Thanksgiving Recipes--Appetizers

I found this blog last week when I was searching another blog that I found in the November HomeLife magazine. I really liked this blog for 2 reasons--her name is KIM and she likes to cook! She is collecting recipes for Thanksgiving...each day she's collecting a different type, so I thought I could join in on the fun. Why don't you add some of your favorite recipes too?

Here is my appetizer recipe. It's one that my cousin, Jeni, made when we went to Illinois to visit a few years ago. It's so yummy!

Stuffed Peppers

1 jar Pepperocini peppers (drain & cut in half)

1 pkg. cream cheese (softened)

2 t. milk

1/2 pkg. bacon, fried crisp & chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

2 shallots or green onions, chopped

Mix cream cheese & milk. Fry bell pepper & green onions in 2 T. bacon grease. Mix all ingredients and stuff in peppers. Enjoy!

OK...now here's the hard part. I have to figure out how to link this to her blog. Thanks to Jenna's expertise, I think I'll be able to do it! Here I go!

Fun Times with the Family

Last weekend, Mom & Dad came to visit--we always love having them come! They met us in Athens to see Evan's Upward basketball game at 10. Evan is doing really well this year in basketball...he's made several shots and stolen the ball a few times too! He's improved tremendously from last year! He even scored a few points this weekend! He was so proud to have Grammy & PawPaw there to watch!

After the game, we went on a little excursion to Kemp to the Amish bakery. How cool is that place! I highly recommend it to everyone! They have so many spices for such low prices! They also have all kinds of homemade goodies! We LOVE visiting unique places like that! They had a really nice furniture store too...kinda pricey but really nice! We took a few pictures on the outdoor furniture...

Aren't these chairs HUGE? I don't think they'd fit in my kitchen. :)

We really liked this swing!

After eating lunch, we drove to Powell to the Pecan House to buy some pecans and other goodies there. Dad LOVES to crack pecans & eat them. I think he bought about 10 pounds of pecans! :)

When we got home, it was time to rake the leaves in the back yard. We all kind of like raking the leaves...there's just something about piling up all of those crisp leaves that just makes you want to run & jump in them! While I raked, Evan & Ethan decided to load some of them in their John Deere truck & empty them in our huge pile. (Not really productive but a lot of fun for them.)

Now it was time for the fun! We made a HUGE pile and Evan & Ethan just kept running and jumping in them. Evan even buried himself in the leaves for a few pictures too!

Isn't this the cutest 3-year old you've ever seen?

And what a jump!

OK, one of the main reasons Daddy came to visit was to help Eric hang Christmas lights around the outside of the house. Well, first Eric decided to climb up on the roof to see if he could actually handle being on the roof without falling and/or having a heart attack from fear! :) He was really terrified up there! Then, they tried to hang them around the gutters and found that they can't because have these gutter guards on them. So...now what? I think we're going to consult our expert friend...Keith. Maybe he can help!

So...those were a few of the highlights of the weekend. We also enjoyed taking a walk, playing several rounds of Uno, cooking & eating, and going to church together! We appreciate Grammy & PawPaw so much and love spending time with them! God has blessed us with a wonderfully close family!

Memory Verse Catch-Up

So...Beth Moore gave us a challenge on her LPM Blog at the beginning of 2009 to memorize 2 verses a month for the entire year. I was so excited because I need that accountability. I have faithfully been posting my verses and writing them in my spiral all year. I practice them as much as I can...especially when I'm getting ready in the mornings. I also found another great time to work on them is in the car when I'm driving quite a distance. This summer I had to drive to Texarkana without Eric a few times, so I kept the spiral in my lap and practiced my verses as I drove. (I kept my eyes on the road...just put the spiral up by the steering wheel when I needed a hint.)

Now, Beth Moore is hosting a Siesta Scripture Memory Team Celebration at her church in January for those that have kept this up all year! I am SO EXCITED!!! My sister and I have both been working on memorizing verses, so we plan to go together! We can't wait! It's going to be so much fun! What a thrill it will be to finally be in the church where she tapes a lot of her Bible studies!

Well, now I need to catch up posting the verses here. I didn't realize how behind I am on putting them here, so there are quite a few.

#17
Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

#18
Colossians 3:16-17
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

#19
2 Corinthians 10:3-4
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

#20
2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

#21
Deuteronomy 6:5-7
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

Whew! That was a lot! I have enjoyed finding verses to help me with whatever I'm going through at a particular time and to remind me of God's great promises.

This has been such a great experience...maybe we can do it again next year and post verses to each other on our blogs. Any takers??

I Don't Think Ethan Likes Halloween Costumes

So...for about a month, we asked Ethan what he'd like to be for Halloween. He kept saying, "I just want to be a BOY!" We walked down many costume aisles at Wal-mart, Target, and other stores and had him look at all of the costumes to see which one he'd like to be. He just kept saying, "I just want to be a boy!" We were ok with that! But then, about a week before Halloween, he started saying he wanted to be a pumpkin. So we started looking for a pumpkin costume. They don't sell pumpkins in size 3T evidently. So I decided I could make one with an orange pillowcase and my friend, Mandy Hancock. Last Wednesday afternoon, I took Ethan to the school to have Mandy sew the pillowcase together and help me figure out how to assemble it. Ethan did NOT want any part of the pumpkin any more! Mandy was so sweet to help me, and I thought I could talk him into wearing it for a little while. Well, by Saturday afternoon, I was good to get the few pictures I did before he took it off! So...he went to the Fall Festival as a boy. And he was still as cute as can be!

Evan was thrilled to find his Star Wars costume! And Ethan really enjoys running around with Evan's mask on....just not the pumpkin!

"I am not happy! Please get this pumpkin off of me!"

Despite the costume frustration, the boys had a blast playing all of the games at the Fall Festival.

Eric decided he was a stage hand...they dress in all black!

Ethan, Evan, and Gavon enjoyed a hot dog after playing all of the games. Evan enjoyed the cake/cookie walk the best! I think he won about 7 times!

This is the shirt that Ethan made at Kids First last week. It was so cute! A bat made with his hand prints & foot print! How creative is that!

So Proud...And So Adorable!

We're So Proud...

Evan was SOOOO excited to show off his 100 on his Social Studies States Test when he got home from school today! Memorizing is not the easiest thing for him, but we worked on coming up with mnemonic devices to help him remember the capital, abbreviation, and state for his 5 states this week. And they worked! One that he came up with by himself was about a little boy at our church. Evan thought of "Trenton has a New Jersey!" Pretty creative, Evan! We're so proud of him!

And Ethan is just...So Adorable!

At Evan's Upward basketball games, Ethan isn't really interested in watching Evan play. Instead, he tries to entertain himself with whatever is around him. He likes "crawling through the tunnel" (that's his explanation for crawling under the whole row of chairs), watching himself on the video camera that I'm trying to use to tape Evan,

sitting on basketballs (Thanks, Jeff Jones for teaching Ethan this trick),

and wearing my sunglasses.

McCarty Clan Visits Malakoff

Last weekend, we had a wonderful time with my family. First, we had Evan’s first Upward Basketball game at a church in Athens. Evan did a great job and made 2 baskets! He is getting much better at basketball this year!

Then, we met PawPaw, Grammy, Kevin (my brother), and Caleb (my nephew) in Tyler to eat lunch at Daniel Boone’s and to shop. The rest of the Sparks family came about 10 pm after Mauri’s marching contest in Dallas. Yea, Queen City Band…they came in first in their division!

We set a record at our house that night…we had 11 people and 1 rowdy puppy spend the night! We had people sleeping every where! Ethan woke up most of the house around 12:30 am when he woke up in my bedroom and I wasn’t in there. He was very confused! I put him in Evan’s twin bed with me for a little while to try to get him to calm down and not wake up anyone else. Well, that didn’t work! Finally, he decided he was tired of being there too, and said, “I want to go back to my mat!” That was about 2:30 am! Needless to say, I was pretty tired at church on Sunday morning! :)

We had a wonderful church service and then got to enjoy our big Sunday family dinner together. That’s one of the things that I miss the most about not living in Texarkana anymore. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, and a yummy cake that Evan helped me make. MMMM GOOD!!!

We really loved having the whole family (minus Ami--she's in Maryland right now) come to visit us! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Go Evan! He made 2 baskets for his first game of the season!

We only had 5 of our 9 players show up for the game, so they had to all play the entire game! The were hot and tired by the end but they played so well!

Ethan had more fun playing at Evan's game than watching Evan play.

Evan helped me make this yummy Halloween cake...it was an orange & chocolate swirl bundt cake with white icing and black bats & orange sprinkles.

Wow! We're full after our yummy Sunday dinner.

The guys just wanted to watch football all weekend.

Ethan likes the cake...well, he really likes the icing!

Evan is always smiling when PawPaw & Grammy are around!

Evan is proud of his creation! It matches their clothes too! :)

I cannot believe that Mauri & Caleb are both taller than me already! How can this be??

Random Thoughts by Ethan Beechem, Age 3

Tue, Oct 13
Ethan built a bridge between the couch and the ottoman with an upside down laundry basket. On top of the basket, he placed a little trash can. Then, he put a big piece of paper in it. He said, “This is my paper bin. I am going to recycle it.”

( I don’t know where he heard about recycling or the words “paper bin” but it was really cute!)

Wed, Oct 14
As we were getting in the van after church, he said, “There’s Miss Flo’s car. We’re not going in Miss Flo’s car tonight. We’re not going to Miss Flo’s house. We’re just going home.” (I think he was remembering the time we rode with Flo to see her house being remodeled this summer. It truly upset him to have to ride in another car, especially in a different car seat! He did NOT want to do that again!)

Thur, Oct 15
Although the last 2 days showed Ethan’s creativity and excellent memory, today was monumental in the potty training category! He went to Kids First day care with big boy underwear & did not have an accident all day long! We even went to Walmart & McDonald’s after school and he still didn’t have an accident! Yippee! Maybe we’ve finally crossed a HUGE hurdle! However, he keeps saying that he does NOT want to “grow up!” We think he thinks we’re saying “throw up” because he was sick a few weeks ago and did NOT like “throwing up!” L

It never ceases to amaze us how blessed we are with both of our children. It’s just amazing the things that Ethan thinks to say each & every day! He has such a sense of humor and quick wit!