Josiah

Life is always better when you have a sweet little nephew who smiles at your camera! =]

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

The Newest Owl

Da da da da!! The Captain America owl!!

What do you think? I think this owl will protect you from any Marvel superheros!!

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

Snow Day!!!

Winter is finally here!  The snow is falling, I am wearing my warm socks and moccasins, and it is 30 degrees outside!!  In two hours it went from this:

to this 

 

The next canning project we worked was canning salsa! A few years ago, I would never have thought that I would be making my own salsa! Mom put little green chilies in there to give it a little spice! 

Joyfully in Him,

    Diana<3

Preparing Food for the Winter

Autumn is the season for preparing and getting ready for Winter.  So, we have been canning so much lately.  First we did sweet and sour pickles.  They were so good that my family ate a whole jar in about two hours!!! My mom actually but them in the freezer instead of canning them.  But they were really good!!

 Then Mom and Kelle made peach jam with out sugar!! It took them all night to do it.  I was the photographer. =] 

Last Thursday, My brother-in-law and my Dad climbed our apple tree and they picked so many apples. They were lowering the baskets and I was emptying the apples and sending them right back up! They must have picked about 50 pounds of apples!  So I made apple crisp and then Mom and I canned apple sauce.  One of our batches of apple sauce was tinted pink because the skin was so red!!

 

 I made Chocolate Chip cookies for my Dad and I think this is my best recipe for cookies!! I will defenetly make these again! 

Joyfully in Him,

     Diana<3

What a Nice Autumn Day!

This is the first day that it has 60 degrees outside! That is definitely a sure sigh that Autumn is on it's way!! Don't you just love the season Autumn?  It makes me think of sweaters and fuzzy socks.  And hot chocolate, and raking leaves. "sigh"

Today, we harvested our Macintosh apples from our tree in the backyard.  This was our best year! We got so many apples!  Dad and I picked about three bushels and it looks like we didn't even dent our tree!!
I had a lot of fun taking pictures of them all!! =]

 Picking from the comforts of my own home! (otherwise known as the bedroom window) 

 We picked a lot of carrots but this year they were really little.  

Joyfully in Him,
  Diana<3

My Cross-Stitch!!

I finally finished my first big cross-stitch!!  It took me so long, but it was definitely worth it!

 I so much enjoyed working on it. There are mistakes in there but I am the only one who knows where they are.  My cross-stitch is like an old friend. 

It is based on the Proverbs 31 woman. It reminds me of my mom, and how much she does for my family and I. In fact, my mom does every single on of those things mentioned in Prov. 31! I'm very proud and honored to call my mom, mom. =]

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

A Happy Thought to Think About

This is my very first time canning, and I really enjoyed it!!  Mom, Kelle, and I canned dill pickles with some dill weed, yellow and orange bell peppers, fresh cloves of garlic, little white onions from our garden, and last of all, small cucumbers that Mom and Kelle bought at a french market.
We boiled poured a vinegar, water, and salt mixture into the prepared mason jars filled almost to the brim with delicious looking vegetables!
I got to use all of the fun gadgets! Like for instance, the lid wand. (It is a long stick with a magnet on the bottom so you don't burn yourself trying to get the lids from the boiling water!) 
I love how everything has to be done in order.  If you do one step out of order, the whole process gets messed up!  Now every time I eat one of these pickles, I will think about this ::oh so happy:: memory!! =] <3 =]

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

::Sunflowers::

A month ago, Adam secretly put sunflowers in my bedroom. And when Kelle and I came home from church, we saw the lovely surprise! So I painted a picture of them. It took me a while to do it, but I finally got it to where I am happy with it!!  (when I paint, I sometimes pretend I'm a great french painter!!)

Joyfully in Him,

  Diana<3

I Love Summer!! =]

Here is a video I made of our backyard this summer!!

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

p.s. if you go to full screen, the video will be really blurry.  I don't know why! =] 

My Summer of Pinterest Concluded!

Yay!! I am coming to an end of the Summer of Pinterest. I officially baked 20 desserts, cookies, and bread. I get this warm felling inside me when ever I accomplish something!

{number 20}  One Hour Pretzels 

My family thought that these were the BEST things I have ever made!! And they only took one hour. My advice to you, use the optional salt in the recipe. Even though they say optional, I would put it in.

I had the pleasure of having two very  lovely lady's come to our home for a tea party. I got to set up our dining room for a high tea.   I made my blueberry muffins for them.

 Here are some vegetables from our garden!

Joyfully in Him,

   Diana<3

Paint Brushes and a Kitchen Aid

I have been doing lots of painting and baking this past week. Using kitchen aids, paint brushes, and all kings of kitchen and artists tools!! How fun!

[number 19]  Banana Breakfast Coffee Cake.
This recipe was gluten free, but I just switched about a couple of this to regular baking items. So, instead of gluten free all-purpose flour, I just use regular flour.

 [number 20] Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls
Theses were so much fun to make!! I actually baked these for my dear Aidan's birthday! (He is my nephew! =] )

And here are my two newest paintings!

 Do you see a resemblance? =]

Our garden has been producing so many tomatoes! I love it!!

Joyfully in Him,

    Diana<3