Pictures from our day

We had chocolate chip cookies today. Some of us get messier than others.



She wants to have her picture taken, but then she runs away from the camera! Also, that kid never wears socks. It is pointless to put them on her. She often wears a short-sleeved shirt too.



Her daddy bought her this shirt. Can you tell? She isn't allowed to wear it out. Everyone will think she is a boy. The man across the street thought she was a boy today!



I love you Pilly, let me put you in a headlock to prove it!



This girl loves her daddy. I hate to admit it, but she really is a daddy's girl! He got his hair cut off. Sad:( Someone needs to work on that facial hair!

Applesauce!

I made our applesauce today. I had about 22 pounds of apples that I got for $9, which works out to about 42 cents per pound. That is a pretty good deal! I chose sweet apples because I don't add sugar. I could have gotten the Granny Smith for 35 cents a pound but I would rather pay a little bit more to have the sweet apple:) It turned out so yummy! I am not sure what they do to the applesauce that they sell in the store because it is just not this good!



Here is my bag. Can you believe I carried this?! I actually pulled the car up to our house, took it inside, and then parked. Twenty-two pounds is a little bit much to carry with a baby in the other arm. Or it might be a little bit much period!



My mother-in-law had also gotten these apples from her school and wasn't going to eat them. She gave them to us because she knows we love our apples! However, they were a little mealy for me so I thought they would make a good addition to our sauce.



This was my kitchen counter set up. I could not have done this at our apartment. I don't think we have more counter space here, but what we do have is all stuck together instead of spread out in small pieces around the kitchen. This is better! I really love how you don't even have to core the apples! That poopy stuff just comes right out into the green bowl:)



This is what I got for all of my hard work. The two bags that are red have the red delicious mixed in with the other sauce. That tastes the best! The other stuff is good, but that stuff is great!



Here is Pilly, happy that mommy is finally done messing around with the stove and can instead respond to her every whim.



Here is the Pnut, happy but probably disappointed that I will be paying attention to her since she can't do naughty things like draw on my rotary cutting board with a pencil or pick brick pieces out of the wall. She needs a watchful eye folks!

It was so much easier than the way I usually do it. So much! I would like to can some next summer. Hopefully this will last us for a while, but the way these monsters eat it I am not sure!

I didn't have lunch because I was working on the applesauce. Don't worry, I fed the girls. Around two o'clock, I remembered that I had not had lunch so I got some applesauce and deer bologna. My dad gave me this with the deer jerky. He sent two over and one is in the freezer but probably won't be for long. I just opened it today and have eaten five pieces. Five. I think I am the only one who will eat that too. I will have to ask Joel. Or hide it and feign innocence. Oh, what to do?! So Dad, I might need some more soon:)

Stocking

I had no work again today so I thought I would try out my rotary cutter. Unfortunately, I was also talking on the phone at the time. It did not go well. So I postponed cutting until tonight. I have learned a few things in my short time of using that instrument! First, I may need a new see-through rule by next Christmas if I keep cutting on it instead of the mat. Second, you must be very careful to not lean to close or it might just cut your hair off. I have not done it yet, but I have come pretty close! Third, go slow!!! I made so many bad cuts because it looks like it should be easy so I just rolled along and the cutter did not stick to the ruler as well as I would have liked. Hopefully, I will have enough material for the stockings because I am pretty sure that there isn't a lot of Christmas fabric around still.

I have been so excited about these stockings. They are quilt-as-you-go stockings. This is the first side of one of Pilly's. Poor Pilly. She gets the not quite as good stuff. I should have practiced on Pnut's since she is the one who usually gets the new stuff. That is what happens when you are the first child. Anyways, it is turinng out nicely after a few glitches. I did the pattern wrong, I ran out of bobbin thread (again), and when I sewed around the whole edge, I sewed some of the extra fabric to the stocking and was able to employ the seam-ripper. Yippy skippy. Now that one side is done, I really like it. The fabric patterns might not blend as well as they should...but that is certainly not my forte!



In other news, I received my boots today that I ordered from Bass (no Dad, not Bass Fishing Store). I was so excited about them and already knew what I was going to wear them with on Sunday. Pnut and I each took one out and removed the cardboard. I tried on the one that I had, and then I reached for the one she was holding and realized that there was something not quite right. The zipper was on the same side. They sent me two left boots! Aaaah! So we went to the Bass Outlet tonight, but we did not know that they closed at 6:00. Joel is going to try to return it for me tomorrow, but I don't know if he will be able to since I paid for it. They had better not mess it up again, or they might get some bad press!

Tomorrow (don't you love my segues), we will be making applesauce. My mom let me borrow her mixer attachments (thanks Mom) so it will be much easier than the way that I usually do it. All I have to do now is quarter the apples, boil them, and throw them in the grinder and it separates the bad from the good. Usually, I peel them with a vegetable peeler, quarter them, seed them, and then boil them on the stove with a little bit of water for about an hour until they break down. This should be a piece of cake!

Yesterday, Pnut kindly let me borrow some of her blue hair glitter for my hair so that my hair would look beautiful like hers. It was stunning. And sticky. Pilly has started to run some. She always falls down after she runs a little ways, but it is cute. She will be one in 11 days. Sniffle! Sniffle!

Okay, this post has rambled on enough. Have a great night! Shawna:)

Again...

I have a confession...I didn't do anything tonight. There was no work this afternoon so I thought maybe there would be some for me tonight, but there wasn't. I got sucked into Antique Roadshow and then I read again. I do love to read and rarely have a good book anymore. Also, I am just tired! The girls were a little rambunctious and ornery today so it was just a trying day. But I need to get back to sewing! I want to try out my new rotary cutter and I have to make the Christmas stockings before I take the book back in two weeks. I have had it for like eight weeks or something. I need to get on the ball!

Relaxing

Tonight, I am just taking the night off to read and relax. Even though I didn't write last week, I spent every evening working at my real job because there was no time during the day. At least transcription is flexible with the hours! So tonight will be for relaxation and tomorrow everything should be pretty normal!:)

Ham and Bean Soup

I don't have any pictures of how delicious this soup is. Someone, who shall remain nameless and soon will be forgiven when he has paid his dues, deleted the picture from the camera. I have two pictures of children eating (or not eating in Pnut's case) the soup. I love this stuff! It is so full of flavor and healthy goodness. Plus, it kept me full until suppertime. That is very rare. Usually I am ready to eat something again by the time the girls lay down for their nap!

2 cans Navy Beans, rinsed and drained
6.5cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ham bone-Joel called it a butt bone
1 cup chopped carrots (or more)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tsp-ish rosemary-I used dried
2 cups chopped ham
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1. Put the water, bone, beans, salt, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, and rosemary on high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 60 minutes.
2. Remove ham bone, add meat and pepper to taste. Simmer for 30 more minutes.
3. It's finished! Try to let it cool down enough so that it doesn't burn the taste buds off your tongue. I have a hard time with that part!

I really like the taste that the bay leaves and rosemary add in. I am not sure if I only had one teaspoon of rosemary or if I had more because I just picked it out and sprinkled it in. My ham was some of the leftover that I had frozen from Christmas day. It was a spiral, already sliced, smoky ham. It gave the broth such a nice smoky flavor. Yum! I can't even begin to describe it!



This kid loved the soup! She was especially a fan of the carrots and beans. She was not so sure about the ham. Hey, I would rather her eat the vegetables!



This crazy child, however, did not like it. Or she says that she didn't. Honestly, she didn't even taste it. She is anti-soup. So she just didn't have lunch and ate her supper very nicely.

In other news, this is an apron that I made for a friend for Christmas. I want to make one for myself, but I think I want a full apron instead of a half apron. I love this retro fabric look though!



Hopefully, I will be posting regularly again now that the holiday busyness is over. I love this time of year when we get to spend so much time with family, but it really shakes up our routine, and if you know me, you know I like routine. So do my children. So we will be thankful to get back into our everyday life even though we have thoroughly enjoyed having Daddy home and seeing all our friends and family! Also, I got a rotary cutter and board and ruler so I am going to have to do some projects so that I can try them out! How exciting:)

Our Last Christmas for 2008!

We finally had Christmas with my family today. It was only a week after our Christmas with Joel's family, but it felt like it took a long time to get here. We had such a fun day. The girls had so much fun playing with their cousin. Pnut and Anthony could play all day, I think. She didn't want to find her shoes to go home tonight. I think she would have spent the night, which is not like her~she likes to be at home!

When Pnut saw the gifts that we were taking over this morning, she said, "I love Christmas!" She was thrilled to have more gifts to open. It is good that her birthday in July to sort of balance out her year!



We love Edwina-and Mo Willems! If you have small children and haven't read his books, you should! My favorite is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Pilly got it for Christmas from my parents:)



Here is Pilly with her favorite gift. Who needs clothes or books or toys when you have M&M's? Speaking of which, I think we forgot them there.



This is Baby. She was terrorized by Pillster all day. Seriously, every time she was spotted, she was cornered. Pilly had her trapped in a corner at one point, and she was meowing like crazy. And Pilly isn't even mean to her. She is pretty gentle. She just loves animals and that cat got no break!



Here are Pnut and Laine all dressed up in Laine's play clothes that she got for Christmas. They looked so cute all dressed up!



Here is Laine in her tutu. I think she liked it. She kept it on for a looong time. Pnut won't keep hers on for more than 5 minutes!



Anthony loved his gun that he got from his Auntie Kacy. Auntie Kacy is a good aunt because she didn't get one for Pnut!



Pnut got a camera. She loves it. She already wore one set of batteries out. Oh Boy. Maybe we should buy stock in Duracell and then get some more batteries! I am not sure what that goofy face is about!



And I just have to put this up. Hopefully, I won't be shunned. That gun-wielding, tutu-wearing nephew is just too funny. He was just playing "dress-ups." Sadly, there were no boy dress-up clothes. Don't worry, he shot plenty of deer and turkeys and bears.

P.S. Randa, you can't be mad about me putting up the picture. You know he is cute. And you should just be thankful that I am posting again!

P.P.S. Don't forget my deer jerky please:)