Happily Ever Mock

Gingerbread Recipe

Today I am sharing with you one of my very favorite Christmas recipes! My Perfect Gingerbread Cookies! I don’t know about you, but in my eyes, for a Gingerbread cookie to be perfect, it has to be firm, but chewy! And these cookies don’t disappoint!

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 Cup Molasses
  • 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/3 Cup Water
  • 1/8 Cup Softened Butter
  • 3 1/4 Cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour (Plus more for dusting)
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Ground Allspice
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

Directions:

  • In a stand mixer or large bowl cream together molasses, brown sugar, water and butter on a low setting until smooth.
  • Slowly combine the remaining dry ingredients into the wet mixture.  Mix well
  • Let the dough chill either overnight or at least 3 hours.
  • Once you are ready to form your cookies preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Dust a cutting board or hard surface with flour and roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
  • Use your favorite cookie cutters to form cookie shapes.
  • Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes
  • Let fully cool before icing if desired

This year we used a standard gingerbread man, but flipped him upside down to create little reindeer! Hallie was thrilled!

Now I want to hear your favorite Christmas Recipes!

Stocking Ideas For Mom

It’s that time of year again! The time of year where I am scrambling to wrap all the presents and stuff all the stockings! It’s also the time of year when I put together a handy stocking gift guide for my main squeeze! I try to include practical things I will use throughout the year as well as a few fun additions (i.e the chocolate orange! It’s actually a tradition from when I was younger!)

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Socks and Chap-stick are staples for my stocking! They are things I need new each year! Props if the Chap-stick is candy cane  flavored!

I am definitely a planner, so anything from Erin Condren will leave me swooning! (Especially the 2018 monthly stickers and Water color sticky notes!)

And how good is this Mac Lipstick color?

What’s on your list fellow mommas?

Shop Share- Ashlilium Reindeer Antlers

I know it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, but that doesn’t change the fact that Christmas is just over a month away! We are busy making lists, decking the halls and singing Christmas carols on repeat! Hallie happily bursts into lively renditions of Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer everywhere we go! I couldn’t pass up the chance to get my reindeer loving girl one of these festive reindeer headband from Ashlilium.

These little headbands will be perfect for your Christmas Card photos or Holiday parties! Or if your little one is anything like Hallie, an average Tuesday!

Ashley is offering 20% off in her shop NOW-BLACK FRIDAY, so head to the shop now, and snag one for your little reindeer!

To check out Ashley’s shop, click here! Also, Follow her on Instagram so you don’t miss out on any sales!

Friendsgiving

Bringing Back one of my favorite posts today!

I know to most of you Friendsgiving has a totally different meaning, but my favorite meaning of the word stems from a tradition my sister and I started several years ago:

So here is your guide to hosting your own Friendsgiving! 


1. Order a ton of food! I suggest Pizza or Chinese


2. Gather Seasons 1 and 3-10 of Friends! (I KNOW! No season 2 episode!) 


3. Enjoy!


Season 1: TOW Underdog Gets away! 
 “I’m very Thankful that all your Thanksgivings sucked”- Chandler 

Season 3: TOW The Football
  “I went really long” -Rachel 

Season 4: (And my personal fave): TOW Chandler in a Box
  “Fine but, Married a lesbian, left a guy at the alter, fell in love with a gay ice dancer, threw a girl’s wooden leg on the fire, live in a box!” – Monica

Season 5: TOW All the Thanksgiving Flashbacks
   ” Sir limps a lot, I came up with that!” -Ross

Season 6: TOW Ross got High
   “What’s not to like? Custard, good! Jam, Good! Meat, Gooood!” -Joey

Season 7: TOW Chandler Doesn’t like Dogs
   “Well I started naming states, but then I got tired of it so I started naming different types of celery. So far I’ve only got one, regular celery” – Phoebe 

Season 8: TOW the Rumor
  “Dear Rachel, you’re a very nice person. Sorry about your teeny weeny!”- Rachel

Season 9: TOW Rachel’s Other Sister
  ” Who has to die for me to get her” – Joey

Season 10: TOW The Late Thanksgiving
  “The Floating heads do make a good point” -Chandler

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?
<3 Kelly

Toddler Cold Weather Style

The days on the November calendar are flying by quickly, before you know it we will be decking the halls.  It’s the time of year in Texas where it’s finally appropriate to start pulling out the winter coats and mittens.  Here are some of our Cold Weather Favorites this year!

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The precious Hanna Anderson coat is perfect for a Texas winter. We love this sweet sweater and it comes in the prettiest white that matches all of our holiday outfits! Hallie wears the tights under all of her long sleeved dresses, and we love them! If you are looking to purchase from June and January for the first time, click here for 15% off your first purchase!

What are your kids wearing during these magical months?

5 years

Today marks 5 years of marriage for Christopher and I, and February will be 13 years together. It is true what they say, time flies when you are having fun! Today as I look back on our time together I am thankful for this man.  Christopher is the best Dad to Hallie and an Amazing husband to me. He gives us 110% all the time and we are so blessed to have him loving and protecting our family.  I love you more everyday honey, and can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.

 

Hallieween Through the years

Happy Halloween! We are so excited to share Hallie’s Halloween costume with you! First, lets take a little walk down memory lane and recall her costumes from the past.

For Hallie’s first Halloween, she was a bunny and I was a magician.  I even made a black hat to carry her around in!I had my heart set on the bunny costume, because that’s what I was for my first Halloween.


For Hallie’s second Halloween, she was obsessed with Mickey Mouse Club House. Donald and Daisy were her favorite characters, so I made her Daisy Duck and she carried around a little Donald toy.  That is until her treat bag got too heavy to only use one hand and Miss Independent put Donald on the ground, told him to “SIT!” and dragged her treat bag all by herself the rest of the night.  

Last year for Halloween, Hallie insisted on being a mermaid! She was the cutest Ariel I have ever seen and even used the correct terminology when combing her hair with a “Dinglehopper” Since we tossed out the pumpkins last year and before we finished all of the tootsie rolls, Hallie had decided that this year she wanted to be a Unicorn.  So without further ado, here is the Unicorn ensemble that Hallie and I came up with!

 I made the Tutu, Tail and Hooves. T-shirt- June and January. Unicorn Horn- Ashlilium. And as always the photos are by the very talented Purple Moments Photography.  

The Little Braids in her hair were just the icing on the cake of the sweetest costumer ever!

We hope everyone eats a lot of mini snickers bars and has a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Currently- October 2017

It’s Friday eve! Is anyone else super jazzed for the weekend? I know we are! With Halloween around the corner, things are pretty festive around here! We are planning the Big Pumpkin Carve for the weekend as well as some painting!

Reading:

Usually this time of year it’s something Halloween related. This year Hallie is literally obsessed with The Scariest Book Ever, and I have to say it’s pretty cute!

I am still in a reading rut however, so please help! I love mysteries and thrillers!

Watching:

I literally JUST jumped on the This is Us train, so you can just pass the tissues while I ugly cry! Just finished season 1, and I am hooked!

 

Eating:

All the soup! Did you catch my Chicken Noodle Soup recipe?

 

Working on:

Up until about a day ago, I would have said Hallie’s Halloween costume, but it’s finally finished and I can’t wait to share it with you! Right now I am working on my Christmas to do list! It is around the corner you guys! This elf is excited!

Looking Forward to:

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50s, so that is pretty exciting! Aside from cooler weather The end of the year is about to go by in a blur! Trick or Treating, Baking pies, visiting with family (especially excited to see my cousin Karley come home for a visit from Montana), and before you know it Christmas!

Loving for Mommy:

2 things! A good friend of our family just started selling for Chloe and Isabell. They have the cutest jewelry! I am loving this Pendant Necklace! Check out her shop here! It’s the perfect place to stock up on Holiday gifts!

 

I also am going to need these black booties from Old Navy! They are too good!

Loving for Hallie:

 

This sweet little Gold and white Dress!

What do you have your eye on for your littles? Particularly 3 year old girls, because I am about to start working on Hal’s Christmas list and I need ideas!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and an even better weeekend

Shop Share- Ben the Rooster Christmas Cards Part 2

‘Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la, la la la la! Yes, I know it isn’t even Halloween yet, but remember a couple months ago when I shared about Ben the Rooster Christmas cards? Well they came in, and they are absolutely precious! Just to remind you, in Ben’s Paper Shop you can purchase a set of custom greeting cards.  Your little artist creates their masterpiece on a template and then send it back to Ben. Once the cards are finished, Ben sends the cards back to you.

The cards are amazing quality and Hallie was ecstatic to see her artwork on a real card! Ben even puts your artist’s name on the back of the card as a nice added touch.

The best thing about this project is that the profits are used to donate subscriptions of Ben the Rooster’s Pen Pal Unit to Title I classrooms.  Since Hallie started Ben the Rooster her vocabulary has blossomed and her handwriting and drawing skills have grown immensely. I have no doubt that Ben the Rooster is a positive impact on the kids in these schools as well.  Hallie couldn’t wait to get started addressing her cards right away! She is thrilled to spread holiday cheer to all of her family and friends, all while doing an educational project. It’s really a win win!

It’s not too late for you to get started, so head to Ben’s Paper Shop now!

Kitty Cat Toddler Style

With Halloween approaching I thought now would be the perfect time to share some adorable kitty finds! Also I have  a mini cat lady on my hands, so we may have snatched a few up already.  The girl can’t get enough of cats!

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The Kitty pajamas are so soft and Hallie insists on adding the kitty tights under every dress! I need to pick up another pair! Also How cute is the little cat purse? I am totally swooning! What are your toddlers into right now?