You won't see it in Better Homes & Gardens magazine...

I finally got around to putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. I was not very excited about it, but together with my family we had a good time. DJ and Hannah helped decorate the entire tree. I only helped with a few areas, mostly with Hannah's areas. She likes to put 5 ornaments on the same branch! I also helped with the "fluffing" of the tree, the ribbons, and the topper.

It's not something you would see in a decorators magazine, but I like it. I like the personal touch of it. Most of the ornaments have a meaning or story to go with it. Don't get me wrong here. I love the look of professional looking trees. I have a lot of friends who do a beautiful job on their trees and decorations. They can come do mine anytime! But I am not that creative and I wouldn't know the first thing to do. So I just do what I like. (And what I can live with for 4 or more weeks.)

This is also the first year to have our tree in front of the window. Before it was either across the room from the window or in a corner and only a small portion was in front of the window. So we had to decorate all the way around this year. I like it this way!

This year is the first year to have Christmas in our new home. So I really had to think about what I was going to do with the fireplace. In our old home I had a floral arrangement I put in the center of the mantel and then added some decorations around the sides. I couldn't do that this year though. I figured I needed to make two arrangements. Thankfully I had enough items from the fireplace and kitchen table arrangement to make two new ones for the new fireplace. This currently leaves me without an arrangement for my table, but I will figure that out later.

  

Again, I am not a professional decorator, so I did the best I could. They could use some help, and maybe next year I will fix them. For now I like them and they are going to stay that way! I am proud of the vases though! They used to be clear with blue rocks inside. I decided to paint them this year. I really like the way they turned out.

  

And yes, our dog has her own stocking. Lexi is a part of our family. Every year I buy her a bone for the stocking and a toy/snack for under the tree. I have learned not to put them under the tree until the day of Christmas or she will open them early! What can I say, I love my dog.

I found this figurine on sale earlier this fall. I loved it! It has an older girl and younger boy snowman. Just like my kids. And I just love snowman families!

I have some other decorations around the house, but they are mostly figurines. I didn't really feel the need to take pictures of everything. Hannah also has a small tabletop tree in her room. Her favorite colors are purple and pink. So her tree is white and has a rainbow optical effect and it is decorated in purple and pink ornaments. It also is home to her ornaments she has received from her grandparents every year since she was born. All the ornaments are plastic, therefore I don't mind her playing with them. It keeps her off my tree!

I don't bake pies!

Well, our Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful! DJ had Thursday - Sunday off. Hannah had a 5 day break from school. So lots of family time! This was the first year since DJ graduated from pharmacy school that we had time off together during the Thanksgiving break. I'm very thankful for his new job!

Thursday we had dinner at DJ's parents. As always it was a wonderful dinner feast! I stuffed my face, just as I do every year! Iva, Hannah and Trey played before and after. It brings back many memories of when I was a child, playing with my cousins during the holidays.

 Hannah and Trey. Hannah is wearing her Indian hat she made at school.

 Sophie and Lexi are sticking to the kids table, hoping for fallen scraps!

For preparation for my feast, I brined my second turkey Thursday night. On Friday I cooked the first turkey and packed it away for Saturday. I also started to make my pies. I figured out I am not a pie person. I LOVE to eat them, but I have a bit of trouble making them. My first problem was the crust. I couldn't get them right. My oldest brother has made pies before and so I called on him for some help. He came over and for some reason he couldn't make the crust either. So, I bought pie crust. Brandon thought I was committing a crime by doing so, but I had no choice. I then proceeded to make the fillings. I had to make the chocolate first because it had to set up before refrigerating. I followed the recipe perfect...except one step. I forgot to add the sugar. And since the chocolate in the pie was unsweet, the pie needed sugar. SO, when I realized I left it out (at the very end) I added it to the filling. I thought it was going to work, but it didn't. The filling never did set right and it tasted like crap!

The pecan pie I made was also not so great. DJ and I had a date night planned for Friday night. So I didn't have time to make the pie until after the date. It was 11 when I made it and I was exhausted and fell asleep. The timer woke me up, but the pie had burned on top. I was suppose to put some foil on top during baking if it got to brown. Oops! So the pie tasted good in the middle, but the top was too crisp. Bummer!

The rest of the dinner for Saturday was great! The turkey was perfect! And all the sides were yummy! I also make a caramel apple cheese pie (which turned out great!) and some banana pudding. That was also great! I gained 2 lbs. just Saturday alone! But it was worth it. (and I have lost all the weight I gained).

So now I am all turkied out! Once I am back in the mood to bake, I will be practicing my pies. I am determined to make a great pie! My grandmother didn't come out of the womb making perfect pies. It took time and practice (and patients) to make them, so I know I can too.  I didn't take any pictures of the family! I know, bad for blogging!

Brine Baby Brine!

Today I am making my second batch of brine for my turkeys. I am making two turkeys, one for the day before we eat and one on the day of! I got my turkey recipe from the Food Network's show Good Eats. Alton Brown is a genius in my opinion and I just love his show. I also love this recipe. I want to share it with you today!

Brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp. allspice berries
1 1/2 tsp. chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

Aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs Rosemary
6 leaves sage

Make your brine (minus the water) a couple days before and refrigerate. The night before you want to eat, soak your bird in the brine and water. Refrigerate over night, making sure the bird is completely covered with brine. You don't want uneven flavor! When ready to cook your bird, remove from brine and discard brine. Make your aromatics from recipe above. Microwave water, apple and onion together for 5 minutes. Then stuff them inside your fully rinsed turkey along with the rest of the aromatic ingredients and place bird on roasting rack. Cover bird with canola oil and place in 500 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then wrap breast meat with foil triangle and turn oven down to 350. Cook your bird until a thermometer probe (pre-inserted in beast of turkey before roasting) reads 161 degrees. This will ensure your dark meat is 180 degrees and your breast is at 160 degrees. Just perfect for both!

Here is a link to the recipe as well as videos:

Good Eats Roast Turkey on the Food Network

My 1st Thanksgiving Dinner

This year will be the first time to make and host Thanksgiving dinner. My mom, brothers, sister-in-laws, and nephews will all be here (just on my side). We are having Thanksgiving dinner with DJ's family on Thursday. My dinner will be this weekend. My oldest brother, Brandon, and I came up with the idea of potluck Thanksgiving. I will be making the turkey, dressing, corn, gravy, mac n' cheese, pecan pie, chocolate pie, apple caramel cheese pie, and banana pudding. Brandon is bringing ingredients to make mashed potatoes (to make at my house so they will be warm), deviled eggs, rolls, broccoli n' cheese casserole, pumpkin pie, cherry pie. My mom and youngest brother, Taylor, are bringing green bean casserole, vegetable tray and fruit tray for snacking. Then my middle brother, Matt, is bringing drinks and the cranberry sauce. I am really excited about all the food we are having. It may seem like a lot, and it is! But this is exactly how it used to be when I was growing up. The only thing that is missing is my Texas family. We used to have the WHOLE family at my grandmothers and she would spend all day cooking and my cousins and I would spend the whole day playing outside and stuffing our face and watching football. It was great! Banana pudding was her specialty! It isn't Thanksgiving without it.

Yesterday I started getting my list of ingredients together. There were several things I already had on hand, but I still ended up with a large list for the grocery store! I figured today wouldn't be too bad at the store. I went at 10 am. It was packed! I guess everyone else had the same idea! I was lucky enough to get everything on my list I needed. I even got fresh sage! It was the last package too! I have my schedule made out and I am ready.

I made the brine for my turkeys today. I am so excited about my turkey. In the past I have failed at making turkey. I didn't thaw it all the way through and parts of it ended up raw. But this time I have started thawing the turkey early and so we shouldn't have the same mistake! I am making two turkeys. A few weeks back, the stores had 14-17 lb turkeys on sale for 50 cents a pound. I bought two since they were small and I will make one the day before and one the day of. This way we will have enough to eat the day of and for sandwiches later on! I will try to keep you all posted though out the week on my preparations for the big feast!

A Baby Shower

Matt and Elizabeth

Yesterday I hosted my brother and his wife's baby shower. Elizabeth, his wife, is due in January. Matt loves the Lion King and she loves monkeys. So I did a cake to satisfy both taste. They had a great turn out and got lots of little things to help them on the way. The baby's name is Hunter Coltelee Dobbs. Matt's middle name is Colte and Elizabeth wanted Lee in the name after a family member of hers. I think it is a clever way to add both! Not to mention it was my suggestion! :)

Congratulations guys! Hunter will be loved and cherished! 

A Halloween Birthday

Iva turned 5 on November 8th. This past Saturday was her birthday party. Since her birthday is so close to Halloween, her mom decided to do a costume/Halloween themed party. She asked me to make the cupcakes. After looking at a few examples she decided on witch's hats. Betsy also rented a jump house. The weather was good and it was a huge success! The party was really cute and everyone had a great time. Including Iva!

The birthday girl!

Blowing out the candles. Since the cupcakes all had hats on them, we chose to put candles in a left over cupcake so she would have something to blow out.

Hannah jumping in the jump house.

Trey enjoying his witch hat cupcake. He didn't really want to smile or even look at the camera. This was the best I got!



I made Iva's a little more sparkly. Since she is the birthday girl, hers needed a little more pzazz!

Here's how I made them...

 Take sugar cones and trim off the bottom to achieve desired height for hat.

 Most of them trimmed easily. Some broke in the wrong spot. Good thing I bought extras!

 All trimmed and ready to cover.

 I made a pattern of the cone for easy cutting. Black fondant was my choice to cover the cones in. The directions I used called for them to be covered in black royal icing. But I can never get the icing black enough. So I chose pre-tinted fondant.

 I rolled it out thin and cut it using a pizza cutter.

 Then I rolled it on.

 Tucked under the bottom.

 And smoothed it out on soft foam.

 Thanks Duff for the pre-tinted fondant! It worked great!

 I put them in a large container and let them dry so it would be easier to decorated.

 I also made the rem of the hat with fondant. I used two cookie cutters and made these little donuts. I also let them dry.

 Glued on the top with buttercream icing I tinted as black as I could. Thankfully you couldn't see it! I then decorated the hats with a orange, green and purple. The finished product is what you saw above.

 Time for cupcakes. I love this recipe. I got it out of the Cupcakes by the Cake Doctor book. Yum!

They got a cute liner too! Then after the cupcakes were cooled I iced them in orange and lime green icing and topped them with the decorated hats. Iva's hat I added pearl dust to make it sparkle! 

I'm a Proud Sister!

Here is a video of my baby brother, Matt, getting sworn into the Army. He is going into the infantry. He gets shipped out to basic training on May 7th. His baby will only be 4 months old when he leaves! I am so proud of him for making this decision. He is brave and has a loving heart. I pray he will grow stronger and that the work he has to do will not affect him. He is following my older brother's, Brandon, foot steps. I am one proud sister!

God can speak thru an insurance company!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11

DJ and I have been leaning more towards having a child of our own (instead of adoption). We have actually been getting excited and at one point were discussing baby names. I know, we jumped the gun a bit! Well yesterday I wanted to check our maturity insurance again. See, with DJ's new job we had to purchase our own health insurance. With this new coverage we had the option of adding maturity. We did...for that "just in case" moment. Turns out the insurance company will not start paying benefits for maturity until 12 months after the start of coverage! Which means now is not the time to get pregnant. Not unless we want to pay an unmentionable amount!

I really was kind of sad yesterday after reading this info. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this was God's way of saying "slow down". We have a meeting we are going to attend for adoption. Maybe God really wants us to adopt. Or maybe he just wants us to be patient and wait for His timing and will and not ours.

Visiting the Vet

We had to take Lexi to the vet on Monday because her ear had another hematoma. This is where fluid, usually blood, collects under the skin and causes swelling and pain. Think of a very large fluid filled blister. She has had one before in her other ear. Because of her history, I check her ears often for the signs. I caught this one earlier than the last, and thankfully it was much smaller. The vet has to drain the hematoma by puncturing it with a needle. 

 Dr. Bridges and his staff have always been wonderful to us. We love them very much. I had to take Lexi back on Thursday to have it drained again since they tend to re-swell. I also found out that Dr. Bridges is starting to work less and he has brought on more veterinarian to work on days he is off. Dr. Taylor we saw on Monday and Dr. Travis we saw on Thursday. They were both really nice and informative. I am looking forward to getting to know them better. Here are some pictures of the kids and Lexi from Thursday's visit.

Sitting in the "corner" seat waiting on Dr. Travis to come in.

Hannah just being silly. Lexi thinking "why did you bring me here?"

Lexi waiting patiently for Dr. Travis

Kid Friendly Dinner

Thursday night I watched Iva for a little bit for her mom. Since Hannah didn't have school on Friday, I let them stay up a little later than normal. I also wanted to do something fun for dinner. I thought of personal pizzas. I love the idea of letting the kids help in the kitchen. I really believe it helps them eat better when they get to make it themselves. However I am a perfectionist and don't like big messes when it comes to cooking. So most times I don't let the kids help. This is something I am working on. So Thursday night I bit my tongue and allowed them to help and make it their way, messes and all! They had a lot of fun and so did I!



These are the ones I made after the kids made theirs. I didn't remember the camera until they had already made theirs. This just shows the steps I used to make them.

Ingredients: Jumbo biscuits, pizza sauce, mozzarella-shredded, and topping so choice. I found these mini Pepperonis and thought the kids would get a kick out of "their" size toppings!

We're going to "The Jackson Five"...But how to get there?

Two weeks ago our pastor preached about using what God gave us for His glory and not ours. Some are blessed with many things while others are blessed with little. Where do you stand? How do you use what God gave you (little or much)? Don't feel guilty for having more than someone else and don't feel shortchanged if you have less than someone else. God gave you exactly what he wanted you to have. Now go use it to bring glory to God!

These are some of the key points Pastor Jeff touched on. These were questions we are to ask of ourselves and evaluate where we stand with God and the material possessions He has entrusted to us for the time we are on earth to do His work! One thing DJ thought of was expanding our family. At first, the idea was about adoption. God has opened his heart to adopting a precious child who has no home! This was the first time for him to feel this way, but not the first time for me. I have considered the idea before. I knew God didn't want me to close my heart to the idea. So I prayed that God would lead our family (and DJ) in the right path when it came to this option.

Now most of you know for 2 years now I have NOT wanted to have another baby via pregnancy! This didn't include adoption. I was/and am open to adoption being the way of expanding our family. However, since DJ and I have started talking about adoption, God has been softening my heart about pregnancy too. I feel this is an option, much like adoption, that I shouldn't close my heart to. So, how does God want us to expand our family? Well that is the big question right now!

Going back to the lesson two weeks ago, we have felt we have room enough in our lives and home to expand our family. We have a meeting to attend about adoption in the next few weeks. We have lots of information to gather about the whole process. And we have the option of pregnancy too. We are now praying for God's plan. I know he will reveal it to us, I just have to be patient. So, eventually we will expand The Jackson Four to The Jackson Five!