Annual Christmas Cookie Baking Day

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Our very first year of baking cookies and delivering them to our neighbors, police stations, and fire stations was in the fall.

We remember walking through our neighborhood with just sweatshirts on delivering those cookies that year!

Ever since then this has become a Christmas time tradition, and one that we love.

Some years have been more ambitious than others, based on the season we were in.

Some years we have achieved ALL of the baking in one day!

This year we spaced it out again – a Monday afternoon, a Tuesday evening, and most of the day Wednesday!

On Monday we made the base of our trays which are those beloved monster cookies!

Then Addie Mae made the peppermint meringues on Tuesday evening.

They are a beautiful cookie!

Wednesday we rallied our crew and got started with the rest!

Kayla and Briar joined us for the day, which was BY FAR the best part!

At some point the littles played games while the rest of us continued to work!

The cookie trays turned out SO beautiful!

We feel like they had so much more color than in years past!

Don’t worry – I wrote down everything we did, how many of each, how many trays it made, and I have a file where I keep all of my notes like this from Christmas!

My brain is full, folks!

I have to write it all down!

I made a card to go with each tray while Kayla worked on her Christmas cards!

These two silly puppies were smitten with Briar too!

They would not leave Kayla’s side all day!

Isn’t that funny?!

I think this is a tradition that will stick around!

We all enjoy planning and baking the cookies for the trays very much!!

But delivering these beautiful cookie trays is always the best part!

Adventures

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This Tuesday Blake and I took the four youngest children on a little adventure!

We hope to have field trip days like this often – to the point that Blake has planned the next six months of them already!

We did not tell the kiddos where we were going until we got to each stop.

I think they loved not knowing!

Our first stop Tuesday morning was in Rochester, Minnesota, to finish up some Christmas shopping.

With coffee, of course!

Then we headed over to Chipotle for an early lunch.

It was gobbled up fast and enjoyed very much!

Next was time for the BIG stop of the day – at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota!

When we paid our entrance fee to the museum, they gave us a free stuffed eagle!

Tate and Eliza have been sharing it ever since – each night they switch who gets to sleep with it.

This center has four eagles living here full time because they are injured and cannot live in the wild ever again.

One of the eagles was out on a visit, but we got to see the other three up close!

The workers shared so much information with us about the eagles and it was fascinating!!

We went into the classroom not long after we arrived to learn more about the eagles and watch one of the eagles get fed.

I know this is not a good photo of Chad, but I like it anyway!!

The kiddos all measured their wing spans.

Pretty soon the worker brought in the male eagle whose name was Washoka.

We got to watch him eat a rabbit!

It was as disgusting as it sounds!

The kids loved it!

Their Mama did not!

After the class was over, we wandered through the museum and enjoyed all the things to do and see!

This was totally worth the drive and the fee to get into the museum.

I have ordered a bunch of eagle books from the library, and we will continue our learning and talks about eagles once they come in!

I think I will have the kiddos sketch some drawings of eagles too!

Our last stop of the day was just up the road from the Eagle Center at Lark Toy Factory!

They make wooden toys at this factory.

They also have a carousel, a book store, a toy store, a restaurant, and places to play with some of the toys!

It was SUCH a great day learning in the best way possible, with hands on experiences!!

Our drive home was beautiful because it was such a beautiful warm sunny day on Tuesday!

We are all looking forward to our next adventure very much!

Blake and I are talking and dreaming of some big plans to take our school on the road – it will be so neat to see if the Lord brings it to fruition!!

Stay tuned for our next adventure!

Happy Birthday, Chad Ryan!!

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Fifteen.

There, I said it!

Our Chaddy boy is fifteen!

(Or I should say tomorrow he will be, anyway!)

We celebrated Chad’s birthday after church yesterday!

Sticking with tradition we had Chad’s choice of meal and dessert, a few gifts, and our favorite people over to help us celebrate!

Chad chose peach BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus wrapped in bacon, rainbow rice, a tossed salad and a winter fruit salad.

It was DELISH.

These are the only photos I have of the food!

One of Chad’s plates, ha, ha!

Chad told Addie Mae to make whatever she wanted to make for his cake!

Well, she did not disappoint!

Hello vanilla espresso bean cake with maple coffee icing.

I know!!

I wish you could have some too!!

There were a few gifts.

Cause we love this boy SO much!

Our favorites joined us too!

My heart leapt out of my chest and lay in the puddle on the floor the rest of the day.

Grand babies do that to you, you know!

Yep, pretty much the perfect party!

Good food, family, and just being together!!

Chad Ryan, we cannot believe you are already fifteen!

Your heart for the Lord is inspiring!

How you already speak into your future plans is challenging!

You are so driven and purposeful…yet with a quick wit and the most joyful spirit we know.

We cannot wait to see how the Lord writes the rest of your story, Chad!

Happy, happy birthday!!!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

All The Things

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Life for us here at Twin Oaks is usually a series of the same things over and over, but yet no day ever feels the same!

And we look SO forward to each new day!

Especially with a new grand baby!

Why, of course I can start with those photos!

Thanks for asking!

Isn’t she tiny?!

But she’s getting bigger!

Last Wednesday we were headed over to Briar’s place and decided to stop and get a sweet little birthday girl some balloons!

Three balloons to be exact.

Because Ellie was turning three the next day!

The kiddos had fun sledding over there that day.

They have fun sledding everyday!

Ruby is the only one who does not have fun when the kids go sledding!

They hardly ever take her with them!

Funny puppy!

The guys enjoy the outdoors too.

They have been hunting a couple of weekends!

Addie Mae works on Saturday, so that would leave me with these two cuties!

HOW I LOVE A CHANGE IN DYNAMICS!

Of course I still had these two cuties too!

I used to be so thankful the guys got to have some time doing something they love!

Then they showed me a photo from a camera that sits on the land they hunt on.

It is a motion sensor camera and takes a photo of any movement by it!

Their trail camera just happens to be 30 feet from where Chad sits when they hunt.

Seriously.

I am not over this yet!!

That’s a bob cat!

Ok, let’s move on.

Thanks to a man I know who for the last 30 years tries to bless me every single day in some way – our bird restaurant is back open for business!

It’s been busy lately!

I love watching those birds so much!

Speaking of things that catch my eye, take a look at what God did!

This just never gets old!

Cold and snow means soup season!!

I can smell that soup by just looking at this photo!

In other food news –

How I love to fill their bellies!

Warm oats and waffle toast for breakfast!

Or an egg in the hole!

Tate’s favorite.

Snack time is a must around these parts.

Baked yam bar and salad, anyone?

Someone has to buy all that food, now don’t they?

Blake has been off every Friday for awhile now, and so Addie Mae has been heading to town with me to run errands!

What a TREAT for me!!

Blake and I have been having sweet date nights lately!

HOW I MISSED THEM!

We usually head to town for some sort of errands, but the main goal is just being together and talking about all the things.

There is always lots to talk about – problems to solve, goals to share, and plans to make – in this crazy life of ours!

School is moving along.

Chad told me the other day that school days are his all time favorite.

That blessed my heart SO much!

We start each day with worship!

And then Bible time and prayer!

We spend about an hour “eating the frog” (I stole that from my sweet southern friend!) before we move on to crafts, read aloud (lots of read aloud!), recess, and working together!

There are chores in the morning, after lunch and before dinner too.

Chores are always better when you do them together!

We have also been walking through our advent study.

Add to all of that the preparations for Christmas!

Addie Mae and I had a power hour of planning!!

It was super fun!!

I felt so blessed to be able to send out some love in the form of Christmas cards this year!

This sweet girl blesses me so much too!

Please don’t let me forget how she sits on her feet all the time.

Or how she is a night owl and devours chapter books by the hour – at the age of six.

And how she leaves me notes.

All. The. Time.

“Love is your name Mom.”

Cue all the tears!

I love her SO much!!

Here’s another blessing!

I took this photo right after he asked me “What was Daddy’s name before he married you, Mama?”

Just in case I haven’t mentioned it lately, Twin Oaks is the BIGGEST blessing.

We have never lived in a home that was just built.

Taking care of a brand new home is SO easy!

Probably the size of Twin Oaks has a lot to do with that – or the fact that we literally only brought 1/3 of what we previously owned with us here.

But I am so grateful!

I must tell Blake twice a week how sweet this little nest is for us!

Anyway – new still has its problems.

Like this brand new oven.

The cleaning cycle on this oven is useless!!

So I put a baking soda paste all over the door and left it there over night.

At first I did not think it did any good.

Then my sweet hubby took a razor blade to the glass, and we realized the baking soda paste had loosened all the grime just enough for the razor to take it the rest of the way off!!

How I wish they made things like they used to.

But I am so thankful it came clean!

We can see through the glass again!

Well, that’s all the things!

We are enjoying them all!!

It’s Friday so Addie Mae and I have been to town and back again, the fridges and shelves are full of provisions, our little nest is clean (even some deep cleaning has been going on today!), laundry is rolling, there are leftovers for dinner…..and IT’S DATE NIGHT!!

Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful life!!!

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