Day of Thanks Take 2!

Table cloth Ironed!!!!

Crafty Mom!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's the group 2008... it was a fun day of thankful happenings.  

Dwane is the turkey guy and as usual made a delicious bird.  He even altered the famous Young stuffing recipe and made his own, it turned out wonderful.  Madeline and the little girls spent all day wednesday making pies with me, it was so fun.  Alexa made her first pie crust, Madeline made the pumpkin pie (it was the real deal, no canned stuff) And I came to the realization that I was not a pilgrim for a very good reason.  I was exhausted by the time I got it to the puree' stage.  Yet, it turned out fantastic.  Our company came prepared to play games and sing Karoke.  Madeline and Robb creamed everyone at Fusball and Kate ended the evening with Zippety-do-da on the mic.  I am so thankful for life and the wonderful people I have to share it with.  I hope everyone had a wonderful and thankful day too.

(I have to check my setting on the picture up loading because it is making my captions weird so please just be patient with me)

Captions for the next few pictures if interested

1. Madeline and Alexa on Karoke

2. Mom getting crafty with name cards

3. Just a picture of some food...why not, it what you look at most of day...right.

(actually I just wanted my mom and mother -in-law to see proof that I can iron...(see table cloth)

I am just joking there really is no proof of me being crafty or table cloths ironed. (when I looked at the final post those pictures disappeared Sorry!

Some tastey apple smackerals...

So what have we been doing with all the apples we picked.  Let me show you the line up...

My kids call this cereal, 

Apple pie Oatmeal..

1/2 cup oatmeal, Cinnamon, apples, brown sugar and butter, put one cup of water on top and microwave for 1min and 30 seconds.  Yummy!

Apple Muffins

3/4 cup Milk

1/4 cup oil

1 large egg

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup grated and peeled apples

2 cups flour

1 handful Oatmeal

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients then add wet stir until moistened.  Divide among 12 muffin cups. Bake 20-25 mins or until golden brown at 400 degrees

Apple-Pecan Sticky Buns

2 tart apples peeled and sliced

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 1/2 sticks butter softened

2 cups flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 TBL baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

2 Large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 TBL honey

1. toss apple slices with 1 TBL butter and 1 TBL brown sugar in a 9x9 pan cover with foil and roast until tender 15mins at 400 degrees

2. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer,

blend flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt at low speed. In small bowl, whisk the eggs with 1/2 cup cream, then mix into dry mixture.

3. On lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to form a 9 inch rectangle.

  In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon.  Cut  up 2 TBL butter and dot the dough. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on top and cover eenly with the roasted apples.  Roll up the dough, jelly roll style and cut crosswise in 9 slices. Place in the pan you roasted the apples in and bake until golden brown.  (here is the torture) 35-40 mins

 

4. Meanwhile, in a suce pan, bring the remaining 4 TBL butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup cream, 1/2 tsp salt and the honey to a boil. Whisk until reduced 2 minutes.  Let cool slightly. Drizzle sauce over buns.  YOU ARE IN FOR A TREAT!

Apple Pie

This recipe is from the Better Homes and Garden Cook Book, my favorite.

I hope you have some apples on hand.....

Autumn on Fire!

Are these colors awesome or what! Just a picture I captured off my front porch... before all the colors disappeared.  It almost looked as if my neighbors house was on fire.

A is for Apple.....

.... pie, fritters, turnovers, carmel covered, baked, muffins, cake, cobbler, sauce, rolls..... It is perfectly wonderful the savory things that can be made from this little round fruit. Because the Young's are apple junkies we go picking every year.  Our favorite place is on hill in the Mountains of Virginia called, Stribling Orchard.  We love the smell of the crisp air and view of what seems like the never ending apple orchard.  Not to mention the trees in full autumn color and the knowledge that when the picking is done, we get to enjoy apple delicacies from the orchard kitchen. 

View from the orchard

Kate takes a picking break to enjoy a yummy crisp apple... this is one of four or five she ate...

mmmmm....good!

Alexa finds the perfect apple...

Since Alexa is a little shorter than the big kids she gets the job of taking the apples out of the apple basket and filling the bags.

Madeline takes an apple break too...  the boys must be doing all the work!!!!

... i guess Madeline can multi-task..eat and help.

Robb at work...

Robb bonds with the orchard wildlife.  "Home to the Wooly Caterpillar"

All done!

What can you do with a great skein of orange yarn....

So first I "LOVE" the color orange, since I was a little girl I would pick it out of the color crayon box, one because no one else used it, and it just made me feel happy to cover a piece of empty white paper with it... to me it is warm and homey and well, I love it.  

...but to the story about the hats...my friend Amy surprised me with an orange skein of yarn and in my excitment I just had to turn it into something...

(pumpkin)

... it was so fun making the first one that I made this other one... 

(kitty)

BOO...TO...YOU!(Happy Halloween)

We had a pretty scary bunch, there was a wide variety of characters, everything from southern belles to ninjas.  Too fun.

HERE'S THE YOUNG BUNCH UP CLOSE .....

First we have Alexa modeling the most original of fashions, being a beautiful "Princess Ballerina".....

...while Madeline gets scary with black lipstick and missing teeth creating a perfect touch to her very own original "Spider Queen" outfit...

...watch out for Robb the "Ninja" with sword, he is capable to attack at any moment...

...at last but not least on the runway of costumes we have Kate the Kitty.....Meow.

Hope you all had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Birthday Madness...

...I can only get pregnant one season of the year...can anyone guess what season it is?  What a fun and crazy time for our family.  Madeline turned 10, Robb 8, Alexa 5 and Kate will be 3 in Nov. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADELINE......Madeline and her speedy new birthday bike.  I spent at least and hour trying to figure out how to put the streamers on the bike tires.  I obviously lack in my parade decorating experience.  She loved the Happy Birthday streamers and rode around the neighbor hood in her p.j.s.  What a great kid. Madeline shared her birthday with Robb since his baptism was the same day.  Truly they don't come much finer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXA....For Alexa everyday is a party, I would love to get into her little mind, just to experience the bliss of it all.  Alexa is one of those kids that would be thrilled if you gave her a pile of dirt or an old sock.  She would make it into the greatest thing that ever existed, whenever she receives  a gift she exclaims that it is what she always wanted and that it is her favorite.   Alexa wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese for her birthday, and I have to admit that it is the first time I have ever taken my children.  All I can say is FEW....glad to have marked that off the list of things to accomplish.  She had a great time and I was on my best behavior.  I didn't even mention the word germ the whole evening (I just offered hand sanitizer often) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBB...Birthday parties with boys are so different than ones with girls.  Robb was so lucky to have his two best friends come and spend the day with him.  So anyway about the difference between the two sexes, once all the party guests were in the house they started wrestling and running around, jumping,tackling and then it was time for cake, when the burping and armpit noises started, followed by jokes and hysterical laughing...all I could do was join in the fun. Indeed I laughed...until my face ached.  We took everyone for a game of mini-golf, then home to play kickball.  Fun was had by all.

Group wrestling!

Happy Birthday Everyone!!!

A Beautiful Day for a Beautiful event.....

Robb's baptism turned out wonderful, we were blessed to have family, Dwane's parents and brother drove up from North Carolina and my parents flew in from California.  Many friends spent the day with us celebrating Robb.  The program was simple and beautiful, Madeline played a special piano piece and Dwane and Robb's sunday school teacher gave the talks. Our thanks to everyone for making the day so wonderful.