Father's Day weekend

We had a fun Father's Day weekend Steve took two whole days off. This is a big thing for a farmer he made a trip to both farms on Saturday to pick up things and I accused him of not being able to stay away but he swears he only loaded what he needed for the next week and returned to the house.

On Saturday afternoon we road to Starkville and cooked out with Ben and Ashia. They had a few friends over who we enjoyed visiting with and talking about familiar places.

On Sunday Honey and I attended church after accidentally sleeping in. After church we went to a fast food restaurant for lunch, which we never do but I let him choose and we didn't want to stand in line anywhere. After lunch we went home and relaxed, at sun down we both ended up working in the yard a while.

Another blessing this week is re RECEIVED RAIN. We have been so dry our crops and allergies are suffering!

Some photos of our weekend:

Honey, I just happened to have my camera ready if he had seen me he wouldn't have been this happy.

Punkin's #1 baby sitter.

Punkin has a shoe fad going on, just any shoes will do.

Thanks for stopping by y'all please come again soon!

A Thanksgiving to Remember

We had Thanksgiving in our new home this year with ALL of our children and my Dad and it was great. These are memories that I hope we never forget and so I am posting some of the photos of our Thanksgiving photo shoot.

We may not be grand but we have great children who gave us grand-children!

Our beautiful family!

The siblings with their children.

The apples of our eyes!

The two babies of the family! Punkin just turned one and Little Man will be one soon.

 I don't know if Little Man knew what to think of Punkin but she sure had fun!

I didn't think about it but I did not have a photo taken of me and my Dad. Thank you Ash for thinking for me!

I think out of all the photos this is my favorite. The is our middle daughter and her husband. One day we'll have babies to add to this beautiful family. By the way if you have not already check out Sarah's business on the side bar of my page.

Oh, by the way these we taken on our back deck what a blessing to have such a beautiful backdrop.

We don't take lightly a visit from our children we realize that they take time off and make long trips just to spend time with us and for that we are thankful.

I hope that you had as great a Thanksgiving as we all did!!!

Happy Birthday!

 Monday was my Honey's birthday and he worked all day. I appreciate the sacrifices he makes for me. Happy Birthday Honey.

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday with my dad and some of our children. Our oldest daughter (Mary) and her family were in town for her mother and father-in-laws 50th wedding anniversary and they made a special attempt to come see us and the new house. Also our youngest children were here with their baby Punkin. Since Monday was Steve's birthday we had a special lunch for him on Sunday. What better birthday gift than to spend the afternoon with your children and grand-children?  I promise we would have it no other way. 

While shopping for the kids to come for a visit I realized that "Wishbone" labels their dressings if they are gluten-free. When I find something like this I buy only that brand, so from this day forth Wishbone it is!


Honey's favorite dessert is apple pie. I try to make him an apple pie anytime there is a special occasion, it just makes it more special. Since it would be his birthday I wanted to make him a pie, but for some reason I wanted it to be different. Lord only knows why because it would be filled with gluten and I wouldn't know whether it was good or not, but I did. So I went to one of my favorite blogs "Deep South Dishes" and searched for a new apple pie recipe. I chose her "Old Fashioned Apple Pie" recipe and it was a hit, the family ate almost the whole thing even though I had a gluten-free yellow cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate chip cookies also with gluten.


Here are a few photos to share our time together!

Get Recipe HERE!

The only change I made was I used apple jelly instead of mango.

We had not seen them since February so this was a special treat! J was sooo full of personality and kept us laughing while the girls are growing into such young ladies.

Punkin played with our Chunky Monkey's phone.

But she really watched him when he had her tether.

After a while she decided that he didn't need it any longer.

G is always thinking.....

Our children and treasures!

A letter of apology. I'm horrible at taking photos! When I have company I just want to spend time with them and sometimes they leave before I realize that I missed getting photos of some of them. During the time I took these the older girls were upstairs playing so I totally missed them, but it doesn't mean that I love them any less. Maybe soon I can rob some good ones to share from Ashia, she always does a good job!

Excitement fills the air and I can't wait!

Syd is staying with us while Ashia and Ben are away for the weekend. We just got through taking a bath and she is asleep now in my lap. When she takes a bath she has a robe at home she wears because she is very cold natured. I didn't have the robe so I used her sweatshirt and wrapped her in a good thick blanket and she was fine.  Now that it is over I think she feels much better!

While in Indiana Mary told me of a new store in town and that it had a large selection of Gluten-Free items. Steve and I went and checked it out and I bought a few things that I needed wanted. I have already tried the Ian's Cinnamon Bun bars and I think I like them better than the Apple Pie ones. I can't wait to try the others.

We enjoyed our time in Indiana so much. Thank you George and Mary for always making us feel at home and for sharing your family with us!

Here are a few more photos that I took before we left.

 

  

  

  

Josh had Pepaw time often!

My girls have transferred from McDonald's to the Mac book. That's scary they are growing up too fast!

 

Just like Emma we had a hard time getting going on Thursday morning. We always enjoy our visits and hate it when they have to end.

Honey has been in the field today so I feel planting is just around the corner. In a way I look forward to it, again I love watching things grow. This year will be different; I have a lot of things going on and will be busier than normal. I sit back and wonder how can this be but then I think of the future and excitement fills the air. I can't wait!!! Keep tuned in so that you will know what is going on in our household in the near future.

A Polar Express Christmas

I have always wanted to wear my pajamas on Christmas day. When Emma wore her's to school (Day Two) I was sooo jealous. Our family was small this year so Ben and Ash graciously volunteered to host Christmas and we had "A Polar Express Christmas."

The house was decorated so cute and the food wasn't bad either.

We had a lot of down time, time to relax and rest! Ash isn't pictured above but she had her time also. After lunch we set back to watch a movie and most of us ended up taking a nap.

We all opened gifts! Even Sydney had some things under the tree! Punkin liked the colors and sounds of the paper rattling but the gifts really didn't interested her.

Of course it was ALL about Punkin! She was soo much fun she would laugh and try to talk, then she would get mad at all of us. I think she has the Good's temper? LOL Her favorite thing from us was a bow on one of my gifts from "Sassy Designs"(thanks Natalie). She loved her "Praise Baby" cd and play center from Mom and Dad, they knew just what to buy!

The little Good family, aren't they cute?

And, the big Good family, well excluding the kids, grand-kids, and grand-dogs. Hey we may be older but we still have fun!

I didn't have too cook a lot but I did, we had way more food than we could eat. I started out to make a few things and baked for days. Although it wouldn't be Christmas unless we had tons of food not just Christmas day but everyday through the week. That's part of it you eat, and eat, and eat, and when you are full you eat some more. This is the only time of year that I allow everyone to gorge all week long. Look below for some of the recipes that I used.

I took this from a Southern Living magazine when I was visiting George and Mary and it is wonderful! I used all gluten-free ingredients.

Upside Down Apple Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 lg. Granny Smith Apples, peeled n cut into 1/2-in. thick slices
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract, divided
3/4 tsp. gr. cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup butter, softened & divided
2 tsp. brandy (I omitted the brandy)
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 lg. eggs, seperated
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups all-purpose baking mix (I used Pamela's Gluten-Free Baking/Pancake mix)
1/8 tsp. gr. nutmeg
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted & fragrant, stirring after 5 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 375.
Toss apple slices with lemon juice, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in a 10-in. cast iron skillet over low heat. Remove from heat; stir in brandy. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
Sprinkle pecans over brown sugar mixture. Arrange apples in 2 concentric circles over pecans.
Beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar and remaining 1/4 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add milk, sour cream, & remaining 1 tsp. vanilla, beating just until blended.
Whisk together baking mix, nutmeg, & remaining 1/4 tsp. cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add nutmeg mixture to butter mixture, beating just until blended.
Beat egg whites in a large bowl at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter. Spread batter over apples in skillet.
Bake at 375 for 50 to 54 minutes until a wooden pick inserted halfway into center of cake comes out clean. Cool in skillet on a wire rack 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of cake to loosen. Invert cake onto a serving plate, replacing any topping that sticks to skillet on cake.

I took this recipe from a blogger I follow, "Gluten-Free Krums" and they were very good. A bit crumbly due to being gluten-free but very good and EASY!!

Click here for Flour-less Peanut Butter Blossoms

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!!! I'll share more recipes in the future.