Making a list

We've been reminding the boys that Santa knows if they have been good or bad. . . . .they don't know what to expect on Christmas morning, but they have done their best to let him know what they would like. Going in the mail tonight!

Brett's -

Brady's -

Black Friday

After a great Thanksgiving day with my folks and sister's family, Ed and I ventured out at 4 am this morning and headed to Emporia's Wal-Mart. Note: we've NEVER been shopping on Black Friday. It didn't take us long to figure out the people winding through the grocery aisles weren't grocery shopping. :) OMG.

There were lines for different electronics everywhere, but not really labeled so we walked back to the electronics department to see where the DS line was. It just so happened the line was back in the frozen food section (why, of course), but they missed taking a DS box back there SO if we would just wait until 5 right there she would check us out.

We were LUCKY. Instead of hours, we stood in line for almost 30 minutes and were back in bed by 5:30. It was awesome.

After a wonderful lunch of one of my family's favorite holiday meals (chili with cheese/summer sausage - thanks mom!), we headed back to KC to start decorating for Christmas.

Love the way most of the ornaments are mid-way up all together :)

Taste Tested

These might be the best pancakes I've ever had. Note: I'm not a big fan of syrup - I didn't make the special syrup in this recipe - and these are great by themselves if you love cinnamon.
The boys loved them too!

(Took this picture so I can include it in their "recipe books")


Cinnamon Bun Pancakes - found at How Does She
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3 T. white sugar
1/2 t. salt
4 t. baking powder
1 T. Cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1 C. of milk
2 T. corn syrup
1/4 C. butter, melted
1 T. vanilla
Maple Icing Syrup
1 C. powdered sugar
1/4 C. butter, melted
2 t. Maple flavoring
1/4 C. milk

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon in medium bowl. In another medium bowl beat together eggs, milk,corn syrup, butter, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.

2. Drop the batter by about 1/3 cup fulls onto the pre-heated/greased griddle and cook until the tiny bubbles start appearing on top, flip over. These only take a couple of minutes to cook on each side. Keep cooked ones on a oven safe plate in the oven at 250 degrees to keep warm.

3. In a small saucepan on the stove, over medium heat, combine all the syrup ingredients. Whisk until completely combined. When heated through, serve with your yummy pancakes!

Taste Tested

I tried 2 new fall recipes today and thought I'd share.

And yes, Ed and my friend Sarah both told me that you can buy caramel popcorn at the store :), but I wanted to try "homemade" because it sounded so good with nuts in it. And I'm blaming it on the way the original recipe was written, because I totally burnt the caramel the first round (you know how bad burnt popcorn smells right? Well, black burnt caramel poured over popcorn smells much worse. especially at 8:30 am. ugh)

Anyway, we went to church and I came home and tried it again. Much better results!

Caramel Corn -
12 c. popped popcorn
1 1/2 c. Beer nuts or shelled salted peanuts (I used regular peanuts)
1 stick plus 2 T butter
1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. light corn syrup
1/4 t. baking soda

Preheat oven to 250. Place popcorn and nuts in large bowl. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 t. salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Raise heat to high; bring to boil without stirring. Cool until mixture reaches 248 and immediately remove. Stir in baking soda. Add to popcorn/nuts and stir to coat. Transfer mix to rimmed backing sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1 t. salt. Let cool and break into clusters.

My mom brought me the Lebo Methodist Church's cookbook this afternoon and I was excited to see a recipe I could use with my "extra" bag of apples. I love to see what everyone submitted (they list names under each recipe) -this one came from Marilyn Combes, a good family friend. And I will be making it A LOT this fall/winter - great to eat alone, on top of pancakes, etc. I love these!

Country Store Apples -
5-6 c. apples (I peeled them)
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 t. cinammon
1/4 t. nutmeg-5
4 T. cornstarch
1/2 c. cider or apple juice

Cut apples in chunks. Place apples, sugar, cinammon, nutmeg in crock pot. Dissolve cornstarch in apple juice and blend well; pour over apples and stir to blend. Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours. Stir halfway through cooking.

Yum!

Zac

I guess this is the year we finally go to concerts!

It was so fun to see our two favorite people/groups this year - Jack Johnson and Zac. We listen to them so much that they are also Brady & Brett's favorites. Brady decided that when he is 10 and Brett is 8 they will be able to start going with us. Too funny! (We might surprise them and take them to one before then, who knows?!)

I forgot about the concert on the "presale" day, but Ed found awesome GA "pit" tickets on ebay. We were right by the stage. It was SO awesome.

He came out and introduced his opening act - that never happens, right?!

Zac and "Cory" - who seemed to be popular, but made the funniest faces while playing

It was a GREAT concert - so glad we saw them. They are coming back this summer. . . . .at Arrowhead.

Bed of Leaves

Ed raked the backyard and made a big bed of leaves for Tanner & Trevor tonight. (He was burning them in the firepit, but there was MORE than enough to go around.) The boyz were loving it and I decided to take some current shots of them, because I've shed a few tears lately thinking about them - the walks are frequent, but not nearly as long, their hair is getting white and thinner, they will be 9 years old this January. And to be honest, they have lumps places they shouldn't have and I can't imagine not having them with us.

They are so special.

Jack

Saturday night Ed made a big fire in the firepit and we carved our pumpkins. It was a GREAT night for it (no wind, perfect temps).

Brady was set on drawing his own face and did a great job.

Brett drew his face on one side of the pumpkin, then Ed used that to carve the face on the other side. (Brett's is the one carved on the pic below)