Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. 

We are so blessed and grateful for all that we have and for our friends and family that take such good care of us and show their love!

Sharpie Mugs

Andrew, Owen and I are going to California for thanksgiving. We are thinking ahead and getting Christmas presents now so we don't have to mail them. 

I've seen cute little personalized mugs on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try. 

It was super easy. All you need is a mug, a sharpie and an oven. 

Write or draw on your clean mug. I wrote the same thing on both sides of the mug. Let dry for 24 hours. Put mug in oven and then heat to 425 so it doesn't crack from sudden temperature change. Bake for 30 minutes. Then let it cool all the way before taking it out. 

Cinnamon Apple Muffins

I had some apples that needed to be used so what do I do? Get on pinterest of course and look for a recipe. After looking at all sorts of recipes I decided on this one. Like always I made a few changes. These turned out so yummy! I will definitely keep this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together:
     2 cups sugar
     2 eggs
     1 Tbsp vanilla
     1/2 cup oil
     1/2 apple sauce (I changed this to make it slightly healthier; original recipe had 1 cup oil)

 Add:
     3 cups flour
     1 tsp baking soda
     1 tsp salt
     1 tsp cinnamon

Add:
     3 cups apple - peeled, cored and diced

Top with brown sugar

Bake for 18-22 minutes

Enjoy!

Being Domestic

Sydney and I bought 40 pounds of chicken from Zaycon and split it because neither of us had much room in our freezers. We then canned 20 pounds of it to help solve that problem. I got 8 pint sized jars out of 10 pounds. Sydney got 5 quart sized jars out of 10 pounds.
It was actually much easier than I had expected. We cut off the fat, cut it into 1 inch cubes, put it into jars and added salt. Then we pressure cooked it for an hour and 15 minutes. It was that simple! Who knew that canning isn't that hard.

While my mom was here helping out she canned black and pinto beans. Our food storage is slowly growing which is good but it can't grow too much more or we will have to be very creative with where we put all of it.

Meeting the family

It was so nice having all the visitors. My mom came up for 10 days right when Owen was born and helped out with everything. It was much appreciated. It helped my not feel so overwhelmed with all of the changes. My dad was able to come up for the weekend and meet Owen. My grandparents and great grandma came up for an afternoon. 

Grandma K

Grandpa K

Great Grandpa Carter

Great Great Grandma  Belnap

Great Grandma Carter

Andrew's family came to visit the next weekend.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Burton

Grandpa B

Grandma B and Great Grandma Burton

Great Grandpa Burton

Grandpa B, Aunt Taylor and Great Grandpa Burton

Grandpa B

Aunt Taylor

Aunt Haley

It is so nice to feel the love and support from all of our family. We love them too!

Sorry to all of the family we did not get pictures with!

1 Month Old

Owen is now 1 month old!

• He gets the hiccups all the time, before I feed him, after I feed him and in between. He still doesn't like them.
• He is finally filling out his new born clothes but most of them still have plenty of room for him to grow.
• He really likes bath time, and cries when its over. I think it's more because he is cold then the bath actually being over.
• When we change his diaper he doesn't cry or pee all over as often. When he does pee it goes much farther than it used to.
• He likes tummy time for about 5 seconds and then doesn't like it.
• He makes funny faces while he is sleeping and while he poops, which is pretty darn cute.
• Most nights, he sleeps well. Waking up to eat and get his diaper changed and falling back asleep quickly.