2nd Annual Christmas Baking Extravaganza 2012

After the success of last years baking day, Amey and I were really looking to up our game this year. We knew that we wanted to make more of the recipes we loved, and find new recipes to add to it. We started buying stuff early and pinning recipes. So when the big day came we had lots of stuff to start out with.

Amey's bar and dining room table is packed full of supplies.

We went shopping seperately and together and even had to get a little more on baking day itself.

We had help this year with the addition of LIzzy! We are so glad to add her to our team of bakers.

One of the biggest changes we made this year was the way we dipped our  chocolates. We learned that if we used the wax it made prettier chocolates and the chocolate was much easier to dip. 

Lizzy was the master of the mixer.

That is why she was covered in flour most of the day.

Amey was the go between. Stirring this and grabbing that. Poor girl worked her tail off that day.

While I spent most of the day in front of the stove  making  fudge and the candied things. 

Although tedious and tiring, we had lots of fun. 

Maybe too much fun.

Even Joslyn had fun playing with the animals and toys.

We decided that dipping the chocolate was the most tedious. 

WE dipped and dipped and dipped

And stirred and stirred and stirred

But the rewards were great. Homemade almond joys.

our newest recipe was homemade butterfingers, which required us to melt candy corn. 

Nope its not chex mix

It's christmas crack!

We had marshmallows coming out of our ears.

And enough cookies to feed the white house staff.

These are my favorite butterscotch haystacks

Homemade marshmallows are sticky. 

smores truffles are gooey and melty.

At the end of the day we felt like this!


SO it was lots of fun and if I wasn't so busy eating the Christmas 

goodies I would have gotten smart and posted pics of the end result. But I didn't. So here are the recipes or links to what we made. Happy New Year!

chocolate fudge

soft gingersnaps with butterscotch chips

Christmas crack

pumpkin snickerdoodles

smores truffles

English toffee

homemade marshmellows  but we liked last years recipe better 

butterscotch haystacks

peanut clusters

Homemade butterfingers

peanut butter fudge we will be looking for a new one next year if you have any ideas.

peanut butter balls the recipe worked but we had to do a lot of converting because it was from the UK

cinnamon almonds this recipe does not work with crock pot bags, dont use one if making

homemade almond joys

we also made pudding cookies and oatmeal cinnamon toffee cookies which I don't have recipes for. 

Merry Christmas!

Jesus is the Reason for the season.






Merry CHRISTmas to all my friends and family!

young love

Today as I sat at a red light, I saw the woman in the next car blowing kisses to her mirror. I looked for a child in the back and when I didn't see one I looked at the car behind her. There was a young man blowing kisses right back and waving. I chuckled at their movements and smiled inwardly. John and I still did that if we were following each other. And as we are now often in two vehicles, since our car can hold all of us, but not all of us and the groceries; we do this a lot.

It reminded me of young love. How nieve and innocent it is. How dreams and plans fill up more space than reality and conditions. Life at that stage is freeing and new, exciting and full of promise. I also remember all the advice that was given at that stage. Be careful not to let your heart get broken. Be cautious in how quickly you get involved. Don't open your heart too much, it might get stomped on. And while these are great tidbits of truth, they also can be harmful to that budding flower.

A heart to me is like a flower. When it is open it is vulnerable to the damage of the sun or the pounding rain. It is less likely to survive if stomped on. But it is at it's most beautiful state and is how God designed it. When a flower is closed it is stronger to the elements, but not half as beautiful.

That is how God designed our heart to be, beautiful when open. Yes these young couples will experience pain and maybe even broken hearts. But God heals broken hearts. ANd in recovery we see more broken hearts that are so beautiful. Because when God healed there broken heart, He not only made it better than new, He also used that story to help others. It is so beautiful to see a once broken spirit share their story of redemption in Jesus Christ.

So remember before you mock or judge the young and in love. The world is going to give them plenty of pain and reality. Why not encourage their dreams and plans. Love is the only way we make it through this hard life. With Jesus's love and with love from each other.

They love each other already!

Adventure 18

Yes I am still alive! And I have had a birthday. Happy birthday to me I am now 34! Not much to celebrate in my opinion. Only one year away from 35!!!!!! Holy cow!!!! That is a whole different check box on forms. 35-44 year olds. cant believe I'm that close! ANYWAYS! Call it a getting older scared moment but I really wanted to accomplish an adventure yesterday. And the first thing I could think of was SUSHI!
Now I will start by saying I hate most fish! Unless it is fish sticks or breaded minced fish. Regular fish and seafood does not appeal to me. So this is why sushi is an adventure. Not only is it fish, but uncooked fish. So I texted a good friend that I knew loved SUSHI and asked her where to go.  She recommended this place.

We went in and were the only customers, it was lunch time. I guess most people don't go out for SUSHI on Mondays for lunch. We got seated and looked over the menu. I explained that we were trying SUSHI for the first time and found the 12 piece assortment. It came with 6 different kinds, two a piece.

I had a little trouble with the chopsticks.

Okay a lot of trouble, so much they gave me trainers. That makes it much easier.

So I tried each of the different kinds. There was Albacore tuna, that one I liked the most.
Then there was the eel! EWWWW! It was very sweet, but because it was eel I couldn't finish it.

Then there was red snapper, salmon, and tuna. I hated all of those! The tuna was the worst!!!!
I ate all of the shrimp one, even though I don't like shrimp.
I realized that there wasn't any california rolls and  I thought that was the most popular kind so I had to try that one. Didn't like it either, but it was better than the others.

And lastly, we ordered the spicy cowboy which I wouldn't eat because of the mayo sauce on top. But John said it wasn't bad. It had fried shrimp in the middle and spicy mayo sauce on top.

One thing I wish we would have known was that we couldn't just order one or two, we got lots! so we ended up taking lots to John's work buddy. So 60 dollars later we both had an adventure but were still hungry because I didn't finish most of the sushi.  Here are few pictures of my funny "don't like it" face.

This is the after tuna face!

I can't eat anymore of this stuff!

trying pickled ginger!

My sexy husband who is amazing for going along with my adventures! Oh and paying for them! Thanks honey!

What was left on the 12 piece platter after we tried them all.
Oh and I had edamame too! I love edamame!
So there you have it! Another adventure accomplished. Not all adventures will be something you like or enjoy. But the best part of life is that we live it. Living and feeling is better than existing. Sometimes when we have those "I am just existing feelings" it is time to envoke an adventure. SO check out my adventure list here and go on an adventure yourself! Love you all and because I love you here is a bonus pic of my sweet little boy.

6 weeks, we have survived.

I bet you thought I dropped off the Earth. Well I did, the planet that I had been living on. The one that revolved around me, my family, my church, my friends, my God and my "so called life". And I landed on a planet that orbits differently. My outlook has changed, "visibility foggy". My atmosphere has changed, "low oxygen levels." The terrain is different, "thick mud and light gravity possible."

It's different. Life with two kids. It's busy. It's challenging. It's full. It's tiring. It's wonderful.

I am slowly moving past that slow steady pace of my daily chaos and looking to new moments. Like trying to get Jaxon to smile. Also, my new found love of teaching my daughter to cook. Also I am enjoying some of my old places and seeing them with new goggles. BSF is different, now that I can't take notes or open my Bible during the lecture if Jaxon is awake. CR is great as usual but I am missing some great sharing time, due to having to get two kids to bed. I am dealing slowly with the lack of sleep, Jaxon still gets up every 3 hours at night and sometimes wont go back to sleep for a few hours.  I am also getting used to the fact that my appetite has changed and now I eat smaller meals and therefore am enjoying a slightly smaller waist line. I am trying very hard to get used to the change in stress pressure that has been put on my marriage and act accordingly.

This week, I am attempting to go back to the gym for the first time. I am getting back into singing at CR on Tuesday nights. I am getting ready for the crazy month ahead. December is full of my birthday, my anniversary, Joslyn's birthday, my dad's birthday, and of course Christmas. We are also talking to a lawyer about bankruptcy this week. We are still trying to recover from the stomach flu that had all of us down a week and a half.

So busy busy we are. And busy busy we will stay. But I wanted to give you an update.  Also here are some pictures of the kiddos. Stay tuned for more to come in the next few weeks.

Love you all and don't give up on us!

Life with two kids

Oh my! Well I know that I am well over due with a post and I am very sorry about that. Life with two kids has kind of been an adjustment. Okay, its knocked me off my feet. And I have had help for the last two weeks. So the biggest test is tomorrow, when daddy goes back to work and momma starts drinking. Just kidding about that last part. My mom stayed for a week with us and I was ever so grateful to have her here. So many moments when she held the baby or entertained Joslyn, I was thinking how can I do both? I have maybe had 2 nights alone to myself with the kiddos and both have been disasters. Joslyn threw up all over the place in one of them and brother peed and spit up on me and the bed on the other. But to the credit of all my CR training, I keep chanting ONE MOMENT AT A TIME, over and over. And so far everyone has survived. We hope to start going to one or two of our normal weekly church events next week. Let's hope that we will make it on time, with all of our clothes on,(hopefully minus the spit up), and with all the things we need( like bottles, diapers and cups). All of those I have forgotten at some point this last week.
So to update you on life with two for us.

JOSLYN has been great with her little brother. She loves to hold him and hold his bottle. She also loves to climb in his bouncer and play with his stuff, unpack his diaper bag and run off with his toys. Josyln has had quite a bit of attitude problems though and has been extra clingy. We expected this though and we are trying to deal accordingly.

JAXON is doing really well. He is a fairly laid back baby and sleeps a lot. We did have a big concern about his weight gain. He was losing weight on breast milk and a little formula so we have moved to mostly formula. I have tried to pump to increase my milk supply. But we have decided that really for our family it will be much better to go strictly formula. He does much better and we save so much time. And time is something that we don't have much of!

MOMMA is doing well, I mean physically anyways. Mentally, the verdict is still out. I lost 25lbs with baby and breast feeding. I will be sad to lose that bf benefit. But I will be very excited to sleep without leaking or having to wear a bra to bed. Also, I got a good report from my post checkup. With the trouble I had with this c-section I am surprised at the way I am moving around. I am extremely glad that I got my tubes tied and that I will never have to go through that surgery again.

So that is all for now and I will leave you with some parting pics of my mom's recent visit.

Mom with Lucian, Jaxon and Joslyn

So seriously cute!!!!

Playing with Nana!

holding brother!

Auntie and Lucian with baby Jax!

We love the bouncy seat! It is the only way momma gets a bathroom break!