yummy Cinnamon rolls!

So I know I've talked about the Pioneer Woman in the past; so I won't go into the details of how I (and thousands) stalk her daily. I love her blog - it inspires me to cook, and if you know me you know that's a miracle in itself! She's totally into photography, one of my favorite hobbies, and so on and so forth.... So for Christmas my wonderful husband got me her new cookbook - I LOVE IT!! This week alone I've made fried chicken from scratch and now Cinnamon rolls from scratch!!!

I've been preparing, thinking, and sometimes praying about this recipe, I was intimidated; still am to be honest with you. But this morning, there were no more excuses - I had all the ingredients, and Alan was dreaming about them all night long. So b/c I like to do things the hard way, I wanted to make it in one sitting and ready for breakfast - so 5am I began.......

And in the end, success!! Now the second log was much "neater" looking, and I'm sure just as yummy!!

Enjoy salivating!!!

Our snow day

The title should be read with a sarcastic tone; we were promised at least 1 inch of snow, 2-4 possible. All schools closed, all county offices closed, warnings to not go out driving - the talk of black ice............ Well, as you can imagine they were wrong! I was very depressed about it to be honest with you. I had visions of making a snow man with Stephen, finding a fun hill and sledding. But it just didn't happen.

Now in the weather man's defense, it did snow just north of us - and I mean just 15 miles north (still in their viewing area) and it snowed a good couple inches...... I'm jealous! Stephen didn't know the difference, he still had fun playing with the really wet snow on daddy's truck.

Abby enjoyed the fresh air too - she enjoys everything! :) So next winter, we're off to Colorado for my dear friend Nikki's wedding, and it better snow there!!!!!

My sweet children

I can never say enough about my sweet wonderful children; these amazing children have such personalities! Stephen, is in this hilarious faze of not wanting to have his picture taken, and pretending to be mad....... When he crosses his arms, sticks his nose up, and says "I'm mad" I can't help but laugh at him.....he laughs back

Abby is overcome with joy at the Saints Super Bowl win and can't get enough of the Mardi Gras beads to celebrate the occasion......by the way she's started walking :)

ohhh, I do love him so much.....I've decided to get through these terrible two's I'll just take pictures of his silliness so I can try and laugh my way through his temper tantrums!

OH, and then there's Abby again - she just smiles, and smiles, and smiles - yes she cries; but not that much.....usually she just wants some food, or her mommy, or those pesky teeth to finally come down! But mainly she smiles, and laughs so loud....then Stephen laughs with her, then I laugh, the Augie licks us all :)

Did you notice the beads again....yep she's the one putting them on herself....such a girl!

My missionary civic

It's funny to me that I've been thinking about FOCUS so much, and I've shared that with you, but maybe God was preparing me to say goodbye to the last physical thing that I still owned and used that was from my missionary days

This is Joan, below, Joan the Jeep - she was my baby, my sweet loving, awesome baby. After having her for a year, I traveled across the country 4 times with FOCUS and put over 23, 000 miles on her

So I spent some time in prayer, and realized that the prudent thing to do since I was living off donor money was to get a very practical car, a civic - I love civics

This is my missionary civic on Monday. On the 18th of this month I paid her off, we had a plan, on Monday that planned changed.

We spent all morning waiting on the side of the road, trying not to think about what a new transmission was going to cost, or how our great plan of saving for about a year so we could purchase a new car. Instead we waited, then that evening we got the call - it was the transmission......

We are now proud owners of a new, to us, minivan :) I am very excited, like I said it wasn't our plan, we had a plan, did I mention that - but as I was reminded, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plan.....

Another great saying that I needed to hear while these past two days went whirling by us......life happens while you making other plans!