Gratituesday: My God Is An Awesome God!

How was GOD great, in 2008? (OH, I am a poet!)

Here is how God was great in a nut shell!

1- New Job for my Hubby after 16 yrs at one place!
2- My Old Job back (up until last sunday :-( to help me bring in money for our family!
3- A great YIELD in our garden! Enough to share with many!!!!!
4- Over 200 LBS of apples from our adopted Grandparents! (this ='s over 150 jars of apple sauce!)
5- Making great new friends!
6-Showing me the way to eat "CLEAN" this year has made a huge difference in my family! PLUS, I got to meet so many Woman on blogs here online who are a great support when I feel those around me are LAUGHING at me!
7- the finances to purchase my WONDERFUL Kitchenaid (ok, so that is a really selfish "THANK GOD" thing, but come on I bless my family with it daily!)
8- My ETSY shop selling lots... bringing me to over 360 sales!
9- Did I mention great friendships, in real life and online?????
and Number 10-
Giving me my wonderful family on more year, with out sickness, accidents, etc.... Showing me that my children and my husband are the greatest people here on earth, and I shouldn't take advantage of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Read more HOW GOD WAS GREAT IN 2008 at heavenlyhomemakers.com

These are the cutest kids EVER!!!!

OK, maybe I am ALITTLE bias... but I just think... HOW did I make such cute kids????

OK, so our christmas this year was pretty good!

Small gathering on the EVE at my inlaws because my hubbies sister and family couldn't come... so we were only 14 people instead of 18! (of course my family makes up 6 of those!)

The kids LOVED what the grandparents gave them on Christmas Eve so that is always wonderful! AND my favorite gift (I only got 4 of them, so it was a HARD CHOICE!) was a NEW cutting Mat from my Brother in Law! HMMMM, how did he know mine was getting old???!!!!

Yesterday I hosted Christmas at my house and it went off PRETTY well... ALL except for the NERF BALL SHOOTING GUNS my MOTHER got for 5 hyper, crazy, must be strung up by their toe nails, boys.... all between the ages of ALMOST 7 to 10 HELLO, what on EARTH was she thinking..... UMMM, I DON'T THINK THAT SHE WAS!!!!!!!!!! The balls were flying everywhere and my 31 yr old BROTHER, started shooting them out of his MOUTH of all things.... OH, how I was glad when they finally STOPPED!

I also invited a good friend of mine and her family over for dinner with all of us, because they didn't have plans! (HELLO GABBI!) They SAID they had a good time, but maybe in the future the truth will come out and they will tell us that my family SCARED THEM! We are like the Griswalds meet Disfunction! BUT, after the night was done and everyone left.... we were happy to have had the chance to hang out with everyone and also happy that NOTHING go broken, all except for Lucas' necklace that my nephew kept pulling off of luke's neck! (this is the same kid who ripped Trevor's Shirt off his body last christmas! UGH<>

SOOO, all in all it was a faily good christmas this year! Always a good time of the year to thank God for all that he does and all that he gives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Merry Merry Christmas!

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year........

I want you all to sing that all day today and tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sing it loud, Sing it proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Rules!

OK, today after reading another blog, I thought of some RULE'S I think EVERYONE should follow and but that some people DO NOT!

When you BORROW something.... Give it back in BETTER shape then your borrowed it in!

When you BREAK something that you are BORROWING.... REPLACE IT!!!!!!

I truly believe in borrowing things that you NEED and Lending out things that others need! BUT there are SOME PEOPLE in my life that I just have decided to NOT LEND THING TO! They NEVER return them in a timely manner, they NEVER clean what they borrow, AND sometimes the item comes back broken!!!! I really believe GOD gives to those who care for others property!

IT goes like this.....
While we rented an apartment when first married.... we took care of it like our own house... we didn't eat in the livingroom, we cleaned up every spill, we didn't damage anything! BECAUSE I would tell my husband "I want a house one day and GOD will not provide that if you don't care for others housing!" ALSA, 3 months into our marriage we got our first home! Then after 5 yrs, we sold that home.... After caring for it and fixing it up, we made 45,000 on it! Yes, you read that right..... we bought it for 90,000 and 5 yrs later sold it for 143,000.... so after Relitor fees, we made that much money!!! So great to have to use when we built our new home! BUT we HAD TO RENT while we built! SO, back to renting and back to treating it like our own! This time though we had 3 children when renting! We found a great duplex in the middle of the country to rent (this is where we pick our hundreds of pounds of apples from each year)
To this VERY DAY, we have been their FAVORITE renters EVER! (and they have rented to others in 3 different duplex's for YEARS and YEARS! WHY you might ask.... BECAUSE we cared for their place!!!!! We were LENT this great home to keep our family in and we TOOK CARE OF IT like our OWN!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, that was a long tangent, but I think you catch my drift!

SOOOO, one of my top rules just follows the GOLDEN RULE we all grew up hearing!

OH, and also when walking somewhere like the mall, DON'T just STOP in the middle of the walking area to DO SOMETHING... this is one of my BIGGEST PET PEEVES!!!! Move to the side.... we do not ever STOP in the middle of the freeway to Tie our kids shoes!!!!!!!!

Doll bottoms everywhere are being diapered!

OK, so this morning, I did some adding up of HOW MANY doll diapers I sold JUST on ETSY!

So far this month I have sold 104 diapers.... that is 1 more than what I sold Jan-Oct..... (Nov. I sold 87)

WOW~~~~ Who ever though that there would be such a need for doll's bottoms to be covered!

You can check out my MANY MANY prints HERE.....

SOOOO, huge thanks to ETSY this month for the chance to COVER UP all those bare bottoms!!!!!

Gratituesday: My KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!!

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times.... EVERYONE NEEDS A KITCHENAID!

I got my first one for a wedding gift from my inlaws.... at first I didn't use it often, maybe 4-5 times a month TOPS! But as the years went on, I began using it more and more (could be that the babies came!)

One day last spring I turned my old one on and it started to make a grinding noise, which scared me because it A: was now 9 yrs old and B: because we use it ALL THE TIME, and I knew apple sauce season would be coming soon and that we would be using it A LOT!!!!

SOOO for mothers day/my birthday I got a new one! AND I AM IN LOVE WITH IT!

I use it pretty much ATLEAST once a day on average!

I love the PTO's that we have for it..... The shredder, the meat grinder, the ice cream maker, the strainer (the best thing to have for making apple sauce as seen HERE.....)

I am not sure I would be as good of a baker/cook with out it.... it is like that 3rd arm we all wish that we had!

SOOO, if you do not have a KITCHENAID mixer yet... put it on your wish list and find a way to get yourself one! ALSO, keep a look out at your friends mixer... maybe they will get a new one and you can have their old one!!!! (YOU ARE WELCOME GABBI!!!!) OH, and if you wait for a good deal you can get one for a great price... I know we just gave my MIL one for $103, a really nice one that was ONSALE at Kohls the day after thanksgiving!!!!! (with 15% off and rebates it was a steal!)

Read more Gratituesday at heavenlyhomemakers

First Hair Cut.....

Do you think she will be traumatized for LIFE????