or, as Willie and I always called it, Happy Singles Awareness Day!

For part of the kid’s presents this year, I decided to make them something.  For Jayden I made him a flannel dinosaur pillow case, which sadly has already gotten a lot of use since it was opened this morning.  Jayden has been real sick for the past few days.  He had the flu on Thursday and then Friday the flu seemed to turn into a cold, and now he’s all laid up on the couch.  Poor kid.

For Willow, I made a little valentine dress.  And for the 5 minutes she had it on today so I could try and take some pictures, she managed to get food on it!  How the heck did she find food????  I figure she’s got a secret stash  around somewhere…

For lunch, I made the kids and Royal some heart shaped sandwiches.

And then I finished up my heart sugar cookies by frosting them with some chocolate royal icing, Royal’s favorite.

This has been some of the longest couple of weeks ever! We’ve had so much going on that I should of had tons of post about, but there has been sickness running rampant around my house and I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write anything.  So, here’s kind of a catchup with ALOT of pictures to satisfy all you suckers out there who have been muttering mean things under your breath each time you check my blog and see the same post up.  As you know my parents got back here from Pennsylvania at the beginning of December.  And then Jordan flew in on the 13th to spend Christmas with us.  It has been so fun to have him around, even if it feels like I still hardly see him.  He stays up way too late for me and then sleeps in a good part of the day, but when he finally gets up, its fun to have another McComb in the house.  I’m just not sure there is anybody else out there who gets the McComb sarcasm that gets thrown around when there is more than 1 sibling together. :)  We have gone around and looked at Christmas lights a bunch of times.  My mom and I went to a Christmas dinner cooking class.  And we have played inside alot because it has been soooo cold.

Willow has gotten very good at throwing and catching balls.

Jayden has continued with his obsession of all things dinosaur and we are now building them out of blocks.  This is flying Little Foot.  And I don’t have a picture of a later version of him that Jayden and Papa built, but he had guns on his wings.  It was pretty awesome.

Christmas Eve came fast around here since we’ve all had the flu at different times this week.  But we were wishing for a white Christmas and in the form of extremely high winds (like 50 mph) and snow that came down sideways, we got one.

Jayden all decked out in his Christmas T-Rex outfit went outside to check it out. And then later, we put a few more layers on the dinosaur, so he and Papa went outside to “swim” into the wind.

Here is the Christmas Eve dinner my mom and I cooked together from the recipes we got from our cooking class.  We made a roasted pear salad with candied pecans, beef wellington that looked like presents, and duchess mashed potatoes that were pipped out to look like Christmas trees.  (My potato trees could still use some work, they actually looked better than in the picture.  In the picture they just look like a blob) But it makes a pretty little plate!

After dinner we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  The kids did pretty darn good during the service, even if Jayden did keep the rows in front of us entertained.  Jayden sung pretty loudly during the worship part, which is great, it was just funny because he didn’t know the words so he was just singing loudly. (best way to spread Christmas cheer, right??).  He then let out a very audible gasp when our paster said something out Jesus dying on the cross. And then at the end of the service he had his candle lit and Papa was kneeling next to him to keep him from lighting the church on fire and Jayden yells out, “Papa, hold your candle up higher!”  “Papa, STAND UP!”  It was pretty darn funny.

After church we came home and the kids got to open their Christmas pajamas, which I made this year.  And I also made a matching pair for Royal. :)

Christmas morning didn’t start as early as I thought it would.  Jayden slept in until almost 8 and Willow slept in until 9!  Christmas miracle?  I think so!  Since my dad had come down with the flu last night, Jordan, Jayden, and I went and picked my mom up at the motorhome this morning so she could come and open presents with us.

Jayden had to try out his new sand chomper in some snow that blew up on the deck!

Jayden then proceeded to help everybody else open their presents by pulling all the presents out of the stockings and handing them to you.  Once our stockings were finished, and it was time to open the other presents, Jayden would grab a present from under the tree, run over to me, ask who it was for, then run to the person it was for, open it right in front of them, and then hand them their present.  He was quite the helper.

Jayden helping Uncle Jordan.

Jayden helping dad…

Jayden helping Nana…

Jayden helping Willow…

There’s not much cooking that happens in the kitchen on Christmas day.  I did the cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole on Christmas Eve, so all I had to do was pop them in the over in the morning.  But on Christmas day, we try and focus on the fact that it is Jesus’ birthday, so ever since we have had Jayden, I have made a birthday cake for Jesus and after dinner we sing Happy Birthday to Him and eat birthday cake.  Even Jesus got to use the Thomas the train candle this year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Royal’s parents flew back to Washington early Sunday morning. However, they didn’t leave before Royal came home with a HUGE bag of pecans that needed cracking. I figured Royal was paying back his mom for all the times he’s had to snap green beans, or cut corn off the cob, or stuff potstickers, or frost christmas cookies, or any of the other projects she seems to have going when we show up. Let’s just say Norma and my hands were pretty sore from cracking the nuts…funny how the morning after Royal brought the nuts home, he and his dad went hunting…

Holy smokes, this may have been one of the most exhausting weekends ever! I thought it was going to start off well because Royal got home before 5 o’clock on Friday! But then we had dinner and Jayden thew up his entire dinner onto his plate. He wasn’t sick, he just didn’t want to eat the rest of his food, but he did want dessert, and to get dessert he had to have a few more bites. Well, he kept making himself gag because he’d put too big of a bite of food in his mouth trying to get it done fast, and eventually it all came back up. I started gagging (because I can’t stand puke, as anybody whose followed my blog for any amount of time will know), so I left to go start a bath for him. Royal, who has a stomach of steel, sat there and helped Jayden through it, while Willow cracked up in her seat. Sadly, even after that he still didn’t get dessert because I wanted to make sure he really wasn’t sick…and thankfully he wasn’t!

Saturday morning, we got up to go do a 5K race with my StrollerFit group. I pretty much kicked it’s tail. My knees felt real good and I managed to run 9 min/miles while pushing both kids in the stroller. Royal kept up real good for not having run outside of playing basketball. I like to think the only reason he could keep up with me is because I was pushing 60 pounds in a stroller, otherwise I would of smoked him! Although he does keep pointing out that he crossed the finish line first, but I like to tell him he’s just really lucky I like him and decided to not clip his ankles with the front wheel of the stroller.

Then we got home and I canned some peaches. We have this really great peach farm really close by, so I decided I would try to can them, because who doesn’t love peaches in the middle of winter? Not to mention I have all these empty jars from all the canned goods we’ve taken my Royal’s mom over the years, can’t just let those sit around and collect dust. This was the first time I’ve canned anything and I’ve got high standards to live up to as my mom and Royal’s mom are both big canners. But I’m hoping these turn out delish, but I guess if they don’t, well, at least I have some pretty jars in my pantry, right???

Then, I had to make some bread for sandwiches for the week.

Then, I decided to harvest the jungle of basil that I managed to grow in my garden this year. After I got it all cleaned up, it took me over an hour with Royal’s help, to pick all the leaves off. The smell of basil was so strong, it was making my eyes burn and water like an onion, so I took to being very picky about what leaves I tore off so it would go faster. ;) Check out the huge basil and this wasn’t even all of it, there was another little patch nearby.

After this, I was just too tired to do anything else….until today that is.
We got up this morning and went to church. And then after we went to go get a paper, came home, fixed lunch, and then made some basil pesto to stick in the freezer. Don’t worry, I didn’t use all of the basil. I’m going to attempt to dry some in my oven and then since I will still have a bunch left over, I’m going to give it to some of our neighbors on our street.

Then, we packed up the kids and went to a Piggies and Paws party. And then went to our small group. And now I am back at home, kids are asleep, and I’m finishing up getting ready to start doing some preschool stuff with Jayden tomorrow, and of course fillin’ ya in what we’ve been doing (sorry not many pictures of the kids, hope it didn’t make you too hungry). All of these activities were of course on top of everything I already would have done anyway on the weekend, kids, lunches, dinners, 5 loads of laundry, cleaning, etc… at least Royal was here to help! But, I’m tired.

This is how everyone should cut out sugar cookies and dye Easter eggs.  In your socks, diaper (or underwear…whatever you prefer to wear), and a fire truck apron!  Notice that where we are standing you can see the game on tv, because you can’t cut out bunny cookies during March Madness without knowing whats going on.  Which by the way, if anybody cares for an update, my bracket has been getting crushed by Royal’s in all but the east region.  I guess schools with cool names just aren’t good at basketball this year.

Jayden and I delivered some valentines around town today.  We made heart cookies and pink meringue kisses earlier in the week, then found some cute valentine boxes, and we took some to our friends Erin and Brady, Heather, Aunt Jojee, Great Aunt Nancy, Great Grandma Leona, and Uncle Willie (or Lilly as Jayden calls him).  And then we left a HUGE plate of heart sugar cookies at the funeral home for all the boys and girls.  I mean lets face it, either I start giving away all the crap delicious holiday food we keep making, or I am going to have to seriously invest in bigger clothing.  At our house I still have heart sugar cookies, meringue kisses, oatmeal scotchies, and heart shaped brownies, and that’s just the stuff I made this week.  This is not counting all the other stuff that is in the cupboard to snack on.  It’s just not a good thing.  Well it’s a good thing when all I want to do is eat sugar, but really it’s just not a good thing.  I guess I could eat it all in one day, make myself really sick, and then I won’t want it again for probably a good 2-3 days.

Today, besides being Singles Awareness Day (as Willie and I always call it), was the 10 month anniversary of Willie’s death.  So, since it wasn’t rainy outside, Jayden and I went to Shelton to go visit Willie at the cemetary.  It was nice to go in the daylight, as most of the trips I make are in the dark after Royal has come home to take care of Jayden (very sneakily of course since the cemetary is closed - refer back to our month 1 visit).  We brought him a cookie that Jayden worked so hard on.  Jayden did all the mixing, and then cut out heart shapes inbetween eating all the dough off the counter.  But Jayden loved his cookie just a little too much, so much so that he decided to show Willie just how delicious it was before he left it.

“Mmmmm….cookie”

When I saw Jessica Seinfeld on the Today show with her new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, I was totally hooked.  I am always on the prowl for healthier and better ways of making things.  I am not a huge vegetable eater, it’s totally not my favorite part of the meal, but I fix them and eat them because I know they are good of me and my family.  So, when I saw Jessica’s cookbook about using vegetables purees in your food, I thought, ‘why the heck didn’t I think of that?’.   It’s just like making babyfood.  I wanted to go out and get the cookbook, but since Christmas was a couple months away, Royal had banned me from going out and buying anything.  So, until I had the cookbook in my hands, I figured I could improvise.  I puree’d up a bunch of stuff and have been sneaking it into a bunch of our meals.  But then Christmas finally rolled around and I finally got the cookbook, and now I had a ton more ideas for how and where to put vegetables.  The one thing that I was extremely disappointed about with the recipes, is that they use margarine.  Margarine is nothing but a tub full of toxins, and I refuse to use it.  I obviously subsitute in butter, but I was still sad that this now extremely popular cookbook is getting people to use margarine under the pretense that it’s “healthy” food.  The vegetables are healthy, the margarine not so much….  Anyways… in the cookbook there was a recipe for chocolate cupcakes, and I figured if they could put vegetables in chocolate and make it taste good, I was sold.  So, Jayden and I set out this morning to make some deceptively delicious cupcakes.  The recipe didn’t use butter at all, it had strange ingredients like avocado and balsamic vinegar.  When my batter started out looking like this, I was a little worried. (Jayden looks a little worried too)

But thank goodness after adding the cocoa powder, it started looking more like normal chocolate cake batter.

We baked ‘em up and let ‘em cool and I figured since they smelled pretty good, I would at least try the frosting that was with the recipe as well.  The frosting called for cream cheese and cauliflower.  I mixed it up and frosted the cupcakes and we tried it out.  The cupcake was really good.  It was more dense like a made from scratch cupcake usually is, it wasn’t as sugary tasting, but I still thought they were delicious.  I would make them again.  The frosting on the other hand, it was ok.  It just tasted kinda off, as I imagined frosting made from cauliflower would.  I think next time I’ll add more powdered sugar and some milk to make it sweeter, or maybe next time I’ll skip the “healthier” frosting and make some good stuff.  After all, these are cupcakes.