A Week of Birthdays

This week has been so busy! Last Monday we headed to my parents house for my sister's birthday party. Her birthday was actually on Wednesday, but because of church commitments, we celebrated on Monday. My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins were all there to celebrate with us.

Cassie's birthday has always been special because she was born on my dad's birthday. They always shared a bond that no one else could know. Since he's been gone, her birthday has become a time of remembrance. He would've been 50 this year! That's a big birthday. We wonder what kind of party we would've had for him, if he would've had gray hair, if he would've looked older, how our lives would be different...It's always a very neat time. Sad, but neat.

Yesterday, we celebrated a big birthday with Nick's dad. He turned 60. We had a huge bash for him. Tons of friends, tons of food, tons of music, and family. This was a bittersweet party for me. I wish I could've done that for my own dad. Such big birthdays and so many memories made.

What a wonderful time to reminisce!

Never Know What You Got Til It's Gone

As I start this post, let me first say, that this is not such a big thing that we lost. We only lost it for a day, but it is one of those things that we very much take for granted...

Our Heater!

On Thursday afternoon I headed to Joplin for a doctor's appointment. Since we didn't have school, I had put a roast in the oven and gotten a dinner ready for Nick's mom and step-dad. Nick's brother works for the University of Alabama and they were playing in a little game against Texas Thursday night, the National Championship.

When I returned home from Joplin at about 5p, I saw Nick staring at our thermostat. Not only that, he had a stocking cap on and he never wears one in the house. He then told me our heater was not working. Not only that, but when it did kick on, it would blow out cold air!

This is not good any time during the winter, but especially when it's going to be -19 degrees windchill. Yikes! Also, we had company coming over.

We decided to start a fire, plug in our two space heaters and hope that blankets, family, and a good game would help keep our minds off the cold. It worked for the evening. We put our space heaters in our bedroom about an hour before we went to bed, got a couple extra blankets, and drifted off to sleep. Oh, we also wore sweatshirts, sweatpants, and socks to bed.

I had to go to school for a few hours on Friday (without students) and our heater was supposed to be fixed by the time I got home at noon. It wasn't and our house was 49 degrees. It was freezing. We prayed that it would be a quick fix and not too expensive. The good Lord answered our prayer.

They came at 2:30, fixed the problem, and it cost us nothing! We were so excited and now we can leave our stocking caps, scarves and gloves in the closet. Yippee! Except of course, when we have to head outside.

All this to say, there are so many things we take for granted. We normally never have to worry about our heat coming on, our lights turning on, our cars starting...all this thanks to our Lord.

Remember to give thanks to Him today for the little things:)

The Apple of My Pie

Happy New Year friends!

Notice the above picture...this is me, my husband, my sister, and her boyfriend when we had Christmas at my house. We all got fleece pajama pants for Christmas. The boys are wearing their favorite teams, my sister and I are wearing "New Moon" t-shirts. For my gift, she created a box of fun. It was filled with all sorts of things and this shirt was one of them. She bought herself a t-shirt also, so we could wear them on Christmas:) Mine is "Team Edward". Hers is "Team Jacob". She's silly, but so much fun:)

Anyway, back to the subject of my post. I made a pie over the holidays. Actually, I made two of them. I got a new pie plate from my father-in-law's girlfriend. I love it and I really wanted to make an apple pie, so I did. I made one last Wednesday for a family dinner with my mother-in-law's cousins. I then made another one Thursday for New Year's at my parents house. I took pictures along the way because it was just so much fun to make.

Here are all the apples


Here is the pie crust


Here are the apples with all their yummy seasonings warming in the pan


Here are the seasoned apples in the pie crust


Next, the best part...the crumbles on top


Here's a better view of my new pie plate


And the finished product!


The first slice


It was so good. I was very excited about the way it turned out. Both pies I made were eaten all up:)

I will definitely make more of these pies this new year. I am so excited what this year will bring:)

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!!

Beautiful snow today means no school tomorrow!

I know I've had almost two weeks off, but it's been crazy. I have had little, to no, rest. I haven't even taken my Christmas stuff down, yet!

This, I will be able to do tomorrow.

I also haven't posted any pictures of Christmas or New Year, so I will be able to do that tomorrow, as well.

Praise the Lord for this extra day to get things done. It is much appreciated:)

We're Home!

Hello friends!

We are now back in our wonderful home. We've been gone since Thursday afternoon, however, it feels like we've been gone since Tuesday afternoon.

As soon as I got home Tuesday afternoon, I made dinner and Nick's mom, step-dad, sister, and grandma came over to have Christmas. I made my Grandpa Dennis' famous soup and they all loved it. I'll post the recipe soon. We then opened gifts, played the piano, and watched "Elf". It was so fun.

Wednesday morning, I woke up, put a ham in the oven and my mom, step-dad, sister, and her boyfriend came over for Christmas. We played Guitar Hero, went to the highschool and shot baskets (well, the boys shot baskets...mom, sister, and I cheered), came back ate a wonderful dinner, opened presents, and watched "Christmas in Connecticut". We stayed up late, slept in, and then they headed home. Another great time was had by all.

Thursday, we got ready and headed out to eat with Nick's dad and his girlfriend, Nick's sister and her boyfriend, went to Nick's dad's house to open presents, then headed to Nick's dad's childhood home (now lived in by his cousin), ate dinner with all his siblings and their children, played Dirty Santa and dominoes, and realized all 17 of us were going to have to stay the night there:) It was a blast, but crazy to figure out where we were all going to sleep!

Friday morning, Nick and I headed to Pryor, my step-dad's son headed to Claremore to bring his sisters home, and my sister and her boyfriend headed to Texas. Boy, did plans change! My sister called and said she and her boyfriend got in a wreck. They totalled her car and had to stay the night in Eufaula, OK. They weren't hurt, praise the Lord, but didn't get to see his family on Christmas or ours:( My step-brother got stuck in Claremore with his sisters, so they weren't home on Christmas either. It was a crazy Friday!!

Saturday, Nick and my step-dad travelled the 3 hours to Eufaula to pick up my sister and her boyfriend and my step-brother came back home. Sunday, my step-sisters came over and finally had Christmas with us and then everyone departed ways on Sunday night.

I have pictures to post, but I'm not going to do that until tomorrow. Just wanted to say we're finally home, safe and sound. My sister and her boyfriend finally flew to Texas today to be with his family, and the Christmas season is over:(

I'm sad it's over, but the reason for the season is NEVER over!

He lives! He lives! Praise the Lord!

A Trip Much Needed

I can't believe it's been a week since we traveled the two hours to Branson and Silver Dollar City. I hadn't been since high school with Keith, Debbie and Katie Burden Stokes. Nick hadn't been since elementary, so it was much different this time. Let me tell you, we had so much fun!

That whole week had been crazy for me. I had my final for my college class, my 4-year olds were going nuts, we hadn't done any Christmas shopping yet, so I was ready to get away for a few days with my husband and just relax, enjoy each other and not let the stresses of Christmas, finances, school, etc. get in our way!

We headed out Friday after school and went straight to the Landing. We loved it there. It was freezing, but I loved the atmosphere. The wonderful Christmas lights, the fountain show (which unlike Russell and Erin it played a rock song), the shopping, and the food! We went to White River Fish Market. It's totally on the water. It was delicious and when you were in the bathroom, you could feel it swaying:)

Saturday, we woke up and went to Tanger Outlet and got a ton of Christmas shopping done. It was crazy busy there, but we got some incredible deals. We then went back to the Landing, did a little more shopping, and ate lunch. We ate at the San Francisco Oven and had the best pizza. It had been raining off and on all day, but we just hoped it would stop by the time we got to Silver Dollar City. We were wrong! It rained even harder when we were there. Our feet, socks, and jeans were soaking wet! We had a blast, but we were freezing. Luckily, we had our umbrella and I was able to buy some more socks.

We watched "A Christmas Carol", a potter, a glass-blower, a blacksmith, and laughed at all the things you can buy with your name on them:) It's such a fun place and we can't wait until we have children to take there someday.

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend and we can't wait to go back!

The fountain show


Nick outside the White River Fish Market


The food


Me in front of a beautiful reindeer.


The next day at Silver Dollar City, I turned into Davy Crocket


Nick spun the wheel to receive his fortune (it said he needs to smile all the time)


We stood in front of the Christmas tree


Rode the Christmas train


I got put in a coffin (you can see the rain on my pants)


And we ate some apple dumplins (thanks Russell and Erin). Pardon the hair...rain, remember?

Christmas Time is Here!

Hello All!

I've been missing for the past few weeks. My last post was about fall and now it's time for Christmas! I can't believe how fast this time has come. It seems just yesterday I was getting ready for the first day of school and now this first semester is almost over!

These past few weeks that I haven't blogged, I've had strep throat, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas decorating, and a busy time in my college class (that is now over! yippee!!).

Here's what's been going on in our house over the past week. Here's the dining room and our two trees we got on Black Friday at Wal-Mart. I love them. My sister got me the cardinal plates for my birthday. Pardon the empty candlesticks. My mom found some candles for me, but I don't have them yet.





Here's the mantle. It has lights, but you can't really see. My wonderful aunt made me this wreath last year and I absolutely love it. Since the wall behind my fireplace is a peacock blue, my theme is peacocks:)


Here's my piano. I have two deer and a wonderful nativity set. I've never had a nativity set until now. My wonderful friend (see earlier post)found out I didn't have one and she gave me this one that she got in Africa this summer.



A closeup of the nativity.



You have to have Christmas candy lying around:)



Here's my tree.



And with the flash off.



Here's the tree in our front living room. Nick got to decorate this room, so notice Jovie's stocking hanging on the lamp behind the tree! (Sorry just noticed the tree skirt seems a little crooked)





Thanks for taking a tour of my house. Tonight I will try to remember to go outside and take a picture of our house
with the lights Nick put up. They look amazing! Until then...have a wonderful evening and stay warm:)