"March of the Toys" by: Victor Herbert

Here is a link to a very pretty Christmas song that I've enjoyed a whole lot, called "March of the Toys" by Victor Herbert. It was funny, I was listening to this on my favorite Classical music station while I was reading Battle: The Story of the Bulge (a historic book about WWII). It reminded me of the soldiers in the book marching, so it sort of felt like I was there, watching the soldiers in WWII. This piece of music is one of my FAVORITE classical pieces and Christmas songs.

Flower photos

Carnation flower petals in a laundry basket


A blue and black butterfly on a red zinnia


Pink carnations with white roses

A White Christmas... for once!

Merry Christmas to you! Guess what? We had a white Christmas! It snowed last night, and we had about a 2 inch accumulation. First white Christmas in my lifetime (don't worry, I'm only 14).

These pictures were both taken before the majority of the snow had fallen

Actually, these pictures were taken on Christmas eve. It looked even whiter this morning! :)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you from the Kautt family. May the Lord bless you during this holiday season and as we enter into the new year, 2010!

Jaden's Birthday Celebration

Jaden Jacob with his birthday gifts.

We celebrated Jaden's 7th birthday last night. For his celebration we had (besides the meal food) Hummingbird cake and Root Beer floats (yum, yum!). That is what he requested, so that's what we had. Hummingbird cake is sort of our traditional cake we have for birthdays. With pineapple, banana and pecans in it it is very delicious.

Jaden's birthday cake (decorated by Johanna and Yours Truly

Happy Birthday, Jaden!

Make a wish! (Look who has the red plate) :)

Mmmm... delicious.

Dad praying for the Lord to help and bless Jaden

Happy 7th Birthday, Jaden!

Today is Jaden's 7th birthday! Wow, how time flies! It seems like just yesterday Jaden was born. Happy birthday, Jaden! We hope that you have a good day, and that you get over your coughs and sniffles. :) We love you!

Jaden was born on the evening of December 19th, 2002. He was a Christmas baby! We were all very excited about having a new brother, Jaden Jacob Kautt. He was a big boy, 9lbs. 9 oz. and 23 inches long! We thank God for our little (not so little!) brother Jaden.

Grandpa and Grandma Kautt with sleepy Jaden

This is such a lovely picture

I love this one too!

Such a Jaden pose :)

This pictures was taken right after he lost his third tooth!

Jaden loves to dress up as a cowboy. He especially enjoys having cammo "make-up" on his face to make a mustache. :)

We should have pictures up from his birthday celebration that we're having tonight. He's requested Hummingbird cake, root beer floats, and Italian Vegetable Casserole. Sounds yummy!

The Three Kautt sisters...

...Abby (19 1/2), Phoebe (14) and Johanna (almost 12). Here are some photos of us three girls:


Me (Johanna) on Independence Day


Dear, goofy Phoebe


My DARLIN' sis'ta Abs :P

Global Warming??

Now, how often does North Texas get snow in early December? It's never happened in my lifetime (that I can remember). But, we got it some a few days ago. I must say that it wasn't very much, but you can see it on the ground. So much for Global Warming!


What about climate change??



The snow was quite wet. Yuck!


It did snow enough to cover the roof in white (yes, I know, the Christmas lights needed to be hung up properly!) :)


Have a nice weekend, and stay warm... you know this Global Warming is making it hard to keep warm!

Thanksgiving Recap - part 2

More pictures from our Thanksgiving gathering.


Jaden's giant card for Great-Grandma McKnight. Isn't it so cute?!


The settings at each place


The dessert table was very full. There were more desserts brought after this picture was taken! To say the least, we had plenty of desserts.


Enjoying fellowship after the meal


More visiting in our living room

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, with friends and family. Hope you did too!

Handel's Messiah

I love classical music, especially from the Baroque period. As such an admirer, I simply adore the gloriously beautiful and rich musical compositions of Handel.

George Frideric Handel was a prolific musician and writer of music. He was masterful at the organ, violin and in music compositions. The Messiah is one of his most well known, well beloved pieces. Universally appreciated and performed.

I personally own 4 discs of the Messiah, two separate recordings. And every year at this time, I love to pop one of them in and listen to the lofty sounds of instruments and voice. Such gloriously uplifting, majestic music!

The Messiah is derived directly from the scriptures that proclaim Jesus as Messiah. For instance:

O thou that tellest good Tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high
Mountain: O thou that tellest good Tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy Voice with
Strength; lift it up, be not afraid: Say unto the Cities of Judah, Behold your
God. - Isaiah 40:9

Arise,
shine, for thy Light come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. -
Isaiah 60:1

The Messiah is one of my favorite Oratorio's because it takes the holy scriptures and sets them to beautiful music, that is not only wonderful to listen to, but is also glorifying to God. It uplifts up the spirits at a time when the skies are grey and it can be depressing.

So, if you have a copy of Handel's Messiah why not listen and rejoice that Jesus is our Savior, our Messiah!

Merry Christmas!

Family Picture

Our last family picture was taken on July 5th, right before I got my second pair of eyes. Now it is "out of date". So, yesterday we got our family picture(s) taken. After much discussion about the clothing color coordination, we finally got the camera clicking. :)

This was my favorite one out of the several we took.

Defending the Faith 2010 Conference

Answers in Genesis is putting on another conference. It's the Defending the Faith 2010 conference. Our family has already registered, and we are very excited about attending it! If you haven't registered for this event, I would urge you to do so. If you attend you'll hear from great speakers, like:

- Dr. David Menton
- Dr. Jason Lisle
- Bill Jack
- Dr. Voddie Baucham
- Dr. Georgia Purdom
- Carl Kerby
- Ken Ham
- Dr. Andrew Snelling
and music from Buddy Davis.

Click here for the schedule and location for this event.

Devolution from Evolution

I found this clever cartoon on Doug's blog. Watch the trailer for "The Mysterious Islands," here.

Thanksgiving Recap

The Table - Before

The Table - After

It was a Chevy party! All vehicles were GM products :)

Joel inspects the fare

Chatting after the meal - Great-grandma McKnight, Aunt Becky and Mom converse in the family room.

More photos coming soon!

A Thanksgiving recipe

Picture taken from here.

Since Thanksgiving is in 3 days, I thought I would post a recipe for your Thanksgiving meal. Pecan pie is a traditional desert for Thanksgiving. I got this recipe off of this website, and modified it a bit. Since white sugar and corn syrup are bad for your health, I replaced them with honey and Agave nectar (or maple syrup). Enjoy!

Traditional Pecan Pie

Ingredients:
- 1 (9 inch) Pie Shell, pre-baked 10-12 minutes
- 3/4 cup honey
- 3/4 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
- 3 Eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1 cup chopped Pecans

Preparation:
1. Combine honey, Agave nectar (or maple syrup), eggs, vanilla and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add pecans and coat nuts well.
3. Pour pecan pie filling into pie shell.
4. Bake 45 minutes. After 30 minutes, check to see if piecrust is getting too brown, if so cover edges with foil.
5. Do not over-bake. Remove when pie filling is firm around edges, slightly soft but set in center.

Fluffy Blueberry-Coconut Pancakes

Picture from Wikipedia.

Recently I created this recipe as I was making pancakes for breakfast. It was a delicious round of pancakes, even if I say so myself! :) Enjoy!

Fluffy Blue Berry & Coconut Pancake
Created by Phoebe Kautt

- 3 cups of Arrowhead Mills Organic Gluten Free Pancake & Baking Mix (quick & easy)
- 1/3 cup of sunflower or safflower oil
- ½ cup of shredded coconut (or to taste)
- ¾ cup of blue berries (fresh or frozen)
- 1 ½ cups of buttermilk

Instructions:
Fry pancakes on medium heat. Serve hot with homemade butter and Agave Nectar, and enjoy your yummy pancakes! :)

Sewing ~

This morning I decided to make pillowcases. I will not say why I made them :), that will have to remain a secret. It took me almost 3 hours to start and complete 3 pillowcases. It is quite fun, I must say.


Two done, one more to go


Sewing... .... ... ... ... ... ... ...


Phoebe's Phashionable Pillowcases :)

Photographs

A sleepy cowboy: Jaden. :-)