Merry Christmas from the Brennans!

These were the best photos we got for our Christmas cards. Having a toddler who is a ham the majority of the time makes things difficult. 

PS-- How adorable are these two? Love those dimples!!

Daddy Play Time

Brooke loves her Dad! When he gets home from work, I am more than happy to have a break and give her over to him. Plus, she WANTS to play with him and misses him when he's gone! 

Pearly Whites

Brooke is usually a great brusher of her teeth (or should I say co-operator while her mom brushes her teeth). She's especially cute in her Christmas PJ's. :)

Mini Photo Shoot

I LOVE my camera. One day, I just took Brooke outside and snapped a few shots. These are some of my favorites. 

It's ME on TV!

Incase you missed it yesterday, here is the segment of me cooking on Good Morning America with Sandra Lee and Sam Champion!

My whole trip to New York was so amazing I just don't know where to begin! The first half was stressful because I was so worried about being on national television, but after it was over, it was such a relief!

Actually, let me start from the beginning:

I got a call around Wednesday last week from a producer from Good Morning America informing me that I was a finalist in the 12 days of Christmas contest I had entered. So he asked me a few questions about myself and my recipe over the phone and said he'd get back to me.

Anthony, the Food Producer, called me Friday afternoon letting me know that I'd be flying to New York on Monday to tape a segment Tuesday with Sandra Lee. It was a crazy weekend trying to get everything done! But, away I went to NYC!

I got driven to the airport Monday morning by my father in law. I arrived around 5:15 am to get through security and make it to my full flight for 6:30. Let me tell you, it's a ridiculously LONG flight. I was so happy to land.

Once I arrived at JFK, a driver from a limousine company picked me up and brought me to my hotel. NYC drivers are ridiculous. I swear I almost died 16 times on the way to my hotel! Seriously. I was nervous.

Anyways, I was able to get my driver to make a quick stop at a book store so I could pick up a few copies of Sandra Lee's cookbooks for her to sign (so I could give one away on my blog! Check it out here if you want to enter to win it!)

So it took about 1 1/2 hours to drive 17 miles. There is sooooooo much traffic there! And sooooooooo many people. The phrase 'the city never sleeps' is completely 100% true!

I was staying in a hotel that was right in the middle of Times Square. And here come all the pictures.

The views from my two hotel windows:

Ground level times square Monday night. I went out to look around and pick up a few things, like dinner!

In my room.

There's this HUGE M&M's store in Times Square! I picked up some peanut M&M's for Gordon in random colors like black, grey, teal, navy blue, neon green, etc.

This is Anthony, the food producer at Good Morning America. We were checking over the tables for the segment making sure we weren't missing anything.

Getting hair & make-up done in my dressing room

Sting sung a few songs before and after my segment. 

 It's the show on paper!

Here come the sightseeing photos I took after the show was over!

 This was a block away from Radio City Music Hall. Behind those decorations in the water is Fox news studios.

Across the street in Rockefeller Center.

This reminds me of home alone 2.

I took this photo for my brother in law, David. I saw this store and instantly thought of him.

Times Square in the day!

If you look closely, you can see the new years ball just above the 2010.

ABC studios! I was just in there!

Beautiful church on 5th ave. I also counted 2 H&M's, 2 Gaps's and 4 starbucks!

Hello Cartier!

I was surprised to see Tim Hortons in NYC! And, I found 2 of them!

This is as close to the Empire State Building as I got because I had to head back to the hotel to go home.

Bryant Park, where fashion week happens in January!

Magnolia Bakery, known for their delicious cupcakes! I brought back 4 for us to taste and they were $3.75 each!! That's how good they are!

As a surprise to Gordon, I brought him back Sting's autograph! Sting is really soft spoken and nice! Hence the happy face!

I'll post more photos later! :)

I'm AWESOME

Incase you are a hobbit and don't have twitter and/or facebook and aren't on my mother-in-law's extensive email address book, I'm going to be traveling to New York City to be on Good Morning America as a part of their 12 Days of Christmas series. I will be demo-ing a recipe from my food blog, Chocolate Cream Cheese Peppermint Bars with Sandra Lee, a food network celebrity.

I'm rather excited.

Sunday Afternoons

Everyone in this house is sick, except for me and this little guy! So, we are hanging out together this Sunday afternoon while everyone else sleeps. It's kind of weird being in such a quiet house, but I like the time to cuddle this sweet new nephew of mine. He's so mellow and easy going. 

Oh, Jacob. You're such a sweet baby. I will cuddle you any day!

Dear Tammy & Melanie,

I will not have to borrow your cameras anymore because my super awesome, thoughtful and wonderful husband and in-law's got me my very own as an early Christmas and Birthday present! I am so excited and thankful, words cannot even describe. :) :) :) :)

Thank you thank you thank you Gordon for having the idea to get this for me and to John and Marilyn who went along with it! 

Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

This morning, John (brother in law), Tammy (sister in law) and I ran a 12k Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving. It was cold and the trail was icy and snowy, but I'm really glad I was able to participate! Another race under my belt! Wahoo! 

Speaking of ice, as Tammy and I were turning around half way through the race, there was an older man who slipped on the ice and broke his ankle! Luckily, there was a nurse right behind him who saw him slip and lots of people who helped. We fortunately had our phones to call 911 and his wife. The poor guy was in so much pain and through it all he was like "This sucks! This was my first 12k!" He gets to spend his Thanksgiving day in the ER. Lots of people slipped, but he was the only one to need medical attention.

This is a great candid photo after we all finished when Tammy called up all 'ladies' accidently. I thought this photo was really funny.

Sweet Cousins

David, Gisela, Hyrum and Jacob arrived yesterday for Thanksgiving! I feel like I've been so busy these last few days that this holiday is a welcome break. Brooke has been cranky because I think she's starting to get a little sick and then this morning when I was holding baby Jacob, she started getting mad and was totally jealous! By lunch time though, she was getting used to having other playmates around.

Silly faces! 

A cake that I made.

I think it came out ok considering this was my first time making fondant all by myself and not having any tips or cookie cutters (all my icing tips are packed away in our storage unit).

I made this cake for my friend's son's 5th birthday. The bees are my favorite part :)

3 years and counting

3 years from Monday the 15th, Gordon and I were married.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: marrying Gordon was the best decision I ever made. 

He is wonderful and treats me so well. When life is tough (which it has been for us the majority of our 3+ years together) he's still calm, happy and confident in the direction our lives are heading. 

I think that I could have married another guy and our marriage would have been fine, but no one would have or could have ever made me as happy as Gordon makes me. 

Plus, no one can compare to his raw masculinity, good looks and large muscles. Haha :) 

Love you, Gordon!

And, I almost forgot! This man turns into the biggest softy around when he gets ahold of this little girl. What a great Dad he is!