Purple & Grey Baby Shower is Finally Here!

Well the day finally arrived!! Baby Hallie finally showed her beautiful face & me-the lucky new auntie

got to put on a really fun little shower for my sissy & new momma! She painted the baby room purple & grey

so I tried to replicate the colors in her shower.  My grandma whos 80 years old & amazing let me use her lovely little home to host the shower...... here are a few pictures of our day!

 Prizes above the buffet for our games:)

Sweet little banner my daughter helped me make, sorry about these pics, I took them with my phone!

The punchbowl...

and below is another banner that we made reads "bundle of joy" with some fresh purple tulips

These are the scrapbook pages I created to fit this album from Michaels, for the girls to fill out for a keepsake.

The food table:

One of my sisters friend begged to bring the cake so I said sure but had no idea she was this crafty! The cake was the showstopper!

My beautiful sisiter Lori and the baby "Hallie"

My other gradma loving up the boo boo in her little cardigan and dress!!

Time for a feeding in between cuddles!

I made these sweet little baby bootie soap favors for the take home goodies:

everyone thought they were white chocolate , but I needed to make sure they knew it was soap so no one went home & ate them!!LOL

Thanks for sharing a really special day!!



Homemade Apple Pie Filling

Today  turned out to be a very productive day! I got quite a bit of canning done, cleaned my house, didi laundry,all those things that just  keep piling up on the TO DO List while your busy all week. Today I finally got the canner out & prepared to make my canned  apple pie filling. I just love because you can simply open a jar any evening for a quick dessert on top of vanilla ice cream...throw into a pie shell....spoon into bottom of cassarole dish for a quick apple brown betty...and even ontop of plain or honey greek

yogurt! There are just so many possibilities. Would you like my recipe?

First you cut up 3 large bags of granny smith apples. I had to suck it up & buy them because we moved this year & we dont have our awsome apple trees anymore:(

Thats ok whatever works! So I hand peel mine, some peopple prefer a peeler but I find they take longer for me. Then I use a apple slicer to make it snappy. Dont let any seeds get in there. Put them into a large stainless steel bowl and toss them in lemon juice & a couple teaspoons of citric acid to keep them from getting brown.

Pack them into clean, hot sterile jars leaving 1 inch headspace on top. Then pour your  sauce over top-again staying an inch down from top. Clean outer ring of jar with damp rag & then dry, making sure not to leave any sauce on edges so they all seal properly.

Then, simply process in boiling water covering jars/lids for 20-25 minutes.

Here they are after all the cleaning up, I was a bit messy today!! It will be totally worth it though. If you have any leftovers, dump caramel sauce into a cassarole dish toss in some extra apples and add you favorite apple crumble topping & you have dessert all ready for tonight without dipping into your beautiful jars!

Here's the Recipe:

Homemade Apple Pie Filling (Canned) Makes 12 Quarts

3 large bags of granny smith apples(or other firm tart apples)
8 cups sugar
2 cups cornstarch
5 teaspoons apple pie spice(pamperd chef) or mix cinnamon & nutmeg & pinch of clove
2 tsp salt
10 cups water
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. citric acid

Method:

*Combine in a stock pot the cornstarch,sugar,apple pie spice,salt, & water whisking well. Let thicken on medium and dont let it burn:)
*Peel,core, and slice apples, toss in lemon juice & citric acid in bowl.
*Bring canner to a boil 3/4 full with water
*Fill hot clean,freshly washed jars with apples to about an inch before top. Spoon over sauce to an inch below lid area. Clean tops(glass ring) and dry to be sure nothing keeps them from sealing!
*Bring an inch of water in a small pan to a boil ,remove from heat & add sealing lids.
*Twist on rings, but not too tight,but sealed well, and place into canner. Mine will do 6-7 at a time. Make sure they are not touching bottom of canner,and in some sort of metal rack with handles.
* Lower into boiling water and process for 20-25 minutes.
*Make sure jars are covered by at least an inch of water, go ahead & add a bit more if you need, just start timer for the 20-25 minutes at the time of boiling.
* Remove & let cool on a tea towel. Dont touch at all until they "pop" seal.
Makes 2 dozen approx.

Enjoy!

Fun Find

I just wanted to share a great recipe I came across on Pinterest !

I had a bit of a hectic weekend as the 2 baby bunnies I was setting my alarm for all night to supplement feed, ended up passing away. It was really sad. I needed to get my mind onto something positve...and As I was roaming pinterest I had to try this recipe I saw. I love all breads and this looked so easy, I thought my brain could handle it at that moment, and it was delicious!!

The recipe is :

English Muffin Bread BY: " One good thing" blog by Jillee

and she is right it makes AMAZING TOAST!! Hop over her to check out the great recipe!!

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/moms-english-muffin-bread.html

I used fresh honey from my neighbors hive and it was to die for!

She has other great recipes on her blog as well!

Cheers~

Sad day

Last night I found out one of the bunnies in the last litter has lost use of his entire back end, its so sad ....Ive been up all night pinning the momma down to let it feed, as the little guy cant get to the nipple on his own and hes dehydrated & starving. I was devastated & hopeless, but was determinec to set my alarm for night feedings.. Then I found this...

 

Oh my goodness,how sweet! There is hope for this little life!

How Bunnies Give Birth

Welcome to the bunny farm! Meet Mocha, isnt she pretty? Shes sweet,cuddly,kind, and very loving. She just has 12 babies! This is her 15 minutes afterwards resting. Shes worked very hard...

Bunnies give birth between 28-34 days after conceiving , a very quick pregnancy, Im jealous..lol.

The first sign of pregnancy obviously is weight gain, although sometimes they barely show it until a week before birth.

Our bunnies are inside when its -30 out, so we had to make an impromtu nesting basket. Whatever works they are very easy going!

They start to madly pluck fur out of they're neck and stomach to create a soft nest for the babies to be born into. It amazes me every time, it goes so fast.  Both my mommas had their babies within minutes of the plucking festival.

Here she is with a soft chuck of her fur in her mouth preparing-dont worry! It doesnt hurt her at all, she has been waiting to do this!  Moments later the babies are born and she eats the sacs around the babies as they are born. It is normal and instintual to ignore the babies until nighttime after giving birth and staying on the opposite side of the cage from them.  She is protecting them from predators by not staying near them and drawing attention to them.

Do you see the size difference in these 2 babes? I had to intervene this time because Mocha had so many babues they were not all having a chance at nursing, the bigger ones got all the nipples faster & drank more.

I  had to intervene immediatly after day 4  after finding 3 babies with ribs sticking out. I kneeled on the floor & held the mother firmly against my chest with her feet on the ground and her belly between my legs holding her front feet firmly. I attached the ravenous tiny ones and forced nursing for them. This only happens with huge batches, because typically they would each get a nipple, but these poor things needed help.

and after only 3 weeks they look like this!! Isnt it incredible? Still blows my mind how fast they grow,totally amazing!

Have a great weekend!

Old Fashioned Baked Oatmeal

On of my favorite "bake the night before" school recipes is baked oatmeal.

The kids love it, its super quick and easy, and who doesnt love one bowl recipes!!

The kids helped, and picked there favorite fruit to add.

The smell in the house is wonderful as always....we doubled the recipe this time to get 2 trays because I have a teenager who eats me out of house and home it seems...or just a bottomless pit right now.

Heres the recipe if youd like to try it!

Baked Oatmeal

3 1/2 cups Oatmeal

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup coconut (optional)

1 cup raspberries,strawberries or blueberries

1/4 cup vegtable oil

3 eggs

1-2 apples grated

1 cup applesauce

1-2 cups milk

Mix in order & spread into greased baking dishes-I use glass, and bake at 350 for aprox 30 minutes. Cover with wrap or tinfoil if eating in morning. Slice into squares & pour on creamo or milk, and brow sugar.

Enjoy!

Patiently Waiting for Spring On the Homestead

Today we went outisde to look around and plan our spring projects. The greenhouse has wood peices falling off everywhere from all the windstorms...the firewood pile will need refilled and refreshed by summer.

It was such a lovely sunny day but then we got totally distracted by something...

But then we saw all these super cute wild bunny ttracks and went about the property following them around. Boy these guys get around!

Followed them all the way down into the revine..



Deep into some bunny burrows and underground tunnel systems..

and deep down  inside the snow tunnels. These guys are so clever!

Even the kids and dogs knew they were on some kind of adventure!

The girls ended up finding 2 beautiful white fuzzballs bunny babies in one tunnel, but they were so quick there was no time for pictures...so we headed back to check on our pet bunnies in the house.

Our home sits up on the ridge above the beaver pond. Time to head home!

And these guys have doubled in size since I took this pic.

It was a really relazing and nice sunday.