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!

What's Your Favorite...

As you know I'm honored to be the Guest Designer over at WhatIsYourFaveThing and for this next challenge... Julie thought it would be the perfect time to do... What's your favorite Holiday!!!! I know you all have favorite things about each holiday, but what is your favorite??? Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving... whatever it is join in the fun and make anything you want... a card, a scrapbook layout or a holiday project... anything to show off your favorite holiday! There are 2 prizes... a gift certificate to Scrapbook.com and a surprise from me!! So come on over and join in this fun challenge...

Anyway... here's mine... my favorite holiday is Christmas!!! I couldn't decide on what part of Christmas was my favorite for the layout. Which part of the holiday best represented my love of the holiday... so I decided to make a Christmas Tree with all my favorite traditions under each ornament... like pictures with Santa... decorating the tree... putting up Christmas lights! You know all the traditions which make Christmas special!

So... pop on over... and share your favorite... I know I can't wait to see what you come up with!!!!

What's Cooking Sun{day}

One of my fondest memories of my grandmother, is helping her make something yummy. She was a wonderful cook... and I want to pass on the tradition of making cooking fun with Rainee... The other day I emailed my Aunt Dolly to send me some recipes... some of her favorites and my grandmothers. My aunt sent me several (hand written) recipes... and I could hardly wait to make them. After going through them, I thought I'd make the Coffee Cake first... Steve loves coffee cake and whenever we go to Starbucks, he is sure to get some... so this was perfect. Now he can have coffee cake at home.

This morning before Steve woke up, Rainee and I quietly went into the kitchen and made the Coffee Cake. Rainee had such fun, especially when she saw how much 'sugar' was in the cake!!! She couldn't wait until it was done, so she could take a bite... she loves sugar, but then what kid doesn't?? So, between Rainee and Steve... this recipe was a BIG BIG hit!! Rainee kept saying... mommy this cake is the bomb!!! We make the best stuff together!!! Steve said it was sooooooo much better than the Starbucks coffee cake... which, wow, is a huge complement... because theirs is really good.

I'm sooooo happy I asked my aunt for some recipes... even now, I can't wait to try the others!!! Do you have some family favorites you don't have in your recipe box??? If so, you might want to call your mom, grandmother, aunt, sister, cousin... to make sure you have them to pass along... they are something to cherish...

Here's a recipe from my family to yours... this is for when you want something easy, sweet... and delicious. Enjoy!!! Let me know if you liked it... bye for now.... I'm off for another cup of coffee and just one more slice... Thank you Aunt Dolly!

Coffee Cake

Batter:
1 Cup Sugar
2 Cups Flour
3 tsp. Baking Powder
2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 tsp. Salt

• Preheat oven to 350º. Prepare 11"x17"x2" baking pan OR a bunt pan.
• In medium bowl, using an electric mixer, mix above ingredients together.
• Pour batter in the prepared pan.

Topping:
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
4-5 Tbsp. Melted Butter over top

• Combine together and sprinkle it over the top of the batter.

Bake cobbler for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Frosting:
1/8 Cup Milk
1 Cup Confectioners' Sugar (powdered sugar)

• Mix together, then swirl a thin glaze over cake while it's still warm (not hot).

Happy Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving... today & every day I'm thankful for Steve & Rainee. Even though there are many days when they bug each other... and days when Rainee seems to be whining all day & Steve gets cranky over the simplest things... even then... I'm thankful! I'm thankful for the ability to change my attitude, when I see & take in the everyday blessings all around me!

I am also thankful for my father... over the many years of my life, he has always been there for me. He would do anything to make sure I was taken care of. If I needed something moved, my car needed fixing, to unclog a sink or just listen to me... he has always been there taking care of me. He has always been a care taker... taking care of each of kids... even now, living in a Retirement Home he cares for those who are worse off than he is. He gives everything he has... without question never asking for anything in return.... I am grateful my life has been blessed with his kindness, the richness of his giving heart and his unconditional love. I hope in my life I will be a reflection of his wonderful qualities... Thank you dad... for being an example to live by! I miss you, love you and am so very thankful for you!

I am also so very thankful for each of you who come here... I am thankful for your kind hearts and your thoughtful words. I am delighted, blessed and grateful our lives have crossed... I know my life is better for being touched by you!!! Thank you!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

More... Fun In The Dirt...

Really quick before my day starts... I thought I'd share one more layout with Rainee playing in the dirt... I couldn't resist these photos... Plus I wanted to use some of my new favorite products... I love love love the corrugated letter by Jillibean Soup... they are soooooo much fun... and I'm really enjoying the Fancy Pants felt... I also have some Fancy Pants Christmas felt I can't wait to use...

Do you have any new favorites... or something you can't wait to use??

(Materials: Paper: My Minds Eye, DCWV, Jillibean Soup, Rainee Tablet of School Paper, Letter Stickers: Making Memories, Letters: Jillibean Soup, Felt: Fancy Pants, Button: Vintage, Thread: Wrights)

Gobble Gobble News...

So I told you about Rainee's Thanksgiving Feast... and how excited she was about it???? Well, on Thursday, she came home sick and still had a fever Friday... so we completely missed out on the feast. She was really upset & I was so sad for her. She was still sick on Saturday and it looked like we weren't going to have our family dinner on Sunday... but by the end of Saturday, her fever had broken and the family party was going on as planned!!!

All day Sunday Rainee kept asking when are the guest coming... is the party starting??? She was so excited about everyone coming!!! We had a great time... Steve did a deep fried turkey and I made everything else... Rainee sure was happy once everyone was here... I just had to get her playing around the table with her turkey.... 'gobble gobble I'm sure hungry!'... it was too too cute!!!

Yesterday was a day of rest, plus a little left over dishes... we were all pretty exhausted. I love doing Thanksgiving dinner, but I seem to do the going going going thing for days... that when it's all done & everyone is gone... I crash! So having a day to do nothing... sure was a nice thing!!!

Our week is still pretty full... we still have a lot going on over the next few days... Steve has something planned for today, don't know what... but I'm sure it will be something fun... Rainee has a movie date planned for just the two of us sometime this week... and then there's Thanksgiving at Kathleen's family dinner... and those are just the thing I know about... you know how a day can go... anything can happen!!! Have a great few days... and thanks so much for stopping by!!!