October 27, 2008 – 9:30 pm
Our son and his fiancee were married on Saturday. The wedding was planned for the rose garden, but morning rain sent us indoors. Afterward, the ground was dry enough for picture taking in the gardens.
We arrived on Wednesday and were able to help with a lot of the preparation. It was a lot of fun and we were so glad we were able to be a part of the last minute “getting ready.”
Our granddaughters…
Panda’s first bite of cake
Tabby’s first bite of cake
The first dance ~
Big sister helps little sissy with a dance ~
Our second daughter, who is a photography major, served as wedding photographer.
Panda plays peek-a-boo with her dress ~
DD#3 on the right, and her niece. 🙂
One worn out little Panda Bear.
Grandpa and Tabby Cat ~
After the wedding, we packed the twins and all their stuff into DS’s van and drove them home to stay with us for a week. Exciting times ahead!
~~Rhonda 🙂
October 24, 2008 – 2:26 am
I bathed the babies while their Mommy worked on other things.
Baby Einstein
Poofy? Who’s Poofy?
~~Grandma 🙂
October 23, 2008 – 3:50 pm
The girls are sleeping right now. DH is at the store getting groceries. I am taking the opportunity to catch up on a few computer items. I posted the week’s article to the Christmas Notebook and uploaded more pictures. I’ll be doing a lot of uploading this week, I’m sure.
The girls were glad to see us this morning.
Wash is such a well-mannered kitty. The girls wallow him and he doesn’t complain.
DS#2 and DDIL arrived this morning. Being cat people, they made instant friends with Wash.
~~Rhonda 🙂
October 22, 2008 – 9:54 pm
While we are here for our son’s wedding, we get to spend a lot of time with our granddaughters.
It has been almost four months since we saw them last. They have grown and changed a lot since then.
She must have one of her ten year old aunt’s genes…we had lots of baby books that looked like this…round corners! Not to mention the corners of cardboard boxes, kleenex, etc.
Happy girl…
Mommy makes noises and she imitates them, facial expressions and all.
Lovin’ on Daddy.
Posts for the next few days may be all about two babies. 🙂 ~~Rhonda
October 21, 2008 – 8:39 pm
I made Toffee Bar Crunch Biscotti for the first time last year. It was a huge hit. There were only two pieces left after the open house.
I made it again today. It’s packed and ready to be taken down to the freezer to wait for the Christmas open house.
The dough spreads a lot while baking. Last year, I made it into two loaves as the recipe called for, but this year I made three loaves, which worked better.
Also, I didn’t use toffee bars as the recipe called for, but used 1 cup of toffee baking bits and 1 cup of mini chocolate chips instead. And I didn’t have butterscotch extract, so I just left that out. 🙂
When they are thawed for the open house, I’ll dip one end of each piece into chocolate.
This recipe makes the house smell wonderful! ~~Rhonda 🙂
October 21, 2008 – 4:29 pm
Date Balls
1 pound dates, diced
1 pound butter
2 c. sugar
Cook over medium heat 10 minutes, stirring constantly. DO NOT BOIL. I melt the butter first, and start counting the time from when it begins to simmer after I have added the sugar and the dates.
Remove from heat and add:
4 c. Rice Krispies
2 c. pecans, chopped finely
4 tsp. vanilla
Mix well. The mixture will be runny. It becomes firmer as it cools. As it cools, the rice crispies will absorb some of the butter and liquid.
After about an hour, it will be cool enough to shape into 1-inch balls (more like pressing than rolling into balls). Excess butter will roll down your arms if you hold your hands above your elbows…I speak from experience. Keep a roll of paper towels handy.
Roll the date balls in powdered sugar.
These freeze beautifully.
To store them in the freezer, I layer them between sheets of waxed paper in a plastic container with a tight lid, using any leftover powdered sugar to sprinkle over the date balls.
~~Rhonda
October 21, 2008 – 11:37 am
Life is way busy here. Last Friday I mixed the oatmeal cookies, rolled them into logs, sugared them, and put them in the fridge to harden. And there they waited until this morning. Now they’re baked and ready to be packed into the freezer for the open house December 7.
Oh, yum! ~~Rhonda 🙂
October 19, 2008 – 8:42 pm
The renovation continues. The new floors look great. We are beginning to move some things back into the addition. And even set up the crib in anticipation of our grandbabies being here next week.
The towel cupboard is back in the laundry room, but I haven’t restocked the shelves yet.
It will be a few weeks before the tile floors are installed in the bathroom, so we haven’t started serious painting in there. It was all we could do to finish the other rooms in time for the hardwood floors.
DH did paint a test patch on the wall so I could decide on the colors…medium or light on the wall? I think I’ll go with the medium, as shown. The wainscot and woodwork will be painted a glossy white. The wall around the medicine cabinet and the window will be covered with little blue and white glass tiles.
~~Rhonda
