This is my 31st day of posting in a row! YAY YAY YAY!  I did it and I am so glad it's over. ha ha ha

Francesca's was closing early for special holiday hours, so tonight, Kelly and I went to a new eatery in downtown called the Beyu Caffe (pronounced Bee-You) for our weekly coffee outing.

It was GREAT! If you are looking for a totally hip new Durham-loving hang out, this is it!  It isn't a study spot and I think they may frown on that; sorry Dook students. And they probably would not appreciate the local go club meeting there, either.  So if either of those is your thing, please continue to patronize Francesca's.  It's a great place, too!

Beyu serves dinner, but they are happy to serve just coffee drinkers, too. There are couches in a lounge area and there are more traditional cafe tables and chairs surrounding that. The coffee was good; Kelly and I both had stylish minty coffee drinks.

While we were there they turned down the lighting, which is something that I thought would make for better evening ambiance.

Besides the great coffee, my favorite thing about the place was the giant (long) panoramic picture of the downtown Durham. It is worth going in just to see that photograph, which Kelly said I probably could buy for $1000. :) maybe not.

Sorry Francesca's, you really are great, it's just I think we found our new coffee date location. Really it's me, not you... can we still be friends?

Note: The downside to Beyu being our late night coffee spot is that there is not a lot of great parking. Two girls walking around downtown late at night kind of freaks us out... we'll see.  Really what we will have to do is plan on parking near each other and walking to our cars together, problem solved!

This sports playset is brought to you by my dad's family. The pictures are brought to you by our new Canon Rebel XSI.

Beau loves the baseball bat and the small basketballs that came with the hoop. He's already totally a boy, though and though.

Continuing that tradition from last year, I would like to highlight some of my favorite Christmas gifts. Obviously, we are enjoying Miles' favorite present... the Wii.

I got a GPS for my car this year. We went to pick-up a new baby gate from craigslist today, and all I had to do was punch in the address, and away we went. I didn't print out directions or anything. It was great! and green!

Then we wanted to find another store and we typed that in and away we went to the next location.  Not one map had to be pulled out. Man, this new fangled technology is great.

I am serious people, it is an addiction. We rented Super Mario Galaxy and we are hooked.

In other news, Miles has to go back to work tonorrow, and we are all sad about that, we have had a very fun filled Christmas "break."

We had an AWESOME dinner tonight with our great friends, Chad, Ashley, Jack, and Louisa. Watching our kids play together is a joy that I hope continues for years to come.

I am calling UNC tomorrow about Beau's face... it is driving me crazy.  He woke up from his nap and was covered in blood. He aparently had been scratching in his sleep and got blood everywhere. I hope it comes out of his sheet in the wash.

Halleigh is swimming in Christmas presents, I don't know where we are going to put them all... but we sure have had fun playing with all the new toys!

Ben got home safely, he called and made it home in record time. I miss him already!

Kona is enjoying her one christmas present from Aunt Katie... TREATS!

What am I going to do tomorrow when I am all alone with these kids again? I can't remember what to do!!!

and we are!

That's right, Miles got a Wii for Christmas, and we have enjoyed it already. We went to Blockbuster and rented a couple games and are wii-ing it up at the Travis household.

Even Halleigh gets in the action and is really quite good at golf and baseball.

Dora guitar brought to you by Mama H. Totally rad tunes brought to you by HJ.

Recently, my friend, Kristy was telling me that her mom reads our blogs and has a few questions for me, but is too intimidated to leave a comment, since I don't actually know her.

Mrs. Kent, leave all the comments you want, we might as well know each other!  Besides, there are only a few people who read this blog, so I need all the comments I can get! :)

So one of the questions that needed answering was my Granny's recipe for Mint-Chocolate Pillows... here it is.

Blend together: 1 cup unsalted butter (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening) and 3/4 c sugar

Beat in until creamy: 1 egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla

Then add: 2 1/2 cups flour and 1/2/teaspoon salt

Press half the dough through a saw tooth plate on a cookie press or roll and cut into 2 inch strips. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Place pieces of chocolate cany bars (Andes Mints are my fav.) about 1/2 inch apart on the dough strips.

The following is what the strip of dough should look like with the chocolate in place.

Using second half of the dough, press another strip of dough over the candy and bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

When it comes out of the oven it will look kind of like this with the chocolate melting out the ends.

While warm, cut into pieces so that each cookie has one piece of chocolate in it.

They are best if you let them cool completely before eating... I hope you enjoy them, they are my favorite! 

Ben is here, he got here a couple hours ago... now Christmas can come!

He just got done with survival training and has some CRAZY stories. So far my favorite was the one where he ate a rabbit eyeball because they are "full of electrolytes." yuck!

This is what happens when it snows in Durham... one-inch

It is finally starting to feel like Christmas. I have a small pile of presents that I wrapped tonight... in Dora the Explorer paper. :)

What was I doing while wrapping presents?  Watching 10,000 B.C.  Totally appropriate, I know.

Beau is not in many fun, family outing pictures. It makes me feel bad that I don't have fun pictures of him participating in the events that we do. Then I realized this is why...

I wear him all the time and I am usually the one taking the pictures. (This picture was taken by Miles at the 5k he ran last week) 

Speaking of wearing babies... I have to give a shout out to Kristen for mentioning a few years ago that I would like the Beco Baby carrier. Which I do love! The ability to carry in the front or the back is WONDERFUL! It made navigating through the airport with two children, three bags and one car seat much easier.

When we are out I just put it on at the first stop take him in and out as we go through the day; then at the last stop I take it off and everyone happily survives even long days of errand running. I can wear him all day and it doesn't hurt my back, shoulders, hip, etc.. Totally worth the cost, and it is super cute!

Thanks Kristen for the GREAT recommendation!

Here is my post for today... I just got back from girl's night and had to post QUICK!

A few great pictures from our time out west... this was at the children's museum in Ogden.

We have hit a milestone! So much fun. Beau was only dunked once... maybe twice and they had A LOT of fun together.

My book club is reading this book this month. I am about half way through, and I am REALLY enjoying it. If you are looking for something to read... read this!

7:30am kids wake-up

11:00am Miles leaves to run 5k, while I finish getting the kids ready to see Daddy at the finish line.

12:30pm Watch Miles finish 5k. He did great! He placed 2nd in his age category.

2:00pm Arrive at Christmas Cookie Decorating Party

5:45pm Arrive at Sunday School Christmas Party

8:00pm Arrive at Kate's surprise Birthday Party

11:00pm Arrive home to put two VERY sleepy kids in bed and blog before the stroke of mid-night.

Whew! What a day... good fun, good friends, good food, and on that note... good-night!

I had my follow-up appointment with the nurologist today to talk about the results of my blood work (that totalled $4500... thank goodness for insurance). After telling me that I am HORRIBLY deficient in Vitamin D, he said, "Other than the Vitamin D deficency, you may be the healthiest person I have ever seen."  It was hilarious, for several reasons... #1 I take a daily pill because I had heart failure, three very short years ago. #2 He had just gotten done telling me that I was so deficent in vitamin D that it was prbably doing skeletal damage. #3 I could be in better shape... or in any shape. #4 Oh yeah, and I had four migraines in a week last month, which set off this round of appointments... yeah, I am totally the picture of health. :)

I love this type of movie. It's kind of gross at some times, but it is also full of twists and suspense. I like it because it's like a treasure hunt or something... following clues to find solve the riddle.

The girl in this one was better than the girl in the Da Vinci Code, but Tom Hanks is getting old. At least he cut his hair!

Click below to check out this comparison:

If you are even remotely acquainted with my daughter you will know how traumatic this next statement is... WE LOST TAGGIE!

We were at the mall today and one minute she had her long-time beloved companion, and the next minute she didn't. We backtracked for 45 minutes looking and asking if anyone had seen it, but to no avail... Taggie is gone. We left our name and phone number at the lost and found, but don't have high hopes of a phone call.

Miles and I are left trying to decide if we should replace Taggie, or let this be a right-of-passage, learning experience.  I don't even know if a replacement would be acceptable to her. Taggie was pretty much a body part to her, and a new Taggie would be just that... new.

I feel a little stupid saying this, but I too am grieving a little. That Taggie has been part of this family for three years, I am feeling the loss. Again if you know Halleigh you know that that stupid piece of fleece was in fact PART OF THE FAMILY.  It has been literally EVERYWHERE Halleigh has been in the last 3 years. Vacations, doctor visits, hospitals, road trips, church, you name it, Taggie was there. We even had Taggie in one of the professional photo sessions when Halleigh was a baby!

We prayed that Taggie would be returned... I hope that our prayers will be answered, but if not that it wouldn't affect Halleigh's enthusiasm for prayer!

Taking a page from Miles' blog, I decided that I would start a "Things that I love" strain on IMR.

Andes Mint Chocolate Pillow Cookies are a Granny (my dad's mom) specialty. She makes them during the Christmas season, and they are WONDERFUL! Since I wont be home this year for Christmas, I have to make them myself. (They wont be as good, but I'll make due.)

Other Granny cookie favorites are Honey Funny Men (Halleigh's fav.) and Hamburger Cookies (Miles' fav.).

In order to downplay the arrival of Santa Claus and highlight the arrival of baby Jesus, we made an advent wreath and are participating in daily devotionals focusing on and anticipating the birth of Jesus. We light the appropriate candle before dinner and read the devotional during dinner. Halleigh enjoys the candle and mildly pays attention... the highlight being that she gets to blow out the candle at the end of the meal.

We knew that if we wanted to make Santa Claus a Christmas side note we had to make a big deal of advent and Jesus. Other plans include an advent calendar and a Jesse Tree, although I am still not done with that... maybe next year.

What do you do to highlight Jesus this time of year?

I was starting to wonder why no one was commenting on my totally awesome posts, and Miles said that my blog might have had the same error problem that his had... he checked... it did.

He fixed the problem, so now I expect you to comment. :)

1. Michael's carried everything for your Christmas needs BUT advent wreaths... and for that matter, the ability to make one from their inventory is difficult as well. But if you want some kitsch Santa decor, you have your pick of 60 billion different knick-knacks. UGH!

2. I love my book club. The women, the conversation, the books... I am so thankful for this great group.

3. I hope it doesn't rain/ snow tomorrow during the Christmas parade. (this one petains to tomorrow, but I thought about it today)

4. I like my new haircut, although it is quite a bit shorter than what I asked the girl to do.  It's different than any other hair style I have ever had... that's fun.

5. I decided to cut Halleigh's hair today.  Scary I know, but it is CUTE. I was going to take a picture of us with our new hair, but the day just got away from me, maybe tomorrow.

6. I think this is HILARIOUS!

During the three weeks that we were gone, Beau achieved a few major milestones:

He started to crawl

He turned 7 months

He sat up by himself

He pulled up to the standing position

He turns to look at you when you say his name

He stopped sleeping through the night

Okay, so all but the last are accomplishments, that last one is a nightmare. :)

Next stop... walking

Whew! It has been a long day that started at 4:00am in Pleasant View, UT. My kids are great, the best traveling kids in the world. I had several people on the plane tell me that they have never seen kids do so well on flights. Their champerific!!!

I had SOOOOOOOO much fun out west, and saw A LOT of my favorite people. Daddy O, Granny, Brie, Baylee, Blaze, Granny Gran, Great-Grandpa Olds, Grandma, Grandpa, the different Grandma, Great-Grandpa Brooks, Carl, Carla, Darren, Katie, Ben, Jess, Ellie, Matthew, Brooke, Rylie, Mason, Bracken, Dale, Julie, JT, Christie, and the list goes on and on.

But as much fun as we had, we were ready to come home, we missed Miles.

So hi ya'll... I know you thought I had died or something, but low and behold, here I am.

Beau is 7 months, Halleigh is now 3, I have been in Utah for the past 21 days, and we are trying to buy a house. Whew, things have been crazy around here.

Miles tells me that blogging begets blogging, so here is to a new start... wish me luck!

p.s. I promise the posts will get better :)