Christmas, Puzzles and FrenchFries

Merry Christmas!! I hope you all had a wonderful time with your friends and family. Here's what I've been up to...






On Tuesday evening I met Jeff's oldest sister and her husband. (They live in New Hampshire, and came down for Christmas.) Jeff and I went out to dinner with his parents and all of his siblings. It was a lot of fun. Jennifer and Butch are a lot of fun. I'm so grateful that I am marrying into a nice, sweet and fun family. (This is a random side note...but I had french fries at dinner, and they were cut so small!! Seriously, they were this width: __ and this width: _ I thought they were really yummy, but they were super cute too!)

On Wednesday morning I met Jeff and all his family at the Fruit Yard for breakfast. We ate breakfast and hung out for a while. Then I left and headed home to help my mom get ready for Christmas. We cleaned the house and prepared a bunch of food. Jeff came over around 3 o'clock and we hung out for a while, before we had to get ready and go to the Christmas eve service. We went to church that night, and from there we went to my grandparents house for snacks and gifts. Then we went home and all of us kids opened up our traditional Christmas eve gift from our parents...p.j's. Then, the kids went to bed and us older people (and Jeff) stayed up until 1am doing...nothing.

The next morning, surprisingly, we slept in until 8:30. Jeff came over at 9, and showed up in his p.j's also. He looked really cute. (Lol.) Then we all opened up our gifts. All of us kids and Jeff got our yearly converse. This year, all the girls got pink, and the boys blue. I can't wait to take pictures of us. Us girls got a really amazing cd/radio/i-pod dock stereo system. Seriously, it's amazing. The sound quality is AWESOME!! I'm betting my parents will regret that gift real soon, as we've had it blaring from our bedroom since we got it. Lol, we'll try not to overdo it. The boys got a really cool game table. It has foosball, hockey, pool, basketball, darts, and much more included on one table. That has been a lot of fun. Jeff and I are also super excited; my parents got us a down feather blanket for our bed. We were so excited when we opened it, because we realize daily that we're really truly getting married! It's like a dream come true. Jeff and I got all my siblings a combined gift. We got them six movies, and a movie ticket for them all. We wrapped the movies and put them in a giant box, then filled the rest of the box full of candy and put the envelope with the tickets on top. It was a fun gift to put together, and they were so excited! (I'm not sure what they were more excited about...the movies and the tickets, or the candy.) After presents we ate breakfast and spent several hours cleaning, baking, cleaning, baking and cleaning some more. Around 3:30 my aunt and her brother and sister-in-law with their children came over. Then we spent the next several hours, eating, talking, visiting and eating some more. It was a lot of fun. Later in the evening, we all opened some MORE gifts. The boys each got a really nice remote control truck. All of us girls got a pair of Uggs (even the little girls!!...So cute!)After our dinner, all the adults went into the living room and played the dvd interacting game: "Deal or No Deal." It was hilarious to listen to! They were so into it! While all the kids were in the playroom watching their new movies and playing with their new game table, Jeff and I decided to start a puzzle together. We picked a 500 piece puzzle and swore we'd finish it by the end of the night. We faithfully worked on it all evening long. Let me tell you...puzzles are only fun for so long. Lol. We finally finished the puzzle at midnight. But we were very confused...we had two extra pieces...yet we were missing one. Figure that out. Lol. I guess that's the problem with Dollar Tree puzzles.

This morning I slept in until 9:00. My parents had got up early and went out to go shopping and get the after Christmas clearance deals. They were particulararily looking for Hershey's Candy Cane kisses. My mom called me and woke me up saying: "Hey get up and run down to Wallmart! We need more Hershey kisses!" I jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes and rushed down to walmart. Much to my mom's disappointment, they only had one bag left. Not wanting to disappoint her, I went to Rite Aid to see if they had some. I scored big time there. I got five bags of the Candy Cane kisses, one bag of Mint (they taste like Andes chocolate...yum.)kisses. I also got two boxes of miniature candy canes, one box was Spree flavored. And the other, Jelly Belly. Yum. We now have candy coming out of our ears...literally. It's everywhere.

While I was at Wallmart, I got another puzzle...puzzles are addicting. Lol.

Jeff was at the house by the time I got home. We all cleaned the house and did chores...the whole time, while eating leftovers and candy.

After everything was done, the kids watched a new movie and Jeff and I started on our new puzzle. Grrr...talk about aggravating! Puzzles are so fun, yet so annoying! We were convinced we were missing pieces and was totally ready to box it up and return it, when we found a few of the "missing pieces." We finally finished the outside...but we're still "missing" one piece. I figure, let's just try to finish it, and maybe we'll find that missing piece. Otherwise, we'll just return it. It's a really pretty puzzle. It's got glitter all over it, and it glows!!

This evening, Jeff, Shelbie, Shaylah and I decided to go to the mall and go shopping. We went jean shopping for Jeff, though we didn't find anything he liked. Still it was fun. We people watched a lot. (It's amazing how many annoying people there are out there. Standing in the mall, it's so easy to see how we truly are different from the world.) After walking around for a few hours, we went to a restaurant and bought milkshakes and french fries. (So Yummy!) Then we headed home.

Now we're at home, in the playroom. Everyone is playing with the new game table, or ping pong in the kitchen while rocking out to Reliant K's Christmas music. Hopefully we'll watch a movie tonight or something.

Well...our puzzle is calling...

Until next time.

Twas the night before Jesus came

'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.



The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.


When out of the East there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!


When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be The Day!


The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.


In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "It's not here" my head hung in shame.


The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound
While all the rest were left standing around.


I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and this sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.


In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

Winter Wonderland and Life vs Hourglass

This might possibly be the longest length between posts I've ever had!! Almost daily, I think to myself, "I should blog today...what should I write about?" I've been having the hardest time coming up with stuff to write. I'm giving up right now though, on having anything of deep interest to write about. I'm just going to start typing and see where it leads...

A few weeks ago a few of my siblings started cutting out snowflakes. They started to get very creative with them and made over 50 of them within a few days. A few days later, we had a birthday party for my uncle. During the birthday party, a few of my siblings started showing a few of the kids who were over how to make snowflakes. Before we knew it, all the adults and the children were sitting around the table cutting out snowflakes. By the time they all left, we had countless snowflakes (some of them got very creative and in depth! We had some insane snowflake makers at our house!) and a huge mess of tiny little bits and pieces of paper scraps, that we would spend the next three days cleaning. LOL. As we looked at the stack of snowflakes on our tables, we wondered what we should do with them. We came up with a great idea...



<

The kids glittered all of the snowflakes, and Jeff and I spent the next two days hanging them all up. Then the kids made a few paper chains, which we also hung up. After those were hung up, they made several tiny Christmas trees and ornaments, which we also hung up. Their recent addition to the 'Christmas Wonderland' is a paper chain of little people. It's been so fun to decorate!

I'm sure most of you have already started your shopping or even finished your shopping by now...guess what? ...I haven't even begun. (OH NO!!)

I've been working 4-5 days a week for the past few weeks and it's been great. I've actually been able to start saving money, not just pay bills. So that's been really wonderful.

Shylie has gotten so adorable!! She smiles all the time. The other day I was holding her, and she had a look of amusement on her face. She kept smiling and was making little cooing noises. I'm convinced that she was laughing at me. My feelings were kind of hurt. Shylie is by far the cutest Ney Baby yet. (Other than me, of course.) When she was born, Jeff and I would say: "Oh she's so cute...but ours will be cuter..." But now we look at her and say, "She's cute...and will still probably be cuter than our babies." You know she's cute when we're saying that. (By the way...this is really random...but Jeff was the cutest boy ever!! Like when he was about 12-13...he was so adorable. I'll post a picture of him sometime.)It's been so fun to have another little baby around, but this has probably been the saddest new baby experience for me. I'm never home anymore, (whether at work, church or at home, but talking with Jeff.) so there are days, when I've gone a few days in a row without even holding her. I've gone a few days, where I don't even really see her, such as last night. I was heading off to bed, saw her and though: "I haven't seen her all day long!" I gave her a kiss on her head and headed off to bed. When I do hold her, or am home to be around her, I truly treasure those times. Because I know, my time with her is so short. I have nine more months left with family. And while I am obviously sooo sooo sooo excited to start my new life with my best friend, Jeff, it is still a sad thought to think..."9 months is all I have left with family, as life is now." Poor Shylie won't ever remember me living at home, possibly Poppet and Lolly could even forget. (This is how life is right now: I get home from work, ever one says "HI" and I get a few hugs. Around 4 o'clock, Lolly comes in and start talking to me: "Jeff come home? When Jeff come home?" When he finally gets here, she goes nuts yelling and screaming with delight: "Jeff home! Jeff home!" What happened to the days, where it was: "Shyloh home!! Shyloh home!" lol, I don't mind. Lolly adores Jeffrey.) I encourage all of my young readers...make the most out of the time you have with them now. Because before you know it, your life will change and your time with them will grow shorter and shorter and shorter. Like an hourglass...time goes by so quickly.

I thought I had so much more I could come up with to write...but I'd have to spend some time thinking about it to come up with something, and I must go get ready for work now. So...until...uh...next time. (lol, hopefully "next time" is sooner than this time!)

Pen Pals

Today I have a Shannen funny...

For this month's writing sample, Shannen's topic was: "Write a letter to a pen pal who you haven't written to in a long time." Shannen took his piece of paper, sharpened a pencil and went to start writing. A few minutes later he brought his paper to my mom to read. It read: "I am a boy. Boys don't have pen pals." My mom was confused, and soon erupted into laughter when realizing how serious Shannen was. He was convinced only girls wrote letters to their pen pals. So funny!!

The Story of the Candy Cane

Legend has it that in the 18th Century somewhere in Europe any public display of Christianity was forbidden. No crosses or Bibles were allowed and the Christians were greatly oppressed. One old man, a candy maker by profession, was particularly distressed by this. He loved the Lord with all of his heart and couldn't stand to not share that love with the world. His heart especially went out to the children when Christmas drew near and no one was allowed to have a nativity scene on display in their homes. He prayed for God to show him some way to make Christmas gifts for the children which would teach them the story of Christ.

The answer was the candy cane. The candy cane was in the shape of a shepherd"s staff to show them Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His flock. A sheep follows his own shepherd, knows his voice, and trusts him and knows that he is totally safe with him. The sheep will follow no other shepherd but their own. This is how we are to be with Jesus if we truly follow Him ( John 10:11; Psalm 23:1; Isaiah 40:11)

Upside down the candy cane was a "J", the first letter of Jesus' name. ( Luke 1:31) It was made of hard candy to remind us that Christ is the rock of our salvation. The wide red stripes on the candy cane were to represent the blood He shed on the cross for each one of us so that we can have eternal life through Him. He redeems us and cleanses us with His shed blood - the only thing that can wash away our sin. ( Luke 22:20) . The white stripes on a candy cane represented the virgin birth, sinless life and purity of our Lord. He is the only human being who ever lived on this earth who never committed a single sin. Even though He was tempted just as we are, He never sinned. ( I Peter: 22) The three narrow red stripes on candy canes symbolized that by His stripes, or wounds, we are healed and the Trinity - the Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. Before the crucifixion Jesus was beaten; the crown of thorns was placed on His head; His back was raw from the whip. We are healed by those wounds. He bore our sorrows and by His stripes we are healed. ( Isaiah 53:3) The flavoring in the candy cane was peppermint, which is similar to hyssop. Hyssop is of the mint family and was used in Old Testament times for purification and sacrifice just as Jesus sacrificed His life for ours. ( John 19:29; Psalm 51:7)

The old candy maker told them that when we break our candy cane it reminds us that Jesus' body was broken for us. When we have communion it is a reminder of what He did for us. ( I Cor. 11:24) If we share our candy cane and give some to someone else in love because we want to, it represents that same love of Jesus because He is to be shared with one another in love. ( I John 4:7,8) God gave Himself to us when He sent Jesus. He loved us so much He wants us to spend eternal life with Him... which we can do if we accept Jesus in our hearts as Savior and Lord. ( John 1:12; John 3:3,16) Some people believe this story of the candy cane is just a legend. Others believe it really happened. We do not know for sure exactly how the candy cane was invented, but there is one thing for certain... it is an excellent picture of Christ and His love for us.

Cowboy Boots

The Cowboy Boots...
(Anyone who has ever dressed a child will love this one!)

Did you hear about the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots?

He asked for help and she could see why.

Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on.

By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said, 'Teacher, they're on the wrong feet.' She looked, and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet.

He then announced, 'These aren't my boots.'

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, 'Why didn't you say so?', like she wanted to. Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said, 'They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear 'em.'

Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.

Helping him into his coat, she asked, 'Now, where are your Mittens?'

He said, 'I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots.'

She will be eligible for parole in three years

Playdough!!

The other day, I had a crazy desire to make some homemade playdough. But I didn't want plain boring colored playdough, I wanted it to smell like fruit and be colorful!! I decided to try to use coolaid as coloring. After church on Sunday, I asked Jeff to bring me by the grocery store. I picked out four different coolaid colors and then excitedly went home to make the dough. I made the dough and it turned out perfectly. Then I divided it into four balls. I took four bowls and poured some of each coolaid powder into the bowls. Then I added a few drops of water to create a runny paste. I made a ball with the dough and poked finger prints into it, and then poured one color into each ball. Then I kneaded them to mix the colors. (Might I add...my hands are thoroughly stained now...coolaid does stain.) The green ball turned out beautifully. The blue ball turned out beautifully. And so did the pink ball. But the purple ball...turned out to be red. I decided I didn't like it, as I had wanted a purple ball. (I guess my problem was: I didn't get a grape packet, I got some fruity mix packet, like mixed berries or something. I dunno, all I know is it was red.) So I decided to try to mix some of the blue into the red to make purple. (do those colors even create purple?)So anyways, I added some blue and kneaded and kneaded and kneaded some more....by the time I was done, I realized I wasn't going to be getting the bright beautiful purple color I had desired. Instead, I got a nasty purplish-greyish-greenish-brownish color. ...Kind of like the color of your dog's poop. (Sorry to be so graphic.) It's really nasty to look at, but it smells really good!! That evening, Jeff and I played hookie from church (Something I DON'T encourage any of my readers to do) and instead played with playdough with Poppet and Lolly. We have so many playdough toys, it's crazy. We have every color. So I brought the box from the garage in. It was a ton of fun. It was like reliving my childhood. After we were done playing, we left the little girls alone to play. (Talk about foolish) About an hour later, we came back into the kitchen to find a huge mess! Poppet had decided to get creative and mix EVERY SINGLE COLOR into one big pile. (We had over 50 colors.)So now, we have 50+ containers full of a mirkybrown color. She was so proud of herself. But anyways, back to the mess...there was playdough everywhere!! Itty bitty tiny pieces were absolutely everywhere. It took us an hour to clean it. But it was a ton of fun, I want to make more sometime soon.

Here are some pictures and the recipe...

...Playdough...
3 cups flour
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups salt
3 tbsp oil
6 tsp cream of tartar

*Food coloring*

Mix and cook over medium high heat until it forms a ball. Stir out lumps. Remove from heat. Let cool for several minutes then knead until smooth. Then...ejoy!