Christmas 2007

Well, I guess I have not posted for awhile. I wanted to post some Christmas pictures and tell you a little bit about our holiday. My parents live about 3 hours away and they sent us money for gas to go and visit them. So, we set off on Sunday morning. We got about 35 minutes from home, when the car I was driving just died on me. So we spent the day getting the car towed back home and then my mom came and picked us up. We ate at Crackel Barrell, my favorite restaurant, my kids were starving and ate pancakes and sausage at 7 pm. We then spent the night with my parents and we got up the next morning and exchanged presents. My parents got all the kids some really nice gifts. Neil got this animal train and he loves it! They sell other parts to it so he may get some of those for his birthday. Nicholas got some military men and some boxers and a diary and sketch book with a special pen. Nicholas had been asking for a diary. Nathan got a remote control car and Katie Sue got a cash register. My parents also got them all a new outfit. They bought clothes for David and me too. They brought us home late the next night. We found out that our car that broke down, which by the way is not the one that a tree fell on, needs a new timing belt. I guess that when it rain's it pours and also, we for some reason did not get a rental on our policy so we can't get the other car fixed because it will be two weeks to get it fixed. But that is a whole nother story. Anyways, we got up on Christmas day and opened gifts with the kids. Nathan got up before we got in there, the little stinker and I had a hard time finding everything that had been laid out. Then we had a rushed breakfast and my dh's mother came and picked us up. We did not even get to light our fireplace. :( We got home late on Christmas night and to tell you the truth I am still tired! DH got me an mp3 player and I really like it. All in all, except for the car breaking, we had a wonderful Christmas and are so blessed! Here are some pictures, this was Neil's first Christmas!

Neil's gift from "Santa"

Nathan took over Neil's gift!lol

Nicholas's MP3 player

"Santa" brought Nicholas and the twins Scooters. The twins are my first scooters.

Katie Sue opening her talking Dora backpack.

Nathan and his Diego rescue pack.

Nathan's face was priceless when he opened his own computer! Katie Sue got one too.

Nathan tries out his new boots, Katie Sue got some pink ones but she did not want to try them on.

Neil and his baby computer.

Neil and his Elmo driving toy.

Nicholas and his Transformer Changing voice helmet.

Katie Sue and her doll.

Neil enjoying his computer.

Merry Christmas!

Look what I made in photobucket...

Welcome to my House

I meant to put this up yesterday, but I have just been so busy! But welcome to my home. Grab yourself a mug of my favorite Steaming Hot Holiday Punch and enjoy the fire I made for you. My 3 older children love it!

This is the back of our front door we have a Santa that is made from a Clorox bottle always in the middle and then we hang up our Christmas cards.

Here is our tree.

Here are a few of my favorite ornaments:

This is my first son's choo choo. I collected one piece every year until he was 5 and each piece is dated.

This is my Dh's and mine's first Christmas Together Ornament! Note the very old photo.

This is Nicholas' First Christmas ornament. Notice his cute little photo.

This is Nathan and Katie Sue's first Christmas ornament.

This is my dog's first Christmas ornament. She is a miniature dachshund.

This is our Nativity Scene.

This is one of our four stocking holders, each has the child's baby picture in it.

I am keeping the fire warm for you so come and have a seat and continue to enjoy your punch and a few more treats.

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel cookies fresh from the oven.

And a Candy Cane Cake!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

To see more Christmas homes go to BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes.

Family Christmas Pictures

We tried forever to get a family photo but all the kids would not cooperate, but here are a few that I liked. None really came out great. We were using a delay so David could come in the picture, but the first one caught the table it was on.

Here Comes Santa!

Neil started waving and talking to everyone taking pictures. It was so cute!

Neil and Santa


Katie Sue and Santa. Granny got her up there she really did not want to go up there.

Nathan and Santa. Nathan would not quit talking to Santa.

Nicholas and Santa. He told Santa that he was too big to sit on Santa's lap, but Santa told him no way!

Chistmas Gifts

So, there are a few things on my Christmas wish list. We spent all of the money we had on the kids though. While we were getting the kids stuff, dh picked out what he wanted too. He got himself a drill(we needed a new one anyways), some other kind of tools set that I really do not know what it does(it was a Christmas's special), and two movies, cheaper older ones. I knew when we left the store that there was nothing for me in the cart. Dh always likes to surprise me. He always has the money so he picks out his own things. I told him the other day that I needed $10 more because I had something else in mind. He said like what? Well, I will not mention it on here because I know that sometimes he does come on here. (Oh he already knows everything anyways. I want to get him a family Bible. He has always wanted one of these and I saw one at Walmart the other day.) So, some of the things on my list, that I have mentioned to him are: a Kitchen Aid Mixer (cost way too much I know I will never get but I have always dreamed of one, a bread maker, some earrings, and maybe some new pants. Well the other day dh says to me, if I got you one really big gift but you could only get one would you be happy. Now first of all I want to know where he is going to get the money to get me anything big which I really think he means "expensive" and I kind of wish for the Kitchen Aid mixer but I just said where you going to get the money for something "big?" He said I have ways? Hmmm? I told him I would be fine with what ever he gets me but not to spend a lot of money. We shall see? But I really think he is just trying to throw me off.

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One of my favorite parts about Christmas has always been mailing out Christmas cards with our family photo. Well, we tried several times to take a family photo but none really worked. Who would have known having a large family would mean that it would be so hard to get a photo of my family and I really do not think a professional photographer would have survived a session with my family. No wonder so many of them ask for extra money for extra subjects in the photo. lol! So, we shall see what we come up with? We got one good photo out of all the pictures we took and dh is not in that one. So I have not decided what I am going to do and if I do not decide soon, it will be too late. I just know that I am going to hear a lot of stuff from my family because we do not have any pictures. That is when they want grand kid pictures to show off. My mom took the picture I made last year and made more and sent them to who she wanted lol! Well actually that kind of made me mad, but that is a different story.

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I am giving my parents and dh's parents and our brothers and sister baked goods for Christmas. I feel so bad we have never done this. I really do not know how they will react. I think sometimes they get to where they think more about gifts than the true meaning of Christmas. I mean I know that they talk about some of my family and what they get or do not get for that matter. It just really hurts me, but I know I can't do any more so I just have to let it go and get talked about. I am making all my nieces a cute gift. It is handmade but they have always liked my handmade items. I used to make Vera Bradley look-a-like pures and they always loved getting those. I have not touch a sewing machine since I left my job and that really makes me sad! That is a whole nother story thought.

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The best gift that I got this Christmas was free. My new stove! I guess that's what all the gifts we get are really. There was a story read at our church Christmas party last night that I really loved. The story told about a woman who always counted how many gifts that each of her siblings got and her mom told her you could not measure gifts by how many that you had to take in consideration the price too. Well then this woman started counting the gifts Heavenly Father had given her and she tried to measure his love for her that away. Well, when she started looking at all the gifts in the world, she found out she was lacking one-a baby. She had had several miscarriages and she wanted that gift of being able to give birth and she wondered why Heavenly Father loved her less because she was not allowed to receive this gift. After many years she finally realized that her way of measuring was not right. She knew her Heavenly Father wanted her to be happy so how can she measure Heavenly Father's love for her? The article went on to say that the Atonement of Christ was the way that we could measure Heavenly Father or God's love for us. When you think about it, what greater gift could one give to give one of his sons to die for us so we could be forgiven of our sins here on Earth. What a wonderful story for this holiday season to know that if we do not receive any gift at all, we have already been given one of the greatest gifts we could be given a Savior who was born and died for us, which is really what celebrating this time of year is all about! I so loved this story, I just wish more people in our world would see it this way and not get so hung up on gifts and all. And especially not complaining about what someone gives to you out of there heart and I hope as we give these small gifts that my family would be able to understand that. So, that is my wish for this holiday season, I hope each of you who read my blog know that no matter what gift you get this season we have already been given the greatest gift ever! I wish each of you Merry CHRISTmas!

My Morning Project-Peanut Butter Fudge Gifts

For a lot of the Christmas' dh and I have been together, I have make candies for gifts for his coworkers. Last year we really did not give any away. I was very pregnant and dh worked at Walmart and no way was I making that much stuff! So, this year I decided to do something new. I made three batches of Peanut Butter Fudge and used Reynolds Fun Shape Baking Cups to put the fudge in. I got these cups, 24 cups comes in a package, at an event I went to for free. I got three boxes. They are in the shape of hearts. I have seen these at The Dollar Tree. They were only $1 and came in hearts or stars. I would have preferred stars for Christmas, but the hearts were free, so that is what I used. I have a picture below of the cups. Then I put the cups in a sandwich bag with a plastic spoon, see photo below. Then I bought some really cute plastic Christmas gift bags that I got at The Dollar Tree for 6 for $1 and then put a card in the bag. A very easy, inexpensive, nice gift!

Caramel Memories

When I was in the 5th grade, I found a recipe in the newspaper for Homemade Caramels. My mom could never make candy, although she made GREAT cookies, so I decided that I was going to make them one Christmas. I made them and they really did not come out right. We did not have a candy thermometer, which is probably why my mom did not want to try making candies. So, I asked my mom if we could buy a candy thermometer. She bought me one and my caramels came out great. I remember my mom begging me to make the caramels every year at the holidays. Well, we lost that newspaper article with the recipe in it, although my mom says she finds it every now and then. Last year I met Jen online and she shared this caramel recipe. They came out great and I found my caramels again that made the holidays so special. I made some of these at 6 am this morning, I have to make them before the kids get up, and they once again came out great. My least favorite part of caramels is cutting them. Anyone got any great ideas on that I'd love to hear them.
Oh by the way, that is a picture of my caramels that I made this morning!

Family Bake Night

Last night we had Family Home Evening. We usually have this one night a week and do something fun together. Last night we told the story of The Legend of the Candy Cane (we have an ornament on the tree with this story on it) and then we made Candy Cane Cookies. They were really hard to make but the kids had a fun time sifting, using the mixer, and rolling the dough into snakes. Above this post are pictures of the night and the recipe that we used follows:
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Here is the recipe:

Candy Cane Cookies

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1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sifted confectioners sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp almond flavoring

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

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Mix well the shortening and butter, sugar, egg, almond, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and add to shortening mixture. Divide dough in half.

Blend red food coloring into one half. Roll one teaspoon of the red dough and one teaspoon of the white dough on a lightly floured board into 4 inch strips. Place strips side by side and press lightly together and twist like a rope. Curve the top of rope down to look like the handle of a candy cane.

Note: Make one complete cookie at a time. If the dough of one color is shaped first, the little rolls become too dry to twist.

Bake 9 minutes at 350 degrees F or until lightly browned. Remove while still warm. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup crushed peppermint stick candy and 1/2 cup sugar.

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Note my kids are in their pull-ups. They usually stay this way while we are home working on potty training.

My son's Christmas Present

Nicholas wanted a MP3 player for Christmas. We found a nice one but it was a cheaper one since he is only 8 years old. I was wrapping gifts tonight and I asked dh if he wanted to look at it before I wrapped it. Of course, he wanted to "play" with it. Man am I glad he did! They already have songs on there and the first song on there was full of curse words! Boy am I glad that we checked it! Dh deleted all of the songs, most were rap. We don't listen to much of that. We put 5 songs on that we know he likes and then put it back in the box. Now, I want one! I never knew how neat they were! There is even some audio books already on there. I am so behind the time. I just wish they would not have put those bad songs on there and that I got them off before Nicholas listened to them!

Holiday Baking Starts Today

Today I start some of my holiday baking. Dh has some work/school parties coming up so it is time to start. I love making candy and cookies at the holidays and sharing them as gifts. So, everyday now until I get everything done, I will be coming and sharing with you the recipe and pictures of what I made that day. So, I guess I will see you later today!

Holiday Made for TV Movies Online Free

Well, one thing I miss this holiday season is ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas. I really loved watching the specially planned holiday shows. As I told you a while back, my cable company took off ABC Family and added The Food Network. I guess I love that too, but I really want both channels! Anyways, I just thought I would go visit ABC Family's web page and checkout all that I was missing. I talked about in another post how a lot of networks have online full episode players, well ABC Family does too. I watched a really cute movie called Special Delivery. It is about a baby trying to be adopted that is accidental lost and how they get it back. It really emphasizes the importance of family. I thought it was really cute and funny. If you want to watch it just click on the movie name on this post. They also have several other holiday related movies that you can also watch on there. Also, if you have ABC family checkout all the great holiday movies including The Polar Express, Mary Poppins, a Harry Potter movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone 4, Prancer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, lots of made for TV ABC Family Originals, and lots of those holiday movies we grew up with.