A happy holiday season!

While there is no way to include all of the events in this post, I want to share with you some of the highlights from our holiday fun from Thanksgiving through the new year. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with things better this year and be a little more consistent with my posts!

While it is usually our practice to put up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, we made an exception this year because we were expecting some special guests for that weekend, and we wanted to have our decorations in place to enjoy! While this is E's second Christmas, it is the first time he has really gotten involved with putting up the tree. He LOVED this activity (as he did pretty much every holiday activity...except for visiting Santa that is...more on that later)! We started trimming the tree by placing the star on top. We read a story about how the star is what led people to where the Christ child was and talked about how every time we see the star atop our tree, it will be a reminder to us that points us to Jesus, the reason we celebrate! After the star was in place, we added the rest. Somehow we forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

 

 

With decorations in place, we were ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and visit with our friends. Our Thanksgiving celebration started out with Mommy's side of the family. While the gathering was smaller than usual, the crowd still overwhelmed E a bit. He started out sitting quietly playing with Little People. Then he chowed down on a plate full of some of his favorite foods. Once his belly was full, he was ready to mingle and entertain. Everyone enjoyed him very much.

 

 

 

 

After a delicious lunch and a quick nap, we headed to Grammy and Papa S's house for time with some of Daddy's family. Little Cousin L wasn't there because she went to Florida to see Aunt J's family, but E's big boy cousins, D & Z were. E was so excited to see them and had great fun playing with them. We enjoyed some left overs for dinner that night, then we got up the next morning and headed to Oak Ridge for E's first train ride with the whole family. When we pulled into the parking lot and he saw the train tracks, he started saying, "I ride choo choo, I ride choo choo!" This went on (literally) until the train ride began! The three boys had a wonderful time on the trip, despite of the man who found it necessary to narrate the ENTIRE trip almost. He did get off the mic for the majority of the return trip, which we really appreciated.

The boys could hardly wait to board the train.

  

He continued saying, "I ride choo choo!" until the train ride began. Cousin D posing with part of the crew.

  

Z had a great time on the train. He loved watching the world pass by from the window. He is such a cutie!

 

Aunt B and D teach E to talk with his belly button near the end of the ride. At the end of the trip, the boys were able to blow the train whistle. They loved that!

 

 

After the train ride, we said goodbye to the family and headed home to get ready for some out of town guests. One of mommy's seminary roommates and her husband and little one were coming to stay with us as they passed through town. This was the first time E met any of them, and the first time J and I got to meet Baby P. It was a great visit, although we wish it could have lasted longer!

 

Cousins Cousins...So Much Fun!

E always enjoys getting to spend time with his cousins. In October (I know...I am WAY behind here), he had opportunities to see all 3 of his cousins! This is something that doesn't happen very often. He had a great time playing with them. Here are some pics of their time together...

The first weekend of the month, we met up with cousins D and Z at the apple Festival in Erwin. They had great fun together on the bounce houses.

Then the next weekend, all 4 of the cousins were together at Grammy's. We were able to get some pics of all of them together during our visit. As Aunt B said, herding feral cats would have been easier, but here are some of the best I captured.

E's First Vacation

On September 4th, we drove to Nashville and boarded a flight to Santa Anna, California to go visit E's Aunt S. Meow and Papaw joined us on our adventure. We spent 8 days on the West Coast visiting the San Diego Safari Park, San Diego Zoo, Hollywood, and of course, the beach.

Although he hadn't seen her since Christmas, E recognized his Aunt Sarah right away because he Skypes with her regularly. He was happy to finally meet Jasmine the cat and Dodger the dog, who he also visits with regularly on Skype. They played together all week.

E absolutely LOVED the zoo and safari park. He was delighted by all of the animals, and really enjoyed up close interactions with several of them. He got to help feed a giraffe and some lorakeets. Some ducks (definitely one of his absolute favorite animals) ate out of his hand. And he got to visit with some deer and goats in the petting zoo.

On the bus tour around the zoo, Aunt S would ask him what sound each animal made when we passed by. His answer was always the same: ROAR! He enjoyed watching the animals, but he also enjoyed watching the other boys and girls who had come to see the animals, too. He was also a fan of riding on Aunt S's shoulders and taking pictures with his very own camera.

The beach was an instant hit, too! Our first beach visit took us to Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City. He loved the sand, but once we reached the shore, he headed straight for the water. The Pacific might be colder than the Atlantic and the Gulf, but that didn't slow him down at all. In fact, Daddy had to hold him back to keep him from running right out into the surf. Daddy enjoyed watching the surfers, just waiting on one to bust. Mommy enjoyed looking for sea shells in the sand with E. We would make several more visits to the beach throughout the week, one of which was E's 18 month photo shoot with Aunt S's neighbor, M.

We took over 3,000 pictures during the week, a few too many to post here for sure. Especially since Blogger is not allowing me to upload them right now. But here's a link to an album that has some of the best ones from the week!

http://photos1.walmart.com/walmart/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3274197005/a=23886628_23886628/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

It all started at the youth silent auction at church...

That's right. Back in the spring, the youth at our church had their annual silent auction to raise funds for their summer mission trip. I had almost forgotten about the auction. Luckily, we attend The Road service at church which meets in the Fellowship Hall instead of the sanctuary. When we walked in for service, I saw all of the auction items displayed and decided to give it a quick glance to see if there was anything I was interested in. And there it was...sitting behind an empty sheet (that's right - no one was bidding on it!) was a sewing machine. I had always been intimidated by the thought of sewing. It seemed like something that would present a bit more of a challenge that I was ready for. But a few weeks earlier, I had found instructions for making my own wrap to use for wearing/carrying E. And I could make it for only $20! That's a huge savings when you consider that the cheapest ones sell for upwards of $80 and the really nice ones over $100! Thanks to E's Great-Grandmother, Mamaw as we call her, who shares his birthday, I was able to stitch a piece of fabric together to reinforce its strength and my beautiful orange wrap was born. And my curiosity for sewing was sparked. What I had always thought looked so intimidating was actually not that hard and kind of fun! I mean, how cool is it to take a plain ol' piece of fabric and transform it into something useful and beautiful!? After that day with Mamaw, I told J that I might like to have a sewing machine for Christmas. I knew it was something we would need to save for, so I didn't want to rush it...

But there she sat. No bids. I could set the price. Knowing it was a youth fundraiser, I didn't want to "steal" it, but I knew we didn't have much money to spare that month since we were saving for vacation. J and I talked it over and decided to bid $25. I know it doesn't seem like much. But it was a used machine. And getting $25 was better than getting $0, right? We left that afternoon knowing the auction had several hours to go and wondering if anyone else would take interest in this little gem. Oh how relieved I was to find out that no one else was interested in the machine. I immediately started searching for free patterns and sewing ideas online. Even though I got a great deal on the machine, I had to have some material and instructions to use it. But I knew my spending money was limited. E and I hopped in the car on Monday and headed to church to pick up my new toy. Then we went straight to Hobby Lobby to get some fabric remnants. I came home and started making bookmarks. Yes, you read that correctly. I made over a dozen bookmarks. And then I decided to experiment with some appliqués. My friend Sarai has a small business where she makes items for babies and children. Her stuff is sooo cute! One of the things that she makes is a cute onesie with a neck tie appliqué. She also makes adorable fabric embellished burp cloths as well as appliquéd bibs. My cousin D's baby shower was coming up and I needed a gift. So I went to Wal-Mart and found some cute fabric that had a butterfly paisley print. I picked up some coordinating ribbon and started experimenting. After a few hours of work, I had 2 burp cloths AND a cute bib with a "K," the first letter of her daughter's name. And I had a neck tie onesie for E. Then I decided to continue experimenting to see what other appliqués I could create. Fortunately I have two nephews and a niece which made excellent recipients for my early works.

After practicing on some gifts for them, I decided this was something I could do. And Sew You Needle Little Gift was born. My product selection is growing every week, and so far I have had 6 orders. And my "shop" has only been public for about 2 weeks! If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you should take a moment to visit http://sewyouneedlelittlegift.blogspot.com/. I am excited about the possibilities it holds and praying that it will take off soon. It is a great way for me to continue to stay home with our precious little boy while still making a financial contribution to the family. And it is something that I am really enjoying, which is great! I created several cute fall items this week including some football, Halloween and Thanksgiving themed appliqués. I am hoping to work on some Christmas items soon as well, so check back often to see what's new. There are even some reusable sandwich bags in the works. Who knows what I will come up with next!

Blueberry Fun

Blueberries are one of E's favorite foods. Being outside is one of E's favorite places to be. So we decided that blueberry picking would be a wonderful activity for our family! So we headed just down the road to a local farm to see what he would do.

He wasted no time tasting these beautiful blue beauties.

We picked for about half of an hour. Mommy and Daddy picked just over a pound of berries. We will never know how many E picked because all of them ended up in his belly. He definitely enjoyed this activity, even though his bucket was empty at the end of the evening!

With a full belly, we headed up to the house to pay for our produce.

He enjoyed blueberry picking so much that we decided to go picking two more times at two other blueberry patches in the area. We have brought home about 6 pounds of berries, some of which we have eaten and some that we have put in the freezer to enjoy this winter.

We will definitely be making a visit to the berry patch an annual excursion! 

Tomatoes Everywhere!

Although the heat has all but killed all 2 1/2 rows of tomatoes we planted, we had a couple of weeks there where there were tomatoes running out of our ears. I made some fresh salsa which I inevitably got too hot for my taste buds each time but J rather enjoyed, then I decided to try turning those delicious red and yellow gems into spaghetti sauce. Since we also had zucchini running out of our ears, this seemed like the perfect use for this delicious garden gold.

Here are a few of our beauties.

I blanched and peeled the tomatoes. Blanching makes the skin peel right off and saves tons of time!

After you peel them, they look something like this.

Next I peeled and chopped an onion and a few cloves of garlic, then sautéed them in some oil until they were translucent.

Next I chopped the tomatoes and zucchini and added them to the pot, along with a variety of spices. You could add just about anything that you want, but I chose basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and oregano in addition to salt and some freshly cracked black pepper.

I let that cook for a while, then I added a can of traditional spaghetti sauce to thicken it up.

Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Probably because I was distracted by a certain little one-year-old! But I did take a picture of the yummy tomato pie that I made to go along with the spaghetti. This is yet another delicious way to eat those summer goodies!

I was first introduced to tomato pie by a dear friend at the church where I served before become a stay at home mommy. She made this wonderful dish for the birthday luncheon that she and a few of my other friends had for me last summer. It is super easy and tastes FANTASTIC! All you have to do it take an unbaked pie crust and fill it with cheese. Mozzarella works great,  but any Italian cheese blend would be fine. Then you slice 2-3 tomatoes and layer them on top. Next, sprinkle the tomatoes with salt, pepper and basil, then drizzle with olive oil. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent burning and bake in 400* oven for 25-30 minutes. Let it set for a few minutes before serving.

This was a delicious, refreshing summer meal. I hope you will give it a try! Bon Appetite! 

On a side note, we had even more tomatoes come in after I made this sauce. We really enjoy zucchini sauce, but rarely have it in the winter, so I decided to make a huge pot and freeze it in batches for us to enjoy this winter. It will be a special treat. I can't wait!