Christmas Morning 2011 and The Neaton Kids

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas here. Christmas eve we spent at Joe's brothers...plenty of food and plenty of presents. Joseph opened one gift and that was enough. It worked out ok because his sisters were more than willing to help him with the rest. It is such a blessing to live close to our family.

Christmas morning the kids opened their gifts from us and Joe and I opened our gifts from each other. My kids love all the little things in their stockings and it is funny to see them all get so excited about granola bars. After gifts, we went to church and then back home for lunch...ham, cheesy potatoes and green beans. The little ones took a nap and then it was off to the big Neaton get-together at Joe's aunt and uncles.

Joseph's new to him toy. I bought it at Once-upon-a-child.

I love her faces!

Charlie wasn't too sure about this gift. She thought I had goofed up and she was opening a gift that she thought I had bought for Cori.

God bless!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!




For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Price of Peace. ~ Isaiah 9:6





God bless!

Christmas Pictures

The only decorating we did this year for Christmas was to put up the tree...

...and Charlie did 95% of the decorating by herself.

We spent Christmas Eve with Joe's parents and siblings.

Our nephew Cash...equipment and food...the perfect combination.

Christmas morning the girls opened their gifts from us. They both were excited about all the little things in their stockings. And it took them forever to open gifts, I didn't think Charlie would ever get to her new bike.

I think Cori's favorite gift was the granola bars in her stocking.

Christmas Day was spent at my mom's.

The girls got so many things...we are still trying to figure out where to put everything.
Charlie was so excited to get new playdoh and was sure to tell everyone that mom had thrown all her playdoh at home away, so she needed more.

God bless!

A Little Update

Cori at Christmas with my sister, Jessica.

Cori is just a few days away from being 5 months old. I can't believe how fast this time has went. And who knew 2 sisters born just 2 years apart could be so different.....and yet so alike. At this age, Charlie still needed a lot.....seriously a lot.....of help going to sleep. She needed to be rocked to sleep, which I did for naps and bedtime until she was close to a year old. Cori on the other hand WILL NOT fall asleep in your arms while nursing or rocking. She wants to be put down in her crib and left alone. Leave her alone and she is asleep rather quickly. It is nice that she is a pretty mellow baby. It gives me the opportunity to still have one-on-one time with Charlie.

She is eating up a storm and has been for awhile. There is nothing she doesn't like so far.....squash, sweet potato, applesauce, banana, pear and carrots. I'm thinking we will try avocado this week. I feel blessed that I have a couple fo good eaters.....it sure makes life easier.

She also has a new trick. She has turned into a spitter/bubble blower! I have no idea where she picked it up from, but she thinks she is funny when she does it! It is rather cute!

Cori spends her days rolling over, trying to sit up, talking, laughing and just watching her big sister be silly. And mom loves that she is a great nap-taker. We are usually still up once during the night to nurse, but it's all business then back to sleep. We moved her out of our room and out of the bassinet about a month ago. Both her and I are sleeping better with her in the crib in her own room.

Rolling over on Christmas Eve.

Charlie is as fiesty as ever. I'm pretty sure she argues with me just to argue.....not because she thinks I'm wrong. She is using a lot more words. Anyone who sees her often, probably thinks this isn't anything new. But, she is making a lot more full sentences and words are repeated easily. Even if you don't want her to repeat them. We went through a phase of her saying "stupid" and explaining that it was a naughty word and I didn't want her to use it anymore. Well, she is behaving but she thinks other words are naughty now. Her current favorite is telling me that "weird" is a naughty word and that I can't say it.

Opening presents from mom and dad on the 23rd. We did it early because we knew Joe would be snowplowing a bunch over Christmas (turned out to be 6 nights in a row of plowing and hauling snow).

She has also found a new love for computer learning and games. My favorite is Starfall. Charlie also likes PBS Kids. We are working on counting and the alphabet. She will count to 10 by herself. She usually skips 4 but remembers the rest in order. The alphabet comes out in any order she sees fit that day, but always starts with ABCD.

She loves to help mom in the kitchen. I think she is pretty bummed that the dishwasher seems to be working again.....no more dish washing for us girls. She was a big help with Christmas baking and loves to watch bread dough mixing. She is loving her baby sister and always wants to hold her! It's helped that Cori is getting bigger and will react to Charlie's attention.

Charlie was playing "Christmas".....and telling me not to take her picture.

We had a busy Christmas like usual, but a ton of fun. We were very blessed to get to spend time with family (and sad that we missed Christmas day at my mom's because of the weather). The girls got way too many gifts. I did manage to get a couple of them put away for later before opening them. Charlie wanted to open everything now.....her gifts.....Cori's gifts. That is one bad thing about them being close in age, Charlie still found all Cori's gifts to be fun too.....nice because they could both use them.....not nice because Charlie didn't want to share her little sister's toys with her little sister.

God bless!

Random Christmas Baking

Caramel corn.....yummy!

Love the tongue.....so serious about that frosting.

Chocolate and pretzels (pre-oven). We added M & M's on

top after they melted a little.

Joe's favorite.....chocolate covered Ritz peanut butter sandwiches.

Ok, so.....there really wasn't much actual baking going on there.

Everything was still pretty yummy!

Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy your time with family celebrating! Happy birthday Jesus!

God bless!

A whole bunch of randomness

When I cook a beef roast, I normally just put it in the crockpot with a can of Coke and let it cook all day. But, I found a new recipe that sounded interesting...it had one of my favorite things...coffee! So, I gave it a try. It was pretty yummy and easy. I love my crockpot and am always looking for new ideas.

Java Roast
3 lb chuck roast, trimmed of fat
3/4 cup brewed coffee
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1 t garlic powder, or 4-5 chopped cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 black pepper
1 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T red wine vinegar
4 oz cream cheese (to add at the end)

Use a 4 quart or larger crockpot.
Put the vegetables on the bottom and then added the meat (still frozen, so I didn't trim it at all).
Add the coffee, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, and spices. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. I cooked it on low all day, probably 8-10 hours.

Carefully remove the meat from the pot, and stir in the cream cheese. It made a yummy gravy. I will probably use less cream cheese next time and add a little bit at a time. It didn't blend real well and left little small bits of cream cheese that didn't mix in, but still tasted good.

Remember the "Faith Cake" from Amanda's blog that I attempted for last weekend's Christmas party? Well, it sort of turned out like it was suppose to.....not nearly as pretty as Amanda's. It was good practice and the next one should turn out better...I hope.

The Christmas gathering with dad's family was great, everyone had fun. Charlie was having so much fun, she threw a horrible fit when it was time to go home.

Winter has finely arrived here. Joe spent the majority of 3 days last week moving snow (plowing, hauling, salt sanding, etc). He loves it. I don't know if it's the adrenline rush of it all.....no sleep and too much coffee.....or that it is money coming in all winter.....or something to get him out of the house during the long winter days. I don't know what it is, but I so appreciate that he is willing to leave the house at all hours of the day and night, when it is cold, windy and icky out just to provide for his family.

And.....it is suppose to start snowing again any time now, so Joe is over on the phone right now getting the boys all lined up to go.....it takes awhile when you have 8 pieces of equipment out running each snowfall!

God bless!

Fun.....Friends.....and Frosting

The girls and I recently spent a day baking Christmas treats with my sweet sister-in-law, Susan and good friend, Tina. We had a blast and actually got a lot accomplished.....even with 6 little ones all 3 and under!

It is possible to hold the babe, help the 2 year old

and put cookies on the pan!

There was a lot of taste testing going on.

Can you have too many sprinkles?.....

.....Charlie didn't think so!

We had so much fun and look forward to doing it again! Thanks for having us Tina!

God bless!

A little of this...a little of that...

So many things.....so little time.....story of my life!

Be warned.....I'm a little long-winded tonight!

I wasn't planning on it, but Cori got to try some "real" food the other day. She had been eyeing up Charlie's applesauce at breakfast, so I gave her a few bites. She seemed to like it and I left it at that. For supper, I had made squash and thought why not? For Cori, I diluted a little of it and mashed it up good. She chowed it down and actually got mad that I wasn't getting it in her mouth fast enough.

Messy.....messy!

Happy fed baby!

How about a little bit of Charlie speak.....

About a week ago, she told me...that she was going to love me. I had to laugh.....not sure when that's going to happen, but nice to know that some day it will.

She also says that everything is kinda (fill in the blank).....Cori is kinda cute, that is kinda stinky, I'm kinda tired, etc. And she has this cute little tone to her voice. I can't explain it, but it is the cutest thing ever!

When you ask her if she is hungry, she almost always says.....yeah I want something. Again, not sure what that means. It's even funnier when you ask her a specific like.....Do you want an apple and she says.....No, I want something.

Love those eyes.....wish they were mine!

My computer died. Apparently, the mother-board crashed. I was able to save the hardrive and everything that was on it, but really wish I didn't need to buy a new computer. At least, we have the laptop so I can stay on top of some things while I price shop for another one. It was a good excuse today to not work on any business / paperwork type things.

What was I doing not in my office today? Well.....I made this.....

My inspiration was Amanda's "Faith Cake" found on her blog - click here.

I also made this.........

Taco Dip.....one of my favorites.

Both creations will be going with us tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with dad's family.

Speaking of Amanda, she has some great insights over at her blog. I've been meaning to write about this post about parenting from a few weeks ago. I'm just not getting to it! I love her thoughts about parenting intentionally and am really trying to be intentional in all aspects of my life.

I find that the more I stop and listen.....listen to God, listen to my Beloved husband, listen to my children.....the more I have understanding and peace in my day. It seems like such a simple thing.....to listen.....but it is so important. All those important people in our lives should be given our time and attention regularly.....they deserve it!

So.....time and attention.....

I think my husband needs my intentional time and attention this Christmas. And I'm going to give it to him! Check out Amy's blog for the 12 Days of Christmas - SHMILY (see how much I love you) Style.

From Amy.....This involves an investment in your "drawer of many blessings" drawer as well... and yes, you SHOULD have one of these drawers, so make room (throw out some clothes if you have to... your hubby would rather see you in these anyway!) Start saving money and get your drawer stocked up! You'll be able to "recycle" here so the money you spend here is worth it in the end. You're investing in your marriage and that is never money wasted.

And more from Amy.....Stay focused on the wonderful and endearing qualities you love in your husband (just in case he upsets you... tee hee) and the wonderful gift the Lord gave you in your husband. Be determined to succeed in this wonderful "gift" to your husband and when things get tough, fight back with the strength of the Lord!

With all that, this is the last you will hear from me about our 12 Days of SHMILY Christmas adventures, but know I do think it is highly important to keep my husband loved now and always!

I have a million other things in my little head, but I best quit now! Sorry this is so long, hopefully a few of you are still reading. Check back soon for pictures and such from our first Christmas gathering tomorrow with dad's family.

God bless!