God's Precious Gift

On November 13th my brother Dyrand and my sister-in-law were blessed with a sweet baby boy, named Conrad Hale. He weighed 6 lbs 8oz and was 19 inhes long.  According to the docters he was around 3 weeks early,but he is doing great. He has gained around 2 lbs now and is just the most sweetest baby. Seeing that he I my first nephew I might be a little partial!!  He has lots of hair and is starting to get quite chubby. Everybody can't get enough of him.  You'll see why.  

                                        
                                                This picture of the two was taken the day she went in labor!!

                                                Isn't he sooo cute?  

                                        Truly a miracle.   This was just minutes after he was born. His daddy holding his hand. So sweet.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures. He is most certainly a beautiful baby.
Thank you Lord for giving him to us.
Hope you all have wonderful Christmas filled with love,family and friends and laughter.
God Bless,
Ashley

Brownie Delight!!!

Hello Readers,
I made this recipe about a week or so ago and my family absolutely loved it. It is really easy to make and doesn't take very long.
Here it is:
1 package brownie mix (9-inch by 13 inch pan size)
2 packages of cream chese ,softened
2 cups of confectioners' sugar
1 carton (16oz.) frozen whipped topping,thawed,divided
2 cups of cold milk
1 package instantt chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup chopped pecans


Prepare and bake brownies accoreding to package directions,using a greased 9 by 13 inch baking pan. Cool completely. In a mixing bowl,beat cream cheese and sugar for 2 minutes. Fold in 2 cupswhipped topping. Spread over brownies. In another bowl,combine the milk and pudding mix; beat until smooth. refrigerate for 5 minutes;spread over the cream cheese layer. srpead with remaining whipped toppong ; sprinkle with pecans then refrigerate until serving. Yield: 12- 15 servings

If you make this please tell me what you thought of it. I would love to hear what ya thought.   Have fun and Enjoy!!!
Ashley ;)

Busy Times

Hello Everyone,

I am sorry that I have not been on for such a long time. My family has been really busy the last couple of weeks. We have canned and canned and canned. Its has been fun though. A couple of Saturdays ago my mom, sister-in-law, and I were cutting up what we thought were banana peppers and putting them in bags and freezing them. Boy was that a nightmare! The juice from the peppers started making our hands burn a little but we didn't think anything of it and just rinsed our hands off and kept right on workin'.  Well, that was a mistake!!  When we were done we washed our hands thinking that it would just go away. It did, temporarily. After about five minutes of wondering what was wrong, my sister-in-law got on the computer and tried to find out how to relieve it. Someone said try mixing baking soda and water and putting it on like you would do for bee stings.  Well, we tried that but it didn't help. When the burning started spreading and getting worse we got pretty desperate and tried everything you could imagine.....rubbing tomatoes on them, flour, sea breeze face wash, mouth wash, bleach, and a ton of other things that DID NOT work.  We finally read a site that said it will go away at about seven or eight hours after it happened.  Well, we finished the peppers at around  12:30 in the afternoon and by 8:30pm it was still there. So we ended up just soaking our hands in ice water. None of us could stand any heat whatsoever. Going outside or even holding a person's hand would set it off real bad and make it alot worse.  By 3:30 in the morning it had gone away. Thank the LORD!  Needless to say, we are most certainly going to remember gloves next time!!!!    
Just a couple days ago we canned 35 quarts of corn, 21 quarts of tomatoes and around seven more quarts of pickles. Then our pastor said that if we dug up his potatoes we could have half of them! What a blessing.  So far we have 95 quarts of potatoes and we still have two and a half five gallon buckets left!! I know... it's a lot.

On Saturday we helped my oldest brother and his wife move. He starts his new job on Wednesday so please pray that it goes well. I don't know why I did not post this sooner but I just didn't think to. Several months ago they told us they were going to have a baby!!!!  Then just a couple of weeks ago we found out it's a boy!!!! Of course we were all really excited. He's due in December.  I can't hardly wait. But I know I am going to have to. Babies are just so sweet.

I just made myself a dress for the mini-concert our family sang at last night.  It was a mother/daughter smoothie party event. That was fun. I always enjoy singing with my family. Well I need to stop for tonight.  I hope ya'll have a wonderful week. Be back soon.

                                                   Your Friend, Ashley R.

Country Livin'

Hello Readers,
I hope you all are having a wonderful week. 
Just yesterday we started canning. With all the heat we are having our garden as been really taking off. We canned six quarts of dill pickles and several quarts of  summer squash. Delicious!!!!  We planted alot in our garden this year.  We have beans,a ton of tomatoes, summer and winter squash, jalapenos, watermelon, cucumbers, canteloupe, strawberries, blueberries, lettuce, garlic, and potatoes.  I believe that's it!  We've been managing to keep the weeds down pretty well, thankfully. We also have an herb garden that is doing pretty well also. I dried parsley, oregano, spearmint, and lemon balm today. I think we'll be set for the winter at this rate. :)
The last week or so the heat and humidity as been almost unbearable. Yesterday two of my biggest laying hens died. We think it was from the heat and  being dehydrated. I have nineteen hens total now,in two seperate pens,that I have two water at least two times a day. I don't remember ever having a summer here that was quite this hot. Yesterday at 6:45 pm it was 101 degrees!! Needless to say,we went swimming. All in all it's been a good week.

I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.    Psalm 116:1-2

     God Bless,
          Ashley

I'm Finally Back!!!

Dear Readers,
I'm finally back home. I actually got back on the fourth but have been on a short vacation thingy with my parents and older siblings for the last week or so and have not been able to post anything earlier, even though I've been wanting to since the day I got back.
Alaska was awesome!!! I had a wonderful time. The time flew by so quickly. When it was over it was hard to believe that a month could go by so quick. :)  We went to so many places that they all get jumbled together in my head.  When I have more time I would love to put on pictures for you to look at. Right now I have to get to bed!     I will be back soon again, to give alot more detail and pictures on my trip, I hope. :)
  It's great to be back home.          God Bless,
                                                            Ashley ;)

Alaska and Beyond!!!

Dear Followers,
I just wanted to let ya'll know that in just a couple of days I will be going with my brother and grandparents to Alaska.We will not be getting back till July 4th. What fun!!! I can hardly wait!!  I will be sure to take plenty of pictures for you all. Hopefully the trip goes well. : ) Hope you all are having a wonderful week.  Have an awesome day!

Your very excited friend,
                           Ashley R.

A Purity So Bright the World Marvels By: Sarah Mally

Hello Everyone!  I am sorry I have not been on for so long. I hope I will be able to post more often after this. This post I got from the book, Before You Meet Prince Charming   By Sarah Mally.  If you have never read this book I highly reccommend it. It's a great one.   It talks alot about purity and courtship and dating and many more interesting topics.  I hope you find this encouraging and helpful.
The Cake:
Suppose you made a beautiful birthday cake.  It was rich chocolate cake with homeade vanilla frosting. You spent all afternoon taking the time to make sure it was flawless. You decorated it carefully with frosting, flowers, leaves, and lettering, and added a few cherries for the final touch. Then, enjoying the aroma of a freshly baked chocolate cake, you left it on the counter so that it would be ready for the birthday party.
The suppose I came along, saw the cake, and feeling a little hungry, decided to cut a piece for my self. Just as I was eating my last bite, you returned to the counter and found your beautiful cake- with a piece missing. So much for all your work making sure each detail of every flower looked perfect. As far as you are concerned, the cake is ruined. There's not time to make a new one. How will it look when you serve it at the party? After all your meticulous work to make it just perfect, how would you feel about my careless attitude?  What if I suggested that you bake another piece of cake to fill in the empty space? Obviously, my advice would irritate you even more.  " Of course not,"  you'd say. "The cake is ruined. It will never look the same again."
 A Proverbs 31 woman will do her husband good,not evil, all the days of her life.(Prov. 31:12). One of the best ways that you can do good to your future husband today,even if you don't know him yet, is by protecting your heart so that it will be completely his. Your heart is a priceless treasure that you are saving for one. How will your future husband feel if you have already given pieces of your heart to others and can offer him only a partly-eaten cake? He wants a cake baked just for him, not one with pieces missing that others have tasted first. He wants the whole thing-not just part. One day you will long to give him your whole heart-but in order to give it later,you must protect it now.

Note from me:
I love this illustration. It is a great example showing how we should remain pure for the day when we will give ourselves away to that special someone. Just think, you would be very hurt if you had found out that he had already given pieces himself away before he had come to you.
Hopefully I will be righting more from this book later on. I hope you enjoyed it.