Meriahna and Sydney's Thankfuls

Rachel: So girls, what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Sydney: My family!

Meriahna: Cheese!...and polar bears.

Sydney: And penguins.

This Weekend

I got a little behind this weekend on my thankfuls, so I want to catch up as we are approaching Thanksgiving week!

This Friday, I was so thankful for date nights with my husband.  We went out for Thai food and watched It's a Wonderful Life, the second installment of our Christmas Movie weekly watching.

On Saturday, I was extremely thankful that Johnny spent the entire day working on finishing painting the trim.  He finished all the windows and is almost done with the crown molding and the built-ins.  We got one set of curtains hung, and it's starting to look exactly like I wanted.

And finally for today, I am thankful for art.  I bought this print by Matte Stephens a few months ago from etsy and never got it framed until a few days ago.  Johnny and I picked it out together and now it's hanging above our bed; I think it turned out to be really cute.  I definitely recommend www.etsy.com as a great place to get cheap art as well as www.20x200.com.  I've been really pleased with all the pieces I've gotten from both places.

Thursday, November 17

Today I am very thankful for my grandparents on my mom's side.  Papa had a birthday this week, and I'm so thankful that Baby Hutson will get to know his/her great grandparents.  Happy Birthday Papa!

Honesty is the Best Policy?

Today I am thankful for words "out of the mouths of babes"...or at least our of Sydney's mouth.

This morning, while the girls were getting ready for school, I was sitting on the stairs waiting to brush their hair.  Sydney came up and sat down next to me.  She took a long look at me and said, "Well, we're getting a little fat aren't we?"  I responded, "Yes, yes we are."

Later today, after showing Sydney and Meriahna my Christmas cards that I just got in the mail from Shutterfly, Sydney pointed to the picture and said, "That's a great picture! It doesn't make you look that fat!"

I'm not sure when she decided that "You're not fat, you're pregnant!" doesn't apply anymore.  But apparently it doesn't...and I'm going to go eat some Girl Scout Cookies before Johnny gets back from his run.

Monday and Tuesday

What I wanted to write for yesterday...and then forgot to...was that I am very thankful for Winstead's Cherry Limeades!  For those of you who don't live in Kansas, Winstead's is an old restaurant that serves steakburgers, milkshakes, fries, and other heart attack-inducing food items that are so good.  I was frustrated yesterday and went and got a Cherry Limeade, and do you know what? I was in a much better mood after that.

Today I am thankful for new friends.  I am going to a recipe exchange party tonight with the women of our new church.  I am bringing Spiced Pumpkin Bread as well as the recipe for it.  I've tried probably five different pumpkin bread recipes, and with a few tweaks, this one is the best.  I thought you all might like it as well!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
Adapted from Colonial Cooks!

1 C Sugar (could do less or use part honey)
1/2 C Apple Sauce
2 Eggs, beaten
1 C Canned Pumpkin
1/3 C Apple Cider
1 1/4 C White Flour
3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Allspice
1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1/3 C Chocolate Chips (more or less)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar and apple sauce.  Add eggs, pumpkin, and apple cider.  Mix thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture.  Stir just until moistened.  Add chocolate chips.  Bake in greased bread pan for 1 hr.

Tradition!

Now that the holidays are coming up, I'm getting very excited and thankful for all of the traditions that I had growing up as well as some of the new ones that Johnny and I are starting. Here's a few of my favorites:

On November 1st, my household celebrates Christmas Music Day. On this day and all days after that until Christmas, it is appropriate, nay encouraged, to listen to Christmas tunes.

On Thanksgiving, when we were younger, my cousins and my sister and I would put on plays about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. It's very unfortunate that those little gems of performances stopped happening.

Something that I love the most about the holidays is watching Christmas movies.  I have even scheduled all of our favorites on my calendar so that we won't miss any important ones.  Last night, Johnny and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol while eating pizza for our date night.  So good.



One Christmas tradition that I cannot participate in this year is ice skating on Christmas Eve.  My mom would always take us with our cousins and whoever else was in town, and Melody and I would discuss what Christmas presents we thought we were getting while slowly going around and around and around the rink.

Another Christmas tradition that I think my grandparents started us on was finding the pickle ornament on the Christmas tree, a German tradition...since we have no German blood whatsoever.  But the person who finds it gets whatever money is attached to it.  Jessie usually wins.

Now that kiddos are on the way, Johnny and I are hoping to continue these traditions and add a few of our own as well.  

What holiday traditions do you have?

We Are Family

I am very thankful this Saturday that Johnny and I grew up in such loving, Christ-centered families.  

And now our kids get to have two wonderful sets of grandparents, three aunts, and one really cool uncle...and one nice dog and one dog that will bite them if they sneeze.  We're working on teaching the baby to hold it in.