DiGiorno House Party

If you have never checked out Houseparty.com you need to. Companies use houseparty.com to get out word about their products. You apply and if you are chosen you get to have a party at you house and they supply great products for you to use. I was selected to host a party for DeGiorno Pizza. I was given coupons for free pizza and $4 coupons to give my guest. Along with some other neat stuff that you can see in the picture below.

I packaged the coupons with a pizza cutter in a dish towel as gifts to give the guest. They are in the basket in the picture.

Bam Bams for the kids:)


The theme was Pizza and Hoops

Several games of basketball were played


we even had Basketball for the Wii

We had such a fun time with family and friends. I forgot to take any pictures of the pizza but it was yummy. If you have never tried DiGiorno Pizza give it a try. You can now get a full size pizza packaged with you choice of wings, bread sticks or cookies. We had the wings and bread sticks and they were delicious.

Merry Christmas

Remmembering my Mother~~My Mentor~My Friend

I am re-posting this post that I wrote a couple of years ago about my Mother. I am so thankful that I had such a great Mom. I miss her!

MOM

My Mother was one of the truest, kindest persons I have known. She was a genuine Southern Bell. It seemed like when I was growing up, there were always people stopping by our house. Mom was always ready with a warm smile, a cold drink, and usually something to eat. Mom was a wonderful cook. When dad was pastoring, we usually had someone for dinner every Sunday. She made it look so effortless and enjoyable.

Mom had the heart of a teacher. She had her Masters in Elementary Education. She taught me the love of reading. many winter nights she would read to us such books as, Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the prairie. She taught me a lot through example. As a young girl,I remember many times looking for her, and finding her in her bedroom praying. What a heritage I have!

Mom was a giver. Many times she would quietly help someone in need, whether it was a meal, money or clothes. I remember more than once her buying somebody a dress, because she wanted them to have something nice too.

Mom was a friend--and she had many!! She made people feel special, and they liked to be around her. She was my shopping buddy, OH how we liked to shop together.

Mom showed good attitudes, and if she was wrong, she was always willing to apologize. She demonstrated grace under fire. Mom suffered with cancer for 9 years. The last two years were extremely painful for her, yet many times I would hear someone ask her how she was feeling, and she would answer,"Well just pretty good." She taught me how a Christian lives AND dies.

Many times growing up , I did not agree with her. Some times I thought she was Crazy! Some rules just didn't make sense to me. But now that I am a mother, I see how wise she was. Many days I think about her and strive to the kind of mother she was. Many days I fall short. If I can be half as good a mother has she was to me, I will have been a success.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been putting this off all week. For one thing I am not the writer that some of you are. But the other reason is because I knew it would make me miss her more. This will be my third Mothers Day without her.

I thank God for my wonderful Mother, and that he has allowed me to be a mother.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

You know it is time to update your blog when your 11 year old tells you that you need to!

I have been wanting to put some vinyl wall art up in my room for a while. I found this on the internet, and I LOVE the final product. I also love my new lamps from IKEA

It came with the 2 sitting birds and 3 flying birds. They added 2 more flying birds for me at no additional cost. I wanted enough birds to represent everyone in the family.

I forgot to take a close up of the picture, but if you enlarge this picture you can see that it is a bird sitting on branches.

I love this candle holder I found on Clarence at Meijer.

Here Is the link to the etsy shop that I bought the wall art from. They were great to work with and I got my order in less than a week.

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.