite gross and it gave merrill a complex that he had major b.o. for a couple of days.

(that was kind of funny.)

but the thing that that agitating agitator did that was so extremely agitating, and is now coming back to bite my butt is this:

it tore a hole in the back of my waterproof mattress pad.

(okay, not mine, per say, but one that I purchased for the girls’ beds.)

so I was thinking, the last time I laundered this wonderful waterproof mattress protector, it really isn’t a big deal.  if I place this spot where the hole torn in the protective plastic goes, at the foot of the bed, where littlest wee-wee-er can’t really get any wet mess, I will be totally jake.

(jake as meaning “okay” or “alright”.)

that is what I was thinking. 

not only that, I thought I was really covering my bases putting it on ashely’s bed, who hasn’t done anything wet in her bed in years.

situation neutralized, or so I thought.

then one night, the universe, who apparently has a beef with my dear husband as I have explained in the past, discovered who it is that I am legally and lawfully wedded to.

you see, peyton, who has had an issue with this whole nonsense of daylight savings time, has tried to sneak away either right before dinner (like as I am making it) or during, when my choice of meal preparation for the night has somehow offended her, and takes herself a nap.

then, there is part two of the most recent issues with my wee-est child, she has started wetting-the bed (and the couch, and the floor) again.  only during bedtime and these aforementioned ill-timed naps.

so here is where the universe started laughing in my face:

one night, when my choice of cheesy potato soup offended this little girl, she went to take a nap.  after we finished eating (because cold cheesy potato soup is not delicious), we all went hunting for the kid.  she was not in her bed, not by her bed, not in her closet, nor on the couch.  no floor held her.  not even my bed had she chosen. 

she was asleep at the foot of ashley’s bed.

where she peed.

which pee, went straight through that four inch square space that was not protected by awesomely protective waterproof mattress plastic protectant, and soaked right down through that flowery mattress.

awesome, universe.

since when aren’t we friends?

needless to say, we have been giving lots of bubble baths, washing lots of sheets, using lots of fabric softener, and I bought a case of goodnights.  I am sure they would be more helpful (and I happier) if I used them for good-ill-timed-naps as well.

in closing, I would like to add that our family got a new washer as an early christmas gift (thankyouverymuch!) and I love it.  I could watch the laundry be laundered all day long..  it is quite fascinating, really.  and I fixed my dryer which had an issue.  I wasn’t about to keep that agitating washer around much longer.  sure we could have repaired it’s issue(s) all except for that one, very agitating one.

baby cole.

this little guy was a complete dream to photograph!  now, I am not dissing any of the other babies whose pictures I’ve snapped, it’s just that this little guy never fussed, and slept better than my own offspring ever did!  what normally takes an hour, hour and a half took us a half of an hour and we breezed through.

I will admit, the sound of the shutter made him jump at first, then it must have been like white noise to him because he was out!