~HEATHER'S HIGHLIGHTS~: January 2022

~Our family, minus Kimberly, at our Fun Christian Nation Church Christmas Dinner.~

~We were so happy to have Kimberly home again on Christmas Eve.~

~Phillip's Christmas gifts were mostly related to our new-to-us wood stove.

God was so good to help us find the stove and all the piping for a

Steal of a deal on Facebook Marketplace.

A dear friend of ours gave us the Beautiful Gray Granite platform.

We haven't done our heat resistant wall behind the stove yet, just have a piece of concrete board there for protection right now.

We are so loving heating with wood.

Abigail was thrilled to get this American Girl doll named Sage.

We bought the doll used off of eBay.

~Abigail and Sage wearing their matching nightgowns.~

~We are enjoying our Steve Stetler Legacy Coffee that we bought to help support our Sweet Friend Beth Stetler! (Beth is a sister-in-law to my brother Andrew.) ~

~A Dear Church sent us Christmas money and told us to spend it on ourselves.

So, I got this fun greeting card rack as part of my Christmas gift from my sweetheart.

It is such a fun way to display our Christmas cards. ~

~Mary made the ornament with a "C" on it for Kimberly's Chris.~

~And the ornament with a "J" on it for Joshua.~

~Our Elijah is all BOY,

and we love him just like he is!~

He saw this bobcat dead on the side of the road.

He begged the family to stop and pick it up and then he skinned it.

~He did the same with a raccoon.

You can tell I'm a BOY MOM....

I walked into the living room and saw these 2 skins,

still bloody, laying on one of our rocking chairs. :-) ~

~For Christmas I wanted an ice pick, to break up ice when it is stuck together.

Phillip went to an antique store and could not find an ice pick.

So, he made me one out of an antique screw driver. I love it!~

~Sarah had fun curling ribbon and hot gluing it to this gift bag in the shape of a present.~

~It was so fun having Josh and Sarah home for several days.

We had a blast playing games, decorating cookies, worshiping Jesus and just being together!

~The big red gift in the background was from Phillip to me.

I would have NEVER guessed what it was.

But, he got us a new toilet. :-D

Ever since we moved into our house the Master Bathroom toilet would get plugged.

(Something must have been flushed down it before we bought the house.)

We do a lot of entertaining and have lots of visitors, and when we do,

the kids and us all use our restroom.

So, the new toilet will be such a blessing to have!!

~We had a lot of fun making and decorating Sugar Cookies.

If you like Sugar Cookies, this is a DELICIOUS RECIPE!! Sarah found it, and we love it. It is yummy with or without frosting.~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

https://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/best-sugar-cookie-recipe-ever/

PRINT RECIPE PIN RECIPE

Ingredients

1 Cup unsalted butter, 226 grams

1 Cup granulated white sugar, 200 grams
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour, 360 grams

Instructions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
In the bowl of your mixer, CREAM butter and sugar until smooth, at least 3 minutes
BEAT in extracts and egg. (PLEASE NOTE there is 1 egg in this recipe.)
In a separate bowl, COMBINE baking powder and salt with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If the dough looks crumbly keep mixing for 30 seconds to 1 minute longer. The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the mixer.

If the dough still looks too dry or stiff for your mixer, turn out the dough onto a countertop surface, flour surface as needed. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches (2-3 chunks), roll out onto a floured surface, and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
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~We all really enjoyed decorating this Sugar Cookie recipe this year.

Noah did these 2 stockings.~

~I was pretty pleased with Abigail's little church she decorated!~

~Chris did such a great job wrapping Kimberly's gift. This was a beautiful dress!

He also got her the most adorable "over night tiny suitcase" filled with gift cards and fun items one would need to run somewhere overnight. (Like Bath and Body Works Spray and lotion, etc.) ~

~Kimberly learned how to make the cutest bows to put on her gifts.~

~We drew names and exchanged those gifts and our gifts to Josh and Sarah on Christmas Eve.

Then on Christmas morning we did our stockings, read the Christmas Story, ate brunch and then Josh and Sarah headed to celebrate with his sweet family.~

~My Daddy and Moma came over on the Tuesday after Christmas and stayed a few days.

It was so fun to have them.

(This pic was taken by our sweet friend Penny. Daddy and Moma spent Christmas Day with Penny and Rodney and their family.)~

~Phillip preached on Sunday night, Dec. 26th.~

~Kristin, Samantha, Megan and baby, Kimberly, and Sarah.~

~Jessica, Mary, and Rebekah.~

~Gramp reading Abigail a story.~

~Phillip reading us a story.~

~Moma found these fun Christmasy Throws on Sale in Walmart, last July for .75 each!

That was so sweet of Jesus to help her find these for gifts for all of us.~

~I love these adorable little cream mittens. ~

~New Years~

My Parents and my brother Andrew, his wife Vonnie, and their twins, and their friend Gideon all came to spend some fun hours with us!

~The Puzzle table was a popular place.~

~We had fun going on a walk.~

~Down to the creek.~

~L to R: Elijah, Mary, Noah, Tyler, Abigail, Gideon, and Taylor.~

~Grandpa and Grandma's house.~

~So, we were supposed to have an 80% chance of snow.

Where we live,

we don't get a lot of snow,

even when others like Cincinnati do.

So, our kids were soooo excited and began to PRAY that Jesus would indeed send us SNOW!

Then, our chance went down to 50%,

then down to ONLY some flurries. :-(

Well, Jesus saw 3 children PRAYING HARD for snow, and ANSWERED THEIR PRAYERS!!

We got 1 1/2" to 2" of snow!!!!!

They went SLEDDING,

MADE SNOW CREAM,

and soooo ENJOYED the SNOW that Jesus sent them!

Abigail was singing to the top of her lungs,

"God takes real good care of me."

When I asked her to sing more quietly, she said,

"Mommy, have you looked OUTSIDE?

God DOES take good care of me.

See the SNOW that He sent us!!!

~Snow cream~

~RaeQuelle's Birthday Outdoor Skating Party.~

~Taking Kimberly to see Grandpa and Grandma and Michael and Beth and their family.~

~A day or 2 earlier, Beth had been at Dad and Mom Dickinson's Marshalls and had seen 1 of these cute little "First Aid" Tins. She didn't get it and later wished she would have gotten it.

She was telling me about it and we decided to run see if Marshalls still had that tin for her.

I was Praying, as we were running, that they would stay open,

and that they would have at least 1 tin left, if not, 2!! :-)

We got there right when we thought they were closing,

but Jesus helped them close a little later than we thought they would,

and there were TWO tins,

one for HER and one for ME!