Jalapeno Cheddar Beer Bread

I made this bread to go with our Navy Bean soup last night. OH... MY... GOODNESS! It was absolutely delicious. And, it was super easy.

You can check out the recipe here so you can make it at home. The great part, there is no yeast or kneading. It was like making banana bread. After one hour in the oven, it is a buttery, crispy, soft, spicy, cheesy hunk of yummyness.

As for the soup, I used a leftover bone with some meat on it from the Christmas ham. If you do not keep your ham bones, you should start. It is such a waste to throw that out. I boil mine with some navy beans (after soaking all night) for an hour. Put in some carrots, celery, onion, pepper and salt and then boil for another hour. Pull out the ham bone and let it cool until you can touch it and pull all the meat off and make them bite size pieces. Throw the meat back in the pot to warm back up for a couple of minutes and you have one heck of a tasty soup!

Just make sure you save leftover ham and ham bones for this purpose. It is SO yummy.

Paint on the Walls

We are well on our way to a nursery! Yesterday, Rusty started the painting. First he did the ceiling and it looks SO much better. The "white" that was on the ceiling looked so dirty and now the light blue looks crisp and clean.

Poor Rusty, he came out with neck and shoulder pain after spending an hour looking up at the ceiling. He did a great job though and it looks wonderful.

After a small break, he tackled the walls with the second shade of blue. I am so happy to actually see blue on Rowynn's walls. It is starting to look like a boys room, slowly!

I'm really looking forward to seeing the navy blue drapes up on the window. I think it will really make the room pop. In the above picture, the wall that is not blue, will eventually be a yellow wall. My original plan was to paint the entire room blue and then run a yellow stripe above crib level, so that all of the wall hangings would hang in that stripe. But, after talking about it, we decided it would be 1) easier and 2) break up the blue, if we made one wall solid yellow.

I'm looking forward to a finished room. I know that we are still a ways a way from that but, with only 5 weeks and 4 days (or 38 days) to go I'm hoping it will be completed soon!

This mommy is ready to decorate!!

Merry CHRISTmas!!

Christmas Eve we braved the sleet and snow to head down to Tulsa for dinner with Rusty's dad, step-mother, sister (and family) and brother (and family). The original plan was that there would be 23 people meeting up at Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The final number ended up being 13 instead, still not bad considering the weather conditions.

This is what it looked like shortly after leaving for the restaurant. As we continued south, the weather got worse. We had blizzard conditions and it made for some very scary driving conditions. Thankfully, Rusty is a super pro and we made it there and back with out a hitch.

What was great about the weather is the fact that we finally had a WHITE CHRISTmas. By the time we woke up this morning, we had 8-9 inches on the ground! I was super excited about that.

Before we tore into the tree, I decided to snap a picture. Santa came and filled my stocking plus left some joint presents for the two of us!

Lots of good stuff under there!

Our 2009 CHRISTmas morning. I can't wait to have Rowynn in the picture next year.

I won't go through the full list of all of our presents because that would become monotonous to read. But, Rusty did get the coffee maker he was wanting! Thanks mom... once again you nailed it!!!

It was tradition with my mom to get pajamas on Christmas Eve. I was stubborn and didn't want to open a present early. But, I did get my pajamas from my sweet hubby. Plus, Rusty got me a snuggie! I have really enjoyed being under that thing today.

While we opened presents, I had some monkey bread baking in the oven. It was Rusty's request for his Christmas breakfast.

Do to our blizzard conditions, we have a snow bank on our front porch that is probably 3 feet tall! But look how beautiful our yard looks. I'm going to try to get out there tonight to take a picture of the house with the snow and the lights. Rusty did such a great job this year that I hate to not share it (show it off!) with everyone.

I finally listened and got Rusty a helicopter. You can see it down on the floor in front of him.

Here it is in mid-air! It is the 2 blue lights you see near the door. I think he has enjoyed getting to play with his toys today.

All around, we have had a very spectacular Christmas. We enjoyed each other's company, eating good food and playing LOTS of games. I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend with my amazing husband. Though, I can't wait until next year when we will have our little guy to spoil and share the excitement with.

I has been a hard day knowing that this would have been Abigayl's second Christmas. I wish she could be here for us to spoil and love on. I know that she is feeling our love and getting to play with all of her angel friends and Christ himself today. I'm thankful that God sent his son Christ to the earth just so we could spend eternal life with him in Heaven. What an amazing day this day represents.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family. I love you all.

Brought to Tears

My friend, Carrie, sent me a box full of clothes. She has a son who is 5 months old and totally adorable. He is also a really cute dresser and now I get to have Rowynn dress like him!

What REALLY moved me was this:

and this:

One of many things Carrie and I have in common is that we both have sweet little angel's in Heaven. Lila Grace was only 3 months old when the Lord decided it was her time. Carrie would call Lila her Lila bird and that is what is represented on the second onesie. I couldn't help but cry when I saw these two onesies. There is so much meaning behind each one and they mean so much to me.

Along with these AMAZING onesies, she sent all of this:

I think Rowynn is going to be one very well dressed little guy. There were tons of cute little outfits in there. I am so excited to get to play dress up!

Thank you so VERY much Carrie. What a thoughful gift.

32... almost into 33 weeks

Stamper Christmas Card

Dear Friends and Family,

I just want to thank you all for your support over the past year. You calls, cards, flowers and prayers have made a huge impact in our lives. We love and appreciate every one of you and are thankful for being blessed with you in our lives.

We are hopeful and optimistic that our 2010 is going to be an amazing year. We are anticipating the arrival of Rowynn Russell Stamper on February 5 (as long as he doesn't decide to come any earlier!). We are anxious to hold our little guy and give him all the love we have. We can't wait to share him with the rest of you and show him off to whom ever will look!

I'm sure that my blog will soon turn into nothing but baby pictures! I'm looking forward to that day. It has been a long time coming and to know that we are so close is exhilarating.

Our prayer is, that each and every one of you has a VERY Merry Christmas and the best 2010 possible. We love you all and are SO incredibly blessed to have each of you in our lives.

Thank you for your love and support.

With Love and a warm Merry Christmas to you and yours,

Rusty and Raychel Stamper

Timing

Last night, while Rusty was slaving away in Rowynn's room, I headed out for my first night of Bunco. Let me start off by saying, I have ALWAYS wanted to be a part of a Bunco group. So, I was SUPER excited when I got the call from my friend, Kimberlee, to see if I could fill in for her sister.

Kimberlee and I met up with another girl so we could carpool to the house where we were playing. Once we got there, I was asked about my ever-growing belly, which lead to questions about if it was my first and that lead to me telling about sweet Abigayl.

To my amazement, the girl we rode over with had also lost her 3 month old daughter to SIDS two years ago. I have not once physically met another mom that had been through the same ordeal as me. I felt such an amazing connection with her and especially because this year has been harder for me than what I felt I went through last year. Maybe the pain is just different this year, I'm not sure. But, I now have a friend that I can share my deepest, hardest feelings with and she can understand 100% where I am coming from.

I know it is an odd thing, but I look forward to being able to become better friends and have more opportunities to talk, share, cry and laugh together.

God is good and he does things in His time.

All-in-all, I made many new friends last night, had a WONDERFUL time, ate some YUMMY food and made a connection with someone that I didn't know if I would ever get to make.

Moving On

Now that Rusty has "completed" the laundry room (sans a few minor details), he started on Rowynn's room last night.

Rowynn's room used to be our guest bedroom. There was quite a bit of furniture to move out before anything could be done. So, once all the furniture was moved out, he tore up the yucky, stained carpet and removed the baseboards. He also got a little taping in so that it will be ready to paint over the weekend!

YAY, no more stained carpet! Looks better already ;-)

This was our purple room and Abigayl's room was the blue room. I did that so that no matter what we ended up having we had a nursery already painted. Well, when Abi came along, I decided I wanted to use the blue room as her room! Now we will have two VERY different blue rooms.

Yummy!!!

Every year I spend a day or two in the kitchen making cookies and candies to hand out as gifts to our neighbors and friends. I really enjoy the time I get to spend putting my love into every morsel I hand out. This year was amazing. I have so much to celebrate in our lives and so many new friends to share my goodies with. Plus, my new mixer made the days SO much easier. My arms are not tired and my kitchen is full of sugary treats!

This year, I made quadruple the toffee, quadruple the peanut butter balls, double the Oreo balls and double the red velvet cake balls. The above picture is my finished product (except I still need to dip the second batch of red velvet cake balls). What is amazing, I think my list of people I want to hand out "gifts" to gets longer every year. I think if I'm not careful, I may be taking my recipes times 10 soon!!

Nothing Left but the Small Stuff

Rusty moved all of the washers and dryers in!!!

(view from my closet entrance)

It is SO nice to be able to do all of the laundry from my room/closet. Now I'm not carrying baskets of clothes up and down the hallway.

(view from the garage entrance)

All that is left are little detail things. I figure those can wait until after Rowynn's room is done! I'm sure Rusty won't mind a break from this room anyway.

This is what our hallway now looks like. There used to be a door at the end but Rusty went ahead and took it off the hinges. The plan is to paint this room the same color as the hallway, along with he door jamb so it flows a little better.

This is my old laundry room. I think we are going to turn this space into a butlers pantry. That way we can have a sink and fridge near the "playroom". I figure a fridge the size of a kid is a perfect place to put juice and water for them.

I must say, Rusty has worked SUPER hard on getting things put together.

I just want you to know babe, I appreciate all of your hard work and I think you have done a FANTASTIC job. Thank you for being so amazing. I love you.

Babymoon in Branson

Over the weekend, Rusty and I headed over to Branson, MO for a little mini-vacation without a baby in tow (except in my belly!).

Before heading over, we went and decorated Abigayl's site for Christmas. We found a pink tree this year and decided it would be so fitting for our little angel. Truth be told, this year has been much harder than what I thought it would be. I thought it would have been easier to deal with but the emotions are running high and I am missing her SO much this year.

After visiting Abigayl, we headed for Branson. When we arrived at Big Cedar Lodge, we decided to eat there. The food was divine as usual! It was very relaxing.

After dinner, I talked Rusty into going for a swim in the heated indoor pool. The thought of being weightless just made me giddy. I have carrying around this weight and was ready to feel it not there for just a moment. The only issue was that the heated pool wasn't very heated. I survived a whopping 5 minutes in the pool before I started shivering and was ready to be done. So much for being weightless. I guess I'm going to have to just wait out the next 7 weeks until I can have part of the weight "fall" off.

After our "swim", we headed over to the family friendly "bar" to listen to the singing cowboy. He is fantastic. It is like a stand up comedian meets and country singer. I was and absolute stress reliever!

Saturday we went to a Christmas show.

Here we are waiting for the show to start.

After the show we did some shopping and a little more eating. I think I may have to work out twice a day until I deliver to make up for all of the eating that was done on this trip!

Sunday we headed out to walk around town before heading for Silver Dollar City. I LOVE Silver Dollar City. If you have never been, you should try to go. They have the most beautifully lit park for Christmas and the food is WONDERFUL!

Thankfully, all of the rides that Rusty likes were open so he was able to get in some thrill rides in between walking around and eating.

This little squirrel is so used to the lady that works there, he practically went up and kissed her when she brought out some peanuts for him.

He was only a foot or so away!

Just a little taste of the lights they put up. I wish the picture did it justice.

I tried my hardest to capture it so I could share it all with you.

It was such a nice time (even though it was on the chilly side!)

I needed a break before we headed up the hill to head back to the hotel.

This was the tree in the Registration building. It was HUGE as were the ornaments. It was beautiful though.

This was the HUGE tree in Falls Lodge. I love the red, white and gold decorations. It was beautiful.

We had such a nice time. It was great to get away before our lives change, again, for the better. I can't wait until next year when we can take Rowynn to see all of the lights.

Now, it is back to the grind. We have 7 weeks to get the house ready for our little guy!!

R and O

R and O, some how, were deleted from my last post.

Letters

I needed to do something for my little Rowynn, so I made the letters for his wall. Though I have no where to hang them yet, they are done and ready to be displayed!

I bought plain wood letters at Hobby Lobby so I could decorate them the way I wanted. For Abigayl's letters, I bought the plain white ones at Babies R' Us and spent WAY to much for what I got. I decided to save money and make cuter ones this time.

The theme in Rowynn's room is vintage mickey/sports. The bedding is navy, red, cream with some accents of yellow and sky blue. We are going to paint his room sky blue with a yellow stripe around the upper center. The yellow stripe is where the letters will hang. I decided to pull out the darker colors from his bedding for his letters.

Here is the finished product......

Come on Ride the Train... and Ride it... hoot, hoot.

Sunday evening, Rusty and I headed out to The Christmas Train at Dry Gulch, USA. This was our first year to attend and I was amazed the minute we walked through the gates.

Dry Gulch is like going to Silver Dollar City. It is an old town with shops, restaurants and activities. All of the people who work there are dressed like old time cowboys and cowgirls. There is a steam engine train, wagon rides and stage coach rides.

It is really nice.

Rusty and I on our stage coach ride.

There goes another stage coach!

These were the cowboys that loaded us up in our coach.

For dinner, we had some yummy BBQ.

I wasn't able to get a good shot of the train, maybe next year. The train takes you through the story of Christ. They have beautiful art work and live scenes set up along the track. It was beautifully put together. You can check out all the info for Dry Gulch (which is a camp in the summer) here.

If you live in the area, it is totally worth it.

CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY!!!!

This is the BEAUTIFUL mixer that my mom gave me for Christmas. I have ALWAYS wanted a Kitchenaid but just have never been able to afford it, now, I am the proud owner of a pistachio green mixer!

THANK YOU MOM!!!!! I LOVE IT AND I LOVE YOU. You are THE greatest.

Before and After

If you look close, you can see the ugly, pink linoleum we started with....

Now, it is a beautiful tile floor!

Rusty even put a decorative piece in the doorway.

After Rowynn's room is complete, the plan is to tile our closet and bathroom with the same tile and place the decorative piece in each doorway.