Happy New Year....

As this year comes to a close and a new one begins... I want to thank you for stopping for a visit, to see what we've been up to... thank you soooooo much for your lovely warm comments... It has been such a pleasure getting to know more of you this year... you have blessed my life more than you know...

As for the New Year... I'm excited to see what will unfold... it's always nice to start a new year... old things are past and new things begin. As for you... I hope your year is filled with crazy-wonderful {{everyday}} memories that last a life time.

From our home to yours...
Happy Happy New Year !

Christmas...

Rainee was so thrilled about Christmas, she even went to bed early without hesitation Christmas Eve... the next morning, she said she heard Santa on the roof!!! It was very exciting!!!

We did have a very lovely Christmas! Rainee woke early over joyed... opening her stocking first, while she waited for daddy to wake up, and mommy to make coffee... and of course take a few photos before all the packages were opened and there was wrapping paper everywhere!!!

She opened Santa's first... and got the Zhu Zhu pet stuff she asked Santa for... plus some other fun things... but once the Santa presents were opened she opened the BIG gift from mommy and daddy... the remote control TUNDRA TRUCK!!! Which since opened... has been her favorite thing to play with - - well at least until the batteries run out!!! LOL!

After opening presents and breakfast, we got ready for our annual open house potluck. And although I love cooking... I've always made it easy on myself when it came to the turkey. I would choose a Honey Baked Turkey, which I only had to put in the oven for 2 hours... because to be honest turkeys are a bit intimidting... but this year, I decided to attempt it... and it turned out delicious!!! It made for the perfect sandwich along side all the yummy things everyone brought.

After we ate and ate and ate... Rainee opened more gifts!! Which she loved... and after the last one, she wanted to know if there were any more... lol!!! Gotta love her!! All in all... it was beautiful day... full of family, friends, food, lovely weather... and presents that lit up my daughters face. We had a wonderful Christmas.

Now... over the next several days we'll be doing some fun things with Rainee before she has to go back to school... I'm goint to try to get some scrapbooking done and blog posts... but if neither happen... I hope you have a safe and happy new year!!!

Mom Do You Have Quarters??? Please Mom!!

Before I talk about my lo... I want to appologise for not being around... Rainee has been sick off and on... can I just say... I hate it when parents let their kid go to school sick!... That's how this started for Rainee... she was fine... then start to get a cold... then fine again... and then... at the Christmas party... her teacher brought her sick kid... ugh... can I tell you I was mad!!! When she told me, I made sure Rainee to stayed away from her daughter... but even though she did... with her daughter participating in all the fun... those germs lingered... and the next morning... Rainee wasn't feeling great and by the end of the day... she had a sore throat!!! Boy I hate it when parents do that.... and what makes it worse... it's right before Christmas... and it's vacation... she should be having fun... but instead... we're both up all night taking care of her fever... honestly... I'm bugged!!! I'm hoping she'll be better today... I have some fun stuff planned, but it won't happen if she's not feeling well. Enough about sick kids and their parents... and making mine sick... just ugh... that's all I can say!!!

So besides Rainee not feeling well, it's Christmas time, with all the things you NEED TO get done and all the things you WANT TO get done... we've been busy here!!! I have lots of photos... but the scrapping well it's not been on the top of my list....

But yesterday while Rainee had a nap, I did a layout for These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things... new challenge... Your Favorite Car... you have to read all about it... it's fun... but for mine... well... I didn't do my favorite... I did Rainee's!!!

Ya know when you go to the store and you see those fun little rides for kids... it could be a ride with Tiger, a dinosaur or a fun little car..... well Rainee loves them... and she has to go on it every time... but only if mama has some quarters... 90% of the time I do. It's such a fun little everyday thing which makes for a pleasant few moments... which can make for a very pleasant child... simple... fun... and smiles all around!!! Anyway... here's my lo... of Rainee in a truck when we were at Toys R Us recently... too much fun!!!

As for posting... it may be a few days before I get to it again... depending on Rainee, and of course how smoothly things go with getting ready for Christmas... at least you'll know why!!! I hope these last days before Christmas are filled with wonderful memories, to make for a really lovely Christmas...

(Materials: Paper: Bazzil, Making Memories, Ribbon: Wrights, Stickers: Creative Imaginations, DCWV, Creative Memories, Misc)

Christmas Performance & Party...

Rainee's Christmas performance (Thursday) and Christmas party (Friday), went off wonderfully... well... almost... She woke up Thursday, so excited about her performance... it was just the cutest thing ever and couldn't wait for it to start.... we sat in the front row (of course) and everything seemed to be going fine... although she wasn't smiling and I couldn't figure out why... then at the very last song... We Wish You A Merry Christmas... she started crying.... can I just say my heart was breaking... then as they were letting some of the kids leave I gave her a hug and talked to her... and she said... 'I'm scared... my tummy really hurts!!'... oh no!!!! What's a mommy to do... have her follow the class out... take her out... it all happened so fast... and then she was off to class to get their stuff to take home...

We went around to meet her... and she was still very sad... and came running to me... telling me again her tummy hurt... and I'm sad now too... because if she's sick, she will miss out again on the party... like she did for Thanksgiving Feast... my poor baby!!! Then, Anessa, Rainee's friend came over and gave her a big hug and asked her what was wrong... while listening to their conversation, we figured out she had stage fright... poor thing!!! But just in case... we were going to make her take it easy, so she could go to the party on Friday....

Friday... the party!!! She woke up fine!!! Yeah!!! The party was a combination of the morning and afternoon classes... and they had a great time!! All in all, there was 44 kids, 2 teachers and 10 parents in one little classroom room... but the teachers had it all set up with activity centers for kids to do different things... play with play-dough, winter bingo, the listening center with holiday books... and for their snack later... they made peanut butter & jelly Raindeer sandwiches and decorated cookies... it was sooooooo organized and the kids had such a great time... you'd never know there was 56 people in one classroom!!! Oh plus Santa came and each kid was able to take a picture with him and whisper their wishes to him... it was the cutest!!! Rainee had the best time!!!! Yeah... she wasn't sick!!!

When it came to what to give the teachers... Rainee wanted to give them the Gingerbread Plate card... so we made them together... it was so fun doing them with her!!! We made them a bit different than last years YouTube Video... This year, she wanted to do polka dot plates... I think they turned out great... Rainee was really happy with them... and the teachers??? They just loved them!!!

Now as for Christmas Vacation... I don't know what we'll be doing, but I'm sure I'll come up with something fun while she's out of school!!! What are your plans??? Any suggestions??? For now... I'm off to get Rainee.... she's up and ready for the day!!! Have a good one!!!

Thank You & Congrats...

First I want to say Thank you Thank you Thank you to Julie for having me as the guest designer at ThereAreA FewOf MyFavoriteThings... I had such fun!!!! I really enjoyed it!!

I also wanted to give a toot of Congratulations for my friend Jana.... OMG... I can't beging to tell you how excited I was to that she is the winner of the Favorite Holiday over at ThereAreA FewOf MyFavoriteThings... Here is the front cover of her winning mini book, but you have to go to her blog to appreciate the beauty of her mini book... it is just sooooooo crazy gorgeous!!!

I also wanted to share the new Challenge at ThereAreA FewOf MyFavoriteThings is... your favorite car... go check it out and see the wonderful designs from the design team members... they are amazing... Julie is giving gift certificate for the winner... so go check it out... it's so much fun!!!

Rainee Says:

After I took Rainee to school this morning, Steve and I notice there was something strange going on with the top of Champs head... and when we took a closer look... we realized Rainee had given Champ a hair cut... it wasn't much, but you definitely could tell it was cut. Steve was fuming... I enjoyed watching stomping around the room, it was pretty funny... and all he kept saying was... "she's gonna get it when she gets home"...

Sooooooo Steve had cooled down, by the time Rainee got home... and we both sat down with her for a little chat... asking why??? And her exact words were...

"He had some hair sticking up and it needed cutting."

...that was it... simple and to the point... we then explained why we don't cut Champy-boy's hair... she felt really bad and went to sit with him for awhile giving him a big hugs... with lots of kisses of course!!!

You never know what a day will bring being a mama.

What's Cooking Sun{day}...

This week, has been full of so many things I've hardly been able to take a breath... so today I had to stop and do something I wanted to do... and I wanted to bake a pie...

I baked a homemade apple pie, with the best crust recipe ever from my friend Becky and some yummy granny smith apples. It was perfection, I’m telling you. Sheer and utter perfection.

When I pulled the piping hot pie from the oven, the mixture of sugar and cinnamon bubbling and spilling over the sides plus there was that lovely the scent of baked apples filling the air. And you should have seen my family anxiously waited for it to cool, for their slice of the heavenly creation and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

It was so beautiful, I almost didn’t want to cut into it. After all, you can’t have your pie and eat it, too. Rainee thought it was so pretty she asked to take a picture of it, which of course we did. She moved around some of Christmas decorations to make it look pretty... It was beautiful...

Once cooled, I finally did the honors, serving a generous slice topped with the ice cream. I loved watching it melt down the sides of the pie. This moment was heavenly... apple pie, ice cream and sitting in front of a warm cozy fire with my family... and then... everyone begged for a second slice.

This is the first of many Christmas pies I'll be baking... and this was the best treat ever after the week I had. I am always amazed by Martha Stewart... then there's me and my little pie.. is nothing compared to Martha. She would not only have made the pie crust, but picked the apples from her yard, and then churned the delicious homemade ice cream... but then that's Martha! As for me??? I'm enjoying the feeling of accomplishment... it's nice to be able to say... "Job, well done!!"... after a week where I didn't feel I'd accomplished anything...

As I sit eating my lovely, delicious pie I'm reminded of a favorite verse... “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart...” Colossians 3:23.... and on that note... all any of us can do is our best at whatever we put our hands to...

Becky's Famous Pie Crust ~
4 Cup Flour
1 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. Vinegar
1/2 Cup COLD Water
1 3/4 Cup Veg. Shortening
1 Egg
2 tsp. Salt

• With a fork mix, flour, shortening, sugar, & salt together until crumbly.
  
• In a small bowl mix together, water, vinegar & egg.
  
• Add egg mixture to flour mixture. Mix together with fork until moist.
• Form into 4 evenly divided balls, and flatten. Cover with plastic wrap.
• Chill for at least 15 minutes.
• Roll out, place in pie pan.
  
• While making pie filling, put pie crust in freezer.
  
• Remove pie crust from freezer and fill with desired pie filling.
• Bake according to desired pie recipe.
• If crust edges get too brown before pie is done, put foil over edges.
• Left over pie crust can be frozen.
  

Apple Pie Filling ~ (9inch pie pan)
6 Cup Granny Smith Apples
3/4 Cup Sugar
3 Tbspn Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
Dash Salt

• Heat oven at 425º.
  
• In a bowl combine apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Toss lightly.
  
• Place into prepared pie crust.
  
• Place back in freezer, while making Streusel Topping.
  

Streusel Topping ~
3/4 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (firmly packed)

• Combine all ingredients with a fork until crumbly.
  
• Take pie out of freezer.
  
• Sprinkle over fruit filling. Covering all of the fruit.
• Before placing in oven, brush the crust surface with an egg wash for a golden brown crust.
• Bake for a total of 45 minutes. At 35 minutes cover topping to prevent topping from burning.

For a double crust pie.... after putting pie filling in pie tin, place pie back in the freezer while you roll out crust for the pie top. Take pie out of freezer and pinch edges together. Make slits in pie top crust for steam to escape. Place pie in the freezer one more time before baking for about 5 minutes... then before placing in oven, brush the crust surface with an egg wash for a golden brown crust.

Pie crust secret... for those of you who have never made pie crusts... or for those of you have and swore you would never do it again, because it never turns out... it isn't flaky...HERE'S THE SECRET... your crust isn't cold... for a lovely flaky crust you want your crust to be cold. That is why you continue to place your pie/crust in the freezer. You will be amazed at the difference this simple little thing will do for your crust... Let me know how it turns out!!! Happy pie making!!! Enjoy!!!

2 Thanksgivings...

At our {early} Thanksgiving dinner, here is Rainee with her cute cute cute turkey... she was so patient waiting waiting waiting for 'her guests'.... she kept saying... 'when are they going to get here???'... and just before they did she said, 'hey, mom... look how very hungry I am!!!'.... adorable... I could gobble her up!!! The other is our family dinner... at our new home... it was such a nice time. And the last lo is from our Thanksgiving dinner with Kathleen's family... Kathleen's sister Stephanie made the whole dinner... and it was her 25th birthday... I think she did a wonderful job!!! I have to say it was soooooo nice not having to actually cook on Thanksgiving... I love it!!! We have been blessed this year and I for one am so very grateful for all we have... God is good!

We have a full weekend... I'm taking Rainee and her friend to HomeDepot to the fun projects they have on the first Saturday of every month... Rainee loves doing this, and this time she has a friend coming... then we're going to Michaels Craft Store to do more fun free crafts... If we have time we're going to go to Bass Pro Shop to do their craft... It's such a fun thing to do with Rainee and they are all free... so it makes for a fun thrifty way to spend the day, during the holidays!!! I'm working on some more freelance holiday ads for some of my faithful customers... AND... today I got some more great products from Creative Imaginations to do some more projects for them.. I think I'm going to have a very full full full weekend... but ya know I can't wait!!! Hoping you have a marvelous weekend!!!

Little Toot!

Just found out my layout for 'favorite holiday' is on the Top 10 List and Top 10 Votes over at TwoPeas... I've never been in the the Top 10 before... very excited!! whoohooooo!

December, So Many Things To Share...

I have several thing I want to share with you, but first I want to say.. Happy December 1st... I hope your month is filled with rich blessing, joy, time with family & friends... and you get everything on your list!

Okay so I have to say.... yeah!!! I made the Catwalk over at ScrapInStyle for my favorite holiday layout, for the WhatIsYourFaveThing challenge!!! Since the challenge was just posted you have plenty of time to join in... it would be wonderful if you did!!! Anyway, very excited about the Catwalk... and even though I have to go to jury duty this morning... I have to say, it's helped to make my day better!!! yeah!

I will be changing my blog design sometime this week... for the holidays! And putting on some Christmas music... just didn't get to it today... Ahhhhhh.... it's started... too many things to do!!!

Next I'm excited about doing my December Daily book. I don't know about you, but I've always loved seeing what Ali Edwards does with hers and wish I'd done it... Last year my friend Jen's at jencroppable.com did one and it was fabulous!!! As for mine... I made it... VERY simple... since it's the first year I'm doing it... I decided that almost important thing for me was the pictures... so I made almost every page with the same sketch just different paper... there will be a few different... I needed it to easy... so I would get it done. So over the next several weeks I'll be showing you my VERY simple December Daily layouts.

Next I wanted to share my 2 favorite things I do every year for Rainee and well, Santa Claus... The first one is Rainee's List for Santa... whenever we go shopping or she sees something on TV... that she really wants, she says... 'Mommy can you put that on my list!'... I make a note of it and when it get closer to Christmas ... I make a Santa's List to put them on... it's been a great help not only for 'Santa', but also for mommy, grandma and the aunts/uncles. Rainee loves looking at it and has me read the things she's put on it... it's adorable. I also make sure to tell her, that just because it's on the list, doesn't mean she's going to get everything on the list... and she says... 'I know, but can we put it on my Birthday list?'.... to which I say... yes... and make a Birthday List lo for her to put the things she didn't get for Christmas on it.... it's been our thing... and it's worked out really well... so of course I just had to share it with you.



The other thing is the... Naughty or Nice List. It's something that helps show Rainee how good she is... and also,for when she's naughty. Rainee is generally very good but there are moment, like with any kid... that well, she isn't. The thing I like about our naughty list is... when she knows she's been bad, she comes to me and wants to pray for Jesus to forgive her for being bad and to help her be better. We've talked about this a lot, and she knows that when she asks for forgiveness, Jesus forgives her, and forgets it ever happened... soooooooooooo of course on our naughty list... we too have to wipe it clean too. She knows it's been there, but she also knows it's forgotten....

To go along with the Naughty or Nice list I found something I just have to share with you... it's a Naughty or Nice list with Santa actually showing your child on his list... it's really pretty cute!!! When Rainee saw it, she nearly fell out of her chair.... it was soooooooo much fun!!! So, make sure to check this out.... Santa's List ... seriously, your child's face will be beaming!!!

Have a lovely lovely day!