Santa brought a brand new sleigh!

For Christmas I got Tomm (the coolest thing EVER!) a "Demo Flight Experience" at a near by flight school. You can pay to go for an airplane ride and you even get to FLY the plane a little bit. We were in the air for about 30 minutes. It was such a gorgeous day (it was like 90 degrees). We flew over the ocean and flew down along the beach. It was so beautiful!

Now we originally thought that Tomm would only be able to fly a little bit ... maybe a few turns or something.... BUT the instructor let him fly the whole time!!! (I think he impressed the instructor). He even helped with the take off and landing!! He controlled all the steering and the instructor controlled the throttle. I was SO impressed at how collected and comfortable he was. He is a natural!

My husband... a pilot. That is soo HOT!

All smiles and no nerves.

The plane

Checking the fuel for any problems

Ready to venture

Headphones ON... Check!

Seat belts ON... Check!

And we're off! Heading east for the ocean.

Gorgeous eh? We were making a left turn here so I was looking almost straight down. Weee!The wild blue yonder!
Right turn.

This was a speed boat.Look at those houses! Hello! That's a private beach y'all.
Let's take this baby down....
Successful mission!

I flew the crap out of this plane!

Have a Very Hairy Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends! You bring so much joy to our lives. We love you!

Love,

Tomm, Whitney, Randy and Purrl

Who Cut One?

It was ME!... and I actually cut about 3 dozen.

One of my favorite traditions this time of year is making treats. I love to make sugar cookies. They are so yummy and I love to give them to friends and neighbors. I usually don't like sugar cookies either because they are so rich and they make me feel sick. But this recipe is SO exquisite!. They are so light and they will melt in your mouth. Plus you get to use cookie cutters! FUN! I will post the recipe if anyone wants to give them a whirl.

Baked and ready for decorations...

All finished!

Broken cookies don't have calories (Heeuck heeuck... bad Relief Society joke).

Do you think my trainer at the gym will go for that one? I-yi

So happy together!

PS... notice I put a red streak in my hair. Christmassy!

Cookie Cutter Cookies

1/2 C butter softened

1/2 C margarine softened

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp pure almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tarter

Mix fats, sugar, egg and extracts together. Add flour, soda and COT and mix evenly. Shape dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight (Sometimes I am in a hurry... at least until chilled, about 45 mins).

When you are ready to start rolling out dough.... Heat oven to 375. Get a piece of wax paper and rub flour onto it. Dough is very soft and so flour your rolling pin each time you roll it over (Careful not to over use flour though). When you have desired thickness (1/4 inch or so) use cookie cutters. Use spatula to move onto cookie sheet. Bake 7-8 mins. Cool before frosting.

Frosting

1/2 C butter

4 C powdered sugar

2 tsp pure almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-4 T half and half or heavy cream (Whole milk will work). If using food color leave a little thicker (2 Tablespoons)

Beat all ingredients together and get the party started!

If you try this recipe I hope you have fun and enjoy them. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Our Home for the Holidays

I have been promising everyone pictures of our house since we moved in (that was in August) and I am FINALLY getting it together. I now have a huge respect for people who take pictures of homes.... I feel like you have to get positioned just right in order to capture how things really look. I think I got some pretty good shots though...

OUR HOME....




AS YOU WALK INSIDE....





THIS BEDROOM IS TO YOUR LEFT AS YOU COME IN THE FRONT DOOR





As you can see it is very sweet and feminine








This bathroom is also to your right as you come through the front door.





Looking back on the front door





MOVING ON... As you come into the house to your left this is supposed to be a formal living room but it is actually Tomm's purse making room. You can see a bunch of finished purses there waiting to be sold. You can also see the view out to the patio and pool.


PS... look at Purrl (Hee hee she was assisting me in this picture taking project).





To your right of the purse room this is our dining room.





The pretty beach theme of our table. I thought this ended up looking really good. I found all of these decorations at Home Goods.





MOVING ALONG.... into the main living area and kitchen





This is looking back on the kitchen from the stairs. You can see the hallway that takes you to the dining room. And further back is the laundry room and then the door to the garage.

Our Christmas tree! SO pretty!

Looking out on the patio from our living room...



POOL AND PATIO..... it's party time!!





SNOOPFEST... where Purrl and Randy scope out the scene. This poor RUG gets more abuse.... I have to straighten it atleast 3 times a day. hee hee

Wipe those feet....

The grill.... I LOVE this thing! Food is so much better grilled. We have lots of fun cook outs.



Looking out to the street from the patio. Here in our neighboorhood the houses are usually SO close together but we got really lucky and live right where the street curves so we have a nice sized yard. Sweeet!



THE MAGIC ROOM....





The view out of our bedroom to the pool.
Randy taking it easy on his house after kicking the crap out of that pink rope toy.
This is our bathroom. I LOVE to take baths in the tub. It doesn't have jets but it is soo lucious to sit in there and relax.
UPSTAIRS..... this is the office as you come up the stairs. This is kindof a loft area. It's nice and open.

The PILOT'S seat... Tomm has a flight simulator game that he likes to play. He has quite a few hours under his belt by now.

PS...I just feel so lucky because I know if we were ever flying together somewhere ...and something happened to the pilot... Tomm would be able to step in and get us all to safety.

Looking away from the office desk to the rest of the room
Besides the office there are two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

This is the workout room....
The view from the workout room window.

The other bedroom.
The bathroom... this is a jack and jill style bath. This is the view from the bedroom into the workout room.

The night view of our home. Check out those lights people! I braved all the creepy crawlies and I put them up myself.