Taco Soup

This has to be one of the easiest-yet tastiest- soup recipes ever. I got it from the BriarwoodChristian School cook book. Enjoy! (Perfect for the Super Bowl Sunday! Go Kurt Warner! ;)

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can diced Ro-tel tomatoes

1 can white shoe peg corn, drained

1 can pinto beans, drained

1 can black beans, drained

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1 pkg. dry Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

1 sm. Can chopped green chili peppers

(I also sauté and add a chopped onion, minced garlic, and a chopped green pepper.)

Directions:

1. Brown beef and drain.

2. Combine beef and remaining ingredients in kettle, simmer for 2 hours. Add water for desired consistency. (I do it in the crock pot.)

3. Sprinkle with cheese and sour cream when serving. Serve with Tostitos chips, Fritos or crackers.

Five Months Continued.....

Sorry about the lack of posts-we're been out of commission for awhile! After all the holiday frenzy, we flew down to Captiva, Florida for a lovely, relaxing, sunshiny getaway. But we are back now, in chilly St. Louis, and I have a bit of catching up to do with the posts! Our iphoto has been fixed, so I can now post the 5 months pics that were never shared! (And stay tuned for Christmas, Florida, and 6 months pics!)

The blocks did not stay stacked for long-they quickly got smacked down! 

Bath-time fun-I love to splash! 

This is my favorite-so sweet! Bald & blue eyed! 

Blaise found his tongue! He sporadically sticks it out, it's so funny. Ava, our 4 yr. old friend who lives downstairs, loves playing with Blaise and he just smiles and smiles at her. We like to have breakfast dates in the morning. 

Blaise and I with baby Lilly and Joanna, at our church Christmas brunch

Blaise at his first friend birthday party-cousins Chases' 2nd bday Elmo party-he loved the party hat! 

His first time in the high chair! 

He loves smiling and playing with the stuffed animal monkey that David built for me at build a bear when we were dating. (I unzipped his vest and he was wearing a diamond heart pendent-so clever! ;)  
We just can't get enough of his adorable smile and giggles! He's so much fun! 
Blaise visits Boppa at his office for the first time-State Farm Insurance in Chesterfield. Thanks, Lavada, for the great picture!!! 

Blaise plays with a truck for the first time! And appropriately, it was with Gpa Harold. 

Baby Star! Blaise & momma have fun at another baby party!

Five Months!

Our iphoto program has not been working for several weeks so I thought I'd just go ahead and post this blog w/out the pics for now. I love this pic of Mary and baby Jesus so I thought I'd share it! (My mom had it on their Christmas card this year.)

The months keep flying by as our little baby continues to grow and grow! David and I still are amazed at our little one and often look at each other in disbelief, saying, "This is our child!?" We knew we would love him and enjoy being parents, but we really were not prepared for the overwhelmingly deep love we have for our Blaise and the joy he brings to our lives! 

We really can't get enough of him. I know it's sappy, but it's so true. If you are a parent I'm sure you know exactly how we feel.   His smile, laugh, and adorable endless blabber.  His sweet breath on our faces when he sleeps, his soft smile and stretches when he wakes up.  His cooing and blabbering along when we sing to him. His soft little head that's so warm to nuzzle against our chins.  His chubby cheeks that get kissed endless times a day.  The way his eyes open with start as his body touches the bath water,  the way he splashes continuously getting water all over him and us. His slobbery little hands that reach and grab us, often into our mouths or hair. His spit up and drool that gets us in the face when we do airplane.  His open mouth that goes for our chins and noses and his pointy little tongue that he sporadically sticks out. His funny fake cough he does when he is displeased with something.  His humerous cries of protest when when we put his diaper and clothes back on.  The way he jumps and jumps with excitement when we hold him. The way he nurses furiously, as if he hadn't just eaten 2 hours earlier. The love that fills his blue eyes when he gazes at us for seconds on end and the heart melting smile he gives.  The way he cries when he wants his momma and needs only me to comfort him....  

Oh the list could go on and on!  We praise Jesus for our little boy and the love he has brought to our lives.  My heart echos Mary's prayer in Luke 1:49, "For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for Mary to carry and raise the Messiah of the world! (Let alone to birth him in a barn!) To raise him up like any other child, knowing he was Savior of the world, knowing he would suffer and die- yet also knowing he would conquer sin and redeem the world! What an amazing responsibility! 

Though I am obviously not Mary, nor David Joseph, we still have the huge responsibility of raising our son in a house that loves and cherishes the Lord.  What a huge job we have to teach Him the ways of our Father-to model his love and the treasuring of our Savior.*  Blaise is still to young to understand when David and I don't cherish Christ and model His love before him, when we are in disagreement or are simply are unkind and impatient with each other.  But soon, our little boy will be older, and he will repeat our behavior-the good and the bad.  His heart naturally is bent towards evil and sin.  He will disobey and talk back, exhibit behavior that both David and I have struggled with. Oh, how I wish he would stay a sweet, young babe forever!  But I know our love for him will only grow stronger as he grows with each day- and as we struggle through our sin natures together.  I pray that Christ will give us an overwhelming love for Him and His gospel of love and grace and that will trickle down to our children; and that He daily would grant us the grace to handle theirs- and our- disobedient hearts. 

*We've been listening to Ted Tripp's Biblical Parenting conference podcast-highly recommend! He's the author of Shepherding a Child's Heart. 

Christmas Cookies

This is the best sugar cookies recipe!  Growing up, I loved making and decorating sugar cookies each holiday with my family.  It was like an edible art project-so much fun!  It’s a lot to make the dough and ice all in one day, so I usually make the dough in advance and double the recipe.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies

 Betty Crocker's New Picture Cook Book (1961)

3/4 cup shortening (part butter)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Mix well shortening, sugar, eggs and flavoring.  Measure flour by dip-level-pour method or by sifting.  Blend flour, baking powder and salt; stir in.  Chill at least 1 hour.  Heat oven to 400*F .  Roll 1/8" thick on floured board.  Cut with cookie cutters.  Place on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 6 to 8 minutes.  Makes about 4 dozen. 

When cookies are cool, ice & decorate with the following icing.

ButterCream Frosting

1/3 c. butter, softened

3 c. sifter powdered sugar

2 tbs milk

1 ½ t. vanilla

In Uganda,  we decorated them with some of the local staff's children at the Christmas party. This is one of my favorite pictures-she wasn't sure what to think! "So sweet!" they say. 

O Give Thanks

"O give thanks unto the LORD for He is good, his love endures forever." 

Psalms 136:1

We put this verse on a thanksgiving card this year, as our hearts are overflowing with love and thankfulness to our Savior for out sweet little boy.  We are so happy and have much to be thankful for-we have a beautiful happy and healthy boy, a growing marriage, loving parents, a warm home...the list could go on and on.   Yet, being on this earth, we know that we are not promised an easy, happy or comfortable life.  We are not immune to pain and sadness.  I know my heart doesn’t always feel like giving thanks to the Lord. 

This time of year brings a mix of emotions.  Five years ago, on November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, we received news that would change our lives forever.  My dad called me home- David and I were registering for our upcoming wedding- and I knew something was wrong, very wrong. I called and called my sister on that drive home.  She didn’t answer and my stomach had a terrible, sick feeling.  My parents’ faces and words suffocated our hearts-Natalee died.  Words are hardly adequate to describe the intense emotion of that day and the days to follow. Our sweet Natalee, beautiful, joyful, carefree, in love with her Savior-gone? Utter disbelief and a stabbing pain of overwhelming sorrow flooded our beings. 

Oh-how does one get through such a time? How can the Lord be good and allow this? How can he be trusted? Our hearts scream, it isn’t right! She was only twenty, so young, healthy, active-with a heart full of love for others and for her Savior.  She wanted to marry Shane, be a missionary in Kenya, and raise six children. It isn’t supposed to be this way!   I must remind myself that no, this was not God’s original design.  And God agrees-it’s not supposed to be this way. world once was perfect- a paradise free from all evil.  But because of the fall, our once perfect earth became infiltrated with evil-famine, destruction, sickness, disease, hate, murder, genocide, death. All of which the Lord detests.  But…as Blaise’s Jesus Storybook Bible reminds us: 

God loved his children too much to let the story end there [Adam and Eve punished  and kicked out of the garden-a perfect paradise].  Even though he knew he would suffer, God had made a plan-a magnificent dream.  One day, he would get his children back. One day, he would make the world their perfect home again.  And one day, he would wipe away every tear from their eyes. 

Natalee’s death, and all other pain and evil, isn’t right and is not how it’s supposed to be.  It is a result of something gone terribly wrong.  But- there is hope admits the sorrow.  I know, with great joy and anticipation,  that I will see my sister again because of our love for the same Savoir who died and who promises restoration to this broken world.

And the King says, “Look! God and his children are together again. No more running away. Or hiding, No more crying or being lonely or afraid.  No more being sick or   dying. Because all those things are gone. Yes, they’re gone forever.  Everything sad has come untrue. And see-I have wiped away ever tear form every eye!” And then a deep, beautiful voice that sounded like thunder in the sky says, “Look! I am making everything new!”

And this, indeed, is reason for joyous Thanksgiving!  When we can’t give thanks because of our circumstances, we can look to the cross where God sent his only son to be our sacrifice for our sins and all evil, and then praise him for his goodness and the undeserved grace he generously gives us.

You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children-with a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love. And though they would forget him, and run from him, deep in their hearts, God’s children would miss him always and long for him-lost children yearning for their home.  Before they left the garden, God whispered a promise to Adam and Eve: “It will not always be so! I will come to rescue you! And when I do, I’m going to do battle against the snake.  I’ll get rid of the sin and the dark and the sadness you let in here. I’m coming back for you!”

Jesus loves me- a sinner who turns for him daily- that much!  What wonderful, undeserving grace he has lavished on us!

"O give thanks unto the LORD for He is good, his love endures forever."  

Quotations taken from The Jesus Storybook Bible. By Sally Llody-Jones. Zonderkids, 2007. 

Black&white pictures are taken by Synergy Photography. Kristen was friends with Natalee.

*I don't have many digital copies of Natalee pictures at my house otherwise I would post more of them! *