From Our House to Yours....

Merry Christmas!

Christmas

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Can you imagine it? Can you close your eyes and see Mary holding our Lord and Savior? Can you hear the angels singing? Can you see the shepherds kneeling in awe at the babe? The wise men bringing gift to the new King?

This year was filled with ups and downs as all years are. These verses have been strong in my mind for several weeks, Job 1:21 and Isaiah 55:8. It's great to remember that God is always in control, I may not understand why he does what he does, but he's still in control.

Please pray for my sister and her husband and his family. My bil's mother passed away this morning.

Baby Food! Part 3

Part three the final part! ( I know your relieved!)

One of the easiest things you can do to make your own food is smash it in a bowl. I picked a banana. It would work with most anything that's soft and mushy!


Here you can see it smashed, easy and it's ready to be fed to baby or to freeze.


Here is another way to do it if you don't have a mixer. (like in part 2) I bought mine locally for about $10. Here is one on Amazon for about the same price. (My main use for this is as the baby gets older and starts eating table food.)

Here it is with some peaches in it.

And here it is "grinding" the peaches.


And here they are ready to eat.

Something else I like about making my own food is I can choose what to make. I haven't bought jars for about 5 years so maybe this has changed....Avocados are very healthy,but you cant buy it in a jar. So your baby misses out on the benefits. Another bonus to me, I can mix things. What I mean by that is if your baby doesn't like something (green beans,avocados) you can add something else to it. Reuben gets avocados/sweet potatoes/and a fruit. He will eat it this way. Plain avocados GAG him. (which I totally understand!!)

I ♥ faces- "My Story in Photos-Holiday Traditions"

This week at I ♥ faces we get to share our holiday traditions! Be sure to go check out the other traditions and Merry Christmas!

Our first tradition is decorating around the house.

Then we make some cookies!

Then we enjoy the snow!

On Christmas morning we have a special breakfast normally cinnamon rolls. We read the Christmas story. We pray thanking God for our year. We sing some Christmas Carols and then we open some presents. After that we play games and watch movies and just enjoy our time together as a family!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland....

Are you enjoying the Winter Wonderland????? We sure are!



These are bottles filled with colored water! Don't worry I'm not making him clean the snow!!


Brie writing Jesus, cause he is the WHOLE reason for the season!


Zeke waiting patiently for the green!!

The future of sanitation service.........

This is Titus!

This is ONE of his "garbage trucks"! (Yes the boy has many!!!)

He's feeling a little shy...... (I'm interrupting his work!) Do you see the seat next to his, yeah it's for me!

I love that he includes me in his fun! He waits patiently for me to take a break from my work to join him in his garbage truck! He sure will make a cute garbage man!!!

I love how different each kid is! At this age Zeke's favorite "toy" was a set of encyclopedias and a calculator! (no joke!!) Brie's favorite was playing with me! Can't wait to see what Reuben will play with!

Do any of your kids have "unusual" things they play?????

I can't wait for Titus to open THIS on Christmas morning! I hope he loves it!

Baby Food! Part 2

Step 1: Buy sweet potatoes. (you can use any fruit or veggie you'd like!)

Step 2: Cook sweet potatoes

Step 3: Get out this wonderful contraption.

Step 4: Attach the food grinder on to it.

Step 5: Get the sweet potatoes out of the oven. (I let mine cook for an hour and a half or more. I wanted to be sure they were done.)



Step 6: Start taking the peel off.

Step 7: Cut them up.


Step 8: Put the cut up pieces into the food tray, and turn on the mixer.

Step 9: This is the sweet potatoes all done. I added a little bit of water to get the consistency I wanted.

Step 10: Get out your ice cube trays and make sure they are clean and sterile.

Step 11: Fill up the trays and put in the freezer.

These freeze up within an hour or two. After they are frozen take them out of the tray and put them in a freezer bag. You can store them in the freezer for at least 6 months. When baby is ready to eat pull out the bag and put a cube or 2 in a bowl. Microwave for a few seconds or if you don't want to use the microwave put them in the fridge a few hours before meal time.

I bought 4 sweet potatoes for $3.10. (they were $.99 lb, I think) I got 30 cubes out of the 4 potatoes. A jar of baby food (natures goodness) at Meijer is $.43. I think you get 3 cubes of food per jar. So if that's true I got 10 jars for $3.10. I saved $1.20.

Now I can already hear a lot of you saying I'm crazy and it's not worth it. YOU have to make that decision for yourself!! For me it is so worth it, I really enjoy it!

*Bonus for me*

My green beans are almost free. (from the garden) I also got carrots this year from an Amish lady that works with Mark, totally free! I've got applesauce in the freezer. (not sure on the price per serving, I pay $15-18 for a bushel)(I'm quite sure it's less than a baby food jar would be) I have peaches (these would be the most expensive)that I can in the summer, again not sure on the price. So I really have a fair amount that I don't have to buy, or haven't had to pay much for.

Stay tuned for more..........

Scripture Time

Psalm 49

16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich,
when the splendor of his house increases;
17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies,
his splendor will not descend with him.
18 Though while he lived he counted himself blessed—
and men praise you when you prosper-
19 he will join the generation of his fathers,
who will never see the light of life .
20 A man who has riches without understanding
is like the beasts that perish.

I thought these were great verses for our world today!!

Baby Food! Part 1

Yes I make my own baby food!


I know, I know can I get much weirder??? (yes I can, but that's a post for another day!)


Baby food is very easy to do! I realize that most of you who read this don't have babies, but...........I have another idea for you.


I have some picky eaters in this house!! Do any of you have those??? Probably not, huh!!! Do yours always ask for more brussel sprouts!! Well not the case here! (Of course we've never had brussel sprouts!!!)(Zeke is the worst one) Raw carrots and (literally) 5 peas is his veggie intake. We don't have those 2 particular veggies every night so most days Zeke gets 0 veggies. My whole family could use more, considering none of us have the 5-9 we should have. Mark and I had been discussing nutrition aaaannnd I was making baby food, then it hit me.


This brilliant idea..... While I'm making supper I could take 2-3 cubes of my "baby food" and throw it into our food. (Mostly casseroles.) I know some of our meals it won't work, but I'm going to be experimenting to see how it goes! I of course will pass along my experiences to you.


Hopefully it works!!!!

Scripture Time

Psalm 48

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.

Scripture Time

Psalm 47

2 How awesome is the LORD Most High,
the great King over all the earth!

Memory Monday

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

HOLY COW............

Isn't this a cute little webkinz puppy!!!!





I'm almost positive we got this little guy for Brie one year.








UMMMMMMMMM...........................................Wait a second something looks a little off.




My sweet precious 7 year old is a little scissor happy! I'm thinking maybe we should send her to beauty school!!! Tonight as we were getting our trash around I told Brie she needed to get hers out of her room. She said yeah I know I have some hair in there I need to get rid of. I asked her who it was from, I had noticed it while I was sweeping. She said I gave Princess a little hair cut! I said I think you did more than a little haircut. She said she still has some in her bow. Mark said why don't you go get her so we can see her! Well we laughed hysterically when we saw poor Princess! Does anybody else have a future hair stylist on their hands?????

Brie

This morning Brie was taking a little too long to get dressed. (a common thing for her!) When she came out she had a little bit of an attitude, as she was explaining why she was dressed the way she was. She said the blue shirt was too dull with jeans so she had to put the pink one on top! She showed me several times how dull it was!! I thought it was funny.

Reuben's photo shoot!

My baby is already 7 months old.............can't believe it!

Orange Cookies!

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes!

1 cup butter
1tsp. baking soda
2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp. (heaping) baking powder
1 cup sour milk
4 cups flour
1 medium orange, juice and rind

Frosting
2 Tbls melted butter
1 Tbl orange rind
4 cups powdered sugar
juice of an orange

Cream together the butter and sugar till fluffy. Then add eggs beat well. Add sour milk and orange juice, and rind. Separately mix soda, powder, flour,salt, add to the above mixture beating well. Drop by heaping tablespoon on to greased cookie sheet. Bake @ 350 for 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Yield-3 dozen
Once cool frost and enjoy! If frosting is to thick(mine was) add milk

Memory Monday

Through him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:3

I ♥ faces- "Sweet Dreams"

This week @ I ♥ faces the theme is sweet dreams. I took this picture this weekend. My hubby and I went out for dinner to celebrate our 10th anniversary, Reuben fell asleep on the way home. I love how sweet and peaceful he looks! Go check out the other entries.