Happiness is...

...FaceTime with our West Coast family!

And then later seeing a pic on Instagram!

Technology is so wonderful!



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Way Back When-esday: Happy V Day!

I know. I disappear for a month and I come back with a WBW post.

 

But they sure were cute on their first Valentine's Days.

 

brooklyn 2006

jake 2010

Welcome to NC. Where it snows just enough to own snow clothes but not enough that it matches...

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A Christmas Holiday: Your All-in-One Post on our Celebrations minus a lot of good pictures

Sorry, Blogger...I went to Facebook and posted my December Christmas pics, so take that. I was tired of seeing my Christmas post in my draft list.

Anyways, I am using Shutterfly for our family albums now. [I feel like I mentioned that already but seeing that this post has been in draft form for two weeks, I'm not sure what I have said on the internet at this point.] So, I just received my 2010 album in the mail last week and LOVE it. (Well, except for a few pages that didn't print correctly but within 2 hours of me emailing Shutterfly I was credited with a new book, made my corrections, and placed a second order.)

But overall, the picture quality was awesome, the layouts turned out so cute, and even at 95 pages, it is soooo much thinner compared to my Creative Memories albums. I'm sold for the future, but that means I must keep this blog up to date so I know what happened when. [But Blogger, you are NOT making it easy on me.]

So, back to Christmas. And because I don't want to lose my mind in a few months trying to locate 32 different posts on 32 different Christmas celebrations, I am putting them all in one.

But you will have to see all the good pictures on Facebook...these are just the ones I gleaned off my phone.

Christmas really started when Uncle Eric and Aunt Caroline arrived to town mid-December. Then, I finished work, school was out, and the eating and laying around commenced.

Because of schedules, we celebrated "Christmas Eve at Oma and Opa's" on the 23rd...but that worked out well because Eric and Caroline were able to attend AND we attended a really great Family Service at our church on the 24th.

Pretty much from Day 1, Brooklyn wouldn't let Uncle Eric out of her sight...
 
Oma and Opa's is a great place to take post-lasagna walks...
I don't have any phone pics from our Christmas morning at our house but the kids blew through their gifts in about 11 minutes. Brooklyn was very excited about the Discovery Laptop she got (just like her godsister, Zoe's!) and Jake was excited that Santa remembered his basketball. [They were easy to please this year.]

On the 27th, we had Christmas with my side of the family...Pajama themed.



Then, on the 29th, we had Christmas with Johnsons. Drew and Molly came into town and the kids had plenty for them to do right away. :-)

The next day, we had brunch with Chad's first cousins and their families. Always a great time...and we even managed a Johnson family pic.


Eric and Caroline were here, there, and everywhere, and while they were in Wilmington over New Year's, Brooklyn snuck in a sleepover with Nanny and Grandpa.

Judging by my bank receipts and the tightening in my jeans, I'd say we had three weeks of great eating and lots of fun.
But boy, were we worn out.

Slow Cooker Sunday: 2 Recipes tonight!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Today we experienced Meal #3 out of the 5 Meal Slow Cooker Plan that I talked about last week. Tonight we had the Goulash/Beef Stew over egg noodles. Just needed a little salt, but it was delicious. I also would probably only cook 6-7 hours on low. Though my husband said it tasted great, I thought the meat was a little well done after cooking 8-8.5 hours.

I also wanted to mention this pin below from Pinterest. My friend, Loryn, made this Turkey Taco Soup for our New Year's Eve get together and then I made it again the next week for my family. It was delicious both times...and tasted great over tortilla chips and under some shredded cheese. :-)

Source: shugarysweets.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Have a great week!

11th Annual Johnzler Holiday Spectacular

I'm still losing my mind with Blogger. But I must keep going. Here's our New Year's Day fun!

It was our 11th trip to Tanglewood's Festival of Lights with our God-family. Always lots of fun- always some random whining- but always tons of laughs, too.

First, the kids opened their gifts. Brooklyn's big surprise was an American Girl doll!


The whining was cut down some because Brooklyn and Allie both brought their Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. No fights over sharing. Just some app sharing and book reading. :-)


We always love driving through and seeing what's new or moved. It's just such a great tradition and Jake REALLY enjoyed it this year.

And going AFTER Christmas is always the best- MUCH shorter lines. :-)

New Years Eve- Kiddo Style

I think I am going to lose my mind over Blogger. I had a great post about all of our Christmases and was just needing to download pics from my "good" camera and its not letting me insert pictures saved from my computer. I'm getting farther and farther behind so I am skipping Christmas for right now and re-capping New Year's Eve. If anyone knows how I can fix this (besides taking all the pics from my computer, downloading to Shutterfly, opening from my phone, saving to my iPhone gallery, then inserting them through BlogPress), PLEASE let me know. :-)

Anyways, we had a great New Year's Eve. We spent it with the Stevensons, Morrisons, Bumps, and Kinlaws, so it was awesome that Carolina cousins and Shout cousins intermingled and had a great time together. There were kids there of all ages so it was nice that everyone has someone to play with. The Stevensons hosted (which was even more awesome), and we had yummy food and lots of laughs.


The only pic I took was the rare moment they were sitting in the living room eating chicken nuggets and watching Horton Hears a Who.

The best kind of way to kick off the new year!

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Slow Cooker Sundays are Back: And here are 5 for you right away!

Yes, we have been slack in the Slow Cooker Sundays. For a while, we were doing them but just repeating old recipes, and then we got lazy altogether and did Chinese Sunday, Cookout Sunday, and Poblanos Sundays. Not healthy and definitely more expensive.

So, I found this pin on Pinterest and was intrigued. And since I was on vacation for the holiday it was the perfect opportunity to try.

I followed the instructions pretty exact. Here is the link and then I listed some of my editorial notes below.

Source: melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

*As the author made the balsamic chuck roast that night, I also did not half the recipe and freeze, but made the next day for dinner. It was delicious. Very tender and flavorful.
*Total cost for 9 dinners was about $85-90. Unfortunately, NO meat was on sale and I did not use coupons (i know, gasp), so this was worse case scenario, but still, $9 a meal is pretty good.
*It took me 1 hour to grocery shop and 2 hours to chop veggies and label/fill the bags so make sure you allot enough time.

*We made our first frozen/defrosted/slow cooked meal this evening. The BBQ chicken was delicious and the meat was tender and veggies tasted fresh. All we did was add a bit of BBQ sauce over the top before serving to add slightly more flavor. So far we are 2 for 2 with successes! Yay!

12th Annual Carolina Christmas

I never forget how lucky I am to have such longtime dear friends. The 6 of us attended UNC together and, thankfully, we all live somewhat close enough that occasional Girls Nights or weekend get togetherness happens.

Something that always happens is our annual Christmas party.


It's one of the few nights that the guys get to tag along. :-)


Mustaches optional.

We rotate around hosting so this was actually the first year we hosted the party in our second home. It was a great time with fabulous food and, thanks to Loryn's Minute to Win it holiday games, TONS of extra laughs.





Those were the only two game pics I could post publicly. :-)











We did something different this year and did Our Favorite Things. Each person bought and wrapped 5 of one of their favorite things (under $5) to give to the others. We definitely know why we are friends. Our gifts all revolved around holiday soaps, lip gloss, and alcohol. :-)

Brooklyn's Rockin Tradition Presentation

(Note: I've started digital scrapbooking through Shutterfly and its now become more important than ever to stay chronological in my posts so I can add to my scrapbook and not lose my mind. Ill get to Christmas soon. Ha!)

Brooklyn's class had a Tradition presentation the week before Christmas where they invited the parents and spoke for 1-2 minutes about a family tradition. Brooklyn chose our annual beach trips to Ocean Isle and, as her visual, requested my help with a PowerPoint. She did such a great job presenting and you could actually hear her! :-)








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Girl Scout Candlefest 2012

Each year, Girl Scouts in our community participate in Candlefests at local parks. The girls set out luminaries (white bags with candles) throughout the parks and the general public drives through the display after giving a canned food donation. It's a great service project and gift to the community.

This year, Jake and I tagged along to help Brooklyn's Brownie troop.




















The girls did a great job....and Jake managed to not get in TOO much trouble.


Later that night, we drove through the display. 3000 luminaries later, it looked great!


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The Best Christmas (2 Song) Pageant Ever

Jake's school had its annual Christmas cuteness Sunday the 9th. His class did Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Must Be Santa.

Jake had a minor pre-show freakout when he didn't know where we were but once we led him onstage and he saw the family, he was fine.

They all did a GREAT job!

Our Kick Off to Christmas Shout Cousins Christmas Party

Last Saturday, we hosted our "Shout cousins" for our first annual Christmas party. (Since Jake entered the scene and Kyle and Silas followed, they can no longer be called the Shout sisters.) :-)

December 7 at lunch was the magical date/time that worked for everyone and we had a spaghetti meal that all seemed to enjoy.

There were 9 kids so we had them do a secret Santa gift exchange which was super fun and very cost effective (especially since two more Shout babies will be here next Christmas).

I told them all they had to sit and take one picture before they could get their presents. I know, I'm so mean.



Then the opening began. It was simple chaos for a moment but cleaned up quickly and the kids went back to playing.






They all did so great and with having kids ranging in age from 11.5 to 23 months, there is always someone to play with somewhere in the house.

We are very blessed to have so many "aunts, uncles and cousins" in our faith community for our children to know and who love our children.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Before we left for Bald Head Island we tried to do a little decorating. The kids helped with our 5 foot chrismon tree.

Then, last Friday we went out to pick out the perfect (that one can find on a 24x24 covered lot in 7 minutes in the drizzly rain) tree.













They did not stay as focused decorating this one but it was still a fun family tradition.