What a week!

As many of you know, Jim had this last week off. His company requires you to use all vacation time within the calender year. And we have no complaints with that policy. We chose this past week (12-1 to 12-9 including weekends) because our family has two big events in early December. Our wedding anniversary (3 years now!) was on the 5th, and Daelynn's 2nd birthday was on the 8th.

As many of you also know, this past week has been... well, not what we expected. It has been a difficult week, to say the least. But for all the bad that did occur, there was still joy to be found. And we really did our best to make the most of our time together.

Here is a glimpse into the joys of our week:

I wanted to start our week off with a good note, so I made these delicious Cinnamon Roll Pancakes for breakfast. Thank you pintrest.

This is on the skillet

And this is after they come off, all swirled and covered in cinnamon caramel sauce.

Here is Daelynn's with the glaze on, ready to eat. Yum!

 Next on our list was the Spring Hill Christmas Parade. The weather was incredible! Couldn't have asked for better. And we had wonderful company, sitting with some of our closest friends and some new friends as well.

Waiting for the parade to start.

Daelynn waiting patiently with her cheerios.

Blake had his cheerios too.

And there were candy canes!

Yay!

Bubba had a good seat for the parade

Here are some of the floats we really liked:

This was so cool to see. It was huge.

Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.

A sleigh led by... deer heads, Yes! This float was awesome!

Other key events while Jim was home all week included:

Our first Advent Celebration! 

It was a wonderful time to learn about the season of Advent, both at our wonderful church, and at the celebration held at our friends' home. We are learning about the season, about new traditions, and enjoying getting to sing and have great fellowship.

Lots of play time with the kiddos!

Daelynn got in some good work on her somersaults.

pre-somersault

post-somersault

And some fun with our letter blocks!

We made a long tunnel with it that Daelynn loved.

We also made several trips to some local parks. And this being our first December in the south, the warm weather has been both a shock and a treat. But there are some down sides to that wonderful warm weather. One of our trips to the park ended rather suddenly because I got stung by a bee! In December! That is definitely a new one for us. :) But all of our other park excursions were very pleasant. 

Jim and I enjoyed lots of time together on our anniversary. The kids spend a good part of the day with friends, and we got to spend some much needed time together. Included in our time was a dinner date and a nice stroll together in the starlight.

We tackled some of our "honey-do" list. 

Here is Jim with his "helpers" hanging up all the frames for our family photos.

Here is the finished product. What a great job they did! ;)

Also included was baby gate instillation, furniture rearranging, and various odds and ends. Thank you honey. :)

We did crafts. 

We had been wanting to get some stocking holders to put the stocking up on the mantel. We went to the store to find out that the only ones they had were nearly $10 each! So I decided to get creative and see if I could make my own. 

Came up with this one on my own, lol. And it worked out pretty good.

We used cans of tomato sauce, wrapping paper, some spare garland, and butter knifes. And...

Tada! Works for me! 

With Daelynn's birthday party we were planning on making some ornaments. And I had wanted to do a test run on them, which didn't really happen before the original date of the party. But since the party had to be rescheduled, after one batch of dough was already made, our opportunity was upon us. So we made some cookie cutter ornaments.

My big helper stamping out some ornaments.

What fun! :)

On Daelynn's birthday we let her open the presents from family, and had a small family party for her. Included was a paint set. And she got to enjoy some fun time painting. She really loved it! 

We ended our week with a movie night on Sunday. We threw all the pillows and blankets on the floor, snuggled up together, and watched Brave. :) 

Movie night!

And, although this was on Monday, after Jim went back to work, I included it because it pertained to our week. I decided after such a long and stressful week, and Jim having to go back to work, we all needed something sweet. And I had the best big helpers in the kitchen to help me make some sweet goodies! 

Mommy's big girl!

Yummy, delicious cinnamon rolls before their second rise, then into the oven.

Fresh from the oven

Oh so delicious! 

We had these warm gooey rolls with chili for dinner. And then brought some along with us to our second Advent celebration with friends. And the comfort food and fellowship was a wonderful way to ease our transition back into the work week.

God blessed us with a good week, even though he also put us through trials. We had so much love and support from the people in our lives, and everlasting love and support from our Father in Heaven. 

Our eyes are on our blessings. 

Spicy Food Mood Creations

So today I have been in a spicy food mood. And the main focus of my spicy food day dreams was a wonderful twist on an already delicious treat that was introduced to us a few weeks ago at a friends house. I have shared our taste for the Pioneer Woman's "Jalapeno Thingies." And while at our friends' home for dinner one day, they served these delicious little treats, slightly altered. The cream cheese, we originally thought, was a roasted red bell pepper cream cheese. Later (today for that matter), we realized that it had been a sun dried tomato cream cheese. Either way it was delicious. 

Having been desiring these for several days, and reaching the point of "must have or I might cry" today, I decided to take a swing at it. Thanks has to go out here to my wonderful husband for making the run to the store for me... twice. And shortly after he arrived home from the store, I received word about the mix up in the cream cheese additive. But already having the red pepper, I went ahead with that instead. And the product was wonderful! The whole family loved it, including both kiddos! (The cream cheese, not the jalapenos.)


Here is the recipe:
Roast one red bell pepper.
Remove skins and innards
Place in blending device of choice
Add about 3/4 tsp of minced garlic
And 12oz cream cheese
Blend and enjoy


We used a lot of cream cheese because I didn't anticipate how much the pepper would water it down. So we started with 8oz and then wound up adding more to get a more creamy spread.

We filled 10 jalapenos (halved), wrapped them in bacon, ran them through with a toothpick, and baked them at 375 for about 25-30 minutes.

While they were getting amazingly delicious, Jim, Daelynn, and I snacked on part of the remaining "dip" with crackers and tortilla chips. Blake even got to sample some, and loved it. Jim has decided it should become an addition to my recipe book, both as a dip and for the jalapenos, and has already named several upcoming events where it could be included.

As for the jalapenos: wonderful! Not one survived to become a 'leftover.' And truthfully, I think Jim only had a few of them. They really hit the spot for my spicy craving. I would have posted an image... but none survived long enough for me to think of taking a picture either. But, if you make your own you will get a first hand look at them. ;)

I Am Thankful

What a wonderful year it has been! New job, new state, new baby, new home - all of it wonderful! And today we got to celebrate Thanksgiving together, in our new home, with both our babies, in the wonderful state of Tennessee. Blessings all! 

We had hoped to have some family over, but that wasn't able to happen. Hopefully we will be able to visit with our family another time soon. We also received a couple invitations to spend the holiday with friends. But we chose a calm quiet holiday together. It was a wonderful day!

I started cooking a little after 7... and finished as we sat down to eat. I love cooking, so it is always such a fun holiday for me! 

 And I had so much "help" in the kitchen this year :)

My little veggie tray sampler...  I am talking about Daelynn here, not the tray, lol. 

She loves to play with and eat olives. Before long she had eaten almost half of them!

Including some of Mommy's

Mommy's best little helpers

They were both eager to get to be the sweet potato taste testers.

This creamy goodness was a last minute addition, and a big hit. 

Case in point.

However, after a while, the thrill of helping in the kitchen wears off. But toys cannot hold them away from the wonderful smells and anticipation of all the yummy food. So then there is the waiting...

But, the waiting eventually pays off, and the pay off is delicious!

We ate at noon mainly because of the kids' nap schedule. Plus, why wait for good food. ;)

We had a ton of food! Partially due to the anticipation of guests, and partially because its Thanksgiving! We had both a ham and a turkey, and all the trimmings. 

And tons of food means tons of leftovers and leftover related meals. Yum! I am most excited about ham and bean soup and creamy turkey enchiladas. :)

A few hours after our Thanksgiving dinner... lunch... we had some pie for dinner... dessert. Jim also got to enjoy one of the Sam Adams seasonal brews for his after dessert... dessert. 

Yes chocolate beer. And he really enjoyed it. It is a fantastic "dessert beer." 

A wonderful, warm, fun and food filled day. So much to be thankful for today and every day. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, whether it was a calm, quiet day with just a few close people, or a loud, busy day spent with many friends and loved ones. What a treasure, the ones we love. 

Our new home!

Hard to believe we are homeowners! And still very difficult to believe that we own such an amazing house! We have been so blessed we are just left in awe. Blessed in our home, our family, our new community, our friends, our lives.


Haven't taken a ton of "just the house" type pictures, but we have a lot of photos of us living in it. We have not yet put up photos or decorations, still working on that.

Our house from the street.

Us in front of the house at the final walk through.

Its a dark picture, but this is Blake's room.

Daelynn's room. We moved it around a bit after this picture.

See, we put the crib against this wall. :)
And Blake is working on pulling himself up to standing. 

Blake at the kitchen table enjoying the foggy morning.

It gets foggy most mornings lately with the cooler Fall temps

The kitchen table and most of the living room.

The kids enjoy the new house. :)  They play in the living room a lot.

Daelynn helps me keep it tidy and likes to help decorate and re-organize.

Blake working out in the guest bedroom / workout room.

One of the kids' favorite rooms: the play room!

We spend a lot of time in here.

A lot of time.

There is more to a home than just a house. We live in a wonderful neighborhood, in a wonderful community. Somewhere we can feel safe and enjoy doing things.

There is so little traffic in our neighborhood, and it
is such a family friendly place, we get to go for walks!

And there is a park right in the middle of our neighborhood!

I love this picture!

Daelynn's favorite thing to do at the park is swing.

And the community is small and has community events often.
Last weekend we went to the Spring Hill Country Ham Festival.
It was chilly, but we had fun.

Daelynn really loved the petting zoo.

 We love our new home! And we are so thankful to be in a home of our own!