Christmas Morning

This is my Christmas "tree". Since Mike and I weren't actually home enough to get a real tree, I just hung my wreath and decided I was decorated enough.

 

Mom's tree more than made up for it! 

 

 Mike and Jesse unwrapping their gifts.

 

Smile!

 

 Kerry's made out like a bandit!

 

 

 

Dad surprised Mom with these earring and necklace. They were amazing! He told her it was for putting up with him when his ankle was broken.

 

 Mom, Kerry and I got Aunt Diane new luggage that's easily recognizable. She LOVED it! She was so excited! I wish I had a video of it. That's what makes Christmas so fun; when you get someone something that they absolutely love.

 The guys went out to camp so Mom and I watched a movie, then decided we wanted to bake.

 

So, we made shortbread and...

 

 Used her new fryer to make a bloomin' onion.

 

It was a little salty but delicious!

We also made a chicken pot pie (with homemade crust).

All in all, we had a quiet Christmas. Kerry and Jesse went home Christmas morning to make it back down south to have Christmas with the rest of their family.

But it was nice to be together, even if for a little while.

I hope your Christmas was full of love and joy!

Happy New Year!

Stephanie's Baby Shower

Stephanie is my best friend, Mandy's, sister. She's a couple years younger than us but as fate would have it, she's a week or so ahead of me in her pregnancy!

Stephanie's best friend, Marina, who put the party together.

She did a great job!!

 

So we got together on Saturday with a bunch of her friends and celebrated with her! We had a great time, playing games and eating food. Stephanie got a lot of great gifts to get her started. 

 

 

One of the games was guessing how big Stephanie's belly was. I guessed way wrong and was surprised to find out I was only 1/2" bigger than her. Now, my butt was MUCH bigger than hers!! LOL!

 

 We had a great time and I am so glad she invited me.

Oh, I can't believe I almost forgot. Obviously, she's having a girl! Her name will be Noell.

It's so excited to wonder if Noell's going to have a girl friend or boyfriend!

We'll find out in a few months!! March is almost here!!

7 Months - 3rd Trimester

Can you believe it?! I'm almost finished. My kid's almost done cooking. We're almost there! I can't wait to meet him or her. I get more and more excited to know if it's a boy or girl every day. Here's a recent picture of my belly. It's small, I'm told but don't worry I'm gaining plenty of weight, TRUST ME!
Oh and I had to keep Jessie in the background. She's excited too. I can tell.

Hotel, Ah Sweet Hotels

I can almost positively tell you that if my husband ever comes to me and says, "I got a hotel for the weekend!" I will not be excited. Even if it's in Maui or the Colorado Mountains. If you ask "Why?", you obviously don't know me. I stopped counting how long I've been in hotels when the year mark for being in ONE hotel hit. I figured it was torture to continue counting.

Anyway, being in hotels has taught me many things. More patience, for one. Have you ever had to cook on a hotel stove top? Let me share a picture of my stove top at the new hotel. It's fantastic.
                                      

See how it's crooked? Yeah, try cooking rice or anything in that. It's a challenge. And I know you are going to tell me how to fix it. I've tried. I've given up. I've had these kinds of stove tops for years and years, I can't fix it.

My horrible cooking situation leads me to what I've done today. Since I can't bake and have to be very very creative with cooking without an oven, I occasionally look at a few websites that make me jealous and make me dream of the day when I will have an oven to make red velvet cake in. Or chocolate peanut butter brownies. Or fresh chocolate chip cookies. I swear, once I get an oven, if you live near me you will be getting baked goods all the time! Until you are so sick of them you'll beg me to stop baking!!

Okay, I'm getting carried away. I wanted to share these sites with you to enjoy looking at and heck you can go ahead and make the amazing recipies. Just don't tell me how amazingly wonderful it turned out. Lie and tell me they all burned.

Joy the Baker
The Pioneer Woman

Thanksgiving Weekend

The weekend started out with a lot of dead animals! This is a hog that was probably about 200lbs. Mike and Jesse shot it out at camp.

Mike killed this with a stick because he wants to stuff it. It's now in my freezer!

Aunt Diane was so excited about it. Obviously! She wanted it wrapped around her neck but because of the venom the guys didn't think it was a good idea!

Mike's only bird... he's only shot maybe 3 this whole season so far.

At least the guys are all cleaning the hog. You won't see any women from our family out there doing that! We'll cook it but we aren't cleaning it!

Saturday we fried a turkey and made a trash can turkey.

The unveiling of the trash can turkey!

Ta-da!!

I think we have enough food...

Maybe...

Dad had this sand brought especially for the kids because they had such a great time in the dirt last year.

Joyce, Kerri Hill and her mother and Kerry Varner

All 50 of us in the house getting ready to pray and then eat!! And yes, I knew everyone there. It was all family and faux family.

You know your surrounded by rednecks when...

... your baby belly is smaller than the beer guts!

Diane, Joyce, Debbie and Kerry

We had a great weekend. It was jam-packed with family. It was nice seeing the ones we haven't see for most of the year and got a chance to catch up. On Friday, Mom, Kerry and I went shopping in Sebring. We got a lot of our Christmas gifts. Saturday we all got together for Thanksgiving dinner. Then on Sunday some us recuperated by going to Diane's for breakfast. She made some amazing waffles and sausage gravy. The guys were out at camp every day and contributed to dinner by killing that hog. We fried it up too and ate it on Saturday. I was exhausted by the end of the weekend but it was well worth it to get together with everyone and we ate a lot of great food.
I was thankful that we have such a great family who wants to get together with each other simply to enjoy each others company. Not many families are like that today but our family tries to get together whenever we can, for any reason. So no matter how annoying they may get, I love them and I am thankful they are always around.