Christmas!!

Oooops! Sorry! Here's the post! I had tried to save the post as a draft, I didn't know it published the title! :)

I LOVE Christmas, so the sooner we set up the tree after Thanksgiving the better!

So this year dad said we could set it up whenever we wanted, so up went on Friday! We always have so much fun doing it while we listen to jingle bell rock and Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, Mary did you know, let it snow, let it snow, and all our other favorites. Cries of "Oh this is my favorite ornament!" or "I love this song!" or "I love this picture of us in the snow!" went up in joyful unison all afternoon. The lights on the tree are not turned on till every one is sure that all the decorations and ornaments are in the perfect place. And then once it was dark out, off went the lights, and on came the Christmas tree lights! What a beautiful tree! So the Christmas season is finally upon us! Hooray! (I can't put a picture up because our silly computer won't read the disk!)

A favorite recipe.

Last night mom asked me to make a side dish to have with dinner last night, so I opened my cook book, and found a favorite newer recipe that I've only made once, and everybody really like it. It's called skillet braised Brussels sprouts with bacon and shallots. This recipe is so good, I just have to post it. But be warned it is so very easy to burn the bottom of the skillet while the Brussels are cooking, unless you use non-stick, so don't turn the heat up to high, or you'll get results like these! :

oops...

4 oz bacon (about 4 slices)

2 shallots, sliced thin.

1 LB, Brussels sprouts stemed and halved.

1/2 cup water

pinch of salt and pepper

1 TBS, butter

1 TBS, red wine vinegar

cook bacon and shallots together over medium heat till bacon is cooked and shallots are browned. transfer mixture to paper towels to drain. Add Brussels, water and salt to skillet, cover and simmer for ten minutes. Uncover pan and cook until liquid has evaporated and sprouts are tender. Off the heat add bacon mix, butter and vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste before serving.

This recipe is so yummy. Hope you enjoy it! My family did!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Practicing, Turkey, Pumpkin pie, Lattes

I know I haven't blogged for ever. My apologies!

I have been really busy though. So this is what we've been up to.



1. I have been helping at a sick friends house for the last four days from 8am-12:30pm, So that has tied up my mornings. But I loved it. Their family is awesome, and their children are a joy to be around. 2. Ali and I have been busy practicing for our recital that took place last night. Yay it's over! Ali did really well, and it went well for me too. 3. We've been practicing for our yearly trip to the Everson Senior Center, to play some music for their Thanksgiving lunch/dinner that they have a couple days early. They always invite us to come early for lunch, and they always do a full tradition Thanksgiving dinner from turkey and gravy, to pumpkin pie. (my favorite part) :)

So now I'm sitting at the puter drinking a 20 oz, sugar free carmel latte, extra hot. Mmmm...,

And enjoying a few minutes of doing nuth'in. Mom is in the kitchen making dinner, the gravy with sausage in it , to pour over Sam's killer homemade biscuits. Yumm 'O!

So I hope you're all havin' a great week. Happy Friday!

Stony Ridge Farm

Every fall our family goes to Stony Ridge Farm for an afternoon of fun.

Stony ridge is a family's farm that they have opened to the public during the fall. They have hay wagon rides, pumkin patches, corn mazes, & animals ranging from donkeys and goats, to geese and chickens. We went this October during the last weekend that they're open, and we had alot of fun. We fed goats, rode the hay wagon, got very lost in the corn maze, picked a couple squash and some mini pumpkins, and topped off our fun afternoon with\apple pie, and carmel apple slices. (heaven in a bowl, consisting of sliced apples, topped with vanilla ice cream, hot carmel sauce, and whipped cream YUM!) We love Stony Ridge, and I know we'll keep going every year. As long as they keep seving their carmel apple slices!!

Oh what a cute picture of buddy!

Not tall enough Emily!

I hate geese... They scare me!!
I don't think this one liked us either!
Maybe he was craby 'cause he knows he's gonna be Christmas dinner!

Makeover update

If you read the previous post you can see the pictures of my new room before I painted it.

Now after four days of living out of boxes and laundry baskets, it's done! I can move in! I still need to get the new bedding, and make slip covers for the throw pillows, and I'm sure I'll find lots more little odds and ends. And I can't put anything on the newly painted shelves either for a couple days until the paint is good and hard. It's been fun painting though mostly... I didn't like painting the ceiling one bit! My neck is still sore! :) But it's done. And I love how it turned out.

The Makeover

So one day about a week and a half ago, Ali comes running up to me and she says she has the best idea ever. I cautiously asked her what she had in mind, and braced my self for a shocker, remembering what some of her other good ideas had brought on. (Ask me sometime about the messes she and I have gotten into with our great ideas!)

She said that she thought it would be "really cool" if her and I switched bedrooms. She said that she was tired of sleeping in her own room by herself, and that she thought I'd like having my own room. Now if you had asked me before if I'd like to have my own room, I'm sure I would have answered with an enthusiastic YES! But I was surprised to find that I was rather apprehensive. Samantha and I have shared a room since I was two years old, and the idea of being by myself didn't sound real good. when I voiced this, she replied quite quaintly that I wouldn't be by myself! I'd have Rosie. I thought this was funny, and Samantha gave her a sideways glance and said she didn't think her invaluable companionship could be replaced by a dog, and that she wasn't sure she liked the idea either. We were going to say no, but she gave us those puppy eyes, and pleased and pleaded, and finally we agreed to a one week trial period.

And we've found that we all rather like this new arrangement, and decided to make it permanent. So now came the chore of moving all our stuff from room to room. And now that we're settled, I HAVE to paint the room. The colors she had painted it were bright pink, bright yellow and bright green. And even Ali is very tired of the bright colors! I tried to take a picture of it, so you can see the before and after.

Pretty bold huh?

So I thought I'd paint it something a little more subdued. (so I could at least wake up in the morning and not feel like I'm being blinded by color!) I picked a light green, but it's hard to get a good picture of. It looks grey in the photo, but rest assured, it's light green.

So Ali helped me, until around 4pm. (We started around 2pm), and I finished the bottom two coats around 7pm. We had fun though, and I'll probably paint the upper half later this week. I think it will turn out nicely, and I can't wait to put the room back together, and see the end results. I'll put up more pictures of our progress as we go.

Our supervisor.....

Music

My board of blogging advisers, (That's what my sisters call themselves :) were "reviewing" my blog, and Ali mentioned that I haven't mentioned that I play violin. I can't believe I missed that, because music is a big part of my life! I was introduced to music (specifically violin) by a very special woman. Her name is Nancy Benning, and her life is dedicated first to our Lord, and than to music. We met her during our time in Mexico where, every other month she packs music, violins, music stands, and homemade cookies for her students, in her car, and makes the long trip from her home in California, down to the orphanage where we were, to teach violin to the children and adults who live there. She started teaching me about about six years ago, and I probably would have quit many times if not for the encouragement from my mom and Mrs. Benning. I love playing music, and have taught myself some piano, and have just picked up the littlest bit of guitar, ( I want to learn more of that.) My sister Ali plays viola, my mom, and Samantha play piano, and I teach Brad violin, and he takes piano from mom. Our house is filled with mostly beautiful music :) on and off all day, and everybody enjoys it so much. We all like to play as a group, and we often take our instruments to nearby nursing home to play for the residents. They are great audiences! I now take lessons from Mrs. Gaye Davis here in Lynden.
I can't imagine my life without music now, and I'm very thankful that the Lord chose to bring just the right people at just the right time into my life so that I too can enjoy the blessing of playing an instrument.

Dog show

It's been for ever since I blogged last! Sorry about that, but I have been really busy!

This Saturday I went with my mom and sisters to a Canadian Kennel Club dog show in a quest to find a breeder that I could ask a million and one questions, about the breed I'm interested in. So here is a Google images picture of what I'm getting.

Aren't they adorable!? I'll be getting a female, and I'm going to name her Bandi ( pronounced-bandee) The dog I have now is hopefully pregnant, so after she has this litter I should be getting the new dog. All you dog people let me know what you think! :)