Happy New Year!

I don't know what you are doing for New Year's Eve but be safe and have FUN!  We aren't having our normal New Year's Eve party because our house is a mess!  We've painted 3 rooms in 3 days and moved Makenzie from the bonus room/bedroom back into her old room.  The bonus room is now a bonus room again!!!!  We are packing away the clutter and getting ready to move!  Yes, we are moving!

Merry Mas

It's not the same without Christ, in it!!  Merry Christmas from the Wedemeyer's!

Holiday Rock, Wedemeyer style!

The kids and I have had so much fun playing on Jib Jab this year, you can get a membership for $12 per year and it's been worth it!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Rhema Christmas Light Tradition

Just like every other year we headed out to look at Christmas lights at Rhema because it's a Wedemeyer Christmas tradition and I'm big on making memories with my family and keeping up with traditions!  Unlike other years we decided to take the kids out for a treat before we hit Rhema, we took them to The Melting Pot for dessert and they LOVED it (this could be the start of a new tradition!)
We were surprised this year when we got to Rhema because they had changed up all the light displays, they are normally all in the exact same locations.  This year they had more then 2 MILLION lights and it was beautiful and some of the lights were set to music and that was really cool!  I have this new camera and I haven't totally figured it out yet so my Christmas light pictures didn't turn out that great this year.

If you want to join in the Holiday Blog Hop please join me...

McLinky Monday-Ornaments

I love linking up with the Real Housewives of Oklahoma because they always have really cute posts and I'm loving their McLinky Monday and today's McLinky is all about ornaments!  I'm not really sure how it happened but we are REALLY blessed in the ornament area, we have hundreds of them.  Each year my mom and Kevin's mom give each of us an ornament, the kids make them and I've bought ones that I love PLUS  Kevin buys me the Madame Alexander Hallmark Ornament each year (this was the 15th year that he has done this so I have them all).

Here are some of my favorite ornaments

 Ok these are obviously because my kiddos made them!

 I have loved this one since I was a tiny girl because my Grandma Tinker made it, she's no longer with us so it's very meaningful to me!

 One of the Madame Alexander ornaments

 One of the homemade snowflakes that we make every year!

 Another homemade ornament but this was from Girls Club

 Kevin gets OU ornaments every year

I love this one, no specific reason...

Another blog hop-Social Parade on Friday

Ok, so I guess this is totally the week for blog hops! Here's another one, hope you join in!

Mystery Santa and $100

I just heard from family in Iowa that a mystery Santa has been walking around Des Moines, Iowa and passing out Christmas cards and taped to the back of the card is a $100 dollar bill!!! The people that received the cards started crying and asking if it was for real and he told them, Merry Christmas and to keep the gift.  When asked why he was doing this the mystery Santa said he was inspired by a similar mystery in Kansas City, where a secret Santa gives $100 bills to the less fortunate every year and that he wanted to start doing the same thing in Des Moines.

 Isn't that amazing, and very interesting?  What would you do if a Santa handed you a card with $100?  I asked my kids and Kylan said, "I would go buy a bunch of food at Aldi and take it to the poor" and Makenzie said, "I would use it for the Blessed to Bless bags that Punky Monkey Missions is doing."  I was so PROUD of my kids!  I thought for sure that Kylan would say he would buy a game but he really surprised me and thought of others, maybe all of our talks about helping those in need are sinking in!

Punky Monkey Missions

Ok, so I may be just a tad bit biased because Punky Monkey is my daughter and hey this IS my blog so I have to brag on her a little bit (or maybe a lot). Here is a little bit of what she has done this past year
~She has been raising money for different missionaries over the past couple of years and has helped short term missions in Uganda, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, India, Brazil and Thailand and long term missions in Korea and China by donating money every month to a missionary.
~She made baby hats(and had others help her too) for Easter Social Welfare Society in Seoul, South Korea. This is the place that helped care for both Makenzie and Kylan while they were in Korea.
~She has helped raise money for several adoption to help bring babies home from Ethiopia, South Korea, and China.
~She has made hundreds of hats and scarves for the homeless and needy.
~Prays for friends, family, friends we know that are in the adoption process, missionaries and homeless on a daily basis.
~Always has a smile on her face and a happy heart to help in any situation that others ask for her help.
~She was asked to become an Oklahoma Star for the Miss Oklahoma pageant this past summer and the first thing out of her mouth was, "I can reach so many more people now with my Punky Monkey Missions platform". 
~She has been going to gyms, churches and restaurants in the area and asking for their Lost and Found items and then washing them and separating by size and then donating them to local homeless shelters.
~She makes scarves, hats, flower clips, domino necklaces, greeting cards, gives mini pedis and manis, watches children, walks dogs, or anything she can think of to help raise money for Punky Monkey Missions.
~Currently she is collecting plastic bags like Wal-Mart, Target, Justice, Dollar General, etc and is making plarn (plastic yarn) out of the bags and then crocheting them into sleeping mats for the homeless.  We are very thankful for all of the help from our church Discovery Bible Fellowship, the Girls Club of Owasso/Collinsville, all of the IMOM's in the Owasso area, friends, family and the Sigma Phi Lambda Sorority(Sisters for the Lord) at UCO that have helped us with the collection of plastic bags and with their encouragement to Punky Monkey!
~This summer she's going on a mission trip to Ethiopia to help minister to orphans with One Child Campaign and The Legacy Project.
~Another current project is making Blessed to Bless bags for the homeless, it's a gallon size ziplock bag stuffed full of items that they will need like toothpaste, toothbrushes, packets of tuna, peanut butter and crackers, gloves, scarves, hats, etc for a full list click here.
~Over the past couple of months she has had to learn to start overcoming her shyness to help get the word out about Punky Monkey Missions because The Owasso Reporter, Collinsville, News, Justice for Girls and the News on 6 have all interviewed her, she still struggles with shyness but is getting better with each interview.

Please pray for her! I love to see her working so hard to help others and not asking for anything in return but I don't want her to lose her fire to help others, so any and all encouragement will help stoke that fire inside of her.  If you are interested in helping with any projects please let us know!  Also, grab her button on the side and help us spread the word about Punky Monkey Missions!

Mid Week Mingle Blog Hop

I just found this blog hop and decided to do it, I found some great blogs this way!

Follow me back Tuesdays

Are you wanting to make some new blogger buddies?  A couple of weeks ago Dawn blogged about Follow Me Back Tuesdays,  and Tuesday Train.  I finally got off my lazy booty and decided to check it out (wait I'm still on my booty cuz I'm blogging) anyway, go check them out it's a great way to make new friends in the blogging community and also gain followers.

Mc Linky Monday-Favorite Christmas Dinner Dish

I couldn't find a pic of any ham balls I'd made so I had to 

steal borrow a pic from Taste of Home.

When I was growing up I never really had a favorite Christmas dinner dish and then I got married into the Wedemeyer family and found out about Iowa Ham balls and I LOVE them just as much as I love the Wedemeyer family!  These are my number 1 favorite dish that my in laws make, it's sooooooo good but we don't have them that often so I was finally able to get my MIL to hand over the recipe so I can make them myself, uhhmmm I just decided I'm making them tomorrow because I love them that much!  I was also told that this recipe comes from Iowa(where the Wedemeyer's are from) because they raise so much prize winning cattle and pigs and that it's a German, Dutch or Amish recipe (not sure which one it is but the Wedemeyer's are German).

Ingredients


3-1/2 pounds ground ham

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

3 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

3 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) tomato soup, undiluted

3/4 cup vinegar

2-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

Directions

In a large bowl, combine first five ingredients. Using a 1/3 cup measure, shape mixture into 2-in. balls. Place in two large shallow roasting pans. Combine all remaining ingredients; pour over balls. Bake at 325° for 1 hour, basting frequently with sauce. Yield: about 15 servings.

So once again, I linked up with the ladies at the RHOK because they are awesome and I made a bunch of the recipes from the Christmas Cookies last week and they were amazing!!!

Mummy dearest-Day1

Since we have been studing ancient Egypt we decided to bite the bullet and tackle the smelly project of mummifying a chicken (I actually got a cornish game hen). 
Today is only day 1 so it looked like a normal chicken and it didn't smell.

Don't forget to buy the gloves, my kids didn't want to touch the chicken without them on!  I bought a box of 50 at WalMart for about $4

1. Weigh the chicken. Observe condition and appearance of the bird and


take notes. Our chicken was 5"x6" and weighed 5.6 lbs

2. Thoroughly dry the chicken. Wipe the exterior of the bird until the paper towels stick to the skin. Stuff

the internal cavity of the bird with paper towels and to absorb any liquid. Remove paper towels and

repeat.

3. Rub the exterior of the bird with fragrant spices – ground cumin, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, or nutmeg and also rub with baking soda to help with the smell.

4. Fill the cavity of the bird with salt.

5. Place the chicken in a zip lock bag and pour remaining salt around the bird, rubbing some of the salt into

the skin. Try to keep salt from collecting in the zip lock portion of the plastic bag, as this will hinder the

ability of the bag to seal.

6. Close the bag tightly and place in another zip lock bag.

We will continue to monitor the chicken and let you know what happens!

Mc Linky Monday-Christmas Cookies

So the ladies over at the Real Housewives of Oklahoma already have their McLinky love all planned out for the rest of the year, if you want to join them click here and join in on the fun Christmas McLinkys that they have all planned out for us!

Kylan and I 2003 (he was 2 yrs old)

Deena with Makenzie and Devin in 2003 (they were both 3 yrs old)

 2004 was a rough year, my step Dad had just passed away the month before this and I think we were all still in shock but traditions help with consistency in childrens lives!

2005

Every year our family goes to church on Christmas Eve and then head home to bake our Sugar Cookies and decorate them, it's a tradition we've had since the kids were teeny, tiny and I look forward to it each and every year!
The recipe we use is from my step-mom Deena and everyone always ooohs and awwws over it but it's all I've ever known!

Deena's Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
5 cup flour
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tsp salt

Cream shortening, sugar and butter together, add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill for 1 hour then roll out onto floured surface until 1/4" think. Cut out with holiday cutters
Cook at 350 degrees for ONLY 5-7 min. and NO LONGER then 7 min. Cool and decorate!

The pictures are from Christmas Eve's in the past (please ignore my messy kitchen because we were having too much fun baking).



2006 this was the year we learned that Makenzie's hair could actually be curly if we tried hard enough...LOL!  She had to have spiral curls for cheerleading and it was a pain in the patootie!

Look how little Kylan was in 2006 he was 5!

2007 was the year that Kylan broke his little arm and was in a camo cast!

2008, Kylan wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty!

2008, Gigi helped us with the cookies that year!

2008 this was the year Makenzie discovered that she liked to decorate cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc

2009 the kids can almost make the cookies and decorate them without me now!

Makenzie's REALLY into decorating and cooking in 2009 check out the flour on her face!

This year 2010 she has asked for cake decorating supplies for Christmas...who knew they were so expensive??? Not me!  Thank goodness for Hobby Lobby coupons!

I hope you enjoyed our Christmas Cookies tradition thru the years!

Remember how to play MckLinky? Here are the rules!