The Joshua Leever family :)

A month or so ago Janelle and I got to do a fun little photo shoot with the Little Leever's....!! I always love taking end of the year family pictures, it's so much fun to then go back and look at the past years... 

Anyways, here's some for you all to see of the ones we took :) 

Let's go take some pictures!:) Although it's definitely not the most exciting thing for little boys... ;)

Brothers... 

Daddy and his sons... I love this one!

Look at that boys eyes...!!!!

~ Family love ~

Playing in the leaves... :) 

I can hardly wait to meet this little boy... :D 

Another one of the boys... 

Such a cute couple ; ) 

I love this candid picture! 

Before the Throne of God Above...

Before the throne of God above

I have a strong and perfect plea.

A great high Priest whose Name is Love

Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on His hands,

My name is written on His heart.

I know that while in Heaven He stands

No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

~*~~*~*~*~*~*~

This is one of my most favorite hymns... praise God for His unchanging, and unfailing grace and love!

What I'm Thankful for...

I love this quote :) Whenever I'm down or just not doing the best, I ask the Lord to remind me that I have so much to be thankful for, much more than some do. Here's a list of a bunch of random things that I am thankful for...along with some pictures! 

Jesus Christ's amazing mercy, love, and grace - God's Word - my amazing godly parents who are always pointing me to Christ, and who I love so much - all my brothers who work so hard, love to talk (at least some of them do!), and tease and just be plain awesome:), I love you guys so much! - my sisters, the best friends anyone could have, who know pretty much everything about me, and who I love so much also :)  - my two adorable nephews (and I can't wait for number three to come into this world, I'm sure he's adorable too!!), their precious smiles, I love it when they laugh..., and I love them like crazy!!!;) - all my amazing, funny, awesome friends who I love and who bless me so much - crisp mornings - praying to my Savior and journaling - my cute Labrador! - godly people that I learn so much from - color, I just love color!!! It makes me so happy, especially bright joyful tones ;) - godly grandparents that are amazing - bread dough that rises (I know that's kind of weird, but if you've ever made bread that flops you'd be happy too when it rises!) - flowers on my desk when it's cold out - camping with friends - food :) - oh and lots more too...;) But I will end here...now here's some pictures from some recent things happening around here.

This Thanksgiving turkey was awesome!!!

A rather dreary day... 

Editing pictures with this cutie makes it so fun :D 

An random iris that is blooming...

Warm yummy Caramel Mochas...mmmm 

Card making fun...

I love where I live!!!!

Pie crusts for pumpkin pie... 

What are you Thankful for?!!! 

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above..." James 1:7 

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

It seems like most everyone loves chocolate chip cookies.... :) This recipe turned out really well, I actually got it off of a chocolate chip bag that we recently got. My family loved them, and I have been trying different recipes to get one that was good. The great thing was they didn't completely flatten out like our usual recipe does, they stayed pretty puffy!! They did get a little harder though the next day.... But over all it's pretty good!

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated cane sugar
½ cup butter
½ cup palm shortening
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ - 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two baking sheets.  In a large bowl, beat together both sugars, butter, shortening, salt, vanilla, vinegar, and baking soda until smooth and creamy.  Add in the egg and beat until smooth and all ingredients are thoroughly combined.  Mix in the flour and then the chocolate chips, just until combined.  Spoon 1 1/4” balls of dough onto prepared cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until browned just right! Cool before removing from cookie sheets. Enjoy :)

 

God Bless You!!

Beach Camp 2013 : )

 

I must say that this camping trip is pretty high on my list of "most favorite" camping trips... :) It was such fun and a huge blessing getting to know so many friends better - like: learning a little about peoples personalities when its really late (I won't say the hour :) - just know it was late!!), and who wakes up and is out of their warm sleeping bags and sitting around the campfire in the morning first, and all the other little things you don't always notice about people unless you are with them for several days in a row ;) Bible time was very encouraging (and convicting for me) also - the theme was "Dive In", we can't just be partly in Christ, we've got to dive all the way in and live fully for Him everyday. All the games were so much fun also, and we all had a blast playing football for several hours each day!!:)

Here is a link to an album of a bunch more pictures: Beach Camp 2013
My mom and Janelle took basically all of these pictures, and they got some really good ones :)

Recipe: Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins

Recipe adapted by JaeRachelle :)

 

Makes 24-30 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease or line with paper muffin cups, the muffin tins.

In a large bowl, blend together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, milk, honey, and butter until smooth.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, blending until just moistened.  Stir in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each one about 3/4 full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5-7 minutes.  Serve warm, or invert onto the rack and cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Enjoy :) 

 

I made these muffins for breakfast this morning and they were really yummy!! They were very moist, and the best thing was they had no sugar!! I love finding recipes with no sugar...! I do think that it might be kind of good to add some lemon zest maybe, it'd add a little more flavor I think...but I don't know, so if you make this - play around with the recipe and let me know what you think : )

Oh yeah, this is so off the topic of baking (people who know me well though, know that I like to do and say things off topic quite often!! So be prepared in the future of random off topic thoughts...), but to get back on the topic! ;) It snowed/hailed at our place on Monday!!! Here's a picture, sorry it's a blurry iPod picture though...but hey, better than nothing, right?:)  

We usually don't expect this cold of weather till around the middle of November, so this was a surprise! It was pretty though and is making me get all excited about Winter....

 

Of butterflies, bees, and flowers...

The past several weeks we have had so many butterflies in our flower gardens, its so beautiful!! I finally got a chance the other day to go and take pictures, it was so hard to pick just a few favorites...!

 



 

 

A bee, butterfly, and ladybug - all hanging out together : )

 

 

"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:37-39