This And That

Henry and I had our friends over yesterday for a lil' playdate.

My sweet friend, Alyssa, gifted me with this fun banner!

Who doesn't love denim, burlap and buttons?!
Thanks girl!

And all of my dear peeps were in photographic moods this morning...

Puff Kitty...the girl NEVER takes a bad pix!

Mr. Henry...my mover and shaker!
Emily...ready to get to school!

And Laney.

Posing with the last of the garden flowers that Jon and she collected last night.

Ahhhh yes...the last of our garden.
I don't care if anything pops up, except for...

pumpkins!

We always plan a ton, hoping for a great turnout.

This year, we even planted a variety of pumpkins that were guaranteed to look like this:

And after planing like 100, this is what we got...
Nailed it.
And today, Henry and I surprised the girls at school with pizza/breadstix lunches!
Laney chose her friend Griffin and Cousin Madison to sit with us.

Then Emily chose Griffin's big sis Morgan, and Cousin Megan!

The girls loved their nice lunch treats!

And I always love surprising them!

Hope you are having a wonderful Thursday!

It's Officially Autumn When...

A first for the fall season...

We pulled out our BOOTS!

The cool temps are perfect for boot wearing!

Lotsa rain too...

so we pulled out these mommy and me's...

And even though my boy won't wear boots,

he's still having a ball riding Zippy the horse!

Oh ya...little mister is loving horse therapy!
All smiles, relaxed, sings songs, tells the horse to GO...
Henry asked to GO FAST today, so the horse trotted!

Henry giggled.

And what was just as cool...so did the horse!

No joke...just snorted and snorted, lifting it's head up and down!

Like Henry told it a great little joke!

So, the horse rider of the family won't wear boots like the rest of us.

That's okay, since we might go back to shoes sometime.

Guess everyone in my home has good taste.

Now, to get hubs on board and we can be THAT cool matching fam!

Happy Tuesday!

Hot To Cold Weekend

Our weekend started out a bit heated.

Friday...Laney woke up with a fever.
Poor girl was heartbroken...had to miss Grandparents' Day!

Emily did have my mom, Jon's mom and Jon's Grandma in her room!
(It's harvest time, so the grandpas were in the fields.)

Laney was feeling a bit better by the time my mom came home with Emily,
so I made a little AFTER SCHOOL SNACK for all to enjoy!

Friday evening...got my hair done.

And this is the straightest and lightest you will ever see my hair!

The blonde highlights took, but the red and brown didn't!
(Crazy the brown didn't since I'm a natural brunette!)
Big oops..must have had recall colors!

Well, you may just see me as a blonde for a while, because honestly....I don't want to spend the energy to go back and have the darker colors run back thru my hair.


I'm a huge fan of brunettes, but hey...why not see what the blonde world has to offer?

*****

Saturday morning...rain.

It never stopped!

Both girls played their soccer games.

It was Laney's turn to take snacks, which we had fun with.

Baked and gluten free snacks...score...errr...goal!

Everyone came home cold and drenched!
But after... what is better than a hot bubble bath and a hot lunch?!
****

It hasn't stopped raining since Friday night, so we've been relaxing.
I read this:

Got it for Emily and as soon as she reads it, I'm taking the girls to the movies to see it.

*****
Last night we all did get a bit spiffied up...
went out to celebrate Grandma's birthday!

We only took phone pix, so here's one of G.G. with the girls a few months back.

(G.G. stands for GREAT GRANDMA.)

Yep, this is Jon's grandma.

Isn't she the prettiest grandma...great grandma you've ever laid eyes on?

Family birthday's are the absolute BEST!

*****
And today?

More rain and cold, cold, cold.

Feels more like the prep of winter!

This weather brings out some wicked allergy reactions from yours truly, which is a bummer.

But this may not be helping out either...

I'm thinking Puff Kitty sleeping on my pillow may be adding some fuel to my allergy fire?

Guess what?

Ya, made only one half of the bed.

Oh how could I disturb my sweet 13 year old princess?!

*****

We are enjoying apple cider,

lotsa candle light,

lounging in our comfy clothes,

and enjoying some movies.

Just the perfect ending to our weekend!

Happy Weekend

It's here...

the weekend!

Shout it from the roof tops...or the barn tops!

Oh my silly girls...

yep, just been a silly week!

Ready to break out more silly fun...

just started celebrating last night.

Homemade carmel apples.

Not as easy to make as I remember.

And WHOA!

Those carmels really stick in your teeth!

YUM!

So, Happy Weekend! From my flower girls...

who will hopefully take some tips from my boys...

RELAX and ENJOY..

with lots of cuddles in between!

Making Memories

Thirteen years ago, Jon and I received a journal from my family.

We were to take it on our honeymoon.

Write it all down...

memories for later.

Best thing I ever did...wrote it all down.

Every day, I would journal.

Captured all of the details from our very first day as a married couple.

And now I blog to journal our family life.

Yes, I go back and read older posts.

I smile, I tear up, I laugh outloud.

Memories of our family.

In reality, this is how some of our mornings are.

And we are the family...three children, two kitties and one dog...

who has majorly dirty windows!

(In our defense, they are dirty on the OUTSIDE! Ahhh, life in the woods!)

And yes, sometimes a kitty relaxes where he shouldn't.

We are the family who loves to cheer on our beloved Boilermakers!

Yep, I pop our own snack popcorn before heading out the door to a Purdue soccer match.

We are the family who supports each other...cheering each other on.

Right now it's three days a week of therapy for Mr. Henry.

But, how how he is changing and growing!
Let's just say that...

I want a horse.

At our home.

Since we don't have enough animals! Ha!

I love that Henry loves riding the horses.

I love that he greets the horse with a nice pat...

and waves to his horse, Stripes, giving thanks to a wonderful session.

What else grabs my heart and fills it immensely?

How happy the horses are!

Captured Pepsi the horse waiting for his little person to come outta that door!

After riding the horse,

my boy goes into therapy.

Here he is...yes...he's in this amazing lycra swing!

While in that swing he will say anything and do any given task!
I now want one.

Wonder if it would make everyone else in our house do any given task?

We are the family who loves to read!

Book fair week at school!

The children and I shopped after school.

Along with some books, they each just HAD to have a Harry Potter sticker book.

And WOW! They went through every.single.character.

Emily told Laney about each one!

And (GASP!)...we are the critter loving family!

So happy that my children love animals!

Last night the littles just called and called for a friend that they spotted in the woods.

Finally gave up and left.

And once the coast was clear, out came their object of affection!
Hey, kitty is no fool!

(Oatmeal Cookie...a stray...probably no longer since I actually named him!)

We are the family who definitely has a number one in life...

FAMILY!

And I am the blog momma who takes endless pictures of my children.

And I blog journal about them.

Creating more memories for my family to look back on.

To smile, tear up and laugh outloud.

Fall Friday

The turning of the leaves...

means bustin' out the longer sleeves!

It also means new popcorn..right out of the fields!

My dad brings us buckets full.

Yes, popcorn...fresh from the stovetop...PoP!PoP!PoP!

Along with popcorn...APPLES!

Add a lil' dipping carmel...YUM-O!

And September means SCHOOL PICTURE DAY!
Laney swears that she made a goblin face.
Emily said she blinked.
This could be interesting!
***
Hope your Friday is FAB!
The weekend is HERE!
Hooray!
Hope I don't end up like this after we've celebrated ours!
Have a great weekend!

...and just keepin' it real...
30 seconds after my SCRATCHED UP chest fell on the witch,
Henry ran over, shouted "OH NO!"
Tried to pull that nasty ol' witched outta there.
No luck.
He successfully amputated her leg though!

ENJOY THE WEEKEND, MY FRIENDS!

Oh Baby Boy: Nursery Artwork

Last month, I had some TOP SECRET artwork to paint.

The sweet couple was expecting baby #3!

Everyone knew THAT wonderful news, but...

nobody KNEW that the couple KNEW that they were having a BOY!

Enter moi!

J and L wanted an airplane theme for their TOP SECRET baby boy nursery!

Here it is ready to go (taping of the crib measurements are on the wall).

And AFTER!

Oh...notice the Potterybarn bedding?

Notice the pillow on the glider?

It has the baby's name on it.

So, besides the couple, I knew the gender and the name!

Right after I finished painting, the door was locked.

And I had to keep this secret!
***

Well, I love how the nursery turned out!

The fun vintage airplanes were such wonderful PoPs in the room!

I used just a few colors, so the artwork wouldn't overwhelm the room.

Red, white, blues and silver!

And baby Mason was just born!

So now everyone knows the great news!

And now they can have a peek at the nursery!