monday, monday

Happy Monday folks!

I hope you had the most delightful weekend! We certainly did! Ours was filled with lots of family time, which is my favorite!  I have already been quite productive this morning.  I finally decided to face the mountain of laundry (I should say mountains because I have more than one pile)! I'm not real sure how I get so behind, but I decided I better get to it because we are all running out of clean clothes around here. :)  I got out of the shower yesterday and went not to my drawers for clothes, but straight to the dryer.  Jeremy laughed and said he did the same thing.  Glad he understands that I am doing my best and doesn't complain! (well, most of the time!! :)

Sunday night we had a little going away party for some friends at church.  Everyone was asked to bring a finger food. So, I decided to bring pretzel pecan rolo bites. I'm sure you have had them. They are really really easy, and the perfect combo of salty and sweet! Just incase you have never made them before, here is a quick how to.

3 simple ingredients:
-pretzels
-rolo candies
-pecan halves

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and place pretzels flat on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place one unwrapped rolo on each pretzel and put in the oven for 4-5 minutes.  The rolos will still have there shape when you remove them from the oven.  Place one pecan half on each rolo and press down slightly. Let stand until the chocolate and caramel hardens. These are so easy, the most bothersome part is unwrapping all of the rolos.  Enjoy!

This recipe has been around for a while, and I'm not sure who to give the credit to. But, I did find this recipe online.

Before I get back to watching two of the sweetest babies I know and tackling my mountains of laundry, here are a few pictures from yesterday.

This girl loves her some shoes! :)

Kinda embarrassed to post this picture of my dirty door glass.  Maybe I'll windex that today too!



Jeremy took these pictures after church last night. I love this one of Ella Claire and me.

Silly face

Gotta love a one year olds kiss!

She went from having a blast to PUT ME DOWN in 1 second flat.  :) Independent!

We finally got her to look at the camera, not smile, but look.

Here's to a clean house with clean laundry thats not in mountainous piles, but folded and put away nicely!

Not 1, not 2, but 3!

This week has been a busy one, as I have been watching 3 babies! Yes...I have lost my mind.  No, not really, but I did come close a few times! :)  A friend of our family had surgery this week and needed someone to watch her son.  Honestly, watching little Madelaine and Ella Claire has proven to be a challenge for me on certain days (even though I love it!), so, I was slightly nervous about adding another little person! However, I have been praying for the Lord to show me how I can help serve other people.  He has done so much for me and I feel like I do so little for Him!  So, even though I was a little scared (call me a chicken, but 2 babies and a toddler really is a handful for a mother of one!), I knew deep down that it was what I needed to do. 

So, bright and early Monday morning our little buddy, Ashton, arrived and was ready to play and have some "slumber party" fun. We had a great time and actually the time flew by!  We sang silly songs, watched "little bear" a lot, ran around outside and ran around inside too. :) At first Ashton wasn't so sure about Ella Claire. I have mentioned before how much she loves Gus. Well, she does this thing where she practically lays on top of him to give him a hug.  She also tries to do this to Madelaine or anything else that is low to the ground that she wants to love on. Funny child...I know! When Ashton first arrived he was sitting in her chair and she tried to lay on his feet and then sit on him.  He did not like this sort of affection and insisted she get off. I on the other hand thought it was hysterical (I laughed only on the inside), but quickly picked my loving child up and removed her from the situation. :) After that, he warmed up to EC and they became great friends!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of our time together with Ashton, but here is one of him from last Christmas at my parents house.  Looks like a little boys dream come true to me.....watching Bob the Builder and sitting in a dump truck amidst your favorite toys!

And, just for fun, here is a visual of Ella Claire being so affectionate...

and again....

and again....

My parents, who had been out of town, arrived late Tuesday night and picked Ashton up on there way home. My mom will be watching him through the rest of the week. My mom is a great teacher. She has taught me and my siblings, by example and not just by her words, to serve others and put ourselves last. For that, I am thankful! I believe that is so very important, but, I have been a slow learner...I still have to remind myself daily. The neat thing is, most of the time, when we think we are helping someone else, by serving them, we realize how much it actually, is helping us. It can't be any better than that! 

Ella Claire's first fall festival

Kim and Maddie Moo with me and Ella Claire

Along with all of our other fall festival activities, this year our church started a new tradition called blessing street. It was such a neat idea!  You can see part of it in this picture behind Steph and EC.  They made a pretend street in the grass and a wall of doors.  Each door was decorated with different themes.  The kids would go knock on each door for treats! They started letting the kids knock on the doors after dark, so they couldn't see the black tarp, just the decorated doors! Everyone behind the doors had on costumes too. They got really creative with the costumes and door decorations! I wish I would have taken more pictures! :)

Jess and Steph decorated their door with a candy theme.  They are dressed as cones of cotton candy!

Mickey Mouse and my little duck weren't sure what to think about each other! Isn't that such a cute little Mickey Mouse! Love him!!

They decided it would be okay to hold hands for a picture. :)

Jeremy and I spent most of the night chasing our little duck around!  

She didn't even want to sit still for a family picture!  Silly duck!

The sweetest little angel and duck with their daddies!

Have you ever seen such an adorable little elephant?! Big brother was an elephant too, but ran too fast for a picture!

Adriane and her little angel, Layla. Adriane made this sweet little costume!

Ella Claire didn't eat any candy this year, but on our way home we stopped to see GiGi. She treated EC to some vanilla ice cream. Oh my!!!  She didn't know what to think about all that sugar! I think it was GiGi's trick to get EC to come sit with her. It worked!


Well, November is here and it's time to put those costumes away and start thinking TURKEY! :) Such a wonderful time of the year! 


Happy Tuesday everyone!  See ya again real soon!

Thoughts from Thursday

They are best friends. She looks for him first thing every morning. She loves him. He loves her. He has germs that I would rather her not be exposed to. She doesn't care. It's not worth the fight. :)

How 'bout those pj's with a whole in the toe??!!?

This morning little miss independent would not eat unless I allowed her to feed herself with the spoon. 

Notice she has a different spoon. She dropped the first one and Gus got a hold of it. So we got her a new one. ;)

We spent the afternoon with some wonderful friends.  Lots of babies! Noah, Layla, Jacob, Madelaine and Ella Claire.

By 5:00 we were both ready for daddy to be home. We decided to go play outside and greet him in the driveway.  I took a few pictures while we waited. :)

fall pumpkin topiary project

This year I was a little late getting our front porch ready for fall. I think a combination of planning Ella Claire's 1st birthday party and the weather being so warm distracted me.  :) However, I couldn't let the season pass without a fall pumpkin at our doorstep welcoming our guests. So, when I went looking for a cute pumpkin idea, I found exactly what I was looking for at none other than the Southern Living website.  I actually came across this idea a few years ago, and if I remember correctly, I think I read on the website that it was first published in 2003. They constructed their topiary slightly different than I did and used a strand of lights instead of candles, but either way works. I already had candles on hand, so I decided to use them.  Here's how i did it...

What you will need:

a clay pot or urn

3 pumpkins in graduated size

a drill and large drill bit

3 candles

Step 1:

Choose what type of container you will use as your base.  Pick out 3 pumpkins in graduated size.  Make sure the largest pumpkin with fit snugly in your base.  

Don't let your one year old pick out your pumpkins, they might just be a smidge too small.  ;)

Step 2:

Carve out the inside of all 3 pumpkins, just like you would if you were going to carve them.  You can throw away the tops to the large pumpkin and middle sized pumpkin, but save the top to the smallest.

Step 3:

Grab your husbands drill and large drill bit and drill holes in each pumpkin. You can make the holes all one size or vary the sizes.  If you aren't too handy with a drill (like me) grab your husband too and ever so kindly ask for his assistance with this part of the project. ;)

Step 4:
Clean off your pumpkins, and place the largest pumpkin inside your container.  Put a candle inside the pumpkin, then stack the middle sized pumpkin on top and place a candle in it too.  Lastly, place the smallest pumpkin on top with a candle inside and put the top back on the pumpkin.  I added a leaf and pine cone garland around the base of the largest pumpkin and some mums for color and tada...a very easy and cute pumpkin topiary!

We are all ready for fall around here y'all! Let's just hope the weather decides to cooperate!