insanely delicious bruschetta

my aunt megan, is a professional recipe perfecter. seriously, she is an amazing cook and her bruschetta is our ultimate guilty pleasure lately.

bruschetta

2 large tomatoes

1 clove garlic

3 tablespoons LIGHT olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

8-10 leaves fresh basil

1 french baguette

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup (or so) fresh mozzarella

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

dice tomato into quarter inch chunks. mince garlic. slice basil. mix together tomato, garlic, basil, salt and olive oil. set aside.

cut bread into half inch slices. place slices onto baking sheet. butter the top of each slice. place under broiler until JUST golden brown on edges.

remove bread from oven. place slices of mozzarella on each piece of bread. put bread back under the broiler until cheese has melted. remove from oven and drizzle olive oil over slices.

over medium to high heat, stir together sugar and balsamic vinegar until sugar has dissolved (about one and a half minutes). place a spoonful of tomato mixture on to each piece of bread. drizzle balsamic reduction on top of bruschetta.

enjoy. or do like megan and i did today and eat a slice or two and then put the rest in the bottom (because we have been known to dumpster dive for food) of the trash so you don't eat the entire plate!

ringing in 2012

i am not really the biggest fan of new years eve. it ends up being a nite where you feel like you HAVE to do something (even if you dont want to. you feel like a loser if you dont). but its also a fun excuse to get friends together, play games, and eat junk.

so thats exactly what we did.

tagg doesnt usually like to put anything on his head but he fell in love with that NYE hat and wouldnt take it off. elliot was such a happy little boy despite his broken leg! luke and marissa are visiting from florida so we were so happy to have them celebrate with us.

before my boys went to bed, we set off a few "fireworks" to appease tagg.

along with the other yummy treats we had, my aunt, megan, made her sugar cookies and bruschetta for us to snack on. her bruscetta is seriously one of my favorite foods on this planet.

high school friends (our ten year reunion is this year. crazy)! happy 2012.

christmas weekend

on thursday nite we left the babies at home and went to bellevue for shopping, dinner and a movie.

waiting to go in to the theater.

obnoxiously saving seats. and by seats i mean the entire theater. apparently we invited the redmond stake.

we started the christmas eve celebrations over at craig's uncle's house. after dinner, we played a rousing game of white elephant.

tagg loved white elephant. especially the part when he got to steal a present. quite the delinquent.

then came the legitimate presents. grandpa rod and grandma cheri gave tagg a hex bug habitat. he was in heaven. and even allowed us to pet his hex bugs.

sully got the elmo guitar he had been waiting for. he loved it! except now i cant get the "elmo's world" theme song out of my head.

right as we were leaving we decided to gather all the smith men up to take a picture........ i reaaaaaallly need a girl! :)

on our way home from the smith's we stopped by outback to say hello to my family. the restaurant was packed (who would have guessed?). they were going to be waiting for a long time to even get a table, so we just took some pictures and headed home.

craig and i laughed so hard when we saw my mom and megan walk in together. dressing like twinners at that age?!

anna and rachel.

my mom and me.

my mom and sully.

my mom, dad and sully.

tucker, taylor and me. told you we took a lot of pictures.

finally! christmas morning. tagg was so excited to see what santa had brought him. he was so cute opening his gifts.

we finally woke sully up at about 10.15 (he's going through a major growth spurt!) to open his presents before we had to go to church. his favorite present of all was his electric toothbrush. he's his daddy's boy!

after church, we went over to my parents' house to opening up a few more gifts. my mom surprised tagg and tucker with matching circle quilts! they are so beautiful and cozy.

that nite, we had a nativity. taylor and eli made a hilarious shepherd and sheep. and tucker creeped us out with his touchy-feely interpretation of joseph.

tagg was the cutest wiseman i have ever seen. and anna recited the entire angel part by memory. over-achiever much?

it was a very sweet nativity.

we had a wonderful christmas season with family and friends and cant wait for the new year to begin!

christmas nites

last nite, we got together and decorated our gingerbread houses. and i say decorated because megan took a little break and didn't make our houses from scratch this year. but don't worry, we didn't give her a hard time about it.....

tagg had so much fun decorating his house with eli. he asked me if i wanted his house to be funny or pretty. you be the judge on which direction he took. i was most excited about the little candles i put in the windows on my house. it was difficult for me to introduce more colors into my house but i don't regret my decision. (take gingerbread house decorating seriously, much?)

everyone with their houses. thanks again megan... oh wait.....

tuesdays and wednesday nites get pretty boring around here (craig works late) so last week, the boys and i had a little christmas tree photo shoot.

i love december and my two little peanuts.

some of sully's tricks

usually kiddies don't preform when you ask them to. but sully kind of loves the camera.

sully is 16 months. and we love him so much. cannot believe he will be going into the nursery in february!......

first (hopefully annual!) ornament exchange

my friends and i had our first ornament slash cookie exchange last week. i set up the cookie table a day early because i love how party decorations make a home feel so festive.

i made my ginger cookies for the exchange. and for my breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day.

when all the girls got here, we exchanged our ornaments. we had picked names out of hat and kept it all secret until it was time to open the ornaments.

the cookie table with everyone's treats.

a couple of hours before the party i panicked because i had no idea how everyone was going to get their cookies home. so my mom ran to packaging specialties for me and picked up these amazing treat boxes. score one for my mom.

all of our beautiful ornaments.