Twas the Night Before Christmas and...

As we begin to settle down on Christmas Eve night, we always put out food for the reindeer, write our letter to Santa, and read Twas the Night Before Christmas from a book I have had since I was a little girl. I always read on Christmas Eve night and Donnie reads from the Bible on Christmas morning. This year, I think Beth almost fell asleep and as you can see, I think Keith may have been checking something on his phone. Faith is still very interested, thank goodness.

Our night ends with the kids falling asleep in our bedroom on our floor. Love it!! Now we are all settled in for the night as we await Santa's arrival.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Check Out My Home Blog

A little push, a little encourgement, and now I have started another blog. This blog will be one that a lot of you will have absolutley no interest in and that is totally understandable. It will be about all things home.

Let me explain just a little. As I have said on my other blog, "All Things Home", I love to decorate, craft, cook, clean, garden, organize, hobby farm and other home related "stuff". I decided that I would like to document some of these things as well but didn't want all of you to have to read it if you didn't want to. Thus, the reason for starting another blog.

So, if you are interested, you can click the button to the left with the cross and go directly to "All Things Home". I am so excited to be doing both of these blogs. If it weren't for Mary and Keith, I wouldn't have a clue what to do, so thank you to both of you.

I'm Joining a Decorate Your Mantel Party

Ok, this is something I have never done before, but decided to just go for it. I do love decorating my home and getting new ideas from great bloggers, but I do not usually show things on my blog that have to do with decorating. I usually reserve my blog for my family and friend adventures.



Tonight I am letting loose and going out on a limb. I will be linking up to a Mantel Party hosted by The Stories of A to Z. I am going to put my mantel out their for all to see. Not sure why, other than it just sounds like fun and I am trying to do more fun things this year. Wild and crazy Christian girl, you know!!

I Must Have Been Good This Year...

I know Christmas is not all about gifts, but I have to tell you that my family gave great gifts this year. They were all so thoughtful, and I wanted to share some of them with you just to give you an idea of what sweet kids and hubby I have.

This is the necklace that Donnie gave me. Can I tell you that I LOVE IT? It has all four of our children's names on it. That includes our son in heaven's name and an angel charm that represents him. I have already had the opportunity to share a little of his story to people who have asked me about the necklace. Love it!!!

The bracelet was my wonderful gift from Beth. She ordered it and had my name engraved on it. ("Amy Beth") Is this not an awesome bracelet? Again...love!!




Beth also gave me a 6-pack of my FAVORITE soda. She came up with a scavenger hunt with the drinks to lead me to my bracelet. Very creative daughter I have.

Keith made me this book. He knows that I love everything about the Amish people. This amazing book had stories, recipes, and just general information about the Amish. He spent a lot of time putting this together and I LOVE IT!!

Keith also got me the tool box and Donnie got me the cordless drill. The tool box Keith got me is to hold of my new goodies for which I am so excited to use.

These are the tools Donnie got me. They are mine...mine...mine. Do I sound selfish? I don't mean to, but I don't want anybody using them without permission. I want them to always be where I put them and I don't want to have to go looking for them when I need them. These make me excited at the the prospect of using them on upcoming projects.

Aren't these a great fashion statement? These are my new chicken coop boots and I am so happy to have them. They don't have to be pretty, just practical.

And these beauties are my new knives. These are from Faith. I wanted a multi-purpose tool for my purse, and she got me a whole set of knives so that I could have different ones to choose from. Great, huh? I think I am set now.

I didn't take a picture of it, but Donnie also got me a great Fossil Messenger Bag that I had picked out. Great bag!!

Sorry, if I have gone on too much, but I just really wanted to share what neat things my family did for me. These people that I call mine are wonderful at making me happy. Don't misunderstand, they don't need to buy me gifts to make me happy, but it sure is sweet what they do for me. Thanks so much my sweet babies.

I Have Accepted a Challenge

I have accepted a challenge by some of my blogging friends to Eat Out of My Pantry for a month. To put it simply, we will be eating from all of the extra food that we have stored up in our freezers, frig and pantry. My goal is to only go to the grocery store for milk, eggs (since I am only getting a couple a day from my hens right now), fruit and veggies. The challenge is to spend no more than $75.00 for the whole month of January.

What do you think? Do you think you could do it? I am excited about the challenge. I can't wait to see how creative we can be with our food preparation just using what we have.

I will be sure to let you know how well we do.

Go to moneysavingmom.com if you want some more information.

Wish me luck...

Twice the Goodness

My husband is one of the greatest guys around. He is a man of great integrity. He is kind, unselfish, layed back, handsome and just all around a super guy. He is an outstanding husband, daddy and son. He loves the Lord with all of his heart. He is one of a kind...

Well, actually, there is another almost just like him.

Donnie (my hubby in the red hat and beard) has an amazing twin brother, Ronnie. These two men are so much alike it is crazy.

Not sure why I wanted to share this today other than the fact that I am very thankful to have an amazing brother-in-law like Ronnie and I love the closeness that these two brothers share. Twins really do have a neat relationship.

And Then Santa Called

Remember I told you that Mrs. Claus surprised Faith with a phone call on Christmas Eve Eve and how excited she was. I think she thought that would be her only phone call this year, but no worries, Santa did not let her down. Jolly Old Faithful Saint Nick called Faith on Christmas Eve day. He actually called earlier in the day than usual and Faith summed that up to her being on the "very nice" list that Mrs. Claus said she was on and that Santa must call the "very nice" kids first.

Remember the list of questions that Faith wanted to ask Santa? Bless her heart, she got so excited and so nervous that she couldn't even think of one thing to ask him except if Mommy, Daddy, Keith and Beth were on the nice list. He told her that we were on "the list". Now, I was a little afraid what that meant, but thankfully "the list" must have been the nice list because Santa was very good to all of us this year. He was actually beyond good.

Faith did give Santa her small lists of wants this year. She wanted a real drum set and a puppy dog that could live outside and would not hurt our chickens. She got the drums. As for the puppy, well, you know Santa sometimes says no to the gifts we ask for for one reason or another. Maybe next year...

Faith and Beth were decorating cookies for Santa when he called. How cool, huh?

I was so excited that I couldn't even get a good clear picture. And, because Faith's hands had icing all over them, Beth had to hold the phone for her.

Still fuzzy picture, but at least we have it. See the excitement in that sweet face!!