A little slice of heaven on earth....

Shhhhhh...it is quiet in my house---for the first time in about 2 & 1/2 weeks actually.

Oh yeah, everyone is BACK to SCHOOL! 

Except this cute little munchkin, who happens to be a good little napper,

as long as he has his "Ellie" within reach.

And I'm sitting in the dining room, (really the only room that gets any sun,) 

and drinking coffee and eating chocolate, and lots and lots of chocolate.  

Yes, I told you....a little slice of heaven on earth! 
 Thank goodness, I'm not allergic to chocolate! 

And as I sit here, I'm contemplating turning our sunny dining room into my office...

...shhh...don't tell my hubby that!  I really do miss having an office space though!

Anyhow, where was I?  Oh yes, Christmas "vacation" 

was about a week too long, in my humble stay-at-home mom opinion.  

This "vacation" seemed like an awful lot of work!

I do get spoiled a bit by having a hubby for a teacher though...

who also happens to be home on school "vacations...."
he lets me sleep in......and I LOVE to sleep in!

But, I don't think being at our house on "vacations," feels much like a vacation to him either actually,
or anyone else that comes to visit for that matter---
keep that in mind before you book a stay at our B&B!!!! 
Such is the life with 3 kids,
who get up REALLY early, even if they go to bed REALLY late!
Little Miss Mae has quadriplegic ataxic cerebral palsy (for those of you interested)
  and requires LOTS of extra care, doctor's visits, therapies, case management type details...
and just basic planning for "normal" activities takes on a life of its own for her to participate.....
she sure does have a great sense of humor though!
And our 10 month old Bubba is trying his hardest to be an early walker to keep us with his sissies, 
and our 5-year-old K-Rae is going on 15-and-a-half most of the time...
Yes, they keep us on our toes....and in the E.R....but that's another story! 

Anyhow, I decided to do one little last day of vacation "hurrah" activity 
with the girlies yesterday. 
Sugar them up and send them back to school was sort of the theme, I think.  

That, and gingerbread houses!

I've been making gingerbread houses since I was about their age.....

But I have to say, this year's was (and still is, as I'm eating it now!) my favorite.

Pure chocolate....yeah baby!  

Gingerbread houses have taken on a new meaning at our house. 

We may have to make one once a month!

So I actually made the house from scratch...rather unexpectedly.  I thought I was buying this nice little kit that we could quickly assemble.  God bless Wal-Mart, I opened the box and it was pretty much just bags and bags of candy, including small disks of chocolate to melt, and pour in the molds and freeze and then remove from the molds without breaking.....and then assemble. 

I started this project Sunday night about 10:00.  Finished it about midnight....wondered if the girls would be disappointed they didn't get to actually assemble the house, only decorate it.  Found out I shouldn't have been worried about that at all, when K-Rae piped up as "we" were decorating the house, "Mom, you can finish decorating the house, we only like eating the candy!"  Fortunately, as much work as the silly project was, the chocolate was a kind that Little Miss Mae can actually eat, and that is hard to come by, with her 120+ food allergies, and the cotton candy, which was supposed to be "smoke" worked out well for her too.....but the house ended up with very little "smoke" when she got done with it!

Oh, and don't forget the marshmallow Gingerbread Peeps....

those were a fun addition to this year's endeavor...

and much quicker than making gingerbread men from scratch!

At least that part of the project was manageable!

I'm thinking Hershey bars and Peeps for next years project?!?!

And now everyone is back to school...

and has left this nice chocolate house here for Mama to munch on--
and lots and lots of laundry for me to put away!  

Glad I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions, yet!
But I think my main resolution will be to just keep hanging out with these little ones,
who are growing up way too fast, 
teaching them about God and Jesus and how to show love and kindness,
and enjoying being at home with them, 
for just as long as we can possibly pull it off!