Pee Wee

In our small town, the annual Wagoner Junior Livestock Show is a big deal! Maybe not quite as big as football, but still a big deal, at least for us. Dennis and I both showed in FFA in high school, so it's fun to see kids we know showing and Cooper loves to go see the animals and his favorite "big kids". Last year, Cooper wanted nothing to do with the Pee Wee show, where the little bitty kids that aren't old enough for 4-H get to "show" animals with the big kids just for fun and they all get a ribbon. This year, however, Cooper could hardly wait to get through the gate and ham it up for everyone! He had a blast showing first a sheep and then a goat. Of course, he had to show off his ribbons by wearing them on his overalls, too! He informed me on the way home that he wanted a goat. We will see about that....I think we have a while before he can officially show, but sounds like we have a little 4-H-er on our hands!

Happy Valentine's Day

Ok, so normally, I don't really get into Valentine's Day. It's never really been a big deal to me, especially since my birthday is 2 weeks after it. But, this year, I decided, since I had some time on my hands because of the weather, that I would get creative and make some things for my boys.

 Placemats for dinner

 Goodies for Coop...will have candy attached...

 What Coop made for Dennis...sweet! Thumbprint hearts on the card and hand print heart

 My goodies for Dennis are travel themed....little notes to leave around

 "Travel Itinerary" folder

 Here's what's in the folder...a "Map" and "Travel Coupons"

 This is a "map" of where we've been with milestones along the way...I thought this was more fun than just a regular card and it was fun to remember stuff from the past 12 years!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

2011 Goals Updates

2011 GOALS

OPERATION BABY PREP--- I have a lot to get done before the May 21st due date!

Deadline March 1^st--

Order small dresser- will need to do this by the first of March to be sure it’s here on time…only piece of furniture that we need and it’s a hard size to find!

Deadline April 1^st--

Sort through baby clothes from attic   Yay!! DONE!  1/8/11

Bring in and clean up baby gear from attic

Arrange furniture in kids’ room

Organize kids’ closet   DONE! Think I actually did this sooner, but finished 1/8/11

Finish list of what we still need to get   After going through all the stuff we have, it was easy to make this list 1/23/11

Deadline May 1^st--

Make some prepared food that I can freeze for easy meals in May/June---taking suggestions, PLEASE!

Begin “nesting”…will probably have already started this anyway!---Yeah, already doing this!

Take a spring vacation or extended camping trip----We need to plan!   I think our snow days put a damper on taking a spring trip! 

HOUSE & GARDENING--

Deadline April 24th (Easter)--

Plant flower bed in corner of yard—sunflowers and some easy to grow perennials because I’m lazy like that

Mulch around roses

Make beds for perennial fruits and veggies

Plant corn and okra….maybe a few other things….this will not be as much as last year, since I probably won't be up for doing a lot of weeding when it's 200 degrees with a newborn on my hip!

FOR MYSELF:

PHOTOGRAPHY—Deadline May 1st

Get someone to give me lessons with new camera (You Tube!) 

Set up software to edit photos  Done in January, can't remember what date!

READING---

I am stealing an idea from Traci--to read one good book per month….that will be a stretch probably, but I have plenty of books to read, re-read, or that I can borrow
                 January---ALMOST finished one

SPIRITUAL---

Spend at least 15 minutes every day in the Word, devotional, prayer, listening to sermons, etc--some days I will have much more time, but I have slacked and want to be more consistent this year
                 January---Not been as consistent about it as I'd like....February will be better

Keep my “Grace” journal with entries at least 3 times a week recording where I saw God’s grace at work in my life and around me
                January---I did it at least twice a week

Thursday morning Bible Study---This is a MUST! I look forward to Thursdays for this!

Blizzard!!

We've already had a couple winter storms come through our neck of the woods in January, but this is by far, the biggest! The terms I've heard on the news are blizzard and white out conditions....pretty serious stuff! We got a lot of sleet last night with thunder and lightning, then it began full out blowing snow and it's now almost noon and still going! These are some pics I took from our window....I am not brave enough to attempt to take any outside!

Home Cookin'

I've recently gathered the courage to tackle some of my favorite recipes that my great grandma used to make and a thing or two that I've avoided making because I thought it was too hard.

So, before Christmas, I learned to make homemade yeast rolls (without the bread machine) and they were much easier than I thought! Then I learned to make cinnamon rolls from that dough. The last snow day we had, I found a roll of sausage in the freezer and managed to make some "pretty good" gravy, according to my husband, along with homemade buttermilk biscuits. And, last night, I really got brave and decided I could make my very favorite....chicken and dumplings! So, I did!! They weren't exactly like Mamaw Pid's, I think I need a little practice getting the dumplings just right, but they were pretty close!

Needless to say, I think Mamaw Pid would be pretty proud of me and I think she'd be happy for me to share recipes as well, so here you go:

Chicken & Dumplings

You can cook a whole chicken or chicken breasts, you may have to add some broth, as little or as much chicken as you like...yes, it's one of those kind of recipes. You need to have the chicken cooked, chopped, whatever and in plenty of broth, like a soup so you are ready for dumplings.

For the dumplings, you need:

1 1/2 cups flour, 1 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp shortening (or melted butter works good),1 egg, 1/4 cup milk

Mix the dry ingredients and cut in butter til crumbly, then add eggs and milk. Knead and roll out on floured surface and cut into small pieces....they "grow" in the broth, so keep that in mind for sizing.  Then, you are ready to put them in with chicken and broth and let them cook (simmer) til they are done, which varies on size and amount  of dumplings you have. You can add some milk to the broth to help the dumplings not stick together and to give a little more cooking liquid for them. This is definitely one that may take a little more practice, but oh so worth it!

Yeast Rolls (they just go with dumplings for some reason!)

First, in a large bowl you mix: 1 pkg of yeast (2 1/4 tsp if you are using a jar of yeast), 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup warm water (hot tap water is perfect)....mix all of that and let it "melt" a few minutes.
Second, add to that mixture: 1 cup warm milk, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup melted butter and stir.
Third, sift flour (I usually don't sift it and it's fine) and mix in with spoon til too thick to stir (about 3-ish cups). Knead with flour really well and put in greased bowl. Let rise 1 to 1 1/2  hours in the oven with just the oven light on.
Fourth, after it rises, roll out and knead again til stiff and set the bowl over it for 10 minutes, while you grease your pan. Then roll out again and cut up into sections. Let rise in pan for 1 hour.
Then, you're ready to bake! Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or til they begin to get golden. this makes 12-15 big rolls and is easily doubled or halved.
This is also used to make cinnamon rolls, except instead of cutting in sections when you roll it out, you spread butter all over it and then a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over that, roll it up, cut the into rolls and then let them do that last rise like rolls. They take just a little longer to cook, but the trick is the right mix of cinnamon, sugar and butter that you prefer! 

Party Barn

So, since we've moved to our big shop, we've hosted a couple of Cooper's birthdays, Nana's surprise luau birthday last January, and this January, we turned the shop into the Princess Party Barn complete with princess bouncy house with slide!

My sweet little niece Chloe actually turned 5 on December 29th, but my sister decided to do a party after the holidays (wise choice). She is adorable and I think she enjoyed her princess party!

Happy 5th Birthday, Chloe!!

Baby is...........a BOY!!

I went for my 20 week ultrasound yesterday (I am actually closer to 21 weeks, but we are at the halfway point anyway). All his little parts are there and he is measuring right where he should be right now, so that is great news! We are so excited to finally know and now comes the work of preparing....See my 2011 Goals under Operation Baby Prep! Having a spring baby instead of fall, will make clothing sizes be a bit off, so my first job is to sort...anyone up for playing in a mountain of baby clothes!??!

Here's a sweet little profile pic of our new addition.....Cooper just loves this one of his little brother, even though he can't quite figure out how we got this photo.