The Christmas Celebrations Have Began!!!!

The hubs and I are both very blessed to still have four sets of grandparents. It truly is a blessing, Charlot has 7 great grand parents and they all live within an hour of us!!! During the holidays this adds a lot of celebrations but we really don't mind! Christ's birth is truly a great reason to celebrate! 

                                     

                                          This picture pretty much nails these three to a tee!!!

These celebrations started yesterday, at my mom parents! That celebration was so much fun kiddos everywhere, trees being knocked over hehe ;) (you know who you are), great food, just a great day!!! 

                                        

                                        

After that we headed over to my parents house to open presents with my brothers girlfriend. She loves the robe they got her she ran around the house in it all morning!

                                         

Charlot was super tired after all these celebrations, but would not wear down. So momma had to think fast, pj's on and we were off to look at Christmas lights!!! She lasted about 30 minutes!!!! Then the hubs and I got to enjoy all the lights with our sleeping beauty in the back! 

                                          

Celebrations continue tonight with the hubs, grandparents in Concordia! Someone is resting up for playing with cousins!!!

Hope all of you are ready for a very Merry Christmas!!!

Santa Train...

To say the minimum she was a bit excited!

The Kansas City Southern Santa Train came to town last night! Boy oh boy it was so much fun. The hubs and I took Charlot through and then she and I met up with some friends to go through the train again and eat some supper.  It was awesome. We had so much fun Charlot was still talking about it this morning. If you ever get the chance to go see it do! It is a must see for all kiddos!

"Daddy can't you do something about this line?"

The Line just wasn't moving quite fast enough for her excitement!

Look at these decorations! They are amazing!

The trains oh we could have spent hours at the trains.

We actually got a picture of her on Santa's Lap! (Please ignore the green plaid shirt in the corner of the picture)

Ok your caught me this is what it actually looked like. Charlot feels that Santa is a parent supervised activity!

Oh friends, Kenzi, Jessup and their Momma Cheri

Look at those cheeks I could just squeeze them all night. Oh and Cheri has a nice smile!

Charlot loved the "Grinning" Train!

Oh Christmas through the eyes of a child!

Amazing!



Here is my kid acting like a goof troop and Kenzi looking at her like she has lost her mind!

Thank you to KCS for a wonderful experience! Kids love this thing!

Hope all of you have a marvelous weekend!

Christmas Tree Farm!!!

Let’s get something out there right in the beginning. I am not a huge fan of real Christmas trees! I know this is a terrible statement. But here’s the deal first and foremost I am allergic to these beautiful trees, they make me sneeze, ahhhhchooooooo! Secondly they are a mess a really big mess and they are high maintenance with their need for watering. I have no problems with others having them I just don’t really want one, due to the fact I want to feel good on Christmas!

My dear adorable loving hubs, thinks that it is a crime that we have an artificial tree. And he is a fan of huge Clark Griswold type of trees. Our artificial tree is pretty big so I think that at minimum makes up for the fact that it isn’t real. Maybe I should get some pine scented candles to help add effect??? Any who this year he really wanted to take Charlot to a Christmas tree farm to pick out his parents tree.

We went this past weekend, and wow it was fidget, cold, face numbing, nose running, cold. But we had a blast! Charlot loved the fact that she got to put on her snow suit with no snow. She kind of treats that suit like it is her invincible suit; she bounces off everything without a care in the world. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Not a stick in sight was safe with Charlot near if it was on the ground it was getting picked up!

More Sticks...

"Come on Grandpa Stanley I could use some help! Don't you see all these sticks?"

Once the perfect tree was selected Charlot needed to be of assistance to the Hubs.

"Are you sure you two don't need me under there"

"Now look at what you did, the tree fell over. Told you I should be helping"

"That's it team work! Cut, cut, cut" (Apparently they needed a cheerleader as well!)

Wonderful cold day for a Christmas Tree hunt!

So am I the only crazy one that prefers a fake tree???

Now if you'll excuse me I really must go thaw my toes, just looking at these pictures makes me cold!

Black Bottom Pie!!!



My lovely Aunts Pointing out the hole Charlot poked in the pie



The amazingness I barely got a picture!

I haven’t posted in a while I guess the holidays are catching up with me. But today I wanted to share with you a weird delicious pie that I brought to our family Thanksgiving. When my aunt sent me the invitation to Thanksgiving I quickly asked her what I could bring. Her first response “black bottom pie.” I said ok I’ll whip one right up.


Well it might have helped if I had any idea at all what in the world a black bottom pie was. So from internet, cookbook, and asking friends and family, a pie was born. You see when my mom and her sisters were little their mom ran the historic Arrow Rock Tavern and apparently one of the cooks their used to make an amazing Black Bottom Pie. So I knew I had high standards to live up to.

The pie was weird in the process of making it for me but the end result was worth the effort. Oh my goodness delicious. I don’t think it was quite the pie my aunt had in mind but she liked it just the same! So if you want a different dessert for your next gathering whip up this here pie. Then sit back and enjoy the praise. HA!

Black Bottom Pie

1 single-crust pie shell

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar (divided)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 cups milk

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons rum (or 1/2 teaspoon rum extract)

4 egg whites

Step One: Prepare one single-crust pie shell. (Try My Momma’s!) Prick all over, the more the better, with a fork. Bake at 450-degrees for about 10 minutes. Cool.



Step Two: Soften gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water and set aside.



Step Three: In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and the cornstarch. Stir in milk and egg yolks. Cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir two minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.



Step Four: Pour half of the milk mixture into a medium-size bowl. (Keep remaining mixture in saucepan warm with the lowest setting on your stovetop. It is very important that you keep the saucepan mixture warm while you are working with the chocolate in this step.) Add chocolate to the half in the bowl and stir to melt. Pour into baked pie shell. Chill while continuing the rest of the pie preparation.



Step Five: Stir softened gelatin mixture into the warmed saucepan with the remaining half of the milk mixture until gelatin dissolves. Stir in the rum. You can taste the rum first if you need to. Or want to. Or have some Coke. Or don’t. You just go ahead and have some rum. Okay, don’t get too distracted here. Chill the milk/gelatin/rum mixture until it is about the consistency of syrup. Do not get distracted at this point. I can’t say this enough. Put down the rum. If you let it chill too long, it will gel into clumps and you will be so so so sad. Actually, that’s not true–even if you let it get clumpy, the pie will still work, but it won’t look as pretty, so don’t do it. Put down the rum! Just check it every 5 minutes to see when it thickens up to syrupy texture and take it out then. (This will depend on your fridge temp, but should probably be less than 30 minutes.)

Step Six: Beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, continuing to beat till stiff peaks form. To get it right beat until you can’t beat anymore then BEAT SOMEMORE!!!



Step Seven: Fold beaten egg whites into the prepared, syrupy-textured milk/rum mixture. Spoon over chocolate bottom in pie shell. Chill overnight (or like 8 hours).

Step Eight: Eat half the pie prior to taking it anywhere. Ok so maybe you should double this recipe.

Thankful Series Continued…Short Week

Today I am really thankful for a short work week. I was sick yesterday and my boss is letting us off at noon today. So I really only worked about a day and a half. Hooray. But the reason I am so thankful is that this morning is the last morning for the week I have to take Charlot to daycare. She loves it there but I love lazy mornings with her and the hubs. I cannot wait to sleep in tomorrow morning relax on the couch a bit watch a little thanksgiving day parade before heading out to our family Thanksgiving celebration.


I truly live for mornings that I get to spend with the two of them that aren’t hurried that are calm and easy. I look forward to Friday, Saturday and Sunday with few plans and plenty of family time. I cannot imagine spending my holiday anywhere else. So Charlot and Hubs WATCH OUT THIS MOMMA WILL BE WITH YOU ALL WEEKEND LONG!!!

Thankful Series Continued...For New Experiences

 Today I am especially thankful for these two people. They are the hubs grandparents and they are two very special people. They recently celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss. 60 years wow that is a really long time. These two are still so in love today you can just see it in their eyes when they look at each other and their family.

To celebrate this event they came up with the idea to take us all away for the weekend. Nothing fancy just good quality time spent as a family. I have been apart of this family for quite a while now and this is the first time we have had the chance to do something like this. Let me tell you it was a blast. Really getting to know your family on an even more personal level is a gift no one can take away.

The guys spent most of Saturday evening cheering the Tigers on to their win over Ole Miss. And the ladies spent the evening making new Christmas wreaths. Charlot, well Charlot spent the evening keeping Christopher on his toes. (Christopher is RaRa's boyfriend, and Charlot's Best Friend)

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. But they truly don’t do justice to love and joy shared during our time together.

Thankful Series Continued…The Power of Prayer

As I sat in the church pew yesterday and really listened to what the minister had to say. I started to reflect on what he was saying the title of his sermon was “Putting Christ in His Place.” He spoke about how important it was to really live a Christ centered life and how easy it was to be distracted, he said much more but this was the just of it. As I started to think about this I realized that this was something I have been really trying to do over the past month or so. Yes I am a Christian and have been for a long time but I do think that I had become distracted by all the other things that come with well Life.


Earlier this fall I saw myself coming and going and not really slowing down anywhere in between. I saw I was short with my temper, long with drama, and just not really that happy. I just broke down one night and prayed and prayed, I needed help I wanted to be a better person than I was being. Now I am not saying that the Lord has totally changed me but I do feel I am working on it with his help. But I will say that I have noticed I am happier in my marriage, I don’t seem to sweat the small stuff as much, relationships that I desperately needed to work on are getting more attention, I am a more patient mom, and seriously I am happier.

I guess it just took my ministers words to point out to me that the changes I had said I wanted to make were starting to happen. Funny how the Lord put things out there and they sometimes have to slap you in the face to realize it.

So Happy Monday and I hope each of you have a delightful week!

Thankful Series Continued...oh the things she says!

I am thankful for everything about this little girl that the good Lord blessed us with. But I really have to say the things she says tend to top the list! I mean I can be having a really bad moment and I can bank on Charlot to put a smile on my face! Here are some of her most recent and best examples.

After supper one night she was in the living room playing I was cleaning the bathroom. She comes running in and announces "I am building a house!" "How awesome sweetie" " Momma it is a asome house cause it is chocolate!" This kids knows me too well!

During supper one night, "I better not drink this water" " really Charlot why?" "It will hurt my tummy I better drink your tea." This is said as she is giving me a super cute grin and nodding her head. How do I resist that?

I walk in from Zumba class. She is dancing in the middle of the room! I ask did you and daddy have fun? "Yes!!! We ate supper and CANDY!!!" Wow hubs she sold you out too quick.

The kid loves donuts, especially chocolate ones with sprinkles! One particularly rough morning (she is not a morning person) she says to me "I need to take donuts to Telpha's" "Charlot there is a difference between wants and needs, you want to take donuts" "NO I NEEEED to take donuts or Telpha won't feed us" really kid??? Guess what she got donuts, just call me a sucker.

Last but not least...we pray each night before we get in bed and each night I ask her who she wants to pray for. Her answer is pretty much always the same "Uncle Zach" she knows he needs her prayers, hahaha! But tonight in a moment of trying to encourage her to say anyone else? "Hummmmm maybe Pap and grandma" "ok very good sweetie" We start to pray and all of a sudden she says "Lauren momma Lauren needs prayers!!" It was very urgent apparently she knows uncle zach's girlfriend better than me!

Thankful Series Continued...Freedom

Today is Veterans Day and I can't think of a better thing to be more thankful for. My freedom. Because without the sacrifices of these brave men and women we wouldn't have this freedom. The freedom to speak publicly, bear an arm, vote, worship in our chosen way and so much more. 

I don't have a ton of experience with the military. My uncle is in the Navy and has served several tours of duty and one of my other uncles served during the Vietnam war. But I never have experienced the day in and day out worries of a husband or wife, son or daughter being gone. 

This spring the realities of war were brought to life for me. A young wife and mother that I grew up showing with and was very active in FFA in high school. I had been following her blog as she and her husband were preparing for his deployment, and as she was going through the deployment with her girls. I will never forget that May afternoon when I read her sisters Facebook post in disbelief. The post simply stated that my friends' husband had been called home to be with The Lord, that he wouldn't be coming home to his wife and daughters the way they had planned. 

I had never had the privilege to meet her husband but I felt like some one had sucked the air out of my lungs. I couldn't imagine what she and her girls were going through. That night I hugged my hubs a bit tighter and realized I needed to be more thankful for him, because he was here. What I have taken away from this story is the strength of this young wife and mom I have continued to follow her thoughts and stories through Facebook and her blog, she is truly amazing. 

So thank you to all the men and women out there who sacrifice each and everyday so I can live without fear and live with freedom. And thank you to your loved ones their sacrifices are great and honorable as well.

She doesn't know I am linking this up so I hope it is ok, this is the website to my friends blog and her thoughts on Veterans Day, it is quite inspiring! Www.troopsteachingsandtots.blogspot.com