Noah Frederick

Today Daniel & I got to go meet our new little nephew, Noah Frederick. He was on born on Tues, Nov 26th to Fred & Jodi. Oh how precious he is!! 

Since Daniel works at the hospital and was working when Noah was born, he got to go visit them during his break and when he got off work. He was pretty proud of the fact that he was the first one to hold him besides Fred & Jodi. :) I was slightly jealous, I just love newborns. It has been so long since I've held a little one. I was so excited at work all day. :) 

Us with little Noah

Proud mom & dad

 I'm so excited to watch this little guy grow up. If he's half as cute as his sister, he'll be alright. ;)

 Oh, and holding him at church will be a plus too. ;)

Stuffed Squash

I don't normally post recipes on here... but I recently made a delicious Stuffed Squash I thought I'd share! When you have all those leftover squash from the garden, it's a great and easy way to use them up!

Stuffed Squash

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/2 cup crushed saltine or butter-flavored crackers

1/3 cup ketchup

1 egg

1-1/2 tsp dried minced onion

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3/4 pound ground beef

2 large acorn squash

In a medium bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Add beef; mix well. Cut squash in half; remove and discard the seeds. Fill with meat mixture. Place in a dish. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes. 

**Some of my own changes: I did not use acorn squash, I used butternut and it worked just as well. I also didn't put in crackers, and it tasted just fine. 

Believe it or not, Daniel actually loved it! He even ate the leftovers. This meal was so fast, I even had time to make it in the morning before work. 

Joseph, I thought of you while we were eating this. :) 

Carter's Bday & Hunting

This post is a little behind... Carter's birthday was on Oct 17th. His birthday party was the next day, with a little bit of a pirate theme. Mr. Carter is 2 years old, and is so busy that my pictures really aren't the greatest. He doesn't hold still and pose like his sister... :)

I love his face of joy with the sword  he got  :)

Heidi told us to get Carter some tractors... he's around his sister too
 much and needs to learn how to be a boy :) 

Tool Set...

So between a sword, a tractor & wagon, a tool set, and some more trucks, he should be set... all ready for his boy training. :) Poor little boy if Heidi's next one is a girl.. he's doomed! ;) Oh he's so sweet though... we'll love him no matter what :)

Big sister had to keep her distance so Carter could enjoy his presents

That same weekend, Daniel & I went hunting for the first time this year. The stand had me a little freaked out...it's higher than it was last year. After being in it for a few hours I relaxed a little bit. But I did make Daniel buy a safety harness. The stand was actually kind of nice because we got to sit by each other and not in different stands like we had to last year. 

I don't mind going hunting with Daniel every once in a while, but.. for as much as he likes to go, I've told him to go by himself. We never see anything when I'm out there anyway... I must scare them all away. 

Apple Cider Making

Saturday morning, Daniel's family got together to make Apple Cider. It was a cold, windy day, but with several layers on and rice warmers in my coat, I survived. :) I had a pretty easy job... going through the apples to make sure there were no bad spots or rotten ones. 

Gabe & Mary

Dad L & Daniel

 The little boys had fun playing in the leaves.

I'm not sure what the total count of gallons we ended up with... but just us alone took 6 gallons of cider to take home for two of us! Enough to share with others, and enough to put in the freezer! It was a fun thing to do... if it would've been warmer outside it would've been even better! :)

We got home in pretty good time Saturday afternoon from making cider because Daniel had studying to do. I did my housewife duties... laundry, cleaning, and making food. Friday night I went to my mom's and made a whole bunch of food for the freezer. I am so excited about this... I can come home from work and already have dinner made! We did most of it on Friday night, but I wanted to make a few more things, which I did on Saturday night. Since we got an extra hour of sleep that night, after all my duties were done, I was able to relax before going to bed. It felt good to get so much done though. I LOVE my Saturday's at home...catching up before I start another work week!

Sunday my parents served lunch... what a perfect weekend for that! It didn't even feel early. :) I felt like I talked to people more than I helped.. sorry Mom! There was a lot of extra people there because of baptisms, so I couldn't stop talking. :) 

Hannah, Marisa, and Evan & Elisabeth came over after church since they were there for baptisms. Hannah took some pictures of us for our Christmas card. Our trees down our lane are gorgeous right now... but I guess you'll have to wait to see those pictures until you get our Christmas card. :) Zach came over later, and we all went out to eat at Red Robin. They're known for their burgers... but since I am eating gluten free now, I was assuming I would eat a healthy salad. But when I saw that they have gluten free buns... I couldn't resist, I got a burger. And it was delicious. 

It was all Daniel's Knapp cousins his age + Hannah :)

Evan & Elisabeth and Marisa came over afterwards... we played an interesting game of Scattegories. I love that game... I got to see how creative Daniel is...it was hilarious. I've never seen that side of him. Oh, and we were reminded that Elisabeth & Daniel are siblings... so funny. Some things never change. It was a busy, but good weekend as always.