Lauren Noelle

Announcing Lauren Noelle, born 12/29/2010, at 11:21 pm, 6 1/2 pounds. 20 inches long.

She's a beautiful baby, with tons of dark hair.

More pictures to come.

Merry Christmas!

Present for ya...........

Feeling Snappy

For all of you who rejected my whale picture, who tried to make me feel guilty for not posting a "real" picture ......

I ask you? Why do you want this picture so much??? Have you pondered this question in your heart?

You want to find inner glee at how big I am, ....don't you??? You might as well admit it. Because I already know the truth.

So I am delaying. I'm thinking a candid on-the-way-to-the-hospital picture.
I'll probably be in my PJ's, hair uncombed, crumbs on my shirt. (A person drops a lot of crumbs when they have to sit three feet away from the table because their belly is so big. Good thing I have my daddy's long arms ...we'll not HIS arms.) Anyway more glee for you.

Speaking of snappy. Yes, I am snappy these days.

Gingersnaps. I don't like 'em

I love them.

Well not really, I bite into them and think, "ick" too strong, not good. blehk!, But a few second later I want another one, so I eat another one, and another one and another one. Until all I want and have ever wanted is gingersnaps.

It's the strangest phenomenon.

I wonder if it's related to the chocolate ice-cream phenomenon.

Once when we lived in Logan, Barry brought me home some ice-cream as a surprise. It was chocolate, as a rule, chocolate ice cream is not my favorite, but being ice-cream deprived I ate a bowl of it.

Surprisingly finding it quite delicious, I ate another bowl of it.

Later that night Barry had some, and I finished off the carton the next day.

That next evening Barry asked me what I wanted to do for our date (see, this was a long time ago, we still went on dates).

I told him all I wanted was to get some more of that ice cream. He laughed at me, but he agreed and went and purchased two more cartons. I was halfway through the first carton, when Barry(gggrrr)happened to look at the ingredients. Third ingredient Instant Coffee.

Oh so sad. I finished off the carton, and promised to eat no more of it, but I have dreamed of it, and I can tell you, if the craving for a cup of coffee is anything like the craving for coffee ice-cream, those people have a tough habit to break.

ON to better things....

You want to make gingersnaps now don't you??? No?... you want some of that ice cream. MMmmm me too, but we can't.

So you'll have to settle for these.



Grandma's Gingersnap cookies.

Yes, you'll like them strangely, you won't be able to stop eating them ravenously, you'll get fat, ironically, you'll look like a whale fittingly..........and then I'll request a picture gleefully.

Ahh the power of suggestion.

(Mmm yum, don't forget to buy the molasses, if that's not something you keep around the house)



Grandma's Gingersnap Cookies
Original Recipe Yield 5 dozen

Ingredients

* 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon ground ginger
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3 cups of instant coffee
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup shortening
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup dark molasses
* 1/3 cup cinnamon sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly, and sift a second time into another bowl.
3. Place the shortening into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg, and dark molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture; stir to thoroughly blend. Sift in the remaining flour mixture, and mix together until a soft dough forms. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar, and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Store in an air tight container

For added blubber, dip in melted white chocolate or cream cheese pumpkin dip.

Presenting

As per request my much anticipated pregnancy picture........








Not only is this picture a perfect representation of my current self, but it also captures how I feel as well ....as a whale.

FHE

My sister and her husband came up to visit us this weekend. We decided to surprise Ellie. They came before Ellie had got home from church, so when she got home I sent her up to room to change and had Amy and Mo were hiding in her room. She was very very surprised, and excited. She and James had a grand time playing with them. Later that evening Barry and I went to the Stake Christmas program. It was weird going without kids, it was like we were going on a date.
Barry did a good job as Joseph, he cut out some of his more cheesy lines, and he looked good in his costume that he sewed himself. Mary did look about 18, but Barry said in real life she was probably 12, so I guess it was as accurate as they could get. I thought the choir did a pretty good job too, so all in all it was a success. We came home and had hot chocolate and candy cane cookies and the kids had a blast dancing around to fiddle music.

Monday morning, I went to my Dr. appt. and Amy and Mo watched the kids for me. When I came home they were all busy playing hide and seek, and by all the wrong rules, like running away from your hiding place before the person could find you. James didn't have a clue what was going on, but he loved it all the same. Both Ellie and James cried when it was time for Amy and Mo to return home and will be excited to see them again.

For FHE on Monday we painted some plaster ornaments my mom sent us. The kids really enjoyed it. Now we just need to buy another tree to hang them on.

The doctor says I probably have about two weeks before baby pate makes her appearance. I'm thinking it may be sooner than that, but hopefully we'll get those two weeks in because then the baby would be considered full term.

I thought I'd get Barry one of these.

I despise his beard, and this should take care of the whole "the beard keeps my face warm out in the cold" excuse.


Just Brilliant, I know.




Another Brilliant idea is these



Every year on my birthday in elementary school I would give out candy canes instead of the traditional cupcakes. To carry on this tradition I decided to give my YW candy canes after my lesson on Sunday.
I bought two boxes on Saturday to share, unfortunately I opened them before giving them away. Oh yummy in my tummy. I decided not to give them out after all, and was enjoying munching several of them, when Barry reminded me who I had actually gotten them for. Grumbling, I decided to give away the last 6 Starburst Strawberry Canes, and keep the whole package of Spree Candy Canes to myself. My are they tasty.

Mmmm... Buy Them, Try Them. Yum!

Doozies

Me looking in the mirror, dressed in an all black dress:

Examining my bulging figure, I remarked with dismay. ""I look like a whale."

Ellie examines me with a critical eye. ""Nah," she says, "Whales aren't black."

Helpful Barry remarks from the other room "Sperm Whales are black."

Ellie taking another look at me with a nod "yeah, okay then."



Conversing with my neighbor:


I remarked to my neighbor about how crazy big I was feeling.

Then she kindly shared HER thoughts with me

She said.

"Yeah I know, I keep telling myself, we'll it IS her third baby, afterall, I guess she's already all stretched out, and she does only have a month or so left...."

I stopped listening then.




Relaxing in the bathtub, (due to my forgetting to lock the door) Ellie runs in to tattletale. (Totally against the rules).

Instead of tattling though, she stops dead in her tracks and gasps with surprise and exclaims "Holy Cow your milkers are getting big!"

"OUT!!!!!!!!!" was all I could say.

(My milkers???, seriously, MY MILKERS???? .........can't wait for her to tell her primary class that one.)







P.S Amy wanted me to include a belly picture with this post, but I'm just not up to it.
Maybe Sunday, in my black dress.

Bonus Post

I know, I know, two posts in two days.

What more could you want?

Christmas music????

We'll I updated my blog music too. (Sorry Amy, it does play automatically, I'll change that after while.)

Yesterday, as I mentioned, church got canceled because of terrible weather conditions. I on the other hand would have canceled it anyway, because I spent the day on the couch with terrible terrible cramps and back pain. I finally asked Barry for a Priesthood blessing, because I feared I was going into labor. I was blessed that our baby was very healthy and strong and would be delivered at the proper time. The cramping didn't go away, but I felt much comforted as the spirit whispered in my ear something that should have but had not occurred to me. Today looking at my ripe belly, it definitely has changed shape, and I can (deep breaththhhhhhhhhhhhh) breath again. All is well, Little Baby Pate has dropped, and she is right on schedule for making her New Year's Eve appearance.

Snowed In

Ellie and James' first look at the snow. We got a ton, Barry spent a couple of hours trying to shovel us out, but the piles of snow on either side of our driveway grew taller than him. Our kind neighbor finally came and plowed us out with his tractor.


Saturday night we lite a fire in our wood stove and watched Burl Ives' Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. James loved the music and wanted to dance.

His daddy obliged him





Scones and hot milk before bedtime.


A very tired James. He gets up at 5:45 to see his Daddy off to work everyday, but sometimes around breakfast his lack of sleep catches up with him.


We got snowed in this year for Thanksgiving. We were sad to miss visiting with everyone, especially Ellie's who has been counting down the days for more than a month. We did have a good meal though, with all the fixings. So we didn't miss out on that part.
The weather has just been awful, cold and snowy and windy. The roads are terrible slippery. Our car is much more of a sled on snow than a car, so it makes it quite scary. I told Barry we should put sleigh bells on our car, since we just slide down the road anyway.
We did have some fun on Black Friday, Barry went out early and picked up a few Christmas presents, 2 for him, 1 for me. Then we went shopping with the whole family. Got a few more things, including snow-pants and boots for Ellie and candy for everyone. Then we went car shopping, donated stuff to the DI, got everyone a hamburger and surprised Ellie with movie tickets to Tangled. She loved it, and was very surprised. She didn't even realized where we were until we were about to go into the actual theater, and then she got all excited. We snuck our candy in and Barry even bought us popcorn. :o
On the way home we picked out a Christmas tree, we weren't planning on getting one yet, but Barry decided to go ahead, so we strapped it on the top of our car and slide slowly home.

Overall it's been a very quiet peaceful weekend, and I am thankful for my family, our safety and our warm home.

I got up early today to get ready for church but we found out it got canceled today because of the weather and the huge snow drifts across the road. So today we will have another family day. I spread some blankets out on the floor in front of the wood stove, and James is already getting our his blocks to make trains, and Ellie has carried down her dolls to play with. I think I'll stay in my PJ's, eat pie and warm my feet by the fire.

Craving

So I've been delaying my post, so I could show off my birthday present. Unfortunately it didn't arrive in the mail today as anticipated. So I'm gravely disappointed and had to eat a handful of chocolate chips to console myself.

After Halloween I told Barry I wasn't making any desserts until after Thanksgiving. After gaining 10 pounds in about 3 weeks, I knew I needed to cut back on the goodies.

This, not dessert making, has been extremely hard on me, but more so on Barry. He doesn't have access to the hidden Halloween candy, or my stash of chocolate chips and marshmallows. He's actually threatened to make a dessert himself and not give me any, but I am holding strong. I am determined, I am resolute.

Today, I got out the ingredients to make white chocolate pecan cookies (oh drool), but I put them away before I started. Barry says I'm just going to have to make up for lost time after Thanksgiving with extra goodies, but I think I can overcome.

I will admit I went to a party for someone I never even talk to just to get a measly piece of cake and scoop of ice cream. I also went to enrichment for the 3rd time in oh so many years in hope of refreshments. I stayed until almost 9, with no refreshments in site, I finally left.

On the upside, at enrichment I did learn how to sew a baby blanked with mitered corners. Thus leading me to my birthday present. My very own sewing machine

Her she is.



I've put off buying one before, because I don't have a good space to keep it, and well, I don't really know how to sew, besides the basics. Yet, my faith in my basic skills were renewed at enrichment and I found sewing the blanket very easy and satisfying and the end results good. So my intense craving for sugar has lead to possibly a new hobby and years of joy and entertainment ;)

Besides Barry will need to use my new machine to sew his "Joseph" costume for the Nativity.

After much encouragement from the high council, He did go to the practice on Sunday, but Mary was not there, so they didn't practice lines and her identity still remains a mystery.

The stake president's wife DID tell him that he looks exactly like Joseph. She must be older than I thought.

The stake nativity is on Sunday December 12th. I may be singing in the choir.

Further details to come.

A Boy and his Trains

Each train is special, each train is unique. James will spend several minutes building a train. Designing the different cars, hooking it all together, and lastly hunting down a couple passengers for the train. I don't recall anyone every showing James how to make a train, or even showing him what a train was. But as he drags his creations around the house with his sweet unmistakable "choo choo" there is no question, James knows what a train is.

Last week, James was playing blocks in his room as I went downstairs to take the bread out of the oven, ...then I heard James scream.

I knew it wasn't a scream of pain, or even fear, it was a "help me" scream.

I hurried back up the stairs, as I neared the top, I spied my little James, who has drove his train over to the landing at the top of the stairs. I also noticed he had loaded, and I mean loaded this train with people, he had found every block person we have and put them on every available space on the train.

This was definitely a passenger train, and this train was definitely in trouble...

As I watched he was gleefully driving his train off the top stair and mock screaming for the people, as the train dangled there helplessly. Then he would pull the train back up and drive around a bit, before sending them off the stairs again.

Sometimes I wonder what is swirling through my clever boy's head. He's so delighted with mischief.

Carrots and Blocks

These are some carrots from our garden this year, the seed package wasn't kidding when they said they would grow into big juicey carrots. I tried to get James to hold one of the carrots so you could see how big these carrots actually are. He wouldn't. He was rather afraid of it. 1 carrot equals about 6 large carrots, these things are monsters, but the good and crazy thing about them is they still taste good.



Meet Ellie, the photographer.
She conducted yet another photo session with James. She asked me if she could take some pictures of James playing with his blocks.
Notice the focus, the lighting, the angles. I think my girl truly has talent.

chuckling

Last Sunday, a counselor asked Barry if he'd play Joseph in our Stake nativity. Barry was eager to accept because it would mean he would have an excuse to keep growing his beard until Christmas.

They told him he would have a few lines to say, something from Joseph's perspective.

Later, I teased him that they would be lines like:

-Think of all the money we're saving Mary by staying in this manger.
-This baby doesn't look anything like me.


I mean, seriously what would Joseph say?

Barry's speaking part arrived in the mail today, I admit, I just had to open it.....

Now, I'm chuckling all the more, I just can't see Barry or Joseph saying any of this.


I just hope Mary is cute, for his sake, and over 18 ......talk about awkward ;)

oh and he gets to make his own costume.....




I'm definitely attending the Nativity this year.

I'm sure he would appreciate your support as well.

Come one, come all.

Recipes Good Enough to Share

Lucky you, this is #2 post for today.

My two favorite soups, and yours too, as I can see. I'm watching you. Wooooo wooooo. (Scary huh?)

YUM!


Kelli's Creamy White Chili

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and cubed
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (or fresh garlic is even better)
1 Tbls. Vegetable oil (I use olive)
2 (15 oz.) cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can chicken broth
2 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies (usually found in Mexican food section of the grocery store)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. black pepper ( I put in about high, because I mildly allergic to it)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I leave this out, because I'm highly allergic to it)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

The recipe doesn't call for it but I always add in fresh mushrooms and saute them with the chicken. Add as many as you like.

In a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and whipping cream. Serve immediately.





Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

* 1 lb ground Italian sausage
* 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
* 1 large diced white onion
* 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
* 2 tsp garlic puree
* 10 cups water
* 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 4 large potatoes
* ¼ of a bunch of kale
I added a bit more salt in the end, because I think it needed it, but other than that, it was just as good as the Olive Garden.

1. Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
3. Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
4. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!

Buon appetito!

Halloween and High Self Esteem

For Halloween we went to the fabulous annual Stuart Halloween Party. My brother and his wife out did themselves again.
They set up a graveyard in their backyard with fog, and a spooky zombie that moved. Inside they had decorated everything spooky. James was very scared at first. My brother constructed this really cool ghost that looked and moved like I would imagine a real ghost would. I wish I had a video of it, it was awesome.
They also had yummy soup and bread sticks shaped like bones. The pumpkin roll my mom brought was also delicious.
I admit I didn't dress up for the party. I felt bad, I was going to be a peanut M&M, but nothing was going my way that day, so it didn't happen. Ellie was a beautiful princess and James was an adorable puppy dog.

Saturday afternoon we came home and made soup for the ward party, Zuppa Toscana, it was delicious, I was very pleased how it turned out, since we never had made it before.
At the ward party the kids got to go around the gym in a line and get candy from everyone sitting on chairs around the edges. James and I were stuck behind a very shy neighbor girl who just froze and stood in front of people and stared at them even after they gave her a piece of candy. Eventually I would prod her on, but James took this to his full advantage and gave big smiles to the people who gave him candy, he would stand and wait a minute behind the frozen girl, and then again smile and hold up his little plastic pumpkin to the same person, who usually couldn't resist giving my adorable puppy another piece. One man gave him 4 candy bars before we moved on.

After about the hundredth person told Ellie she looked just like a princess, Ellie chuckled and whispered in my ear, "What they don't know, is that I REALLY AM a Princess"
Maybe that would concern some mothers, but it makes me happy. I want my daughter to know and feel as special as any princess. I want her to have confidence in herself, and love who she is. I know there are some risks with too high of self-esteem but we'll take those any day over those of a low self-esteem.
We went to a party after the ward party and had homemade doughnuts and apple cider. The kids ran wild, the men discussed, the woman gossiped, and I stuffed myself silly. It was truly delightful.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I figure how to get them off my email.



Coming soon .............Mouse Tales continued

Around, Around the Mulberry Bush.......

You may ask, why is my 5 year old Ellie running away from little James????





Why she hiding??













I've entitled these photos "Walk Softly and Carry A Big Stick"

comments

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A Mouse Tale

Saturday night was terrible, in the night I heard a scratch scratch, scratching in my closet.

Definitely a mouse, definitely unacceptable. I desperately tried to ignore the noise, but soon the sound changed to a scratch scratch scratching under my bed!!!!!!!!!!!

Ack!!! I hoped I had a imagined it, I hoped it would go away, it seemed like for hours the scratching continued.

Finally I could stand it no longer, I flipped on my light, of course this caused the scratching to stop, and set out on a determined search to find out how that nasty little critter got into my room.

Pulling mostly everything out from my closet, I discovered a small space between the carpet, and the Sheetrock in the back of my closet, and just as I was examining it, a little mouse stuck his head out. ICK ICK ICk.

I stomped downstairs, flipped on the light and loomed over barry, who had fallen asleep on the couch in front of the fire. Barry, a deep sleeper with hearing loss surprisingly opened his eyes and looked up at me with a confused expression. I explained very nicely that I had been up all night listening to the scratch scratching of a nasty mouse, and that I had found his hole and that he(barry) would get up early before church and block it.

Barry surprised me again, and quickly agreed and closed his eyes and fell back to sleep.

Now 4am, I tromped back up the stairs, happy to have a plan, I sat on my bed and announced to mister mouse. "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die!
Laying down on my bed, I then peacefully went to sleep.
I was woken up in the early morning by Barry asking me what in the world I was talking about in the middle of the night.

I explained againnicely, and Barry seeing the dark shadows under my blood-shot eyes wisely did not argue and went to work. He blocked off the hole to my satisfaction and then quickly got ready for church, I got Ellie ready and sent them off. Yes, I sent them off to church without me, claiming a sore throat. The sore throat was in fact true, but it was from the cloves I put in the cookies that I had eaten the night before, and was in no way contagious.

The Ox is in the Myer, I told myself, a mouse is in my house, and that is a very serious thing.

I went to work, cleaning out my entire closet, which was full of all of our emergency supplies, 72 hour backpacks, guns and suitcases. I cleaned out under my bed throwing away anything the mouse might have licked, scratched, peed on, etc.
I washed all of my bedding in case the mouse had perchance scampered across a blanket hanging on the floor in the night, and swept and vacuumed the entire house in case the mouse was looking for a last meal.

After thoroughly cleaning the closet I did leave the the mouse behind just one small present, a gift bag, with a mouse trap snugly tucked behind it. I quietly closed the doors, put another log on the fire, dished myself up a big bowl of ice cream and waited.

It wasn't long...... SNAP!

R.I.P little mouse.

Ahh I could suddenly breath again, the air seemed cleaner, the world was a better happier place.

I grabbed a newly washed and dried blanket and curled up in front of the fire and peacefully feel asleep.

I did reset the trap, just in case mister mouse, was a mrs mouse, ....and I'll tell you what happened then, but that story is for another day.




Authors' note: Now don't be reading this and thinking I'm mouse-a-phobic or something. I am not. I would do the same thing if someone let their cat, dog or gerbil scamper through my house. Of course then I would have to use a bigger trap. ;)

Sunny Day

Yesterday, I woke up, I didn't have a headache, I wasn't dizzy, and I had some energy, a rare occurrence these days. I decided to take advantage of it.

I spent the morning, washing and chopping up onions from our garden to freeze. I got through about half of them, and could stand the smell no more...

So I decided to clean out the fridge, in which I found a lemon, which smelled so good I decided all I wanted in the world was a lemon meringue pie. So I made one, and then I decided I better make a butterscotch one too for Barry, since he doesn't like lemon.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to make supper, so we had leftovers, but Barry was consoled with pie ....and so was I.

October

On Saturday, we went to the Robin's Pumpkin Patch, and let the kids pick out their pumpkins, James had no trouble, but Ellie wanted to look them ALL over first.






Coming home with their pumpkins, James wanted to be big like Ellie and hold his pumpkin on his lap, but he eventually pushed it off, I think it was making his legs go numb.






Ellie making cinnamon rolls with mom. She's a big help, she likes to put on the nuts and raisins on and help cut the rolls with the floss.




Ellie's Cinnamon Roll snake.




Recently James and I have been at war. He desperately wants to play in our bathroom drawer that has my make-up in it and my curling irons. I have tried just about every possible method to keep him out of it. Child locks were not successful, removing the handle was not successful, jamming the drawer shut with something was the only thing that really seemed to work most of the time. James was extremely frustrated by this solution, and worked on it until he discovered a solutions of his very own.





Thanks James.






Now I don't ever have to worry about him opening my drawer again........














He doesn't need too, ...........he can just reach right in.












Happy October!

Squash Day

Today is a Squash day. The smell of Squash cooking in the oven reminds of home. It takes me back to my childhood, of Saturdays of working hard, Saturday night baths, of crisp cool fall evenings, warm food, and my family.

Today, I want it back. I want to be a child again, I want to give my cares, fears and worries away .......and just live. Today, I want someone to cook MY dinner, wash my clothes and clean up my messes, I want someone to hold me, to love me, and to tell me everything will be alright.

I'm feeling tense, I'm feeling stressed, can you tell?
3 kids, how can I have three kids? My neighbor says when you have three kids, that's when you lose all control. I can't help thinking about THAT, but most of all I can't help worrying about my Jamesers.

My Sweet James, so full of love and life with his dark gentle eyes, and mischievous grin. He has softened a part of my hard-heart that not Barry, nor even Ellie was able to reach.
I don't want James to feel displaced by a new baby, even for a moment, I don't want him to feel less loved or less special, even for a moment.
Ellie is excited, but I feel like James is going to be broadsided by this.... and I don't know what to do.

All I can do is pray, pray he'll understand.

But James, when you CAN understand, I want you to know, that I'm having another baby so soon for YOU! BECAUSE YOU are so special, so important, so loved. So you can have a playmate, a comrade, a friend, someone close to your age. So you won't have to be lonely like Ellie was for so long before you came along.

We love you James, you have brought so much love to our little family.

Ellie we love you, and we are so excited for you to have a little sister to mother and love and play with.

and Baby Pate, we are so excited to meet you and hold you in our arms and welcome you into our little family.

Tonight we'll be having squash for dinner, homemade wheat bread, and hot oatmeal cookies. (Talk about comfort food)

Need a little comfort??

Come join us.

Hanzel and Gretel

One beautiful fall day, Hanzel and Gretel went for a walk....







They didn't get very far before they decided they were hungry







Hmmm where to look???????????









Luckily there was a nice-looking Amish man sitting in the middle of the forest cooking hot dogs.

His witch of a wife also tried to fatten them up on potato salad, bananas, and applesauce muffins....







but they were not fooled....





They took only a hot dog, bite of muffin, and some pistachio pudding dessert....





......and skipped merrily back home.



THE END