Happy New Year!

After Christmas, we spent a quiet week at home with the boys.  Dave had to work.  I started taking the Christmas decorations down while the boys played with their presents.  Easy week.

Zach got a telescope for Christmas so several nights we went outside to look at the moon, the stars, and Jupiter.

Dave has enjoyed the telescope as much as the boys.

Also this New Year's weekend I tried a recipe for a French Toast Bake I saw on pinterest.  You make it the night before and then bake it in the morning.

You can see the recipe HERE .  It was really easy to make.   I had all the ingredients on hand except for the Texas toast which I picked up at Tems.

You melt the butter and mix in the brown sugar . . . then spread it on the bottom of a 9x13 dish.

Mix the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract together.  I also added the tbsp of powered sugar to the egg mixture as was suggested.  I even cut the crusts off the bread. 

I made the 2 layers of the bread and egg mixture in the 9x13. . . as the recipe said.

Covered it and put it in the refrigerator overnight.  The next morning, I baked it and served it to my family.

The boys hated it . . . Dave, however, ate half of it . . . He liked it . . . I didn't.

 It tasted good.  It tasted just like French toast . . . I just hated the texture of it in my mouth.  I didn't eat it.   Now, I'm not even sure I like French toast.  :D   But don't listen to me.  You try this recipe and let me know if you like it.  Like I said, Dave really liked it.

In the afternoon on New Year's eve, Dave took Zach and Alex out to the pasture to shoot their new pistol bb guns. 

Dave didn't want to take Shane . . . He was worried about taking Shane . . .  But guess who won that discussion . . .

See the cows in the background in the picture above . . .

Have I mentioned that we have increased our herd by two?  I posted about the birth of one calf in my blog  HERE.   I wondered about our other cow and guess what . . .

Isn't he sweet?  We think he had just been born when Dave took these pictures.

Momma cow and baby

Here are the two calves with their momma cows:

Pretty cool, I think.

Here's the view of our house from across the lake:

That's where the boys were practicing shooting their guns while Dave was shooting pictures with my camera. :D

For New Year's eve, we went to our church to watch the movie, Courageous, and then afterward, we went to the Higginbotham's house to bring in the New Year.  We had so much fun.  The movie is great!  I highly recommend that you watch it.  Even Zach and Alex enjoyed it.

The children played with each other while the grown-ups played cards.  It was a great way to bring in the New Year.

The next day after church, Dave and I took a long nap.  Late night "partying" is not something we are used to . . . even if it's just playing spades!  When we woke up, I realized that I didn't have what I needed to fix our traditional New Year's day dinner . . .and  . . .Horrors!  Tems was already closed!

What was I going to do?  We had to have our black-eyed peas and greens!  If you read my post last year HERE, you will remember that Dave thinks this tradition of eating peas and greens on New Year's Day is a "Macon thing" even though I have shown him numerous times that it's a "Southern thing."

So I drove to town and went to . . .  the Dollar General!  I purchased our New Year's Day supper at the big DG!  A can of black-eyed peas,  a box of mac & cheese, a cornbread mix and even some country ham!  They were out of turnip greens . . .

and then I remembered I had a bag of frozen greens in my deep freezer! Woo hoo! The Ferrell's wealth and luck this year has been saved!  Not that I believe in that superstitious stuff, but I love family traditions!  This has always been a tradition for my family, and I want to pass it down to the Ferrell boys.  Unfortunately, the only thing they would eat was the mac & cheese!

My sister, Michelle, came out to the farm to visit us today and see the boys' Christmas gifts.  She also brought something for Zach.

Tomorrow is Zach's birthday!  He'll be 9 years old!  I can hardly believe it!

She gave him some kind of hover disc that you shoot down with a laser gun.  He loved it.  She also got one for Alex.  She's cool that way!

That wraps up the past week at the Ferrell farm.  Tomorrow is the first day of school for the boys this year and . . . it's Zach's birthday!  I've still got to make cupcakes and buy ice cream for his class.  Let's get serious . . . he might not get the cupcakes!

Hope you are having a great New Year!  We sure are!

the Ferrell boys and me