in husker country

We are in Nebraska! We just got some lunch at Taco John's in Yankton, SD. Yum! :)

I was going to post some pictures that I've took but it's a little awkward in the vehicle right now. The trip has gone well so far. Thomas and Elle have watched the movie Cars and Ava has took a couple of naps. She's cried a little too but not near as much as on the trip to Missouri this summer. Scott and I have been listening to AmericanRight on XM radio. Cigar Dave's show was entertaining and now Scott is in the mood for a cigar. :) I've been working on a handbag that I am knitting and then am going to felt when it's done.

That's all for now.

over the river and through the woods

We are on our way to Nebraska as I type this. I thought it might be fun to do a little live blogging on the way. We left our house at 6:30 sharp this morning. We are packed in like sardines, Elle and Ava are both asleep, the Christmas tunes are playing softly, and Scott is drinking lots of coffee. Dale, we are just passing through Staples right now at 7:06.....I thought you might be curious about that. :) We can't wait to see all of you. I'll post again later with a picture or two when it is light out.

snow day

Last night we got a little snow. Thomas and Elle were so excited. They played outside in it for a couple of hours then came inside for a mug of hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows.

christmas with ava

too cute

into everything

I took these pictures of Ava yesterday afternoon. She's like a kitten....she likes to play with my basket of yarn! She is officially crawling. She's not fast yet but she's working on it!

too much energy

This morning the kids have had way too much energy! I had to send Thomas and Elle outside to play because I couldn't take it anymore. It must be the excitement of Christmas or something. They rode bikes and played in some forts that they built until they got cold and their tummys told them it was time to come in and ask mom for some lunch. :) I made some tomato soup and served it to them in a snowman mug. That put smiles on their faces. Now they are calmer and hopefully ready to finish up science and history after lunch.

They are asking me if they can eat some candy off of their gingerbread house now....do I dare let them?!!

Ava Mae in her highchair enjoying a few Cheerios.

This is the wildest one of the bunch! Don't let that sweet smile trick ya! :)

Here's Thomas reading a Boxcar Children mystery during lunch....his favorite books! He doesn't look like he could ever be wild does he?!

candy houses

This afternoon we had a baking and gingerbread house decorating party with some friends. Thomas named his house Fort Cavity and Elle's is called Sugarlicious.

the tooth fairy is coming to our house again

Elle lost one of her bottom middle teeth today while we were out running some errands. She now has a big hole on the bottom because she already had lost the tooth next to it this summer when she bumped it at the park. She was so excited to lose it.....she's been a little jealous about Thomas getting $1 bills for his lost teeth so she knows that it's her turn this time. :)

just in time for winter

I finished knitting this scarf for Elle last night. I'd like to get some more yarn to match and then do a hat but I don't know if I will do that right away. I have a pattern for some baby booties that I want to make for Ava and I've been wanting to give felting a try on a handbag. I guess I'll decide when I go to the yarn shop and get inspired by the yarn I find. :)

our christmas tree

what do you want to be when you grow up?

Elle has decided that when she grows up she wants to be a Grandma! :) She had a conversation about it with Thomas on Saturday. First she thought she wanted to work at a grocery store but then she decided that being a grandma looks like more fun I guess.

chocolate chip santa cookies

Today I made chocolate chip cookies with Santa shaped chips along with the chocolate chips to celebrate the first day of December.

Almost Crawling

Ava is so close to crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees like this and rocks back and forth.....like she's reving up for a race! She moves her legs but hasn't figured out how to coordinate them with her arms yet. Life is going to change around here when she is mobile! Time to baby proof the house I guess. Today she was playing on her tummy and one of the outlets caught her eye so she rolled her way over to it and I had to pick her up and move her. She's little Miss Curious! Thomas is going to put all of the little stopper things in the outlets this afternoon for me!

Christmas Tag

I found this over at The Homespun Heart and thought it looked fun!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog! I love it at this time of year....cold and warm. I remember mom making it on the stove top one year when I was young and I remember that as some of the best egg nog ever. :) I'll have to try to find a recipe for it this year and make it for us because Thomas and Elle like it too.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He delivers them all wrapped up to Grandma's house

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White everywhere

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually on Thanksgiving weekend but this year I didn't get it done until a few days after.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Dale's waffles for breakfast after opening gifts on Christmas morning.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Acting out the Christmas story with cousins when I was younger. Mom sewed costumes for all of us and my little brother Tory got to be baby Jesus.

8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? The only gifts that are opened are the ones that are exchanged at Grandma Betty's house.

9. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? The tree in the family room is decorated with white lights and ornaments that have a homemade feel. There are mittens, snowmen, gingerbread men and hearts. I also made gingerbread type cookies cutout in christmas shapes that are baked and then hung on the tree with fabric strips.

10. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love snow at Christmas time but do not like the cold that comes with it.

11. Can you ice skate? I can but it isn't pretty. :) The kids are excited that I will be able to get out on the ice with them this year since I'm not pregnant. They thought I was really missing out last year when I couldn't join them.

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? A keyboard that I got from Mom and Dad when I was in 2nd grade. This was the year that my mom decided to wrap all of the present and put them under the tree without a tag saying who they were to. My brothers and I didn't think that was much fun but mom sure did. :)

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family and celebrating Jesus' birth.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Peanut Butter Balls and Popcorn Christmas Wreath with Peanut M&M's

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking Christmas cookies & candies

17. What tops your tree? A sign that says 'Believe'

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Receiving is fun but I really do like giving best. It's fun to try to find something that you think the receiver would really enjoy.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Joy to the World

You can read Thomas's Christmas Tag here

More Birthday Pictures

My Girl is 5 Years Old Today!

Happy Birthday Elle! She's been waiting days to open this present! She got to open it this morning before eating breakfast.

Polly World!

My First Houseplant

Well, technically it's my 2nd houseplant. My mom gave me a transplant from a plant in her kitchen that looked just like this one but it died on me. This afternoon while I was in the grocery store I decided to take a look at the floral department to see what I could find for a Thanksgiving centerpiece and I found the exact same plant! It's called Baby's Tears and it is supposed to be easy to grow. Maybe it will be this time since the plant is more mature......I'm hoping!

Tonight my dishwasher seems to have took a turn for the worse. This little plant will cheer up the kitchen sink area since I will be spending a lot of time there now. While I was potting it at the counter I heard my dishwasher make a loud pop sound and then quit. I can't get the water to drain out and none of the buttons work. Scott gets back from his business trip late tonight so maybe he will be able to figure out what is wrong with it this weekend.

Well, I better go get started on those dishes. :)

Baby Toes

Hearts At Home

Last weekend I went to a Hearts at Home Mom's Conference with a friend. Scott had the kids all by himself from Friday morning till Sunday night. I came home to a clean house and happy children so he did a great job! :) The conference was wonderful. It was nice to get away for a couple of days and get rejuvenated and have some girl talk without being interrupted. Sara Groves was the special music for the weekend and she was fabulous! My new favorite CD now is her latest one called Add To The Beauty.

We stopped in the Twin Cities and did some shopping on the way down to the conference and then again on the way home. My best find of the weekend was this dress to wear to Scott's employer's Christmas party. I just love it!

It was a great weekend but it was nice to get home again!

The Apron Is Finished

Crazy Smile

Thomas lost his other front tooth yesterday. He is now missing 4 teeth and has one silly smile now. :) There aren't any others that are loose right now so he should have some new permanent teeth before he loses any more baby teeth. He will miss the regular visit from the tooth fairy!

Aprons

Tonight I am getting together with two friends and we are going to sew aprons that look like the one in this picture. I found the yellow and red flowery fabric at Joann's and thought it would look cute with the red trim. I'll post a picture when it is done.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Winter

It's been snowing like this off and on all day. Nothing is accumulating on the ground, thankfully. There is even a thin coating of ice on our end of the lake. Winter really is coming....ready or not! :)

An Apple Afternoon

This is what I got started on after we had finished school for the day and had some lunch. I washed all of the apples and then used that nifty apple corer/slicer to cut them up. That is one of the best gadgets I have in my kitchen! It saved me a lot of time. After I took this picture and was looking at it I realized that most of the items in this picture are gifts from family. The big bowl is from Scott's Grandma Betty. It was a wedding gift. The yellow canner is from my mom and the cutting board is from my mother-in-law.


This is the one jar of applesauce that I made. The flavor of it was really good and the kids loved it but I wasn't going to get as many jars of it as I had hoped that I would. It was a lot of work to get to this point and since I can buy applesauce on sale at a great price at the store I thought that it would be better to take the applesauce and add sugar and spices and make apple butter instead.

The wood apple in this picture was carved by our neigbor. It is really neat. He gave it to Elle and she is sharing it with me in the kitchen. He made a fish for Thomas that we will take a picture of and put on his blog.

Here is the apple butter simmering on the stove. It simmered and simmered and simmered for a little over 2 hours! Thomas and I took turns stirring it because it pretty much had to be stirred constantly during that time. The house smelled so good yesterday afternoon!

The finished apple butter! Every single jar sealed so I was happy about that. I will be giving some away as Christmas gifts to Sunday School and swimming lessons teachers.

We toasted up a piece of bread and tried it out. My taste testers gave it their seal of approval! I think that this will have to become a tradition in the fall for us now. I really enjoyed making it and would like to try it with pears as well. Maybe this winter!

Here is the recipe that I used. I combined a couple of different recipes that I found on the internet and came up with this one -

10 lbs apples
3 cups fresh pressed apple cider

Boil this in a large pot until apples are soft. (In the picture you can see that I used water and too much of it too. Next time I will boil the apples in the juice and use it in the butter rather than throwing the apple flavored water down the drain like I did this time.)

Press the apples through a food mill. Put 13 cups of applesauce mixture in a heavy bottomed pot. Add -

5 cups granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp ground cloves

Simmer on medium low heat, stirring regularly until mixture reduces to a thick, buttery consistency. Pour into hot sterilized canning jars, water bath, and enjoy.

A Pirate and Dancing Kitty

The Princess's New Throne

Miss Ava Mae got a new high chair today! She will be enjoying a meal of squash and rice cereal in it this evening. She looks like she enjoys her meals doesn't she?! :) I like to call her my Chubba Bubba......I take after my mom with lots of nicknames for my kiddos!

Sorry my pictures have been so dark lately. We still haven't bought a new digital camera to replace the one that died so we are using the camcorder's camera but there isn't a flash on it. I try to take pictures by windows to get more light in the photograph but we've had a lot of cloudy weather here! I figure that grainy, dark pictures are better than no pictures.

A Kid Update

Scott got home yesterday afternoon. Yeah!! I took this picture of Ava with him last night. We even managed to get her smiling at the camera!

Ava is just growing up so fast. She is getting quite a bit of hair, compared to when Elle was a baby anyway . She is eating solids at breakfast and dinner every day and has liked everything we've given her so far. The funniest thing she does that the other kids didn't do was roll over and over to get where she wants to go. The other day I laid her on the floor in the middle of my room to play and then I went into the bathroom to fix my hair and put my makeup on. Elle was in there with me putting her pretend makeup on. Ava didn't want to miss out on the fun so she just rolled, scooted and rolled to get over to my bathroom doorway. When she got there she gave us a big smile. :) Another thing that she does that makes me smile is when she's being laid down for her nap she will put her thumb in her mouth as soon as she sees her bed. She rarely sucks her thumb any other time but when she's sleepy and she knows that she's going to be laid down for a nap, in goes the thumb. :)

Thomas taught Elle to ride her bike without training wheels this week. Thomas took the training wheels off himself and she can now get on her bike and get going all by herself. She likes to go fast and try to do all of the tricks that Thomas does so I am just waiting for a crash and some tears here soon. I am ignoring my urge to wrap her up in bubble wrap and put a hockey goalie mask on her! :) The two rules that I made very clear are to stay away from the retaining wall and do not attempt to go down the driveway! Other than that she can ride as fast as she wants to and even go off the ramp made up of a landscaping timber and piece of plywood. I'll just say a prayer for her when she goes out to play and have the Strawberry Shortcake bandaides ready I guess. :) Scott sent me an article last week about a school banning playing tag at recess because kids can get hurt and it makes them feel excluded. Give me a break! We aren't afraid of a few bumps and bruises at our school. :)