Happy Birthday!!

Today, 12 years ago, we welcomed our sweet little 7 lb. 12 oz. daughter into the world around 2 PM. She has been such a joy to our family and I cannot believe how quickly she is growing up!

Just a few pics of her journey through life so far.... :)

Newborn

3 months old

6 months old

3 years old and holding her "Muffin"!! <3 Muffin was her faithful friend through the first 6 years of her life. He went with her EVERYWHERE!! :) He got left behind in a shopping cart at Target, 35 minutes from home, when she was maybe 3? And since her mommy & daddy loved her so much, we drove back the next day to pick him up after calling and finding out that someone turned him in at the lost and found. He was hidden so well in her play kitchen one night that we were exhausted looking for him before she went to bed!! :) So many Muffin memories. Now he sits on a shelf in her bedroom! :) I think there is still a little soft spot in her heart for him! :)

4 years old

5 years old

The summer she was 4 was a big deal for Tamara.....we moved to FL. She did well with the move and made new friends quickly. It wasn't long till she lived longer in FL than in PA, but sadly, she forgot a lot of faces from PA! 

6 years old

Also 6 years old

I think I had got a special deal from Walmart...really not sure why we did 6 year old pics twice?

Our first mother/daughter picture....she was 6 and I was 29 :)

And one with her brother....I think they were 7 and 9 here.

 I cannot thank God enough for the great brother/sister relationship these two have had. Granted, they had fights, but they also loved to play and imagine together. It never ceased to amaze me how they could make up stories about whatever they were playing with. They would both throw in comments and make their imaginations work together. Many times I wished for a mini tape recorder to catch some of the funny things they came up with. 

They still can be caught doing this from time to time!! :) 

I think right now is probably the toughest time for them. Danny is 14 and getting out of the "playing with toys" stage, and sometimes she can't understand why he would rather read or shoot his guns and not play with her. But, I think in another year or two they will be best friends again in a new sort of way! 

So right now, it's my time to make her feel useful and to be there for her to take up some of the slack. And I've been enjoying it! :)

This is now.....12 years since that wonderful, painful, exhilarating day in January 2001!! :)

I love her so much and I am really enjoying time with her....she is becoming a fine young lady and fulfilling a dream I've had all my life....having a daughter of my own! I thank God for blessing our family with her!!

She is most definitely her Daddy's girl!! They are able to relate very well, since they have similar personalities  I am thankful for the relationship that has been forming between them! He is her protector, her shoulder to lean on, her love....for now and they share a love of humor!! :)

I cherish this picture!!

"A Father is a Son's first HERO & a Daughter's first LOVE"

Happy Birthday Tamara.....we LOVE you!!

She is looking forward to spending a day with her best friend, shopping!! :) 

Christmas 2012....A Start~

This Christmas was so different for our family! We went to South Carolina to be with Dan's family. We left our house on Friday evening, December 21. Thursday evening, we let the kids open their stocking stuffer gifts....they each only had 2 things in them! :P I didn't much get into shopping this year! :P

Tamara got two new dresses for her 18" Quinn doll....

Danny got the Narnia ~Prince Caspian soundtrack.

And they both got a pack of individual poptarts! 

I'll post more about our Christmas vacation later. This was kind of a trial, as I decided to see if I could load photo's and indeed I could!! I am a little cautious though, because I'm afraid if I try to load too many it will not let me!

I'll be back.... :) The kids have a 1940's birthday party to go to this afternoon and I need to soon figure out how to do Tamara's hair!! :)

Well, indeed, it seems I can't load pics! BUT, I have a good friend whose husband is a computer guru and he also has a blog and had this same problem....seems he is going to be able to help me out. :) Yay.....hope to be back soon!! :)

Help!??

I am trying to change my pictures on the sidebar and I keep getting this message!!? :(

We're sorry, but you have exceeded your photo upload quota. For more information, check out this Blogger help page.

There's a quota on blogger?? What?? The link to the help page didn't help much either. Does anyone know what this means? Has it happened to you?

Canning Tomato Soup...

A friend asked how I can tomato soup, so I am going to run you through the process I learned from my Mom (including a few pics) :)

Get quart jars cleaned and ready....or pints if you are a family of one! :)

Chop a nice size bunch of celery and 6 onions. Add them to a kettle with a little water. Cook them till tender.
I love the smell of cooking onions, but not so much the celery, so burn a candle to help with that if you like! :)

 Take the centers out of 8 quarts of tomato's and cut them into quarters. Add to the celery/onion mix.
(Side note: I did a  search to see how many tomato's makes 8 quarts and never really came to a good conclusion, so I just did what I thought! ;) Not always a great idea :P I think I cut up about 30 medium-small tomato's and I think I could have done a few more!??)

Cook it all till everything is tender.....

And then run the whole kettle through a strainer of some type. I don't have the nice Victorio strainer, but one that works just as well. :)

Having a teenage son that loves cranking the soup out is a great bonus! :)

After it's all been run through, dump the liquid back into the kettle and add more ingredients.

First, whisk 1 c. melted butter and 1 c. flour together, then add that mixture and 1 c. sugar and 1/4 c. salt to the soup. Blend well and simmer till slightly thickened.

Pour into jars, add lids and rings and wait for them to seal.

TIP: I make sure my jars are nice and hot before I pour the soup in. I also let the soup continue simmering while I was filling the jars to be sure it stayed nice and hot. 

I also experimented....I turned about half of the jars upside down to see if that would make a difference if they sealed....but ALL 6 jars sealed, so turning them upside down is not necessary! :)

It seems the soup got lighter this year....not sure why? Maybe I really did need to add more tomato's?? But I know one thing....it SMELLED like tomato soup! I see soup and toasted cheese sandwiches in Dan & my future this winter!

(The kid's don't care for tomato soup!) Crazy kids! :)

I still have quite a few tomato's left from the 30 gallons I got, so I think I will make another batch of salsa! :)

Salsa!!

On Monday the kids and I went to Jackson Farms for tomato's.

We were fully prepared to pick, but when I found out a 5 gallon bucket "u-pick" was $9 or a 5 gallon bucket of "they-picked" was $10, my choice was easy. I was more than happy to part with 2 extra dollars and save the time and effort it takes to pick them!! :)

I had every intention of making salsa on Tuesday, but Monday night I started getting a bad pain in my lower back. The only thing I can figure is that I did something when carrying the boxes of maters into the house.
 (I had a kind older gentleman help me load them in the van at the farm)

Tuesday morning, I woke up with some bad pain and after packing Dan's lunch, I went back to bed. I stayed in bed or reclined on the sofa for a good part of the day. Ice, heating pad, and pain killer was my friend and my kids did great at helping me get the wash done.
*They also told me they are glad that I am not that helpless more often :) :)

Wednesday morning I already had a Dr. appt. so I talked to the Dr. about the pain and after a brief examination and a few questions he determined that I had sprained my back. So he recommended I keep doing what I was, especially with using heat, and he also recommended Aleve instead of Tylenol.

Thankfully by Thursday morning I was nearly pain free!

So, salsa making day it was!!

The tomato's were so nice looking, not real big, but not tiny either! I only found two that had bad spots.

Washing them....

 and then scalding them to loosen the skins.

After removing the skins and stem area, we chopped them with my Tupperware Quick Chef.

I used Mrs. Wages salsa mix and added extra cilantro :) Mmmmm!!

Got 27 pints total! I'm thinking another 27 would be good, but I'm not sure if I'll do anymore. Dan would like me to go back for more next week and make canned tomato soup, too! So, we'll see! :)

I think we shall sample some tonight! :)

Goat Day

October 20, was the Annual Goat Day in Blountstown. They said we had record attendance of close to 5,000 people!! It was a gorgeous day for the community to be out!

Zoo World brought an exhibit of animals to "show n tell". Spider Man got in on the action! :) I am not sure what this was but it sure looked like a chinchilla! :)

The kids look forward to pony rides each year, but I think will be the last year they ride. Only one of the horses was big enough for their weight.

Cute goat dressed up....asking you to vote for Crawford, for Clerk of Court! :)

This was the stand we chose for lunch and the stand that ripped us off!! YIKES! We should have asked prices, but we really didn't expect it to be so bad! The kids got alligator on a stick, I got chicken on a stick and Dan got a Gyro. They were $8 a piece, a little much but kind of expected.....but then Dan and I both got a lemonade....and they were $5 a PIECE!!! $10 for drink!!! :O Never again! (We could have ate at a nice restaurant for that price!!) We'll take our own drink next time and eat at the Pioneer Settlement across the bridge. It was cheaper and a more balanced meal. Chalk this one up to experience!

Going through the woods to the Pioneer Village.....

A stand with artifacts from the 1800's.

Beginning of an antique tractor show.

And that's it....I wasn't much in a picture taking mood that day! :P

We did have a good time though and got to see lots of friends! :)

This is one event we look forward to every year even though the kids feel too old to join in the greased pig chase or the coin dig like they used to when they were younger! :)