Christmas Fun!

 Merry Christmas Everyone!! I hope you had a great christmas. Our family has had a very nice Christmas at home this year, and it even included SNOW! The kids are excited about getting to play in the snow when they get to later! They all seemed to be very grateful for what they received this year.

The girls have enjoyed being on Christmas break, although Kylie has already asked if its time to go back yet. Gabryle has seemed to enjoy having the girls home to play with. He goes up to them and hollers "Sisters come on!" to get them to come and play with him. It's cute!

I've posted a few pictures from today for you! I hope you enjoy them. If I don't write again before the end of the year, have a happy New Year!

 Till Next Time!!!

Mackenzie's Christmas card she made Jerrod and I at school.

Mackenzie's Christmas gift she made Jerrod and I in class.

Kylie's Christmas gift she made for Jerrod and I in class. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY TO MACKENZIE TODAY!!

Mackenzie's Birthday Party!

Yesterday, the seventh of December we had Kenzie's 8th birthday party. She seemed to have a blast this year. A few of her friends from school came to the party and she seemed to enjoy having them there with her.

This year she decided to have her party at Pink Swirls here in town. It's a neat little Live Culture Yogurt store. They make all of the yogurt in their store and from what I believe is organic.  All the kids were able to get half a cup of the yogurt and up to three toppings each. I also of course made her some cupcakes and made some tie-dye frosting to on top of them. She loved the cupcakes!

Jerrod and I got her a set of roller blades and she was thrilled she got a pair. She has been wanting some since she went to a friends birthday party at the skating rink a few months ago. She was also thrilled about getting a telescope and guitar. She seemed to have a great birthday party which I'm glad about. Enjoy the pictures!!

Till Next Time!!!

Peppers

 I would have assumed that after having at least 2 good frosts since the beginning of November, my peppers would have finally wilted and died. I was wrong!

As Gabryle and I got back home from taking Jerrod lunch today I noticed on the pepper plants what looked like the shape of a pepper. We went over and looked and sure enough I have 2 peppers that have started again. They are healthy and green peppers and at least 2 buds are on there also. I was shocked to see them. I had assumed that since we have already had a few frosts that it would have killed the plants.

After lunch Gabryle and I went out and he watered the plants for me. He had a blast doing that. Mom actually let him water the plants. After the water was soaked up in the soil he realized that if he holds the water long enough in one spot, it will cause it to make a hole which absolutely made him happy!

I guess since we are having such a mild winter, or what feels like spring temperatures, minus the rain they are still hanging on. I'm not complaining! Maybe I can get them to perk back up a little more and see what happens!!

Till Next Time!!

Christmas Ornaments

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a great day at home this year. We fixed a large turkey, all the fixings and spent most of the afternoon outside playing in the yard. We all had fun and then went after it got dark to the drive through Christmas lights that the town puts on every year.

Today the kids and I made our Christmas ornaments for this year. As usual we always do a new ornament every year for Christmas. We either buy one or make them, and this year we did a different type of hand print ornaments.

We got from Hobby Lobby some clear glass ornaments, paint pen and some filling for the ornaments. I painted the kids hands, one at a time, and then they

 held the ornament to get their print onto the ornament. After it completely dried I wrote their name and date on their ornament then we filled it with the little white popcorn type filler and some glitter. They all wanted red glitter so it was much easier to fill the all at once. I then used a clear spray paint and coated it with the clear polish to give it a little extra gloss and to make sure the hand prints stay on. I think they turned out great.

Once we get our tree up I'll make sure and post pictures!!

Till Next Time!!!

Banana Bread Recipe

A lot of banana's get eaten in our house. Gabryle absolutely loves eating banana's. The other day I realized he still had a few banana's left that were getting pretty ripe so I decided to make some banana bread so I didn't have to throw the banana's out. It turned out pretty darn good even if I had to tamper with the recipe since I didn't have the full amount of mashed banana's it called for. It still has a great banana flavor. Here is the recipe I used below and I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!!!

BANANA BREAD

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs, beaten

2 1/3 cup Banana, mashed

1 cup chopped nuts if desired

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten and then add nuts if so using. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

When I made the recipe I only ended up having 1 cup of banana's mashed, so I added to that 1 cup of 2% milk and mixed it together before adding it to the butter mixture. It still had great banana flavor and cooked the same amount of time as stated in the recipe.I didn't have any nuts this time so I omitted them, but plan on using them next time. Enjoy!!!

TURKEY!!!!

Kylie's class does a few home art projects and we just finished this afternoon decorating a turkey. She thought it was fun and wanted me to share it with everyone so I am putting up the pictures for her. Her teacher supplied just the Turkey's body, not the feathers. Kylie wanted feathers so I took some printer paper and cut out some feathers for her. She colored them with crayons, each with a different design and then we glued them to the back of her turkey. We think it's adorable. She has even named it Nichaela (Sounds like Michaela but with an N at the beginning). Enjoy the pictures!!!

The beginning of Kylie's Turkey.

The "feathers" I made for her.

The finished Turkey.

Closer picture of her finished turkey. 

The back of the finished turkey. Mackenzie likes the look from the back.