Our Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, we always make cookies. When I was little, my dad would always go to my grandparents and butcher so my mom started making cookies as our special tradition. Thanksgiving is one of my top two favorite holidays! So now our children are old enough to do the task that I first did: Open the Hershey kisses.



They were allowed to eat one Hershey kiss each.



This cutie pie was very intent on opening her kisses quickly because of him:



Apparently boys make everything into a competition. He wanted to win the "who can open their kisses first" contest. Even though they didn't have equal amounts of kisses.



How many kisses is that now that you've eaten, three?



Pnut was also competing. She came in a close second.



Kiss grand total: At least five, although we believe that she stuck two in her mouth at one time so that would bring it to six. It is beyond me how she kept from throwing up!

We also did a gingerbread house in the evening:



The icing operator didn't now what he was doing at first and made a mess until his mother-in-law helped him out.



They consumed probably about half of the candy while they were putting it on. Again, still don't know how Pilly didn't throw up!



Are you cute? No, I'm very cute! She really does say that:)



Lovely! Unfortunately, I don't have any follow-up pictures. I thought we did, but I can't find them. The kids attacked the house and ate it. Not the entire thing, but they took some good bites out of it and ate a lot of the remaining candy that they hadn't eaten during the decorating process. They had a good day!

Wednesday I have to consume my only turkey from this holiday. Someone gave us a large one so we are having some people over to share it and I have to eat some. No one in my family (parents and sisters) likes turkey. That's because it is gross. I like chicken!

I need to go eat my rapidly melting snack! Have a wonderful night!

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Peppermint Stick Holiday Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pilly wasn't feeling well last night so I ended up upstairs with her and never got to come back down! She slept with us for part of the night and then thankfully went to her own bed. It is amazing how much space these children take up in bed!

In other Pilly news, we learned a new fact this weekend because of her. If you ever need to counteract fluoride, have the person who consumed it drink milk or some other milk product like yogurt. Pilly managed to eat part of a tube of toothpaste during naptime and had it all over. Lovely sticky blue toothpaste all over her face and in her eyebrows and hair and staining her shirt. Goodness. So I called my good friend Poison Control, and they advised us that the toothpaste won't really hurt her and to make herself sick she would have to eat half the tube, which she did not. She was to drink milk to counteract any fluoride she may have eaten but other than that she should be fine.

I was going to post a recipe for blueberry lemon bread tonight, but I didn't really like it. I have to think about it some more. It didn't taste very lemon-y, and it was more like pound cake than bread. I probably didn't like it because there was no heavy whipping cream in it. I may or may not be addicted to heavy whipping cream. The jury is still out, but I have yet to meet a product containing it that I don't want to devour in two bites.

Posts may be sporadic until next Monday because we are going to be here and there, as I'm sure all of you are too! I have so much to do! Aaah!

Have a wonderful, thankful holiday!

The Last Minute Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!! (with free bonus pattern in post)

The Last Minute Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!! (with free bonus pattern in post)

Lemonade Pie

Do you see that? Do you have any idea how wonderful this dessert is? Let me give you the ingredients, and I think you will figure it out!

Crust:
2 c graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c sugar
7 T butter, melted

Filling:
2 c heavy whipping cream
1 14-oz can sweetened, condensed milk, chilled
1 6-oz can frozen lemonade concentrate (do not thaw)

Topping:
1 c blueberries
1 c raspberries
2 T sugar
1 T lemon juice

Melt the butter and pour over the graham cracker crumbs/sugar mixture. Stir well and then pat firmly into a pie pan. Bake at 350 for about seven minutes and let cool completely.

In a chilled mixing bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk and the lemonade and then pour into the cream and gently stir. Pour into crust and chill in freezer overnight.

About an hour before serving, mix the topping. Set aside until ready to serve.

Let the pie come to room temperature for 10 minutes. Top each slice with berries.

Roll over and take a nap.

*Notes: I had to use a cake pan instead of a pie pan, and it made the crust kind of thick and delicious. I wasn't able to fit in all of the topping, but I just filled it to the brim. I also didn't have my milk chilled and it still worked. This stuff is awesome. The reaction from all who ate it was pretty much "Oh wow!"

Herb Stuffed Chicken and Oven Roasted Potatoes

If you are on a diet, you may want to refrain from reading this. I am pretty sure this is one of those recipes that you can gain weight just reading it. The chicken recipe is from page 65 of Paula Deen's Lady and Son's cookbook. The potatoes I just found somewhere on the internet like cooks.com or something.

Herb Stuffed Chicken:



This picture does it no justice. If you could smell, you would understand. I'll just give you the recipe to try out!

4 whole skinless boneless chicken breast
3 ounces cream cheese, softened (split into quarters)
3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (split into quarters)
1/2 t dried sweet basil
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t House Season (a mix of garlic powder, salt, and pepper)
4 slices bacon
4 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 275. Pound chicken flat. Mine was probably still at least 1/2 an inch thick after pounded. Spread softened cream cheese and then crumble feta over the breast. Mix all the herbs and spices together in a bowl and then sprinkle over the breast and cheeses. Roll up this chicken mess and wrap with a piece of bacon. I didn't put any toothpicks to secure it or anything, the bacon did a pretty good job holding it. Place in a 9 x 13 casserole dish and pour butter evenly over all four breasts. Cover dish with foil and bake at 275 for 1.5 hours. Then remove cover, up temperature to 350, and bake for 15-20 more minutes until bacon is brown.

*Notes: Soften your cream cheese better than I did, it is just easier. The House Seasoning, I just guesstimated. I didn't measure them out at all, I just eyeballed it as I put it in with the herbs. This dish would probably impress your in-laws:)

Oven Roasted Potatoes:



These were pretty good, probably needed more salt and could have been a little crispier, but they complemented the chicken well, especially the rosemary and garlic.

1.5 lb new potatoes, halves and quarters depending on size
Olive Oil, a few times around the bowl
Salt
Pepper
1-2 t rosemary
2 cloves garlic

Chop potatoes, put in a bowl, and throw everything else in and mix it around with your hand. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet no later than 10-15 minutes after the chicken is in the oven. These are supposed to go at 450 for 40 minutes so it takes a while at 275!

*Notes: The rosemary is approximate. Just make sure that it is pretty even over all the potatoes. The potatoes are good, but they do pale in comparison to the chicken!

Make this meal, and your house will probably remind you of Carraba's and your friends will tell you they can smell it outside!

Tomorrow I will put up the recipe for the dessert I made, but I haven't gotten to take a picture yet. I guess that means I will have to eat another one. How sad.

I should probably go run like 40 miles now. I will be on the couch picturing myself doing just that! Have a great night!

Helpers

Today I got the clothes out to fold, and Pnut instantly started pulling out washcloths to fold. She does a great job, and I appreciate her help. Someone else wanted to help this time as well. Her version of helping is a little bit different:



She puts the clothes on the floor and just bunches them up. It is cute because she tries but she just started piling them all up towards the end. She also matched one of Pnut's socks to Joel's sock. She told me who each one belonged to and then tried to pair them together:)

Tomorrow is our next Cooking Club, and I am super-excited to see how things turn out! Hopefully I will have some yummy recipes to post tomorrow!

We are having a really busy week after a full weekend so I am a little bit tired (also throw in the fact that I stayed up until 12:30 Saturday night, which I never do!). I am going to get ready for bed...I hope Joel doesn't get mad;)

Retreat

This weekend Joel and I got to go on a retreat with our Sunday School, and it was awesome! It was so nice to be together just the two of us. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and refreshments (with delicious refreshments!) with our class. The last and only time we were on a retreat was when we were in the other young couple's class at church when Pnut was about 8 months old:



The girls had a wonderful time with their Mom-Mom who drove up to stay with them and the pesky [:)] dog. It sounds like things were pretty silly here. They went to the mall, and Jayne said that they were in Sears and she saw a superhero shirt and said "Oh, your daddy would like that! Does he have this one?" Pnut replied, "No, but he doesn't need it." Ha! That is what I always say! Pnut told Jayne where to turn in for the mall and showed her where everything was that she needed in the house and everything to do, like let the light on for the dog in the basement. She's a smart kid! On Friday, she kept asking me when Daddy was coming home to get me! She was ready to play with her Mom-Mom. Pilly, on the other hand, cried when we left. She put her boots on and wanted up. She was more clingy than usual today, but they really haven't been that bad for things being unusual for the weekend. It has been worse!

Joel's brother is bringing his new girlfriend up tomorrow for supper. Thank you Jackie for the awesome roast recipe! I make this and everyone always likes it:) Since Jason is coming tomorrow, I guess I better fix his blanket that I have had for a month so he can take it home. I would like to not have it is my sewing space anymore!

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and are looking at a great week!
Shawna:)

P.S. Cherry Passion Tic-Tacs are addicting!

Latest Installment of Pnut's Clothing

I bought my bridesmaid dress tonight! Woohoo:) It won't be in until about Christmas, but that is alright. I can't wear it until May anyways. It was also established at this dress session that I am short. I don't really think that I am that short, but the one dress size was just so long! Ridiculous!

I wanted to share the latest installment of Pnut's wardrobe:



This is actually the first time she didn't really match while dressing herself. Funny kid.

I have been so very busy this week, and tomorrow is just going to speed things up. I hope to relax this weekend! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend:)

An Exciting Event!

We had an Exciting Event today! These two who love each other very much and play so nicely together accomplished something together!



After getting herself to the bathroom and dressed, this child



took this child



to the bathroom where she pooped on the potty!!! Pilly has peed on the potty twice. One of those times, Pnut is the one who took her to the bathroom without my knowledge. I don't mind though! I heard them walking around upstairs this morning, and then they came downstairs and told me that Pilly had pooped on the potty so I raced upstairs and she really had! Pnut will now be taking over the potty training which I haven't started yet:)

Tonight, I am planning on starting a Christmas project that I want to take on our retreat this weekend. But I also want to go to bed a little early so we will see how far I get on that. I think the worst part about Christmas is all of the pictures I cannot post!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week and enjoying this last hurrah of sunshine before the real winter comes in!

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/handmade-dress-patterns-guest-giveaway.html

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/handmade-dress-patterns-guest-giveaway.html

The rest of the story...

As further proof of the sovereignty of God, I wanted to tell you all the rest of the car story. You can find the beginning here if you missed it. The day after I posted, Joel took the car to a garage that could fit us in. He didn't have a lot of time to call lots of places because it was rather last minute. The guy did the inspection and said that we needed four new tires and we had a cracked rear arm control. We also had to get the broken lug nut fixed. In total, it was going to cost around $850. Of course, we only had $500. Joel had him fix the lug nut and he changed the oil and gave us our emissions sticker, and he had to take the car home without the inspection. He called his mechanic friend who was willing to look at the problem but wouldn't have time until the weekend. To do that, we would have had to drive an hour and a half to the south into another state. We weren't sure what to do and just were praying a lot and trying to have faith. We discussed a credit card, but we don't really believe in using them and taking out the debt, and besides, it would have been next month that we wouldn't have been able to pay instead of this month. Joel prayed one night, saying "God, we know you started this and are going to finish it." That really helped us to have faith and to trust and remind us that God knew the problem before we did and knew how he was going to solve it. Joel remembered the place that he took the Kia last year and that he really liked the mechanic and thought he was an honest guy so he called him. The mechanic was able to look at the car this morning, and he said that it only needed two new tires, the others are alright, and the crack is very tiny and nothing to be concerned about yet. He said since our car has very low mileage and it isn't making any noise, it is not a problem. He charged us $174 for everything. How awesome is that! I was telling my mom today, and she said "Oh, so you can get your bridesmaid's dress." I had forgotten all about that! We have about $125 left, and when we received the check, I said that we could get the car fixed and I would be able to buy my bridesmaid's dress for a wedding I am in next May. God didn't forget! He knew just how much money we would need for all of these things. How awesome is He?!

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Aaah!

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. I am ready for the weekend. This has been a long week! Today was a crazy day of trying to clean, work, and take care of the girls. Pilly dumped out the entire container of garlic salt after I washed the floor and then she spilled Pnut's cup of juice. Aaah! I was ready for nap!

Pnut was doing this of her own initiative:



She didn't make it the whole way through, but she was really doing a great job!

My children are crazy. I don't know why I am trying to do this before they go to bed!

This is the week of short, inadequate posts. I still am working on that pattern and have declared my fabric box a disaster zone. Heaven help us!

Where is my motivation? I think I lost it...

Weird.

I only have one more thing to do for my Pay It Forward. I can't find the pattern online that I used the last time I made what I am making so I am trying to figure out what to do. I think I could make it up, but I only have one yard of fabric so I can't mess up!

We went to the playground today, and it was very brisk outside. My mom kindly got the girls each a set of thin mittens and warm ones. Pilly had ones that were connected on a string that ran through her coat, and I made her wear them a lot because her hands and feet get very cold very quickly. That turkey broke the string the other night. We have no idea how she did it. I think I will try to put it back together because they were really convenient! She doesn't exactly tell you when she is going to drop one on the ground.

I keep getting more ideas for stuff to make or do for the girls for Christmas, which is aggravating. And they are all good ideas! It will come down to time management more than anything else because none of the projects are expensive. Ugh. Brain, slow down.

Hmm, I am feeling so not motivated but I need to do this...I'm ready to go to the next project! I think it is a fun idea, I just let it drag out too long!

Well, I'm off then! Have a good night:)

Kids are Weird

Two weird things from bath time:

Please take your feet off of your sister's head.

Stop licking the bathtub.

I need to know...do your children take their clothes off and run around saying "naked kid, naked kid" and differentiate between naked kid and really naked kid? Naked kids still have diapers or underwear on, really naked kids don't. This one is the craziest about it:



She is doing a good dance here:)

I also wanted to share the Outfit of the Day:



She is also doing the "tree" pose here, or trying anyways. We do love our Wii Fit! This matched relatively well. There is blue in the pants, you just might not be able to see it.



Isn't she beautiful?! Her eyes look so big here. I always think Pilly's eyes look bigger than Pnut's, but not in this picture!

I am almost done with my Pay It Forward so I want to go. Hopefully more of a post tomorrow...

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Shabby Apple Dare to Design Lawn Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

God's Faithfulness!

Today we had a very busy day. I feel like that should be capitalized. We had a super-fun Mom's Group this morning where the girls got totally worn out from so much fun. We all took naps, and the girls went to bed without any problem and slept for a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't have any work today, but I was able to work on my Pay It Forward some. I finished the one thing I was working on so now I just have two more things to make and then get it in the mail! We picked Joel up from work and went to TJ Maxx and got some Christmas gifts for the girls. They were there, but they will forget by the time Christmas gets here! We probably won't get them much else except for things for their stockings. They get so much from everyone else, and I would really like to instill a spirit of giving in them as they grow. I am excited to put up the tree though. That maniac dog will probably chew it all apart and then I will really have to throttle him. I love the Christmas season. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday though! That makes a nice segue into the next thing I want to tell you all about!

I don't often talk about my faith on here. I don't think that the internet is really a good place to communicate things like this because there is no tone of voice, no facial expression. But this is something I just need to share. The power of God is an awesome thing!

It all started when we got a flat tire about a week and a half ago. When Joel put the spare on, he accidentally broke the lug nut so he didn't want to take it to get it fixed because he was afraid of the expense. He was going to arrange with a mechanic friend about an hour and a half away to fix it. Then this past Saturday night we were in the car and I happened to look over out the driver's side of the windshield and notice that the sticker said 10/09. Of course, Saturday was the last day of October and our car was supposed to be inspected by then. Ugh! Our old car always got inspected in May so I guess I was thrown off by that and the fact that we haven't had this car a year yet. We didn't know what we were going to do because everything we make just goes right back out into bills. We haven't even been able to get the oil changed because there was no extra money. So we prayed. We prayed Saturday night and I was praying Sunday morning and decided that I wasn't going to tell anyone about it. When we got to church, I checked our mailbox and there was a video game that Joel had loaned to a friend and a card in there. I figured the card was from our friend who had the game so I opened it and inside was a check. Someone happened to come up and ask me how I was at that moment, and I just burst into tears. The poor woman probably thought I really had lost it this time! The check was from our church because they had heard that we were having a bit of a hard time. They did this before we even prayed about needing the money! God knows our needs and is faithful to meet them. I just cried the whole way through the worship time because all of the songs were about God's faithfulness and we had just seen it in a big way. He never lets us go without. We always have food and pay all our bills. He is so awesome. I'll be honest, I cannot imagine going through life without Him.

Our trick-or-treaters came Friday night, and the girls got to dress up to give out candy.



Our princesses are a little weirder than your average princess:



I think I am going to do something with this picture for Christmas: