A day in the life of Preachmans wife

Getting out of Dodge!

2012-02-14T17:06:00.003-05:00

This time for good!

We are moving!

And guess what else???

We are moving back to the midwest!

Oklahoma to be exact!

We will be just minutes from my sister's and just 3 hours from my parents!

We have enjoyed our adventure in South Carolina and we will always have mostly fond memories of our time here.

I am so ready to get back to our home turf, though.

We are so excited to open this next chapter!

Plans for the week

2012-02-13T22:59:00.002-05:00

I have a million things I want to get done this week. We'll see how far I get. I don't necessarily have to get all this done, I just want to.

The first thing is that I'm planning a baby shower for a friend and I'm trying to get that all organized, hand out assignments and get some of the decorations done. We have a spare classroom at the church building that I can put the finished items in so they won't be sitting around my home until the shower. It isn't until the beginning of March so I have a couple of weeks, but I really wanted to get the invitations out tomorrow so everyone has time to mark it on their calendars.

I'm excited about this because it's been a while since I've helped plan a baby shower and I've joined Pinterest since the last one. :)

One of the things I'm very excited about making is a diaper cake.
I started it tonight, but didn't get very far because I ran out of rubber bands. I've never made one before so I'm hoping it turns out as cute as I want it to.
I'm also going to try to make a diaper carriage. I think it will be a cute addition to the cake table.

I painted the fronts of these clothes pins for a clothes line. I love little baby clothes lines. I think they are so cute!
Here is the invitation I chose. I went to Dollar Tree first and they had invitations, but they weren't really that cute. They would have worked fine, but they just weren't quite what I wanted so I ended up putting them back and buying these at the Wall-to-Wall Mart.
I am also going to make ribbon topiaries for the cake table. Another lady is going to be in charge of the cake and I have to get a list of odds and ends to the other hostess to get. I'm so looking forward to decorating and doing this for my friend!

And just because she's so adorb:
Mer! Love her!

My little model

2012-02-12T19:36:00.002-05:00

How hilarious is this pose??? Adorable!

Little Miss Sass

2012-02-11T13:22:00.003-05:00

There aren't very many things that make me madder than when I am sassed by a youngun'.

I never thought I would be the parent with the sassy child, but here I am.

And it doesn't seem how I discipline (lately that seems to be all I do), Chloe Jo still has the sass going on.

I will eventually get it through to her that she needs to be respectful.

I don't know why people say "terrible 2's" because I think age 3 is going to be waaaaay worse than age 2.

Sometimes, at the end of the night, I just sit myself down and have a good cry because I feel like I am completely failing in motherhood. I know that's not really true, but sometimes I feel that way. This age has been extremely frustrating.

But, it has also been extremely fun and rewarding.

She is talking so much now that I have to tell her to be quiet. For being such a quiet infant (in the talking department...she has always been able to scream), she is the most talkative toddler.

If she wants to do something herself she will say "My tuwn! My tuwn!" And if she doesn't want to do something she will say "Momma's tuwn."

She has also started saying she "I wuv oo, too, Ma" or "I wuv oo, too, Da" or, more recently, "I wuv herw" when hugging a dolly.

Sometimes she will snuggle with me in the rocker after she gets up or before she goes to bed and she will sigh really big and say "I miss _____." Usually she says G-Jo, but it just depends. She is obsessed with her G-Jo lately. She made up a whole song about her a few days ago.

She is so lovey. She does not like it when I am stressed. Things around here have been changing a lot in the last couple of months and I was laying on the bed just thinking about everything a few days ago and she climbed up on the bed, hugged me and said "don wowwy, Momma."

I also love that she is getting old enough to do some craft things and to play games. I think I may have a date with her and Uno Moo later today. :)

And, yet, more problems with water.

2012-02-09T13:28:00.002-05:00

Ever since we moved here, our home has been plagued by water problems. Our water heater has never worked right and our landlord refuses to replace it. It is out in our storage closet and it is on a shelf in the corner. It leaked and ruined 4 upholstered chairs and a Christmas tree. There were a few other things it ruined, but I can't remember what they were. This fiasco went on for months until, finally, they attached a pipe to where it was leaking from and routed it outside. So it wasn't fixed, but it wasn't ruining our stuff anymore (although we have paid for the extra leaked water since we moved in). Then in the summer of last year, a tornado came through our town, knocked over a tree which fell on our home, breaking the water pipe in the attic and flooding our whole place. We weren't home at the time so we weren't able to turn the water off before it ruined several things...our dresser, our headboard and a few other things I can't remember now. After the issues with water damaging our things and having to get rid of and replace so many items (some large items) imagine my wrath when I went out to our storage unit to find more water on the floor! I am so disgusted by this problem. Apparently, the water heater next door was leaking and the water flowed in from there....and got all over our things again. To say I'm mad is an understatement. I am fuming. I drug everything out of there except for a shelf (that has damage on the bottom now) to dry out. I am so disgusted with the whole situation. I think I'm going to go work out and then get my craft on. Maybe I'll feel better after that.

On a much more fun note....my nephew Brenson should be arriving tomorrow finally. His due date was Monday and he has just taken his sweet time, but my sister is being induced tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see a picture! I really wish I could be there, but I will be seeing him in person very, very soon!

Trying to get back on track

2012-02-07T21:22:00.003-05:00

This is week 3 of getting back into the working out routine for me. My Wii Fit told me that it had been 332 days since I last used the program. Besides taking walks, that is pretty accurate and my weight gain over the last year shows it. So, I gave myself a goal of losing 40 pounds. I am mad at myself for letting it get this bad...again. I lost 70 pounds before I got pregnant with Chloe Jo and I did great during the pregnancy and for a long time after having her. I'm ready to get back on track and start feeling better about my body!

Check this one off the Bucket List!

2012-02-06T22:13:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Ours was fantastic!

Russ took Chloe Jo and I to Georgia to see the birthplace of the Cabbage Patch Dolls! This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time and I am so thrilled we finally were able to go! I had a great time...and Chloe Jo definitely enjoyed herself, too!

We left Friday morning and arrived at Babyland General Hospital that afternoon.

I could not stop grinning. I was so excited to be able to finally go there! I loved my CPK's when I was a girl and I still love them and have several. My oldest is 28!

Here we are ready to go in and see the dolls!

I know many people think they are ugly little things, but I will always love them.

I though it was fun to walk in and see the incubators, followed by the nursery's. I was overwhelmed by how many dolls there were in the 3 nursery rooms. There were several cribs and they were all full of dolls (and everyone of them were adoptable)!

CPK's were originally all soft sculpture. They are still made by hand and the adoption fee is considerable. If I was going to adopt one of the soft sculpture dolls, it would be the boy with the fro. Is he not the cutest!?!?

After the nursery, there was a large open room full of CPK merchandise and more dolls. I loved this cabbage patch. Several of the cabbages would rise up or turn every once in a while. It was so cute!

This display was amazing. The lights on the picture changed colors. I loved it! I also love how there were bunny bees everywhere watching over the babies.

Here is the hospital nursery where the stork helped deliver the Cabbage Patch Kids.

And another shot of the nursery. I love how the baby in the back is getting weighed. Awwww!

And there were, of course, a couple of adoption offices.

My little Cabbage Patch. She really wasn't thrilled to sit on this and there was no way she was going to smile for me.

And here we are with our new dolls. Chloe Jo latched onto this cute little tiger and didn't want to let him go. I tried to get her to get something that you couldn't find everywhere and she was having none of it. She named him Bradley. I chose a doll exclusive to Babyland General. The neat thing about the exclusive dolls is that none of them are named yet. Chloe Jo wanted me to name my baby Chloe Jo and was very annoyed that I wouldn't do it. She finally agreed to Maria Jo.

After exploring Babyland, we went to find our hotel. I reserved a room in Helen, GA. I had no idea that this was a tourist town and that it would be so fun to walk around and shop! We had a great time exploring!

Chloe Jo loved the fountain. She even made a wish and threw a penny in!

We headed back home on Saturday. Doesn't CJ look so big pulling her own bag?

We had a great time in Georgia and I can now check Babyland General off of my bucket list!

Mission: Organization

2012-02-02T10:35:00.003-05:00

The title isn't really accurate. I'm a very organized person most of the time. It drives me batty if there are things out of place around here. I'm not sure if it is fortunate or unfortunate, but Chloe Jo inherited my OCD nature (or CDO...I like the letters in order...).

Moving on...How is it that we can accumulate so. much. stuff. in a short amount of time? It never ceases to amaze me. I have sent several bags of things to our local Twice as Nice to donate in the last few months. I cleaned out Chloe Jo's toys and got rid of the remaining infant toys that she doesn't play with anymore. I ridded out my closet and chunked a bunch of clothes that I no longer wear and I got rid of some kitchen appliances like a small crockpot that we replaced with a larger one a few weeks ago and a rice cooker that we have had for a year that I didn't use even once.

The biggest things I have done, though, in the last week are organizing/ridding out my scrapbooking stuff and cleaning out the entertainment cabinet drawers.

I didn't have much excess in the way of scrapbooking stuff, but I had a very disorganized plastic bag of ribbon and I had a ton of stickers I needed to go through. I ended up giving a bunch of stickers that I would never use to Chloe Jo and went through the ribbon and managed to fit all my SIX ribbon boxes and one other box that I emptied. The biggest project was sorting all of my paper! I finally went through it and sorted into boxes by color. Everything will be so much easier to find now that I don't have to search through 4 boxes of paper just to find one specific color.
The next thing was to clean out the entertainment cabinet drawers. We have 2 drawers in our cabinet and they were both stuffed so full that it gave me an anxiety attack just opening them. Plus, there wasn't room for Chloe Jo's DVD's so they were being stored on a shelf in her room. Russ and I went through everything a couple of days ago and got rid of most of the cases for the CD's and DVD's and put them all in cases that take up much less room. We also ridded out the ones that we don't listen to or watch and that freed up a lot of space. There was enough freed up space that we were able to get all of Chloe Jo's DVD's in a small case.

Everything looks so much better! It gives me great pleasure to have things organized in a way that will be easier for us to use.

Oh, How Pinteresting!

2012-02-01T11:22:00.005-05:00

I've decided to change it up today and link up with The Vintage Apple for

Since Pinterest is a new love of mine, how fitting is it for me to join in on this fun!

I have about a million things pinned already (and have cooked some and made some) so it was hard to narrow down what I wanted to pin. I finally decided to pin some of the fun felt crafts I've found.

Source: notmartha.org via Lisa on Pinterest

LOVE these!

Source: craftedblog.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

These are perfect for Valentine's Day! I'm not sure I'll actually get to them, though. :(

Source: simple-serendipities.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Really need to make a few of these. The bookmark I have right now always falls out because it is too heavy!

Source: prudentbaby.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I don't know if I'll ever actually make this, but I think it is super cute!

Source: flickr.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Definitely going to make this for fall!

And there you have it! Go link up with some of the things you've been pinning lately!

The Last Few Days

2012-01-31T20:15:00.002-05:00

There hasn't been a whole lot going on here the last few days. My poor girl has been sick, but I think she is finally feeling better. We were able to take her to church services on Sunday. She does have a lingering cough that is worse during the night. I think I'm going to roll up a towel to put under the head of her bed and see if that helps her out. Luckily, she hasn't had a fever since last Wednesday.

Because she hasn't been feeling well, we have been staying home for the most part. We did get out to get groceries on Monday while Daddy was at work, but haven't been out today at all. Since we were both feeling poorly last week, we decided to not go to Georgia, but postponed it to this weekend. I'm looking forward to this little mini-trip!

Yesterday didn't start out too well, but I got several packages in the mail and it helped lift my spirits. Ashley sent me a fun package with these great matryoshka doll gifts in it! Love!
I also finally got in some scrapbooking paper that I had ordered to make a few things for Chloe Jo's birthday party. Today was spent in making a Happy Birthday banner. The theme is going to be Strawberry Shortcake. How fun is this banner!?!?
I used tulle to tie the pieces together. Thanks Pinterest for that idea!
I love it and am excited to use it....in 2 1/2 months. HA! I guess I'm an eager beaver!
Well, I need to get off of here. Some little girl has been asking to take a back with go ticks (glow sticks).

2012 Calendar is finally done!

2012-01-26T12:05:00.004-05:00

A few years ago my Mom gave me a calendar that she had scrapbooked. All I had to do was add a picture to each month and at the end of the year, cut the scrapbook pages out to put in a book. I loved the calendar and I was very good with keeping up with it. She gave me another scrapped calendar for 2010. I loved my calendars and I love being able to look back through the books. Mom didn't make one for me for 2011 so I did it myself and I finished putting the book together a few weeks ago and then scrapped the pages for this year. I finished the pages yesterday...just in time to enjoy the January page for a few days!

I love how it turned out and I am looking forward to adding pictures and embellishments to each month!

Game Night!

2012-01-25T11:04:00.002-05:00

One of the "Family Resolutions" we have made for this year is to have at least 1 game night each month. We didn't want to make it for every week because that would just be setting ourselves up for failure. You know how life gets in the way and all! We had planned to have it Sunday night, then Monday night and neither of those worked out. We finally were able to do it last night! I love playing games and I'm loving that Chloe Jo is getting old enough to understand some games!

We played

Candyland
Uno Moo
I have to say that Uno Moo is one of my favorite games. It is fast and it is simple enough that Chloe doesn't need any help (besides with not looking when she is drawing her game pieces!). We gave this to her for Christmas and we have used it so much already!
And we played Life. Even though Chloe Jo was on a team with Daddy, she is still way too young for this game. She got very bored because it is a long game compared to Uno Moo and Candyland.
We haven't been doing much else around here. We went out Monday to shop and bank in big town and then Chloe Jo got sick that evening. She has been running a low grade fever off and on since and she is congested and coughing. I used to have bad colds every winter so it seems like she is just following in my footsteps. I hate it when she is sick! Plus, we are supposed to go to Georgia on Friday and our room is non-refundable. I hope she is well enough to go. I can't hardly stomach loosing that money!

Time to start collecting next season clothes!

2012-01-23T16:14:00.002-05:00

Lately, I have been searching eBay and the sale racks for clothes for Chloe for the spring/summer. She has grown so much during the last few months. She was in a size 2T in September and now needs a 4T in most things. She is just getting so tall, but she isn't gaining any weight. Actually she has lost 1/2 a pound since October. I'm sure this is due to (1) her being sick during the Christmas holiday and (2) that she is so picky! Seriously, she is the pickiest eater and she would rather go without anything to eat than eat something she doesn't want. I measured and weighed her a couple of days ago.

She is 38 inches tall which makes her on the upside of the 75th percentile.

She now weighs 28 pounds putting her just above the 25th percentile.
The problem I am having with buying her some clothes for next season is the size. I've been looking for 5, 5T stuff for her to make sure the length is right, but it really irks me to have to take up every single pair of pants/shorts/skirts. Since she hasn't gained any weight, then I would have to take up 5T stuff a lot. I guess that would be fine because I can always cut the excess dart fabric off after I put the darts in. I'm just so surprised that she is in the 75th percentile for height and the 25th for weight. She is definitely a tall and skinny little thing!

Changed my mind.

2012-01-19T22:56:00.001-05:00

I had planned on cleaning today.

Instead I sat down and watched a movie with my princess.

I think that was a much better use of my time anyway. :)

My Recipe Box: Zucchini Cakes

2012-01-18T21:54:00.002-05:00

I sure have been loving Pinterest! I have found several recipes that I want to try. I attempted a potato soup on Tuesday, but burnt the bottom so I ended up throwing it out. I will try that again tomorrow. Tonight, though, I tried a recipe for Zucchini Cakes that I found and Russ and I loved them! Chloe Jo, as usual, wouldn't touch any of them. We call her Picky Picky (like the Quimby's cat). This recipe came from this blog if you want to check it out. She actually got it from somewhere else.

This is the picture from Pinterest (well, her blog):
And this is what mine turned out looking like:
Not quite the same, but I'll explain that after sharing the recipe!

Zucchini Cakes

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini, grated

1 large egg

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1 Tbsp Adobo spices

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Squeeze excess liquid from the zucchini. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and spray with Pam. Shape spoonfuls of batter into small patties and drop into sizzling skillet. Cook on each side for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Finish off in oven by broiling for 2 minutes. Enjoy!

As for the red tint in my zucchini cakes...it was caused by my version of the Adobo spices. I had never heard of Adobo spices before and I couldn't find anything that said "Adobo" at the store so I googled it and found a recipe. I didn't have everything it called for so I just improvised a bit. The original recipe can be found here.

My recipe is as follows:

Adobo Spices

Ingredients:

1 oz. (one of the small containers) paprika

I didn't measure any of the rest of the ingredients. I just put in what I thought would be good and smelled nice.

Fresh ground black pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Ground oregano

Cayenne Pepper

I just put all the ingredients in a container, put the lid on and shook it up. I think it turned out yummy and the cayenne gave it a nice kick!

How is it that my baby is turning 3!?!?

2012-01-17T21:35:00.002-05:00

In a few short months, Chloe Jo will be turning 3! I can't believe she is already this big, but I'm looking forward to celebrating her birthday! This year is especially fun because she has been giving me input on what she would like for presents (a pink skoos bus!) and what theme she wants for her party. Right now, the theme is between:

Strawberry Shortcake
Dora the Explorer
And Elmo
I think we are leaning toward Strawberry Shortcake. Of course, she may change her mind tomorrow!

I have dreams of making her a pink, red and green tutu, a shirt with a strawberry on it and buying a pair of green and white striped leg warmers for her to wear! Oh, and of course I'm going to be making her a bow or a crown or a hat of some sort!

I have 2 more presents to buy for her (I've been getting things as I find them on sale) and I would love to find some wrapping paper with strawberries on it. I've also been looking at party supplies, but I think I'm just going to go to the Dollar Store and buy table stuff in the Strawberry Shortcake colors. And of course I'll be making a cake. I already have the cake in mind and am hoping to find a Strawberry Shortcake figure and her Cruiser to put on it. I'm so excited already about this and I don't even know if she is going to definitely go with Strawberry Shortcake, not to mention her birthday is still a couple of months away! I guess it doesn't hurt to be prepared!

Child's Apron Tutorial

2012-01-16T18:46:00.005-05:00

I was in Kohl's last week and came across a Halloween dish towel and pot holder set clearanced for $2.79. I had been looking for a cute set to make a children's apron out of so I bought a couple of them. I saw the apron on Pinterest and had been keeping my eyes open for matching sets that I could try this with so I was very happy to find them so cheap! I did have to buy some orange thread, but used ribbon I had so I made this adorable apron for Chloe Jo for less than $4.00!
She thought it was pretty great, too! I made it a bit big so she can use it for a few years.
I'm looking forward to making something with her in the near future (who says you can't use an adorable Halloween apron all year long!?).

And because it turned out so cute and I know many of my readers sew (or aspire to sew), I decided to go ahead and blog the tutorial of how I did the apron.

I started off with the dish towel and hot pad set and a roll of ribbon.
The first thing I did was cut the part of the dish towel I wouldn't be using off. This will depend on the height of your child. I made the dish towel portion a little long so it wouldn't be too short in a year.
I then cut the ribbon. I cut a long piece to tie around the waist, 2 shorter pieces for the neck straps and a short piece to cover up the rough edges on the back of the apron. I made the short piece 12 inches long to fit a toddler. I also heat sealed the ends of each piece.
The next step is gathering the towel. I used the longest stitch length and sewed across the cut edge of the towel twice and then gathered it to be about 11 inches.
The gathered edge needs to be smaller than the shortest ribbon so that the ribbon will completely cover the rough edge. Also, make sure your gathering stitches are close to the rough edge so that the ribbon can cover them. You won't have to worry about taking the stitches out if you cover them up with the ribbon.
I pinned the ribbon to the back of the apron, making sure the ribbon covered the gather stitches.
I then changed my machine back to the normal stitch length and sewed one line across the to hold the gathers onto the ribbon.
Your apron should look like this right now.
Take the longest length of ribbon and pin it to the front of the apron, covering the gathers and stitching. Make sure the pins go through the towel and the short ribbon.
I then sewed the ribbon on, making sure to stay as close to the edges of the ribbon as I could. I just sewed it in a big rectangle the size of the short ribbon.
This is what my ribbon looked like at this point.
I then pinned the pumpkin hot pad to the ribbon and sewed it on with orange thread. I used 3 different colors of thread on this project.
Next, I pinned the remaining pieces of ribbon on the top of the hot pad and sewed them down for the neck straps.
And that was all there was to it! The apron with the green ribbon is Chloe Jo's and I made this one with the purple ribbon for my niece, Brianna.
Brianna's birthday is coming up and she asked me for an apron. Since the Halloween aprons turned out so cute, I went ahead and made her this adorable heart apron. It was basically the same process except instead of a hot pad, I used the part of the dish towel that was discarded for the Halloween aprons. I sewed it into a small square and sewed it underneath the waist ribbon instead of on top like the pumpkin hot pads.
I really enjoyed making these and will definitely be making another anytime apron for Chloe Jo!

The Bug

2012-01-13T11:42:00.003-05:00

I've got the bug bad this week.

The crafting bug, that is.

Back on October, my Mom had sent me a kit to make a necklace, bracelet and earrings. That poor kit has been sitting on my desk just waiting for me to open it. I liked the way the jewelry looked and I had good intentions of doing it right away...I just didn't. Well, I finally got to it this week!

I love how it turned out!
I'm not much of a jewelry maker, but this project might have changed that. I really enjoyed creating these pieces.

Great. Just what I need. Another hobby. :)

Another front door project

2012-01-12T10:53:00.002-05:00

I love having a few fun things on the outside of our house to welcome our visitors. I have a few wind chimes, two garden flags, a stepping stone with Chloe Jo's hand prints, our outside seating and a wreath. I love wreaths and I love making my own (because wowzers...sometimes they are so expensive in the store!). I am hoping, one day, to have a wreath for each month of the year. How fun would that be?!? I think it would be super fun. Maybe I'm the only one. Of course, for that to happen, I would need a place to store my potential wreaths. Anyway, I digress. After I took the holiday stuff down, my poor front door (actually my wreaths hang beside the door, but whatev) was looking very dismal. The wreath I usually use for winter was looking shabby so it went away leaving me with no wreath for the outside of my home. Sadness.

And here enters Pinterest.

I finally did it. I caved. I am now a member of Pinterest.

It. Is. Everything. I. Knew. It. Could. Be.

To get ideas for a new front door wreath, I started perusing. I found a few that I liked, but none that I loved so I took all the inspiration and made a perfect (for me) front door wreath-like thing.
What do you all think? I love it! I love the trend of putting teal and red together so I took that and ran with it.
And I modified the felt roses that I make. I love how they came out. It was so fun putting two colors together! Plus, I made the edges wavy instead of straight and it just added so much to it!
I bought a wooden letter from the local hobby store and painted it black. It was looking a little dull so I remedied that with glitter polka dots. Too fun!
And I found the perfect ribbon to go with it. I couldn't believe my luck with the ribbon. I was expecting to have to use a plain, but nope. Hobby Lobby came through for me.
And wah-la! A unique, custom "wreath" for the outside of my home.

Apparently...

2012-01-11T06:43:00.000-05:00

there is only one good reason to get your hands dirty (per my little neat freak).

A Krispy Kreme donut.

It's finger-licking good.

And best when it is sealed by a kiss with Grampy.

Christmas: Part 3

2012-01-10T06:37:00.000-05:00

This post will finally finish up the Christmas extravaganza!

We left Arkansas Tuesday morning after an awful night. Chloe Jo had gotten sick during the night and threw up 5 times in about 3 hours. We decided to get on the road anyway, but bought a few cheap towels just in case we had an accident in the car. Why is it that Chloe Jo has gotten sick the only two times we've been back to the mid-west since we moved?!?

We made it to my Mom and Dad's without any further incident. Mom was still at work so we went to see her shortly after we arrived at their house. Once she got home we ate dinner and opened presents.

Chloe Jo was thrilled with all of the Dora stuff Mom and Dad got her! My mom made her 2 Dora hooded towels and 2 Dora washcloths. She talks about them every time she sees them in the bathroom.

We spent Wednesday just hanging out at Mom and Dad's and then went to Wednesday evening Bible study. Mom teaches the 3 year old class there so I left Chloe Jo with her thinking she would stay with her G-Jo. Nope. Mom texted Dad asking for relief and then texted me. Neither of us had our phones on. She finally texted Russ and his phone went off and I had to go rescue her. I'm very sad that she wouldn't stay with her G-Jo.

Thursday morning Mom wanted me to go with her to quilt a baby blanket for Brenson. I've never been with her to do that and it was so interesting! I had a great time!

And how fun is that blanket?!? My sister is doing Brenson's room in giraffes so it is perfect for the little guy.

Later that day my sister and her family came to stay for a few days. Thus commenced our 5th present exchange. Chloe Jo and Brianna were ready to open their presents!

On Friday we hung out and visited all day. Brianna, Chloe Jo and I did a few crafty type things like watching sponges grow in water. Do you think Brianna could be any more excited about this?!?

We also played with play-doh. I love crafting with my girl and my little niecey-pie!

We also had a little family baby shower for Brenson.

I love that the girls helped each other get this gift over to Chelley and Chris! They have a very love-hate relationship. They love hugging each other, but then they also like to push each other. They will be best friends one day, though. I insist. :)

The girls are very competitive and if one of them is on G-Jo's lap (or Grampy's lap) the other thinks they need to be up there, too. I think there is always room on both of their laps for both girls.

After Sunday morning church services, my sister and her family and we all drove to Oklahoma so Russ could preach that evening for the congregation my sister is a member of. We finally left to go home Monday morning. We went home a different way than when we went to the mid-west so we ended up hitting 10 states during our 2 week vacation.

One of my favorite things on the drive home was seeing the Olympic torch in Atlanta. I am a big Olympics fan (I hope to be able to attend a competition or two one day!) so I was very excited about this!

We finally made it back home on Tuesday and we are glad to be back!

Christmas: Part 2

2012-01-09T06:25:00.000-05:00

And now on to the Christmas extravaganza: part 2! We loaded up the car the Thursday morning before Christmas to head out. Our first stop was my brother's house in west Tennessee. We enjoyed visiting and exchanging gifts with them! The siblings in my family draw names and we each get one gift for one sibling so my brother, Jeremy, and I didn't have a gift to open that night. His kids (Jordan, 12, and Kaylee, 10) thought this was hilarious! Ha!

Chloe Jo was tired and cranky the next morning so this is the picture I got of her with Jordan and Kaylee. Eh, you win some. You lose some.
Friday we headed on to Arkansas to celebrate with Russ' side of the family. We stayed with his brother, Jeremy (we both have brothers named Jeremy. It is very confusing sometimes), and his family. We went over to Russ' parents house that night to hang out. The next evening we had our annual cookie extravaganza! Here are the hosts, Bailey and Jeremy.
Allison (our niece) and Bailey making sugar cookies.
Papaw making no-bake cookies. Yum!
And a few of the cookies we made. I love this yearly tradition. My hips, not-so-much.
During the cookie-making, there was a lot of horsing around by the kids!

Marcus, Alli and David.
Sunday morning, we did presents with Jeremy and Bailey and then headed off to church services. After services, we went over to Russ' parents house to have Christmas dinner and another gift exchange.

Chloe Jo, Alli, Marcus and David.
Russ' brother, Josh, loved the Steelers nutcracker we gave him!
Alli was thrilled to be opening more gifts!
We have played this game several times already!
Nana was very happy with the photo book we gave her and Papaw. I gave a photo book to Russ' parents, my parents and my grandparents. I think they all liked them!
That evening, Russ preached for a congregation there and several of his family and friends joined us at worship service. After that was over, a few of us went back to Russ' parents house and played games. Anyone love Nerts (or some call it Grouch) like we do? I'm always up for a game!
Melba and Debbie have been friends for over 50 years. They met in 1st grade!
Monday we drove around the city (we used to live there) to see what all had changed. We couldn't believe some of the new buildings. We also went by our old place and my parents' old place. It was fun to take a trip down memory lane, but I really don't feel any remorse about moving away from there. After our exploration, we went back to Russ parents' to hang out the rest of the day. We played several games and just visited.

We left Tuesday morning to go to Missouri to spend a few days at my parents home.

Stayed tuned for the last installment of our Christmas!

11 + 11 = 22

2012-01-08T07:42:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by my friend, Melissa Jane! Go check out her blog!

Rules:

1. You must post these rules.

2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

Um, I don't really want to follow the rules so I'm going to answer the 11 questions that Melissa Jane made up and leave it at that (I know, bad blogger!).

1. What was the silliest moment for you of the past year? The night I stayed up really late sewing an outfit for Chloe Jo. It was in the wee hours of the morning that I started making really silly mistakes and I ended up making this pair of pants that did not look anything like they were supposed to. I realized then that I am too old to be pulling all-nighters!

2. What Bible verse automatically comes to mind when you're having a bad day? "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7

3. What's your favorite book? This is a tough one! I love so many books that it is hard to narrow it down to just one. I can read the Ashley Stockingdale series by Kristin Billerbeck over and over and it never gets old. I also love Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, any book by Jane Austen, etc. I read a wide variety of literature and I simply can not narrow it down to one favorite!

4. What is the one moment in your life that you knew Providence had a hand in the way it turned out? When I had the IUI that I got pregnant with Chloe Jo with.

5. Who was a penpal that you had before e-mail became the main method of communication? When I was little I used to write my cousin, Kasi. I also had a penpal in 4th grade from Argentina.

6. What's your favorite pair of shoes? My pink, high-top converse!

7. What does your dream home look like and where is it located? Honestly, I don't really have a particular picture in my mind of what my dream home looks like or where it is located. As long as my husband and my Chloe Jo are there, it is a my dream home.

8. Why do you blog? I blog for myself mostly (that isn't to say that I don't like comments...hint, hint!). I blog to find others who share my experiences such as infertility and being a preacher's wife and Christian. I blog so my family can keep up with what we are doing. But, mostly, I blog for myself because I enjoy it.

9. What color are the sheets on your bed? Tan.

10. Where did you meet your spouse? If not married, where did you meet your best friend? I met my husband when my Mom was working at a store called Fred's. He was her manager at the time and she introduced us. And that is why I married him. I figured if my Mom picked him out, he must be special. :)

11. What's your favorite part of nature? Goodness. This is another hard question! There are so many aspects of nature that I love. If I have to choose, though, I would say the beautiful mountains. I love driving through the Smokies, enjoying the gorgeous views. I remember driving through western Kansas and getting to the point where you can just start to see the outline of the Rockies. We once stayed in a beautiful town in the Ozark Mountains where you could see the mountains any way you looked. And then there were all of the hiking trips. I especially remember hiking in the Rockies by a trickling stream one year. We put our feet in the stream to see who could hold them in the freezing water the longest. I love the mountains.

Thank you, Melissa, for tagging me! I enjoyed answering your questions!

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-07T11:12:00.003-05:00

I'm interrupting the Christmas extravaganza posts to post about my New Year's Resolutions. I've been doing resolutions for a few years and have been doing pretty good keeping them. You can check out how I did with my 2011 resolutions here. So without further ado, here are my 2012 resolutions:

1. Pray more. This is such an important part of a Christians life and I pray now. I am going to take more time to pray like I should.

2. Finish the Pray Without Ceasing cross-stitch. This is at least the 3rd year for this resolution. This year I'm determined to finish it!

3. Keep reading off of the Top 100 Books list. I've read 30 so far. I don't want to put a number on here because I would like to get a few of the longer books (Anna Karenina, Ulysses and Lolita) marked off.

4. Finish 2007 and 2008 in my scrapbook. I would love to put 2009 on there, but 2009 is when I started taking a gazillion pictures (hello Chloe Jo!) so I think that would be stretching it a bit!

5. Last, but not least, I need to start taking care of my skin better. I've been noticing that I am getting crows feet and other age lines on my face. I need to start using a facial lotion. Anyone have an inexpensive recommendation for this? I also am trying to use more body lotion and foot lotion.

And there you have it! I hope I can mark each of these off of my list at the end of 2012!

Christmas: Part 1

2012-01-06T14:38:00.005-05:00

I finally have time to sit down and do a real blog (unlike that wimpy thing I did yesterday)! We had a great holiday season! It started off on the Tuesday before Christmas. We had our family gift exchange then. We had to do it early because we left for the mid-west on Thursday morning and Wednesday is just too busy to do anything extra.

We were so excited about giving each other gifts! Just ignore how my hair looks in all these pictures. I had just taken a shower and Russ couldn't wait for me to blowdry it! HA!

Chloe Jo had a blast this year! She enjoyed opening presents last year, but didn't care much after the first few. This year all she wanted to do was open presents!
I tried really hard not to go overboard with her and I think I did pretty good and she loved what we gave her.
The only real surprise Russ got was this vanity plate I designed for his car. Everything else he had asked for. What do you all think? Does he like it?
I was thrilled to get the last book of the Inheritance series. Now I just need to take the time to read it!
And the aftermath.
By the way, I bought Chloe Jo a color wonder book (the picture reminded me) and I guess I got a dud because it doesn't work very well and I kind of hate it (and she does, too). It takes the color several seconds to show up and it is really irritating. Chloe Jo had enough and colored in the book with crayons instead. I'll have to get her one that works properly I guess.

Stay tuned for Christmas: Part 2 tomorrow!

What a Whirlwind!

2012-01-05T12:11:00.002-05:00

The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind! We finally got back home on Tuesday evening after hitting 10 states and 4 destinations. I am glad to be home and have been working on getting all that after-a-big-trip stuff done. I have about a gazillion things to blog about and will start doing that soon. I hope everyone had a great holiday! I know we did!

2011 Resolutions

2011-12-22T04:06:00.000-05:00

Well the end of 2011 is rapidly approaching so I thought I would share with you all how I did on my resolutions. I feel like I've done pretty well. There are a few things that didn't happen, but over all I did pretty good.

1. Become a better student of the Bible. I am really good about my daily Bible reading, but I need to throw some more study books into the mix.

I did great with this resolution! I read 12 study books over the course of the year. They were:

Daughters of Eve by Lottie Beth Hobbs

The Christians Everyday Problems by Leroy Brownlow

Some Do's and Don'ts for the Christian by Leroy Brownlow

Convicted by Brad Harrub

Behold: The Lamb of God by Kyle Butt and Eric Lyons

Greatest Questions in the Old Testament by Leroy Brownlow

Seasoning your Words by Nancy Eichman

Greatest Questions of the New Testament by Leroy Brownlow

Showtime by Dan Chambers

Diall 911 by Bob Spurlin

Out with Doubt by Kyle Butt

Rock Solid Faith by Bert Thompson

I really enjoyed reading all these books. My favorites were Convicted and Out with Doubt.

2. Continue my fertility diet for at least the next six months. Hopefully I won't need it for that long, but I'm not really holding my breath. Also, I've been horrible about my diet the last couple of weeks so I am basically starting over.

I did this, but it obviously didn't work out for me. I was very disappointed that my results weren't what I was hoping for.

3. Read at least 12 books from my 100 Greatest Novels list. I did get through 16 books this year. I am currently reading War and Peace and it is going pretty slow. It's a huge book.

I read 13 off the list. The books I read were:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

My favorite from this list is definitely Jane Eyre. I read it before and still enjoyed it the second time (it may have even been the third time).

4. Pay off the majority of the credit card. This also entails not using it this year. Or not using it as much anyway. I'm excited that we are stable enough (as in moved and a steady preaching position) that we can really focus on this now.

Haha! We have had a lot of unforseen things happen (the biggest being the damage from the tornado) and haven't been able to make much progress on this. It's definitely a fail on this list.

5. The Lisa/Jessica Project. I want to continue making 2 new dishes from the cookbook each week and blogging about it.

I quit this. The recipes just weren't that good. After plugging along through several recipes, I only found a few that our family liked. It wasn't worth it to me to finish the project.

6. I want to have better dental hygiene and I want to teach Chloe Jo better dental hygiene. We always brush our teeth in the morning. In the evening...eh...not so much. We need to start brushing them at least 2 times a day.

We have definitely done this one! We have established a great bedtime routine and now brush our teeth before bed every night.

7. Be better stewards of the Earth. This includes continuing our weekly recycling which includes cardboard, glass and cans. We plan to create a compost barrel for our food scraps. Also, I need to start recycling paper. I am going to get a 2nd trashcan just for our paper products.

This one didn't go so well. We never did the compost barrel and we still only recycle what the city will pick up.

8. Finish Russ' school scrapbooks. I think this was on my list for 2009. HA! Seriously, though, I need to at least finish those up!

I finally finished these!!! I was so glad to check them off the list! I also am caught up through summer of 2007 in my regular scrapbooks.

9. Finish the "Pray without Ceasing" cross stitch. I have been working on this for entirely too long! I started it when I first realized that getting pregnant was not going to be easy for us. It has a baby praying with adult hands around the babies hands in the praying position. It is beautiful.

I didn't do a single stitch this year. I kept getting it out to do and then it would just sit wherever I put it for a few weeks before I put it away again.

10. I have 2 blankets that I have started crocheting and I need to finish them. One of them is for Russ and I started it before we got married 6 years ago! It's high time I finish it. The other one I started in November so it's not a huge priority.

I finished one in the beginning of the year. As for the blanket I was making Russ, I made the executive decision to throw away what I had done and forget about it. Russ never uses blankets and it was just too much work for something he wouldn't use.

As I said before, I did pretty good this year! I will do another post soon about my 2012 resolutions!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-12-21T15:39:00.003-05:00

It's time for yet another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday!

To play along, go here!

I'm loving that we leave tomorrow for our Christmas festivities! We are going to stop at my brother's house in Tennesse first and then drive on to spend Christmas with Russ' family in Arkansas followed by time with my family in Missouri! I am so ready to see everyone!

I'm loving that we did our family Christmas gift exchange yesterday! We had so much fun and Chloe Jo was hilarious to watch!

I'm loving my dear husband!

I'm loving my sweet Chloe Jo! She received these two Cabbage Patch Dolls from Santa this year. The one in the skunk costume didn't come with a name and we haven't decided what to call her yet. The other one's name is Hailie Eva (one of the nicest CPK names ever!).

I'm loving that Russ brought me these flowers Monday. I always love getting flowers!

I'm loving Pinterest. I finally decided to check out what all the fuss was about and one of my Facebook friends sent me an invite. Um, can you say "addicting?"

I'm loving these pins that I found yesterday. I actually pinned about a thousand. These are just a few I really liked.

I hope you all are having a fabulous Wednesday!

My Recipe Box: Armadillo Eggs

2011-12-20T06:23:00.000-05:00

One of the things I made on Saturday for the Christmas party were armadillo eggs. I had never made them myself, but I had ate them a few times before and really wanted to try making them myself. I had to search the internet for a recipe and finally found one and printed it off (I found it on allrecipes.com). They turned out so good!

Armadillo Eggs

2 12 oz. packages ground sausage

1 8 oz. packages cream cheese softened

30 jalapeno peppers

1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half

60 toothpicks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place ground sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain sausage and place in medium bowl. Mix with the cream cheese. Cut jalapenos in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Stuff each jalapeno half with equal portions of the sausage and cream cheese mixture. Wrap with half slices of bacon and secure with toothpicks. Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until the bacon is evenly brown.

Productive Day!

2011-12-19T18:05:00.003-05:00

I don't know about you all, but I've had a very productive day! Okay, I haven't really done that much, but what I have done has taken time! This morning, Chloe Jo and I went to the library and I checked out a couple more books from my Top 100 list that I have been working on. I just finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison which brings my total up to 28 books read. So....only 72 to go. That's not too many more, right? Heh. Today I checked out Native Son by Richard Wright and Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to get them both since they are both big reads. Oh well. If I can't get to them both before they are due it's no big deal.

After the library we went to the local Wall-to-Wall-Mart to pick up a few essentials for this week. I didn't do the normal grocery shopping. I think we can get by on what is in our cabinets and refrigerator until we leave on Thursday. We have to go back tonight so Russ can get a couple of desperately needed jeans.

After we got home I dragged out my sewing machine and got to work on making some burp rags my sister asked me to make for the soon-to-be-born baby Brenson. I like how they turned out and I hope she does too.

I just zig-zagged the edges of the fabric onto the middle of the cloth diaper.
While this project was very basic and easy, I did 6 of them so it was time consuming.

After I finished the burp rags, I had enough of the flannel fabric with the animals left over to try a new project. I was surfing a few weeks ago and came across this pattern and I have been wanting to try it out. I thought the first pair I made had too small of a hole and would cut off circulation to the feet so I ended up giving that pair to Chloe Jo for a baby doll and made a second pair that turned out much better. I also decided to put the giraffes on the sole of the second pair. I think they turned out so cute!

When little guy has tummy time these giraffes will be there to entertain big sister!

And that's what I've been doing today. Now to finish supper and off to Wall-To-Wall-Mart we'll go!

Successful Party!

2011-12-18T22:18:00.002-05:00

Russ and I hosted a successful holiday party for the church here last night. It was small as we only had 4 people come, but our congregation is small (30 to 35 on Sunday mornings) and we had a great time anyway! We had way too much food and all of us ended up with a lot leftover. We had an ornament exchange and I think the game was so fun! I read the poem "The Night Before Christmas" and every time I said the word "the" we passed our ornament to the right. Every time I said the word "and" we passed our ornament to the left. It was hilarious and everyone enjoyed it. We had a blast and are looking forward to our next party! Here is a picture of Russ and I before people started getting here.
And because I can't resist:
I found this dress on clearance at JC Penney and used a coupon so it was very inexpensive and I love it. Chloe Jo loves it, too. When I put it on her this morning she was so excited that she had to twirl in it. I love my little girly girl!

Holiday Card

2011-12-16T08:40:00.000-05:00

I think everyone we sent cards to this year have had time to receive them so this is for all of you, my blog friends!

We hope you all have a great holiday season!

Snowman Ornament

2011-12-15T15:11:00.002-05:00

I have been seeing a lot of homemade snowmen ornaments around blogworld lately and I really wanted to try to make some with Chloe Jo but I was pretty sure that she wouldn't like it and would think it's too messy. I had all the things we needed so I went ahead and tried to do it with her last night. Here is the finished product!
I think it turned out really cute, but Chloe Jo hated it! As feared, she deemed it "a mess" and said she didn't want to make anymore. I'm glad I didn't go buy new ornaments for her to do! I think it would have been so fun to make a bunch to hand out as party favors and to family for the holidays, but some things are just not meant to be. I'm still glad we tried it and that we have this one to hang on our tree for years to come!

If you want to make ornaments with your little one, it's super easy. Just paint their hand white and let them hold the ornament. Use a black magic marker to add eyes and an orange magic marker to add the nose. I also wrote her name and the year on the bottom of the ornament. Super simple and oh-so-cute!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-12-14T20:44:00.006-05:00

It is mid-week Peeps and time for another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm loving this graphic that my brother sent me. He said it reminded him of Chloe Jo (she loves ice cream and he took her to get some a couple times over Thanksgiving):

I'm loving that we are going to be doing our family gift giving on next Tuesday and that we will be leaving to spend Christmas with our families on Thursday! I. AM. SO. EXCITED!

I'm loving that I have most of the ingredients for the things I will be making for our Christmas party on Saturday! It's almost here!

I'm loving that we will be going with Russ to the preaching school on Friday so that we can attend that congregations singing night! I love singing night!

That's it for today. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks!

Link up here!

Cardassians vs. Kardashians

2011-12-13T23:27:00.007-05:00

I am a geek. A Trekkie. Or Trekker if you will. I love watching Star Trek. Always have and always will. My brother let me borrow the complete series of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I just finished watching DS9 with my hubby tonight. :) He was not a Trekkie. He is now. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I brought him over to the dark side!
Anyway, moving on. One race of aliens that play a huge part in the series of DS9 are the Cardassians. My poor hubby keeps calling them the Kardashians!

Cardassians vs. Kardashians?

They are both Warrior races. The Cardassians have fire power. The Kardashians have their feminine wiles (as can be attested to by Kris Humphreys).

So who would win in a fight? The Spoonheads or the K-Team?

Eh. It's a toss-up.

Music Monday

2011-12-13T00:02:00.001-05:00

I know it's late, but I really want to share this music Monday video! I love me some Straight No Chaser and this has been the cd of choice in the car this year (and last year, too!). Enjoy!

Cookies, Onesies and a Menu

2011-12-10T14:10:00.002-05:00

Ya'll, it has been bo-oring around our home the last couple of weeks. I'm finished making, buying and wrapping Christmas gifts. I am trying to save some cash for our upcoming trip to Arkansas and Missouri so we just haven't been getting out much. We've been doing the usual weekly things: working on letters with Chloe Jo, going to the library, doing puzzles, etc. We've also been watching entirely too much Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. My brother let me borrow the whole series and I'm trying to get through it so I can return the dvd's when we see them at Christmas. I've also been trying to decide what I'm going to make for our Christmas party. One thing I really liked about the congregation we were memebers of in Springfield was that the minister would host a Christmas party for the members every year and we have started that tradition here. I know I will be making armadillo eggs and home made apple cider. I'm thinking about making rice crispy treats and maybe one other thing. I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions?

Chloe Jo and I did make cookies on Monday evening. I try not to make sweets very often because we eat them way too fast so this is a treat!

I've also been working on a project for my soon-to-be-here nephew, Brenson. My sister asked me to make some onesies and burp rags for him. I haven't gotten to the burp rags, but here are some of the onesies I did for him. I think they turned out pretty cute!

I think they turned out really cute!

And that is what has been going on around here. Hopefully I'll find some better blog fodder to post next week!

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-06T12:33:00.002-05:00

I haven't blogged since last Thursday. THURSDAY people! There really isn't much going on right now. The only thing worth mentioning is that I made this adorable Christmas tree shirt last week for CJ.
Since it was a product of my own imagination (no etsy ideas here!) I think it turned out really cute! Although, I may have to hotglue the inside of the bell. Then again, I did know where CJ was every second of the day so maybe I don't. :)

Jingle Bell Shadow Box Tutorial

2011-12-01T11:17:00.003-05:00

I saw this project on another blog, but I can't remember where! If you posted this project or if you know who did, please leave me a comment so I can give the reference. Although, that person probably got it off of pinterest!

This project is so easy and I love the way it turned out. It only took me about 15 minutes!

What you will need:

Shadow Box (I chose the smallest box I could get at Hobby Lobby)
Jingle Bells
Letter stickers
1 piece cardstock (I used red)

The first thing I did was cut the red carstock to the size of the frame.

I poured some of the jingle bells in the shadow box and reinsterted the back with the cardstock.

I then put the sticker letters on the front of the glass!

And that was all there was to this project! It was so simple and it made a very nice decoration!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-11-30T11:04:00.004-05:00

It is once again time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Link up here!

I'm loving that we had a great time last week spending the Thanksgiving holiday with my family! I'm very much looking forward to going back to Arkansas and Missouri for Christmas in a few weeks!

I'm loving the Seasonal scents from Febreese. This blue candle smells yummy! It is called Winter Magic & Glow.

I'm loving Christmas crafting. I am working on a project now, have one ready to start and made this one yesterday. I will put up a tutorial tomorrow. It was super easy and I love the way it came out!

And as always, I'm loving my wonderful family. Chloe Jo is so excited about the Christmas lights and all the trees around this year!

What are you loving on this wonderful Wednesday?

Um...what!?

2011-11-29T17:00:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, Russ and I were in Wall-to-wall mart and we were walking by the women's pajama department. I looked over there and, to my surprise, saw this:Footed pajamas for adults. Apparently they are this years Snuggie. Because some adults don't act enough like babies. They will just need a binky to top off the whole ensemble.

So what we have now is adults wanting to look like babies in footed pajamas and babies wanting to look like adults in jeans.Does anybody besides me see the irony in this?

Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T21:15:00.021-05:00

Our family had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I hope all of you did, too!

Early Tuesday morning we loaded up our car and headed to Western Tennessee. My brother and his family just bought a house and wanted to host the holiday this year. Everything went smoothly until about hour #6. We hit Nashville at rush hour and it took us forever to get through the city. Then Chloe Jo had an extreme meltdown in the bathroom at a Wendy's. She had an accident in the car and it took us a while to get cleaned up. The whole time she was screaming and acting like I was abusing her. When we finally came out of the bathroom everyone in the restaurant was staring at us. I was already frazzled because she acted so crazy so I was really upset when everyone was staring at us. I'm not going to lie. We left without staying to eat and when we got in the car, I cried for a while. It was not my best mother moment for sure. We had left at 6:30 in the morning and didn't get to my brother's until 9:30 (our time) that evening. It was a long day.

My sister and her family came in on Wednesday and my parents came on Thursday. It was so nice to see everyone!

One of the things we do every year is go around the table after we eat and tell one thing we are thankful for. This year I am extremely thankful for our health and that our little family is doing great. I'm so glad we weren't in our house when the tornado came through our town and knocked the tree over on it!

We spent 3 fun days in Tennessee with my family and had so much fun!

There was a lot of singing with Grampy.There was a lot of goofiness going on.

There was a little bit of crafting.

There was some smooching on Grampy.

Of course, there was lots of delicious food!

Friday afternoon we went out to a local state park. Russ and I wanted to have my sister taking Christmas card pictures, but we also took several family pictures.

G-Jo and Grampy (my parents)

Jeremy, Kaylee, Jordan and Shawna (my brother and his family)

I think you all know this little family!

Chelley, Brenson (in utero), Brianna and Chris (my sister and her family)

You're never too old or big to sit on your Daddy's lap!

G-Jo and Grampy with the grandchildren...they look so proud of themselves!

We stayed out at the park and played for a while before heading back to my brother's house.

I think this is a really cool picture. I may have to have it printed and frame it for Jordan's room.

Cute picture of Shawna and Jeremy

The kids and their spouses (minus my oldest brother and his family...they weren't there)

Brianna thought hanging on these rings was fantastic!

Jordan thought so, too!

Chloe Jo preferred sliding.

And Kaylee preferred posing for pictures.

I'm so glad we decided to drive out to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year! We will also be traveling to celebrate the Christmas holiday this year. We weren't able to do this at all last year so this is very exciting for us. I haven't been back to Missouri since January and Russ hasn't been back to Arkansas where his family lives or Missouri since last summer. We are also going to have our annual Christmas party in a couple of weeks so we are going to be very busy for the next month. That's all for now. I have a date with The Closer now!

3 Things

2011-11-27T16:21:00.004-05:00

Whew! We have had a whirlwind week! We left very early Tuesday morning to go to western Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with my family at my brothers house. I will have more posts about all of that up later this week. Right now I want to talk about my goofy nephew, Jordan.

Jordan (everyone except me calls him J.T. so I guess I should jump on that bandwagon...) is a typical 12 year old boy. He is a lot like my brother in that he loves to tell jokes and loves to make people laugh. The only difference is that he is good at it and my brother is...well...not. Love you, Jeremy!

We ordered out yummy BBQ for dinner on Thursday (we had our Thanksgiving meal on Friday) and after everyone had eaten, we just sat around the table and talked.

This is what my nephew came up with:

"There are 3 things that aren't allowed in this house.

Animals with rabies.People with scabies.And crack babies."

Curly Sue

2011-11-20T20:35:00.004-05:00

When I was little every Saturday night my mother would put my hair in sponge rollers. I would sleep in them and then Sunday morning my hair would be curled for Sunday Bible Class and worship services. At the time I hated it, but now, as a mother, I think it is wonderful to see little girls dressed up in their Sunday dresses with their hair in curls.

So last night, I put Chloe Jo's hair in sponge rollers. I honestly did not thing the rollers would last an hour, but I was pleasantly surprised to find them all still in her hair when I went to check on her before I went to bed. I had told her to leave them alone and just sleep in them and she was great about it!

This morning, 4 of the rollers had fallen out, but I had expected that. I wasn't sure exactly what her hair would do with rollers because it is thin and very straight. This was the result:

It turned out a little crazy! She did get several compliments on it at church services and as the day went on, it did calm down. I had sprayed it big time with hair spray so it kept the curls until she slept on it at nap time. My little curly Sue. I'm going to wait a while before trying this again since it was so crazy looking, but I'm hoping to make it a Saturday evening tradition like my Mom and I had when I was little. :)

The funny things my girl does

2011-11-18T11:16:00.003-05:00

Chloe Jo is one of the cutest and funniest kids I've ever met (and I'm not biased...ha!)! Every day she does something that makes me laugh.

One of the things she has been doing lately is play acting with her baby dolls. She has been doing this for a while, but lately she has has started mimicking things that I do and it's so funny!

She loves to play with her Cabbage Patch Dolls. She loves on them and feeds them and undresses them (and then I have to dress the again because she isn't quite coordinated enough to do it yet). Last week she started playing like one of them is going to fall off the table, bed, couch, etc. She will hang them off the side of the furniture and say "No baby! You faw! No!" She will then persuade them to mind. They will fall off anyway to which she will reply "I tode you you faw" and then proceed to snuggle the doll to make it feel better.

Another thing she does lately is try to save me from whatever predicament I am in (or she percieves me to be in). Last week when Daddy was home I went to the bathroom. Our bathroom is a jack-and-jill between our two bedrooms. I proceeded to close both doors and since Chloe Jo was in her room playing, I locked that one (I don't usually lock the doors when I am home with just CJ). Chloe Jo tried to get in (like usual) and when she couldn't get in from her bedroom she cried "Oh no! Don wowwy Momma. I doming!" She then proceeded to run around to the door in our bedroom, open it, run in and give me a hug and pat my back and say "It otay." I guess she thought I was stuck in there. :)

Our baby girl is such a blessing to have around...and she sure keeps us on our toes!

My Recipe Box: Savory Cheddar Muffins and Mike Ditka's Official Tailgater's Pork Chops

2011-11-18T10:54:00.007-05:00

As promised earlier this week, here are the recipes for the Savory Cheddar Muffins and the marinade I used on the pork loin. I hope you guys enjoy them as much as we do!Savory Cheddar Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup butter or shortening
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2/3 cup raisins

Sift flour with baking powder, salt and paprika. Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in remaining ingredients just until moistened. Spoon into well greased muffin pans. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Mike Ditka's Official Tailgater's Pork Chops

8 bone-in pork rib chops, 1 inch thick
4 cups orange juice
1 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/2 cup Dijon-style mustard
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, combine orange juice, soy sauce, garlic, mustard, honey and cayenne pepper. Mix together with a whisk. Place pork chops (I used a pork loin) in two resealable plastic bags. Pour about half the marinade in each bag and seal bags. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Remove pork from marinade. Discard marinade (I saved it so I could marinade again halfway through baking). Season pork with salt and pepper and grill for 10-12 minutes, turning once (I baked mine in the oven until done).

Playing in the leaves

2011-11-17T10:22:00.013-05:00

Here are the rest of the pictures that I took yesterday out in the leaves. I'm really happy with the way they came out!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-11-16T12:25:00.010-05:00

It's Wednesday! I hope you all are having a good week! Here is what I'm loving on this hot November day (apparently South Carolina didn't get the cooler weather memo this week).

Today I'm loving that we have less than a week before we travel to west Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with my family! I'm so looking forward to this trip!

I'm loving that our landlord hired a crew to come cut down the bit pine trees in our yard (a tornado came through our town last year, knocked over a pine tree and it landed on our house, hit a water pipe, flooded our house and we were homeless for about 3 weeks...glad to see the pine trees go!)!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo is doing great learning her letters! I've been really trying to work with her on them and she knows several and even the sounds for a few.

I'm loving trying new recipes. I made a marinade for a pork loin on Monday and it turned out delicious! I also made savory cheddar muffins and a fruit salad to go with it. Recipes for the marinade and muffins to come soon!
I'm loving that we are going to have my sister (hey Chelley) take the pictures for our Christmas cards over the holiday! I made a prop that I love so I'm really hoping they will turn out the way I am envisioning!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo and I went outside to have a photo session this morning! I think these 3 pictures turned out pretty cute!

What are you loving today?
Link up here!

God Made the Dinosaurs

2011-11-15T18:09:00.004-05:00

Chloe Jo and I learned this song from her new Digger Doug DVD. I think Chloe Jo doing the motions is one of the cutest things ever!

And the winner is....

2011-11-15T11:09:00.001-05:00

Congratulations!

Stay tuned for more giveaways in the future!

Music Monday

2011-11-14T17:14:00.000-05:00

I have loved this song since the very first time I heard it!

Brad Paisley - Then

Don't forget to enter the giveaway! You have until tomorrow!

A growing girl and blogger issues

2011-11-12T13:01:00.002-05:00

This week, I've had to put a couple of pairs of CJ's pants in the hand-me-down bag. We just bought these pants a month or so ago so I was very disappointed to have to get rid of them so quick. I can't believe how much she is growing! I measured her this morning and she has grown an inch since the last time I measured her a month ago. The pants I had to get rid of are size 2T, but the brand usually runs a little big. I now fully understand the term "growing like a weed!"

In other Chloe Jo news, a couple of weeks ago she decided she didn't want to wear a pull-up at nap time and hasn't since with no accidents. I'm so excited about this because potty training for nap time and night time has been hard. I finally accepted the fact that she just has to grow out of those two things and she is now officially nap time trained! She has also been waking up at night to go potty. She will usually get up once a couple of hours after she has gone to sleep, but then she won't wake up anymore until the morning. We are going to start limiting her fluid intake in the evenings and see what happens. Her pull-ups have definitely been getting lighter in the morning so I know she is getting close to trying to sleep without one. Our goal is to be night time trained by her 3rd birthday in April. Hopefully we will be able to do this!

One more thing before I sign off: I've been having issues with the newer blogs I am following. Within the last week, I have started following a few blogs and they keep disappearing. It is so frustrating because their posts are not showing up in my feed. I went to the Help Group and several other people are complaining about the same problem. Hopefully they will get this fixed soon because it is oh-so-annoying.

And that's the end.

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree!

2011-11-11T10:42:00.009-05:00

Last week, we put up Chloe Jo's pink Christmas tree in her room. In order to do that, I had to get out the other Christmas decorations to find the ornaments I had bought last year for her tree. Of course, I probably would have gotten the Christmas decorations out anyway. I love putting everything up in the beginning of November! The rest of the Christmas stuff sat in our kitchen for a week until we finally got to putting everything out Monday evening. Chloe Jo thought this was great! She liked it last year, but she loved it this year!

This cracked me up so much! She got this little wooden tree out and put it where she thought it needed to go...
...and then stepped back to admire her work! HA!
We bought this Christmas tree last year and I'm so glad! It is the easiest thing to put together! Our last tree was the kind that you had to put each branch in the slot separately and then you had to string the lights. This one comes in just 3 parts and is pre-lit. Love!
One of our family traditions is going to pick out 1 new ornament each year. Russ and I started this our first Christmas as a married couple and have kept it up since. I write our initials and the year on them. I love going through and finding all of the ornaments we had previously picked out.

This year, Russ picked this adorable "Dad" ornament. I love it!
I picked this initial ornament
And Chloe Jo picked this ice cream cone. She wanted a football until I steered her to more girly ornaments...and then she ended up picking the ice cream. I'll take it. :)
Do you think she is excited about our Christmas decorations???
And our finished tree. I think it needs more ornaments and maybe some ribbon or something. And of course I love the top hat!

Virus Schmirus

2011-11-10T13:51:00.002-05:00

Funny story this.

My computer contracted a virus a couple of weeks ago. Since then, it has contracted at least 4 more. I couldn't figure out why it kept getting these virus'. The scans were coming up clean. Russ switched my anti-virus program twice. Then I got a certain error message that led me to what I believe was the problem. After the first virus, Russ reformatted my hard drive and then renamed my computer. I hated the new name the second I saw it. The new name: True Hotie. For real, ya'll. He didn't even spell it right. 2 t's in hottie. 2. I asked him to rename it again. Preferably something that doesn't sound like a porn site. So far, I've had no more problems.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-11-09T12:11:00.009-05:00

It's midweek again and that means it is time for another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday! Link up {here}!

This week, I'm loving my amazing husband. Ya'll, he has put a ton of time in working on my computer. It has been having issues since we bought it back in August and then it was infected with a virus a couple of weeks back which just escalated all of the other problems we have been having with it. I think it is finally fixed. Russ has been so great about trying to get everything back to working order for me.

I'm loving the giveaway going on right here right now! You have until Tuesday to enter. Go {here} for details!

I'm loving that we put up our Christmas decorations Monday evening!

I'm loving Halloween clearance! I bought sevearl sword/shield combos for when I do the Christian Soldier series for Bible Class for very cheap! And I bought Chloe Jo these adorable fairy wings and skirt for $2.50! Can't beat that for a cute dress-up outfit!I'm loving that we knocked off 2 more Christmas gifts this week! We are close to being completely done!

What are you all loving this week?

The best part of putting up Christmas decorations...

2011-11-08T14:26:00.001-05:00

...is finding the mistletoe. ;)

It's a Giveaway!

2011-11-07T15:36:00.002-05:00

I recently hit 75 followers on this little ol' blog! As a way to thank all of you wonderful followers, I am hosting this giveaway!

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to give away, but I finally decided to make these great bags! I love the way they turned out and I hope you love them, too!
The winner of this giveaway will get to choose whichever bag they want. So if you like blues and browns, this is the bag for you:
And if you prefer greens and creams:
The bags are fully lined! They are 8x10x4 inches.

So, what do you have to do to enter this giveaway?

1. Follow me!

2. Leave me a comment telling me that you are a follower and you want to win! Be sure to add your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you if you do not have a blog.

And that is it! If you would like to blog about this giveaway, that would be nice, too. :)

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

The winner will be chosen next Tuesday so you have a week to enter!

Thanks for following and good luck!

Creation Seminar

2011-11-06T14:21:00.002-05:00

Earlier this year I read a book by Brad Harrub called "Convicted." It is a book about how our worldview (whether or not God exists) is an important factor in how we act while on earth. I really enjoyed reading the book and grew a lot as a Christian because of it.
A few months ago Brad Harrub was in Columbia doing a seminar and we had planned to go. For whatever reason we were not able to attend and I was super bummed. A few weeks ago we found out that he was going to be in South Carolina again doing another origins seminar. I was so happy that I would get a second chance to go see him so we immediately put it on the calendar.

I have to say that Brad did not disappoint! His book was a very interesting read so I was hoping he would be as interesting in person and he was! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to have read his book and to see him speak in person.

If you are someone who is wondering about the origin of the universe or are just wanting to strengthen your Christianity, check out his book. It can be purchased here.

Winter is on the way!

2011-11-05T11:57:00.003-04:00

We are beginning to have more cool days than warm so a few weeks ago I took Chloe Jo to pick out a coat, hat and gloves. She chose this sweet purple coat and adorable heart hat!
Once we put it on to show it to Daddy we realized something was missing. Her poor little neck will get cold! So back to Wal-Mart we went where Chloe Jo picked out some purple yarn and I crocheted her this scarf.
It's not much, but I think it looks very sweet with her winter ensemble.
And now I won't have to worry about her precious little neck getting cold!

A Pink Tree for Candyland!

2011-11-04T14:30:00.007-04:00

So last year I wanted to get Chloe Jo a pink Christmas tree after the holidays. I was hoping to snag one that was clearanced. Well, apparently pink is a hot color and I couldn't find one anywhere! So this year when I saw the pink Christmas trees at Wal-Mart, I was sure to get one as soon as they were on the shelves! Which meant that I bought it about a week before Halloween. It has been leaned up against the kitchen wall since then and Chloe Jo has asked to put it up every. single. day. So today, we took a trip to Wal-Mart to get a tree skirt and a topper and went to town!

She was so excited when we took it out of the box!
We strung garland around it and decorated it with cupcake ornaments.
She is thrilled with her tree! I think it turned out so cute and girly!
The cupcake ornaments are from last years Christmas clearance. I bought several of them for 75% off *I think...it may have been 50%*.
It's a perfect pink tree for Candyland (Chloe Jo's room)!
The glitter that got everywhere was sure annoying to clean up, but it was worth it!

ABC 123!

2011-11-03T11:43:00.003-04:00

As of late, Chloe Jo has been super obsessed with letters. If she gets a book out the first thing she wants to do is point to each letter on the cover and say "pees?" asking me to tell her what the letter is. Her favorite letter is O. She argues with me about the zero in the number puzzle being an O. One day last week we had a book from the library called "Boo." She pointed the an O and said "O!" I knew she knew that letter so I pointed to the B and asked her what it was and she promptly said "B." I was so excited that she knew B because we hadn't been working on that letter at all! She knows a few other letters and several numbers. In order to help her learn her letters (which she is all for at this point), I have been working on cutting letters out of felt.
I got several done last night and Chloe Jo was so excited about them when she saw them this morning! I think she is going to have a great time learning her letters and numbers! Now if I could only get her interested in learning colors...

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-11-02T15:36:00.006-04:00

It's midweek and you know what that means! It's time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!
Link up {here} to tell us what you are loving!

First of all, I'm loving my followers! I hit 75 last week! As promised, I'm going to be hosting a giveaway to say thanks! I know what I'm going to give away. I just need to get it made so stay tuned!

I'm loving passing out candy on Halloween! It is my favorite holiday!

I'm loving this cutie patootie! She was an adorable Little Red Riding Hood!

I'm loving that it's November which means we only have two months until Christmas! I'm ready to start decorating!

I'm loving this pink Christmas tree that will be going in Chloe Jo's room! Candy Land (what my sister calls her room) isn't complete without a pink Christmas tree during the holiday season!

I'm loving this Christmas banner I made Monday! I didn't mean for it to be so long so the original idea for it isn't going to work. I went ahead and hung it on the wall instead. Now to get the rest of the decorations out...

Last, but definitely not least, I'm loving my family!

Happy Wendesday, Ya'll!

Trick-or-Treat!

2011-11-01T06:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was cold and rainy so Trick-or-treating wasn't nearly as fun as we were all hoping it would be. We planned to go to a few people's houses that we knew and then one of us would take Chloe Jo trick-or-treating in our neighborhood while the other passed out candy. Since it was so cold and wet we decided to just go to a few houses of people we knew and skip the neighborhood trick-or-treating. It's not like our waistlines need candy anyway, right!?! Chloe Jo went into shy mode at each home we visited but she eventually came around and enjoyed getting candy from everyone!
I couldn't believe how many trick-or-treaters we had! I bought 1 large bag of candy thinking we wouldn't have many kids come to the door. I was wrong! Our Trick-or-treat was from 6 to 8 and I was out of candy by 7! I had a line at the door when I ran out and so I had to grab a few pieces from Chloe Jo's basket to finish with the kids that were already at the door. Then I promptly turned off the light and closed our front door! When we lived in Missouri we didn't have a single trick-or-treater the 4 years we lived there so I wasn't expecting all those kids! Halloween is my favorite holiday! I just love handing out candy and seeing all the kids and their costumes!

Music Monday

2011-10-31T07:45:00.000-04:00

I thought this was too cute! If you're a Disney fan, you should like it!

Fall Festival

2011-10-30T16:12:00.008-04:00

Last evening was our town's Fall Festival. Unlike the town Easter Egg Hunt, the Fall Festival is great! Many of the business' in town set up booths of activities for the children to play and there is a costume contest! There are a few other activity for bigger kids, too.

When I put Chloe Jo down for her nap, I told her that we were going to go to the festival after she woke up. She was so excited that she went right to sleep! As promised when she woke up I helped her put on her costume and we took a few pictures before we left for the festival.
"Hey there Little Red Riding Hood. You sure are looking good. You're everything a big, bad wolf could want." Ha! Every time I see her costume I think that song! I think she is the cutest Little Red Riding Hood ever! I'm so glad she doesn't get eaten by the wolf!

When we got to the festival, the tables to sign up for the costume contest were the first thing as we came into the door. The ladies talked me into signing Chloe Jo up against my better judgement. We ended up leaving before the contest started so we just told them to take her off the list. I'm actually really glad we didn't do it because Chloe Jo is so shy. She would have hated getting up on the stage and everyone looking at her!

Even though we didn't stay for the costume contest, we did play a lot of games and had a blast! Chloe Jo started out trying to toss the rings on these tubes.
But then she realized it was a lot easier to just walk up to them and put the rings on from there.
She loved getting ducks out of the water. She wanted to stay and play. She didn't even care about getting a prize for this one!
Bless her little heart, she tried so hard to get these beanbags through this pumpkin. You can see for yourself how close she got. I don't think we are going to have a baseball player like Daddy would like.
Then again...maybe the beanbags were just a warm-up for her! She did great with this activity. I think she ended up getting 3 of the balls into holes.
Daddy really tried to help her golf the correct way...
But Chloe Jo's way was much easier and more fun! Of course, it didn't get the ball anywhere near the targets. Oh well!
We had a lot of fun taking Chloe Jo to the Fall Festival and seeing all the costumes! I'm so excited to take her trick-or-treating tomorrow!

I may or may not be more excited about it than Chloe Jo is!

Hey Paparazzi...

2011-10-29T19:22:00.001-04:00

Please, no pictures.

A Mother of One

2011-10-28T13:42:00.003-04:00

Kelly's Korner is doing a series for Show Us Your Life Fridays right now geared towards different stages of life. Today's topic is Mothers of Only Children. Since I fall in that category and this topic is close to my heart, I'm linking up! If you are a Mother to One and would like to share, check out Kelly's Korner and link up, too!

Right now, I'm at a really great place in life. I have my down days, but most days are up and I have a lot of hope and faith that God will bless us with more children if it is His plan. Instead of lamenting the fact that I only have one child, I am embracing the time I have to spend with my dear daughter, Chloe Jo.

Here are a couple of lists I have compiled about being a Mother of One:

Things I Love About Being a Mother of One

1. I always know who did it. I have 2 brothers and a sister. Growing up, we had an extra person in our house called the Not-Me Ghost. Mom: "Who made this huge mess?" Children: "Not-Me!"

2. I'll never have to be at a piano recital and a soccer game at the same time.

3. More money to spoil my One with! And I'm horrible about spoiling her, too!

4. There is no fighting or bickering going on up in here!

5. I have sole possession of all hugs and kisses (when Daddy is at work, anyway).

Things I Hate About Being A Mother of One

1. The Mine-O-Saur lives in our house. Mommy: "May I color with the pink crayon?" Chloe Jo: "No! Mine!"

2. Chloe Jo doesn't have anyone besides me to play with...and when I'm busy, sometimes it's not pretty in our house.

3. No more children to pass all those adorable clothes to. We do hand down to a cousin and donate, though!

4. No cute photographs of children in matching clothes.

5. No babies for Chloe Jo to love. I think she would be thrilled if we had a baby at our house.

And there you have it, folks!

And, for good measure, here's a picture of me treasuring my gift from God.

Fall Pictures

2011-10-27T12:57:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, Russ and I took Chloe Jo to the next town over to take fall pictures. They had a great fall area set up in their town square. We had driven by it on Sunday and so I wanted to go back to get pictures. CJ was more interested in playing with all of the pumpkins than getting her picture taken, but I think I got a few cute ones!
For some reason, she loved this green gourd (or whatever it is).
I wasn't planning on getting a picture with me in it, but Russ wanted to. He didn't have anything nice on so he didn't want to be in any.
Chloe Jo thought this gazebo was great! She loved running up and down the steps and was very upset when we said it was time to go.
I had a fun time taking these fall pictures!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-10-26T13:52:00.005-04:00

Link up {here}.

I'm loving the gorgeous weather we have been having. The leaves are just starting to change!

I'm loving the Halloween plans we have! We are going to the city festival on Saturday and then we are going to trick-or-treat and pass out candy Monday evening. CJ is so excited!

I'm loving the fall pictures I took of Chloe Jo this morning. The next town over had this area set up so we went out there to take advantage of it!

I'm loving lunch dates with Russ! We pretty much never go out to lunch on a work-weekday so it's a treat when we do.

I'm loving coloring with my sweet Chloe Jo.

I'm loving the pumpkins we carved/decorated this week!

I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-25T11:35:00.010-04:00

Last night we decided to carve our Halloween pumpkins! The daytime has been warm here, but hopefully the pumpkins will last through Halloween.

We originally were going to use Monster, Inc. stencils, but our pumpkins were too small for them! We ended up just doing faces which was still fun! It was nice to not have a complicated stencil this year!
Chloe Jo was fascinated when I took the lid off.
But, fascination or not, there was no way she was going to touch the mess that is the inside of the pumpkin!
Russ is going to kill me for posting this. HAHAHAHA! That's what he gets for making crazy faces for pictures, though!
Carving pumpkins is one of my favorite holiday things to do!
CJ did finally decide to help put the cut out pieces in the trash. She only touched them with the tips of two fingers to minimize contact.
She opted to go with the less messy stick-in face for her pumpkin. She was so proud of it!
And here we are with our finished pumpkins!
And here they are hanging out on our porch.
We had so much fun carving our pumpkins this year!

Music Monday

2011-10-24T16:30:00.001-04:00

Who's your daddy?

2011-10-21T10:57:00.004-04:00

Chloe Jo has recently been pointing at people and calling them Daddy and Mommy. I'm not sure why she does this because she clearly knows who we are. She doesn't do it all the time...just sometimes and only with certain people. It cracks me up because the people she chooses sometimes are so crazy. Like calling Justin Beiber Daddy. Um...not quite, dear. Not quite. Now most of the time, the people she will point at will look somewhat like us. Tall with dark hair for Daddy and tall with dark blonde hair for Mommy. And then there are days like last night.

We were watching Star Trek: Voyager (and she was liking it until the aliens started a battle!) and she saw Neelix.
To which she promptly pointed at and said "Daddy!" Bahahahahaha! Of all of the people on the show, she chose Neelix. She didn't choose the humans. She chose the Talaxian.

And then she saw Seven of Nine...
and said "Mommy!" I think I got the better end of the deal with this one. At least she is human (albeit with cybernetic implants, but human nonetheless). Plus, Jeri Ryan (the actress) did a lot of modeling work in the beginning of her career so she is beautiful by the worlds standards.

I'm sure Chloe Jo does this to be funny. And it works. She cracks me up!

I just wish she would stop calling Voyager a boat.
Spaceship. Say it with me. Spaceship.

Playin' in the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-20T11:06:00.013-04:00

For a couple of weeks now I have been telling Chloe Jo about going to pick out a pumpkin and carving them. Every time I told her about it she would get excited and want to go right then. It takes a while to get out there so I also told her that she would have to ride in the car for a little while first. I'm so glad she understands what I say because the ride out there was uneventful. We like to go to McLeod Farms to get our pumpkins. If you are in the South Carolina area, it is worth the trip out there!

Last year there was a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. This year, there were about a million children on field trips so the hayrides were full. We hitched a ride on a golf cart instead! Chloe Jo loves riding on golf carts (one of our friends has one she rides on some) so she was very excited about it.

What I love about McLeod is that it is enormous! They grow all kinds of things out there including strawberries and peaches that you can pick yourself. I really wanted to go out and pick strawberries this year but never got around to it.

It didn't take long for Chloe Jo to pick out a pumpkin. Since the school kids weren't out there yet we got the whole patch to ourselves. It was so nice to be able to let Chloe Jo run through the patch to find her pumpkin.
I think she loved the freedom. She wouldn't have liked it as much if there were a bunch of children out there with us.
We ended up picking out 3 pumpkins. I'm hoping to be able to carve them tonight. I doubt CJ will like the carving part since it's messy.
I asked the golf cart driver to take a family picture. This is the best we did. CJ was not happy that a stranger was taking our picture and reverted to shy mode.
As we were leaving the school kids were coming in on the hayride. I'm so glad we got out of there before all of that craziness started! Although, I am looking forward to one day going along on a field trip with CJ.
Once we got back to the main building, we took the opportunity to explore the grounds. They had several places set up to take pictures.
I think these hay bales are a little weird, but they were fun nevertheless. I'm really not sure what the thing on the right is supposed to be. Maybe a spider?
I love their windmill. Every farm needs a windmill.
Daddy loved this pumpkin. I would have liked to have gotten all of us in it, but there wasn't anyone around I could ask to take our picture at that point. Maybe I'll photoshop my face in.
And last, but not least, we indulged in one of their amazing peach empanadas with a scoop of ice cream. Yum!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-10-19T10:13:00.008-04:00

Happy Wednesday
And you know what Wednesday means!
Link up {here} to tell us what you are loving today!

Today I'm loving our annual family trip to the pumpkin patch! More to come on that later!

I'm loving the 3-year Bible reading plan Chloe Jo and I started! You can find it {here}.

I'm loving eBay!

Chloe Jo was given two pair of Gymboree tights in the last few weeks. I didn't have the corresponding outfits to go with them and they are past lines so Gymboree didn't have them either. I got on eBay and found the outfits. I bid on them and have won and paid for one. I have to wait a few days to know if I won the other outfit. Crossing my fingers!

I'm loving all of the sewing I've finished recently. I have one more piece of fabric that I need to decide what I'm going to make with and then I have another project in my head (this one isn't for Chloe Jo!). I heart sewing!

I hope you all are having a fabulous week!

Baker, Baker, Cookie Makers

2011-10-18T11:40:00.013-04:00

This is the last post about our week with my sister and her family! BTW, you should go give my sister some love. She is 24 weeks pregnant with my precious little nephew! I can't wait to meet the little guy!

One of the activities I had planned for our visit was to make cookies with the girls. They both love helping in the kitchen so we knew they would love making cookies together!
Now, Chloe Jo (who is the cleanest child in the world) would not help put the butter or the crisco in the bowl. She is an odd child. Brianna, on the other hand, was happy as a clam to get her hands dirty!
They both loved helping put the rest of the ingredients in the bowl.
Chloe Jo and Brianna both thought the best part was stirring! Chloe Jo helps me in the kitchen a lot and her favorite job is to stir. She also loves to set the table and empty the dish washer!
They both helped pour the chocolate chips in the batter.
Then it was time to mix it all up! Brianna loved helping me use the mixer. Chloe Jo..eh, not so much. The mixer scared Chloe Jo (as does the vacuum and anything else that is loud), but Brianna loves loud things (including the vacuum, she tries to ride it) so this was right up her ally.

I gave both of the girls beaters to lick. Brianna dug right in!
Chloe Jo held it long enough for Aunt Chelle to get this picture and then deemed it "a mess." What a weird child she is!
Even though CJ didn't like licking the beater, she loved eating the baked cookies! Brianna, on the other hand, doesn't like sweet things so she did not partake in the cookie eating.
We had a great time making cookies and an even better time eating them (with the exception of Brianna)!

Bible Reading Is Important

2011-10-17T06:58:00.002-04:00

As a Christian, I love the Bible. I love starting my day off by reading God's Word. I have been reading through the entire Bible every year for several years now. One of the things I strive to do as a parent is instill Biblical values in my daughter. I want her to love the Bible and love God as God wants us to. I want her to see worship services as a time to praise, worship and give thanks to our Creator and Bible class as a time to learn and study. I want her to grow up to love the Word and be the Christian that is found in the pages of the Bible.
I've been happy with her progress so far. She knows who God and Jesus are. She enjoys going to Bible class. She will participate once in a while. Even when she refuses to participate, I know her little brain is soaking in the Bible stories and learning the songs. Most importantly, she is receiving the foundation she needs to continue to study and learn from the Bible.

One thing I've been lacking on is teaching her at home. We pray before nap time, bed time and meals. We sing "Jesus Loves Me" before bed time each night. We talk about God's creation. But I want to do more.

Last year (2010) I read the Bible out loud to Chloe Jo all year. That was tedious and my voice often got dry and tired by the end of the reading so I haven't done that this year. Then I read a book that had a section about a Bible reading plan that is specifically designed to be read at church services. Every service, a portion of the Bible is read and at the end of 3 years, the congregation will have read through the entire Bible. I presented that idea to Russ for the congregation we are members of, but then thought to myself, "Self, why don't you look for a daily 3 year plan for Chloe Jo?"

And that's what I did. I printed it out and tonight we did our first reading before her bed time. While I was printing the plan out I explained to her that we were going to read the Bible each night before she goes to sleep. I also told her that I would leave the Bible (we have several and the one we are using is one of my old childhood Bibles) and the plan in her room. After she went potty and brushed her teeth, we both climbed into her bed and she laid very still and listened as I read the Word of God to her. We then said a prayer and sang "Jesus Loves Me." Before we turned out the light, she asked if the special Bible would stay in her room.

And my heart smiled.

And God smiled.

The 3-Year Daily Bible Reading schedule we are using is {here}.

Miss Attitude

2011-10-16T20:25:00.001-04:00

Latest Projects

2011-10-15T17:11:00.005-04:00

Lately, I've had several projects going (ok, who am I kidding...when do I not have several projects going?) and I want to document some of them.

Last month I made this jumper since Chloe Jo is short on dresses. I thought it was a little plain so I took it to a lady in town to get it monogrammed. I got it back yesterday and I love how it turned out. Monogramming is a great way to jazz up something plain!
I have several large pieces of fabric that I have been wanting to make clothes for Chloe Jo out of and today I finished up this outfit. I was wanting the skirt to be a little more full, but I think it turned out cute over all. Next time I will make the tiers fuller, though. Of course, I had to applique flowers on the plain shirt. I even appliqued a cute flower in the bottom corner of the back of the shirt for a little more pizzaz!
Last, but not least, I made this turkey shirt for Thanksgiving. I call it the CBS turkey. Don't the feathers look like the old CBS symbol? Ha ha!
And just for kicks, I think this outfit is so cute! I love her boots with leggings tucked in! She looks like she is ready to go riding!
P.S. I have to tell you all that I am a big fan of clearance racks. I bought those brown boots for $3.00 at Wal-Mart during the summer. I also bought a pair of black ones. They are size 8 and she is currently in a size 7 (I've been letting her wear them anyway) so I'm hoping they will last through the winter.

Park Day

2011-10-14T10:39:00.003-04:00

While my sister was here, we had plans to do several things. One of those things was to take the girls to the park to play. We got around to doing that on Thursday. The girls had a good time and Chelley and I enjoyed watching them play.

One thing I love about our small town and the location of our home in said small town is that it is easy to walk to just about anything. So after playing at the park for an hour or so, we walked to a fast-food restaurant to get something to drink and then back home. We had a great time playing with the girls (minus Brianna getting a bloody lip from face planting off of the slide) and spending time together.

Up next: Making cookies with our girls...and then I will be done with posts from my sister's visit.

Crafting with my sister

2011-10-13T13:03:00.003-04:00

While my sister was here, she had a couple of projects for me to "help" her with. Usually it ends up me making the project and her watching, but that was not the case this time! Anyway, she loved the mobile I made for Chloe Jo's room and wanted to make one for her bambino on the way. This is the one I made for Chloe Jo back in the spring. If you are interested in making one, there is a tutorial for it in the tutorials section at the top of the page.
Chelley liked a lot of the paper that I had used for Chloe Jo's mobile. I had some of it left so she used it for Brenson's mobile. We thought it turned out so great!
Isn't it funny how both mobiles are made out of {mostly} the same paper, but they are so different! The ribbon made all the difference in making them feminine and masculine.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-10-12T09:33:00.007-04:00

It's midweek again!

And that means it is time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!
Link up {here} to tell us what you are loving on this rainy day!

I'm loving that I received a Target gift card in the mail for free from my bank for "being a good customer." You can't beat free stuff!

I'm loving that my sister and her family were here last week! We had so much fun hanging out with them!

I'm loving these sweet girls (Chloe Jo and Brianna Elisabeth Jo) and the adorable matching outfits I made them. Tutorial to come soon!

I'm loving the children's cd Chelley brought for us. It is Jack Hartmann's I've Got Music In Me cd and it is great! This is one of his songs that we looked up and learned the sign language moves for.

I'm loving Star Trek Voyager. I am a huge nerd and I loved watching Star Trek when I was younger and I just got back into it. My sister was very disappointed in me. I have been slowly making my way through Voyager and I will then start on Deep Space Nine.

I'm loving that my hubby is very good with computers (or at least a lot better than me) and he recovered everything yesterday after my poor computer contracted a virus.

I'm loving that I am on my 27th book from the 100 Greatest Novels of All Time list. I am currently reading Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence.

And that's it for today! Happy Wednesday!

North Carolina State Capital Road Trip!

2011-10-11T23:18:00.011-04:00

I know I already posted a similar picture of Chloe Jo and her cousin, Brianna Elisabeth Jo, but it is so cute I couldn't resist posting it again!
Chloe Jo seems to miss her cousin a lot. She was really happy to get her room back, but she told me today "I miss B." Those girls had so much fun playing (ahem, and fighting) together. I very much regret that I wasn't able to give her a playmate that close to her own age.

Anyway, last Monday, Chris (my sister's husband) didn't have to work so we all loaded up in their rental van and headed up to Raleigh, North Carolina. Chris and Chelley love to visit capital buildings. She told me that they have visited around 25 and are hoping to be able to visit them all one day.

We parked in front of a very old, beautiful church building and had a photo op. These doors were enormous (obviously by the miniscule size of my daughter) and extremely heavy. Chloe Jo decided to mess with this door until she opened it! None of us could believe Chloe Jo (whose name may be changed to Hercules now) could get it open! I, of course, wouldn't have let her even try if I had known she would be able to do it.
Here is another door of the same church building. I love this shape and the architecture of these old buildings. They are so beautiful.
After our photo op, we went across the street to tour the grounds of the capital building. Chloe Jo was a good sport to sit on this statue and let me take a picture. This is probably the only time she will ever get a photo op with Presidents James Polk, Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson all at the same time.
Brianna (aka Wiggle Worm) can't be trusted to sit on a statue like that so Chelley and Chris put her in this cannon instead! I laughed so hard. There were 3 policemen standing in the vicinity and one of them said that there had to be a law against that, but he sure didn't know what it was!
After touring the grounds, we toured inside. I love capital domes. They are so beautiful. This one was hard to photograph because the sun wasn't in a very good position, but still beautiful.
I can't remember what this room was called (and I have no idea what happened to my brochure). Chloe Jo was good enough to sit at this desk and take a nice picture. Brianna....eh, not so much.
But we did get this cute one of them in another of the meeting rooms. I love that Brianna is waving at us!
This is the same room as above, but from the second level. This building was so old. I'm sure the second level seating was roped off because it is unsafe by our standards.
Again, I can't remember exactly what this room was called, but I think it was some kind of apothecary. My sister will correct me if I'm wrong about that!
This is the capital library. I would have loved to be able to curl up in a leather chair by the fire and read for a few hours.
And here is the outside of the capital building.
We had a great time on our little trip to Raleigh. Russ and I had not been except to the airport so we enjoyed getting to see some of the city. Of course, the company made it that much more fun!

2 1/2 years old!

2011-10-10T12:08:00.005-04:00

Today my sweet daughter turns 2 1/2. I can't believe she is already this old. I look in her face and I still see the tiny baby that I held for the first time 2 1/2 years ago. Children growing up is so bittersweet.
My Chloe Jo is the light of my life. I'm so happy and thankful to have her. So what has she been up to lately?

-She is speaking in more and more sentences every day. She can count to 10. She knows her colors (though will only show me that on her terms). She can spell her name. She says please and thank you most of the time. Her verbal skills have improved so much over the last 3 months.

-She is still only day-time potty trained but has been so now for a year. She will go a week or so without pottying in during nap-time and then will have an accident so I still put a pull-up on her during her nap. She has only had a dry morning pull-up one time so we aren't even talking about that yet.

-She takes a nap every day. It is usually 1 to 3 hours depending on what we did that day.

-She is still picky as ever about food. She used to love my chili and my Mexican casserole but will not touch either anymore. Her favorite meal is meatloaf and peas.

-She wears size 3T, but I have to take up the waists of all the pants. She needs the length in a 3T, but she really needs a 24month waist. She is very tall and skinny.We have been having issues in the discipline area. She tells us no and she swipes at us now. We are trying to be very consistent in persuading her not to do either of those things.

-She still loves Dora the Explorer and Elmo, but has also started enjoyed movies like Beauty and the Beast.

-She would play at the park all day if we let her.

-She weighs 29 1/2 pounds putting her around the 55th percentile. She gained 3 1/2 pounds in the last three months. I think it's time to start limiting her sweets intake (and ours, too!).
-She is measuring 36 1/2 inches putting her around the 65th percentile. She gained a lot of weight but didn't grow in height much the past 3 months. This doesn't concern me at all because she grew 6 inches the previous 6 months.
I am so blessed to have my beautiful daughter in my life!

Our home is empty once again.

2011-10-08T11:00:00.002-04:00

My sister and her family left Friday morning to go home to Oklahoma. While I'm going to miss them very much, we are all happy to have our home back to normal...especially Chloe Jo. She loves her routine. She did say "I miss B" several times this morning, though. Parting wasn't bad this time because we will be seeing them again at Thanksgiving. I have several posts coming about all the fun things we did while they were here! For now, I'm going to leave you with this adorable video:

Beach Fun

2011-10-04T07:44:00.000-04:00

My sister and her family flew to South Carolina on Friday. Chris is going to work a few days here and Chelley and Brianna took the opportunity to come stay with us. We have been having a great time! They arrived at our house late Friday night so we didn't have time to do anything on Friday, but we decided to go out to North Myrtle Beach on Saturday. The girls had so much fun! Chloe Jo still didn't love the sand, but she tolerated it this time.
I think Brianna's excitement helped Chloe Jo be excited, too!
I enjoyed hanging back, taking pictures and picking up seashells. I loved that there weren't very many people on the beach and that it was a little chilly out. That is a perfect beach day to me. I don't care much about getting in the water (especially after Russ said he saw fins - Eek!).
I love pictures like this. Chloe Jo had not quite decided about the water at this point.
It didn't take Brianna long to figure out what her favorite part was. :)
And, of course, we had to have a family beach picture!

Music Monday

2011-10-03T02:05:00.000-04:00

This one's for you, Dad!

Playtime

2011-10-02T14:01:00.001-04:00

My sister and her family are here for the week. We have been having so much fun with these two precious girls!

Music Monday

2011-09-26T14:17:00.001-04:00

Birds of a Feather - The Rosenbergs

My Recipe Box: Cheesy Vegetable Rotini

2011-09-23T10:32:00.003-04:00

I have to tell you a secret. I clip the recipes out of magazines and coupon booklets. Eek! For real, though, they are usually the best recipes. Easy and delicious. Except for Wednesday evening. I tried a new chicken and rice recipe and it was awful. The rice didn't cook through like it was supposed to and I even left it on the heat for an extra 15 minutes. We ate it anyway, but next time I will cook it halfway before adding it to the skillet. Anyway, on to the recipe!

Cheesy Vegetable Rotini

Ingredients:
2 cups cold water
1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrot blend
1 can (10 oz.) Rotel, drained
1/2 lb. (8 oz.) Velveeta cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Add water to skillet and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Add pasta; stir. Cover; simmer on medium-low heat 10 minutes or until pasta is tender. Add remaining ingredients; stir. Cook, covered, 5 to 7 minutes or until Velveeta is completely melted and vegetables are crisp-tender; stirring frequently.

I am never afraid to add ingredients or take away ingredients. I love to experiment and usually it works out fine. This recipe originally called for chicken and I made it that way the first time. We decided we liked it better without, though so I nixed it. And I add a little bit more Velveeta than it calls for.

Enjoy!

Pleated Fleece Skirt

2011-09-22T11:01:00.005-04:00

And yet more sewing posts. I know. I'm so obsessive. Russ calls me "Chuck *Insert my maiden name here*" all the time. That's my Dad. I guess he thinks I get my OCD from him...he would be right. But, really, is that a bad thing? Hahaha!

Moving on! Tuesday I decided to try something I had never done before. I made a skirt with a free pattern I printed off of the internet! And you know what? It was so easy!

Reasons to use patterns off of the internet:
1. You only print the size you need.
2. Less cutting out.
3. Easier to cut printer paper than it is to cut pattern paper.
4. Simple to put the pattern together and to pin it to the fabric.
5. Easier all around!

At least it was with this particular pattern. Plus, I learned how to make box pleats. So cute and so simple!

And here's the story of the fleece skirt:

I have 2 clear containers full of fabric pieces. I like to go to Hobby Lobby and buy the clearance fabric that is already cut and rolled up. (I'm going to stop doing that...more on that in a minute) So a while back I bought a piece of fleece. I didn't have a specific project for it. I just thought it was cute and with all the babies that were on their way, I thought I would have a use for it (and then it turned out that all the babies that are here/on it's way are boys.) I really wanted to make something for winter for Chloe Jo with it, but there wasn't enough for a dress or jumper so I decided to surf the internet for inspiration....and found Fleece Fun! Her site is so fun and I love the subtitle: "Velvet is Pretentious. Fleece is Fun!" How cute is that?!? On the site is a list of patterns and instructions for several fleece projects and that is where I found the Pleated Skirt Pattern.

And here is my final product:
I'm so happy with it! I think it turned out super fun and super cute!

And I think Chloe Jo likes her new skirt.
And then the weather got back up into the 80's yesterday so she wasn't able to wear it to Bible class last night.

***I don't recommend buying fabric from the sale bin at Hobby Lobby. I have a large piece of fabric that I was planning to make a dress for Chloe out of and when I unrolled it, there are 2 holes in it. They are in a place that I can't work around them so the dress is a no go. I'm going to try to get a skirt and shirt applique out of it instead, but I don't know if that will even work. :(

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-09-21T11:02:00.009-04:00

As usual, I'm linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

First, I'm loving the wonderful fall weather we've been having! I love having the doors and windows open to let in the cool air!

I'm loving that it has been a crafting month for me! If you haven't noticed by the rest of my blog, I'm very obsessive. Once I get a project out, I don't want to put it away until I've crafted my heart out!

I'm loving this adorable fleece skirt I made for Chloe Jo last night. More to come on that later this week.

I'm loving that I have a new nephew coming in February. I have been sewing up a storm for him lately. Here are a couple of onesies I have made for him.

I'm loving that I've finished several Christmas gifts already. Here is a blanket I made for my little nephew, Jackson.

I'm loving this fabric. I'm going to try to make a dress for Chloe Jo out of it. She is in need of fall/winter dresses so I have been trying to stock up her closet.

I'm loving making my own dishwasher detergent! Find the recipe here.

Last, but not least, I'm loving this adorable little girl who has been so great this week letting me craft. Chloe Jo, you make my days so fun!

Link up here to tell us what you are loving on this gorgeous Wednesday!

More soap making

2011-09-20T11:20:00.002-04:00

I started making my own laundry detergent a year ago. I can't believe it has been that long and that we've lived in South Carolina for a year. Time keeps getting quicker and quicker the older I get. Anyway, so I've really enjoyed making laundry detergent and it saves us a lot of money. I tried making fabric softener and that didn't work out so well so I abandoned that project. And found another. Dishwasher detergent. I've been wanting to try this for some time, but needed to use up what we had. So this week, we are on our last two action packs so I took the opportunity to make dishwasher detergent. I ran a load of dishes yesterday and I really like how the homemade detergent did. I searched for a while for a recipe I liked and I'm so glad I did! It didn't make as much as I thought it would so the next time I make it, I will probably make a triple or quadruple batch.
Dishwasher Detergent

1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Washing Soda
4 packs unsweetened lemonade
1/4 cup Kosher salt

Just mix that all together and use 1 tablespoon of detergent per load of dishes. If you need a rinse aid, use distilled white vinegar.

So easy and economical!

Music Monday

2011-09-18T22:51:00.002-04:00

Straight No Chaser - Stand By Me

New Clothes

2011-09-17T17:58:00.005-04:00

I finally put my scrapbooking supplies away. I made it though August 2007. I'm happy with the progress I made and I plan on getting it back out when I'm done with a few other projects. I've been trying to get Christmas presents made so I've been doing a lot of that type of thing. I also have a few plain shirts that I am wanting to applique on for Chloe Jo. Here is Saturday's project.
The t-shirt is from Children's Place and I had bought it a long time ago for $0.99. I also had the jeans for a long time. They are from Wal-Mart and are Faded Glory brand size 24 months. I have been waiting for CJ to grow into them since she was 18 months old. Never happened. They are still too big in the waist and now they are too short. The fabric is just some from my stash.

The first thing I did was take in the jeans. I would have just put them in goodwill, but I love these jeans. They are sparkly! I'm a sucker for sparkly toddler clothes.

And here is what I came up with!
I'm thrilled with how this adorable outfit turned out! I chose to applique a vest on the shirt and put real buttons on it and added a ruffle out of the vest fabric to the jeans.
I love it and the jeans fit her great now! CJ had just woken up so she wasn't exactly thrilled to be having her picture taken. I'm confident she likes the outfit, too, though. :)

Fall

2011-09-17T15:23:00.002-04:00

It seems like Fall has graced us with its presence. The last two days have been in the 60's. I sure thought I had more time to get a fall wardrobe together for Chloe Jo. Instead, we took a trip to big town next door today to get a few essentials...like a jacket...for her. We did pretty good and came back with several items that will, hopefully, last through the season.

Welcome Fall!

C-H-L-O-E

2011-09-16T12:00:00.003-04:00

My sweet girl is growing up so fast! Tear. She has been growing like a weed these last few months.
In the last few weeks she has started participating more in Bible Class and has started repeating things and learning them. She has also started being a little more friendly to strangers and people at church services.
I'm hoping she continues to come out of her shyness and continues to love learning. Here are a couple of videos that I took this morning of her.

I'm so proud of my smart Chloe Jo!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

2011-09-14T13:39:00.009-04:00

It's that time again. Wednesday. Halfway through the week. Is it just me or are the weeks flying by? I can't believe it is September already and that we have been east coasters for over a year now. Anywho, link up {here} to tell us what you are loving this week!

I'm loving starting each day with Bible reading. This has been a great year for me with my daily Bible reading. Usually I have to play a lot of catch up over the course of the year but this year it has been minimal and when I have had to play catch up it's not usually more than 2 or 3 days.

I'm loving crafting with Chloe Jo! We made a windsock this morning...and then hung it in her room where it won't be touched by wind. Ha!

Since she can reach it, she'll have it down in no time!

I'm loving my followers! Ya'll are great! I recently hit the big number 70! When I make it up to 75, I'll have another giveaway and this time, I'll make a few things and you can choose what you want me to give away! Sounds fun, yes?

P.S. I love comments, too...

I'm loving that I have 4 Christmas presents knocked off my list and I have the supplies for 7 more! I love getting finished early!

As always, I'm loving my sweet, precious family. Russ and Chloe Jo make my heart feel like it's going to burst.

Making Crayons

2011-09-13T11:18:00.010-04:00

Last week Chloe Jo and I made crayons. We loved doing this and CJ loves her new round multi-color crayons. Here is how we did this:
The supplies you will need are:
a box of crayons (new or old)
a muffin pan
I ended up also using a knife and a cutting board
The first thing you need to do is unwrap the crayons. At first we were just peeling the paper off. That ended up not being very easy and CJ got bored with it quickly. I ended up slicing the paper with the knife on the cutting bored and it came off much easier and quicker. The downfall to this is that you have to be extremely cautious about this because the crayons are round and it is super easy to slip and cut yourself. If you push the knife into the crayons a little it works better. Some paper still didn't come off easy after that, but the majority slipped right off.
After you are done taking the papers off, you need to break the crayons up in little pieces.
Chloe Jo loved this step because it was easy for her to do. The puzzle in the picture is what she decided to do while I took the papers off of the crayons. She loves that puzzle.
I tried to break each crayon into four pieces to make them small enough. If I had used a larger muffin tin (I used a mini-muffin tin) I would have left them in bigger pieces. It just depends on your tin.
Drop a handful of crayon pieces into each muffin mold.
Put it in 300 degree oven until they are completely melted. I left mine in for about 8 minutes.
Let them cool completely and then pop them out. I did this like I would an ice mold.
And Wah-la! You now have round multi-colored crayons to color with to your hearts content!

This was a sort of trial run for us. I used the mini muffin tin because that is what I had on hand. I think it would be super fun to do this with heart shaped tins or leaf shaped tins. The possibilities are endless!

Music Monday

2011-09-11T23:06:00.002-04:00

Since the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 was yesterday, I wanted to share a tribute song for Music Monday. Every time I see 9/11 pictures or an article about it, I always end up crying. Every. Single. Time. It is so crazy how some emotions stay with you throughout the years. If you are like me, you will need to have tissue handy for this video and song.

10 years

2011-09-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

The New York City skyline before September 11, 2001

The New York City skyline after 10:28 a.m., September 11, 2001

I will never forget.