Happy New Year...

Wishing all of you a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year!
Whatever you are doing tonight, be safe!
Here's to another year of This Farm Family's Life.
Cheers y'all.

Sweet Potato Bread...

This bread is very moist and delicious. Try it! You'll love it. I promise.
3 cups all purpose flower
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups or 1 29 oz can sweet potatoes, drained and mashed
4 large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two loaf pans.
Mix the first six ingredients.
Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Blend in mashed sweet potatoes, and then the eggs, one at a time.
Add flour mixture in thirds; combine ingredients just enough to blend.
Pour batter evenly into greased and floured pans.
Sprinkle pecans over batter.
Bake for 60- 70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of loaves comes out clean.
Cool 15 minutes then remove from loaf pans.

Enjoy!

Project 365 Day 358...

Easy Bake Oven...

B got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas from Grandma Colleen and Papaw Tom.
I was a little nervous at first because the recommended age on them is 8 and up.
But, she loves to bake....like me...and with a little help, she does great.

The best part is I haven't had to bake a dessert for lunch for two days now!;)

Mixing the dough...
Putting it in the oven...

We made yellow cake this particular night.

Below she is making the icing...

Sometimes I have to remind her that good bakers always smile:)...

Brad told her that part of a baker's job is to wash the dishes when they are finished.

She rinsed them off.

Good enough!(don't worry, I washed them with soap)

The next morning, after breakfast, she wanted to bake AGAIN.

This time she made brownies.

She planned ahead and counted all the people that would be present and determined that she needed 6 brownies. So, we had to make two pans of brownies.

The hardest part is waiting.

10 minutes is a long time for a 5 year old!

But the wait is worth it.

She dressed the brownies up a bit with some powdered sugar...

Don't they look delicious.

My next step is to teach her that bakers pull their hair back so it doesn't fall into the food.

She hates having her hair in a ponytail. It has to be a barrette. Time will tell on that one!

Craft Time...

I realize you are probably finished doing Christmas activities, but maybe you can bookmark this one for next year.
This was one of the first crafts I had planned to do with the girls and the last one that we did.
They are finger puppets.
The girls didn't get to participate as much as I wanted them to. The instructions said to use fast drying craft glue, but the kind I had said not for fabric, so I had to use the hot glue gun, which is slowly becoming my new BFF.

Start by glueing 1 1/4" wooden beads to dime size coin wrappers...
I cut all of my pieces one night after the girls were in bed...

Make reindeer antlers from pipe cleaners...

Glue red and brown felt around the coin wrapper...

Glue a smaller piece of red felt on Santa. Only secure it at the top to resemble a cloak...

Then glue a strip of black felt to the cloak...

Apply a black button above the belt...

Cut a triangle out of red felt and glue a white strip of felt to the bottom...

Glue the hat to the wooden bead.

At this point your puppet looks more like the Pope than Santa, but don't worry...

Bring the tip of the hat to the side of the wooden bead and glue into place.

Then attach a white pom pom...

Glue the beard and mustache...

Next up is Rudolph.

Glue an oval piece of flesh colored felt to the belly...

Attach a red pom pom for the nose...

Add the ears...

and the antlers...

This is the part B got to help with...

draw eyes with a fine tipped marker...

Super cute and somewhat easy!

Project 365 Day 357...

Project 365 Day 356...

Project 365 Day 355...

Christmas 2010....The Finale...

This is a long post.
Just warning you.
It is the last of the Christmas pictures.
None of them have been edited....another warning.
AND.....are you ready for this one??

The majority of them were shot in Auto mode. (insert gasp here)
They say once you learn to shoot in manual mode, never go back to auto. Well, I wanted to enjoy myself and watch the girls open their gifts and not have to worry about settings.
On Thursday evening, we went to my sister's to celebrate with my family.

Mel got a horse pillow pet. She LOVES it, as you can see by her expression in this photo:)...
B got a Toy Story pinball game.
She LOVES it.
You can't tell that in this photo, but really she does.
She was upset with me because I wouldn't go get batteries for it right that second.


All the girls got makeup.
Here Taylor and Melaney are sharing some much needed makeup advice...

Beautiful Taylor!...

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma C's for lunch then opened more gifts.

Mel was feeling a little sluggish at this point...

But perked up when she saw this was her gift!...

"Thank you Grandma C for the craft stuff!"...

Christmas Eve night was spent at Brad's grandparents.

The kids passed the time until gift giving by playing ball...

resting...

and loving on Aunt Lauren...

Then it was time for presents.

The kid corner can be a little chaotic at times;)...

B got this pretend school from Andy.

She saw it in a magazine a long time ago and said she liked it.

Andy has good tastes. She LOVES it.

It even has report cards!

Molly and B enjoyed playing with it...

Mel got a shopping cart.

Brad and Andy got to work assembling it.

They had a couple helpers....

Me playing with the kids...

When we got home, we set milk and cookies out for Santa.

Then read The Night Before Christmas.

The girls went to bed without a fight and awoke Christmas morning to find that Santa had been there while they were sleeping.

Mel got her horse.

She didn't want to get off of it to open gifts.

B got Sonic.

and Shine.

Mel decided to join in the opening frenzy once she saw how fun it was...

Santa brought each of the girls a Fur Real dog.

Since they each have one, there won't be any fights. Thank goodness.

B snuck a ride on Mel's horse...

while Mel tried out B's art desk...

Then we headed over to Brad's parents for more gifts...

This is a look of complete satisfaction...

This is a look of....I don't know what...

Oh no! Someone must have mistaken Mel for wrapping paper...

Brad and I got a new grill!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I am pretty excited about it?

I can't wait for that first warm day to try it out.

Who knows, I may not wait that long.:)

(yes, I am aware my outfit doesn't match. more on that subject later.)

My girls and me ( & Sonic)...

Ha Ha! Love Mel in this pic...

The rest of the afternoon was spent baking,

(B was helping Grandma Colleen make an apple pie. I left Grandma Colleen out of the photo.

Colleen, you can thank me later!)...

modeling all of our new clothes...Oh, wait that was just me!

I got a Colts jersey as a gift and a new "puffy" vest and wanted to wear both of them....so that is why I don't match. Don't worry, I haven't lost my fashion sense!;)

playing with our new toys...

and resting...

I hope y'all had a joyous Christmas filled with lots of love!

Thank you to everyone who made our Christmas special!