Birthday Celebration

Our little princess had a birthday! It brought tears to my eyes last night to see how big she is.

There is nothing more beautiful than watching your children grow,

although a part of me, wishes I could keep them small.

I made her a birthday crown with a lot of bling.

And she was wanting more jewels,

look out for this girl:)

We waited to celebrate until my husband got home from work.

The excitement was unbearable.

My adorable husband surprised my little princess with some flowers.

He knows exactly how to make her feel like a princess!

My oldest made her a beaded necklace and drew some pictures.

Her excitement made him feel so proud.

She opened up the homemade gifts I made for her and loved them all!

She opened up a scarf, leg warmers, and a skirt.

All pink, of course.

Her expressions are so dramatic...I love it!

A thank you hug to end the night with all her presents on.

She was so happy.

I am blessed!

Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny today for the yarn along.

I found some of the cook books recommended in the Seed Savers Exchange Catalog at my local library so I thought I'd check them out.

The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman looks great and I'm looking forward to trying the roasted artichokes.  This has a chart in the beginning of the book for people like me who want a quick go to guide for how long and at what temp to roast all the vegetables I could think of to roast.  Lost Recipes by Marion Cunningham is a really great book with mostly real food recipes.

I've been really pleased with the few recipes I've tried out so far. 

The scarf I'm making is called the "boyfriend basket weave scarf."

This is a fast scarf and I did adjust the width by half as requested by my hubby, which sped things up even more.  I started this on Friday night should be done by this Friday. A fun little project that doesn't require much thinking, which is great for a busy week.



What a Weekend

We had my mom (Nana) and dad(Papa) in town this weekend visiting from Green Bay and

had a wonderful time.

We couldn't see Papa without trying one of his famous smoothies.

My baby had seconds and wanted more.

Nana and the older kids playing in the snow.

The snow in the air is from Nana starting a snow fight.

My eldest is retaliating.

I don't know who was having more fun.

What a bobsled team!

My baby and papa having a great time.

My baby tends to have really cheesy smiles when she is having fun.

Thanks Nana and Papa for coming out and making it a great weekend.

We love you and miss you already.

My last meal...

...has to include one of my new favorite recipes,

Maple-glazed winter vegetables out of a new cookbook I found.

I can't describe the flavors because it was nothing like I've ever tasted.

When trying new recipes in my family, it's a risk. 

It tends to be either a hit or a disaster.

This was definitely an out-of-the-park home run!

I've had some squash that needs to be used up and this is the perfect application. 

 It's a little tedious having to peel and dice the squash, but one of my butternut squash yielded four,

 two cup servings.  I froze the three remaining servings to use for next time,

which will probably be very soon.

This was a delightful little surprise.

It's called coconut pumpkin pie. I was a little taken back

because I could hardly taste much of the pumpkin in it. 

The pumpkin to coconut ratio was 2:1 so I assumed it would be just a tad different.

The whole family loved it and it was requested for the my little princess' birthday celebration with my parents this weekend.  It was relatively healthy and only had a 3/4 cup of brown sugar in it.

This next batch I think I will substitute with sucanut.

All the way from Peru

My eldest sister just got back from a trip to Peru and we got a package of goodies.

These boots were handmade and are really comfortable.

So comfortable in fact, that I wore them on my stops around town that day to test them out.

They proved to be great new boots.

Thank you Jessica, I love them.

And for the kids...they love there new hats.

We were worried that these wouldn't fit or would be too big,

but as you can see, they fit perfect.

Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny at Small Things this week for our weekly yarn along. 

It seems that I have been busy doing sewing and knitting projects recently. 

One of the reasons for this,

was probably due to a mad rush to get all of my homemade Christmas projects done in time.

I'm hoping that I can get a jump on that this year.

Here are the finished apple hats that I made for the older two kids, since my baby

received a red apple hat from a girlfriend who also gave me the pattern.

This is my last completed project for my little princess' birthday coming up at the end of this month.

If you can't tell, I knit her a pair of leg warmers (the pattern is from Ginny)and a scarf to match.

What am I reading?

My seed savers catalog that came today!

Planning my garden, definitely warms me in the winter and makes me so happy.

Now, what to plant? There are too many delicious choices!

Farewell

I have to pause a moment and say a prayer in thanks to our beloved

goldfish named Dorthy.  She has been with us for almost three years now and has been

a great "pet" for the kids. Dorthy contracted a disease

and was put out of her misery today. My oldest had the hardest time with the passing.

He sat in my lap and sobbed for a good 20 minutes.

On a happier note though, I cleaned the tank while the kids napped and

filled the tank with these beautiful glass blown fish we got as a Christmas gift from my big sis.

They aren't Dorthy, but they made all the kids smile.