8 hours in the kitchen...

Each year during Christmas time, I normally bake Christmas goodies, but this year I decided to try making candy instead of baking. Today my mother-in-law and my friend Niki came over and we spent hours in the kitchen making lots of holiday treats. My mother-in-law gave me some lessons on candy making. We made caramel corn, almond roca, peppermint bark, buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate), and rocky road bars. We started the day at about 10:00 and I left my kitchen at 6:00! After Niki and Diane left, I continued to cook lots of appetizers for a small Christmas party I hosted for my class from CBU. Tonight was our last night of class for our entire administrative credential program so we thought we would celebrate with a party. Below is a picture of all the candy we made minus the almond roca. Everything was so delicious!

Just thought this was cute...

I built another fire today and caught Aubrey enjoying the beauty of my work.

This is why I love cold rainy days...

I worked hard all day on my homework so I decided to reward myself with a toasty fire. Aubrey loved looking at the fire. I cooked a pot roast and Andy got a movie and we are just going to curl up and relax tonight. I love stormy evenings!

No regrets...

Today was the day I finally had to go to my classroom and pack up all of my personal belongings. I thought it would be hard to finally have closure for my life as a teacher, but surprisingly it wasn't. The campus morale seemed low and the stress level of the staff was high. It reminded me of how thankful I am to have the luxury of staying home with the Aubster. Of course, I miss the students and the joy I got each day from teaching 1st and 2nd graders how to read, but teaching just isn't what it used to be anymore. It is nice to be able to live each day in God's will and glorify Him in everything I do. It was easy to fall away getting so caught up in all the gossip and negativity that surrounded me. I wasn't a very happy person as a teacher. Now that the teacher stress is gone, I have new positive stresses that put a smile on my face. Instead of stressing about grades, behavior, parents, and politics, I now have good stress like keeping my babies (Aubs and Hubby) happy, cleaning our house, deciding what's for dinner, doing laundry, and running errands. The good stresses should be what consume my time and energy. I now get to focus all of my attention on the the three people I love the most: God, Andy, and the Aubster and who could ask for more than that? I definitely have no regrets about our decision for me to stay home!

Just because...

She is so cute (my personal opinion)!

Peas...take two...

Well, we thought Aubrey liked peas, but tonight she had a different reaction...

Aubrey's half birthday!

Aubrey is 6 months old today. I can't believe she is half way to a year and the time is just going too fast! She is so playful yet quite moody. She definitely loves her Mommy and pretty much gives anyone else a hard time. It is flattering to me, but difficult at times. I wonder if she has separation anxiety because I can hardly leave the room without her crying. She also loves to be held and being outdoors. I have learned if she has a crying episode, she is easily distracted with loud music...it quiets her right down. Besides all of that, she is very good at entertaining herself for long periods of time. We just started her on veggies and we are looking forward to trying a variety of foods. I don't want a picky eater. Andy and I are not picky at all. Overall, she is a bundle of joy and I love being her Mommy! Here are a couple of photos from today. Enjoy!

Her dimple is really starting to show.