John 15

"I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."  John 15:5

This past week at BSF we studied John 15.  They kids did a cute "craft" at the end.  They took green pipe cleaners (representing the vine, Jesus), and strung on Fruit Loops to represent the "fruit" we can bear if we remain in the vine.

Matthew happily eats his "fruit"...

Recent Stuff

Finally downloaded pics from this past week.  Here is Matthew on his actually Birthday blowing out some more candles.  We did this like 15 times.  He loved blowing them out.

He also loves playing with the Mr. Potato Head gift set that his Aunt Cathy and family gave him.  He has such fun with it!

This was picture worthy...you turn your back for 2 seconds, and you have a mess when he is eating.  This should be titled:  "Uh Oh, Spaghettios!"

2 Year Pics

On Tuesday we took Matthew to the Target Portrait Studio to have his 2 year pictures taken.  He was a handful, and wouldn't sit still for anything!  Fortunately we did get a few right at the beginning that were decent.  Ahhh, gotta love 2 year olds!

We were even able to get a halfway decent family pic in our attempt to get Matthew to sit.  Can you tell he had been crying a bit?? :)

Happy Birthday Video

Yes, I promise you this is so adorable!!  Matthew is smiling at all his cousins singing to him, then near the end, he tries to "mouth" the words himself.  Then on cue, and without hardly any prompting, he blows out his candles!  He also calls them "hot". So stinkin' cute! (Again, biased Mom here!)

2nd Birthday Party

Action shots from the party.  We served pizza from Altamore's, and the cake was so yummy!  I'll post a video also of all of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Matthew.  It is the cutest thing EVER (yes I am a bit biased being his Mom...). :)

Here he is ready to blow out the candles...

Just look at the yummy layers inside the cake! 

Wild man opening up gifts...

Family pic in front of the banner I made...

Caught in the act!  Matthew is eating the fondant #2 from the top of his cake...talk about a sugar high!

Ready to Party!

Matthew's birthday party was a blast!  We took a few pictures right before everyone came over of the room completely decorated, and Matthew in his cute outfit for the party.  Of course it was almost utter "melt down" mode if he didn't have the balloons in his hand!

Matthew is not so sure about the hat, so Daddy shows him how it's done...

I'm 2!

Matthew and me...

Let's get the party started!

The Cake!!

Matthew's cake for his party is just fabulous!  Kynda did such a wonderful job with it.  I asked her to somewhat copy the invitation I used for the party.  It is a banana cake, with two layers of banana cream filling and one layer of a peanutbutter/fluffernutter filling in each tier of the cake.  So adorable!

Harvest Women: Worship

Last night was a fantastic and fun night at church for our Women's Ministry event.  The theme for this one was worship.  There were over 120 women who came!  I spent the better party of Thursday making 5 double batches of a broccoli cheddar soup for the event.  Also served were a chicken corn chowder soup, and a shrimp chorizo soup.  Of course there were yummy appetizers, and a choice of two different cheesecakes for dessert.  There was also an awesome time of worship that lasted for quite awhile.

The ladies practicing to lead worship...

Pearl, the mastermind behind all the food....Love her apron, it reads:  "Will cook for shoes".

The table settings...

Inger and I...

The soup ladies!! Michelle, Sara, and myself...

Worship time...

Party Decor

Almost finished decorating for Matthew's party.  Will add some balloons, but that is about it.  I think it turned out pretty cute!  The cake will go on top of the "box" in the middle of the table.  I covered it with some cute fabric, and placed baby bananas on each side, along with a sock monkey (made by Chris's mother Char), and the cute sock monkey lunch box my Aunt Jean gave Matthew.

The awesome banner my friend Megan made...

Toddlers...

Now it is the middle of February, and Matthew is in some Santa pajamas (a hand me down from a sweet friend!), his good black shoes, eating cheese at the kitchen table, all while standing on one of his chairs.  Just why is this?

20 minutes earlier...

 Matthew decided to take another dip in the tub with his pajamas Chris had just put on him for the night.  (This all happened within 10 seconds of him leaving his bed room after being dressed...)  Just look at his expression, he knew he did something naughty, even by the time I was able to get the camera.  Chris was with him laughing and shaking his head.

Valentine Festivities

This past Saturday, we spent a good portion of the day in the kitchen making a heart shaped cake, heart shaped cookies, and a nice meal to celebrate Valentines Day.  Matthew loved getting in on the action of making the cookie dough.  You can see him crying in one of the photos since we told him "no touching" the blender when it was on.  He wanted so bad to dip his little fingers into the dough.  For dinner I made chicken au poivre, rice pilaf, and roasted asparagus.  Everything was yummy!

Chef Matthew!

Dinner...

The cake...

The cookies, which I am excited to say that I submitted this recipe to Tasty Kitchen, a part of The Pioneer Woman website.  Here is the link to the cookie recipe.

 

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Party

We had another fun Valentines Party this year!  Our 2nd annual!  This year I served two different chilis.  The kids and the chaos were a blast.  We also took family pictures in front of our fire place again.

Having fun...

The Tobin's

 

The Schmidt's

 

The Branum's

 

The Doherty's

 

And I couldn't resist not posting this funny one of some of the kids...