A cherished moment

As I was putting Morgan to bed tonight I was reminded of how much of a touchy, feely child she is & just why she is that way. I rocked & sang to her as usual & she fell asleep enough that I thought I could lay her in her crib. Just wouldn't be happening tonight...she needed some extra snuggles so I sat back down in the trusty rocking chair that I've had for 6 1/2 years now and rocked her some more. Then I tried again but she still didn't want to be let go of. Sometimes I wonder why in the world won't she just cooperate... but then I thought about it & remembered she's always been this way. It's been just a little over 2 years since we were able to bring her home & keep her here. This little girl has good reason not to want to let go. It's what I prayed for while she was in the hospital, that she'd have the strength to stay with us and not let go just yet.

So I told her that I'd rub her head & hold her hand if she'd just lay down & she plopped very quickly into position. She looked up at me with her beautiful blue sleepy eyes as if to say, "Thanks mama for not leaving me just yet." And so I sang some more & rubbed her head & pushed her hair around a bit until she was nearly asleep. I reflected on 2 years ago when she was in the hospital & all I wanted to do was hold her all day long & I couldn't. It made me appreciate my extra snuggles with her tonight & then she opened her eyes again to see that I was still there & grabbed my finger to hang on just as she used to in the hospital. A moment to cherish for sure.

I won, I Won, I WON!!!

Yup, this is my 2nd "I won" post & this one I'm totally pumped about. I listen to WPFF the Christian radio station for our area. They broadcast the Doug & Kim show each morning which is out of Nashville. Doug & Kim have a frequent listeners club that is free. You collect points for entering the word of the day, artist, etc. and you can get more points by answering trivia questions on the site. Then you can cash them in for prizes that they have available on certain days & certain times. There is usually a limited supply of the books, cds, DVDs etc. They also have raffles that you can enter. Natalie helped me collect a bunch of points & I had been checking out all the available prizes. One of the prizes was called Secret Keeper Girls set. I did some research on the set & thought that it would be extremely helpful in raising my girls & having Mama & daugther time to teach them about modesty, beauty, and similar things. I kept checking back to see if they had awarded the raffle to someone & they hadn't so I was disappointed & thought that maybe God figured someone else could use it more than me. On Christmas Eve after shoveling our sidewalk & in front of the neighbors house I saw a package in the mailbox. I thought it was a present from family until I picked it up & saw it was the Prize Center. Confused as to what Prize Center it could be from I hurried inside & opened it to find the whole set of SKG. I was so excited & thrilled that I won it. I told Adam about it when he called & called Natalie to share the news & of course everyone that was at the house knew about it too. Gabby was as excited as she could be for being sick & having thrown up a few times. Here's a photo of it all. There are devotionals, diaries, chapter books, & 2 music cds. Very, very COOL!

Punch & Coffee Cake Recipes

Heather’s Punch Recipe
1 cup sugar
2 ripe medium banana's, cut
3 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
1 6oz can frozen oj concentrate
2 tbs lemon juice
1 1-liter bottle Sprite or Seven Up

1. Combine 2 3/4 cups water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. In blender, blend banana's, half of the pineapple juice, and the oj concentrate until smooth. Add sugar mixture and stir in remaining juices. Transfer to 13x9x2 baking pan and freeze overnight.

2. To serve: let mixture warm up to room temp, about 20-30 minutes. To form slush, scrape large spoon across frozen mixture and spoon into punch bowl. Slowly pour Sprite down side of bowl and stir. Makes about 23, 4oz servings.

**Spiked**
Prepare as above, except add 1 1/2 cups rum or vodka w/juices. Let frozen mixture stand for 5-10 minutes before scraping.

It may sound like a lot of work, but it's really quite simple, and delicious!!!

~I don't know if it is a lot of work or not since my sister made it but it sure was yummy!~ Jeannette

Apple-Nut Coffee Cake

1/2 Cup butter or margarine, softened

1 Cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 medium tart apples, peeled and chopped

1/2 Cup chopped walnuts

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla; mix well. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in apples and walnuts. Transfer to an ungreased 8-in square baking dish. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Submitted by Cyndi Martin, Montgomery, IL in the 2003 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes Book.

I altered it a little to suit my family. My kids & husband don't like walnuts in baked things sometimes so I left them out. I used whole wheat flour, added extra cinnamon (but not too much more), I used Braeburn apples which were delicious and lastly, I doubled the recipe and put it into a 9 x 13 cake pan & baked for the 35 minutes.

Christmas 2008

So you all know that I'm like the Queen of writiting wordy messages & this is no exception. Why, becasue I like to talk, I like to share & it's my blog so I can do what I want. Right? Yup...haha

This year was a little different. We were blessed to have Grammy Cheryl & Papa Blaine, & Sasha spend Christmas Eve with us & enjoy our tradition of fondue...we had a chocolate fountain again this year with strawberries, pineapple, grapes, & pretzels. Morgan walked around all day saying in a very mesmerizing voice, chooocolate, chooocolate! The Grandparents spent the night & in the morning we ate scrambled eggs & waited for everyone to wake up. After presents we had Jesus' birthday cake. This year I made an apple coffee cake. When I asked the kids if they wanted some apple coffee cake none of them had a very cheerful answer. I worked hard, okay, it was really easy to make but I still took the time to make it & didn't want them to not try it. Then I realized they thought it was made of coffee & didn't want it because they don't like coffee. Haha LOL. When I explained what it was & showed it to them they were a little more eager to take part of the cake tradition. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus & then dug in. I served it up & then got everyone something to drink & hadn't even had a chance to taste it when to my delight every one was saying how yummy it was. Recipe to come in next post. I finally sat down & tasted it & had to agree. It wasn't like a traditional coffee cake but it sure was good. Opening presents....My favorite was Adam's present. I bought him a nice winter wool dress coat. We tried finding one in the land of leather, camouflage and flannel patters (otherwise known as the U.P.) but didn't find anything to our liking. So good ole' Kohl's online helped me out. I also ordered him an ipod Nano which came by FedEx. It's the only time I was happy that I didn't give UPS business because then I could keep it a surprise. I tried to come up with a way to disguise that little apple box & finally thought of putting it inside the coat pocket. It worked beautifully! Adam opened it up & tried it on & started to pat the coat to show how it fit & that he liked it a lot (I was counting on this since he's done it before when trying on things), and he felt something in the pocket. It took him a second to figure out whether the pocket was on the outside or inside of the coat. He pulled it out & smiled even bigger....an ipod. Beautifully executed!!! And a HUGE smile on my face. :D The kids finished opening all their loot & throwing it all over the living room floor and then off to play with things & open boxes & plastic like crazy. Braly seems pretty thrilled with his Indy Jones fedora & whip (complete with sounds & Indy theme music). Gabby got lots of Hannah Montana stuff & books. I'd say her fav so far is her new scooter that lights up (it will after I install batteries haha). And Morgan was so adorably cute. "For Me?" she'd say when we'd hand her another present to open (note, don't call them packages in front of Adam because by the end of December he's tired of hearing about packages). She loved this light up spinner thing that I found at the Family Dollar for about $3 each. It was a big hit with all 3 of them (great stocking stuffer). And Morgie's fav toy was her new kitchen. There seemed to be a Star Wars theme too for some reason in our house. Braly got this super cool book that has a little computer attached to it & it asks over 2000 SW questions & keeps track of your correct answers & your percentage correct while you play it. Then it shuts off & clears your score so someone else can try. I stunk at it & only had 40% correct after playing for about 10 mins. You might be wondering what I received as presents...I got a beautiful popsicle stick tree that Gabby made at school, along with a penguin whose feet are Gabby's hands & it has a cute poem on it. I also got a scrapbooking recipe book kit that I look forward to making & sharing with my children for years to come. Some bath & body lotions & soaps, and admission into a class I've been wanted to take for almost a year now...LOM from Big Picture Scrapbooking it's the Library of Memories class that Stacy Julian has put together. It's a system for organizing & categorizing photos that aren't necessarily in chronological order. She encourages one to scrapbook photos along with meaningful memories, or to find old photos of a particular something & relate it to a new particular something. It's a way to scrapbook without the guilt of being behind. I started putting the system together but had to put it on hold for awhile when things started to get busy around here & I am looking forward to getting back to it on a weekly basis so I can start scrapping more. I'm also taking an online how-to class so I can better understand how to use Photoshop Elements to scrapbook. I'm pretty pumped for furthering my education with these classes about my hobby.

After presents, Auntie Nat & Uncle Todd showed up. Auntie Nat made punch from a recipe I got from my friend Heather & it was delicious. Thanks Heather L for sharing the recipe. I'll post that one & the coffee cake in a separate post.

We played Papa's Wii for awhile, set up the new car race track & then ate Pizza for lunch after reading the Christmas story in Luke 2. Gabby & Braly still had one more present but they had to solve the riddle that Adam came up with. He's so clever...I just love him!

Gabriella's clue: A Wise person travels to the Place where Jesus was born. Go there Kindly to find a great reward!

Braly's clue: You have a mission. Should you choose to accept it, the reward will be Great! Go to the Place where Jesus was Born!

The answer of course is Bethlehem Town. My parents gave us this remarkable Bethlehem Town scene & last year was the first time we had a place to set it up. It is on our fireplace mantel & is sooooo cool. They found their reward of a new leapfrog Didj for each of them complete with 2 games each (courtesy of good deals on eBay about a month ago).

After lunch, a nap for Morgan, & a Disney trivia game for Nat & myself we made birthday cards for my Great, Great Aunt Pansy whom is turning 100 years old on Dec 31st. There is a group of family & friends heading for a nice lunch on Saturday with her to celebrate her many years. Our family thought it would be cool if everyone made her a card in hopes that she will receive 100 cards for her 100th birthday. I hope it happens. She's a remarkable woman & just a few years ago stopped making her favorite holiday meal, Thanksgiving, for a pretty decent crowd.

To conclude our very special Christmas day we took the time to get all 9 of us in a family picture on my mom & dad's camera (so I don't have a copy of it yet to share with all of you but when I do I'll post it). It took a lot of coercing to get Braly to be in the picture & it took only 2 times to get a great shot of all of us. Talk about cooperation & patience on everyone's part + a really nice camera helps. ;) Our celebration was mostly over. Grammy, Papa, Auntie Nat, & Uncle Todd left & we were left with a pile of toys to play with & clean up. It was a very blessed day. Not too crazy, not too long, nor too short. It was just very nice.

Hope all of you enjoyed your day. What was your favorite part of Christmas day? Or of the whole holiday season in general? Mine was getting to spend time with my family celebrating Jesus' birth. I also enjoyed decorating, reading our many Christmas books (can you tell we are a family who loves books?) and my favorite part has got to be singing Christmas songs & listening to them on the satellite since I don't have copies of all the old records I used to listen to as a little girl.

Attempting a Family Picture

M&M's Christmas Story

As we celebrate this glorious season may we remember what it is really all about. The birth of Jesus Christ. He came to earth in the form of a small helpless child so that He could grow up & sacrifice all He had....He gave His life so that we can know Him as our personal savior and go to heaven to be with God when we pass from this earth.

Merry Christmas to all our family & friends. Look for late Christmas cards & a letter sometime in the near future. I'm trying to put together an address list since mine got wiped out from being on the old computer when it crashed.

Mall Thoughts & gift wrap cutter promo

Today after getting Braly on the bus the girls & I (Gabby is off of school for 2 weeks, Braly has 2 days this week) went to get Morgan's prescriptions filled. First we stopped at the medical supply to get the Nebulizer machine and then we went to Shopko to get the albuterol & pulmacort. We have to have them on hand from now on because Morgan is being treated for asthma. They don't actually call it asthma since she is so young but I think that has to do with insurance junk. Anyway, while we waited for the prescriptions to be ready, we went & exchanged some lotion at Bath & Body Works and then stopped by the food court to get something to eat. As we sat there & ate there were other shoppers that bought food & sat down to eat. Most were very quiet but there was one group of a woman & 2 girls that sat down. This woman seemed quite on edge to me, like she was stressed about having to do shopping & being in the mall when it was so busy. She was sort of snippy with the girls. One asked for a bottle of water & she said "I'm not buying that for you." Then she started putting another table with the one the girls were sitting at & one fo the girls asked why she was doing that. She snapped, "we have other people joining us, is that okay with you?" Read with great annoyance. Gabby, Morgan, & I finished & headed to the restroom to wash up. As we got a little farther away from that group Gabby said, "I sure am glad that I wasn't in her belly & born to her." I asked her why and her response was, "she's not a very nice mom, she's so crabby, and mad." I said, "well maybe she's having a bad day." Gabby's response was. "I love you mom, and I'm glad you are a good mom & not crabby like that all the time." I felt bad for that mom & for those girls. That very easily could have been me if I had way too much stuff to do. I'm glad that my Christmas shopping is done & now all I have left is wrapping. I have the coolest tool to use too. Anyone else have one of these gems?

This thing is waaaaay cool. Great for coupons too if you do that kind of thing. Super safe, has a ribbon curler built right in & so much smaller & easier to use than scissors or a big knife to cut the wrapping paper. I'll be using this beauty tomorrow after Braly goes to school. I highly recommend this thing. Wish I would have gotten a 2 pack.