Cyrus is going to have a little brother!

Sometime in March our second little baby boy is going to be

born and Cyrus will become a big brother!

Cyrus is a great helper. It will be wonderful to have a

little helper around when the baby comes.

His favorite new chore is scrubbing the wood floor

with the brissely vacuum accessory. His second favorite

chore is holding the dustpan after I sweep. He helps fold the

towels, cleans the toy room, and lots of other things!

Cyrus may just become the most loving, best sharing

big brother in history. He loves to see how people react

when he shares what he's eating or playing with.

We always give him a great big thank you and a hug.

Although we've been teaching and telling him about being

nice for a long time, he's now really grasping what it means

to be "nice". He uses this idea of sharing to remind us

how to share too. If we have something he's not supposed

to play with, he always says "Please share Daddy!" or

"Please Share Uncle Jake!". Hopefully he'll keep

sharing when the baby comes along!

If you've had patience to read this far, you can cast your

vote on the five boy names we're choosing from!

But just so you know, majority doesn't win...

We just want to know what you all think! :-D

1. Darius 2. Corbin 3. Gabriel 4. Cael 5. Gideon

Fun day at the Fire House

Jake is volunteering with Eagle Fire and he invited us to

attend their open house today.

We went and had a blast despite the freezing windy weather.

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We all got to sit inside the fire truck. It looked awesome inside!

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We watched as they demolished this entire car.

It used to have a roof! I now know that I will be

safely extricated if I ever get stuck in a car!

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Jake gave us a tour of all the feats he had to

perform to pass his physical exam.

Lex and Cyrus took their shot at this thing...

whatever it is! It's harder than it looks.

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Now that we're finished with our adventure at the Fire House we have one handsome Deputy Fire Marshall on our hands. He's always keeping us in line.

*Plug for Jake and the Eagle Fire: Go to Haunted Woods this year where they will be volunteering!

Susan's English Toffee

SPECIAL REQUEST!

I want to have as many people as possible try out this

recipe and TELL ME how their's turns out.

It's easy and delicious so print this recipe and when you

have a few spare cooking minutes,

PLEASE TRY THIS:

SUSAN’S ENGLISH TOFFEE

1 cup butter (Land O’ Lakes BAKING Butter during the Holidays)
1 cup sugar
3 tbs. water
1 pkg. milk chocolate chips (Ghirardelli, Belgian, Hershey’s, or anything I suppose!)
2 cups sliced almonds

(The trick is figuring out exactly how long to cook the mixture. I’ve cooked it too long and it hardens too fast but sometimes I don’t cook it long enough and it doesn’t set up as well. So just keep trying until it’s just right!)

-Use a heavy skillet. Melt butter and add sugar and water on medium high heat.

-Stir continuously with wooden spoon and when mixture just begins to turn to a lighter yellow/very light brown color, remove from heat and stir 1½ cups sliced almonds into the mixture.

-Spread evenly onto a cookie sheet.

-While still hot, sprinkle chocolate chips over mixture. As they melt, lightly smooth the chocolate over the mixture. Then sprinkle remaining ½ cup of sliced almonds on top.

- Refrigerate overnight and when toffee is hard break it into desired sized pieces.

Easy Peach Jello Jam

This is the recipe I used to make my peach freezer jam.

Print it off and save it for the next time you have extra peaches.

I think it's delicious!

EASY PEACH JELLO JAM

6 cups mashed fruit
3 cups sugar
2 (3 oz.) packages jello peach gelatin
1 tbs. lemon juice

1. Mix fruit and sugar in a large pan
2. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes
3. Add Jello
4. Freeze in freezer containers

Makes 3-4 pints