It is joyous to hear the kids laughing and playing again! I hate when they are sick and not their usual bubbly selves. Yesterday was the first day in several that Emma played with her toys and didn’t want me to hold her all day. (Not that I mind holding her all day! My babies are growing so fast, sometimes it is really nice to just cuddle with them all day!)  We did a lot of playing yesterday evening and today. Mostly indoors, however it was above freezing and pretty nice outside today. We bundled up and went to the park for a little while. The fresh air and sunshine did us all some good.

I brought Emma’s slide indoors yesterday afternoon so the kids could play on it. (Other than today, it has been way to cold to go outside!) They have had a blast! Emma climbs up by herself and goes down. So far she has only fallen once. 🙂 She gives me a heart attack sometimes!

Today is the twelfth day of Christmas! One of the things I have loved the most is watching Emma go up to the little people nativity set and point out/play with baby Jesus! It is so sweet and precious! 🙂 The little nativity plays Away in a Manger and the star lights up. Emma will point at the star and the angel on top. She has also started to point at Joseph and Mary, wanting me to tell her their names.

Tomorrow we will take down all our Christmas decorations. This makes me feel sad. I love Christmas and the spirit of the season. I feel like when the decorations go away so does the magic and spirit of giving and joy. Somehow people are not the same after the decorations are put away. I know this is not supposed to be the case. It may just be in my own imagination. Maybe I’m the one who changes after the decorations are gone!? We are supposed to carry the spirit of Christmas with us throughout the year. I have been thinking about this a lot this week. In an effort to keep the spirit of Christmas alive, I am going to try to make sure I do at least one act of giving every month. I pray that I will continue to find the hope, peace, love and joy throughout the whole year!

In an attempt to use up more of the apples sitting on top of our refrigerator, I made an apple pie today. (The apple bread I made the other day was delicious by the way! We all loved it, and it was gone in two breakfasts!) I have been using the same apple pie recipe for quite a while now, and it is amazing!

The filling is fresh sliced apples. (I use any kind.) Mix the slices with a tablespoon of lemon juice. Then mix together half cup of sugar, half cup of brown sugar, three tablespoons of flour, one teaspoon of cinnamon, one-quarter teaspoon each of ginger and nutmeg. Mix it with the apples. That’s it! It is so easy! You can use any pie crust you want or make your own. I make mine most of the time. I have an easy recipe for that too. (I’m all about fast and easy!) I buy the Crisco shortening sticks. Included with them is a great pie crust recipe!

I also made enchiladas tonight for dinner. This was my first attempt at making enchiladas! I was very proud! They were amazingly delicious! I was surprised at how easy they are to make, but it did take me quite a bit of time. Probably because I had to keep looking up how to do it! 🙂  I fixed black beans to go along with the enchiladas. I made two pans. I managed to get a picture of the smaller pan. The big pan was devoured before I could say cheese! 🙂

Emma really loves black beans! She also liked the enchiladas! I was afraid they would be too spicy for her, but she dug right in! Literally! This is her all done face! 🙂

The kids love to face time or google duo or whatever with grandparents! Here they are talking with Grand-mama! They are both fighting for attention. 🙂 David is holding one of his godzilla monster action figure toys up and showing it to Grand-mama. Emma is like, “Hey, I’m over here! I want to see too!”. 🙂

The red Christmas pajamas that Emma is wearing used to be David’s! (Boo-hoo-hoo!) I have a picture of David three Christmases ago wearing them! He is singing into a microphone at Jim and Alesia’s house! (bottoms off 🙂 ) Emma is singing too! She likes to sing la la la. So cute and sweet and funny, all at the same time!

We were playing around with the camera this evening. Emma just wanted to grab the phone and David wanted to take pictures of his monsters! My little monsters!