It's New Years Eve 10p.m.. Troy is asleep and my eyes are getting droopy but the kids are wide awake and ready to ring in the new year!
I usually make pork and sauerkraut on new years eve. It's something my dad and mom did every year so I try to keep up the tradition. The kids won't touch it and Troys not to thrilled with it either so it's pretty much just me that will eat it. I hear the best thing to have on New Years Eve is black eyed peas ( wink to Janice ) ! Publix had 2/$3.00 cans of them on sale today......I almost got them (smile Janice) :) instead I am making bean soup with leftover ham.
Tomorrow is our big oyster party. The family comes over for Troys steamed oysters and laughs. He looks forward to it every year.
I hope everyone has a fun, safe New Year... hugs

I can't believe the year is almost over! Today was our last service of 2008 and I had such an emotional time thinking of all the blessings and grace and favor that God gave to me this past year. I could not have gotten this far without Him! When I think of how this year started and where I am now as it ends....it amazes me.

Happy New Year to everyone
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

Christmas

Christmas was wonderful here! Very busy day of going here and there but in the end it was very nice. Dawson was up at 3:30 am to wake up Dylan to show him Santa came by. He had his flash light on and shining it on all the gifts. I don't know if they ever went back to sleep. Caitlin took 2 naps Christmas day, she was a very tired little girl.

I leave you with this picture that sums up the end of the day, pretty much how I felt too!

We got the camera out again to take some pictures, this time I decided I would be in them. I just want to know if anyone is interested in adopting my oldest son because I am giving him away!

a new look!

Wow! how do you like the new look? I needed a little cheer on my site........



The time is drawing near and soon it will be Christmas Day! We have been doing some fun things lately, roasting marshmallows outside on the grill was a hit with everyone. Caitlin said it was amazing. It was her first time eating a roasted marshmallow and she licked her lips like a dog eating peanut butter. Sunday school had Christmas parties today, that meant lots of sugar at 10:30 in the morning that didn't wear off all day long! Tonight we had a wonderful service at church where the pastor called all the kids up to the stage and read them the story of the birth of Jesus. It was so cute, even Caitlin went up and sat so big girlish. I am stupid and don't carry a camera with me at all times, so no photo today. ( I'm sure you notice I've stopped playing the whole photo a day thing by now.....too much pressure :))

Tonight I had the talk with Dawson. ( the santa talk that is ) He took it better than than I did telling him. I cried and he hugged me. :) He is wanting a wii, and I just can't do it right now. It was the only thing on his list ( he didn't want to be greedy ) and I didn't want him to be disappointed. He was very helpful at choosing some other toys and we talked for a while. My kids know the real meaning of Christmas is the birth of Christ and that's what we truly celebrate for Christmas. We even bake a birthday cake for Jesus. Santa is just fun for kids, this was just one of many steps of growing up Dawson will take.

lesson learned

My kids have a class on Wednesday night at church called "kids connection". Tonight they had a Christmas party and learned a very important lesson. The kids had stockings and a bunch of toys and candy to stuff them with. They were told to fill up their stockings with all the stuff they wanted. Then when they were done..........they were told that Christmas isn't about themselves and it was about giving to others, so they were to pass their stocking to the person beside them. ( clever idea ) Well we get home and empty out the goody bags and Dylan had this toy that Dawson picked to put in his bag before he had to give it away. I wish I could type his words as he says them but it went something like, " oh maaaaaan! You got one of thooooose! " Dawson's mouth was watering watching Dylan flip this little plastic thing in the air. It didn't take but a couple of seconds and you could see the light turn on in Dylan's head and with his first finger pointed up beside his tilted head he said,"wait a minute........we learned something tonight." I said what was that. He said "Christmas isn't all about yourself, ( now his hands are tapping his chest) it's about giving to others." And with that thought of wisdom, he passed his little popping toy over to his brother. ( wait a minute I'm tearing up and need a tissue )
Now when Dylan got his neighbors stocking it was from a girl, so he got a stocking that was filled with erasers and a pencil, that toy was the only thing he liked in the bag. So a wonderful lesson was planted into his heart that it is better to give than receive.

I have been a little busy at work lately, check out my other blog beths embroidery on the right to see some cute things I've been doing.

I found out my car battery is dying because there is a wire somewhere that is still "on" even when the car is off. And after hours of trying we don't know which wire it is. So that means I have to drive my husbands work truck. ( that seats 4 and we are a family of 5 ) but hey....it has wheels and works!

I am leaving you with a video today instead of a picture. I hope you get a giggle out of it.

I spy

Here's a picture and a game for you...
Can you find W-I-N-T-E-R
You can click on the photo for a bigger image....have fun!

day 7 (i think)

Praise report!

Yesterday Troy took his van in to get new tires. Today Troy got an expense check from work that was from months ago......it was a 2 dollar difference in total! HA! How cool is that?!? We didn't expect it at all! Thank You Thank You Lord!

Who needs a car anyway! We'd rather play outside in the backyard and take pictures.

We had to decide which car was going to get fixed this week end and my car didn't win. I don't have to get up for work tomorrow either, so , I guess that's fair. :)

I have seen someone else do this on their blog and I am going to steal it because I thought it was a great way to show how little things mean a lot.....

Reasons to be happy this Sunday evening:

1. laundry is done

2. kids are happy and healthy

3. kitchens clean

4. Christmas cards ready to go out

5. Troy found my favorite pair of old navy p.j. pants in his bottom drawer today, I am wearing them now :)

6. Gators sec champs!

Day 5 photo: Dylan on Santa's lap.

just one thing to say tonight

Go Gators!!

Day 5 photo....



Our story continues. Troy and I took the kids downtown Thursday to see Glenn Beck. He was signing copies of his book, "The Christmas Sweater". It was fun, something we just normally wouldn't do. We get in the car to come home and it won't start! We sat in the parking lot looking at each other in disbelief. The battery is only 24 hours old! Greaaat! What else can happen?! Troy calls me on his way home from work today and says his van is shaking pretty bad, must be the tires. He didn't know if it was the front or back. We hang up and he calls back about 2 minutes later......He says," It was the back one". The tire blew out on him and he had to put the spare on to get home.

It's a good thing I know God will supply all my needs because right now, I have no clue. It's Christmas time and so far the budget is going towards our vehicles. But, He has never let me down, so I'll just keep praying.

Troy told me again tonight about what happened when the tire blew. He said it happened right after he prayed, "Lord just get me home". I smiled at him and said, "He did"
(I think I'll be more specific) ;)

Better Not Pout!

Day 4......

little bit of an at-ti-tuude!

Troy is always telling me I have more pictures of Caitlin then the boys. This is not true. I have plenty of pictures of the boys.....they just don't want their picture taken so they end up like this......

or this.....

and I love it when Dawson does this to sabotage a picture....

So, I have a lot of crazy pictures of the boys. I'm sure they will remind me of this special time we call life right now. Everything is a joke to these guys, I think they end all their sentences with "get it mom!"

They remind me not to be too serious!

todays photo

We have not been to the store this week ( but I do have to say Troy got a new battery today and I love him so much for putting it all together in the dark so we could get to church ) anyway, we woke up to about 1 cup of flour. I said I would make pancakes but for some reason the boys wanted to make cookies. We had cereal for breakfast but later we had some of the best sugar cookies on earth! I would like to know how anybody out there makes red icing, I always end up with pink.

O.k you probably want an update? I hate it when I check on a blog and nobody updates for days and days at a time. ( Red I'm not talking about you........but if the shoe fits? :P ) So here I am apologizing for the delay in blogging.

I do have a lot to catch up on. First was a nice Thanksgiving with family. I wish I took more some a picture of everything because it was a pretty table setting outside in the sunshine with everybody around. I even made another stuffed pumpkin, because the first one was so darn cute!

Second, A surprise 40th birthday party! Yep, complete with a big heart felt yell SURPRISE when walking in the door. I do have the bestest friends in the world!

Third, I broke my little toe last week end. You don't realize how much you use that little guy, or how often your kids step on your feet through the day, till it's broke.

Forth, The battery died on my car Sunday after church.....in the parking lot.......in the pouring down rain! Did I mention that I have the bestest friends in the world! Oh my gosh it was too funny, I am parked facing the road that everybody exits the church from to get on the main highway. Everybody is waving and smiling at me as I am standing there ( waving and smiling back ) with 1 bar on my cell phone and a husband who is not answering my calls for help! I have 3 kids in the back seat 2 who think we will be stuck there until Jesus comes back and 1 who is enjoying her cupcake that I made her so she could have it during Sunday school which was cancelled because of 1 service for the day. If it wasn't for a sweet friend who asked me why I was limping through the parking lot and if I wanted her umbrella, called her sister to see if she had jumper cables, and their step dad who got really soaked putting the jumper cables on my battery along with a stranger who stopped in to join our little party and help.....we might still be there.

Fifth, I know there's a fifth! I have been asking Ebenezer Troy to get the Christmas tree out of the attic. He said "maybe this week" Like that will happen (roll of eyes) So the kids and I did it ourselves today! Yes with a broken toe and a wobbly ladder we got everything out and up! It could have been a scene from the 3 stooges, me standing on top of the ladder with Dawson reading to me that the sticker clearly says that an injury can occur if you stand on the top step. Then I get up there and the kids leave me to go dance to "Jingle Bells". I have to wait for them because they can't hear me screaming to come back and hold the ladder. Meanwhile I am praying that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I try 4 different ways to climb down by myself. It's not that I was scared, but it hurt my toe to squat or step or press down on anything which made it a little difficult.

Which brings us up to date.....

My friend T. found this website and it wants you to post a picture a day from Dec.1-25. Now I am behind so I am posting 2 to kick things off.

The top one wasn't excactly taken on the 1st of Dec. but the one of Dylan sleeping was just now.

(smile) :)

Thanksgiving bananas

Remember all those bananas we had? Well Troy put them in a brown bag with an apple. He read it helps them to ripen up. We looked everyday and they were still just as green as ever.........except for today!

four bunches in all.....

They are really good too, very sweet.

This is Caitlin's art work she did the other day. It's a family portrait! We are so proud!

This is Fridays cupcake....rolled up and dipped in chocolate!

I found this recipe on bakerellas website and had to try it. Very rich! Make small balls!

That finishes a week of cupcakes! whew!

I don't have a Thursday cupcake.

BUT....I have a good excuse........

and my favorite.....

yep....It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!! :)

Wednesdays cupcake!

This is Wednesday's cupcake....in-a-jar!

This was so fun to do! About a month ago my mother in law gave me 2 boxes of canning jars with recipes to make mixes in a jar. I looked at the recipes first and picked some to make. Then I opened the box to find out they were little 8 oz. size. I found out you can bake right in the jars, so now we have cute little one serving desserts. I am going to keep experimenting with this idea with different flavors but this one is a plain chocolate cake with added chocolate chips and chocolate fudge frosting.

You take your jars and boil them for 10 min. then you butter and flour the insides. Fill the jar with batter, but make sure you go only half way maybe even a little less. I added the chocolate chips to the batter. Bake on a cookie sheet at 325* no hotter or they will shatter, for about 25 min. While it's baking boil the lids and keep them warm. When the cake is done you put the lid on and soon you will start to hear them POP. As it cools the lid gets suctioned on. And there you have a cake in a jar to send or eat whenever. The only thing I did was add some chocolate fudge on some and leftover caramel frosting that I poured over the top before I put the lid on. I don't think I will do it that way again if I were to give this as a gift, instead I am thinking of making a thicker frosting and inserting it as a filling, kinda like a hostess cupcake thingy.

The kids thought this was so cool! Gone in seconds!

Cupcake Week

I have been baking the last few days. I think it's the cold weather. We have been enjoying hot cocoa and cupcakes. I know it's a big switch from the whole wheat grass thing. ( I am such a sanguine )



Anyway....I got to thinking that a week of cupcakes would be fun to blog about! Now my recipes are vegan, only because little Caitlin is allergic to milk and eggs, but so far the rest of the brood has not complained one bit. So here we go..........



Mondays cupcake...Frosted Lemon



Ingredients:
1 lemon
1 1/2 C flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
6 Tbs. oil
1 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
water

Directions: mix flour, sugar, and baking soda in bowl. in another bowl grate all the lemon peel then cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Add 1 cup of water to the lemon mixture. pour the lemon mixture into the flour and add the oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix well and pour into muffin cups. Bake 25 min. at 350*

My frosting is just powdered sugar with a tiny bit of soy milk and vanilla, but I bet some cream cheese frosting would be really good on these. The next time I use this recipe I think I will add blueberries.



enjoy!

Troys bananas.....I mean Troy's bananas

Today was harvest day! We have been waiting for a long time..........

Dylan said they were heavy!

hmmm, banana pudding, banana cream pie, banana bread..........

Thanksgiving crafts

We have been crafting this weekend.

First is a project that I found online. It's a t.p. roll wrapped with yellow crepe paper and covered with green tissue paper to look like corn. I filled the insides with little toys and candy. They get one to open when they have been good.

The other craft is a turkey wreath with the turkey head being a cut out of their foot.

More to come.........

the fun we are having

O.k. growing wheat grass is very easy to do! I don't think I planted enough to have juice but I read that cats love this stuff and it's good for them so Sammy gets this batch to chew on. The kids liked this project and loved to touch the grass. They commented everyday how fast it was growing. I will have to get organized and try it again using a bigger ( and prettier ) container.

I bet this was an exciting week for all of you! What shall I do next to keep you in suspense?!? It's a wonder that I only have 1 follower on my list! Maybe we will watch paint dry next week! :)

day 3

It's hard to get a good picture but here is the sprouting wheat grass after about 2 days. About an inch tall, woo hoo!

This is Caitlin in her car seat. I don't know how she can sleep that way.......

Thanksgiving Lessons

Not a pretty picture but this is step two for wheat grass. put the soaked seeds in dirt. Now we wait it out for a few days. I read that it needs indirect sunlight so a window sill should be good enough.

The kids think this is crazy. ( growing grass in a cup) but it was a great way to talk about how the Pilgrims came over and started their crops. They didn't have hoses to water, they had to pray for rain. They didn't have a grocery store to go pick up some bread all wrapped up, their grain had to grow first, then harvest it, and then pray some more that it produced enough to get through winter! The Pilgrims first winter in 1621 was a hard one, but the Lord took care of them and they had a day of Thanksgiving to pray and to praise God for taking care of them. They didn't have Thanksgiving every year after that, there was only a day of Thanksgiving when God brought people through a hard time. In 1789, G. Washington had a day of Thanksgiving for a new and free country. It was in 1860 that President Lincoln made the 4th Thursday in November a Thanksgiving Day.

My kids liked the lesson better than planting the seeds. :)

Wouldn't it be something if we all had to plan for Thanksgiving Day by raising a turkey, growing vegetables, fermenting grapes.......and only eating what we produced. I bet I couldn't feed myself let alone my whole family...to be honest, I don't think I will be able to grow wheat grass! :) But if I can get an ounce of juice from my crop........and I hear your giggles when I say crop, I should say my "cup" of seeds, I will thank God!

big sigh

Well I have to say I am glad it's all over. My guy ( and gal ) didn't win, so now we just move forward. I was getting so tired of it all, it just gets worse every election. nuff said...

I have a new project I have been working on. I have been looking into wheat grass. One ounce of this juiced is like having a pound of veggies, and I have read, you can grow it very easy. That sounded like a school project for me! You can plant the seeds and harvest the grass in about a week! You can also take the wheat berry (seed) and sprout it in a jar. Then you can grind up the wheat to make sprouted wheat bread. ( like Ezekiel bread ) It is easier to digest and better for you than flour.

We are going step by step.....so follow along and see what happens

First soak the wheat berries in water over night

So far so good. We'll see what happens...........

last week

This week was filled with fun! My mom had her 72nd birthday, my church had their annual trunk or treat, play dates, cooler weather, lots going on.

Let's start with a birthday....

We took homemade blueberry muffins to my mom for breakfast and gave her a funny homemade birthday shirt. She came over later in the day to have dinner with cake and ice cream. The kids washed her car for her. It was a good day.

The next event was Trunk or Treat at church. I went as "granny" and I have come to realize I have no dignity what so ever......

yep that's me! And those are socks in my bra!! NOBODY recognized me. Troy about fell off his chair when I walked out to show him my outfit. I think he was surprised that I left the house looking like that.

The superstar of the evening was Dylan. He had been practicing all month to perform on stage for everyone in his "Wee sing kidz praise" program. He did a great job!

Here are some other little things going on.

This is Caitlin....rubbing grandmas lipstick all over her....isn't she beautiful!

Here's Sam getting bigger and bigger.

Troy's banana tree has bananas!

till next time!! :)