Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Update

Our laptop is on the fritz again-really it's falling apart..literally the moniter is falling apart from the keyboard-but I can't bring myself to buy another one!!  Hopefully, I can upload some pictures to it and post with pictures this week..but wanted to update my blog non the less...

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Family came and visited for about 5 days prior to Christmas and that was wonderful!  I love having a full house!  I love to cook for everyone and just the noise and busyness make me happy. Our Christmas Eve was spent at Mass and then home for appetizers, a movie and Santa tracker.  We were also blessed by one of our neighbors.  He smoked us a 12 pound Boston Butt..it was soooo good!  We traditionally have an Italian feast on Christmas but with the suprise of our smoked Butt, we went Southern style this year.   Then our Christmas was quiet with just our little family in our p.j.'s opening gifts, eating, playing games and waiting for the snow...We ended up with about 6 inches here at our home and boy was it fun!  My little house looked so pretty covered in snow and the woods looked like Narnia..it was beautiful.  We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground and I'll admit I'm ready for it to be gone now.  The boys got a trampoline and zip line for Christmas so they are patiently(not really) waiting for those to be set up and enjoyed.  Nicholas said the sock monkey I made was his favorite present-that really made me happy.  He has been carrying it around constantly..he's such a love bug...

I've started to feel the baby kicking-in fact-he/she woke me up last night bouncing around in there.  It seems in the last 2 weeks my belly has really popped out and I'm not sure how much longer I will be in regular clothes.  We find out on Jan. 10th if it's a boy or a girl....

That's about it...Christmas decorations are down and I'm really in the mood to clean and organize the house.  It does look so empty without the decorations...

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve agenda

I don't have much time to post but wanted to update on our Christmas Eve plans.
We are bringing over some homemade treats to neighbors..
Then we are headed to Mass..
Then it's back home for some homemade yummy appetizers...
Afterwards, we always open two gifts-pajamas and a new ornament for the tree..
Then we'll get Santa's cookies and the reindeers carrots ready and begin tracking Santa's journey...
Twas' the Night before Christmas is always read snuggled under blankets..
and then it's off to bed for good little boys...

Thursday, December 16, 2010

MMMmmm....Hot Chocolate!

Our living room...


Here is our living room decorated for Christmas..this picture is a bit blurry but I wanted to show the beautiful sunset in the background.  We live on the top of a hill and get the most beautiful sunsets all the time!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Turkey Carcass Soup


After Thanksgiving the last thing I wanted to think about was more cooking or turkey for that matter but after years of making wonderful stock from our leftover chicken bones, I knew I could do the same with the turkey bones.  So, I froze the turkey carcass (and hoped I wouldn't about it).  Well, Monday it was COLD here, snow was on the ground and my boys weren't feeling their best...I knew I had to make soup.  So, I searched my favorite site Allrecipes.com to see if there was something besides stock I could do with a turkey carcass...this soup!!
It's soooo good!  This picture is from yesterday where I kept in on the burner on low all day.  Nicholas wasn't feeling well so I thought I would have it ready for when he wanted something warm to eat.  I was also baking alot and thought it would be easier to have something ready when Matthew and I needed a baking break (-:
This recipe makes alot!! I still have about 1/3 of a pot left for lunch today and I think I'll freeze the rest for when someone comes up sick.  I also had 4 quart jars of stock saved from it in the freezer.
It's super good, really nutritious and thrifty!!







Turkey Carcass Soup
(adapted from a recipe found on Allrecipes.com)

1 Leftover Turkey Carcass
3 onions, chopped
3 carrots, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1/2 cup of butter
1 c flour
1 cup of milk
1 cup of  brown rice
2tsp sea salt
1 tsp. chicken bouillion
3/4 tsp black pepper

Place turkey carcass in kettle/soup pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer for several hours(the longer you simmer, the better flavor-I simmered it about 4 hours).  Remove the carcass and cool.  Set aside 3 1/2 quarts of broth for soup(I had more than this that I just froze to use for other recipes)
Remove turkey meat from bones-I was shocked at how much meat we still had on the bones..I estimated about 3 cups of meat!
In the now empty soup pot, saute onions, carrots and celery in butter.  Redue heat, stir in flour until blended.  Gradually add 1 qt. broth and bring to a boil..cook 2 minutes.  Add milk, rice, salt, bouillion, pepper, remaining broth and turkey meat.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 40 minutes until rice is tender.

I made some whole wheat biscuits to accompany the soup and topped them my favorite way-with butter and raspberry jam!




Monday, December 13, 2010

Sunday, December 12, 2010

It's snowing!!

Oh my it's snowing right now!!! It's so beautiful!! It's 10:30 pm but I may have to wake the boys up!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Homeschool Christmas Party

We celebrated with our local homeschool group last week with a wonderful Christmas party/Jesus birthday party.  I love this homeschool group because they always have so many wonderful activities and parties!  We love parties!

First the boys got to make a craft with their handprints.




Then they played games...


After the games, one of the mom's talked with the kids about the true meaning of the season and then
the kids got to get a cupcake with a candle to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus..




I'm looking foward to the next party in February for Valentines..so are the boys!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Because I love them..

I finished the sock monkeys for the boys...No, they are not perfect-I've never made stuffed anything before and I don't love hand sewing...but I know they are going to love them...
Now onto Snoopy pajammies and matching pillowcases-this I know I can do-my sewing machine and I get along very well (-:

Annual Christmas tree hunt...err..fight...



O.k. so every year we have lived in N.C. we treak up to the mountains the day after Thanksgiving to cut down a Christmas tree..it's a traditon in our family.  It happens because we've never had family or guests for Thanksgiving and so we do this to make ourselves feel better for not having family here..well, this year we were blessed to have family from NJ and it was sooo wonderful.  I hope every year we have family come from now on...
I digress..
Anyway, we make this trip up to the mountains and pick the farm, drink the cider, take the hayride up the mountain...and fight...and fight and fight..
We are ALWAYS the last family to pick a tree..ALWAYS...
We always fight over the tree every year.  When the boys were too young to know better, Darryl and I would fight about the tree.  We would be standing out there freezing, sometimes in the snow fighting...
Now that the boys are old enough for an opinion, they have joined into the fight.  After what seems like an eternity of looking at EVERY.SINGLE.TREE...we'll pick usually the first one we chose in the first place.
Then we'll head to Blowing Rock for the festivities and reminince how wonderful our tradition is...isn't it always the case you forget the pain after it's happened? (-:
Anyway, the discussions began in November about the Christmas tree this year.  You see, our new home has 19 foot ceilings in the family room and Darryl wanted a BIG tree!  We happened to be at Hobby Lobby sometime in November and I casually mentioned that maybe we buy...gasp..get ready for it...a fake tree...
The boys burst into tears...I casually reminded them that our *tradition* always ends up in fights and if we want a large tree and go to the mountains it will cost more out of the Christmas budget(I know, I'm such a miser..someone has to watch the budget...lol)
So, on Thanksgiving Darryl mentioned going to a local tree lot so we could get a larger tree.  He figured that the gas money we saved could pay for a larger tree...good logic, money-wise..I like it..but how will the boys react?  Well, he approached the boys about it and gave them the choice..we could go the mountains and stick with our normal 7/8 ft tree or we could go to a local lot and pick a larger tree...they chose the larger...
So, the day after Thanksgiving after our guests left, we headed to a local tree lot.  Apparantly, they have been doing this in the same location for 30 years.  They bring their trees from there farm in the mountains so we were still getting a NC tree.  Actually, it was a really nice lot and they had candy canes, coloring books, etc..just not the hay ride...but one thing they did have...
The Annual K Family Christmas tree fight!!
Again, we were there for over an hour looking at every tree..Matthew threw a fit because he wanted a tree that looked like it belonged in the White House and Nicholas and I finally gave up and sat down...
Darryl and Matthew looked and looked and looked and then looked some more and then we finally, finally found our tree...
As you'll see the picture is of Darryl and I because Matthew was still crying we didn't pick his tree.


After the tears were dried and we got to take pictures and eat candy canes, we were all happy again.

 



Although, I do love going to the mountains, it actually was kindof nice not driving up that day.  We got to go home, have some leftovers and trim the tree.   The boys really seemed fine with it and our tree really is beautiful.  They even gave us 10% off the tree for being first time customers, so we actually paid the same for our 10ft that we usually pay for our 7ft... It was still a great tradition even if we didn't go all the way up there...we will always have our annual fight regardless of where it is...
With love,
T-

Better late than never...



Our computer is finally fixed!! 

These pictures are from Halloween.  We had such a great Halloween this year..since we live out in the country we headed to town(not our town it's too small-the next town) to go trick or treating.  The historic homes in this town really do a wonderful job and it's always so much fun!
I made mummy pizzas for dinner and then we got busy with costumes, makeup and some pictures.  Our property was perfect for pictures of our werewolf, Nicholas..



Our werewolf and rodeo clown walking down the driveway...


Here is our rodeo clown, Matthew...





We are already talking about next year-we always do! I want them to be Heat Miser and Cold Miser from the movie, "The Year without Santa Claus"  They love singing the songs so I thought it would be perfect..we'll see!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Update

I still can't post pictures...we just ordered the part for the laptop on Monday so hopefully we'll have it fixed by the end of this week.
 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my husband's sister and her family.  The boys LOVED playing with their little cousin and wouldn't leave her alone.  She was precious.  I think, in a way, that was God showing me what it would be like to have a little one in the house..it was nice.  The boys drew pictures of her, colored with her, played blocks with her, chased her and made her giggle constantly..it was really sweet.

I'm feeling good...both physically and mentally.  I'm still not ready to go shopping yet and someone asked me yesterday if I'd thought of baby names and that hasn't even crossed my mind...but I'm getting there.  I have a doctor's appointment next week to go over my blood work and then I think I'm going to switch doctors.  I'm really not happy with the practice and haven't felt comfortable there...so, I'm praying I'll find a better doctor.

I've been busy shopping and crafting.  I'm about 85% done with one sock monkey.  My goal is to be totally done by the end of this week with both of them and to get started on the boys pj's.  I'm either so pooped by the end of the night or I really want to go on the treadmill so neither of those lend to much crafting time(although it's one of my most favorite things to do). 

I'm been also researching curriculum and classes for the boys for next fall.  I'm thinking I need to outsource writing/grammar for them.  I found what looks to be a good online class but it's very, very expensive(especially when you times it by two) ...like college class expensive. So, we'll see where our budget is in the spring and if it's something we can do.  I also am hoping to sign them up for a science class here in town.

I just finished decorating yesterday and the house looks great-I hope to show pictures soon!