Thanksgiving

   I love Thanksgiving! It is my favorite holiday. Does that mean that I only have to give thanks once a year, or that I need Thanksgiving Day as a reminder to give thanks. I hope not, or I do not understand the true depth of what my Lord and Savior has done for me. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It is something I am to be doing continuously.  I do love the time of getting together with family and friends, eating a big turkey dinner and visiting and sharing all the wonderful things the Lord had done in your life and all the trials He brings us through. 

   We went to the Whittakers for dinner and had a wonderful time. Pauline made a wonderful turkey dinner. It was so good and Austin would agree. It was Austin's first Thanksgiving and he loved it. He got to eat turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, cranberry sauce and olives. Of course Dad had to give him his first bite of pumpkin pie as well. I think that Austin's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving too. Austin also learned to climb the two living room steps into the kitchen and did it all night long. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and laughter. Of course we eat till we were full and then some more. Pauline's apple pie was yummy. Josiah and family was there along with Ezra so I was able to have Thanksgiving with family and church family. Yes I have so very, very much to be thankful. may I always remember that and continually  show it.  

   We had such a beautiful Thanksgiving week. It was in the 50's all week with a high of 60 a couple of time. Austin and I went out for a walk everyday. Then friday morning we woke up and it was 20 degrees outside with SNOW!!! That is ok with me because I love snow. Of course I bundled Austin and took him out in the snow to play for a little bit. It was cold so we didn't stay out for long.

Austin taking advantage of the beautiful weather we had the week of Thanksgiving.

Austin and Jonathan

                           Austin's first Thanksgiving!

I love turkey dinner!

Did someone say food!

Keep it coming Mom!

YUM!!!

Trying out the stairs.

Hi Dad, look at me!

 

Lets Go Fly a Kite!

 Hi there. We had a wonderful three weeks with my little sister Hope. She stayed with us while my Mom was in Colorado. We had so much fun playing games, going for walks and bike rides. I worked on my homeschooling skills, and she was so much help to me with Austin. I got canning done and so much house work done it was crazy! I had some major cleaning that need to be done in Austin's room and I finally got that done while she was her. I also cleaned my entire house in one day! Noah and I also got to go on a date while Naomi Kowles watched Austin and Hope. It was so fun to get out for couple of hours with my man.

  Well the last weekend that she was with us Noah decided to make a kite with her. Noah and Hope ran around town picking up the supplies they needed and the came home and tackled the project. They went to Josiah's and cut the sticks they needed for the frame and found a pink shower curtain at Goodwill for the body of the kite. Noah was a very willing teacher and Hope loved having something to do with Noah. She loves spending time with him.

Hope and Noah with the frame of their kite.

Austin wants to help too!

Here they are trying it out. 

 

Gotta love that face!!

Austin loves his Dad!

Look at me!

   We packed a picnic lunch, blankets, kites, fishing poles and a camera and headed out for a family picnic. Here are some of our picture from our afternoon at Hodag Park. It was a beautiful fall day with lovely, bright, fall colors. The weather was beautiful and Austin loved playing in the leaves (it was Austin's first picnic). We had to try our new kite out too but, unfortunately there was not enough wind for them to fly it, so they went fishing instead. Austin loved getting to swing and play on the playground. We stuck his hands in feet in the water too! He never gets tired of being outside. It was such a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.We ended the afternoon with going home and taking a nap!

Some fall colors at Boom lake

Loves the swing!

Loves the leaves!      

Noah and Hope fishing. Thought this was so cute!

Loves being outside with his Daddy!

My guys!

Trying out the big kid slide.

Go Hope! She was just a pro on the monkey bars. She showed both Noah and I up.

Canning, canning, CANNING!!!!!

    It has been so fun and such a blessing to be able do some canning and a little freezing this year. Time to take my new canner that I got on sale from Farm n Fleet last year and put it to good use. I got corn and plums (free) from Golden Harvest, green beans and rhubarb from my mom, and apples from my mother in law.  I have been busy, busy, busy the last couple of weeks and loving it. I was so blessed to have my sister Hope here last week and help me with my apples and plums.
There is the list of what I was able to do with it.

   Freezer:
     10 quarts of corn
     several quarts of apple (for pies!)
     lots of baby food!

   Canned:
     10 pints of green beans
     7 quarts of apple sauce
     3 pints of apple butter
     2 pints of plum jelly
    7 quarts of rhubarb syrup

 

Austin watching Hope run apples through the apple strainer.

Green beans

Rhubarb syrup

Apple sauce, apple butter and plum jelly.

Austin and his Aunt Hope outside.

Rhubarb pie for Noah

   Canning brings back lot of memories of my childhood and I get warm fuzzy feelings! I love it and it makes me feel productive and like my mom! I love being like my mom and I strive to be like her in so many ways. She is a busy lady from sun up to sun down. You should see her pantry and freezers. Throw a chicken butchering weekend in there as well. I love the country life and the do it yourself from scratch food preparations! So thankful to the Lord for his many blessings!

    Well I now have my canning all done and my canner and strainer put away for the year. Our pantry shelfs and freezer are full (for Austin as well) and I am now ready for fall. It is so in the air.  Time to bring out the fall decorations!

 

Labor Day

   We had a pretty quiet day. Noah worked for a couple of hours at the shop. Austin and I cleaned the house and went for our usual walk and played outside. His newest outdoor toy is the clothesline. His feet start kicking and his arms waving when every we walk near it. If I hold him up to the line he will grab it with both hands and put his mouth on it and laugh and laugh and laugh.  I got a surprise visit from Rachel Towle and had a wonderful chat with her. Noah and Austin took a nap in the afternoon while I just putts around. The to finish off the evening we had a bonfire with smores, Velie style and our family devotions. It was a very lovely evening together as a family. It was so fun to watch Austin watch the fire. He loved his first taste of roasted marshmallow. Yep start them out young I say! One lick was not enough and I had a mad little boy on my hands for a little bit. Austin likes food more than any other baby I have ever seen.

Waiting for the fire to be just right for roasting marshmallow!

Our family

Austin covered in marshmallow!

Homemade Spinach Spaghetti Noodles

    So for quite a while now I have been wanting to make homemade pasta.  After watching a cooking show I was inspired to finally get around to it. I decided to make spinach spaghetti noodles. It is so simple to make them, they just take a little time. The net time I make it however I need to puree the spinach more and make sure to get them rolled out very, very thin. Mine turned out a little thick. I served it with italian sausage marinara sauce and  garlic bread. It tasted so good and I can't wait to make it again soon and perfect it!! I think that a kitchen aid pasta attachment is going on my Christmas list.

My spinach pasta dough.

Rolled out and cut with a pizza cutter into spaghetti noodles.

The finished product.
Noah loved it so that is all I need to make me happy!

Dairy Free Ice Cream

   So I have been off of dairy for a little over three months. When Austin was about three weeks old he seemed to cry a lot and kicking his feet as if he had a tummy ache for days. So I decided to try and go off a few things and see if I could narrow it down to anything and I came up with dairy. After I cut it from my diet it was like he was a completely different baby. He was happy and content without having to be held all the time. Praise the Lord, it was so hard seeing my little guy in pain and not knowing what to do for him.

   Well all that said and done I really miss drinking milk and eating ice cream. Well I tried coconut milk and it wasn't bad but there is really no good substitute for milk but that is ok. Also ice cream, there is some good dairy free options out there, however they a hard on the pocket book. So I decided to try this.  Dairy free Strawberry ice cream. All I needed for it was frozen strawberries and banana, Coconut milk and vanilla. Throw it in the blender and vuala! A wonderful hot summers day treat. It did not however taste very much like ice cream. It was very good though. I have a coconut milk chocolate Oreo ice cream I want to try next.

It turned out very pretty!

Was so easy to make on a hot summer day!

Thai Peanut Noodles

   Thai is what is on the menu! Noah loves Thai food and so I have been wanting to make him some since we were married and had not gotten around to it. For supper tonight we had Thai peanut noodles and it was so good. I already had a ready made sauce so that made my meal that much easier as well. I found a recipe and changed it up a little to make it mine.

  Thai Peanut Noodles

Chicken

Garlic

Carrot

Green pepper

Cucumber

Peanuts

Thai Kitchen Peanut Satay Sauce

Olive oil

Salt

Sugar

Soy sauce

Rice noodles

My mise en place

 Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Mean while in a fry pan add your oil and heat. Add your garlic and let cook for a couple of minutes and then add you chopped chicken, green pepper and carrot, sprinkle with salt and let cook until carrots are tender. When the pot of water comes to a rolling boil turn off burner and remove from heat. Place the rice noodles in the water and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the noodles are soft, then drain. In a small bowl combine the peanut sauce, salt, sugar and soy sauce and whisk until well combined. Mix the sauce with the chicken mixture in pan and add the rice noodles. Mix all together and it is ready to serve. Garnish with cucumber sticks and chopped peanuts! 

Finish product!

   Noah love it so my Thai night was a success and it was very easy. Now I just need to pull my Thai cookbook out and see what recipes I can find in there to try out.

Key lime Cheesecake

   I said after the wedding it was going to be a long time before I made any cheesecakes again but Noah just loves them and I enjoy doing some baking once in a while so I have made a couple in the last 9 months. I asked Noah what one of his favorite cheesecakes would be and he told me key lime. So I decided I would make him one the other Saturday afternoon and we took it to church for the lovefest. It turned out very good, and was a lot of fun to make. I candied some of the lime rinds to garnish the top of the cheesecake. It turned out great, I had fun and Noah love it! 

Key lime Cheesecake!!

A look at the PAST!!!!

Wow I can't even begin to believe all that has happened this last year! I will give a brief summary of this past year.

              2010
   January: Only four months left till my wedding so I was very busy with wedding plans and shopping. I stilled did not have a dress yet either as of the beginning of this month and my time was running out! I was desperately looking for a MODEST wedding dress and within the budget too. So these two together were taking a little time but with much prayer and a lot of help from my mom on January 14th I finally found The Dress!! It was a big answer to prayer and just wonderful to have the finally done and out of the way. Just another one of God's wonderful blessing to me and another sign to me that if we give it to God and honor Him He will answer our requests. The rest of the month was used to finish getting wedding lists together and working 4-5 days a week.
   February: Work and more wedding plans!!! My wonderful friend Emily came and visited the last weekend of the month as a last girls single weekend. We had a blast. We went shopping in Eau Claire and eat at the Olive Garden and had to come home in a snow storm. We watched movies eat snacks and just talked and laughed listened to the Celtic Women and had a great, great time of fellowship!! Thank you Lord for Christian friends.
   March: Lots of wedding shopping. My dress came and it is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined!! It was more than every dream come true. The Lord is so good.
   April: Two months till wedding! Sent out invitations, with lots of help from Mom and Deanna. Working on wedding favors and wedding desserts. Things are coming along but I still have a ton to do! Also I was given the best wedding shower ever. I was totally blessed beyond words and was given the best shower gifts ever.
   May: Only one month till my wedding!!! Wedding ring for Noah (check), dress and wedding attire (check), suits to the cleaner (check), 705 wedding desserts made (check). Everything all ready to and most definitely something I could not have done by myself. Thanks so much to all my friends and family for all your help! Aunt Melissa threw me a personal shower and my church family threw me a surprise birthday party. I was thrown a going away part at work and had to say goodbye to some of the most wonderful Christan ladies that I ever worked with.  It was one of the busiest months of my life and much joy and tears. my family and husband to be are just wonderful!! May 28, 2011 I got married to the man that I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with!!

   June: Spent the first couple days in Hawaii with my husband on our honeymoon. Come back to a house that was completely cleaned from top to bottom with lots of my stuff moved in. More food and house hold supplies to last us months as well as many other gifts. We had youth meetings at our church and the guest speaker was Roy Daniel from South Africa. They were great messages that he brought and Harmony and I were in charge of the food. We had so much fun planning, shopping making food and serving. I so can't wait till we do it again next year. We will be in our new church next year as well so that will be even more wonderful.

   July: We had the girls camp called Camp of Hope and I was the cook. I loved planning the menu and making the food. I was able to spend a lot of time with Angie and she was a huge blessing to me. Our special speaker at the camp was Jenny Daniel and she spoke right to my heart. She is a dear woman of the Lord and very pleasant to be around. I am very blessed to know her and very much look forward to next year. I spent the whole week up at the camp and had a wonderful time of fellowship and fun and laughs with them all.

   August: In August I got a job at Golden Harvest again and started working on to go deli ideas for them for when there new coolers come in. Brianna's graduation party from high school with a visit from Nicole and Jason and the surprise of Zack coming with them. Aaron and Naomi Kowels came and stayed a weekend with us. I had a wonderful time of fellowship with Naomi and getting to know her better and better. We also found out that we were expecting our first little bundle of joy!!! Also at the end of the month Harmony came and stayed with us and Jeremy and Deana came for a night as well. I took a day off work and we went to the zoo in Minocqua! Had so much fun seeing the faces of the little boys with all the animals. One little unshy baby goat even jumped in the stroller on top of Joshua!!

   September: Colorado Trip!!!! What a blast. Brianna came with us  and we were gone for 5 days and the memories we made were wonderful. The guys had a mountain climbing trip scheduled and us girls spent the day shopping. Oh the laughs and joys we had on the trip. At the shopping center us girls all found out from the street selling perfume boy that we were all three "misters"! We also got to spend a wonderful Sunday afternoon and evening up in the mountains with the Silverberg family and catch up. It was a long trip home but well worth it! We also were trying very had to finish up our new church building so we can have our Keith Daniel meetings there. He is a Missionary speaker from South Africa.

   October: Our new church building is finished!!! The night before the Friday night meetings we all work hard and are able to finish up all the last minute things. The meeting went very good. Announced that we were expecting baby Brainard in April! We went for a weekend to Aunt Kay and Uncle Tom's and spent the day shopping in Eau Claire with my cousin KayLee.

   November: Thanksgiving!! My all time favorite holiday!!! I am so very Thankful for my husband. We went to Mom and Dad's and spent it with the Velie side. Noah's Dadand Mom came up as well and we had a Brainard Thanksgiving on Saturday and had a great day of spending time together as family complete with a HAM dinner! We served at a wedding with my family and Noah and I learned how to polka!!! It was quite funny to watch I am sure. Loved watching mom and dad though.

   December: December, our year is coming to an end am I am very excited to be spending my first Christmas with Noah. I got Christmas cards in the mail and I baked a few goodies. I am now 5 months pregnant and starting to show. We have snow and I have my lights up. It is just a wonderful time of year. Winter is a blast. I love the picture of how snow is what our wonderful Lord and Savior washes us as clean as. So blessed with the wonderful things the Lord does for us in salvation. Noah and I celebrated Christmas at our house together and had a little special evening just the two of us. We than packed up the next day and went Dad and Mom's. I love being with family and it was special to be joined by Grandpa and Grandma Velie. We had lasagna and lots of goodies! I eat till I was over stuffed that is for sure. We played game and where joined by Uncle Karl, Aunt Melissa, and Matthew is the evening. We went ice skating and had a joyous time. One week later Mom, Dad and the family came to our house for two days and celebrated in the New Year with us.
  I have so many blessing to be thankful for. The Lord is always faithful and sees us through so many things. I love my husband and look forward to the coming of our baby in April. I pray in this next year the Lord will continue to teach me many things and that I will continuously draw closer to Him.

True Homecooking!!!

   One of my instructors at school always put me in a team with two other girls and called us team homecooking because we always seemed to lean more towards the comfort foods in our lab classes as apposed to some of the more fancier cooking the other class mates would do.Well a lot of the cooking is still what I do. I hits close to home, has lots of memories and is good for working wives!!!
   So tonight's meal was Venison Beef Stew with fresh baked Biscuits!!! Noah loved it, I loved it and it was easy. I had to be out of the house by 7:10 this morning to be to a chiropractor appointment and wanted to have it in the crockpot ready to go. I got up at six make breakfast, assembled the stew and got ready to work and made it to my appointment just in time!!! One minute to spare. Then tonight I just thickened it with a little potato starch and made my biscuits. They were supper easy and the best recipe I found yet!! Yea for my Basic cookbook. Thanks Deanna!

 
   Now my husband is gone to get a computer cd form his brothers house and I am sitting here sipping hot tea and blogging. Something I really want to do more of. I also have to have 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 memorized for Wednesday night prayer meeting. I am just loving winter and still hoping and praying that we will get some more snow.