Opening Presents

Opening presents was a blast. The first video is of Sam opening a present from Nana and Papa. The second video is of Michael opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa. The third is of Dan opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa. The fourth is of Becca opening a present from Nana and Papa.

Christmas 2008

Christmas morning has come and gone and it was absolutely amazing and magical. The kids woke up at 7:30 and down we went to see what Santa had left. By the looks of their presents, they were very good this year.

Everyone has enjoyed all of their gifts that they received and would like to express their appreciation to everyone.

God Bless and Merry Christmas!

Jerky Boy!

I have had several requests for the recipe that I use to make my jerky. I wrote it up to one person and sent via email and thought I should post here. Here it is:

Alex's Famous Jerky
3 lbs of ground venison (if you have to you can use ground beef)
Jerky Spice Seasoning Kit* (3 packages of NESCO spice kit)
1 T Cayenne pepper (reduce or omit to reduce the heat especially for some kids)
2 T honey (brown sugar or maple syrup) - I prefer and use maple syrup
1-2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1-2 drops liquid smoke

Mix in large bowl by hand until well mixed.
Use jerky press to make jerky strips.
Dehydrate by method of choice (I prefer using a dehydrator instead of oven).

*I prefer NESCO-American Harvest Jerky Spice Seasoning kit because the kit uses one pack per lb of meat and there are 6 packets per box. This can be purchased from Walmart, usually found by the small appliances and not the food section.

My kids love this jerky so much that they eat it on the way to school in the morning and as a snack after school.

Gingerbread House

Happy First Day of Winter!!!

We are going to have a a green Christmas this year. It is supposed to be in the 40's all through Christmas and raining, bah humbug.

Yesterday we decorated a gingerbread house. We bought a kit and let the kids decorate it. Everyone had a great time putting candy on the house and in their mouths. I even had some icing left over at the end which we ate too!

Food, Fun, and Family

The past couple of weeks we have been spending family time getting ready for Christmas. We set up the tree and decorated it. I set up the train and Dan found his favorite spot during this time of year (at the controls of the train). I spent and evening outside putting up the Christmas lights, Becca was the only one to help and she did a great job. Last week I was very happy to find one of my favorite recipes. I was rearranging the inside of the freezer and noticed that we had two venison roasts left from last year's deer. I used one to make a venison roast with brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes with a horseradish sauce. It was wonderful. On Saturday, we attended the Star City Fire truck parade. We live on the last street in Morgantown and right around the corner from us is Star City, WV. Every year they have a fire truck parade where numerous trucks from the neighboring cities and communities get together for a parade with Santa in the last truck. They line all of the trucks at the start of the parade on our street. The kids love seeing Santa in the fire truck waving. My brother in WI, who is a volunteer fire fighter, would have loved the parade. Jen and I were even interviewed by a reporter and made it in the local newspaper. Very exciting!

My Buddy, No Forks and Frost

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Everyone enjoyed the time we spent together and the time off from school. Dan has become my little buddy and no longer wants to use a fork for anything including his pumpkin pie. Becca copied Dan once I had the camera out and clicking.






Jen's aunt and cousin came for Thanksgiving and we had quite a gang running around.


I took the trash out Friday morning, Black Friday, and there was a beautiful covering of frost over the junipers in front of our house. Everything was covering and glistened in frost crystals. It was pretty amazing looking so I had to get a picture.

Snow and Boxing

This past Thursday (Nov 20) we had our first snow day. We had about 1" of snow. Since there was no school, we headed outside to enjoy the snow. Winter has finally hit WV. Yesterday we had a high of 27 degrees, brrrrrr. Since it was so cold it is hard for the kids to stay outside long to get enough exercise, this is what the Wii is for. We bought the Wii so that we could some "fun" exercise during the cold winter and rainy spring/summer. We had our first boxing tournament and paired everyone and had a tier structure. The ultimate winner was Mom (Jen), she kicked everyone's butt.

Apple Pie and Octopi

This past week I was craving an apple pie with cheddar cheese in the crust and Becca said she would help. She is an outstanding baker, she was a lot of help.







Today Jen had a craft day at Church so the kids and I stayed at home. It has been awhile since I got to cook lunch for everyone so I made Octopus and Seaweed Surprise (cut hotdogs with green colored beef ramen noodles). Sam, Becca and Dan loved it. Michael doesn't like hotdogs so he gave my dish a big thumbs down. Guess I need to find something that everyone will eat. You can tell that I was in charge today because everyone was still in their pajamas at lunch time.

New Family Addition and Shed

After school yesterday we took the entire family to the county animal shelter to look at dogs. They had a 1-year-old female black lab which is what we were looking for. She was great with other dogs in the shelter and she was great with our kids at the shelter so we decided to bring her home. The kids have named her 'Diamond'. She and Scooby love to run and play together. They both are great fetchers and love tennis balls. The manager of the shelter said as we were leaving, 'there goes the luckiest dog of the day, going home with that many kids'.


Yesterday was 70 degrees so I took the day off from work to work on the shed. The shed now has a completed roof, no more tarp! Time to start thinking about siding!

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Another Great Halloween

Another great Halloween has come and gone. We all love Halloween, maybe more than most people. I love where we live because the elementary school has a Halloween costume parade on Halloween and they go right by our house. I took the afternoon off so Jen could walk in the parade with Michael's class and I could take pictures of the kids as they walked by. I also could fire off the pneumatic goul to get a few screams. Halloween night was great. We had somewhere between 150 - 175 trick-or-treaters. I had help this year from a friend from Church, who handed out the candy and from a friend who is a visiting professor at WVU from Hungary (region of Transylvania - how cool is that!) who worked the air valve for the pneumatic goul. He did a great job because we had quite a few screams. I had a blast because I could lay in the dug grave and wave at everyone wishing them a Happy Halloween. I even had quite a few requests to have pictures taken with me in the grave, I posed with kids and adults throughout the evening. Now that is over, we can starting thinking and planning for next year!