Snow Lessons

So this past week has been a cold one here in Denver.  We received two storms that dumped almost a foot of snow on us, which I hear is not uncommon but it's the first we have seen of that kind of weather in that kind of abundance.  Sunday morning began with blizzard like conditions and Christian gave us a ride to church because it was just so much snow and so much wind.  The pictures just don't do it justice.

But I certainly can't say that I minded being chauffeured to church!  I love any chance to walk in with my man by my side!

That afternoon, we hung out at the house and had a little slice of heaven...aka worship jam and fellowship.  Then we went sledding with a bunch of people from church and came home to warm up with pizza and a movie.

In the time we were at church, a snow drift had covered our front walk.

Which Seth promptly walked right through because it looked so fun.

And of course, Christian couldn't resist a snow angel in that much deep snow...

  Monday we built a sledding course through our tiny front yard (I promise even thought the camera angle makes it look like the kids will crash into the light pole or the fire hydrant they really are safe...christian even built in burms. Then we got more snow Tuesday!

The kid looked like a penguin sloshing around the curves of the course.  The kids had SO MUCH FUN!

In all of this snow, Jesus taught the kids and I a pretty cool picture lesson.  We were driving to go pick up a friend and on the radio a song was playing about how everything "rides on hope, everything rides on faith somehow, and when the world has broken me down, Your love sets me free..."  Seth asks me from the backseat, "Mommy, did she write this song BEFORE she knew Jesus?"  It took me a second to figure out exactly what he meant.  I was focused on driving through slush and ice and snow and sort of didn't get what he meant.  To clarify, I asked him why he would ask that and he basically felt like those were weird words to sing if you're already saved.  He got it that before you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior of course you need hope and faith and to be set free but he really didn't get how the world could break you down if you're saved.  I was a little dumbfounded and still trying to pay attention to the road because of the snow when Jesus gave me the words to say, to my son, to myself, and to any of us that have felt like we're glad Jesus saved us but we've got it from here.....

For those of you that have lived in a place that snows or at least visited a place that snows, you know it is beautiful.  The morning after a fresh snow, it seems to sparkle like glitter even in spots.  It is that beautiful picture of Jesus covering over all of our junk to make something so beautiful.  But, you also know that anywhere someone touches the snow it is clear that someone has touched it.  You can't undo a snow angel or foot prints.  And anywhere something dirty has touched the snow, you can tell.  The dirty snow on the side of the road is so gross looking.  Seth made the comment the other day, "I only like the fresh snow mama, not the brown stuff."  And the dirty snow cannot be cleaned off or made smaller.  It will only spread to the rest of the snow.  But you cant help it that the snows gets dirty.  That's just life.  People drive to work or the store or to pick up friends like I was doing that morning and the dirt from life is splashed onto the beauty of the fresh snow.  Only another fresh snow will renew the beauty.

So I told the kids, as Jesus spoke it to my heart, "Look at the side of the road guys.  Our need for fresh hope, fresh faith...our need to be set free from the yuck of the world...it's not a one time thing.  Just like the snow that comes in contact with the yuck on the roads and the cars, we come into contact with life, with the dirt of the world and the dirt of our own yucky natures.  We need a fresh batch of snow, a fresh batch of grace and faith and hope to free us when we touch the yuck of life.  And we will.  We are not perfect.  This is not heaven.  We will constantly need Him, His touch and grace and love.  This isn't a one time need for God."

We don't have a one time need for God.  For reals, do we get that?  Do I get that?  We need Him daily, no matter our background or current situation.  We have a constant need to truly EXPERIENCE His grace, His love, His presence.  I want to know Him like that.  I want to live under a constant blanket of fresh sparkly snow-like grace.  And His word says He has new mercy every morning for me.  I don't have to wait anxiously to see if the storm will pan out and give us enough snow to actually make a difference.  What He did on the cross for me, it was MORE than sufficient to blanket me, and every day I wake up covered again by Him, renewed and refreshed from the yuck of the world.  It was such a vivd picture as we drove across town that I hope we never forget it.

God is in Control...Good thing too, 'cause if it were up to me we'd be doomed!

Just a quick post to say Jesus rocks the house and He is so in control.  I love love love that about Him!

Life has been a bit squirrely this week.  I pretty much resemble the woman in that picture except I'm in way comfier clothes.  I have had an acute case of Cabin Fever....it can be a serious condition...just ask Christian HA!

 Last Wednesday, Seth came down with the stomach flu.  It hit him hard.  By Sunday, he had some hydration issues but yesterday he started feeling quite a bit better.  Just in time for Abigail to get rocked with this bug.  It IS a doozy.

The last couple of weeks have been a little weird for Christian in his commission only job, and we were honestly getting a bit nervous about bills.

BUT GOD IS IN CONTROL!  A sweet friend and her daughter prayed for our finances specifically and you know what???  Jesus has provided!  Not in the ways we thought but definitely all Psalm 37 style...
"I have been young and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread."

Jesus is in control of our finances!

And Seth and Abigail have been crazy sick and I'm way bored and antsy and the walls have seemed at times to be closing in....but I just have to testify that Jesus is even in control of that.  Dealing with all the grossness of the flu...clogged toilets..being sick myself...cleaning bathrooms so they are ready to be puked in...vacuuming and laundry and dishes....Jesus has been chillin' with me and I have experienced so much of His joy!  I have literally been laughing all day at things that last week made me cry.  The last two days I have felt the temptation to start to feel sorry for myself.  I have forgotten what the sky looks like I think. ha! Just kidding.  Mostly.  But Jesus has just been too near to me to let me go down that silly destructive path.  He is just surrounding us and holding us up and being so so good to us!

So this week I am reminded that I am not in control.  But it's okay because my sweet King Jesus is!  I don't have to know where I am going or what will happen!   Like really, I don't.  Reminds me of a time when Abigail taught me a lesson (if you have a second, its a quick post from a few years ago).  But anyway, if Jesus said go here, do this, then go! Do it!  He is too sweet to let you down.  He is too faithful to forget you.  He is in control and able and capable.  Just cuddle close to Him and watch Him rock your socks!

His Presence is the point

See this cute kid?  This is my mini man on our Valentine's date Wednesday afternoon.

Just hours before he got hit with yet another tummy bug...(WHY did he have to choose the biggest chocolatey-est donut EVER???)

He is on the mend and Jesus is good, but our home has been put on pause the last couple of days and I've had plenty of time to think about life.

So the 28th of last month marked the 12th year that I have known and walked with Jesus.  It seemed so crazy this year to mark it because I feel so utterly not mature in the Lord.  I feel like a little baby.  I feel like that Addison Road song where she says "where have I even stood but the shore along Your ocean."  I mean, I know I'm saved.  I know His blood is enough to cover me and redeem me and present me righteous before the Father, but I just feel so small and dumb!

The last year and a half have been the craziest walk with Jesus that I have ever known.  No, our family hasn't experienced crazy loss or cancer or the major things that so many people deal with, but it's still been the craziest year and a half because my very walk with Jesus has been challenged.  Let me see if I can get this into words...

When I got saved, Jesus pulled me out of some pretty gnarly stuff.  The change in my life was really drastic and really fast cause Jesus is cool like that.  He totally rocked my world with His word and serving Him instead of myself and just plain HIS PRESENCE.  He was a part of everything I did.  So what if I was scared to walk from my car to my house in the middle of the night after closing at Starbucks (esp after the stalker incident)...what did it matter??? I had Jesus!!!  I had His presence!   So I quoted psalms as I walked in the darkness and felt Him so close.  Can't pay that bill that just came in the mail?  I didn't need to stress or figure it out because I HAD HIS PRESENCE.  I could pray and ask and He really did take care of it...more than once by sending a random rebate or check along with the bill in the same days mail delivery!  Not sure how to tell my family and friends about what Jesus was doing in my life?  No worries!  I HAD HIS PRESENCE so real and tangible that His words would just come out.  No credit to me.  It was all His Spirit just working like only He can.  No matter what I faced, I HAD HIS PRESENCE.  I had "dates" with Jesus (turned off my phone and just chilled like I would with a boyfriend and listened to music and ate food and basked in HIS PRESENCE).  I drove with Jesus.  I learned to sew with Jesus (no joke) and to cook and even to clean my house with Jesus.  Everything I did was so saturated by HIS PRESENCE.  I met and fell in love with Christian (quite by accident might I add) as I hung out with and served Jesus.  And it was a sweet time.  I saw Him do straight up miracles.  Like no joke undeniable Jesus rocks the house kind of miracles.  Especially in my heart.

After getting married and being in ministry for a while and having babies with colic and post partum depression and a string of health issues things got a little fuzzy for me, if I can be honest.  I hurt all the time.  I had hard core depression.  Then health problems.  All I wanted to do was be the fun mom who plays happily with her kids and always has dinner ready and a clean house and a sweet smile radiating from her heart.  I could barely keep my children alive!  I felt so defeated!!!  I remember even coming to the place driving down the street on my way home one night where I cried out to God with the need for an answer to the question "If you get your will done why should I even pray anymore!  You're not healing me.  So you must not want to.  So why should I ask anymore???"  Sorry, this is one of those personal posts.  But honestly, I think more of us have been there than we would think.  Anyway, I muddled through that season and Jesus was so sweet.  In His character and sweetness, the only answer I received was "pray because I told you too.  You'll understand theology when you get to heaven."  So Christian and I prayed.  We prayed and we sought the Lord.  We asked for help from a sweet man at church and he challenged us to clear out the junk we had let creep in and fill up our minds with God's word instead.  So we did.  Looking back now I see that it was a battle against the enemy of our souls and I didn't even realize it.  We were beaten down and couldn't accomplish a thing and we had no strength, but we clung to Him and He fought for us and we came out amped on Him!

That was just as Jesus was calling us back into ministry.  He kept revealing Himself to us through confirmed passages of His word and just plain IN HIS PRESENCE.  It seemed nutty.  Christian left his super secure job where he was advancing all the time and made enough money for us to be comfortable and live within 8 minutes of the beach.  We left a nucleus of family (everyone lived within a 20 minute bubble of each other...all parents siblings everyone) for a small town we had never heard of in Texas.  Oh and have I mentioned that this little town is in tornado alley.  But it was SO right!  HIS PRESENCE, His hand of favor was just so obvious.  So we left everything we knew and loved and moved to Texas...cause that is where He said to go.  Like the pillar of cloud leading the children of Israel, we did NOT want to be left behind.  And it was such a sweet time, in our marriage in our parenting in our personal walks with Jesus.  There were hard things about the move and the enemy is dumb but we had HIS PRESENCE, ya know.  What else do you need?

We settled into serving Jesus in this sweet little town called Paris, and I am so so thankful that Jesus called us there.  There aren't enough blogposts in the world to contain the things that Jesus taught us there, blessed us with there, allowed us to get to be a part of there.  In fact, my eyes get teary just thinking of the beautiful friends that I left behind (I'm so thankful for facebook so I can still feel like I'm a little bit of their lives).  Man, I am thankful!  Because HIS PRESENCE was so evident there too!

About a year and a half ago, things began to shift.  We knew deep in our hearts that Jesus was calling us to something different than we were doing right then.  But none of it made sense so we kept praying and honestly I began to resist the change that I felt coming.  I didn't want things to change.  I loved the people that I had made my heart's home.  I miss the sweet faces that I would see and pray for at Walmart or Paris Bakery or 24th st Cafe....man I am emotional right now!  I'm all choked up!  To put it plainly, I liked my life right where it was, just the way it was.  In my heart, I think I dug in my heels a bit.  Jesus is too sweet to let me stay there in my stubbornness and He pulled me gently to His side through His word and the prayers of my hubs and some friends and eventually I came to place where my heart could say "Your will be done" and not just my mouth.

So we moved.  In the last year, every single last thing we believe in has been challenged.  We've come across theology we didn't even know existed.  We've come against awful attacks from people we truly care for.  We have been forced to examine every last thing we believe.  What are we even doing in Denver?  What are we offering people?  Certainly not churchianity!  Not any denomination or good deeds clubs!  And as we have sought the face of Jesus, He has shown us what the people of Denver really need....it's the same thing that WE NEED....HIS PRESENCE!!!  Its really that simple.  And He has been using our life to remind us of that simplicity.  Do I need to know how rent will be paid more than I need His presence??? NO WAY!  Yes, we need to be responsible and do the things He says to do, but ultimately we just need HIS PRESENCE!  Like the Israelites in Exodus 39-40, we need to do the things God commands the way that He commands it to be done, BUT we need 40:34...we need HIS PRESENCE to come and overwhelm us...to take over and do His thing!  To lead, to guide, so He can be seen in all His glory.  That's what we are doing here in Denver!  Desperately trying to cling to Him, to allow Him to overwhelm us so that people can feel HIS PRESENCE and be drawn into His arms!  It's like another passage that keeps coming up this last year and a half....2 Chronicles 20.  Oh my gosh go read the whole thing!  Now.  Go!  It's so good!  But without getting too much into it (cause I'm already being longwinded) this is the part that applies here.....Jehoshaphat was up against crazy odds and as the enemy marched against him and the children of Israel, he put the praise band out front and walked into an impossible battle praising God's name.  The Word tells us that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people.  They went forth into the impossible and conquered because they had HIS PRESENCE!  So we do need to do what He asks.....we need to plug away at the jobs that we've been given even when it seems fruitless...and He does the cool stuff!  My Jesus is a Man of war!  He is mighty!  He will crash into the impossible and give the victory!

So that's where I've been living lately.  Not sure of anything, yet sure about the one thing that matters.  I want to live Exodus 40:36! "Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys.  But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey."
I want to LIVE THAT!  I want to live in HIS PRESENCE!  I want to be so soaked in Him that no matter what I come across whatever insecurities I face, I am not touched by them.  I have felt HIS PRESENCE so close to me in this adventure that I want to be no where else.  Like the disciples I read about this morning in Mark 1:18 that left their nets, I want to be able to walk away from what previously identified me, from what previously promised security, and follow HIM, follow after HIS PRESENCE.  No matter how nutty the circumstance may seem, HIS PRESENCE is the only place to find the peace and joy and security that I am seeking after.

Psalm 16:11
"You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Last Night....

So yesterday things were feeling a bit more back to normal.  The plague (okay it was just the flu) has subsided and we are officially on the mend.  I'm still praising God that Christian and Abigail never got it....thank you Jesus for miracles even in the little stuff!

You know that feeling after you've been sick for a while and your brain is full of stuff you need to do and want to do but you just can't do more than maintain the life forms under your care.  And then oh happy day when you realize you're better enough to actually do something!  Then comes the dilemma...laundry...or crafting?  Make an actual dinner....or sew those valentines projects before Valentine's Day passes and you lose your chance?  I mean, come on...these sewing projects have an actual deadline, unlike the laundry (well unless the kids are out of pj's or something major I guess, but still).  So basically my decision was made for me.  I mean really, who likes to miss a deadline?  I'm just sewing to be responsible really.  Ahem.  Anyhow...

So Last Night, while Christian sat at the kitchen table studying, I busted out the sewing machine.  I've had in my mind for days the image of this sweet tie for Seth to wear on Valentine's Day.  We don't do a whole lot to celebrate the day, partially cause I can't see spending money we don't have and partially because every day should be celebrating love...the love of Jesus that surrounds me and saves me....but also the love we share with the awesome family and friends God has given to us.  So we don't do anything big. We just enjoy each other usually with a fun dinner with something in the shape of hearts and a little something for the kids.  I still have bouncing in my mind an idea for a little fox softie...like you've stolen my heart...get it...slye foxes...haha!  Anyway....the tie!  I had an old prom dress someone gave me because they thought I could do something with the fabric and it just happens to be candy apple red...

I totally winged it and just cut the dress into a tie like shape...appliquéd a quick heart on the front...hemmed it up and had christian tie it for me (I am incapable of tying a tie).  But because Seth is a boy and I am paranoid that he will get caught on something while wearing the tie and also because I want him to be able to put the thing on by himself I added some velcro.  It was really really hard to go ahead and cut the neck part of the tie right in half when it looked so nice and was all done, but I managed to make my fingers obey me.  I cut it at the back of the neck and sewed in some velcro and he is well on his way to self-sufficiency.  He unloads the dishwasher, too!

I couldn't leave Abigail out of the valentines day fun, so I made her a pair of leggings to go with a sweet little jumper that I just finished making from some fabric I scored on clearance at JoAnn's ( I heart birthday gift cards...like for REALS!  My inner bargain shopper gets all amped because my birthday is just after the Christmas stuff goes on major clearance!).  I used some of the softest pink knit fabric that my friend Ashley sent me in my Texas birthday box and I have to say they are the softest leggings Abigail owns.  She LOVES them!

I started with a pair of leggings that fit her well for a pattern:

Then I cut out some hearts for the knees and a ruffle for the leg openings:

I attached the hearts before sewing the side seams together so I could get it under my machine more easily, but I bet it wouldn't be too hard to just attach some hearts to a pair of existing leggings too. 

Then I sewed the side seams up and added a band of elastic and ta-da!

Easy peasy little leggings for my sweetheart (ha! get it? okay sorry...I'm a cheeseball) on Valentine's Day.

Another thing happened Last Night...

We found a mouse in the kitchen.  Yes I know that I run the risk of giving people the impression that my house isn't clean by admitting that BUT this was too cool to not share.  So don't judge me alright? :) 

So, in my clean kitchen, Christian is studying and hears something which turns out to be a mouse scurrying across the floor.  Why a mouse was running across the floor with the lights on with someone in the kitchen right there making noise, don't ask me.  But he was.  Christian got all caveman and went for something stick-like to impale the thing with (long story short, he actually rid one home we lived in of mice with a curtain dowel and a few kids from the youth group javelin style...anyway).  This mouse wasn't falling for it so C decided to put everything he was doing down and head to Home Depot for some traps.  I was kinda bummed because I didn't want him to miss out on good study time but he wouldn't be deterred.  He came back, set the traps and within minutes the mouse was taken care of.  It was a new addition to the house.  We found appetizing "evidence"of it underneath my sink (everything needs a good sanitizing now thank you mousey friend) but I am in the cabinet every single day at least five times and it didn't have the "evidence" even yesterday morning.  So we caught it early before a whole family of mice could move in and become a problem.

As I was thinking about it, it struck me....that's just like sin! It creeps in, sometimes without us even noticing.  And dude, the minute you know that it's is there, you've got to take care of it!  Get rid of the situation right away, before things have a chance to get worse!  C didn't sit there and say Ill take care of it tomorrow.  He got his tooshy up and went to Home Depot!  We have to be like that!  When we see that bitterness has crept in...take care of it right away!  When we see that discontentment has crept in...replace it right away with God's truth!  When we hear the pitter patter feet of jealousy scitter across our minds...we need to get up and take care of!  Take it to Jesus!  He will clear it out even faster than my man cleared out that mouse!

Last Night, I was reminded of Song of Solomon 2:15 "Catch us the Foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines..."  I just had that image with me of not letting anything run wild that can ruin what you are working towards.  For me those "little foxes"....the "mouse"...is usually my thoughts.  I'm going to try to lean more on Jesus so He can catch the little foxes of discontentment or worry or whatever.  No more "mice" running around this house!!!

Gospel Musings: Thinking about the power of Jesus' blood in any life...

So, the Slye house has the plague again (thank you new strain of flu for coming to visit us) which means I have more time sitting down than usual.  So, I thought I would put some of my thoughts into words.

A sweet friend of mine and I were messaging each other and talking about testimonies and it got me thinking.  What seems more impacting to you?  A life radically changed from the muck and the mire of the world like mine?  I went from the deepest yuck of this world to the beautiful light that Jesus drew me into.  I went from a fog of drugs and alcohol and so much filth to being alive in Christ and in love with Him.  Instead of being high for a week at a time and all other manner of gross-ness, I was listening to Bible studies on the radio and telling anyone who would listen (and lots of people who tried not to listen) that Jesus is the answer.  It was such a sweet and beautiful thing (can I say that about my own story..haha) to watch Him change my life....change my name...from lost to redeemed and loved and found.  But what about the "church kids"?  What about people like Christian who grow up in church, with awesome parents that teach them what it really means to live for Jesus?  Not just a life of showing up at church but really living for the Kingdom....living for the day when He comes back.  Do those people have less radical testimonies just because they lived pure lives and didn't struggle with sex and drugs and the mire of the world???  Are their testimonies "boring"?  I have to say NO WAY!!!!  I think Christian's testimony is powerful in a couple of different ways really....

First, I think it's cool that God can keep a person FROM the yuck of the world.  Not that walking with God ever EARNS a person a single thing...but God is powerful enough to keep a person close to Him.  Christian has pretty much always walked with God....and his life is void of a lot of the drugs and alcohol and deep scars that so many of us have in our past.  What a beautiful thing!  To walk around life without the scars that a life full of drugs and sex and alcohol can leave!  It's a wonderful thing really!  And its a life that brings Jesus glory because He really is as powerful as His word says He is.  He really can keep us from the effects of sin!

But that brings me to my favorite part of this musing on the value of a testimony of a pure life....

A church kid living a pure life is a beautiful example of how much we all still need Jesus!!!!  You see, no matter how pure your life is...no matter how great or morally you live...you still need Jesus!  I think Christians testimony is so powerful because he is an example of how we can never be good enough on our own!  I'm so not trying to drag my hubs reputation through the dirt or anything but look at it like this:

Christian never drank or smoked or did drugs or any of that yuck.  But dude, he still struggled with pride and legalism and other sins that lurk in the mind but may never make it into actions.  But that was enough for Jesus to need to save him!  Our minds are enough to require the blood of Jesus to cover us!  For reals!  I think this is so powerful because there are so many people in the world trying to live a "good enough" life....to have their good deeds outweigh their bad.  A life lived purely is the best example that living well is not enough! 

Also I think its so cool because it keeps ME from the trap that I personally tend to fall in to: now that I am saved I need to live a perfect life.  I know that has been a lie that I have bought into in the past decade or so of walking with Jesus.  But that's lame!  That's like saying Jesus thanks for saving me and all but I can take it from here.  But I can't!!!!  I cant live a perfect life now that I am saved any more than I could have saved myself from my sin before Jesus crashed into my life!  Now, that doesn't mean that I don't have a responsibility to obey Jesus when He says to do stuff...I do!  It's just that anything I do is still not enough to make me right before HIM.  I love my crazy cool mysterious Jesus!  It's like my sweet Abigail.  One of her weekly chores is to clean the bathrooms.  Really this has been a bit rough for me because she stinks at it at this point.  I mean, she's great for a kid who just turned 8 but I am a bit particular when it comes to sanitizing counters and stuff like that.  So I let her do it and then come back through when I'm sure she's not looking (I don't want to make her feel bad!) and I wipe and clean until it looks just right.  See its kinda like that....He asks us to do stuff (His word is full of stuff for us to do, even when its an act of the will and not a super warm fuzzy feeling kind of thing) but He is fully aware that we stink at it and He smooths over our junk.  The problem that comes with thinking you have to live a perfect life now that you're saved is that you then lean on YOU instead of on HIM.  Proverbs says lean NOT on your own understanding..to instead acknowledge HIM...

That's what I think is so awesome about a church kid's testimony...no matter how good you are, no matter how much good you do you will always daily need to come back to Jesus for His strength and His power.  Whether its through reading His word or prayer or fellowship or even podcasts, we need to learn so we lean. The more we read His word, the closer we get to Him...the more we will obey Him because He saturates our lives!  Okay I think I am rambling at this point....hello fever...HA!  Okay I will wrap this up by saying that I am so stoked to hear ANYone's Jesus story!  If you've got one you want to share I would LOVE to hear it!  I am just so blessed by how God can change and transform and guide and direct and make this life a journey toward His face!  Goodbye for now from these two sinners saved by the grace of Jesus through His precious blood!

Love Birds

So before my oven caught fire last week, I had the opportunity to make some royal icing cookies for a friend from Paris.  They were for a birthday present so I'm not sure it would be cool to show them here....but along with those cookies I went ahead and made these:

I have been asked to do a tutorial for royal icing sugar cookies so I thought I'd give it a try.  Don't hate me if this post stinks okay?

So I asked my friend Ashley what valentines cookie I should do this year and she said "love birds."  I think I did some cookies with love birds on them last year but I couldnt find a picture and wanted to try something different anyway and this is what I came up with.

To start...I am not going to reinvent the wheel.  Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Mine is on the not too sweet side and I like that but whatever you have will work.  I also use a chocolate sugar cookie recipe which is UHmazing too.  Just bake a cookie and let it cool.

Next, go to The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle for an awesome tutorial on icing.  She has her recipe on there as well as tons of tutorials tips and even VIDEO so you can really get it.  She is the bomb and her sight and youtube is where I learned this crazy cookie thing.

So once you have your cookies and you have prepared your icing, you will need:
*black piping icing (or small black sprinkles for eyes)
*white flood icing
*white piping icing
*pink flood icing
*pink piping icing
*yellow 20 second icing (In between flood and piping consistency)
*piping bags
*#2 tips
*icing bottles

So, I didnt have a bird shaped cutter (UNbelievable considering how my cutter collection has grown in the last two years) so I used a repeat tin heart cutter and sorta smooshed it.  Then bake your cookies.

I let them sit overnight (mostly because I was tired) and then began the next day by making and coloring my icing and then outlining the birds.

You don't have to wait for this to dry.  Totally up to you.  Next fill in your bird with your flood icing.  Use a toothpick to drag the icing into the tip of the tail.

It's totally okay if it looks clumpily right after you're done filling in.  The coolest part about this icing is that it flattens out and looks FABULOUS when it dries.  Give it half a minute and it goes from this:

to this:

It's like magic I tell ya!

While you're waiting for that to set, outline their little beaks and go ahead and fill them in.

At this point it's best to wait a few hours at least for the icing to set.  8 hours is best.  But I do it right away and I am just extra careful...whatever you like is fine.

It is time to add the details...my favorite part.  Up until now they look kind of lame honestly.  But lets add a few details.  A dot of black for an eye (you could totally use candy sprinkles if you don't want to make an entire tube of black icing for such a small detail).  Two little yellow feet.  Don't forget to use your piping icing in the color of your bird to pipe on feathers with.  It really gives it dimension.  I tried to make the wing look sort of like a heart (I'm lame and cheesy I know).

 And there you have it!  It is really a fairly simple cookie so if you're not a cookie-er don't be afraid.  This is a great do-able cookie to start with.  Stack them on a plate with some basic hearts and you now have a fun valentines day platter!

P.S. I am so totally thankful that I made these before my oven broke!  I popped them in the freezer and I can just thaw them out in a single layer the day I plan to use them and serve them to my sweet family without worrying about it.  I'm so glad God cares about my little details.