Christmas Baking Tradition

by Steph // Wednesday, December 14, 2016 // Comments off

We have several Christmas traditions in our home.

One of them is baking yummy sweets, making trays, and delivering them to the neighbors on our ridge!

We put this day on the calendar in October!

It is pretty important to the kiddos and I!

Monday was the big day.

And by BIG, I mean BIG.

My kiddos always say, “Go big, or go home!”

So the plan was to make 40 trays full of yummy things!

We had some precious friends join us, and of course Kayla and Clyde!

Did I just say Clyde?

And now you do not care one bit about Christmas baking?

No worries – I’ve got you covered!

Yes, my sweet grand baby is walking!!

And cuter than ever!!

And I like to take photos of him!!

Ok, back to business.

We had quite the team working together, so our baking day was not only very fun, but very organized and fast!

We make all of our Christmas treats that we give away gluten-free, because we do not allow any gluten in our home. Tough rules around here! But Blake made this rule to allow me to have a “safe” haven where I do not have to worry about getting contaminated and getting sick.

The treats we made were not egg and dairy free though, so I made some treats ahead of time for the kiddos to snack on.

You can’t bake all these sweet, sugary things and not eat some sweet sugar, right?!?

The kids played SO nicely. Eliza just LOVES, loves, loves our precious friends! We all do!!

The trays turned out great.

We still have many to deliver – and that is the BEST part!

It is my heart to keep this Christmas tradition going through the years!

Hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season too!!

Fun Facts Friday!!

by Steph // Friday, December 9, 2016 // Comments off

Oh MY! It’s FRIDAY!

Did you all have a good week? I sure hope so!

We got David, Kayla, Clyde and Anaya all moved and somewhat settled.

I had the BEST job on moving day!

We all ate dinner at Clyde’s new place on moving day. The kids could not wait to see it!!

Our new puppy Jax has settled right in!

He had one day of testing us….on the kitchen table, my desk, the counter, jumping the gate…

BUT, he failed! He is very smart! And is catching on to our rules very quick!

It seems like he has always been here now! And it has only been two weeks!

During school the kids and I have been enjoying learning about the birth of Jesus in our Bible time, reading our favorite Christmas read alouds, and doing snowflake and Christmas crafts.

I have been trying to use my big camera these days, but the sad news is that it is not working very well.

Do you just send a good, expensive camera to the camera grave yard after you have taken so many photos it is too tired to take anymore?

We have a pile of old (less expensive) cameras laying around here. What do you do with them?

And old car seats. What do you do with those?!

Anyway….back to photos. I have been relying on my phone for photos, so I am thankful I have a good camera on my phone!

I also figured out how to get those photos off my phone without e-mailing them to our e-mail account. DUH. Quit laughing!

One of these days when I am bored, I am going to take classes – about computers and photography!

I just emptied my phone of all it’s photos a few minutes ago.

Cracks me up when I find things like this on it!

I think God put Grant into our family just to make sure I am always smiling!!

I heard two little cherubs giggling and chatting, so I went to check it out and found them doing their chores together.

Speaking of things God did – I just love, LOVE, love, how He knew these two needed each other!

Not sure any of this ramble can be considered “facts” on this Fun Facts Friday post….but ramble it is! My brain is a SMIDGE full these days.

But it is still FRIDAY! Cleaning and grocery day here for us! There are a bunch of kiddos busting around this big ole house getting it shining, and then I have a crew headed out into our winter wonderland to get grocery for me! I better get after my cleaning jobs and catch up with this crazy crew!!

Have a BLESSED weekend, you all!

We are hoping for a SNOWY one!!

Baby It’s Cold Outside

by Steph // Thursday, December 8, 2016 // Comments off

Ever since our first snowfall on Sunday, it has snowed just a little bit everyday this week!

Ridge top accumulation is always more than down in town. We are not complaining though!

The kids have been having a ball playing in the snow in the afternoons.

Their Mama loves all the exercise it affords!

SO, so proud of Tate for walking back up that hill every single time! That is not easy for our boy.

Our sweet baby from tropical Guangzhou was SO terrified of the snow the first year she was home.

Well, she is NOT anymore! She flies down the hills, rolls down the hills, runs, jumps, and just has a ball in the snow!

The middle boys are outside ALL afternoon. I love how resilient God made kids of things like freezing cold weather!

The word on the streets is that winter here in our neck of the woods is going to be a doozy. I bet we won’t hear one complaint from these four kiddos! There is 5 to 10 more inches predicted for the weekend and they are counting the hours until it arrives!

I always say the season we are in the middle of is my favorite!!

We are loving you winter!