Someone Turned Three Months Today

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

This past Saturday, our little family of five parted ways as the boys headed out early that morning for an "all boys" outing leaving the girls behind. They had grand plans of IHOP, Lowe's and WalMart, so us girls had to come up with some plans of our own!

First stop, McDonald's! One biscuit (for me) and hashbrown (for Kathryn) later, and we were off! We decided to go to Fresh Market to pick out our white pumpkins. Kathryn always flips out in their floral department. This day was no exception. She attracted such an audience that the young guy working in the floral department couldn't resist sharing a bloom with her. Here she is holding her flower in front of the Halloween display!

We spotted this little cat treat, and thought we would add it to our list of Halloween goodies for this year. We've already mastered the ghost and mummy marshmallow treats, and thought these cats would be a fun alternative!

We rounded out our morning with a stop at Michaels and Target. By then both girls were spent! It was fun to come home and trade stories about our morning with the boys. I think we'll do this again real soon!

A Pumpkin Project

This was the inspiration...

(I spotted these at my favorite local antique store. On a side note, I could have purchased EVERYTHING in this booth, but alas there's a little thing called a budget!!)

And here is our rendition...

I thought an oil based Sharpie paint pen would do the trick, but it didn't! So, I found an old can of black paint leftover from the previous homeowners and painted away!

These are real pumpkins. After I purchased these, I saw faux white pumpkins at Michaels and thought that might have been the better route to go, especially since we could have recycled in the future!

Babysitting Pop's Style

Gotta love the camo:)

A Few Decorating Finds

You might remember from this post that the Macau Chair (pictured below) from Ballard Designs is on my wishlist for my living room. Well, while shopping at one of my favorite consignment shops, I spotted these chairs. I didn't really like the gold paint, but I loved the price. Originally priced at $150 for the two of them (still a great deal compared to the Macau chair at $249/ea), I waited a couple of weeks trying to decide if I really wanted them. I finally decided they were worth the investment, and that a can of black or brown spray paint would give me the look I wanted for a really great price! So imagine my delight when I found out they were 50% off! That's right, both chairs for $75! Now that's a deal compared to the $500 I would have spent for two from Ballard!

Tula and I ventured back to the consignment shop last week, and look what she spotted. These barstools were $15 EACH!!! Someone already had a hold on them, but they let you put 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. holds on items in case the previous potential buyers don't buy. I called the very next day to see if they had sold. I was thrilled to find out they had not! They fit our bar perfectly!

Just to round out the barstool purchase, I also snagged a pair of pear prints. They were originally $65 each, and I bought them for less than $20 each!

If you live in the Mobile area or are just passing through, it would be worth your time to stop off at High Cotton for a peak! They also operate my favorite local antique shop, Antiques at the Loop. You will love them both!

P.S. One of the other great features of this consignment shop is each item is dated and for each month that passes you take 10% of the price. For example, an item that was brought in on August 21 would be 10% off if you purchased it today! Once items pass the six month mark, they move them out to the warehouse where currently all furniture and rugs are 50% off and pictures, lamps, and other items are 70% off. This is where I found all of my purchases, so there is still some great finds even once they've been moved to the warehouse!

Fingers

Frances found her fingers this morning...


and I couldn't help but think of these little ones and their finger-finding days...

KLB, September 2006

WGB, September 2006
(P.S. Excuse the nasty pile of diapers & bottles in this picture. All I can say is we were just surviving at this point with twins!)

Mommy Homework

Someone received a bad conduct report at school yesterday, so I came home and pulled out my arsenal...

I'm not naming any names, but I think my next book purchase needs to be Bringing Up Boys!

Books (in order top to bottom)
1. Praying the Scriptures for Your Children, Jodie Berndt
2. Don't Make Me Count to Three, Ginger Plowman
3. The New Strong Willed Child, James Dobson
4. Parenting: A Heir Raising Experience, Mary Glynn Peeples
5. Creative Correction, Lisa Whelchel (aka Blair:)
6. Parenting by The Book, John Rosemond

Yummy To My Tummy

Some of you may have noticed that I FINALLY catalogued all of my recipes on the right hand side of the blog. I laughed as I went back through all of my posts looking for recipes (what was I thinking!!) because all of my recipes have one common theme...very few ingredients! Well, that, and the fact that most of them are desserts:)

So, if you like to cook with very few ingredients (usually things you already have around the house)and you like sweets, you need to check them out!

In celebration of my favorite time of the year, here's another recipe to add to the collection. And yes, it only has 4 ingredients and it's a sweet (well, it's salty too, but you can see the pattern!). Here's one of the ingredients...

Happy Fall Ya'll Trail Mix
Candy Corn
Salted peanuts
Golden raisins
Reese's Pieces

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

You can find this mix already made up at Fresh Market (they call it Harvest Delight). The ingredients are so easy to find and even easier to put together, I think I'm going to make my own next time!

As a side note, Fresh Market also has Alabama and Auburn goodies this time of year. White chocolate covered pretzels with game day colors as well as trail mix with the appropriate orange and blue or red and white M&M's. Be sure and check them out(or make your own). I especially like theirs because instead of the usual salted peaunts, they use honey roated. YUM!!

A Birthday Celebration

One of the best things about being back "home" is getting to be a part of all of the family celebrations. This past Wednesday was my Grandmother's birthday, and I was thrilled that the family was willing to celebrate at our house!

A quick picture of the lovely cake before everyone devoured it. It was yummy!

A picture of Grandmother and her girls...

Grandmother with her grand and greats (see what I mean about trying to get a good picture of all three!!!)...

We love our Grandmother, and we considered it a privilege to celebrate her special day with her!

At Least I Gave It A Shot!

Trying to take a picture of three wiggly little ones, that is!

The reason for the picture (other than not having one of all three of them yet) was they were all wearing their "sibling" t-shirts. Walker, the big brother, Kathryn, the big sister , and Frances the little sister! At least Kathryn and Walker were cooperating...kind of!


Enough with the serious shots...let's be silly!!!



And last but not least, the sisters! Frances decided to fill her diaper up during the shoot, and her brother kept telling me she needed a bath (i.e. she smells!!) :) Needless to say, he wasn't willing to hang around!I'm going to have to get a lot more practice in before Christmas card season rolls around! Any suggestion on how to capture three at once???

Midnight Fisherman

Last time we were at Dauphin Island Pops sent Walker home with this...


Pops uses it for night time fishing; Walker uses it for staying up and playing once we've turned the lights out!

While I was in his room taking pictures, several hours after bedtime I might add, I heard a little voice asking me what I was doing. This is what I found in the next room...

This girl needs a California king to store all of her "babies." I don't know how she fits on this twin bed with them!