Nursery Tour

In order to participate in Kelly's "Share Your Nursery Tour", I went back and tried to find pictures of Rhett's and Alexee's nurseries. I found more of Alexee's...I'm sure I took a lot of Rhett's, but without looking through the 10,000,000 photos that I took, I couldn't find them very easily! :) Thanks for doing this, Kelly--fun idea!

Welcome to our first child's room (cabin/trout fishing/outdoors theme):
March 2004



And welcome to our baby girl's room, February 2007 (We moved just 4 months later, so her room changed, but I thought I'd show the room that we brought her home to):

Pumpkin Patch Trip

Today we met a group of friends at a local pumpkin patch and had a hayride, played in the hay fort, chose a pumpkin and had a picnic in a beautiful pavilion in the woods. It was a perfect day and a lot of fun!

Here's part of the group on the hayride...my camera lense couldn't get everyone, plus I was holding onto Alexee's dress trying to keep her from jumping off the trailer!Stacy & Madelyn:
Logan & Lawson:
Rhett & Alexee with their chosen pumpkins:
Cute brothers in matching spider shirts, Ramsey & John:

Thanks, Darcy, for snapping one of me with the kids!
Rhett resting from all the climbing and running:
I think the kids loved the hay fort--it was really neat and a beautiful setting:
My friend Madelynn and her two cute boys:
Melody & Ella Grace:
Lawson & Rhett break for lunch:
Cute girls, Hudson Lee & Olivia at lunch:
What a fun day together with friends!

Two sweet blessings!

On the back steps this afternoon

Another bow holder

This is a bow holder that I recently mailed to Deidra. I didn't want to post a picture of it until she'd received it, but she e-mailed me today and said she just got it! I wish this was a better picture of it...I wish Sandra could do product photography for me, but I guess that won't work out since she lives overseas! These bow holders are fun to do--I love choosing the ribbon to coordinate. One of these days I'm going to make Alexee one.

Say CHEESE!

The kids were invited to celebrate Lawson's 5th birthday with him today at Chuck E. Cheese. Everyone had a great time! Lawson's Mom and I met the summer of '04 when my neighbor invited me to play Pokeno at her house. Ali was in the group, and I think it was that fall/winter that we started having play dates, along with two other moms, because we all had little boys about the same age. It's so fun to see this group of boys grow and play together--I honestly cannot believe they're turning FIVE! I'm thankful for these friends that God placed in our lives.
Alexee wanted to do everything Rhett did:
Notice the seat belt--he used the belt on every game. It's safety first at Chuck E. Cheese!

Lawson, the Birthday Boy at the head of the table. He's so cute and sweet! I love his little yellow sweater vest! Happy Birthday, L!!!
Lawson chose Hot Wheels for his cake/party theme. The cake was super cute (and yummy!):

Recipes

A few recipes I used yesterday:

Southern Living Weeknight Enchiladas

1 lb. ground beef, browned (I chopped up a green pepper with the meat, too)
1 small onion, chopped
1 (10 3/4 oz) can tomato soup, undiluted
1 (10 oz.) can mild enchilada sauce
8 (7 or 8") flour tortillas
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Cheddar, divided
sour cream (optional)
sliced olives (optional)

Brown beef and onion (and pepper, if desired). Drain, return to skillet. Stir in soup and enchilada sauce. Spread 1/4 cup meat mixture onto each tortilla; sprinkle tortillas evenly with 1 cup of cheese. Roll up tortillas, place, seam side down, in a greased 9 x 13" baking dish. Pour remaining meat mixture over tortillas. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese, bake until cheese melts. Serve with sour cream and olives, if desired. Yield: 4 servings.

Creamy Banana Pudding

1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 large box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 box vanilla wafers
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 large (16 oz.) Cool Whip
1 tsp. vanilla
4 bananas, sliced

In a large bowl, combine dry pudding mix, condensed milk, water and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and place in fridge for 5 minutes to chill.

After pudding mixture is chilled, fold in half (8 oz.) Cool Whip. Pour a layer of the pudding mixture in a large bowl (looks pretty in a trifle bowl), then layer vanilla wafers, then banana slices. Repeat the layers and top with remaining 8 oz. Cool Whip. I add crushed vanilla wafers to the very top. Chill 2-3 hours before serving.

Weekend Misc.

Friday morning we met a new friend at the zoo.  Rhett still didn't feel his best at that point, but we walked around for a little over an hour.  Here they are watching the zebras eat their lunch:One of our last stops was the fish pond.  This picture was made just a few seconds before Alexee dropped (threw?) her pink blankie into the water.  I'm glad no one was standing around to see me make the dive for it--I bruised up my knee, but I rescued the blanket!  
This was after church this morning:
Alexee decided to snack on a mum:
Rhett helped her get the mum out of her mouth:

Red Riding Hood Jacket GIVEAWAY!

Isn't this cute?  I saw it on someone else's blog and created a link to enter to win.  I think Alexee would look really cute in it!

Red Riding Hood Jacket GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Another fun idea I copied from MK's blog:

25 little things that make me happy:

1.  Almost everything about FALL!  Weather just cool and crisp enough to be comfortable in jeans and a long sleeve shirt, pumpkins, colorful leaves, apple cider...

2.  Miniature Twix candy-bars (I made the mistake of going down the Halloween aisle at Kroger).

3.  Seeing the kids play together, especially when Rhett makes Alexee laugh.

4.  Seeing the kids all dressed up for church on Sunday (the actual process of getting them dressed isn't always so fun though!).

5.  Sitting down to paint.

6.  Cute stationery...writing and receiving letters.

7.  Watching the kids play outside in Flippin--seeing them enjoy the same things I enjoyed as a kid.

8.  Thanksgiving--my favorite holiday (all the family and delicious food--dressing!!--without the shopping madness of Christmas).

9.  Red Velvet Cake on my birthday.

10. Going out to dinner with Lane (and our occasional lunch date to Trio's before picking up the kids at MDO...Trio's spinach dip & pita chips and strawberry shortcake).

11.  Flowers of all kinds--tulips are probably one of my very favorites.  And hydrangeas.  And daylilies, and calla lilies. 

12.  "The Office"--it always makes me laugh out loud.  Watching it with Lane and rewinding it if we think something is extra funny!  He always knows by my laughter if I'm going to say, "let's watch that part again."

13.  Shopping for clothes for the kids.

14.  Sonic drinks (cherry vanilla diet Cokes, but I've been skipping the caffeine since pregnant).

15.  Baking chocolate chip cookies (and eating them while they're warm).  (I guess 95% of my list has to do with food!)

16.  The 20 seconds after I've finished all the laundry and ironing--before anything else gets dirty and goes back into the laundry basket!  

17.  Office supply stores--Post it notes, cute paperclips, a new Sharpie...

18.  Hearing Rhett say Bible verses and sing songs, especially when he sings in the car with no prompting.

19.  Memories of our two trips to Hawaii...and dreaming of going back someday!

20.  Easter/spring/pastel colors.

21.  Fresh strawberries and pineapple.

22.  Fresh haircuts--my own, Rhett's, Lane's and Bogart's!  (Alexee doesn't really get regular haircuts yet).

23.  Scrapbook supplies (even though I don't seem to get around to actually using them anymore).

24.  The old Hymns...How Great Thou Art, Amazing Grace, Blessed Assurance, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, The Old Rugged Cross, It is Well...

25.  The kids all fresh and clean after their baths, and going in their rooms to check on them before I go to bed...Alexee's room smells like lotion and powder, and Rhett looks so sweet snuggled in his covers with his blue blankets and stuffed animals. As I close their doors every night I say, "Thank You, Lord."

Pen Pal

Rhett loves receiving mail. And he has a new pen pal...Mo. He sent her a letter not long ago and said to me, "If you send a letter to someone, that person will write you back." I told Mom what he said and of course she wrote him back very quickly. Her first letter included a sheet of smiley face stickers, which R liked and used on the envelope of his second letter. It took her a little longer to respond to his second one than he would have liked. He told me a couple days ago, in a frustrated tone, "I wrote Mo SIX days ago". I didn't count, but he was probably right--I'm sure he'd been keeping track. So today I sent him to the mailbox because Mom told me she'd mailed him something, and he was very excited to find an envelope with his name on it! He opened it up and it was a typed letter with pirate pictures around the edges (the two of them played pirates in the back yard earlier this week).

I don't think I'd even finished reading the last sentence to him when he jumped up to go get another envelope and stamp from the cabinet. This time he had me write down what he wanted to say, then he covered the envelope with more smiley face stickers. He had me address it and he immediately took it to the mailbox and put up the flag. Hopefully Mo will be quick to respond! Mom has always been good about sending mail. When I was in college, my OBU mailbox almost always contained a letter from home--I loved it! And there would often be a package slip in my box, and the package would be homemade cookies or yellow bakery smiley face cookies from Mom. She'd also send me newspaper clippings and Snoopy cartoon strips because Snoopy always reminded us of Oliver. She still sends me clips from their local paper about high school classmates, etc. E-mail is great, I'm so glad we have it, but it will never replace the joy of "real mail"! Thanks, Mom/Mo, for always thinking of us!
If you're wondering what Alexee's been up to today, here's a picture of her in action...throwing one of her new, on-the-floor-fits! I think she threw three today. They are pretty funny because she completely flattens herself out on the floor and raises her head up every few seconds to see if anyone is watching. Today she started a fit in the kitchen so I walked out and went into the living room with Rhett. When she noticed her audience was gone she got up, walked into the living room and threw herself back down on the rug so I could see her! She might not have red hair, but she has a redhead's temper! :)

Backyard Graffiti

Rhett has a slight temperature today and he has a bad cough, so I didn't take him to school. Instead, he wanted to play school here. For craft time, I suggested an outdoor craft since it's such a nice day. We pinned a sheet of brown paper to the back yard fence and used some of my acrylic paints. Here's the artist at work: