The passy is passing on....

Well, it looks like the"deet-deet" a.k.a. Zekers' pacifier is becoming a memory. Oh, its still pretty vivid and he asks about it every night, but I do believe we have already been through the hard part. Last Sunday, we traveled to my Mom's house to spend the holidays with her. She asked if she could get anything at the grocery store and I asked if she wouldn't mind picking up another pack of Zekey's passies. We were down to the last one and I just really didn't want to have to deal with the onslaught that would follow if we lost that one. Well, Mom couldn't find them at the Walmart she stopped at and I just said not to worry about it, we could get some if the need arose. The standing rule for Zekes has been that he doesn't take it outside. Well, he took it outside at Mom's house. Mom has three dogs in her backyard and one of them chews everything up. When he came in, I didn't notice that he didn't have it for a while and then it got dark. We looked all over the house and I tried to look a bit on the back porch, but we couldn't find the silly thing. When he went to bed, he asked, "Where deet-deet go, Momma?!" (He arches one of his eyebrows and has a very serious look on his face and ends the question by putting the heaviest stress on the end of Momma...;) Anyway, I said that he had taken it outside where he wasn't supposed to and that the puppies probably chewed it up. That was my guess at the time. He asked three times before he seemed convinced that the puppies probably got his deet-deet and he wasn't going to get it that night. He woke up around six that next morning wanting it, but then went back to sleep pretty quickly. (Braden slept through it:) We went the next day without the deet-deet for nap time and though he did fuss a bit, it didn't last long and he slept really well. It has now been a week and we have come back from having a really nice time with family over Thanksgiving and Zekes has taken yet another step in the growing up process. I'm a little sad, but so excited that he is weaned and we didn't have to attempt it in the motor home! Praise the Lord! Thank you so much, Sweet Lord for that!!!

I have some pics from Thanksgiving and I'll post them sometime this week, hopefully.

Thanksgiving time

Ailey got sick a couple of days before we were supposed leave and had a pretty good fever going, so I was freaking out about riding the train with a sick baby, not to mention I was working off of next to NO sleep. SO, Mom and Sam had a good chat over the phone and between the two of them decided that they would meet halfway and switch us over.:) I was instantly relieved, of course. I really wanted to go to my mom's early so we would have more time to spend with her, but I was thinking about not going until Sam went until he and Mom talked. We had a good drive, though Sam ended up having to miss church because he had to take us himself. What a wonderful man! Anyway, our Thanksgiving was really very nice and fun. We got to hang out with Granny (my Mom), Gran-Gran(my Granny )up until Thanksgiving and then extended family (aunts, uncles and cousins) for that day and then we got to hang out at Sam's Parents' house with the Dyess' and Cherry crews. It was really such a good time! Here are the promised pics:

Poor Ailey Gracie-Girl! She was not feeling good at all. :(

She was soooo off of her routine and didn't want to go to sleep and my mom was such a trooper offering to hold her and rock her bunches. Thanks, Mom! You are wonderful!!!

This was the beginning of the Molasses Pecan-Pumpkin Pie

Had to make a couple of Lemon Chess pies, of course.

The finished Molasses Pecan-Pumpkin pie. Wasn't too bad, but I think I will do some major tweaking next time. ;)

Oh, yeah, I decided we needed to have pumpkin stuffed french toast for breakfast. Braden did such a good job cooking the french toast.

Sam, drinking his much-liked coffee with a dollop of cheese.

Zekes standing by...

adding a little cheese of his own...

Trying to dress Ailey all cutey in her new clothes. We had gone to Hughes Springs because they were promoting their downtown area and staying open til 10 pm and having some great sales. We went to the children's clothing store there and Mom bought several little outfits for Ailey and we got Zekey a red turtle neck for pictures whenever I get around to that.

See, cutey! By the time we had driven the 3 miles to my Granny's house for Thanksgiving, she had gotten her headband and shoes off. Houdini, I tell ya!

This is my Aunt Scarlet

Aunt Scarlet's youngest daughter, my cousin, Tyler

My cousin Jennifer

Gran-Gran's neighbors across the road, Lester and Ann

Aunt Scarlet's husband, Uncle Stacey

Jennifer's dad, Uncle Gary and his girl-friend (can't remember her name right now! aahhh!)

That's my granny aka Gran-Gran in the back there.

Meemaw and Peepaw with the two granddaughters, Ailey on the left and Lauren on the right. They are about three months apart.

Working on getting all of the grandkiddos in the pic with Meemaw and Peepaw

There was a lot of directing going on;)

We finally got everyone in...

Okay, here we go starting from left to right back row first: Gabriel is holding Zekey, Luke is holding Michael, Meemaw with Ailey Gracie, Peepaw with Lauren, Elijah is the oldest of them all:) he's gonna be 13 in January!!! I can't believe it! Okay, down in front starting on the left is Boaz, then Braden (they are about 3 mos apart, too) and finally Dakota. Aren't those some good-lookin' kiddos?!

The paparazzi: Jennifer, Sam and Mollie

Trying to get a good pic of my three together

not so much.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Its all Reina's fault!

Well, the other day, I got some mini nilla wafers and put peanut butter between two of them. I posted the fact that I had done so on facebook. Then, Reina had to go and say, and I quote, "now dip those bad boys in chocolate. mmmmmmm". Which then, according to Jennifer, started something. Indeed it did! So, seeing as how I had a few mini nilla wafers left and just happened to see some chocolate bark in my freezer calling out to me, I thought I would try it out and all. Here's my "process":

All these ingredients are really wanting to mingle...can't you tell? They are a little antsy. Better get started. Don't want to keep them waiting too long!

Okay, chocolate, just a bit in the microwave and you'll be all ready.

See, the peanut butter and mini nilla wafers are already getting along. It's okay, chocolate is on its way.

Don't be scared, little wafer sandwich! You are just going to take a little bath... Chocolate is really friendly. Trust me, you'll love it!

See, what did I tell you! Its like a cookie spa treatment.

That took a lot of energy, so now we have to let them rest and get to know each other.

We have to let your masks dry. I think a few minutes in the fridge will set you up nicely.

Oh no! That leftover chocolate looks lonely! Its okay, I have something that would like to meet you....

See, the crackers really liked what happened to the nilla wafers, so they wanted in on it, too.

Aw! Look at the big happy family. So sweet!

What do you mean you didn't know that he was gonna be involved?

Just know you were made for a specific purpose! Now, don't be scared, there are cheetos where you are going. I think you'll really get along with them.:)

You, too....you and the cheetos and your half-siblings will all get along just fine.

You might not fare so well....there's pasta down there!

Vote for Suzanne!!!

You know all those yummy recipes and funny stories I put on here from Chicken's in the Road? Well, she needs our help. She is in a contest to be a writer for Sam-e and she has asked all her readers to continually vote for her every day. Here is the link to the post where she explains and the link to vote is at the end of that post. I hope she gets it! I know I always come away from reading her blog with a big smile and usually a new recipe or two! So, please take a couple of minutes of your morning blog time and click the button to vote for her.:)

A fondant foray and a birthday visit

So, I made my multi-layered birthday cake. Here is the picture progression of that tragedy:

Red velvet cake and chocolate zucchini cake and crusting dark chocolate frosting

Layers that didn't want to lay down

Leftover tops with potential

The calm prettiness before the fondant storm

I really should have left well enough alone at this point, but alas its ever an experiment with me!

What you do with the leftovers...

I pressed the remnants into the bottom of a loaf pan and cut it in half and then frosted it. We don't want to be wasteful, now do we?

Where's that white elephant missing a foot?

I really don't think I'm going to be using fondant. Its a lot of hard work. Just rolling it out was craziness, not to mention the laying on and attempting to smooth it out like the directions say...
Ailey Grace taking a snooze.

The sweetness

Padrino a.k.a Juan and his goddaughter

Love this pic!

Somewhere between Killeen and San Antonio, the fondant drooped some more and I stretched it a bit more and cut off the ends. This of course left lovely chocolate fingerprints all over the place!

Braden was enjoying a spoonful of the leftover blue and yellow icing

Had a lot of fun going over the top with the decorations. Lots of candy sprinkles were eaten in the making of this cake;p

The first piece cut....that also made me not like the fondant so much. Its kinda a pain and it is just very bland.

This is Nina a.k.a. Donna, my fellow birthday girl.

Had a good time working in this kitchen. Living vicariously, people!

Look away! Scariness! or we could go with...."Everybody was kung fu fightin'!" Check out the 'stache:)

I love my family!!!

As we were leaving, we decided to have an impromtu photo shoot.

Zekes was trying so hard to copy Braden. So cute!

Braden was just having lots of fun posing.:)

Okay, keep your eyes on Zekey...

Success!

Ailey decided she had had enough!

She's outta there!

Trying to crawl to her refuge...she doesn't like grass yet;p

There's the Daddy!

Nina and Padrino's beautiful house.