Waiting for Jacob and Recipes!!

It's official! He will be here in the morning!! YAY!!!!!!! I can't wait to see him!!! I may not let him go back once he's here! ;)

We have been running around getting everything ready for his visit. I am planning to make a HUGE New Year's Eve dinner in place of the Christmas dinner. We are going to have all of his favorites!!!   I'll be cooking like crazy Monday! LOL

The Menu

Ham - a whole ham being cooked at the butcher's ;)

Cheesy, Spicy Corn - sweet corn with Velveeta and jalapenos - add 1 cup of milk to the drained corn (I use about 5 cans). Then chop up the Velveeta, adding several chunks at once. Keep stirring and adding Velveeta until it's nice and thick. Add chopped up jalapeno slices to taste.

Sweet Carrots - chopped carrots cooked in brown sugar and butter

Mashed Potatoes - with sweetened condensed milk instead of regular milk

Green Beans - from Margaret Holmes

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Cheesecake Brownies

Oreo Truffles

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Peanut Butter Blossoms - the recipe I posted the other day

Chocolate Pie - except I use the Cook & Serve



I think that's it.I can't find my list (of course) and I have a feeling I've missed something......



Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary. The Hubby and I will be married 20 yrs. WOW!!!! We never seem to get to do much to celebrate, though. We are usually too broke from Christmas! LOL







Here is one of the dresses that I made this week. I want to help Pam out in her quest to make 100 dresses for girls in South Africa. 100!! My goodness!!!!



















Silly Cloud thinks she's a baby. ;)





Oh, my goodness! I have SOOOOO much to do!!! I guess I had better get started! Anyone want to volunteer to clean my house??? Anyone???  No?? SIGH... Then I had better get off of here and get busy.

~*~ Merry Christmas ~*~

Here is what Christmas Eve and Christmas Day looked like at our house. It was a little subdued this year. We are all missing Jacob like crazy and maybe a move right around the holiday season wasn't the best idea in the world... LOL









We made coffee filter snowflakes with teal glitter for a special friend of ours.



















Then we played with homemade air dry clay with added cinnamon.

I found the recipe, minus the cinnamon, here - Baking Soda Clay. It works really well and to give it an added holiday feel I just added about 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. The kids loved it and the house smelled great! ;)









Then we made peanut butter blossoms! YUMMY!!

Recipe -

1 cup of peanut butter

1 cup of white sugar

1 egg

Mix all ingredients together

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls

Place on non-greased cookie sheet

350 oven for 7 mins

Pull out oven and immediately add a Hershey's Kiss right in the middle. (The kids love that part.)

Makes about 2 dozen







Then it was Christmas morning!







I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!!!!

Our Jacob will be here this weekend! We can't wait!!! YAY!!!!!

Fly on the Wall 2

Have you ever thought about what people might think if they saw what goes on behind-the-scenes
at your house? Do you ever wonder what it would be like to catch a glimpse of someone else’s daily
life? Here’s your chance. Today 12 bloggers are inviting you into their homes to be a fly on the wall.

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:



BakingInATornado.com - The Master Mind!
hypnoticbard.blogspot.com/
stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/ - Me!
raising-reagan.com/
mybrainonkids.net/
sadderbutwiser.wordpress.com
mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/
followmehome.shellybean.com
justalittlenutty.com/
esthernorinedesigns.blogspot.com
imjustsayindamn.blogspot.com/
chewylicious.com





If you were a fly on the wall in my house over the past month here are just some of the things you may have witnessed....



Joshua- If you had a metal bucket on your head and someone threw lit firecrackers under it, would it kill you??



Me - I realllly need to go on a diet.

Colin - NO, Mommy!! Don't lose your fluff!! (This isn't the first time he has made this comment. LOL)



Deanna - I think we have a mouse. But I haven't seen any mouse holes.

Me - Mouse holes??

Deanna - Yeah, you know, like on Tom and Jerry???

Me - You realize that is a cartoon, right?

Deanna - You mean they don't really live in mouse holes?



Cailey - People's under-tongues are reallllly gross. See??? (She then shows me her "under-tongue".)



Joshua is looking over my shoulder while I am scrolling through Facebook. I happen upon this picture -







Me - I don't know whether to feel sorry for it or.....

Joshua - Kill it with fire????



The Hubby and I were gone to store one evening leaving the kids at home. When we get back we are met with this story:

Joshua - I was hiding behind the couch (hee hee hee) and Deanna didn't know it (hee hee hee). She walks in (gasp, hee hee hee) and says to Cloud, "Kitty got gas! Yes, you do!" Bwha ha ha ha ha!!!!

He then proceeded to laugh so much that I feared for his sanity.



OMGOSH! The UPS man here drives a golf cart with a wagon on the back. He was almost hit today by the Fedex man in a regular Fedex truck.... Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! LOL



You would have heard me saying a few choice words every time I burnt myself with the glue gun or when my sewing machine would act up. Both of those things happen WAY too often.



You would also have witnessed the new house trying to KILL ME!!! My goodness!!!!





Here is where the garage door fell. Yes. It just FELL! Thankfully no one was hurt and the van was outside!! :/







And here are all the books and the shelf that fell on top of my head! I had to dig my way out of them after yelling for someone to help me.... Concussion city! :/  And yes, it was nailed into the wall!



Sooo, I think the we have made peace with the house... Either that or it is trying to come up with another plan to oust us since the near death experiences haven't worked so far.......



I had a nice loooooong list for this post and then I ....ummmm.... lost the list... SIGH...  And I will probably find it the after this is posted.

Sew or No Sew Stockings

Christmas is in a few days... HELP!!!!!!  If you are looking for a last minute idea, here you go! These are super fast and super easy. I did 4 of them in an afternoon.

You can sew them or glue them or both. I did both.

What I used to make 4 -

1 1/4 yards of burlap

2 different spools of red, wire ribbon

1 partial spool of shiny, red rickrack

1 spool of gold cording

2 plastic snowflake ornaments

1 tiny bottle of Tulip Puffy Paint

hot glue gun









First I drew out a pattern.  You can trace an existing stocking or free hand it.

Yes, I know this looks NOTHING like the stockings I made... I'll get to that. ;)







Place your pattern on the burlap, making sure the burlap is folded so you cut the front and back at the same time.

Yes, still looks different. I'm getting there. LOL









Sew or glue the front to the back.



Then hack off the curly toes when you realize that burlap is just too thick to turn right side out with that narrow of a space.... LOL

Now, that being said.... If you want to leave the stockings inside out, it DOES look really cute. The curly toes don't show up as well as expected but still very cute.

Too bad I didn't think about that BEFORE I got frustrated and hacked them off.....

Now, turn right side out and press. Use a cool iron if you've used hot glue. Or leave it inside out. ;)











Turn the top in about 1/2 inch and press. Again, using a cool iron if you've used hot glue.







Now, cut a small piece of the rickrack and pin in place OR hot glue in place.

Then either sew the top under and the rickrack in place or glue the top under.

This one I did with the sewing machine. The other 3 I just glued.  Either way works just as well as the other.









Cut your ribbons to make as big a bow as you like. Cut a smaller piece, about 3 ", to use for the middle. Wrap it around the center of your bow and glue or sew it in place.









Glue or sew your bow in place. Then adjust the ribbons. ;)

















Measure out the rickrack to go around the toes, cut and glue in place.









Now do the same for the heel!









Then write the name with the puffy paint!

It takes about 4 hrs for the paint to dry so I would suggest putting it up somewhere that the cats can't get to...... ;)









This is the first one I did.

















Colin informed me that boys don't like big, red bows so I went with little gold bows and snowflakes for theirs. ;)











I hope you like the tutorial! Please let me know if you have any questions. You can leave a comment or use the Contact Me button at the top to email me! :)

What's Been Going on Around Here

I can't tell you how many posts I have written and then deleted. There's so much going on right now. Not only in the larger world but in my little world, too. Now, that being said, the stuff we are dealing with here is no where near as tragic as things that other people are dealing with right now, so I will just be keeping all that to myself. No matter what is going on here, I still have so much more than so many others and I need to count my blessing, starting with the fact that all my children are alive and well, even if one of them is so far away.

So.... Let me share with you some of the things we have been doing lately. Both the Cs have been sick this week so we haven't done much in the way of school with them.







Cailey's Christmas tree art.











Colin's Christmas Tree art!











Here is another pair of pj pants that I made for my cousin's boys.

I can't show you hers yet... OR the surprises that I put in the box. ;)  (Hee hee hee! Sorry, Amy!)













This is Cloud hiding in Cailey's desk last week! LOL













Here our tree for this year. Cailey and Colin decorated most of it themselves. ;)













Cailey's snowflake ornament.











Colin's snowflake. He never did go back and finish it. LOL











Colin's snowman ornament.











Cailey's snowgirl ornament.





And that's about it.... LOL

I have SOOOO many projects that I have been meaning to work on but I have been in such a funk that I just haven't been able to get myself to do them.  I have the fox flannel outfit, burlap stockings, 4 pillows a piece for the Cs..... And the list just keeps going.... YILES!!! Time to pull myself out of the funk and get busy!!!!!! If you could, please keep me and Jacob in your prayers. This will be the first Christmas that he hasn't been with us. It's going to be a rough one.



Speaking of busy, don't forget to check out my friend's blog, Eileen's Perpetually Busy! She has a great pattern for crocheted hats up!! And I know it's great because we have 4 of her hats here. ;)

Silence and Support for Sandy Hook

 

 

My VERY VERY GOOD friend, Eileen, just started her own blog!! WOOO HOOO!!! I hope you all go over and show her some love!!

Secret Subject Swap December Take 2 (I think....)

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap.



15 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and

check them all out. See you there:

BakingInATornado.com - The brain behind the Secret Subject Swap! :)
cassandrazcorner.blogspot.com
mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/
sadderbutwiser.wordpress.com
stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com - ME! ;)
momaical.com
macdonaldsplayland.blogspot.com/
menopausalmother.blogspot.com/
dinoheromommy.com/
hungrylittlegirl.com
rushingforbagels.blogspot.com/
mommyunmuted.com
3monkeysandamartini.com
theadventuresofthefamilypants.com
loveartbaby.com/

Your “Secret Subject” is: The Year Blitzen Got On Santa's Naughty List
It was submitted by: http://www.momaical.com



In all fairness, it wasn’t REALLLLLY Blitzen’s fault.... Not REALLLLLY... I mean, come on! Who is always the favorite? Rudolph. Yep, that spoiled rotten reindeer. He thinks he is just soooo cool because his nose lights up. Big deal. :P
Here’s how it all went down.
It was a normal, average day. Blitzen was flying in to work when all of a sudden a bright, red light blinds him! He was so disoriented that he flew right into Comet. Yep, it was Rudolph’s nose again. SIGH.... Down Blitzen and Comet went, crashing through one of the workshops and landing in a heap on a pile of Furbys. Don’t worry, no one was seriously hurt and those stupid Furbys would still be making it down chimneys on Christmas Eve, unfortunately....  With his pride and rump bruised, Blitzen went home to get....well.... blitzed.. Seriously, with that name, you can’t blame him.
A while later, Blitzen’s wife, Doereen, comes home to find him in a state.... Then she starts complaining; her mother never DID like him, how are they going to make up for that day’s pay, and the BIG ONE, why can’t he be more like Rudolph????? That was IT! He had had enough! And that is when The Plan began to form.
The Plan, just thinking about it made Blitzen snort with laughter! He would get even with that Goody Red-Nose!
So, he grabbed up the fruitcake that had been sitting on the counter for who knows HOW long and he added a special ingredient... Ex-lax. Then he wrapped it all up with a pretty bow and set off to find Rudolph, that stinking red-nosed pain in the......

Have you ever seen what happens to a FLYING reindeer when they get the runs.... Well, let me assure you, it ain’t pretty.... Pigeons and seagulls have NOTHING on them.
And have you ever seen what reindeer.... um..... pooh can do to a red suit?? Well, Santa found out. And being Santa, he knew exactly the who and the why.

And THAT is how Blitzen got on Santa’s Naughty List......

















Now, don't forget to go check out the rest of swappers!!!