Growing in Rejoicing - Luke 10:20

25 Days of Christmas Ornament - #16

2009-12-16T13:11:00.003-06:00

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #12

2009-12-12T20:56:00.008-06:00

Cookie Recipie Exchange

2009-12-12T17:29:00.000-06:00

Jessica over at The Mom Creative has graciously decided to host a cookie recipie exchange!! I'm so excited!!! I happen to love love love Christmas cookies.

To join the fun be sure to put this button on your blog post with your cookie recipe and then link the permalink (the post link, not your blog link) on the MckLinky back on The Mom Creative. I can't wait to share my favorite recipe and check out yours!

My husband grew up attending a Moravian Church, a wonderful little country church actually. And there was a delicious cookie that my mother-in-law made and still makes every Christmas: Moravian Sugan Cookies. You can even buy these pre packaged someplaces, but the ones she makes are thicker and much tastier if you ask me. They quickly became my favorite Christmas cookies.

MORAVIAN SUGAR COOKIES
----------------------

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
Topping
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Soften butter with sugar, baking powder, vanilla and salt. Blend in egg and flour.

Grease or butter 2 cookie sheets well. Spread half of the dough out on each cookie sheet to make a 10x8 inch rectangle (one for each sheet).

Mix together ingredients for topping and sprinkle evenly over the dough.

Bake at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown along the edges. Allow to cool 2 minutes, then cut into 2 inch squares. Cool on wire racks.

Makes about 40.

If you would like to read more on the Moravion tradition please click here or here or here

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #11

2009-12-11T20:56:00.005-06:00

Miss Mary wanted to be in the school Christmas show

2009-12-10T20:35:00.002-06:00

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments#10

2009-12-10T11:29:00.005-06:00

She is giving away what????

2009-12-09T17:36:00.004-06:00

Did someone mention a give away?
Oh, a Mck-Giveaway??
Really???
What might that look like?
Perhaps like this????

Really? Really!
No, Really??? Yes, Really!!
Visit MckMama's blog to learn how you can enter to win this HP Touchsmart

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments #9 and Happy Birthday to the Man I Lovve!

2009-12-09T01:28:00.003-06:00

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #8

2009-12-08T09:28:00.002-06:00

I just love the ideas my friend Carrie comes up with!! First the Alphabitty Moments and now 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments. This week she mentioned that we could focus on homemade ornaments ... I'll have to keep looking to see what other homemade ornaments I can find, but I came across this darling decoration that my kids love. It was not homemade by me, but by a friend of hubby's family who is very talented with wood ... that counts, right?

Please visit Carrie's blog to see the MckLinky and take part or just to look at all the beautiful ornaments and stories that other bloggers are posting.

Oh and look its snowing here!!!!

I ♥ Faces for Dec 7th

2009-12-07T20:59:00.003-06:00

This week at I ♥ Faces, the theme for their weekly challenge is "Sweet Dreams" , everyone is invited to post a photo of a person sleeping ... I happen to love sleeping babies and I looked back over many many sleepy pictures of my sweet kiddos as newborns. But instead of using any of their newborn photos, I decided to use this one I took just a few day ago:

I had laid our two youngest kiddos down for naps each on one side of our big bed ... but when I came to check on them only 15 minutes after they had fallen asleep this was what I found ... they seemed to neither one have ever awakened but had gravitated towards each other ... my heart just melts!

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your favorite sleepy heads with us!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #7

2009-12-07T13:27:00.003-06:00

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #6

2009-12-06T06:17:00.000-06:00

I just love the ideas my friend Carrie comes up with!! First the Alphabitty Moments and now 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments. Please visit her blog to see the MckLinky and take part or just to look at all the beautiful ornaments and stories that other bloggers are posting.

I've always loved hanging candy canes on the Christmas tree, and a few years ago my mom bought me some very pretty glass ones. They look so yummy that I have to warn the kids they are not edible. If you hang them just right by a light they really do sparkel (I'll try get a better picture showing that some other time). But one of the other things I like about candy canes is the story behind them ... go ahead google it sometime!

The true meaning of the Candy Cane

Look at the Candy Cane

What do you see?

Stripes that are red

Like the blood shed for me

White is for my Savior

Who's sinless and pure!

"J" is for Jesus My Lord, that's for sure!

Turn it around

And a staff you will see

Jesus my shepherd

Was born for Me!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #5

2009-12-05T17:26:00.002-06:00

I just love the ideas my friend Carrie comes up with!! First the Alphabitty Moments and now 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments. Please visit her blog to see the MckLinky and take part or just to look at all the beautiful ornaments and stories that other bloggers are posting.

This is not exactly an ornament I place on my tree but it is an ornament that has graced our front door every year of our marriage. When we were first married we lived out near Seattle WA, where Allen was stationed in the US NAVY. Those first few months were horribly lonely for me, being new to the area and new to married life. Allen was gone for both my birthday and thanksgiving that year, but I did find some treasured friendships in some of the other wives. One friend in particular taught me much over the years. She is a shinning example of a Christ loving mom, wife, woman of God. I still treasure our friendship. And every year when I hang this wreath I can remember picking out the ribbon and ornaments and buying my first hot glue gun ... she helped me make this wreath and many other fun things while our husbands were out to sea. It was especially fun to hang it on our new front door this year!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - #4

2009-12-04T17:26:00.009-06:00

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments #3

2009-12-03T17:26:00.000-06:00

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments #2

2009-12-02T09:17:00.004-06:00

I ♥ Faces for Dec 1st

2009-12-01T17:42:00.003-06:00

This week at I ♥ Faces, they are much more about photos from "behind" ... Why? Well, maybe because We ♥ Tooshies!

Our little Mary was covering second base while playing ball with her siblings and cousins a few months ago on the field on the Metrodome in Mpls ... yes that is really where we celebrated my sister's twins birhtday ... on the MN Twins home field. (well, it used to be there home field but that is a whole nother story ...)

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your favorite tooshies with us!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments #1

2009-12-01T09:03:00.008-06:00

I just love the ideas my friend Carrie comes up with!! First the Alphabitty Moments and now 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments. Please visit her blog to see the MckLinky and take part or just to look at all the beautiful ornaments and stories that other bloggers are posting.

For my first of the 25 ornaments this season I chose my purple angel ... my mom and I are trying to remember if we bought her on a trip to Brazil or a trip to Chile back in 1980. We lived in Argentina then ... I would have been 8 or 9 years old. I remember these pretty hand made angels being sold at an outdoor market. We just can't remember which country. My favorite color has always been purple, so naturally I picked out a purple angel. My sisters each got one, too. One chose pink and one chose yellow. It was no where near Christmas time, but we bought them anyway and later on they adorned my mom's christmas trees for years. We each put our own color on the tree every year ... till we were to teenagerish to care about decorating the tree I supose. After I got married my mom let me sort through her christmas boxes and take many of the ornaments that were mine, so Allen and I would have ornaments for our first tree. I love this little purple angel and I hang her with warm memories each year.

Happy Advent and a Merry Christmas Season!

Five Question Friday ~ Nov. 20th

2009-11-21T09:31:00.003-06:00

Five Question Friday is a blog carnival started by Mama M - hop over to her blog to see who else is playing!

The Rules? They are simple:

Copy and paste the 5 questions listed at Mama M's blog each Friday to your own blog post, answer them, and then link up at Mama M's blog!

Okay? Here we go...

Questions for Friday, November 20th:

1. Are you a Black Friday shopper?
I know those deals a really good, but the noise, the crowds, the chaos ... I just can't handle it. Also, my hubby usually works that Friday so I'd have to take 5 kids with me ... that would be ridiculous!

2. What was your favorite childhood toy? (Think Easy Bake Oven, Cabbage Patch Kid, Shrinky Dinks, etc.)
My sisters and I did love doing Shrinky Dinks, but I think my favorite toys were my StarWars stuff. At least thats the stuff I remember playing with the most

3. Favorite Christmas movie?
I guess its not really a Christmas movie, but it used to be on TV near Christmas every year and we often watched it with my grandparents, Sound of Music

4. What is the "must have" item on your Christmas list this year?
I could really use a new coffee maker, but also asked for money so we can get window treatments for our windows in the new house (I know, my Christmas list is so boring)

5. Do you go all out with decorations or do you keep it simple and classy?
I used to go all out ... but as each child came along I've gotten simpler and simpler. This year we might do a bit more again. Its kinda fun decorating in a new home.

Hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving week!

Toys at Ebeanstalk

2009-11-19T12:51:00.004-06:00

Ebeanstalk Announces their Cutest Kid Playing-With-A-Toy Contest. Do you have an adorable picture of a child in your life plaing with a toy? Or take a picture of your little one playing with a toy, and email the picture to emily@ebeanstalk.com. It's just that easy.

You could be 1 of 10 lucky winners to win a $50 gift certificate at ebeanstalk this holiday. Entries will be chosen on their cuteness-level.

Privacy is ensured! Entrants will not be spammed. Do not send your address for privacy purposes - just email the picture and the FIRST name of your child.

All my blog readers will receive a 10% discount at ebeanstalk of any purchase. Enter the code ebeanstalk100 at the cart!

Ebeanstalk is a website dedicated to selecting great, safe toys for 3 year olds and toddler toys. They rely on the opinions and feedback of bloggers and moms around the country. Also their team of child experts help to pick out kids toys...but you be the judge!

Please visit these links:

kids toys
toddler toys
toys for a 3 year old

Our daughter has thouroly enjoyed playing with this toy from www.ebeanstalk.com:

Its called the Sort n' Learn Pelican from Tiny Love. I have always thought that Tiny Love makes great toys. Even without the cool shapes and sounds she loves this toy, because its a bird and she has this facination with birds! But when the talking switch is turned on, this talking bird toy tells her which shape and which color she just put in his mouth ... pretty cool, ha?

If you ever have to direct well meaning aunts, uncles, grandparents or other gift buyers as to the types of toys you want them to give your children we highly recommend you send them to ebeanstalk
Happy shopping!

Mastocytosis

2009-11-17T13:09:00.004-06:00

Many of you may remember that Zeke had a tough time a few years back, on going diarrhea, leg pain, no growth or weight gain for a whole year, leading to a diagnosis of failure to thrive and malnurished. We went round and round from doctor to doctor, saw hemotologists, oncologist, rheumatologist, orthopedics, endocrinologists, dermatologists and allergy specialists.

This is his caringbridge site if you ever want to read up on what it took to get a diagnosis: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/zeke

Once we ended up with his diagnosis of Mastocytosis we went round and round again trying to fiure it out. We are greatful and thankful for the many helpful medical people along the way! And now that our life is pretty normal and Zeke's symptoms are pretty much under control I have had time to meet other moms with Mastocytosis kids. One of those moms, blogs about her life and has compiled a great explination with great links, you can see that here: http://mastomama.blogspot.com/2009/11/about-mast-cells-and-mastocytosis.html

All moms of MastoKids would love to share awarness and info about Mastocytosis, one of my other favorite sites is: http://www.mastokids.org/

Thanks for taking the time to be aware!

I ♥ Faces for Nov 17th

2009-11-17T09:50:00.006-06:00

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is "Autumn Beauty"

It is all about capturing a photo of a person surrounded
by the beautiful colors of autumn. Since we live in MN
we have great colors to photograph!

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your "Autumn Beauty" with us, or just come on over to enjoy all the beautiful fall pictures!

And feel free to visit this post to see more beautiful fall colors and my family enjoying them.

Five Question Friday ~ Nov. 13th

2009-11-13T11:53:00.006-06:00

Five Question Friday is a blog carnival started by Mama M - hop over to her blog to see who else is playing!

The Rules? Simple:

Copy and paste the 5 questions listed at Mama M's blog each Friday to your own blog post, answer them, and then link up at Mama M's blog!

Questions for 11/13/09:

1. What is your favorite "eat" on Thanksgiving?
Its a tie between the turkey and the cranberries. Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes tie for second.

2. What is the name your best girl friend and the best trait about her or how you met (or heck, both!!)
I find this question difficult ... not sure I have just one best friend ... There are several I consider my best girl friends, all a blessing at differrent times in my life.
But there is only one of my friends I cannot remember how we met ... I've just always known her. Her name is Mary, she grew up just down the street from my grandparents. Whenever I visited I would see Mary and as we grew older we'd spend weekends at each others and we'd write letters. She was (and i guess still is) almost two years older than me ... She taught me about lots of stuff ... a great "big sister", we would tell people we were "cousins". We also go into our fair bit of trouble together ... boys, 4wheelers, sneaking out ... I could go on, but I won't :-) When I was looking at colleges I felt completely overwhelmed, ended up attending the collage where Mary was, felt good to have her near by. Hubby and I got engaged that year and Mary was thrilled to be my maid of honor, and last year we named out baby girl after her. Ahhh ... friendship ... a great gift from the Lord!

3. What would you say is one of your "weirdest" quirks?
I can't sleep without covers, even in 100 degree heat, I need at least a sheet or I can't fall asleep.

4. What is your favorite genre of music? (Hip hop? Classical? Rock? etc.)
I am very eclectic ... can listen to and enjoy many kinds of music. But I do tend to choose hymns or praise music if its left up to me.

5. Are you a Night Owl...or an Early Bird?
Oh .... sooooo ... Night Owl!!!! Get me past 11pm and I get a total second wind, am good rill 2 or 3 am. But then I can easily sleep till 10am too. My mom is the exact same way, guess its hereditary.

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T14:09:00.008-06:00

I was so excited when my boys brought home the red, white and blue papers from school to fill out. Their school was planning a special Veteran's Day Chapel Service and they wanted the kids to fill out papers about any relatives they might have serving or who have served in the military. We are very proud of our family's military vets, so we set right to work filling in dates, ranks, and listing who served in which branch of the service. I was also able to find photos of each family member in their service uniform.

Their daddy, my wonderful husband Allen, served in the Navy for 8 years in the 1990s, on a submarine:

Their Papa Roger served in the Army, in the Signal Corps in the 1960s:

Their Great-Grandpas (both my grandpas) served in the Navy and Air Force during the 1940s and WWII:

I'm so pleased that the school my boys are attending has chosen to honor our service members this way. I mentioned to my dad that we were going to have this special Veteran's Day service and he offered to pick up my Great-Grandparents (who live an hour away) and bring them down for the morning. How wonderful!!! They had a fantastic time. And Allen's parents (who also an hour away) drove to be here this morning also. And Allen used his last vacation day of the year, so he could attend the service with his boys too.

I'm so proud of these men in my life ... I wish I had even remotely appropriate words to express my gratitude, but at the moment I can not find any ... so I'll let the pictures speak for me:

Mary, Mary Our Pumpkin Fairy

2009-11-02T18:32:00.004-06:00

If she were older I am sure that our little
Mary might not like what her siblings
have been chanting all day:
"Mary, Mary our sweet pumpkin fairy"
But for today she just giggles and enjoys the attention!