lovin' cousins

Madi got a new blanket, and she just loved it. We all helped tie the ties, and that makes it EXTRA special. She gave Caleb a BIG hug for helping with her new, special horse blanket!

The cousins...

are now at an age where it isn't quite so painful for them to sit still for the "traditional" family photo every time we get together. They smile patiently and wait for us to say we are done. Look at how they've GROWN! Madi says "the only one missing is KT!"

Sisters....

It is so much fun having my sister and her family around over the Thanksgiving holiday. We wanted a good picture of the two of us. Rachel took the first one, and then looked at it in the camera screen and burst into laughter. Of course, that caused Sue Ann and me to just roar in laughter, and it took about 30 pictures to get one or two that are "good" ones. Here is a double page spread scrapbook layout that I did with some of the pictures. Laugh a while with us.

Picture perfect dinner rolls

I got this new recipe for rolls from a pastor's wife friend of mine. They are AWESOMELY delicious! Light and fluffy! Here's the recipe.


Melony's Famous Yeast Rolls

8-10 c. unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour
1 c. sugar
3 tsp salt
3/4 c butter
4 pkt rapid rise yeast (or 10 tsp. of bulk yeast)
1 1/2 c hot water
1 1/2 c milk
3 beaten eggs
Put milk into saucepan and scald. Add butter and water, let sit while yousift together,8 c. flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add eggs then slowly add milk mixture ( make sure it is very warm but not too hot) while beating with a mixer. Add flour as needed until dough is stiff but still moist and sticky. Pour out onto a floured surface and kneed 4-5 minutes. Place in large (and I do mean LARGE....like the largest bowl you have in the house and THEN some!) buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap.Place in fridge overnight. About 4 hours before serving, take dough out and kneed for about 1 minute. Roll out 1/4 of dough about 1/2inch thick. Cut into desired shapes ( I usually cut mine into square shapes) or cut off pieces and roll into balls. Place on buttered pan.. continue in like manner with the remaining dough. Let rise until almost double. (this will depend on humidity, temp, etc.) heat oven to 400... baketill desired color. (for mine it was about 7 or 8 minutes) Brush on melted honey butter (made by simply mixing room temp butter with honey to desired taste and then melting)

They looked beautiful, and tasted great, too!

Deep Fried Turkey

MMMMMM...some of the best turkey ever is deep fried turkey. It only takes about 3 1/2 minutes per pound, and the meat is tender and juicy and oh so full of flavor. It makes a bit of a mess on the deck, but we can live with that!

More Thanksgiving Photos

Ron is always happy to get a Christmas gift of a variety of beer from Bill and Sue Ann.

Rachel and Madi

Bill and Jordy play baseball on the Wii!

Thanksgiving Fun!

What fun it is to have family here for the Thanksgiving holiday! We are laughing a lot, eating WAY too much food, and just having a good time being together again. Too bad Thanksgiving only comes once a year!

Ethan and Aunt Sue Ann

Cameron and Madi

Caleb and Madi

Great minds think alike! Sue Ann and I got each other the exact same Christmas gift...down to the same design on the gift card!

Thanksgiving Menu

ok, so I'm kind of thinking "out loud" here...making my list of foods for the weekend.

Sue Ann and Bill and kids will be here Thursday afternoon. YAY! We'll have spaghetti for supper, since after traveling all day, no one is ever hungry for a big dinner.

Friday we'll have appetizers of braunschweiger dip, salsa and chips and veggies. We'll eat our big dinner around 2.

For that we are having:
2 turkeys (one fried, one roasted)
mashed potatoes
gravy
stuffing
sweet potato casserole
corn casserole
maybe cranberry relish?
rolls
salad
pumpkin pie
pecan pie bars

I think that's it...but who knows..there may be things switched in or out before serving time.

I'm so thankful for a sister and her family who are willing to make the trip out here to see us for this holiday!

Happy BIRTHDAY Ethan!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!

I can't believe that Ethan is NINE already! Where, oh where did all those years go? He is such a joy to have around! He is full of laughter and smiles and jokes. He still loves to give hugs and kisses to his mom, although he's graduated to high five's for his dad!

A big surprise for the kids today when the got home is that we had, after eight years of getting 3 channels, finally subscribed to cable tv! We let the kids eat in front of the TV for tonight only! We can't get their attention away from the dumb thing!

Grandpa Richard dropped off a yummy birthday cake, after he and Grandma Marge sang to Ethan on the phone! Grandma is ALWAYS good for a cake, JUST the way you "prescribe"!

Of course, mom made a cake, too! Not everyone gets TWO birthday cakes for their birthday. Both are chocolate, with chocolate icing. But Grandma Marge's has sprinkles, while mom's has butterscotch chips inside.

Ethan had to laugh at Rachel's "trick candles" on his cake. They kept relighting, after he blew them out. That was good for a few laughs.

Family Fun part 2

Rachel is so proud of this picture she took of her daddy!
and she took a nice shot of the two of us, I think!Ethan listens to an interesting story about catfish!The erosion table kept all four kids entertained for an extremely long time!

to bee continued.....

Fun Family Getaway

Our family enjoyed a quick overnight getaway to Dubuque. We stayed at the Grand Harbor Resort and the waterpark part of it was a huge hit with everyone. We played and swam on Friday from 6:30-10, and on Saturday enjoyed a big breakfast buffet and then swam from 10:30 til almost 1. Next we walked out to see the Mississippi River (RIGHT behind our hotel), but it was COLD so we didn't stay out there long! The next stop was the Mississippi Riverboat Museum and Aquarium where we saw all kinds of cool fish and stuff. We learned some interesting facts about catfish, and erosion, and the history of riverboats and barges along length of the Mississippi. The final stop was the Fenelon Place Elevator where we took a ride to the VERY COLD top!

Here are a few pictures of the weekend.The kis played for a LONG time on this snake!Cameron happily dumps a bucket of water on Caleb's head!

I'll add more photos later...blogger is giving me headaches and not wanting me to upload any more pictuers. We'll see how it goes tomorrow! :-)

Rachel the Superior!

We are SO proud of Rachel! Last night was the band solo judging at the middle school. All of the band students and to choose a solo and were assigned an accompanist and a judge. They've had a few weeks to prepare, and then last night was the judging. What GUTS that takes, to stand in front of a judge and whoever else wants to sit in on your solo! She chose Edelweiss as her solo, and her music teacher was her accompanist. I saw the judge's comment sheet today (one of the perks of being a sub at the school), and she received a SUPERIOR rating! Woo HOO...goooooo Rachel! The one comment that made me chuckle was under "appearance" the judge wrote "You look MAHvelous!"

So what's that they say

about the best laid plans....yeah..well...we didn't get macho nachos for supper tonight. Rats. Ron and I went to a chili supper at the town hall instead. But that just means we'll have the stuff for nachos another day this week. Although...looking at the calendar...it'll be amazing if we eat any meals together as a family this week! Monday night is cross country awards. Tuesday I'm going with a friend who sells Simply Fun when she does a show about 2 hours from here. (It honestly wouldn't take much for me to get involved with selling those things...what FUN games there are!) Wednesday is, of course, church, Thursday is daycare board meeting, and Friday/Saturday we will be in Dubuque for a family getaway kind of celebration for Ethan's 9th (yikes! Did I say NINTH??) birthday on Monday. I'll be teaching 6th grade language and literature all week long (subjects that are near and dear to my heart!) So, I may not have much time for scrapping, recipe submitting, blogging, etc.

I did this page tonight. It's from Ron's recent trip to Africa.

credits for the scrap page: Kimlizzy template 9, and papers and alphas are from Digi-scrap.net's "Out of Africa" kit.

What's for dinner?

It's a typical Sunday here. We celebrated the addition of a new child into God's family at church today, with the baptism of Janiece and Dave's little fella, and then Ron, Rachel and I went to their home and enjoyed a delicious brunch and visiting with both families. Ron and Ethan headed to an auction sale of one of our members who will be moving out of state, and I stayed back to do my homework on the First and Second Petition of the Lord's Prayer from Luther's Large Catechism, for Bible Study this afternoon (nothing like waiting til the last minute, huh?) Cameron and Rachel are making good use of the extra screen time they earned yesterday by raking and bagging 40...YES FORTY!! bags of leaves out of the front and back yards. Caleb is at his final performance of the play he was asked to be in just this past Tuesday. (We attended last night, and we just hooted and howled...it was really a funny play, called "The Divine Stella Devine" )

My Aunt Ruth (Dad's sister) was taken to a local hospital and then transferred by life flight to a larger city hospital, after having what they "think" is a heart attack. Prayers are appreciated!

Bible Study at 4, and then the kids will probably be hungry for supper. And for once, I have already planned out what we will have for Sunday evening dinner! We're having Macho Nachos. Here's the recipe!

It's all about ME

well, not really...not EVER...but I DID find a chance to scrap a photo of me. That happens very rarely. I designed this as a quickpage for a challenge at Scrapbook-bytes. For the quick page, of course, I left MY photo out :-)

A new week begins

and our thoughts and prayers have to be that it be a better, less stressful week for us, and for our good friends Richard and Marge and their family. We have suffered with them, prayed with them, hugged them, and done our best to comfort them this week, but it never seems to be enough. Simon's funeral on Thursday was "fabulous", "fantastic", "tremendous" or "great", depending on which family member/community member is speaking to you at the time. I must say that Ron did do an absolutely superb job with the funeral. No one left the funeral wondering if they were a sinner who needed Jesus. All were plainly told! People heard the Gospel boldly preached. Outstanding hymns were sung. I pray that the family will look back on that service and constantly be reminded of their need for Jesus.

My prayers continue for them all, and will continue for the weeks and months ahead! Here's a picture from our "family tradition" Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma Marge and Grandpa Richard's on Easter Sunday, 2003. Simon is on the porch.
Someday we will know all the answers...til then, we just have to trust God!