Cookies for Santa!

This holiday season is going to be especially wonderful with the addition of our little girl!  She's not quite sure who Santa is yet at this point, though she did get to meet him!

I wanted to gift her caregivers something sweet for the holidays, and remembered how much I LOVED making cookies in a jar a few years ago for some friends and family!  They are seriously THE BEST cookies I've ever had.  I REALLY love them and get compliments any time they are gifted!  I hope the daycare girls love them as much as I do!

They turned out beautiful!  I created labels for them and printed them on some of the brown cardstock I had here at home. 

You can use these and print them yourself too!  Select the link itself to get the downloadable and printable version!

• Mason Jar Lid Toppers

• Santa Faces for Back of Tags

• Instructions for Tags

For the tags, I printed one side with Santa and the other side with the recipe. I use bakers twine to attach the tags and the bags of pecans to the jar.


Here's the full recipe I used for the cookies (originally on Bakerella - Cowgirl Cookies)

These are the ingredients you need to add in this specific layer into a large mason jar (1Quart size)

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cooking oats
• 3/4 cup m&ms
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans

***If the nuts don't fit, do not fret!  You can do like I did and add them on the side in a little Ziploc bag!  I sometimes don't pack it down enough, so I add a little extra sugar to fill space.

These are the ingredients you're recipient will need to add once they've gotten their gift!

• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

I always make myself a batch while I'm putting these together!  I just mix all my dry ingredients, add my wet ingredients and roll them into little balls.  From there I freeze all but a few on a baking sheet. Once they are frozen, plop them all into a large Ziploc bag so you can enjoy just one or two at a time.  They just take a few extra minutes to bake up in the oven!

To make them for yourself while packing some up in mason jars for gifts, after you've mixed your ingredients and made your cookie balls, heat the oven to 350 and bake for 8-10 min.  Enjoy!

Now go make some delicious cookies or put some together in cute mason jars for your friends and family!

Now when Santa comes, don't forget carrots for the reindeer ;)

QUESTION FOR YOU!
What are your favorite Christmas Cookies?

3 Months Old!

Braelyn is officially 3 months old!  I can hardly believe how fast the time is flying by us! 

 I'm going to try better to update monthly like this on her progression, not just for you, but also for me!  There's SO many new things happening with her daily, I want to remember them all as best as I can :)

Braelyn Updates
How Old:  3 Months

Medical Updates:  She now weighs 12.4 lbs and is 24.5 inches long, this girly is TALL!  She also had her first cold this past weekend.  She's had some sniffles in the past, but this one turned into a cough. Poor girl.  But she's getting better and the Dr. said it was nothing big to worry about at this point and it should clear itself up.

Sleep: Brealyn is on a pretty good sleep cycle...knocking on some serious wood here...  She goes down between 8-9 and stays asleep until about 3-4 am.  We are then up for a feeding and back to sleep until about 7:30-8am.  Technically, she'd be sleeping through the night if we got her down about and hour or 2 later since Neal and I wake up at about 6am on the day's we 'sleep in'.  We are going to have to transition her from her Snugamonkey Rock n Play to her crib though soon because she's TOO TALL!  It's crazy how fast she's growing.  So far she doesn't sleep great in her crib.  We just try to put her there once she's fallen asleep a little, but her naps don't last as long and we haven't tried during the night time.  We also put her in her crib if I'm cleaning up her room or putting up clothes so that she can become more comfortable in it.

Clothing/Diapers:  She officially transitioning into 3-6 month clothes!  It's CRAZY! She can wear some of her 0-3 month items, but many of them are becoming too short.  Also, some of the bottoms don't fit in 0-3 month over the fluffy cloth diaper butt :)  We've REALLY liked the cloth!  Washing them hasn't even upped our water bill on bit!  So our only cost so far was the initial investment!  WOW!  Oh and on top of sleeping updates, this goes along with those as she is too tall for her original swaddles!  We had to move up a size for length, but now she's not 'broad' enough.  We are improvising by wrapping her arms in a swaddle blanket and then putting her into the SummerInfant SwaddleMe Sleepsack.

Milestones:  Braelyn is following people now with her eyes/head, especially her daddy!  She LOVES to look for him.  It is seriously the sweetest!  She also will talk a lot to you, making little noises and smiling huge!  She seems to be recognizing her fur siblings, Walden and Sasha, now as well. She's rolled over twice from tummy to back, but hasn't gotten too consistent with that.  She's also fully been able to hold her head up for minutes at a time. 

Mommy Updates

Postpartum: 3 Months

Weight: Down to less than pre-pregnancy weight.  I didn't want to get to that point actually, I wanted to be a little heavier.  I'm hungry all the time with breastfeeding, but am finding it VERY hard to make time to work out with going back to work AND doing Lively Happenings - it's the bussiest time of the year for Lively Happenings.  I think once I work out again, my weight will go back up with some muscle tone. 

Waist:  I'm back to pre-pregnancy size.

Belly:  The linea nigra is still slightly noticeable.  My stomach isn't nearly as tight as it was at about2 months post partum because I haven't been able to work out, but I'll get there - right now Braelyn is number one and I have to put work up there too...once the job settles, I'll be making more time for working out again!

Best moments as a new mom:  There's seriously so many, but really my favorites are when I see Neal with Braelyn.  It makes me so happy when he's playing with her and caring for her.

Hardest moments as a new mom:  Time management!  It's been REALLY hard going back to work.  Even though I work from home, Braelyn is still in daycare because I have a professional job requiring me to be on the phone up to 4 times a day for meetings and training.  Putting her in daycare was rough, but now I really like her daycare!  The caregivers are amazing and she truly enjoys herself there!  However, I'm still finding it SUPER hard to find 'me' time. 

• I get up around 6am am and eat and work until she wakes up
• I take her into daycare
• Work until I get my 8 hours in
• Do a little bit of Lively Happenings orders almost every day after work to keep up during the holiday season (I try to do 30 min every day after work to keep up but am still behind! That's a blessing though and I know this is temporary for the holiday season)
• Pick up Braelyn from daycare
• Feed Braelyn/myself/Neal (she cluster feeds at night a lot still and constantly wants to be in mine or Neal's arms so we really don't do anything but take care of her sometimes)
• Get Braelyn ready for bed
• Maybe get another 30 min of Lively Happenings work in and then go to bed myself so I get rest before she wakes up for her middle of the night feeding.

It's just SUPER hard to squeeze in time there for almost anything else like a workout, a nice yoga class, grabbing a cup of coffee, just going to the grocery store.  Heck, I'm typing this blog post us as I'm taking a 15 minute pump break!  Typically I don't 'break' while pumping, I just work through it, but I really wanted to get this post done :)

I was working out early in the morning before Lively Happenings orders picked up for the Holiday season, but until next week, I think I won't be getting many 'me time' workouts in since I need my sleep and Braelyn time more :)

I'm not putting any of that out there as a 'woe is me'. There's PLENTY of other mom's/dad's who are doing all of this SOLO or working more demanding jobs, or taking care of multiple children.  I'm just putting this out there as a holy cow, my friends that had kids were telling the truth...it is time consuming, sometimes super hard, but eventually the baby won't be a baby, they won't be depending on mom or dad as much, and things will settle down.  And I'm sure when that time comes, I'll want my baby to be a baby again and need me all the time...

Here's a look back to her 1 Month and 2 Month photos since I didn't do a post for them:

And then just one of my favorites :)  She was just reaching 2 months in this one!