Family Pictures

Lady Locks

Ingredients

* 1 pound of butter softened
* 1 pound cottage cheese, creamed
* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling
* 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 cup milk
* 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cup Crisco
* 3 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1/2cup marshmallow creme

Directions

1. Cream together butter, margarine, cottage cheese, salt and 4 cups of flour. Shape into a 4 inch balls, cover and chill overnight.
2. Roll each ball out individually,with powdered sugar, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into strips about 3/4th inch wide. *Keep dough in the frig and only take out what you are working on. It is very hard to work with if it gets warm.
3. Roll over tubes (you can use clothespins or dowel rods covered with aluminum foil). Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) until brown.
4. To make Filling: Cook milk and 4 tablespoons of flour until thick paste forms. Let cool completely. (I usually make this part before I start baking the dough)
5. Beat shortening and confectioner's sugar until fluffy. Add marshmallow cream and vanilla. Then add COLD paste and beat.(I find that sometimes the paste does not mix in well so I usually cream it real well first,then add Crisco and sugar beat well, then add marshmallow cream and vanilla. This filling needs to be beaten a long time until fluffy. I have a kitchen aid stand mixer and I start it and let it run several minutes.
6. Fill tubes with cream filling, using a pastry bag or cake decorator.

I make these kind of small. One batch makes about 100 if you make them small. I tripled the batch and got about 300. These freeze very well. They would be a lot easier if you just made one batch and made them bigger. I like to give goody plates away at Christmas so like them small like a cookie.

On the forms before baking

Before being filled.

9 hours and 300 lady locks later!

It's begining to look alot like Christmas around here.

Christmas tree in our family/game/school room

Entry way

Another view of the entryway

Carolers above my living room closet.

Living room tree

At night with the lights off~ 2,900 lights.

Corner of my kitchen

Girls tree decorated by entirely by them.

Boys "sad" little tree decorated by them.

Gotta love this age!!!

This kid is a climber. And he gets into everything!! But I am still loving this age. So much fun!

He climbed up...

Got the Teddy Bear and threw it down....

And then started to climb down. I guess he wanted the bear.

For you Bethany:-)

My sweet, wonderful cousin Bethany (my one and only faithful reader) keeps bugging me to update my blog. So here you go Bethany...a couple new post for you to read:-)

Bethany finds out in a few days if she has a match for a new kidney. Please help us pray that this is a good match and she can have the surgery and be on the mend before Christmas.

Kroger Deals

This week I made 3 trips to Kroger for their Mega sale(only two trips pictured). They have this sale a couple times a year, and I like to stock up when they do. I got a lot of things for free or almost free. Some things I do not usually buy but got because they were so much cheaper than normal~such as Jose Ole Taquitos. We love these but I almost never by them because they are 5.29 for a box of 15. I got them for 2.00 a box, with sale and coupon. I got a lot of yogurt any where from free to .49. The kids love to have these as a snack. I got extra strength Tylenol for 1.50 and Tylenol PM for .50. I also bought more snacks and chips than usual, but I have put them away to use during the holidays.
So the grand total.....
543.32 worth of groceries for...
184.39 after sales and coupons.
It still sounds like a lot, but it includes 2 packs of diapers. Since my freezer was already pretty stocked with meat from previous sales, I should not have to do much grocery shopping the rest of the month.

Tonight Chris was asking questions about the kids ages and how much older they were than him when he got this shocked, unbelievable look on his face and said "You mean you had 6 Christmas's without me!"

Blessings

I have been needing a new table and chairs for a long time and have been wanting a new table for even longer. The table we have been using is about 30 years old and the chairs have been repaired several times. The other problem was it only sat 6 so if we had company we had to send the kids somewhere else to sit.
With Tim still in school, a new one like I wanted is way out of the budget, so I have been looking on craigslist for several weeks. I prayed that I could find one like I have been wanting. The things I really wanted it to have were a double pedestal, be able to store the leaves under the table and be able to extend to about 96 inches. This one has all of those requirements and is VERY sturdy and well made. The chairs are heavy duty and should last a long time. This set would cost me at least 1,500-2,000 new....I paid $300.

This is without any leaves...42x60...the biggest our old one got.

This is with one leaf in..makes it 42x72

With both leaves it is 42x96(not pictured)

Love the pedestal.

Picture taken September 2006
Even though I am thrilled with my new table and very thankful for it, I am just a wee bit sentimental about the old one going. I grew up eating around this table and have many happy memories with my family growing and with my own kids.

I'M BAAAACK

Tim has been after me because I have not posted in a while. I am now on facebook and it seems easier to just do that, but I have been missing my blog and the more "intimate" feel here. I also know that some of my readers are not on facebook so I am going to try to post here more often.
Last week I did a little photo shoot with the kids. Here are some of the pictures.

CHRIS

CHARLIE

WALTER

BRITTANY