Sharing our Easter

We have been having a lot of strong winds and thunderstorms with rain lately. We recently lost an apple tree in our yard due to the wind.

I don't know what happened to this apple tree but I do know that this fall I will not be putting up apples like I did last year.

After sooo much rain on Friday afternoon we went to the flat land to see what damage had been done to our fields and crops. We were blessed to find that everything stilled looked good.

On Friday after checking out everything in the flat land we packed up and headed to the farm to spend some family time with Ben, Ash and Punkin.

Sunday was to be a full day of serving at church for Ben and Ash so we celebrated Easter together on Saturday. Ash and I cooked a big lunch and we enjoyed just relaxing and eating all day while playing and hiding eggs with Punkin.

I gave Punkin her Easter card while we waited to go outside. I had put her a couple of little bracelets inside and when she noticed them the poor card didn't stand a chance. She loves wearing bracelets.

I sent Easter goodies to my other grand-babies also. I wish I could have been present to see them open theirs. 

Punkin caught on to hunting eggs really fast.

It was hard to keep her focused since Dad had hid the eggs close to her swing set. You could just see her wanting to play when she looked that way.

After finding all her eggs she spent time on the slide. It was soo muddy after all the rain that her dressed and bloomers had mud on them before we were through. She would have stayed out all afternoon but it was nap time.

We spent Sunday reflecting on the true meaning of Easter! We went to church with the kids before returning to the hills and guess what the sermon was on? HOPE, if you read my Easter card post on my last blog that's exactly what I talked about.

I hope that you had a nice Easter and that you too were able to reflect on what the true meaning of Easter is.

Thanks for stopping by y'all and please come again soon.

My Christmas

This has been a fun Christmas holiday, living in a new neighborhood there has been so many new things to do. We were able to do a lot of them but we only scratched the surface. I'm already looking forward to doing even more next year.

Here are a few photos to show what all has been happening this last month.

We attending two different concerts "A Visit with the Chapman's" and "Chris Tomlin's Christmas Tour" they were great. We also attend a few MSU basketball games and a "New Orleans Saints" football game.

We took Punkin to breakfast with Santa. She enjoyed the pancakes but she didn't care much for Santa maybe because it was past her nap time.

We attended several parties and a cantata which were all lots of fun also.

For Christmas Honey and I went to the farm to be with our younger children. We missed our older children sooo much but hope to spend next Christmas with them!  We left the hills on Thursday so that we could get the camp house cleaned up some before my Dad arrived to stay with us and also so that Ash and I could do some cooking.

So here is our Christmas on the farm!

Punkin just wanted to eat on Thursday night, well eat and open presents. We had to watch her really close so that we had some presents to open on Christmas morning. Ash received a package in the mail so they opened it and Punkin carried it all to PePaw, never mind that it was "Mother Love" products that PePaw could never use, it's the thought that counts right?

Papaw Thacker joined us on Friday morning and  Punkin entertained him. She read to him and talked his ears off. Papaw says she's speaking Chinese, we'll sure be glad when she converts it to English so we can understand her.

Then Christmas morning finally appeared and you can tell we had one happy little girl.

 

Sydney even got a present and Punkin couldn't understand why she wouldn't take it.

I was awful with my photo taking this year. When writing this blog I realized that I didn't take any of food or our fun activities. Ben and Ash both got new Wii games. I enjoyed playing Monopoly but when it came to war and dancing I just set on the sofa and observed. We had a fun lazy day and spent most of it eating and sleeping.

Friend I hope you have a fun, lazy Christmas too!!!

To see more photos click HERE!

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!!!

Runaway Roller,

As the story goes, after lunch today I began painting my kitchen pantry. When I signed up for this job I thought that we could pull all the shelves out and I could paint them and the inside wall and then I would be finished. NOT SO!!! Some of the shelves came out but three would not so I had to use a brush and paint all of them, around them plus a lot of the wall because there was no room for a roller. Honey, gave me a roller to use on what I could, I started painting and the roller scoots right off my paint thingy down a cereal box and then rolled across the floor. After I cleaned up the mess I went out and told Honey to come get his roller and I never wanted to see it again. Well Honey, in all his superior wisdom, didn't want to waste the paint so he squeezed the paint out of the roller onto one shelf in the pantry. There was sooo much paint that it ran off the shelf onto the floor below.  After he was through, I just glared at him I couldn't believe it with my own eyes, he turns carrying my runaway roller and walks out and leaves me with all the mess. When I went out later to take him some soap he says, "by the way honey I know why that roller had so much paint in it and wouldn't cooperate,  it was meant for the power painter!" I just turned, in all my superior wisdom, and walked back inside. So a little piece of advice, if your roller runs away place it in a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage, don't let your Honey get it! We're having a marvelous time!

When we leave the hills we always head out to Be and Ash's. We want to see them but we're there for kisses from Punkin and sometimes we have to wait until she wakes up. Saturday and Monday we spent a little time with them and here is what we found.

 She is growing so fast we see changes every time we go back to the farm.

 Our farm in the flat lands is looking good. Here is a preview of what's going on.

Honey hopes to plant more beans this week! We are thankful everything looks great so far.

My crop, it's a small one this year! That'll have to do ya I've got to get in there and see if I can finish that pantry!

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.