Exciting Days

We've been busy for a while now. We're getting ready to head on out to new adventures once again. Yes, we're moving but this time its not too far. I am excited to get back in the school of things. I'm ready to finish and finally get that chapter written because it has been a LLooooonnnggg chapter. I am praying and praying that we can call our new place HOME and watch the girls grow up and be old farts rocking in our rockers waiting for the grandkids to come. Yes that is my dream. It has always been my heart to love and raise children who love and raise thier children to love the Lord like they do. That is 100% my calling in life and I know that without a doubt. So this next move is very exciting for me and hope that now we can plant our roots and I can further move in the direction that God leads me to.

The girls have been growing up quite a bit. Kinadie is now reading books Kara can spell her name and Kaylee Jo is talking up a storm. Of course I can only make out a little bit of it! ha ha I haven't been doing much cooking lately. I made some yummy cake balls and cupcakes for a friend's daughter who is pregnant with twin girls. Now days I am just trying to dwindle down the fridge so we can clean it out before the move. Everything I have been craving, someone from life group will bring to share so its really worked out where I haven't had to swerve from corn dogs and grilled cheese and pancakes. These are always out go to fast foods!

I might try some funnel cakes for family fun night tomorrow while the girls dig out pumpkin seeds and sip on some hot cocoa and Nana's cider. I figure it will be a test run since I am not very good at frying things. But since we didn't get the chance to go to the State Fair I figured I might as well bring it to us.

Daddy is really enjoying his new job. Seems like the hardest part about it is getting his boots to shine. So it will be great that he'll get to come with the girls and I for Halloween. Kinadie is planning on being Cinderella, Kara will be a cat and Kaylee Jo is going to be a baby calf! We're re-using some costumes we already had for dress up. So this year was pretty easy. I know they are really looking forward to it. We've all taught Kaylee Jo to say "trick or treat" around here so I think we're all set! I am sure I will be posting pictures soon. Hopefully, I can steal away some time to get back on here every once in a while!

Life is...

Life is...

The first day we met,
Looking at the stars,
Doing all the fun things for you that I know only you could love,
Walking around campus hand in hand,
Wishing we didn't have homework so we could spend more time together (we've seemed to always wish for more time together),
Drinking Bottomless Pitchers of coffee at IHOP,
The way you planned out your engagemet to me
Life is the LONG wait on our wedding day because I had to get my hair just right,
Life is the first home we built together,
It is the look on your face when I dropped you off for basic training,
the moment I knew we would welcome a child into our wonderful life,
the way you wanted to tell all your new buddies about it,
the move to Hawaii and figuring it all out together,
the great friends we made and late nights playing Texas Hold 'Em,
the sad goodbye of a daddy on deployment,
the daddy's girl that ran into your arms on leave and the welcoming of baby girl number two,
the constant e-mails and care packages we loved to send,
missing you so bad it hurt,
trying to believe you were really home,
coming back to the town I love to see all you family and friends welcome you home,
building home number two,
realizing how full our hands would be with baby girl number three,
hearing "Ho ho ho" from you everyday you came through the door from work,
having campouts in the living room floor,
bringing your buddy Marco home (I did surprise you with that one! ha!),
all the parties you got to be here for,
watching our little girl trot off to preschool,
seeing our little ones grow in Christ and how much they love the Lord,
hving friends over,
making bento and muffin tin meals,
hugs and kisses and prayers everynight  before bed,
watching all the girls melt and fall asleep in your arms (you are their hero no matter what!),
being able to have you right there on the couch with me most nights of the week,
spending time on walks with the double stroller in tow,
being together with nothing in the world in our way.

This life is only a short while. God has a plan for us and it is to live eternally forever with Him. What we do on this earth does not matter as long as we love one another.

This is for my husband whom I love and have always loved from the first day and will always love until forever. I will support him in whatever we do in this life.

Closer to Him

I am a people pleaser. I try not to be but its just how I am. I don't like to be confrontational so I avoid it at all costs. Sometimes that ends up being a good thing or a bad thing. Often I will agree with the person to avoid conflict whether I agree or not. I find my self becomming a little bit like everyone around me. And it makes me miserable because I know that deep down that is not who I am.

On the other hand I also want to be a God pleaser. I go to church and serve, raise my kids to love the Lord, try to always do the right thing in His eyes, love my neighbor, forgive, change my heart and always questioning what I'm doing wrong and trying to change.

The problem with this is that I never make it. I end up turning away from God to please people. And it kills me till I am down on my knees asking God to forgive me.

One example is in dealing with raising my girls. During times when Kris is gone is the hardest. I end up having little patience because I am pulled in so many different directions. I try to teach the girls that keeping their room clean is one way we can keep order and peace in the house so God is not drowned in all our "stuff" and we can hear him better. (to glorify God) But then I lose patience and yell at them because I have some mind set that others' kids can keep their room clean, why can't mine. "You should clean your room so other people don't think bad about us." (pleasing people) And I end up instilling people pleasing into my kids.

I hate it and it breaks my heart that I have failed and then I am back where I started. When praying about this I asked God, "What can I do to fix this? How can I please you. I am desperate. I am failing!" and God just said, "Be a Proverbs 31 Woman" and I said, "But God I am so tired. I can't do all that. I have tried and I always fail!" and God said, "You can do all things through Christ who will strengthen you." Phil 4:13 "He will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

The fact is that we are all human and we will always fail. But through Christ I am free from my sin and I am allowed to start new at any time. This keeps me closer to him. We are all sinners but that doesn't have to keep us in bondage. We can all be free if we just allow him back in our hearts. He was there anyway. He never left us. So with that I will leave you with this song. I love it and I hope this will encourage you today.

May and June

 Kara's 3rd birthday!!

 Kinadie's last day of pre-school! 

I made Kris' baby sister's cake for her high school graduation.

 Kaylee Jo hangin' out!

Kinadie's Baptism

Since school let out for Kinadie we have been nothing but busy.We celebrated Kara's party a little late so Daddy could be there and I have started to go back to school again (an hour away). The kids have had a babysitter and occasionally I've been taking them to day care. They love the extra attention but its also be quite a change.In the hustle and bustle we still have suppers all together at the dinner table. I cherish these times because it always makes time for peaceful conversation. Kinadie announced over supper one night that she would like to be baptised! We had talked about it for about a year and had many other chances for her to ask questions and we finally went to talk to the pastor about it and today, on Father's Day, she became baptised and became another one of God's little princesses. We couldn't have been more proud of her!

But around all the precious time, Momma has been a busy beaver. I've had a lot of papers to type up and Daddy decided to take the girl's out for some daughter time. Kara came home with earrings!!! But she looks so cute! Daddy also came home with a mattress for Kaylee Jo so no more baby crib. Its going to the next little cousin due sometime in January! But I feel like all my babies are growing up so fast! Even though I am busy and not home as much as I want to be, I am so loving my life!

One other thing, because its Father's Day...
Daddy,

         You are the most amazing man ever! I love you for standing up for our family and leading us on! Your four girls love you bunches! XOXO!

Love, Momma

All About Spring These Days

First things first...The Easter Bunny came! He made a mess in my kitchen, made sure to eat up all the fixin's the girls left him, and left some pretty neat stuff in the girls' Easter baskets. He came several times during the day to lay eggs as well. The girls got to spend lots of time with grandparents and LOVED that! The best thing was being a part in helping the kids know that they can have hope in this day and every day because Jesus died on a cross and is alive today in our hearts. They got to watch An Easter Carol Veggietales and make Empty Tomb Rolls. These were easier that the cookie version. Wrap a marshmallow in refridgerated biscuit dough or crescent roll dough and roll in butter and cinnamon sugar. Bake according to package directions. At church we put a cross on the marshmallow with edible writers and after they were baked you could see the cross on the side of the biscuit but the biscuit was empty! The most rewarding thing is knowing that what I teach these kids will never leave their little hearts! So glad I answered the call to pre-k. It has really been rewarding!

We finally got some rain this last week. I'll be excited to see all we have planted sprout up a little bit. We planted squash, zuchinni, okra, banana peppers, jalepenos, black eye peas, tomatoes, cucumber, and Kinadie brought home her pinto bean plant from school to plant. We have also put in three berry bushes, some wildflowers, roses and sunflowers. Hopefully, things will start to look better around here. Our grass is coming around.

The girls have been excited about spring as well. We took them to see the baby chicks at Tractor Supply and they fell in love. Now all we keep thinking about is where can we put a chicken coop, a milk cow, and a couple of hogs and rabbits! Ha ha! With things costing so much now I keep wondering if this wouldn't be a bad idea. It has sure got me thinking about how our grandparents and great-grandparents used to live.

So with that in the back of my mind, it has inspired me to cut back a little and see what all I could do differently to save money. I read in one of my cookbooks about a sourdough starter promising to give me bread indefinately! So I thought that'd be a start. It has worked out really well and one cup of starter gave me four loaves of bread. I don't think they were perfect but it did taste pretty good.

I tried my hand at waffles but that may need a little more work or a different recipe. Try try again! But homemade butter on the other hand was really easy and really yummy. Not really saving money (cream is pretty expensive) but we made biscuits last night and put the butter on them and my sourdough toast with butter and blackberry jam for breakfast was divine! Now if I could figure out how to make jam. I'm really excited that I have buttermilk now, too! I'm still thinking about what to do with that.

This week I was given a cookbook from Kris' stepfather's side of the family. One of his aunts wrote in it about growing up during the depression. I thought it was great and I loved it. Here are some things she put down.

"Cooking was not only an art in the old days but a true and complete necessity." "Children led such a pristine life back then, about the only worries their parents had were keeping them clothed and fed and giving them as much education as they could afford. They respected their parents and shared the work load." "...happy times for children was getting to sleep outside on a hot summer night under a big blanket of stars, looking for the 'Big Dipper' and wishing on a star while saying the old familiar poem 'Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight...I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.' Because there were no lights in the country, the stars showed up bright and thick and made you want to touch them or grab a great big handful." -Essie Harmon Hodel

She wrote about her Mama churning butter singing hymn songs to keep the pace, keeping one pair of school shoes in pristine condition in the winter and walking barefoot many miles to school in the summer. She also wrote about Christmas being like heaven and taking a chance on the snakes to get down to the cellar during a storm. She wrote about the phrases "Till the cows come home!" and "I hear that 'tater wagon rolling'" and "Whumper-jawed." Some of the phrases my husband still uses to this day. He's got me saying them, too!

I loved, loved, loved this book! Made me want to write down my life story and recipes for my grand kids. Ha ha I guess that's what this blog will be for! ;o) Anyways, thanks T and VG! It has made me wished I had known these folks and a little insight on how my grandparents probably lived as well.

Another Birthday

I feel like I spent a lot of this month wanting to sleep. The time change really got me at the wrong time. Kinadie and Kaylee Jo had earaches and Kin's medicine was making her really sick at all hours of the night. Spring Break was not much fun. We did manage to feel well enough to go fishing on the very last day. It was the very first time we had taken the girls fishing before.

Before we had left home that day Kinadie said she was gonna catch a catfish and Kara said she was gonna catch a "dog fish!" ha ha We didn't catch anything but I think we all had a really good time.

Kinadie did really well in school the last two weeks. She got outstading marks in showing respect towards others so Kris went to eat with her that week. Then we all went up there to eat with her this Thursday to celebrate her birthday.

She wanted me to make cupcakes for her class so I took some rainbow cupcakes with marshmallow cream frosting "clouds." She loved the colors and the frosting was really really good. I will definately try this one again.

Kinadie had me make Ariel from The Little Mermaid for her birthday party that night. I hadn't made one since I made...gosh...Care Bear for Kara's first birthday (can't believe its been that long) and I forgot how your hand starts to feel after you pipe stars over and over again! But it turned out great and she loved it.

Happy 5th Birthday Kinadie Faith Norville. Momma, Daddy, Kara, and Kaylee Jo love you bunches and bunches and lots and lots!

Fun, a Goodbye, Cupcakes, and A Very Big NO NO!

Last month was very busy with lots of things happening. Of course you know we started off with lots of fun in the snow. I am glad Kara finally gave it a go and now she is wishing for more. Kinadie had lots of fun at school with all of her Valentines' parties. She enjoyed writing everyones names. One thing we had to work on was to slow down and write the letters correctly. We're still working on holding that pencil. We had lots of fun putting the stickers in there and she was very insitent on making the teacher cards on her own. Kinadie was pouring the love on Kara that day. She shared her chair, cookies, cupcakes, and drink with her little sister. On the way home she even shared her candy. Proof that they DO know how to share! :o) So sweet!

As much fun as I'm sure Kinadie had, it was a very bittersweet day for me. We had two deaths in the family. One of whom was my Uncle Dub. Growing up I remember visiting him and my Aunt Gen. I remember he taught me to dip my doughnut in my cup of coffee. He must have snuck me some while my parents weren't looking. And I spent, what seemed like hours to a little girl, watching the birds in their bird bath in the backyard. He was a very sweet man. One you always want to be around. He loved and was loved by many. The best thing is that I will get to see him again one day. And like when I was little I will anticipate the doughnuts and coffee and best of all hugs.

The following week we had Kaylee Jo's birthday. The theme was cupcakes as she is the sweetest little cupcake I know. I made buttermilk pink velvet cupcakes with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting. I also made pink marshmallow fondant hearts to go on top. I was happy with the way they turned out. Kaylee Jo love them, too! We all had lot of fun hitting the pinata. Didn't take much for it to be found on top of Grandad and Uncle Klay's head!



We also got to dedicate Kaylee Jo to the Lord! We wanted to ask our church family to join us in helping raise our little Kaylee Jo to know and love God. May there never be a day where she won't know HIM!



I also made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and my favorite chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, mini chocolate chips and a strawberry. We had a chili cookoff and a cake auction for our church to raise money for the kids groups in our church. My favorite was number 4. Number 4, if you're reading this, I must have that recipe!! I could have ate more of that chili. Anyways, We had a very good turn out and raised a lot of money. Kris ended up buying my peanut butter cupcakes for like $110! I told him I could have made him some more at home! lol And I think the chocolate cupcakes went for $75. We had a few cakes go over $100. Kris always buys the Better than Sex cake. The bids ended up getting over $200!!!! Can you believe that MY husband bought a cake for over $200!!! I know it doesn't sound like something he would do but this cake is well worth it AND it was defitanely worth it to see it benifitng all the kids. :o)



Kinadie had been doing very well last month with her behavior at school. She had an awards ceremony at school where she won the Super Reader award! Daddy and I both got to be there and we were very proud of her! However, it didn't take long before trouble started brewing.



Yes...She cut her hair at school!!!!! It was pretty bad in front. There was nothing really to do except cut hair bangs.

But look how cute she is!!!



Snow Week

Kinadie and her daddy have been off and on for work and school. Most of the time Daddy took Kin to school so I wouldn't have to get the other girls out. I didn't think much of this snow, but it ended up turning into ice. Not Good! We had a lot of down time and played in the snow here and there.

Kara was not interested  in it very much but by Wednesday she started to love it and I couldn't get her out (except to bribe with hot cocoa).



Kaylee Jo loved the snow, too! Loved it enough to eat it! lol



I ended up craving comfort food this whole week so I thought I'd try my hand at a pot pie from scratch. It was a big hit! Everyone scarfed it down and wanted more. Kinadie was very upset that she missed out on leftovers because she was at school. I guess I'll have to make another one before too much longer. It was soooo good!

Today Kara requested blueberry muffins for breakfast. I happened to have fresh blueberries in the fridge so I mixed it up real fast. The mix made 12 muffins with quite a bit left over. I had seen where you could bake things in mugs so I tried it in two of them.

See! Aren't they cute! Muffins in a mug for two! Kris really liked them. This would be a great idea for BREAKFAST IN BED for VALENTINES DAY! (hint, hint) ;o) ;o) Like my husband really reads this. Anyways! lol Hope your snow days were as good as ours!

Kinadie's Class and Team Briley

Kinadie's teacher has a blog also. She puts a lot of cute pictures up along with what they have been doing. There is also a link to the Team Briley page. For those of you that don't know, Briley is the three year old daughter of a kindergarden teacher here. They just found out Briley has Lukemia. Please keep their family in your prayers. Link to Kinadie's teacher's page HERE!

Red Velvet Mocha Buttercream...not really though.

Yesterday started off really good. Kin's Grana got to eat at school with us and she LOVED that! She also got to take a field trip to the stock yard to see all the animals. They have been learning about animal this week and since then she has come home asking for a chicken, rabbit, duck, and goat! :o) I said maybe when she is older. I know Daddy would love for her to show some animals. He's gonna have to help her cause Momma sure didn't do very good raising a pig when she was little! The pig thought so though. It ended up being overweight because I fed it instant oatmeal all the time! But that's another funny story.

Anyways...The other two girls and I wanted to go but they ended up taking a nap. Ah...peace! But it soon ended. Kinadie must have a stomach bug. She was up all night.

I managed to make these cupcakes while she was sleeping yesterday afternoon. I really wanted to experiment with the chocolate and see what all I could do with that. And I also wanted to try making some cupcakes in a jar. Those were a few things I'd seen online.

We are at the end of our stock on groceries so the cupcakes were a box red velvet (I try to get ones that say moist). I used my left over coffee from that morning for the liquid and folded in some swmi sweet chocolate chips to try and bring out the coffee flavor. With the frosting I whipped in some espresso (2 tablespoons) and a little of the grounds into store bought buttercream (I know..but I'm out of pretty much anything in the fridge!). It got runny so I put in some powdered sugar.

I never could get it to taste like coffee but for touched up store bought, these were pretty good. Kris said they kinda had a coconut taste. Hmmm don't know how. lol I am going to try to attempt this again sometime. I need to research some mocha recipes. Maybe I need some extract or something.

More Cupcakes

Friday is my day! So I find its a good day to experiment with my baking.

I've been practicing for Kaylee Jo's birthday and the cake auction for our church.

Yesterday I was inspired by my sister to make lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. These turned out really yummy!

I have also found that the richness of the buttercream tends to mellow out the next day and are very good for breakfast!

Thanks for looking :o) More to come soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Check her out!

I have a friend from high school doing her first free giveaway. She has some very interesting/fun posts over there. Please go check her out and join in on her very first free giveaway. Just click here!

Long weekend and First Friend Sleepover!

Kinadie had her first friend sleepover this weekend!! They had lots of fun playing dress up, or in Kara's case "dress down!" I thought it would be fun for them if I made a sleepover bento. This is what they had.

Fortune cookie, fruit salad with whipped cream and pink sprinkles, pizza, my girls had light ranch, E said they eat their pizza with BBQ sauce, popcorn with pink sprinkles, and the cupcakes I was experimenting with. I put little animal faces on some. They also requested Sprite with a cherry. The BBQ sauce and pizza was very good and the cupcake icing seemed really sweet right after it was made but seemed to calm down the next day. It ended up being very good! After supped they decided it was time to turn in for the night and watch my favorite childhood movie, The Little Mermaid!

Kara and Kaylee Jo didn't make it to the end. Kin and E did and watched a little Wubbzy before falling asleep in the living room. Overall I think they had lots of fun! Daddy on the other hand set up fort in our room! ha ha I think he went a little crazy over all the princess & pink stuff! They loved that every now and then he'd walk through the house saying "HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!" He's a silly Dad!