Family Photos...

These were taken at Thanksgiving and they actually turned out really well....I used these on our Christmas card.  Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!  We are off to Hot Springs (in our canoe)....the news says that I-30 is closed due to flooding but we are going to try anyway.  Safe travels!!!!!

New Recipe

This past Wednesday night we had our Sunday school Christmas party at our home and I made my first cheesecake ever! It was actually really good so I want to share with the rest of you.


Eggnog Cheesecake

• 12oz gingersnaps (about 48 cookies), finely crushed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 4 packages of 8-ounce 1/3-less fat cream cheese (32 ounces total)
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups eggnog
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• Garnish: freshly grated nutmeg

1. Stir together crushed gingersnaps, sugar, and butter in a large bowl. Press mixture onto bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. (I used a 9x13 casserole dish instead and it was good!)

2. Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add 1 1/2 cups eggnog (leave 1/2 eggnog for topping), and beat until blended. Fold in powdered sugar and flour. Carefully pour cream cheese mixture into prepared pan.

3. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Turn off oven and let cheesecake stand in oven with door closed for 1 hour. Remove and let cool completely. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours.

4. Topping: Beat whipping cream at high speeds with an electric mixture until stiff peaks form; fold in remaining 1/2 cup eggnog. Spread mixture evenly over the top of chilled cheesecake. Sprinkle freshly grated nutmeg on top, if desired.

I thought the gingersnap crust was good, but Josh's critique was that next time I should do a graham cracker crust. He ALWAYS has "helpful" information when it comes to cooking :) "Ape this is great BUT it could use a little of this and a dash of that...I'm just trying to help!" Anyway, everyone should try making this cheesecake for your family!

We only have 5 more days til' Christmas! I still have not finished getting gifts for the fam, talk about procrastination! Josh is actually already out this morning trying to find his Dad and his brothers the perfect gift. I just have my Dad left and I think I have an idea of what to give him. Lori is visiting us this week and it has been nice having her here (minus the snot rags). She got here Wednesday afternoon and will be leaving next Wednesday. Lori has really bad allergies and her nose has been running non-stop so there are snot rags EVERYWHERE!!! For those of you who know my sister, you know what I'm talking about....She walks around with a wad of tissue up each nostril and when she changes them out, instead of throwing them away, she puts them on the coffee table. Gross I know! Lori also has what I call "college" style eating habits. We had a bag of chocolate candy that has slowly disappeared over the past few days. An entire bag of ruffle chips are gone...she ate that in two days by herself! I was going to make her a sandwich for lunch yesterday but she went to Sonic instead. She had to go to Kroger to buy herself some "snacks" since we don't have anything for her to eat. How in the world does she stay soooo skinny is my question! Nonetheless I love having her visit :) I'm waiting on her to wake up for the day of activities I have planned for us to do. We are going to find Dad a gift, take Koen to the dog park, maybe go to the mall...the day is still young!

Christmas Decor Pictures (Inside)

The cleaning peeps came yesterday so I decided to have a mini photo shoot of the Christmas Decor!!! It was a nasty rainy day today so I'll take pictures of the outside decor tomorrow...stay posted!

I hope you enjoy the glimpse into our home! :)

Our Decked Out Living Room...

The Mantle Decor...

Coffe Table Decor...

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree....

Winter Wonderland Tree Branches...

Pine Cone Decor that Memo gave me...

Kitchen Area...

The Foyer & Stairs (plus Koen's ball!)

Upstairs ....

Guest Bathroom....

Play By Play Weekend

This weekend we did pretty much NOTHING and it was wonderful! Friday night we watched our tivoed shows and then went to bed. Boring I know!

Saturday morning I slept in to about 8:45am and then jolly Josh woke me up to finish putting up the Christmas decor outside. We are in a competition with some friends and so the Matthews are going for it! I took some pictures but I still need to upload them. I'll do that tomorrow. Saturday afternoon Josh went to a friends house to watch football and Koen and I did some laundry and picked up the house a little....then Saturday night was date night! We went to Olive Garden and spent the leftover gift card from Memo and had a wonderful little dinner with my husband. We left stuffed and came home to lounge on the couch and then went to bed.

Today we went to early church and Sunday School...After Sunday School we went to Panera Bread with a few peeps from our class. When then came home and have pretty much been worthless all afternoon! Well we did bring the new neighbors across the street a loaf of "Christmas Bread" and introduced ourselves. We remember when we moved in and we were so excited to own our own home and NO ONE came to welcome us to the neighborhood. We thought we would be neighborly and be nice! So yeah our weekend might not seem to fun to most of you, but it was great for us because we got to spend it at home and be lazy! Tomorrow is Monday and a whole new week!

Turkey's Done!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate a lot of delicious food like we did! We did two Thanksgivings so let's just say we are a few lbs heavier this week.  I have been super busy at work so I have not had time to blog. So sorry for all of you who keep up with me!  I just wanted to share a few photos from the Holiday weekend. Josh's parents family (both sides) did Thanksgiving lunch together so there were a TON of peeps!

The "Fisher" Family (Josh's Mom's Side)

The Matthew's Family (Josh's Dad's Side)

Preparing for "extra" seating...

Koen had to stay outside because there were too many people in the house. 

He was scolded by Aunt Sarah for being in the kitchen...I know Ko-Ko she's mean :)

The Matthews minus Koen

After lunch we headed to the large town of Star City for dinner at my grandmother's house.  We didn't take too many pics but I do have a couple of my "1st cousins once removed"....Luca and Alana are too cute!

Well Bowen HATES hats but he still is precious!

Miss Alana

Gifts from Memo :)