Secret Recipe...

Megan suggested I post the recipe for my special chocolate chip cookies. I’ve never posted a recipe because, honestly, I don’t cook or bake a whole lot! Horrible…hideous, right? I know. I’m trying to be more intentional about cooking at home.

Anyways, my Aunt Diane passed down a very special secret about homemade chocolate chip cookies. Here’s how I make them:

Use the Nestle Toll House recipe.

Follow it exactly, but instead of using butter, like it calls for, use Crisco. I buy the Crisco shortening sticks (regular, not butter flavored)…sold in the baking aisle. They are pre-measured with 16 Tbs. in each package. I think the recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter, so measure out how much Crisco you need. You will notice the difference immediately after baking. The cookies never “cave in”, they stay fluffy and they taste so yummy!! Let me know if you try it. I’ll never go back to using butter in my chocolate chip cookies!

Cookie monster

Levi wanted to make cookies for Ms. Louise, his teacher at school. So, tonight, we got busy baking!! He has fun using my KitchenAid mixer and I enjoy letting him be a big boy and stir all the ingredients.

I'm not sure how many cookies Ms. Louise will actually get because this little cookie monster liked eating the batter and was scarfing it down faster than I could get them on the cookie sheet to bake!! :-)

Madison

Last year, we (ahem) invited ourselves to be a part of Paul & Gretchen's tradition of going to Madison for the Nights Before Christmas Home Tour in Madison. :) Thanks guys!!! I think this was the Murphy's 3rd or 4th year going. We ate dinner at a happenin' place - The Pines and then headed out for the tour.

Two of the three happy couples
The first house we went to...The Lanier Mansion. I think it's just beautiful and love hearing the history!!

Ok, somehow I managed NOT to get a pic of me & my hubby, but I got one of him and Gretchen!

The three gals...Melanie, Tracey & Gretchen

We had such a fun evening and I just really enjoy the company of our friends. What wonderful traditions to be able to share in this holiday season. I love you guys!!

Oh, and a shout out to my parents who kept Levi all night for us. He LOVES going to Grammy & Papa's to spend the night. In fact, I'm not sure how I feel about him crying when he has to come back home... I guess it's good to know your little baby is having a blast and being taken care of with a huge amount of love!! Thanks Mom & Dad!!

Thanksgiving!

Our little family has so many things to be thankful for! I have such a wonderful husband that I adore; we have a precious little boy that is such a joy for us; we have another little joy on the way - yet, above all of this, we know Jesus, and for that, I am most thankful. I am not a perfect person, but Jesus loves me despite my flaws. What a wonderful gift!

For several years now, our Thanksgiving morning starts out with fun family time at home. Mamaw (Eric's Mom) comes over at lunch time and we go to Cracker Barrel for a turkey dinner. (Levi usually orders pancakes and sausage.) We always have a fun time visiting with my Mother-in-law! She's such a sweet woman with the biggest heart of gold. Here's a shot of Mamaw with Levi.

This year, after lunch, we headed to Mom's to help get dinner ready!! Mom cooks a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, there's turkey, dressing, taters, corn, green beans, mac n cheese, fruit salad, rolls, and one of my favorites, cracker dumplings!!! YUM!!

After we got things prepped, my Mom, Aunt Gail and I headed to the cemetery to put fresh flowers on my grandparent's grave. It's such a sweet thing for me to go to the cemetery and reminisce about Grandmother and Granddaddy. I miss them tons but know without a doubt I will see them soon when we gather around the throne and worship God together.

Around 4, the family started to gather at Mom's. My Aunt & Uncle, my cousins and their children and all of my family, including my grandparents (dad's parents) were all there. It was so much fun to visit and, ahem, listen to the kids play. The food was awesome and the fellowship was even better. :)

Mom and "Auntie" Gail
Great Granny Miller carving the turkey!!!

Levi and his big cousin Abigail

Nicholas.....he and Levi are 7 weeks apart! :)

Aunt Gail would HANG me, but I had to post this funny pic of her! She LOVES the skin on the turkey and kept picking it off and eating it!!! So funny!

Some of the food as we're getting "directions" from the teacher (Mom)!

The Kiddie table (oh my goodness...they can get loud!)

The adults... Daniel, Tricia, Travis, Jen, Eric and Robin E. and Nicholas in the orange

This is the geriatric room...nicknamed by my brother!! Mom, Dad, Aunt Gail, Uncle Kevin and Great Granny & Papa ate in here (away from the noise of the little ones!!)

After dinner, Dan started a wrestling match with all the kids! BRAVE man!!!

What a wonderful day filled with love and lots of thanksgiving! Everyone went home for bed around 9 so that we could get plenty of sleep before heading out for Black Friday...another tradition! Today, we got up early, shopped the morning away and headed back out after some afternoon resting. I enjoy being with my family so much and am so thankful for the closeness that we share. God has laid his hand on my family and blessed us beyond anything we deserve. I'm so thankful.

Traditions...

As I get older, I cherish traditions. Our family has many and now that the holiday season has begun, you will see lots of posts about our traditions. Thanksgiving Eve, I usually go to my Mom's house and help her get things prepared for Thanksgiving Day. One of the things we do is make the pies. YUM! She has a homemade recipe for chocolate pie and it is wonderful!! Now, here's the thing...for the past few years, each time we break out the recipe, we both have to stare at it and decipher the measurements. (I don't think Betty Crocker would be proud!) See, she's had this recipe since she was in high school...literally. It's the same piece of paper! And on the paper, she's written measurements for doubling the recipe. It's really hard to read! So, my goal for next year is to re-type it for her so it's nice and neat! Of course, we'll keep the original folded up in her cookbook as a keepsake!! :)

Oh, by the way, Levi loved licking the bowl!!!

Panic attack

I was at my desk today and my co-worker’s son came in to visit her. He is on Thanksgiving break from college. I remember when I first started working here and he was so young…in middle school. Suddenly, he is this very tall, grown up man. He is so well spoken, outgoing and has very nice manners. As he was talking, my mind started to think about Levi. I hope grows up to be a well spoken young man. OMG…he will grow up. He will have girlfriends, play sports, go to school and start picking out his own clothes. He will want to hang out with his buddies and not sit on my lap anymore. He will want an IPOD so he won’t have to listen to me nag. He will back talk. (I felt like I needed a cold wash cloth to put on my neck; maybe put my head between my legs to control my breathing…OMG, was I going to start crying???)

I guess God just gives these precious babies to us for a short while and during that short time, we are here to prepare their hearts for that big, bad world out there. I’m so thankful that my parents instilled in me how important it is to know Jesus. To love Him. My prayer for Levi and his little brother or sister is that they, too, will know and love Jesus.

Levi's new toothbrush

Wednesday night, Levi and I went to church early to listen to Eric and the praise band practice. Levi loves watching his Daddy play drums!! Sometimes it is hard to keep a 3 year old quiet, so I let him root through my purse. He saw this “little green thang” and wanted to know what it was. It was a travel toothbrush…you know, the tiny kind that starts out small and folds out into a regular sized toothbrush. He was fascinated. He said, “Mommy, this is mine now, right?” Well, you would have thought I gave him the moon!!! I love it that he is so easily pleased. :)

Maybe a boy??

I had my 15 week check up on Monday! At Christmas, I will be halfway!!! Can you believe that?? The time is going by so quickly.

I really like my doctor. I wasn’t quite so sure about going to a man, but the doctor that delivered Levi left the practice to take a job in the maternity ward where she wouldn’t have to be on-call. Anyways, I met with Dr. Wright a few times during my pregnancy with Levi and really liked him, so that’s where we ended up for this pregnancy! He got the Doppler out and I must admit there’s always this brief moment of fear: “will the heartbeat be there?” Right away, he found the heart beat and it was strong. It makes me tear up each time I hear that sound!! Dr. Wright said the heartbeat is slower and according to the old wives tale, that means a boy!! Part of me wants a girl just for the experience of having a girl. But, a part of me also wants a boy so that Levi will have a brother. Either way, I pray that my children will have a strong bond. I pray that they will both serve the Lord together with their whole hearts!! Boy or Girl….we shall see…

My ultrasound is scheduled for December 21st. Hopefully the baby will cooperate and we’ll find out the sex of this little softball!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Love, love, love it! Last year, we didn't put up a Christmas tree at our house because we were in the process of moving. So, Eric and I decided to put the tree up earlier than usual so we could have a long celebration this year!


While I was "fluffing" the tree, Eric and Levi put the train together. Last year, Paul and Gretchen gave Levi this gorgeous Bachman train from Bass Pro for Christmas. He adores it! Mommy's little helper :-) Levi was so excited to help me hang the ornaments on the tree.

Um, but I don't think he'll be an interior decorator...note all the balls hanging on one branch!

Ta da!!!! The finished product. It was so beautiful to sit by the lights of the tree and garland last night!

I used to collect snowmen. I have a lot of them, especially ornaments for the tree. A few years ago, we had a flood in our basement at the old house and a lot of my Christmas decorations were ruined. :-( I've slowly started to re-build my collection. I started collecting different kinds of metal trees. I will show you a few of my favorite finds!!!!

This one isn't metal, but I love it anyways!

Some people out there may say it's too early to decorate for Christmas. BAH HUMBUG!
I love Thanksgiving just as much and am very excited to celebrate both! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.....Thanksgiving AND Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Gretchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you have a GREAT day!! :-)

Gatlinburg

Thursday morning, we headed out for our annual getaway with Matt and Melanie. Once again, the mountains of Tennessee were calling our name. We have so many traditions with them that we look forward to and each year, we try to make new traditions. This was our 9th year traveling to Gatlinburg! Can you believe that? I think this year was one of our best trips yet!! “Honey, I just loved it! I really did…” ;)

I didn’t take as many pictures as I hoped to, but I will post what I did take. This will be a long post as I recount our trip, so settle in and get ready for some fun laughs!!

As I said, we headed out Thursday morning – no kids! – ready for some mountain fun! Matt pulled out our agenda and we reminded ourselves of what the long weekend would hold. We usually arrive around lunch time and eat at one of our favorites The Best Italian Restaurant. They have the best garlic balls ever!

We didn’t gorge ourselves because Thursday night was going to be dinner at the Murder Mystery Dinner Show. We’ve been to the dinner theatre before, so we were very excited to do it again! This year’s theme was “American Idle”. Eric and Matt both said they did NOT want to sing karaoke…

…Eric ended up singing Sweet Home Alabama and Rocky Top! OH MY GOSH….it was so funny! He was called upon as the talented contestant “Ben Dover”. Matt was given the honor of a guest judge “Ivan Poppanoff”. One of the actors and judges “Paula Fazule” loved our guys! She was precious and after each contestant sang, she’d say “Honey, I just loved it. I really did!” It was so funny!





Eric won the contest (not from singing, I might add!!). He lit up on stage and sucked in the audience with his personality. Such a fun night and we can’t wait to go back!!!

That evening, we checked into our cabin. I won’t go into a ton of details, but we were less that pleased. The one thing we liked about the cabin was the theatre room where we watched a few movies!! It was very cool.

Friday morning, we headed out to the Pancake Pantry. Now, this place usually has a line that forms out the door and wraps around the building. Luckily, we only had about a 20 minute wait. The food was delicious. Melanie ordered blueberry pancakes that had mounds of blueberries, Matt had some kind of freakish (sorry!!) pancakes with raisins and weird sauces. Eric had wheat pancakes with eggs and sausage and I had the French toast that is to die for! Oh, and a large chocolate milk that was almost $3.00!!! I just told Eric “It’s for the baby!” :)

The afternoon was spent shopping around Gatlinburg, napping at the cabin and then we headed to play some really competitive putt putt. After I kicked some serious butt in putt putt (NOT), we had dinner at The Peddler. We fell in love with The Peddler a few years ago when my brother told us to try it. It’s a great steakhouse. The steak peddler comes to each table with huge slabs of meat and cuts them at your table. They have a yummy salad bar and I’m proud that Melanie tried almost everything on the bar! She even cut anchovies up into small pieces on her salad. Oh, a bonus was sitting by the creek again. So pretty and romantic!

The beautiful Murphy's :)

My baby and me....I love him!

After dinner, we headed to walk downtown Gatlinburg. It was really pretty all lit up for Christmas! Yes, I’m a dork and took lots of pictures of Christmas lights!!

Our evening movie was “Taken”. Oh my. A good movie, but it sure makes you think…

I know this is lengthy, but hang in there with me! :)

Saturday, we got up early (gulp) and headed for breakfast at the Apple Barn. Yum yum. (In case you are seeing a pattern, YES, we ate out a lot and at really fantastic places!) If you haven’t been there, it’s a must! Here’s a funny picture. Matt and I were “over” getting our pictures taken, so when Melanie pulled out the camera, we let her and Eric get their picture taken together!! They are now BFF!

We spent the afternoon shopping. And I mean shopping! We went to the outlet, the tool store (yawn), the knife store (double yawn), the camping store (girls sat in the truck) and then to our favorite Christmas store where we got Pralines & Cream fudge!! We shopped right up until 5 when we headed to The Comedy Barn for another show. I just love Gatlinburg because all their shows are family friendly! We laughed so hard and then Eric got called up on stage…again! A ventriloquist asked for his help. He had to “play” Julio Iglesias. It was hysterical! I laughed so hard that I started crying and couldn’t stop! I have it on DVD and if I can figure out how to post it, I will!

Sunday morning, we packed up all of our stuff and took our annual fireplace photo:

And then headed out for some nature spots in Gatlinburg. We took tons of pictures of the scenery, but I'll just show you a couple!

We are honestly so blessed to have such great friends!! I'm so thankful that we started this tradition and have continued it for so many years. I look forward to having our 10 year anniversary next year and even taking the kids one day so they can see some of our past. Thanks, Matt & Melanie for all the laughs, helping through the tears, and for loving us despite the bad moods, indecisiveness, fights......oh my! :) We love you guys. Here's to next year.

sweetness

Levi's precious prayer tonight:

Dear Jesus,
Thank you that Papa's not feel good. He get better tomorrow. We praise your name. Grammy feels good. Um, thank you for my toys. We praise you. In Jesus' name. Aaaamen.

I love that boy. :)

Reminiscing

...because it's my blog and I can! :)

I came across these pictures from Halloween last year and the year before. Too cute not to post again!!

Levi the school bus (2008)
Levi the cutest monkey ever!! (2007)

Minnie Mouse, Ladybug, Gator, Chicken & Monkey (a little bothered by Chicken)

Go Colts!!

Yesterday, Eric and I got to go to Indy and watch the Colts play. It was such a great day for us. :) We had so much fun on the trip up talking, laughing and just being together. We got there early and got to watch the team warming up and walked around to take some pictures of the new stadium. Very impressive!!!

Here's the happy couple waiting for the game to start. We got to much on nachos, pizza and diet coke! Yummy!Here's the famous retractable roof! It was really awesome.

Peyton (don't tell Eric, but this is my boyfriend) warming up his "rocket-like arm" :)

The field from our seats. We had GREAT seats. It was so exciting!!!!

Thanks, babe for a great day! I will remember this as one of the best days ever!!!! :)