Early Christmas Present

We received an early Christmas present.... Introducing PHINEHAS the newest member of our family.

lookeyhowsweet!!! I love his tiny little pink paws. He is our little cutie!

Phinehas is 6wks old. His mother is a beagle, but we are not so sure about daddy. Like Mordecai we wanted to give him a biblical name. After spending quite some time search through the bible, we found the perfect name for him.

Phinehas, the one he is named after, was the son of Eleazar and the grandson of Aaron the priest. Phinehas showed great courage to stand for Gods commands when many others had turned away. Because of his actions and loyalty to the one true God, the Lord made a covenant of peace with him and his descendants after him. Him and his descendants would be a perpetual priesthood in the line of Levi. His actions were credited to him as righteousness. (Numbers 25) (Psalm 106:28-31)

So far Phinehas has been just like a baby... Eat... Poop... Play... Sleep...REPEAT!



He's just so stinkin' cute!

Christmas Day... Finally!

I'm finally getting to Christmas Day. The morning came very early. After the boys went to bed Christmas Eve, Mike and I made a sort of maze for the boys to awaken to. We took three skeins of yarn, each a different color, and made a trail throughout the house.

When the boys awoke and came out of the bedroom they noticed yarn tied to the door handle. Then they were told which color was theirs and to follow the yarn trail for a surprise.

Joshua had the red colored yarn. We made sure that the yarn was really tangled together with the other colors!

And yes they even had to go down to the basement.



It was funny to watch them work their way through the crazy maze of yarn.



Joshua found more tangles, but I think he's getting closer to his present.



Lookey what he found... that new camcorder he's been wanting.



Next was Seth's turn...

After working his way around Joshua, following his green yarn, I'm sure he is wondering when this will end.

Seth has made it around his brothers, through the kitchen, and down to the basement.



Well... well... Look what the cat dragged in... a metal detector!

And last but not least, Noah's turn. Right about now he's going in and out of the kitchen chairs.

Look at that sweet sleepy face. Uh Oh, the hats off... it must be time to get down to business.



Watch out Seth! Noah is hot on your trail.



Oh, looks like the excitement is building. I think Noah's getting closer.



Down the stairs to the basement we go.



Almost there!



Just a few more tangles to work through.

by the way this is a great exercise to do with your kids to get them to practice working together with our arguing or complaining. I guess presents are good incentives after all!

I think by the looks of that face he has found his prize...



Yep! Right there in the laundry room... a new skateboard kit.

Well after all that fun it was time to move to the tree and open up the rest of the presents. Here is daddy opening up one of his.

Joshua opening another one of his gifts.



Looks like Noah has gotten in to some of his gifts too. Cute bow!!!



Hey! Seth found a bow too and the pillow he wanted from Ikea.

luuuuve Ikea!!! ahem... okay, sorry back to the presents.



And of course we can't forget about Mordecai...



a new blanket made with love.

Noah has already pulled out his new skateboard. He has wanted a skateboard for a long time. So he was thrilled to get one of his own.

Joshua has been needing a new desk. While at IKEA! I found this cool desk that hangs on the wall. When you aren't using it you just fold the door up and it looks like a cabinet. As soon as I saw it I knew he would like it.

Seth got his first MP3 player. He has really enjoyed recording his own music on to it. I asked the boys to show me their favorite presents and this was Seth's favorite.

This is Noah's favorite. He's dressed and ready to try out his skateboard... too bad it was snowing. It didn't stop him though!

And Joshua's favorite... of course his camcorder. He couldn't wait to make his first video and put it on youtube. You can find it here.

Well, now that I'm through Christmas, I can order MY favorite Christmas present... my blog book, yeah!

Christmas Eve

We started our Christmas celebration at Mikes brothers house. We had some great finger foods and now it was time for what the boys had been waiting for... opening presents!

Joshua got a new shirt.



Noah got a new football. Seth got legos.

Here they are after opening all their gifts. I have a feeling that football isn't going to leave Noah's hand for a long time.

After our visit with Mike's family we head home to open our stockings. It's usually really late when we get home, but the boys never let us forget that its our tradition to open stocking on Christmas Eve.

Everybody waiting for mom to get a few pictures before the fun begins.



Noah got a new headset for the xbox. We try to put unique little things in the stockings.

Each of the boys got a new book light for night time reading. Leave it to Noah to think of an alternative use!

Christmas Goodies

Every year the boys and I spend a whole day baking goodies for our neighbors, letter carriers and garbage collectors.

We made three recipes this year. Three of my favorite holiday recipes.

First we made these easy-peasy caramel pecan turtles. This is my favorite kind of dessert to bake... few ingredients... quick... and easy. All you need are three ingredients. Rolos (we used caramel dove candies this time because I could not find rolos any where... they worked fine, but I prefer the rolos), pecans, and mini pretzels.

The boys fill the baking sheet with pretzels and then put a rolo (or dove candy) on each pretzel. Put baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 10mins at 350 degrees. Just long enough for the chocolate to get slightly melted. Quickly pull sheet from the oven and carefully place one pecan on each pretzel. Gently press the pecan into the chocolate. Then place the baking sheet into the freezer until the chocolate has hardened again. Make sure you test at least one to see if they are ready.... YUM, YUM!!!

The second recipe we made was Amish Ginger Cookies. A lot more complicated than the first recipe, but definitely worth the trouble. My mouth is watering just thinking about these yummy cookies! Here is the recipe...

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/2 cups flour
1 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 t. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and molasses and beat until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar until coated well. Place balls on baking sheet and slightly flatten with a spatula. Bake for 5-7 mins. or until they are barely turning brown. Allow to cool for 1 min. on baking sheet and then remove to cool further. I didn't get any pictures of us making these cookies... I think that is when someone asked if they could take a turn at taking pictures....

Hmmmm, wonder who that could've been?


Now you understand why there are no pictures of the cookies!

Okay, now on to the 3rd and hardest recipe. Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats! They are yummy... that is true, but lets just say I would be locked away somewhere,... somewhere far far away if I had to make these more than once a year!

It starts out like any other recipe...

1 stick butter
2 T. molasses
1 1/2 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. salt
1 (10.5 oz) bags mini-marshmallows
12 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Grease a 9x13 baking pan well. (with butter) In large saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Stir in molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Stir in marshmallows and cook, stirring occasionally, until marshmallows are melted.

everything seems to be going well...



Add cereal to marshmallow mixture and fold in quickly to coat.

FOLD in quickly? uh oh... here's where the trouble (insanity!) always begins.

Scrape cereal mixture into prepared pan and let cool for a few minutes. Lightly coat hands with butter and press Rice Krispies into the pan.

they make it sound sooo simple... Sheesh!

Cool, cut into bars and enjoy!

you better enjoy them 'cause i'm never making those beast bars again! ...or at least not til next Christmas!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We finally got our tree home and now its time to decorate.





Someone suggested we put a star on top of the tree and leave it just like it is... Funny!



Seth got to be the first to cut the twine and start untying the tree.



While Joshua snipped off the top.





Almost there.



Yea! The last bit of twine coming off.

The next day we pulled out all the decorations. Seth and Noah opening the box of decorations. They were so excited.

As the decorations were going up, I was in the kitchen preparing hot chocolate for everyone.



With lots of marshmallows! YUM!!!



The boys and Mike were busy getting the lights on the tree.



I was busy setting the table and putting other decorations around the house.

It was now time to put on the ornaments. One of our favorite ornaments are the "J" candy-cane ornaments we made a few years ago. All we did is attach (hot glue) ribbon to the bottom of candy-canes and then hang them upside down on the tree. We hang them in a "J" shape to remind us of Jesus, which is really what this season is all about.

I wanted to get a picture of everyone holding their favorite ornament. Here is mine... a Starbucks coffee cup of course!

Noah's would most definitely be the Noah's Ark ornament.

And we couldn't leave Mordecai out of the fun. Last year he got this ornament in his stocking. I don't know what happened to daddy's, Seth's and Joshua's picture... I guess I will have to work on that next year.

Every year we put a nativity set under the tree. It was Noah's turn to get to set it out.

There it is all decorated and just waiting for presents. The best part of decorating the tree is while pulling out the ornaments, which most are homemade, we reminisce about where and how the ornament was made. It's fun to look at an ornament that one of the boys made in preschool. With their name on the back its hard for them to deny that they were the creator... as much as would like to!