Thankful Thursday...a day late :) Jan/04/13

I'm thankful for sunshine, giggles, naps (mine and kids), potatoes (with cheese and sour cream! Yum), snuggles, baby kisses, papa kisses :), good neighbours, and the fact that even though this thankful Thursday is being written and posted on Friday it can still bless someone and make them smile! Have a great Friday!

Baking With The Kids!

Putting raisins on the cinnamon rolls. YUM!! I made 4 doz and froze a bunch for later.. still have some to enjoy later :) 

We did quite a bit of baking before Christmas. We made several batches of chocolate chip cookies and froze them. We did a batch of ginger snaps and a large batch of buns. We did cinnamon rolls with raisins and craisins. We did a couple of pies, some chocolate no bake cookies and we did some caramel popcorn!! It was really easy and we all enjoyed making it. Here is a little movie of the kids watching the popcorn pop in our air popper.. I love G's little happy squeal half way through.. and how Mr. J3 snags a piece.. so LIKE both of them!! 

The caramel popcorn was really fun.. easy and fun!! I posted the link on our fb page when we made it. 

Here it is!! http://www.houseandhone.com/2011/12/hone-made-caramel-pop-corn.html?m=1

This was a real hit at our church last Sunday and I have a feeling I will be making it again soon. We doubled the recipe and it still didn't last long! 

Cleaning the last of the caramel out of the bowl! 

The finished caramel popcorn... drool... drool.. 

Little Miss G Pictures.

J reading her a birthday card from Grandma F. 

Cheesy smile. Looks a bit like J3 in this one!! 

In serious awe of Christmas lights.

Yes I'm beautiful.. even with cheezies on my face!! 

You want me to WHAT?? 

How about I share instead??

Or stick my tongue out at you!! 

Patty cake?? 

OK OK I'll SMILE!!! 

Look at those teeth!! 

Oh oh... I think I pulled something!! Or filled something!! 

And here is a quick movie of her saying HI and nodding yes.. She normally does a seriously exaggerated nod with her head and gets her chin involved too.. like she's trying to actually say YES!!! 

Gingerbread Couples :)

The only gingerbread men/women we made this year.

It's a craft kit and they loved it :) 

Bonus....

it's not fattening :) 

Lines go up and down..

Left to right.

J, L, E, R and J3. 

When they were done we hung them up all over the house!! 

If only they smelled as nice as real gingerbread!! 

New Neighbors.. of the Fowl Kind.

See it?? 

It is a grouse sitting in a spruce tree. 

The spruce tree is at the end of our driveway. 

It's not our tree actually it's Mr. M's but our driveway goes right by it.

I discovered our new neighbors one day while I was walking back down the driveway.. 

I'd gone out to take pictures of Papa bringing Maggie home.. I wanted one of him walking her down the road home.. I never got the picture I wanted as Maggie decided to NOT follow him and we chased her the whole way! Anyway.. I was walking back to the house with the camera and I was a TAD distracted as I was also taking the opportunity to train Tucker to stay on the house side of the raised beds and NOT follow me down the driveway, when something EXPLODED right beside me.. 

Yeah.

 I knew what it was the minute my heart went out of PANIC MODE. 

Grouse are known for this little trick. It must have been less then 3 feet from me and I panicked it and it panicked me and Tucker took the opportunity to come a bit closer.. 

I yelled at the dog and marveled a little at myself.. I had NOT dropped the camera you see! 

I gave myself a mental shake and turned around to see if I could find it and calmly took a picture. 

My heart didn't actually stop racing until I got inside. 

I walked up and down the driveway several more times that day and saw two grouse in all. 

Over the next two weeks we saw 4 in all, sitting in the trees, walking across the driveway like they owned the place. Chip barked at them. Tucker went to sniff them out and got yelled at. 

I think they may have been attracted to the area by our hay pile.

Then one day they were gone.. moved out. Found a better place to camp I guess.

Anyway now that they are gone we kinda miss them.. they were fun to watch. 

Even if they did like to get your heart rate a boost! 

Kids Projects~ Cheese Making.

Stir, stir stir the milk while it heats to 120F!!

 J is stirring, E is checking the temp.. they all had a turn doing both. 

L measuring the vinegar for this simple vinegar cheese! 

3/4 of a cup per gallon of milk.

Taking a look to see if it's the right temp yet! 

Yes they are in their PJ's!! It was a lazy fun day! 

Pouring in the vinegar!! While his sister stirs. 

Stir stir stir!!

Normally it changes color. The cheese stays white and the whey goes greeny. I'm not sure why it didn't.. maybe because she's not on green grass?? The cheese looks good though! 

We let it sit for 30 minutes, drained it off and let it drain for 4 or so hours before putting it on a plate in the fridge. I use this cheese for breadstix and lasagna's and IN stuff. You can also slice it and salt it and it's a pretty good melting cheese for sandwiches or what have you. You can drain it just a tiny bit, crumble it before adding salt and pepper and cream to make a cottage cheese but I prefer to use rennet for cottage cheese now that I know how :) 

First Steak... A Moment of Drooling...

Right before we went on 'the BIG TRIP' we butchered our 2.5 year old steer.. Steers-eye. His name was Bulls-eye (You know like the BBQ sauce)  but when it no longer described him we changed it :) He was the very last of "The Bindy Line' a line we are happy to be done with as they tended to be more high headed then we liked. ANYWAY!! When we got back from 'the BIG TRIP' we got some steaks out and Papa BBQ'd them!! WOWZA!!! Yes it was a picture taking moment.. we ate the last of our last beef in March.... traded some chicken for a little bit during the summer (a roast and some hamburger) but this was, quite likely, the 1st steaks we've had since last year at this time... and Man oh MAN did they taste good!!!! I think he BBQ'd 6 steaks.. and I don't think there was any left!! 

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday from life in general and wishing God's blessing on you and your family for the new year!

Christmas hasn't started here yet this morning. The tree lights are on. The fire is cracking and popping merrily. The stockings are full and waiting. My mocha is almost finished. Papa is sleeping beside me. The kids are in their beds, asleep, I checked. We watched The Nativity Story with them last night and they got to bed after 10, so it's not too surprising. The house was a bit chilly with -15C outside, but the fire is warming it up. When the kids get up we'll pour Papa a cup of coffee and bring him his Bible and he'll read to us the Christmas story in Luke. Last year he planned on changing it for this year and going through Jesus's life with the kids Christmas morning. The prophecy's surrounding Jesus before his birth, his birth, life, death on the cross, his resurrection and the second coming of Christ. I believe he's changed his mind though as our wonderful friend Mr. M preached that very same thing last Sunday in our house church. What a wonderful way to see the WHOLE gift of Jesus and what he did for us.

After the Bible reading we will decide what gifts to open and when to open the stockings. The kids used the stocking like mail boxes this year for gifts to each other. I added a few things after they went to bed. I think the new minnow nets I found for each of them are going to be a big hit! At the beach last summer they were catching minnows in cups which is a LOT harder then nets :)

Papa wants to make waffles with bacon for breakfast. I'm hungry already :) Being pregnant I will probably eat a little something, like cinnamon rolls :), before then! The kids requested blackberry sauce on their waffles and we still have some, I've been HOARDING it, so we'll have blackberry sauce on our waffles...maybe even with whipped cream :)
Anyway I better go Papa's waking up and it sounds like I need to shut my fire down.  Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and enjoy the smiles and awe of your children this morning. Make many happy memories and maybe even a new tradition :) Merry Christmas!!

Serious Fry Making.

Papa got a new potato slicer a while ago and had to try it out. 

It has 4 blades; tiny, med, large and wedges. It works great but it really does need a anchor board to hold it still.. Half his energy went into holding it still while the other half went into pushing the potato through the knifes. It makes great fries! 

He deep fries them in lard on the front porch (what a nice change from inside on the stove!!) on our outdoor burner. They are the best fries EVER!!! I think once we get it set up so it's easier to use I'm really going to like the wedge knifes for baking wedges... YUM!!! 

Thankful Thursday. Dec 20th/12

Tonight I'm thankful for many things.

I'm thankful that Papa's job is no longer out on the hwy driving truck in all weather.. as the roads are terrible today and the freezing rain is not helping.

I'm thankful for a nice warm house, our wood heat, and for able youngsters to bring firewood to the porch.

I'm thankful for the Internet, computer and phone.

I'm thankful for my new Know How.. kids and I made caramel popcorn this morning.. 1st time ever! YUM YUM!!

I'm thankful for my Mother in Law :) It's her birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Mom!!

I'm thankful for the new baby and that my energy levels appear to be on the rise now that we are pretty much done with trimester #1.

I'm thankful for the 3 hour nap G is having.. and wondering if I should wake her!

I'm thankful that Papa has to work tomorrow and then has 5 days off!!

I'm thankful for simple traditions and making memories.

I'm thankful for chicken... it's what's for dinner ;)

And for the odd one...drum roll...

I'm thankful that even though I felt like doing laundry today.. there wasn't any anywhere!! So I didn't actually do any!! Amazing!