FYI

Hey all! Just so you know, I've decided that instead of trying to keep two blogs up to date ( not that I ever keep even one up to date) that I will be doing the majority of my blogging on my "business" blog. I will still occasionally blog things that I don't necessarily want on the other here at cheneyville; Family pics, and random entries, etc. But for the most part, head on over to www.sugarsmitten.blogspot.com to see what's new with us!

Thanks!

Me and my girl

We had some post-nap fun with the camera this afternoon and thought I'd share. I figure it's been a while since my last post anyways.

Christmas recap in 4 minutes... maybe.

Ammon and I make pizza Christmas Eve.
Emmie wakes up Christmas morning to a giant jungle mountain covered in plastic animals of all shapes and sizes nestled under the tree.
We go to my parent's house.
We eat a delicious breakfast (thanks Dad!).
We open presents.
My Brother's kindly give Dad a new house key as he lost his previous one some time ago.

Ammon and I give my brother Shawn the Body Flex box set. He's so excited he can hardly contain his self. Yes, we lovingly sensored the box.

Vincent poses for the holiday edition of G.Q.
Emmalyn adorns herself in all things pretty. Stick-on earrings, plastic rings, bracelets, hair ties, and nail polish. Grandma happily helps.
We deep fry a turkey.
We eat.
We eat.
Repeat.
We go home to bed.
We wake up and take off to Newport to visit Ammon's parents.
Ammon and I play on the beach.
Ammon attempts to fling the giant kelp around for a while.
I pose for G.Q. but don't get published. Who knew finger guns were so unattractive?


Ammon does the same, but is much more successful.
Emmie is cuter than anything while thrift store shopping.
Ammon and his dad have some bonding time and make the women some pizza.
We leave Newport.
We come home to a broken water heater.
Celebrate New Years Eve with family and friends.
We eat.
We eat.
Repeat.
Start to remember what it's like when Ammon is in school.
Dread tomorrow- the first day of school.
We wish you all a very Happy New Year!
BTW, consider this your Christmas card too. See, here's the token family picture...

Ugly Sweaters

Last weekend we held our annual Ugly Sweater Breakfast, which was actually a dinner, but we still ate breakfast foods. We decorated sugar cookie gingerbread men with ugly sweaters, had a sweater unraveling contest while listening to Weezer's "Sweater Song", and pigged out. It was a blast, but next year I need to find an uglier sweater because comments like "Oh, no fair! Your sweater is cute!",and, "That is so not ugly!" should not be made at such a party.It might not be the sweaters fault, but our choice in friends- who knows. What do you think? Ammon and I still think it's ugly, but I know I can do better next year.
This year we capped off the party with an AWESOME awards ceremony that Ammon planned. The 1st and 2nd runners up were presented with mini- okay itsy bitsy- gold metals and announced with "We are the Champions" playing in the background while the lights were dimmed and then Europe's "Final Countdown" came thundering over the speakers and the winner was announced and presented with the Ugly Sweater Sceptor- a disney princess wand we found in the dumpster and then covered in old sweater and topped with a pom pom. It was pretty amazing.

Adventures...

As you may have noticed, my blogging presence has been abnormally high lately. I used to go months without as new post. There are a lot of contributing factors to this, one being that I am spending more time online promoting my little shop on Etsy ( www.sugarsmitten.etsy.com). As part of this promotion I've decided to take my new-found, but hopefully not short-lived, enthusiasm for blogging and start a blog for Sugar Smitten. I will be posting recipes I've tried, photos and stories about projects I'm working on, and you better beleive that there will be some shameless plugs for new treats in my shop. I might even throw in a little give-away every now and again :)




Come by, take a look. You don't have to come back if you don't want to.

Baby Butternut

Baby Butternut is the newest addition to the Cheney home. She's quiet, sleeps through the night, and most importantly does not require diaper changes. She found her way into our family after a friend offered her to us from her garden. Emmie has been more than helpful and sleeps most everynight with Butternut in her bed. In fact, I do believe that if it were not for Emmie, Butternut may have met an awful fate and wound up on our dinner plates. Nevertheless, we are glad to have her as part of our family. I'm not sure how long her stay with us will be, but I'm sure Emmalyn will be dissapointed to see her leave. Here they are watching a show soon after waking up this morning.

I know Emmie is going to be a good mommy because when I asked her if she could burp Butternut, Emmie placed Butternut in front of her face and proceeded to, yes, burp on her! Ammon and I are still laughing at that one!

By Request...

Since my husband has told everybody he knows and 50% of everybody he doesn't know, I assumed that everybody knew that I placed 2nd!!! Needless to say, not everybody knew.

I'm going on my 3rd post about gingerbread and I feel like it needs to stop, but I've had a few requests for just plain ole pictures- like video isn't good enough? Anyways, here's some more shameless gawking of my little creation.

The front...

The Back

The Mad Hatter



The Caterpillar




The Card Men playing croquet and painting the roses red




the White Rabbit...