New Year's Eve 2018

Again this year we continued our tradition of a New Year's Eve waffle party.  However, we didn't invite friends since we weren't sure what time we'd get home from our trip to Georgia. We did sparklers this year and that was really fun!

LOVE this guy.

Happy New Year's

A Weekend in Georgia

Friday morning we headed to Statesboro, Georgia for a weekend with Jonathan, Emily & Blake. We hadn't seen them since our adoption party. How does that happen? We had such a great time catching up, playing, walking Blizzard, and cousins bonding.

Notre Dame played in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday. Unfortunately they lost.

Sunday was Emily's 38th Birthday so we celebrated! Saturday, during naps, Em & I went and got pedicures without kids. It was so nice to have uninterrupted time to catch up. Sunday after church we went out for lunch to celebrate.

 We tried to get a picture of all the kids but didn't quite succeed....

 ...better luck next time.

Christmas Day 2018

There is something magical and very exciting celebrating Christmas with your kids.  Our kids were so excited and they were up EARLY.  We started reading the Christmas story, out of Luke 2, at 6:51am. We did make them wait, so we could start the coffee, before we started reading the Christmas story.

Christmas jammies in front of the Christmas tree.

A couple of Saturday's ago we split up and took the kids Christmas shopping.  Jake took Ella & Benny and I had Lily & Wren. The kids were supposed to buy their sibling's presents.  The weekend after the kids were asking me about getting Daddy a present and they had Jake take them to get me a gift.  Doesn't it seem like a parenting WIN when your kids remember others, and not just themselves, at Christmas time?!  Back to shopping for Daddy; Lily and Ella had a great idea - zip up jammies for daddy! 

Daddy was even a good sport and put them on for a picture with the kids.

After presents we enjoyed a nice big breakfast together.

We played outside in the morning and again in the afternoon,

Ella helped make the apple pie for Christmas dessert.  She did the pie crust all by herself.

We enjoyed our Christmas dinner - turkey, cornbread stuffing,  mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, corn, and crescent rolls.

Merry Christmas! Hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family time and celebrating our Savior's birth.

Christmas Eve 2018

We enjoyed a day filled with family time on Christmas Eve.  Once again, the kids opened the Christmas Eve box. The contents included: Christmas jammies for all the kids, a new book called kingdom parables, and supplies for making our Christmas trees. We opened the box mid-morning so the kids could have lots of time to make their trees and lots of time to burn off any sugar they sampled.

We were also blessed with a gorgeous day so while Jake worked on painting his 1973 VW Bus, we played outside in the sunshine.  

That evening, we joined our friends for their family Christmas Eve tradition of dinner at Pizza Hut. These sweet friends head back to Africa in just a couple of days and we are soaking up any extra time we can spend together.

Merry Christmas from the Flaming's

A Sugar Cookie Party

We had friends over Friday morning for a sugar cookie party.

Thursday morning, Benny & Wren helped me make the sugar cookie dough.  We did one batch regular and then died the other batch green.

These two even helped lick the bowl and wash the dishes!

Our friends, the Meshaw's, came over at 9am Friday morning to start the sugar cookies. There were 7 kids and 2 moms. Everyone was very creative and enjoyed themselves.  It's pretty amazing as the kids get older and can really help with these types of activities.  In fact, a few weeks ago we made peppernuts and the kids rolled ALL the dough. 

After the cookies were baked and cooled, we went on to decorating.

Brody made a cookie pizza, complete with cookie pepperoni's!

I should've grabbed a picture of all of the kids, but we (and the house) were covered in dough, flour, icing and sprinkles by the end and I completely forgot. The Meshaw's have been home, on furlough, since July.  We have loved having them nearby, reconnecting and rekindling friendships. They fly back to their ministry in Africa on December 27.

Look who's THREE!

Wren turned THREE today! I've been asking her, for weeks, what she'd like for her birthday breakfast, dinner and dessert.  We let the kids pick on their birthdays. Her only answer was "cake." Every time, "cake." So we had Jewish Apple Cake, with some healthier modifications, for breakfast. Then I made an executive decision to do breakfast for dinner.  Breakfast is Wren's jam.  She loves it and eats seconds and sometimes thirds.  So we had eggs, bacon, hash browns and banana bread for dinner.

What a gift this girl is to our family.  Her smile is contagious. She is sweet, spunky and down right hilarious at time.  We love you, Serenity Mae Flaming!

Three year old STATS:
36" tall
26 pounds, she's a peanut

Cooking with Lily: Shrimp Stir Fry

I am just LOVING cooking with the kids.  They've always helped, especially with baking, but it is really great when they can help with supper and the hot stuff. Lily has recently started loving shrimp so she enjoys helping with her favorites!

Shrimp Stir Fry with Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Tblsp coconut oil
• 1 bag stir fry vegetable blend, we love the Eat Smart brand
• Minced garlic 
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper 
• Ginger
• 2 eggs
• Brown Rice, already cooked 
• 1-2  bags extra small shrimp (already cooked, peeled & tail off)

For Fried Rice:

Put 1-2 Tblsp coconut oil & minced garlic in the wok.  Heat wok until sizzling. Pour in the stir fry vegetable blend.  Stir & season with garlic salt, pepper and ginger. Once vegetables are almost cooked, make a well in the middle of them and crack in 2 eggs.  Scramble the eggs with the vegetables. Pour in already cooked brown rice. Season rice with soy sauce. Constantly stir and fry the rice until it is heated through.

For the Shrimp:

1 Tblsp coconut oil in the pan.  Heat pan. Pour shrimp into the pan.  Season with garlic salt and pepper. Stir until cooked. Around 4 minutes.

The 2018 WB Floatilla

Remember LAST YEAR, when we did the Floatilla for the first time? Well, we decided to do it again this year and it was great!