Thursday, December 31, 2009

2010? Already? ?


Well, here we are on the edge of a New Year! Holy Cow I can't believe it! This past year has been VERY eventful, lots of blessing, lots of water under the bridge. We added two baby girls to our family this year, one in April, and one in December. We will be adding yet another new grand baby in 2010, bringing our total up to 8, and hopefully, we are praying, will be blessed with yet another one!
We have been struggling with our small space here at the Stone House, wondering what to do to have MORE family gathering space, without breaking the bank. We have a 9 more years till retirement, and we have plans afterwards that don't include large payments! LOL Yesterday our DIL came up with a plan that my DH even liked! WAHOO!!!!! So this is the year of another remodel to the Stone House! (I'm so excited I can't even begin to get it together!) We added on to this house almost 16 years ago, very modestly. Too modestly. Oh if we would have only known! The cost was soooooo much less then........but that's how it goes sometimes huh. Anyway, to make this way long story short, we are going to leave the kitchen where it is, (cuz I was always wanting to change it...) and open up our bedroom and the dinning room/family room and make it all one big room! Then, we will move our bedroom upstairs and add a bathroom and closet from out of the unfinished attic space! We can afford this without breaking the bank, and my DH can live with it, and so can I. (however.....I am going to paint the kitchen cupboards for sure now!)

This is our fire pit, out in the yard, out the back door, across the driveway, through the grape vines, out under the old apple tree. This is where we sit and laugh, and stuff ourselves with smores, swat mosquito's, and enjoy our family. There is even a log or two still there, just waiting...............



here is a little wood stack, also just waiting..........................



but in the mean time......there are remodel plans to be drawn!
Pot lucks to be had!
Sleds to be ridden!
Boots and mittens to be dried in front of the wood stove!
Hot Chocolate to be consumed!
Marshmallows and chocolate chips to be snuck out of the cupboard when Granna isn't looking!
Upcoming holidays and family events to be enjoyed together!
And just plain old everyday life to be lived as a family, here on this old farm in this old stone house!
So, from our family to yours.....
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
And may it bring you many blessing!
Enjoy your day.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Fa la la la la la la la la .

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We surely did.

Do you have any clue how small your house gets when the entire family is home, and your sons, and grand sons are jumping and hopping over everything and everybody, shooting at each other with Nerf guns?

And then trying to retrieve their missing darts? LOL

We had a very enjoyable day and were very grateful to have all of our children, minus our future DIL who went home to visit her family in Sunny California, and all of our sweet grands home with us!!!!

This is our newest grand, little Evie with her auntie. I love the smell of babies don't you?



These, are my most wonderful slippers that my DD made for me! They are made out a recycled and felted wool sweater! They are soft and thick and comfy!
This is me today, even now, still wearing my PJ's . I plan to stay dressed just like this alllll the day long! LOL
I'll just slip on my boots and coat and go down the lane to visit my mom, and to go feed cows with my DH......... ( However, I did put my b_a on...I do have some modesty going on! ) :-)

I'm tellin you, it is a snackers haven here at the Stone House today! Left over turkey and ham an rolls for sandwiches, and chips enough to even satisfy my desires, not to mention chocolate in several forms, and green olives stuffed with blue cheese, some with garlic, and a big jar of the reg pimento stuffed ones! We have some pickled okra , avocados , and berry pie! There was some divinity, but we have already taken care of that.... LOL


These are our two little swaddled burrito baby girls! Having a nap on Granna's bed while we were playing cards a couple of Wednesdays ago. Truly? I had a hard time not buying some dolls for Christmas................ :-) I'll wait, but it will be hard! LOL



I just wanted to share a sugar free eggnog recipe with you all....We have a son with Type 1
diabetes, and we are huge eggnog fans here at the Stone house. Our son liked this recipe.

Sugar Free Eggnog
4 cups of milk
1 cup ReddiEgg or something like it
2 tablespoons real vanilla
4 tablespoons sugar substitute ( I use fructose)
whip it with a whisk and just before serving add a dash of nutmeg

You can use half the milk and add 2 cups vanilla ice cream instead, makes it thicker.



Hope you all are having a relaxing day today!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My goodness! How time does fly! My DH took the entire week off, and it has been sooooooo nice! My PC has been off for the last four days, and today when I tried to use it, it was down. So were our phones. Sounded like we were underwater. All my phone conversations were garbled! LOL It's all better now.
We have been busy little elves here, enjoying the traditions of the holiday. DH pulled the sleighs behind the Ski Doo with 3 of the grandsons today. When they came in for hot chocolate therapy, I thought maybe they had gone swimming! They were wet from head to toe! AND they loved every minute of it!
I have one last Christmas story to share with you. I love this one!
OK. I know that's what I said about the others, but I love them too! :-)










































I look forward to catching up on blogs while the teenager "plays" with his Christmas.

I just wanted to wish you all the Merriest of Christmases! I pray you are well and safe, and will have family and loved ones near you as you celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Don't forget to read the most important Christmas story of all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS DEAR FRIENDS!


Enjoy your day.

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Christmas Spirit

Hi! good morning!

Mam oh man did we get snow this weekend! I got stuck going to Church yesterday. Yes I did! I truly did a number on myself! I was able to catch a ride with my mom, and it was slow going the nine miles to Church. Three of the other wards in our stake (area) canceled their meetings all together. Ours was canceled after Sacrament meeting. ( we have a 3 hr block of meeting on Sunday) Folks were stuck out in the parking lot and some couldn't even get out of their driveways! Everything is covered and It's beautiful!!! (wait, did that just come out of my mouth?) (beautiful snow???) Everything is soooooooo Beautiful. AND, it has warmed up some, so it feels like we're having a heat wave!


~~~
It's official now.......................................once again, as of last Friday, we have another teenager in our home!






I love his "Bratty" musical, mechanical minded, self reliant, baby loving, door opening, cooking, messy room keeper, funny, mostly happy, Axe wearing, witty, tender hearted little man child Little self!



~~~

We had our family Christmas party on Sat evening. We do an ornament exchange, and play some kind of a game to do this. This year our Daughter made the sweetest little apron ornament. My younger sister was here, and she wanted it soooooo badly. Here is a little picture that I kipped from her blog, but you really can't see it very well. The entire apron from ruffle to neck strap is only about 4". My daughter made everything that is in the pocket of this tiny apron from scratch! The whisk is wire, the tiny barn star was a 'learned how to' from Chars blog, the tiny candy cane, the little spatula, all of it made with things she had at home.





In playing this game, we each take a number, and go from highest number to lowest, each taking our turn to go to the table and get an ornament. They are wrapped so that you can't see them. You go back to your seat, unwrap your ornament and show everyone what it is. The next guy to have a turn can either go to the table , or he can steal your ornament! However, an ornament can only be stolen 3 times! LOL We had a bunch that were stolen their 3 times, and there were even some threats of going to another siblings home in the middle of the night and "stealing " an ornament back! he he he.......BUT, for some reason, ( she herself claiming everyone was scared of her.....) everyone let Auntie Anne keep her ornament! :-) We had a good time!


~~~

We had a little family come Christmas caroling to our house the other night. It was so pleasant to have them come sing to us! The little children just sang right out! It was touching. Really brought the Christmas Spirit to our home!


~~~


Are you guys like me?

SO many things to do, so little time..........


sigh.......


HUMMMM. Yes, well,
I found this this morning, and It hit the spot and helped to get it all of this rush and jumble into prospective! It's just a short you tube video, click on the link below, it's worth it. :-)
The Christmas Spirit

~~~


WOW!!! We are in the final week of our Gratitude Attitude Challenge! Week 10. Really? can you believe it's been almost 10 weeks?

Today I'm glad for dirty dishes! You know what they say, having dirty dishes means you have plenty to eat!


Thanks for visiting! :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS DEAR BLOGGING FRIENDS!


Enjoy your day.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

another christmas story

Good Morning Ladies! Is it cold enough for ya?

Brrrr. when I started this post at 7:30 this morning, it was -8. Glad I'm not a cow! I feel badly for anything that lives outside in this kind of weather.

Today I'm off to the "long town" as my # 3 son used to call it when he was little, meaning it was a long drive. There was short town and long town. Short town was 9 miles away and long town was 48. He was the best little companion I had for shopping when he was little. The only thing that disgruntled him was the fabric section of Wal-mart. (which they hardly even have any more....) He would cry out, "no! no! not the fabric! anyplace but the fabric!" And if I was there with a friend they would know where to find me because they could hear him! LOL

But I wanted to give a shout out about Marie's week two giveaway. You should go visit her blog, Spun by Me and enter her giveaway. She is a way talented crafter.

My daughter made some fun Christmas stocking from recycled wool sweaters that she felted. They are so her. I think they are really fun! Everybody's Soc has their initial on it.


And lastly today is another Christmas story that I love for your Christmas books. It is also out of a magazine, but sadly I lost my original copy, but was able to make another copy from a friends book I had made for her. So here is a copy of a copy for you to copy.....do you copy? LOL
Hopefully you can print this off dark enough to read.....it's kind of light. Sorry about the adds....That's the way I had it in my book......
But it's a sweet little story and worth the reading. It will bring the Christmas spirit into your home just a little more that it was before!



Thank you all for your loving thoughts. Our kids are fine, a little stiff, but fine. The insurance adjuster declared their car totaled, so now they are waiting to see how much money that will involve.

Baby Evie and her parents came home yesterday, so the boys were able to at last see their new baby sister! They all loved her. I have to go have my fair share today! :-)









My goodness, we are beginning week 9 of our gratitude attitude challenge! Are you still with me?

I'm so grateful today for (warm house!) my mom who made Christmas "magical" for us when we were kids! Many many of the traditions she started and we loved, my own children now do in their own homes! I can still remember her hanging the tinsel single strand by single strand on the tree! (it was the heavy foil tinsel that they soooo don't make any more!) We would help her, but after a short while we gave out. LOL She saved this tinsel and used it year after year! I love it, that you can recall the most wonderful memories when you smell smells that are connected with them?

Enjoy your day.
Merry Christmas

Tuesday, December 8, 2009




OH My! I started this out once and meant to retell my crazy morning with the family plus our three grandsons that are here, and right in the middle of that my DH called and told me that out #2 son and his wife and our little 8 month old P-Jo had just had an accident on the slick roads, and turned their car over on it's side in a deep canal and he thought it was in pretty bad shape. BUT our kids were fine! Not hurt at all, only scared and shook up and concerned about the money end of a ticket and a totaled car. And I think about my morning again.....and I'm glad even though it was sooooooo crazy we still found the time to have our family prayers. What a total blessing! The car crossed the road and slid backwards across the other lane of traffic, but no other cars were involved. The car, the money it will cost, is nothing compared to their lives and well being!
The kids called my DH and he turned around on his way to work and was there with them and also a dear sweet neighbor on her way into town stopped and is stayed with them, keeping Angie and P-jo warm in her car.


I'm so very grateful today for a little miracle, and blessing of safety.
And once again for my DH, whose very presence seems to give us all strength and comfort. :-) I'm glad he was able to be there with them.
I'm also thankful for our friends and neighbors and the good people we are surrounded by. For their love and concern and watchful care over each other. Thank you, thank you, thank you Carey for your help and love this morning!

Dear friends, Thank you all for your well wishes for our little Evie. Hold your families a little closer and kiss them a few more times. They are the very most important blessing in our lives!



Enjoy your day. Be safe on the roads today! :-)



Monday, December 7, 2009



Look who came on this VERY VERY SNOWY Pearl Harbor Day morning.
Evelyn Verbena
"Evie"

6lbs 15 oz, 19 inches long






Her 7 yr old brothers, when they saw these pictures, said it looks like she came a little shinny! LOL

I'm so grateful for a safe labor and delivery. That both mom and baby are healthy and well. Truly there is no greater blessing in our lives than that of a fresh from Heaven child!
Once again our hearts are so full. Our cup really does runneth over!
Welcome to our family little Evie. We've all been waiting for your arrival!

Enjoy your day.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Old Fashioned Christmas Swap Goodies.....and "flop" for breakfast

LOOK WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL !


The day before yesterday I received my swap package from Marie from Spun by Me, who was my swap partner. Oh my, it really is a pleasure to get a package in the mail you know it!

We participated in an Old fashioned Christmas swap on Chars blog, The pickled Pepper Patch. I have been spoiled. I love all the beautiful treasures Marie sent to me. Thank you again and again and again!
Wild card Item. Fabric covered box with a banner that says PRIMITIVES. I'm not sure yet if this will find it's way up to my sewing area, or if it will find a home in my bedroom. I love it.


Lighted item. I love this little grubby candle. I have everything I need to make some of these, but have never gotten around to it. Now I have one! I love this Marie!


Wooden item. How cute is this little Christmas welcome!

Smell good item. Ummmmm. They do smell good. But I think my favorite thing about the smell good item is the old? jar and the zinc lid! Thank you for this!

Textile Item. This will be going up to my sewing area, cuz it is going to be staying out all year!

Three ornies. These are my very favorite treasure that was in the package! Oh I do love them! Little embroidery and appliqued tucks/ornies!

Thank you again Marie! Very much. I hope your package came yesterday, and that you found it pleasant. :-)

Is it cold in your neck of the woods? It is here. -1 this morning at 7:30 which is our normal walking time. Needless to say, we waited until it warmed up before we walked . We waited until 10:30 and by then it was a whopping 12! LOL
What did you make for breakfast this morning?

I made a FLOP.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dh ate his, but the tween gagged, which is and of its self not a hard thing to make him do. He gagged the other night over chicken enchiladas .
.
.

I would say 99.99 percent of the time I don’t feel sorry for him, nor do I make him different food. We eat what I fix.
.
.


However, this morning he had a right to gag!
.
.


DH spent the night in the hospital doing the second part of a sleep test, ( another post for another day lol) and his plan was to come home before work and do his morning chores, and eat breakfast . So with that in mind, and keeping in mind that it was cold outside, I decided to have hot cereal. Are you asking yourself how a seasoned hot cereal cooking mom can make it gaggy? Geeeezzze! Picture this……
.
.

I’m in my pj’s, wearing my warm fuzzy sox, my fav walking cap is on my head, mostly to hold my hair down, and I was humming Christmas music.
.
.


Pure domesticity huh. I stoked the fire and added more wood, I patiently urged my tween out of bed, telling him if he got up before I got back to the kitchen I would cook his fav hot cereal, if not, I would cook mine, which is oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. (Raisins also make him gag…...) Well, it was his fav, which is germaid with brown sugar and maple. I buy germaid bulk. 25 lbs at a time, an I use an old barrel shaped pickle jar for a canister. Well, my pot had boiling water in it, I was still humming, all was going very nicely, until I decided I didn’t have enough germaid in the pan, so while whisking with my right hand, I began adding more germaid with my left hand. Just a little, it wasn't enough, so just a little more, I didn’t want to get it too think. Who wants lumpy cereal? Certainly not moi! Anyway, it sill wasn’t enough, so I add some more, only this time, I dropped the whole jar in the pan. I grabbed it out as fast as I could, didn’t get tooooo much water in the jar……however, I ended up with just a small fraction amount more germaid in my pan than I wanted, which called for more water. Did I add it? Hummmm of course I did. Well you guessed it, it made it l.u.m.p.y. SO now I had a pan full of lumpy germaid, enough to feed at least 7-15 people instead of the 3 of us. What would you have done? Well, I‘ll tell you what I did, I was thinking real quick I was (yeah or something else…) and I went ahead and added the brown sugar, and the maple, and threw half of it into the blender. Slapped the lid on it, and blended away! Ahhhhhhhhhh! It was straight down hill from there. WHAT WAS I THINKING? It was about at that point that I remembered I had forgotten to add the salt to the water in the first place… Oh it was nice and smooth, and sort of shinny….. and it kind of sat there, all thick and shinny and smooth on the spoon….. I wouldn't go so far as to say the texture was....odd....., well maybe. I didn’t really look at it until after DH had already eaten his, or it would never have passed his lips! (I’m so sorry sweetheart!) The tween just looked at it in his bowl, as he tipped it this way and that way, asking as he did so, “what did you do to it? It did have a “different” look to it than the normal bowl of germaid. Honestly? It really was gaggy!!! Well, of course the bus was nigh onto being there, DH was full ( of kindness towards his wife) ( gotta love a man that eats what I cook!) and …..the tween implored me beseechingly with his eyes, to be let off the hook this time. What would you have done? Well no questions asked, hands down, I hurried and threw (almost literally) him a speedily peeled hot boiled egg! Ummm.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Any thing had to be better than gaggy “flop” for breakfast!
.
.
.
.
.
.
P.S. ………………..I also ate a boiled egg for breakfast.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

the dogs had "gaggy flop
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I'm grateful humor. Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley said, "The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." It's true. I love to laugh, and don't do it nearly enough. It's good for the soul to laught at yourself.

Enjoy your day.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

brrrrrrrrrrrr!

OoooooooOooooooOOooooo! Brrrrrrrrrr. It was cold walking this morning! 11 degrees.
AND, it's snowing now! I was sure it wouldn't because it's almsot too cold to snow! Silly me.
If we lived in the humid areas of our nation instead of the dry arid west, I don't think we could do it. My fingers took an entire miles worth of walking before they warmed up!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



PFATT blog is hosting a Christmas giveaway! There are lots of beautiful handmade items being given away, an they have kindly invited us all to enter.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Wahoo!!!!! Our daughter and son in law are getting their baby on monday December 7th, if the tiny sweetheart doesn't come on her own by then. Lucky little baby girl, she has three big brothers! We are all getting very excitied!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, because I still don't know much about what I'm doing........I tried to get an adobe account, but was toooooo impatient, and it got messed it up, sigh, so now I will have to fix that, but in the mean time I wanted to get this out today........please bear? bare? with me while I learn how to work the computer! :-) ANYWAY, here is a Christmas story for your books. I believe I got this from a woman's day type of magazine.....but I really can't remember. It's been forever ago. So, with that in mind.......... hopefully I'm not stepping on any copy right toes. :-)

so, I think..... you can right click and save as a picture to your picture files, which is what I post it from, and then open it and print it and it will be the right size. OR, I think maybe you can just click on it, and print your screen?

Sorry for all the rig- a- ma- roll, good luck. For the next story I'll try to have my ducks in a row! LOL




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OHHHH! Linda, from Behind My Red Door, just shared with me this link for some Christmas stories. Some of them I already have. They are good ones, especially Wallys Christmas pagent! Thank you so much Linda! Plus and also....she said that yes, all she had to do was right click and print her screen and the above story printed off. Wahoo! and, while I'm at it, if you love prim homes, you should go see Linda's home all decorated for Christmas. It beautiful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, I'm grateful for Starlings! Yes, Starlings. Wacky I know. They are considered to be a trash bird, for lack of a better word........I love the song birds in the springtime and summer time, but I also love the starling in the winter time. I love to watch them fly. I don't even know how to describe it, other than like a sheet of paper gliding and twisting and turning in the wind . They fly in huge flocks, and they all turn at the same time, this way and that way, spiralling down, then twisting over, and then surging upward. Who gets to be the lead bird? Who gives the command to turn? They fill the trees like giant black leaves, and then, at once, they take flight! Starlings do sing after a fashion, and I like it. There is something happy and thriving about the sound of birds........I'm just grateful that all birds don't all fly south for the winter! :-)


Enjoy your day.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear......



I love it that we can catch simple moments on film.



I think my "11 days away from being 13" son took this picture the other day while we were eating our tail gate feast after we had gotten our trees........just a passing glimpse of a fun day, caught in the mirror........ :-)



***


So, do you have a Christmas book? One filled with Christmas stories that warm your heart?
One year for Christmas my dear brother and his sweet wife gave us our very own Christmas book.
This is what the first page said
Dear family,
A Christmas book is an essential part of every home. If you will read one story for every day of December, you will be surprised how the Christmas spirit will fill your hearts and home.
Keep adding to your book and making memories. Traditions are the best part of Christmas. With love....
P.S.
Don't forget to read the most important story of all!!!



We have loved our Christmas Book. It's getting worn out and the rings don't all stayed closed anymore. It has been the best loved gift we have ever received! We read these stories out loud, each taking a turn reading. Sometimes it was hard to do every single day, some days we missed and so we would read double the next day. We have read as we munched on warm cookies, or hot popcorn, sitting around, as well as quietly working on projects. One year as we read stories, I made......I say made, because that's how some of the kids felt at the time......that they were being made.....anyway, I was tying a rag garland and decided they could help tie while we read our story that night. We all tied the garland, and each took a turn reading. When it was all said and done, we had a nice long garland that goes around a pretty big tree, and we read longer than normal because they didn't want to stop, and......every. single. year. my kids will finger this garland, talk about how fun it was to tie, and then tell me that they think it would look better on their own tree at their house than it does on mine! :-) We didn't stop with filling our books with stories, but started to collect other Christmas books to read out loud as well.



As the kids grew older, and were involved in more and more things at school, grew up, left on missions, got married etc, it became more difficult to find time to read at all. Some years seemed to zoom by with only one or two stories being read. Those were the years that it felt like something was lacking in our Christmas preparations!



We have made some of these ourselves and given them as gifts, and I often wonder if they have become as loved as our own Christmas book.



Her are some random shots of our book
























As you can see our Christmas book is a 2" binder with a Christmas fabric cover. Each story and picture is in a protective sleeve. There are stories from magazines, stories from church, stories from fliers, stories that came home from school, stories from everywhere imaginable. Pictures from the same places, as well as from old calenders.





Today is December the 1st, and I am ahead this year! We started reading last week.



The other night, our tween read his dad and I to sleep! How sad is that....he has such old tired parents! LOL



We've gone from 8 of us reading, down to just 3, but the Christmas book and stories still works it's magic!



I would encourage each of you to begin a Christmas book of your own if you don't already have one. It is a great family tradition! Maybe you could even make a book or two to give away.......:-)







We are starting week 8 of our Gratitude Attitude.



I'm grateful for this time of year! For the Beauty and Sacredness of the Christmas season. For the blessing of being able to stay at home and be the keeper of my home. For the joy and happiness that doing that brings me!

Here's a picture of our GS that just turned 2. I "borrowered" it off of his mom's post....I couldn't help myself LJ ! How could I pass this one up? I love this little cute face boy!




Enjoy your day!



opps.....I have to add this....I just read it.....Simple~needs, posted this on her blog a few days ago. Makes you stop and think.....



now, Enjoy your day!