Sledding Fun!

Lastnight was a sledding night with the Marion Homeschool Program at Squaw Creek Park. I put my husband in charge of the camera lastnight and these were the only 2 pictures he took!! Although I wish I would have had it when HE went down the hill (the smaller one) STANDING UP on the sled!! It was rather comical I must say!

We started out the night going down the BIG hill. Micah took the little green saucer down the hill by himself while the remaining 4 of us piled on the blue sled and FLEW down the hill. This made me question whether or not I wanted to do anymore sledding the rest of the evening or not! I sat out a couple and watched my adventurous husband from the top of the hill. Then the kids wanted to take a trip down on the blue sled so I loaded them up and gave them a push. Half way down they hit a bump that sent them falling off the sled. I wondered if they were alright because Randy started his normal over-animated "You guys o.k.? How bad is it?" which gets me going! Don't get me wrong, I have concern for my kids too, but my concern is a more calmer concern. Anyone who knows Randy knows he is very animated and so by the time he starts in, you are sitting there thinking *o.k. do we need stitches...is there a broken arm....broken leg....* and then you find out that everyone is o.k. and it is just daddy that needs to settle down.

After a couple trips down the BIG hill, the kids and I are ready to try the small hill! WOW, what a difference! I could do this hill a hundred times! Randy on the other hand (Mr. Adventurous) is bored and ready to go home. I'm like- the kids are just now starting to have fun! (without fearing their life!) Go get some hot chocolate and sit down and relax! Anyway, I've probably rambled on long enough, but we all had a blast by the end of the evening. The kids were talking about it all the way home. It was a highlight for them because we haven't done much all winter!

SWEET & SOUR

My SWEET little boy loves SOUR stuff....

So I made him a loaf of lemon blueberry bread. Did he like it? Well, I'd say the smile on his face tells half of the story. And the fact that he's eaten 2 or 3 slices of it already tells the other half!!

The funny things kids say!!!

As I was making a peanut butter pie today, my daughter was standing next to me saying "Mom why do we have to put peanut butter in everything we make?" (as I had made some bars the other day that had peanut butter in them) So I got a good laugh out of that!

But what's even funnier is that she just so happened to be wearing her Reese's shirt today (it is her favorite candy bar) So it's not like peanut butter should bother my little Reese's girl anyway. But I sure got a good laugh out of the deal!

Is this really happening?

Look at all these tools! Is this really happening?

My husband is finally getting a wall up in the bathroom.

And the kitchen!!! By the way.....sorry for the "blog fog" (lack of blogging) lately. If only you could see all of the messes in our house right now! I didn't want to post pictures of them for fear of scaring you all away! But we have been CRAZY BUSY trying to get some projects done. So bear with my blog fog and hopefully things will get better around here soon!

Tunnel of Fun!

Daddy and the boys decided to make a tunnel in the snow today.

Here are the boys inside of it.

And here is Hannah inside of it.

Here is a view from the inside looking out.

Here is mommy and daddy inside the tunnel! (via Jeremiah Photography!!)

Our Deer Hunt

My husband took me out deer hunting with him the last Saturday in December. I tried to upload the pictures back then, but they wouldn't load that day for some reason so my husband keeps reminding me that I need to post these pictures, so here they are! He got a nice symetrycal 10 point buck with his muzzeloader. I went out with him last year too, but only saw a couple deer then. But this year was much more exciting with 8-10 deer (almost all bucks) going through, and some of them right below the stand we were in! Talk about an exciting deer hunt!

Recipe Request for Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Here is the recipe you requested Jessica!

8 qt. box instant dry milk
6 oz. powdered coffee creamer
15 oz. Nestle Quick drink mix
2 C. powdered sugar

Dump all ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Store in a tightly sealed container. (I use a cleaned out ice cream bucket) To use: Measure 1/3 C. mix into a mug of hot water.

It does cost a bit to put this together, but it lasts through the whole winter. If anyone has any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

A hot drink on a cold day!

Is anybody else tired of these freezing temperatures? Anyway here are a couple of my favorite hot drinks to warm me up on a cold day! My middle child and I have taken a liking to the Land O Lakes Mint Hot Cocoa......so yummy. Only problem is that they don't sell it in a canister, they sell it by the single packets.


This Chai Latte is a new thing for me. I am not a coffee drinker, but I do like tea and I recently came across this and really like it! It is black tea with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger. I may try to figure out how to make a homemade version of this mix. I make our hot chocolate mix from scratch. I'm always out for a food challenge as well as a "way to save money" challenge! We shall see!!!

Happy Birthday Gabe!

Happy Birthday to my handsome little nephew Gabriel Graham (he is the one wearing red). This picture is from a couple summers ago when our family took a trip to Maryland to see my sister Sharon and her family. This little guy loves art and he loves to be constantly on the go- usually chasing down "bad guys". Happy Birthday Bud!

4 Wheeler/ Sledding Fun

Here are "the guys" on the 4 wheeler getting ready to pull the sled

Here is little Miss Hannah getting ready for her ride!

There she goes!

They all switch off and take turns. They even got me on there. Then I had Randy show me how to drive his new toy so that I could pull him on it! This is probably the most entertainment you will find in little old Coggon!

Cream Puffs

cream puff dough going into the oven

out on a rack to cool

getting filled with my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator that I bought a while back on Ebay but just now FINALLY got around to using!!!

some chocolate icing over the tops

MMMmmmmm.........can you taste that???

Wings for supper!

I took a 5 lb. package of chicken wings and cut them up (discarding the tips), then baked them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Meanwhile I melted a half a stick of butter and added 5T. of hot sauce and stir well. Once the wings were cooked I put the hot sauce mixture over half of them and Sweet Baby Ray's honey barbeque sauce over the other half, then put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Oh, yeah....then I took a picture with my cell phone and sent it to hubby's cell phone since he is down south hunting so he could see what he was missing out on!! :0)

Black Bean Soup with Italian Sausage

Drain and rinse 2 cans of black beans

Cook 1/2 lb. italian sausage

Put together with a can of chicken broth and a cup of water. I sprinkled some Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning over it. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and let simmer.

Serve with garlic bread. Yummy!

Hannah's Cake

The dent in the bottom of the cake (under her name) is from her trying to put her candle in before I was ready for it!

a very excited birthday girl!

blowing out the candles!

digging in!!!

Thank you Lord for sending us a little girl 6 years ago! I pray that she has many more birthdays to come!!

Happy 6th Birthday Hannah

Today is my precious, beautiful daughter's birthday! She is 6 today. We went in to the hospital 6 years ago at 9:00 a.m. and she was born just shortly after noon.


I like to make the kids birthday cakes each year and so I let them choose the flavor of cake and Hannah chose the funfetti kind.

They are in the oven baking right now with more pictures to come later!

In the meantime we are going to snack on the fresh monkey bread that Randy missed out on by about 10 minutes because he HAD to get going!!!!

.......stay tuned for more pictures of Hannah's birthday cake!!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Porter!

Happy Birthday to my favoritest father-in-law ever in the whole wide world!!! I am kind of late in the day to wish this, but it has been a CRAZY day here. The kids and I left the house at 10:00 this morning to run a few errands ( you know....the kind that's supposed to take only a couple of hours...right? ) Well, we got home just after 7:00 and I put the groceries away and here I am shortly after 8:00 FINALLY getting a chance to put birthday wishes on our blog. Happy birthday to a WONDERFUL father, father-in-law, and one AWESOME grandpa! (Russ Porter)

Back to the grind of things......

I was going to title this "Getting back to normal", but what is normal anyway? There is no normal in this house! "Normal" kids go to school and sit at desks all day with their shoes on and sit still listening to their teachers all day right? Well, I guess my kids aren't normal then because they prefer the couch over a desk, barefeet over shoes, and they don't sit still all day! However they DO listen to their teacher!! :) They don't have a choice there! So as the title I went with says, we are getting back to the grind of things! And praise the Lord for our daily devotions that Jeremiah told me today he enjoys because the "normal" kids aren't allowed to have God in the schools. I guess that is a day in the life of a homeschooling family!

Heading into a new year....

As we head into a new year there are a couple of Bible verses that are going to be helpful (for me atleast) in getting through another year. One of them is: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Ps.90:12) and the other one is: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13) and I'm sure I will find myself in the book of James for the words about "wisdom" that can be found there! The "number our days" for me is about time management, and for anyone who is interested in a good book on this (other than the Bible of course!) there is a great book by Elizabeth George that is titled "Life Management for Busy Women" and underneath that it says "Living Out God's Plan with Passion & Purpose". The crazy thing is I haven't gotten through the whole book myself yet! Which is why I need God's help in the time management area! It is my hope this year to draw closer to God, my husband, and my 3 children.

With that said, our family would like to wish you a Happy New Year to you and yours! Have a great year!

The Aftermath of Christmas!

Here is our dining room with the aftermath of Christmas! The living room is where our tree is, but it is actually clean because all the gifts have been opened and we've been to both sides Christmases and when we have came back home, everyone has just set there stuff down in this room! I am so exhausted too! Hopefully we will find the table and the floor again soon!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all and let's not forget the true meaning of the day which is the birth of Christ! Happy Birthday Jesus!