tadaaaaa!

Go down to the "cooking scaredy cat" post and start there!


They said they were good. I think they were good. guess they were good:)

just kidding....i'm goin for it........

I"m a cooking scaredy cat. seriously i have a problem.

don't laugh but it took me days to actually get out my ingrediants and actually make to items for the "christmas boxes". why? i don't know. scared that i'm gonna fail..... that's it. scared that i'm gonna waste all the ingrediants cause i didn't read the recipe close enough. remember when Lucy and Ethel were baking bread and Lucy mistook a crumb for a 1 and used 14 cakes of yeast instead of 4 cakes? hahahahaahaaa gotta love me some lucy.

well i finally got around to doing to baking and all turned out well. now i'm on to my next baking adventure.....

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls.....they look scrumdiddlyumptious. Melissa baked them last week for her neighbors and i have yet to find out how they turned out...hint hint wink wink....

well i finally got all the ingrediants. went so far as to get the pot out of the cabinet didn't even have the door shut and put it back. all the ingrediants are sitting on my counter staring at me saying..."scaredy cat scaredy cat". i hesitate to make them tonight b/c i'm going to take them to my neighbors so i don't want them sitting around getting all hard and stale.

ok i'm gonna do it. i'm gonna get all our washing and packing done tonight....wake up bright and early and do it. yes, that's what i'm gonna do.

tune in tomorrow to find out if it was a success or disaster.................

Such Goins On, Such Goins On!

Our Christmas Boxes......from the mess to the finished product And Gingerbread Time.....



Gingerbread Time....

to the right to the right look to the right and participate.

Look over to the right of my blog page....i want to know who's following my blog...help a girl out and follow me!

Missed it by tttthhhaaatttt much...maybe

Well, update on the House of Sick. Mattie woke up around 2 am with "it". My husband whom i love more than life itself let me go to bed and he stayed up w/ her. she "got sick" every hour until 8 am. I got up around 645 am to releive him. I feel soooo sorry for Mattie. Today was "Polar Express Day" at school. we bought her a new pair of Hannny Montannny pj's just especially for today. they got to wear there pj's, slippers, and house coat to school and they were gonna watch the movie. we spent about 3 hours making goodies to take to her class so they could munch as they watched the movie. well, those "goodies" were not taken to school and neither was Mattie. she helped me make 'em so i didn't think it wise to infect her class right here at christmas. i also was supposed to help a friend clean two houses and watch one of my other friends little girl - Melissa THE photographer - while she did a bridal shoot...but all the above got shot to heck.

and i'm pretty made about it.

little brother is feeling better so now he's back to his usual impish self and mattie isn't putting up w/ it.

to my fellow moms out there w/ sickness in the house....i feel your pain.

oh and all those christmas goodie boxes are on hold till after new years. i can't afford to infect my friends, mail lady, and ups guy.

darn it all.

We is baaaaddd sick

Brian and Ryder have a bad stomach virus. Please pray that they continue to recover and that me and Mattie do not get sick. I haven't washed so many loads of towels and blankets and pj's and sprayed so much lysol in my life. i hate the smell of lysol but it if keeps me and mattie from getting this mess i won't be hatin' ..... I LOVE YOU LYSOL!

Family Christmas Craft Ideas....Kid Friendly!

Gingerbread House Kit
*Wal-Mart $9.96
*We did this cute craft last night as a family (this isn't our gb house but similar:)). Took pictures w/ our new camara....will post soon.


Snowy Balloon Ornaments
Go to www.marthastewart.com homepage, find the "Christmas Ideas" on that page, then click on "handmade ornaments", then thumbnail view and you'll find Snowy Balloon Ornaments.


Old Fashioned Salt Dough Homemade Ornaments
2 cups flour
2 cups salt
1 cup water

Begin by stirring this mixture, and when it becomes to firm to stir, then knead it a bit with your hands. The resulting dough should feel moist and smooth, but not stick to your hands. (Knead in a tiny bit more flour if it's sticking to your hands.). . . And if you like, take some smaller balls of this dough and color them with food coloring. If the food coloring makes the dough a little too sticky, just knead in a tiny bit more flour. (Note: if you don't like the food coloring approach, then you can always paint your ornaments after you bake them.)

I recommend that you store the dough in an airtight container, so it won't dry out.

Now, get a cookie sheet, and your favorite holiday cookie cutters. And also, you'll need something to roll out your dough with. You can use your rolling pin, but since we'll be working on our cookie sheet, you might want to use something smaller.

Roll some dough out to a 1/4" thickness. We're going to make our ornament on the cookie sheet, so roll this dough out on the sheet, right where you want the finished cookie to be. Press a cookie cutter into the dough.

And then, pull away all the dough from around the cutter. You can re-roll this to make new ornaments, over and over. Then, remove the cutter.
Now you can decorate your ornament however you like. The salt dough sticks to itself beautifully, so you can press different colors of dough onto your cut-out.

If you roll your dough thinner, like 1/8", then you can stack cut-outs of different colors onto each other. (Your finished ornaments should be no more than 1/4" thick.)As a last step, make a hole in the top of your ornament, for hanging. You can use a drinking straw for this.

. . . Or, a toothpick. (Just make sure to twirl that toothpick around a little, so your hole is large enough for a bit of ribbon to pass through.)

Make as many ornaments as you like on the cookie sheet. And preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Bake your ornaments until they are hard. The baking time will vary, but start with 20 minutes, and then keep checking them every 10 minutes after that. They're done when they feel hard all over, but don't let them get brown.

After your ornaments have cooled, seal them all over with some varnish. I like the spray-on kind best for this salt dough. Water-based, brush-on varnish has a tendency to re-soften the surface of your ornament.

And as I mentioned before, at this stage, you can also paint your ornament, or add some glitter, if you like.
When the varnish is dry, poke a 6" piece of narrow ribbon through the hole in the top of each ornament, and tie the ends in a knot. Now they're tree-ready!

I'm a winner i'm a winner of the dirtiest sink!!!!

My super cool sis had a blog give away! she challenged her blog readers to send pics of their sinks as is first thing yesterday morning. sadly i won the "dirtiest sink award". BUT i won this super cool timer from the Container Store!! the goal of this challenge was to encourage us to clean our sinks and keep it clean. i did just that and have pretty much kept it clean... pretty much.

yay me!!!!

things that make ya go hhhhmmmm.

*your children actin like a fool in front of, well, anyone.
*asking your 3 year old what he's eating after he has just walked out of the kitchen w a sucker hangin out of his mouth and he answers, "nothin".
*members of your family that start makin rediculous decisions based on feelings. feelings are fickle my friend.
*people that wear clothes that fit in all the wrong places.
*credit cards.
*sittin on the couch all day watchin the boob tube, playin on the pooter, wastin the day away.
*forever friends when ya dont deserve 'em.
*my beautiful husband that loves me. doesnt matter what i do or dont do, say or dont say.
*my family and kids that love me even in all my "me"ness.
*Gods neverending love for me.

Where are they going....

In an earlier post i was telling about how our family is going to do Christmas Goodie Boxes this year, for who i wasn't sure. Well, Brian and i were talking and since our church is giving all members goodie bags....the staff and spouses baked different items and bagged them up to be passed out to all the families of our church today (Brian and i made up 920 chocolate covered peanut clusters)....we thought it would be a great idea to give out our boxes to "them". "Them" being...Mattie's bus driver and her different teachers at school, the mail lady, the UPS guy, and some of our neighbors whom, sad to say, we've never met. My goal for the above activity to be accomplished is next week.

As far as the "12 Days of Christmas family", i just dont know who we're gonna do it for. we want to pick a family "in need". in order to get this done before we leave on the 23rd to "go home for Christmas" we gotta decide ASAP. so still not sure 'bout all that.

God has a weird sense of humor.

not able to get into details but our hopes were dashed last night. we had thought that some really awesome things were happening in our family....not brian, steph, mattie, and ryder family...but other family. seems God was just joking. i'm trying to not let it ruin my holiday but it's hard. i'm not blaming God. i'm just mad. mad that something really neat could have happened but it looks like it's not going to. not wanting to give satan ANY crredit but he had a little to do w/ this too, i think.

Christmas Goodie Gift Box...this is what i'm putting in it:)

Chocolate Covered Peanuts

Almond Bark - Chocolate flavored
Jar of Salted Peanuts
melt 1 square of almond bark in micro...(at a time b/c if you melt too much it will harden before you have used it all) CAREFUL NOT TO SCORCH!!! add as many peanuts to the melted chocolate as you like...less peanuts means more chocolatety taste! repeat process till you have used all your peanuts.

Tiger Butter

1 lb. Almond Bark - vanilla flavored
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter - crunchy or smooth
6 oz. chocolate chips - not the cheap kind...won't work!

melt bark and mix in peanut butter. spread in a medium sized cake pan. Melt choc chips and pour over the peanut butter layer. spread till smooth. You may leave it in two seperate layers or, w/ a butter knife, drag it through the two layers from one end of the pan to the other to make it swirl together. Do blend too much. Refrigerate just till i's solid. Using a butter knife, cut in to small pieces and store in an airtight container away from heat.

Spicy Pecans

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. Worceshire sauce
3/4 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground red pepper
3 c. pecans

Combine first five ingredients in large bowl, stirring well. Add pecans, stirring; coat well. spread evenly in 13x9x2 inch pan. bake, uncovered, at 300* for 20 min, stirring after 10 minutes. let cool completely. store in airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pecans
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/4 C. firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. orange juice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 c. pecans

Can also add:
1 Tbsp pecan praline flavored coffee 1/4 tsp. red pepper

Melt butter in large skillet. Add brown sugar and stir. Add remaining ingredients excetp pecans. stir well. add pecans; coat well. spread pecans on greased cookie sheet. bake at 325* for 15 min. stir every 5 minutes. cool completely and break nuts apart.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Bag of pretzels (mini)
Almond bark - vanilla and chocolate
Christmas sprinkles

melt 1 square (at a time b/c if you melt too much it will harden before you have used it all) of almond bark in microwave- DO NOT SCORCH. dip pretzel in either flavored bark, let cool, then drizzle other flavor over pretzel and sprinkle w/ sugar sprinkles while still warm so it will stick to bark.

Our family pics are ready for viewing...woooohoooo!

Go to

www.melissabreedlove.com
click on client proofing
click on Britt Family


She did a most excellently awesome job!!!!!

Cute Christmas ?aire...

1. What's your favorite Christmas carol?
Joy to the World, Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful....

2. Is your tree up AND decorated?
Yep!

3. Is all of your shopping/creating gifts done?
sorta...waiting on our family pictures to be online so we can proof!!! Go Melissa Breedlove - you're AWESOME!

4. What is your most treasured family tradition?
decorating the inside of the house for Christmas w/ the kids. Brian is in charge of the outside...and we're still waiting:)

5. Will you go to a candle light service during the Christmas season?
not sure

6. Staying home for Christmas Day morning or will you be visiting family?
Family

7. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Christmas Day...well mom always let me and Connie open one on Christmas Eve and we carry on that tradition:)

who wants to play? If you're game, i added the last 2 ?'s and it would be neat to see what ? you have to add.....

Stephanieness...

**Brian emptied the dishwasher, put up the clean dishes, put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher...and turned it on. All during his lunch hour. This isn't my husband...Brian is a hottie.

Last night Brian ordered our new digital camera from Best Buy w/ a free big memory card w/ free shipping all for $124. Thank you Jesus. Ours was stolen this summer while of vacation.


i get really irritated when little kids tell my kids that Santa isn't real. Thats fine that we all believe differently but they should tell their kids not to ruin it for those that believe...believing in the spirit of Santa...giving. i'm not interested in anyones opinion on this matter...we agree to disagree.

I bought these really cool Martha Stewart compartment cookie boxes that you can put goodies in at walmart. it looks similar to this. the kids and i are gonna fill the compartments w/ choc covered peanuts and pretzels, spicy pecans, and tiger butter. these items are very easy to make and kid friendly.

Christmas Time....The most wonderful time of year!

if only this were a pic of louisiana.

I love Christmas time. and it sure feels like Christmas right now....love the cold weather. at the moment my house is a wreck. the kids and i cleaned up before we messed up yesterday after church. every year it happens. my house gets wrecked out for a few days while we're trying to decorate. i'm babysitting 3 days this week so i gotta get lots done in between working. PRAISE the LORD for the extra money. He provides. we have friends from texas coming in saturday for the Christmas Festival in Natchitoches, so i gotta get all me decoratin in this week. i have a secret sis reveal party 2nite. oh and i've been a crappy secret sis so i'll never do it again. i'm gonne have to apologize for my laziness. i'll make it up to her during the Christmas season - she's even my neighbor how sad is that - sad sad sad. we have church wednesday and a staff party on friday night. so i basically have this afternoon and evening till 7pm, tomorrow, wednesday, and thursday night to get my act together.

since i'm so tired of not having a digital camara...i'm getting one this week.

Thanksgiving was good. hope all had a thankful thanksgiving. everyone raved over my chicken n dressing. i thought it was good but everyone else did too. i thought it was so good i gained a little over the holiday. back to the straight and narrow. i've lost 20lbs. so i'm thinkin i can lose 10 more.

Meeeeechawn and her kiddos are coming back to the holy land. not sure if joel is coming. anywoo, her family is soooo excited i'm sure. will definitely have to get together. they will be in the states till the end of february.

our family pictures will be online at the end of the week...can't wait.