OUR WONDERFUL LONG WEEK-END!

So much has happened in the last few days I can't quite decide how to post it all.  Maybe I should just make it short and sweet as I honestly doubt many want to hear all the details anyway, haha, but then again this blog is SUPPOSE to be a journal of what goes on in my life so maybe I am just feeling tired and am therfore looking for an excuse to make it quick.  Either way, I will just do the best I can.  I worked LONG and as fast as I could on Wed. to get everything all ready. I baked our pies, made the salad, set our tables (never as quick a chore as you think it is going to be either, haha) wrapped up all the Christmas jammies for the grands, and got the house as ready as I could .

THIS WAS THE CENTERPIECE ON THE KIDS TABLE...SOO CUTE.  IT IS SETTING ON THE RUNNER THAT MY MOM MADE FOR ME A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO.  THE FLIP SIDE IS CHRISTMAS PRINTS, HOW I LOVE IT!  WE GOT A NEW CAMERA....CAN YOU TELL?  I SURE CAN  ; )

ADULT TABLE

CLOSE UP OF A PLACE SETTING...

INSIDE OF THE NAME TAGS.....

JUST ANOTHER VIEW OF THE TABLE

GIFTS FOR GRANDKIDS....THE LITTLE BLACK BAGS HELD THEIR NEW CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS..(I FORGOT TO TAKE A PIC OF THEM) THE GIRLS ALL GOT GINGERBREAD GIRLS WITH THEIR NAMES AND THE DATE ON THEM, AND THE BOYS GOT GINGERBREAD BOYS....THEY WERE REALLY CUTE!

Then dh and I headed out to the airport.  They were landing at 6:20 so this meant of course we were jumping on the freeway at PRIME time traffic, the Wed. night before a holiday week-end.  NEVER good in Southern California.  Needless to say we were CRAWLING in bumper to bumper traffic.  My excitement level at that point was sooo huge I honestly felt like I could get out of our car and just begin jogging my way to the airport.  I quickly became somewhat hysterical as I was just sure it was going to take us hours and I had visions of them standing at the airport with a screaming unhappy baby.  BUT!!  We actually made it in perfect time (I should have just listened to dh and saved myself the worry) and I soon had little Sam in my arms.  He did wonderfully on the flights, so that was an answer to prayer.  We quickly headed over to Mike's grandmothers and Mike's mom met us there too, and we all visited and played with the baby for a couple of hours.

PLAYING WITH MOM AND DAD

SOO HAPPY

HOW DARLING IS THIS?

MEETING GREAT GRANDMA TEVELDE FOR THE FIRST TIME!

HE SPENT A GOOD DEAL OF HIS TIME SLEEPING RIGHT HERE ON GRANDMA!  I LOVED IT..

Thanksgiving Day was just sooo good.  Everything went soo well.  No fires this year, haha.  Honestly, the food was yummy, and having my family around the table and enjoying the conversations was just priceless.  We read our scripture cards and even Jeffie, Capri, and JD joined in this year and were soo pleased with themselves.  Not as pleased as Grandma was though.  Everyone eventually signed our Thanksgiving tablecloth, and that new tradition will be appreciated in years to come I am thinking.   My wonderful dil's cleaned the GIANT mess in the kitchen after dinner and I was able to sit and visit with my kids and grandkids to my heart's content.  The kids had such a good time playing together.  It was a noisy day I am not going to lie.  But listening to the silence today, makes me glad it was just the way it was.  The day eventually came to a close and another Thanksgiving went down in memory.

I LOVE THIS ONE OF HIM!

SAM WAS GETTING TIRED OF PICTURES

MEETING AUNT LARISSA

AND UNCLE JAMES

KIDS TABLE, THOUGH I CUT OFF TELLA'S FACE, SOO SAD...THE OLDEST, EVAN, SAT AT THE BAR

THE ADULTS...EVAN TOOK THIS ONE AND DIDN'T QUITE KNOW HOW TO FOCUS IT, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA

I PUT TOGETHER A BIG BOX OF CRAYONS, MARKERS, WRITING TABLETS, STICKERS ETC. AND THE KIDS ENJOYED IT FOR A LOOOONG TIME

MY KIDS...MELODY, JOE, JOHN & JAMES

Friday Mike left for a while to visit some of his friends, and Mel and I and Sam and Grandpa hung out here.  It was just a nice day too.  I spent a GOOD deal of the day just sitting and rocking Sam, and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.. : ) My parents stopped by for a while as they were anxious to meet Sam and knew that the next day at the open house there would be LOTS of competition to hold him.  That was nice too.

MEETING GREAT GRANDPARENTS!

GREAT GRANDPA JOE & SAM

Somewhere in the day I did bake brownies, oatmeal cake, fudge, and I tried the new oreo cookie pops I read about on Jennifer's blog to serve the next day at the open house.  We all went to bed kind of early knowing the next day would be a long one.  And it was, but just as good.  Sam was able to meet my sisters and their families, and many cousins.  There were around 35 in all.  My WONDERFUL WONDERFUL dil Larissa made many of the snacks and was such an enormous help on the day I am not sure what I would have done without her.  She  not only made the snacks, and they were SOOO good, she set the table of food up, kept the dishes full through the day, and then if all of that wasn't enough, cleaned it all up for me too.  I was sooo grateful as by this point I was REALLY REALLY tired, and I just know I couldn't have done much more.  THANK YOU SOO MUCH LARISSA!!

SOO CUTE....SAM WAS GETTING READY FOR A REALLY LONG SNOOZE HERE...

COOK LARISSA

SOOO MANY YUMMY SNACKS

SHE EVEN ADDED NAME CARDS!

Add caption

THESE TWO WERE BORN JUST 2 DAYS APART....SOO CUTE!

COUSINS KATIE & TABBIE

HE WAS COOING AND SMILING HERE....SOO PRECIOUS

READY TO GO TO VISIT HIS OTHER GRANDMA...

There were WAY too many pictures of the Open house to share.  Soo many cute ones, but you get the idea I am sure.  All in all it was just a wonderful day.  On Sunday Jessie came over to do Mel's hair which had not been done since July.  It was much easier than trying to take Sam into the shop.  And since Mel is exclusively breast feeding he pretty much has to go where ever she does, haha....After she was done they headed off to Mike's mother's house to spend a couple of days....This Grandma is missing him today for sure, but is resting up as they will be back tomorrow for one last day.

Last night hubby and I went over to my oldest son's house to help celebrate his 39th birthday!!!  I honestly can't believe Joe is 39 years old.  We picked up dinner from a wonderful Mexican restaurant near their house, and then sat and visited with all of them for a couple of hours.  Lindsey made him the cutest card/gift full of his favorite candy (Joe has SUCH a sweet tooth ~ wonder where he gets that??!) and Jeffie made him a darling banner for the wall.  I got a couple of pics of them in their new jammies too.  I am NOT liking how the neck of these jammies came out.  I am going to have to fix Jeffie's somehow as he is quite thin and they are literally falling off of him...sigh.  Someday I will have all the kinks out.

PRETTY LINDSEY WITH HER GIFT!

JEFFIE'S BANNER

CODY PLAYED SOME FOOTBALL WITH GRANDPA

THEIR JAMMIES

This post is just WAY too long I know, and for those of you still with me, thanks for sticking it out, haha.  I have soo much to be thankful for with this week-end, that I am not going to focus on the fact that Mike, Mel & Sam will be heading home on Wed., and probably won't be back until next June.... : (   Honest I am not.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2011

Psalm 26:7  I will proclaim with the voice of Thanksgiving, and tell of ALL of Your wondrous works!


Any of you who have followed my blog for a while, know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It goes of course so much deeper then the day itself, and into the real heart of being Christian.  A gratitude that can only come from a deep and meaningful relationship with Him, that came about only through forgiveness, and the knowing of what that relationship means to ALL who belong to Him.  It amazes me every time I really let my mind meditate and dwell on it, that the God who put the stars in the sky and called them by name, would love me and desire that kind of a relationship with Me!  Would provide a salvation from what I deserve and instead bless me with all the richness that is His.  Would comfort me, encourage me, lead and guide me, every single day no matter what the circumstances. 


Psalm 147:4  He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.


I have spent the last several days dwelling back on all the Lord has blessed me with this last year.  It is hard to try and break them down day by day, as at times it seems they are more like minute by minute, but I have tried listing them there on the sidebar of this blog.   I have been dwelling too on what I am going to put on our Thanksgiving tablecloth to go down in the records for one of my top blessings of this particular year.  It has been MOST difficult I assure you, as I have many to chose from.  I think I have decided to go with the birth of Samuel.  His very life is such a direct answer to prayer, and one I will always be thankful for.  Sooo many physical obstacles could have prevented this from ever happening, and yet the Lord chose to bless our family with this sweet little life.  

My preparations for the day are coming along S L O W L Y but surely, and I know before I know it my family will all be here and ALL together for the first time in a year.  I am so happy about that.  I think it is suppose to rain on Thanksgiving, and even that doesn't bother me one little bit.  Our porch btw, (just so you know) is STILL leaking, sigh, haha.  But it is MUCH BETTER than it was, and it isn't suppose to rain on Saturday which is the open house for Samuel, and a MUCH bigger deal if those ; ) guests arrive wet...soo guess it is all good.  


I want to wish all you my sweet blogging friends, a blessed and happy Thanksgiving!  How grateful I am for each and everyone of you who enrich my life with your wisdom, laughter, and friendship.  May we all remember to turn our eyes towards the One who blesses us all!


2 Cor 2:19  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!


I just had to add an interesting side note....My hubby got up this morning and told him me that he ran across a scripture last night in his reading, that mentioned me....


Judges 5:12   "Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake and break into song!


He said, "So the next time you are dozing on the couch when we are watching TV I am going to quote scripture at you!"  haha  I LOVE it.  

HITTING DELETE.....

I am not sure how many of you caught my post yesterday before I deleted it, but delete it I had to.  It was not me at my best.  How many times I have done and said things in my life that I WISH it was as easy as hitting "delete"....It just makes me soo grateful again for my God.  My God who never tires of me begging for His Mercy and His forgiveness.  Who understands my heart, and leaves room for my mistakes, and my foolish ways.  Who loves me just the way I am, unconditionally, no matter what.

Dan 9:9  "To the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

Romans 8:38, 39  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I have had a busy last couple of days and I am checking things off of my list one by one.  Tomorrow is DEFINITELY going to be another busy day, but it is also one day closer to having my family all together to thank Him for all the things He has blessed us with.  I pray that I will let the Lord keep my heart and mind fixed on Him, and there will be a lot less reason to hit DELETE.  ; )  I will leave you with this darling picture of my grand daughter Capri at her Thanksgiving feast at school.  Hope you all have a wonderful week-end.

WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

I am not quite sure why I am TRYING to get this post done this morning when I have a million things to do, and I have to leave here shortly to run to Newport Beach and get my hair done.  I've gone 7 weeks this time trying to get closer to Thanksgiving etc., and the grey roots are looking RIDICULOUS...don't think I will be doing that again, haha.  Anyway, I LOVE these random questions so I am going to try and QUICKLY play along...

1. What song reminds you of a specific time in your life and what is it about that song that makes you remember?  there are soo many, this is going to be hard.  I think it is one of the things I like best about music.  You can just close your eyes and listen and be transported back to a certain time in your life.  I have ALWAYS loved "oldies" for just that reason.  But now let's see if I can come up with a specific one.....The Beatles, the Stones, the Doors were all HUGE when I was in high school and almost any of their big hits can transport me back to those times.  But I especially loved Elvis Presley which was not a popular choice when I was in high school, but I didn't really care.  What ended up being funny was my dh was just as big a fan as I was (one of the hundred of things we had in common, haha) We had been married about 10 years (which meant I was around 30) and we were living in the first home we had just bought and had 3 young wild little boys, lol.  One night we put Elvis on the stereo and hubby and I danced to his hit "Can't Help Falling in Love with You", and swayed slowly around the Living room much to the delight of our sons.    Can't even hear this song now without thinking about that night and time in our lives...  : )

2. What's something you've given up on?  Well that's easy.....weighing 120 pounds again, haha!!

3. What's something you'll never give up on?  My faith and and hope and love of my God.  

4. If you had to cook something from scratch in the next hour what would it be?  A loaf of pumpkin nut bread....oh I can almost smell it!

THIS HAS A YUMMY GLAZE ON IT TOO!

5. Have you started Christmas shopping? Decorating? Listening to Christmas music? Well, if shopping for the fabric to make the Christmas jammies for the grands count, then I have started shopping, though I will give them to them on Thanksgiving so they can enjoy them for the whole season.   And hubby has started putting up the outside lights, though they are not lit up nor will they be till AFTER Thanksgiving.  And listening to Christmas music?  NO!  I love it, but it just belongs during the Season (which starts Dec. first in my opinion).  I am a HUGE Thanksgiving and Fall lover and I want to savor this season right now.  

6. What do you know about your parent's wedding?  Sadly, not much at all.  I have seen the pictures MANY times and know that they were both really young, and sooo thin and tiny.  My mom only weighed about 92 pounds, and my dad didn't look like he weighed much more, haha... My mom is only 5 ft. 2 and my dad was 6 ft. 2 so they were funny that way too.  My mother was soooo beautiful!  Still is really.  And I know that they were 20 years old and got married in a church in Nebraska.

7. I can't believe I ___________________.

Wow, I guess I could insert MANY things here.....but I think I have settled on, I can't believe I am as blessed as I am  in sooo many different areas of my life!   Certainly in the husband, kids and grandkids department.  With my health, comfort, and circumstances.  With a God I can count on every moment of every day to get me through.   I could go on and on here, but I will restrain...  : )

8. Insert your own random thought here.  Well as always there is alot on my mind, but this morning I am thinking how I need to keep my head focused as we go into this holiday season on what is important and what is not.  I ALWAYS tend to get busy and rushed and then stressed and flurried and neglect my quiet times with the Lord.  NOT going to do that this season....I am going to put Him first where He ALWAYS belongs!

OK, this took a little longer than I hoped so I will have to get cracking now....Hope you all have a wonderful day.  I will visit as many as I can later, after Jessie works her wonders!  ; )

Be sure and join the others that have linked up for this!  Soo fun!  Click HERE

HAPPY MONDAY!

Well, by keeping our noses to the grindstone, dh and I put in a LONG week-end, and got quite a bit done, haha.  My poor hubby spent most of Sat. on the patio cover roof again, and we THINK we may have the problem solved.  Let me put it another way, it is as good as it is getting!   lol.  It was raining occasionally on him as he worked, and rained pretty hard after he finished, and for the very most part there was NO water anywhere.  Certainly the front door and the mat stayed completely dry, so that's a REALLY good thing.  Like I said in the very beginning, what really needed to be done was a complete tear down and start all over kind of thing to have done it right.  But this was a very close second.  It "looks" fantastic, and sooo improves what we had going, I am a happy camper.  And if I am a happy camper, he is a happy camper, lol.  While he worked on that, I did my sewing.  I finished my blanket, and it was as my sisters told me, SUPER EASY!  Now I may make more.  But not right now...I am a little over-extended with what I have going on (imagine that?) and I will be lucky to keep all my balls in the air, haha.  I have finished everyone's PJ's but Lindsey's and Annabel's, and they are just getting lounging PJ bottoms, which I can make up in about a half hour a piece.  I do need to run and get a pattern before I can whip those up though, so I am on a break, haha...Here are some pics of my week-end projects....

I think it is not only darling, it is REALLY warm!

Cody's & Donatella's

Cody is totally into this movie Cars, and I thought this was just super cute fabric!

Tella's Christmas kitties

On Sunday we went to church and then over to my son's house where Larissa whipped us a delicious lunch.  We headed home right afterwards though so we could finish up some more of our projects.  Hubby began hanging the Christmas lights, and I (guess what?) sewed, haha.  He did barbecue some yummy burgers for dinner and we relaxed (finally) with a little TV.  A long but productive week-end.  HOWEVER, there is still much to do.  I am organizing not only Thanksgiving, but Sam's open house which will be the Sat. after Thanksgiving.  We are not serving a meal, and yet, we will be having appetizers, snacks,  some sweets and coffee of course, and drinks.  Lots to do to get this all ready.  THEN....on Dec. 16th we will be celebrating my dh's 60th birthday.  We have been married 37 years (well almost 37) and I have only had one other birthday party for this guy.  Now it's not that his birthday is not celebrated, but it is just very low key.  A special dinner, cake, maybe a gift, and that's about it.  Dec. 17th is just a hard time to have a birthday.  Everyone is always soo busy this time of year and another get together just seems wrong somehow.  But this birthday is a BIG one, and I just decided months ago I wasn't going to let it get by.  Well, the 17th falls on a Sat. this year so it seemed perfect and I told everyone to try hard to save that date.   But when I went to make a reservation at a restaurant, I found that everyone was completely booked for that large of a group for that night.  There will be around 45 people or so.  I was somewhat frantic, and decided OK, maybe I would just rent out our clubhouse here.  It is BIG and beautiful, but it would require a lot more work on my part than a restaurant would have to pull off, so it was my definite second choice.  HOWEVER, they were booked for every Sat. and Sun in the month of Dec.  More panic!!  Finally, I settled on a Friday night.  Not ideal, but it is doable.  And my youngest son has promised to come up early and help me get everything set up.  Whew....   Melody (as her gift to her daddy) is going to pay for all the food, so I have LOTS of help.  I am BEYOND grateful.  AND THEN....I decided several weeks ago I wanted to do something special for his birthday.  He is a special guy truly who rarely thinks of himself, and I just wanted to have a special way to honor him.  Soooo, we are putting together a book of wishes.  Everyone who has been invited is writing there favorite memory, funny story, and good wishes up in a blog post complete with pictures etc., and then I will have it printed up in book form and give it to him.  I am very excited about this project, but it is somewhat stressful I am not going to lie. Everyone seems excited about this, but getting them to all to DO IT by my cutoff date will be quite the feat.  Mine is done, but so far that is it, lol. Oh!  It is safe to write about this here, as he NEVER reads this blog, haha..  THEN....I need to get our extra bedroom rearranged so we can set up a portable crib, nursing area etc., for Mike & Mel when they come with Sam next week.  AND!!  Christmas is coming too so I am trying to get my head into my shopping for that too.  I am keeping that VERY easy this year, and VERY low key, but I do have 9 grandkids to buy for, haha...None of this would be as difficult as it is sometimes if it wasn't for these knees of mine.  How I wish I could do sooo much more than I can sometimes without help.   But I am grateful that I have been as healthy as I have been, and have had the strength to do all that I have.  Soo, that's all I have to say about being busy, haha

Melody took little Sam to a pediatric cardiologist today as his doc had heard a slight heart murmur on him on his last visit, and he wanted to check it out.  Melody was a little overwhelmed as this required her to drive into Lubbock which is a good two hour drive one way for her.  Mike has LOTS of issues going on right now at the dairy with his employees, so he wasn't able to go with her.  One of those times for sure that I wished I lived near so I could have helped.  Well, the drive went well, but Sam DID NOT like his visit, haha.  He worked himself up into quite a state.  They did a couple of tests on the baby and discovered that he does have a VERY small hole in his heart which is causing the murmur.  Now Melody and I both have heart murmur's with no problems whatsoever, certainly no holes, so we were kind of expecting to hear the same thing here.  Her doc did assure her however, that the hole is very small.  In fact it is sooo small that she said with less sophisticated equipment you probably wouldn't have even seen it.  She is sure it will just close up on it's own, but the baby will have to be monitored in the meantime.  He is to be seen again in a month.  I would soo appreciate a prayer or two for little Sam's complete healing of this.  He is continuing to gain....He is up to 11 pounds 2 ounces!!  All of her doc's seem quite pleased with his progress.  I am thinking he might have to slow down soon or he will be an enormous baby by a year if he keeps up this pace, haha.

One of the professional newborn pics she had taken....soo precious!

Such  a happy guy....one more week, and I will be kissing this cutie!

I know it probably seems sometimes that I write A LOT of information, and I am sorry....BUT!  I am doing this blog mainly as a personal journal of my life, and that comes with lots of details. ; )  Hope you all have a WONDERFUL week...

MY UNRESTRICTED LIST

Can it possibly be Thursday again already?  WOW is all I can say to that....As I reflect everyday (for the month  of November's daily challenge) on what I am especially thankful for that day, it is truly difficult to narrow it down to just one thing.  I am happy today that I can do my WHOLE post on thankfulness and I do not have to be restricted to just one thing, haha.

My week has continued to be busy, but it has been a good busy and I am  S L O W L Y getting more and more completed.  I DID find the Hello Kitty fabric.  After searching a couple more stores with my mom, and chasing ANOTHER false lead, I finally decided to just go on line.  WHY I didn't start there I am not really sure.  I simply typed in Hello Kitty Christmas flannel fabric, and up it popped.  Ten minutes later I had ordered my yard, and it should arrive on my doorstep tomorrow.  Doesn't get much better.  Now, the fabric was NOT on sale like it was at Joanne's, but as my hubby pointed out, (bless his little heart!) I still would have saved money if I had just started there, when you consider the gas I used on my wild goose chases.   But all is well that ends well right? haha  Sooo out of this mess I am thankful for the internet and online shopping!

I also completed all my invites for Sam's open house, and they will go into the mail today.  Thankful here for Costco and programs for such things that are both easy to work and sooo affordable.

Couldn't get the glare off no matter what I did, but you get the idea...

 And!  thankful I completed JD's jammies yesterday.  Only 4 more sets to go!!  YAY!  And really it is only 2 more complete sets, as I am only making lounging type PJ bottoms for the two older girls.

JD's jammies

I spent all day Tues at my mom's.  She had a doc appointment and has to schedule a couple more tests.  My poor mom.  But I am grateful that her doc seems soo compassionate and caring and thorough.  We were there a LONG time as the doc was soo far behind (he doesn't hurry anyone) and waited WELL over an hour to just get into the little room to wait AGAIN.   This meant that by the time we had completed her other errands, it was too late to begin our study.  She is soo tired in the afternoons, especially after a day like that.  But we will get to it.  But this one is easy....I am grateful for time spent with her (she was actually excited to help me search for the fabric some.....soo cute!) and for compassionate doctors.

I don't know if it will really work well into the context of this post, but I wanted to tell you about the message we heard on Sunday at church.  It was just sooo good.  I have found myself really dwelling on it all week, which is what a good message will do right?  It wasn't on anything new, or anything really that I haven't heard about MANY times, but it was presented in a different way, with a different thought for me, and really got me thinking and soo blessed my heart.  He is teaching through the book of Mark right now and we are in chapter 2.  He goes through a book verse by verse (like many of the Calvary Chapel pastors do).  It is the story of where the man who is paralyzed is lowered through the roof and Jesus heals him.  I am sure most of you are very familiar with this portion of scripture.  I will NEVER be able to present it the way he did, and I am not even going to try.  He has a way of setting the scene and presenting the story that makes it come alive and current.  Suddenly your in the crowd, living it all with them.  But the point I came away with was this.  Where Jesus is at, people are drawn.  They can't help themselves.  They will go to any length to get near Him and draw from Him His power and His love and His compassion and His  healing and strength.  These 4 men were willing to literally remove the roof on Peter's home to get their friend in front of Jesus.  His question was... are people drawn to Jesus in us?  They should be.  Do they sense His Holy Spirit living in us?  Do they long to know more about this Jesus who gives us His peace and His love and His mercy?  Do they truly sense something different, even if they don't really know us well, or more importantly maybe when they really do?  It was a good question.  I have wondered all week just what others see.  My desire is soo that all would know Him.  Know of His salvation and His love.  His next question was....How hard do we seek Him?  Can imagine if we heard that Jesus Himself was actually here, teaching and healing in a house somewhere that we could get to?  How hard would we try to get as near as we could?  How hard would we try to actually speak to Him and hear Him answer our questions and desires personally.  The point is of course, that He IS here!  We do have that kind of access.  He does answer our questions personally, and heal our hurts and our bodies.    Sooo, guess I am grateful here for Jesus.  And for good messages.

And finally (I know this is getting toooooo long, lol) I am grateful I was able to go to my youngest sisters last night to help celebrate my nieces twelfth birthday.  Such a sweet, happy girl.  Happy birthday Katie Lynn, and may all your dreams come true.   I am grateful here for my time spent with my sister, and for her darling little kids whom I love and enjoy so much.

Cute Katie with her load! haha
Notice her kitty checking things out too, haha

Katie requested the famous Oatmeal cake that I make.  I was happy to make it for her,  which allowed me to smell it's WONDERFUL aroma yesterday while I sewed.  It really has become MANY family members favorite cake.  I have shared the recipe before, but I will share it again, as it is quick, easy, and REALLY good.

You boil a cup and quarter of water and add a stick of margarine and one cup of quick cooking oatmeal.  Cover and let stand 20 minutes.  Then, you add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of white sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. of baking soda, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 and half cups of flour.  Mix everything together well, and pour into a 9 by 13 pan and bake for 35 min. at 350.  Upon removing from the oven you pour the yummy topping over the cake, and ENJOY!

Yummy topping...

2 tsp. of margarine
1/2 cup of brown and white sugar
1/2 cup of evaporated milk
1 tsp. of cinnamon
1 cup of chopped walnuts

Today, I hope to make Cody's jammies, and the fleece blanket for baby Sam.  My sister gave me instructions last night on how to do this, so hopefully I will not have any problems with it.  ; )  Hope you are all enjoying your day, and reflecting on all of your many blessings too!

I will leave you with these darling picture of sweet Sam smiling at you!

Soo sweet...how much I want to kiss those little cheeks!

A heart breaker for sure!