Movie

I was just talking with some friends this morning about the fact that I think this holiday we will try to bring Joshua to his first movie - especially if there is a cute one out at the theatres. In this conversation the movie coming out with Nicole Kidman called The Golden Compass was brought up. (There are all sort of emails going around about it.) Apparently it's a children's movie based on books that are similar to the Chronicles of Narnia except about killing God. It is written by an atheist and will be coming out around the holidays. I hate to even write about it because I feel like giving it any publicity is giving it more hype than it deserves but I'm just really sad to hear about this and want to make others aware. I think this is something everyone will need to form their own opinion on and from my understanding the movie hides the religion part of it pretty well but the fear is the publicity it will bring to the books which the author flat out quotes is about killing God. You can find more info on it here at Snopes.com.

Red Sox Rule!!!

Harvest Festival

Here are pictures from our church's Harvest Festival. Joshua rode his first pony...and LOVED it! (In fact, he went twice!) Which isn't helping me with John's desire to have a pony at Joshua's 2nd birthday party. Joshua, always the dancer, also square danced, played ball, ate cotton candy & popcorn, went through tunnels, on a hayride and more. We really had a great time! I also added a few pictures of Joshua playing with his new 'used' train. :)

The Big Reveal!!

So for those of you who have been wondering what Joshua is for Halloween this year...here is the big reveal...a dragonsauras!! I found the costume at a consignment sale for $6! Wahoo! It's taken some practice to get him to warm up to the idea of even wearing the costume...thus the sad looking face picture. But he seemed to forget that he was wearing it after a while...but wasn't real happy about the hood part. Anyways, we went to a festival today at the farmers market so that is where most of these pictures are from. Tomorrow we go to our churchs Harvest Festival - so I should have even more pictures. Enjoy!

Prayer Request Update - Noah

Noah continues to improve everyday! He is now over 4lbs!!! Here is a sweet picture of him that I couldn't resist sharing with you guys. Look at his tiny hand holding that finger. Melts my heart! Thanks so much for the prayers.

Joshua's Dr's Appt

Praise God for a great dr's appt today for Joshua. Joshua has gained 2 lbs!! And is all the way up to the 10th percentile! I know it doesn't seem like much but considering he wasn't even on the charts before this is huge!! He has continued to maintain being in the 25% for height. The doctor would still like us to do weight checks every 2-3 months even though he doesn't need to go back for a regular visit until he is 2. So all in all just a wonderful report!!

In other news, a friend mentioned trying out smoothies for Joshua which we recently tried and he gulped it down. So I'm excited to be able to sneak in some other foods in a smoothie...so I'm going to look online to see what I can make smoothies out of but if you have any thoughts or recipes on smoothies that you have tried - especially with kids I'd love to hear them!!

Gratitude Wreath

In MOPS yesterday we made this cute gratitude wreath. Each day you are to use the paper leaves that we added to write something you are thankful for. Then at the end of the year you can take the paper leaves off and reuse. What a great reminder to be thankful!

So today, I wanted to share what I'm thankful for. I woke up this morning to find that it looks like it rained all night. PRAISE GOD! We are so desperate for rain it is quite a blessing. The picture below is of the lake at the end of our road that I took a few weeks ago.

Cranberry Turkey Ring

This is one of my favorite recipes for using leftover turkey and since everyone will probably have some pretty soon I thought it was a good one to share. This is a Pampered Chef recipe but I couldn't find a link on their site for it and my ingredients are not exactly like theirs. My picture is only for 1/2 the recipe.
Cranberry Turkey Ring
2 c turkey (leftover is great)
1/2 c craisins
1/2 c mayo
2 tbsp honey Dijon mustard
1/2 c mozz or swiss cheese
pepper & salt to taste
2 tubes crescent rolls
1 egg

Mix all ingredients except rolls & egg. Put rolls out in a ring by touching all the corners with tube and then overlapping with the second tube. Evenly place scoops of turkey mix all around. Pull the triangle flaps over the turkey and tuck inside. Brush egg whites on top. Bake 375 for 25 minutes.

Pumpkin Guy Craft

This picture is of a little pumpkin guy craft I made except the picture is not the one I made but my inspiration pumpkin. The one I made I gave away to someone and didn't have a camera at the time to take a picture. But it was super easy and I thought I would at least share the idea. Sorry in advance that my instructions aren't great.

To make:

1 yard of fabric

pumpkin

small bit of black fabric for hands & collar

raffia or twine

Block of wood (I used a 2 x 4 that was cut about 6 inches)

To make the body - make a tube out of a large piece of the fabric - cut for the legs and sew the legs and the back. I used pinking shears for the non-sew areas. Make two small tubes for the arms. Use a running stitch at the top of the body to gather it. Attach body to the top of the block of wood using hot glue. (Use the block of wood tall ways - you want to use it so the pumpkin can sit up) Stitch the arms to the top of the body. Stuff the arms pretty full and put a small bit of stuffing the the body. Make 4 little feet/hands out of the black fabric. Hot glue into arms & legs and use twine/raffia to tie off. Cut another rectangle piece of the black or other coordinating fabric using pinking shears. place as a collar. Screw pumpkin head to top of wood block through bottom of the floor. Hot glue a ribbon on the collar as a little bowtie.

Total time: 1 hour

Still over the moon...

Since Joshua is still over the moon and his father likes to spoil him, we found something called "A Moon In Your Room". It is a little moon that hangs on the wall and lights up and goes through the lunar phases. Joshua, of course, thinks it's way cool!

A Pumpkin of a good time!

A little over a week ago, my friend Sue & I went with our kids to a fall festival at the park at the end of our road. We went on Joshua's first hayride, got Joshua's face painted (where he tore down their sign and was running with it - thus me standing with the sign), and colored some pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. It was lots of fun!! (My friend Sue took all the pictures)

The Hay ride

The face painting sign debacle. :)

The Pumpkin Patch and no, Joshua isn't asleep. And the last pic is Joshua's pumpkin that he decorated and is proudly displayed in our home.

A Thrifty Day

Today was a thrifty day. We started off by going to the used book store to exchange some books. I got Joshua 3 new books and 8 books for myself and still have over $10 in credit left for the books I brought in. Yay!
Then, I have decided that Joshua is bored with his toys as he has matured quite a bit since last Christmas & most, if not all, of his birthday toys were for outside. So his toys aren't really toys that he can 'do' anything with. They are toys that he can stare at as they play music or figures like dinosaurs that he can't really do anything with other than have them kiss all the other figures (which is what he does with them). AND as it rained all day yesterday his only entertainment was harassing the dogs. Anywho, since Christmas is around the corner I don't want to overdo the toys...so we went to one of our favorite places, Goodwill and I am just so tickled! We found a Little People Castle with all the little action figures for $3!! I thought that was great. One of his only toys that he really plays with right now is his Little People Farm...but he could use something a little different. I also found an entire box full of 2 separate wooden trains...one of them was obviously homemade for some special kid and is just sooo adorable. The other one has different stacking blocks that go on top. They don't have tracks or make any noises which makes them all the more charming. The box of trains was a little more expensive at $9 but I felt it was well worth it.

So Joshua has a few new toys & books to hold him over till Christmas and I only spent $12. Not too shabby!

Christmas Projects & Traditions

I've been busy working on Christmas projects and recently came across a felt applique Christmas banner that my mother had in her craft stuff. It was about 2/3 finished so I've been working to finish it. Which reminded me how much I love to do applique. So I also decided to get some applique stockings since I really haven't done stockings for us as a family...I just had generic stockings. So I found some cute ones that kind of go with our personalities. Anyways, I'm really enjoying finishing my mom's banner and knowing that I will get to hang it this year and that her hands were a part of it!

I'm also really tickled because my brother, his wife, and my three nieces are "most likely" going to be here for Christmas. I just love lots of kids around at Christmas and think it will be so much fun!! Of course, now I'm thinking of all the ways that I can make it really special - especially since this will be the kids first year without Grandma and ours without our mom. I really want to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas & have been trying to find ways to do that. Like giving only 3 gifts - one to represent gold, frankincense, & myrrh or having each family member writing a letter to everyone else and putting it in the stockings. Anyways, I'm trying to think of what would work for our family. We'll see where I go with this.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

After all I have heard about Jessica Seinfeld's new book - Deceptively Delicious (which is about basically sneaking in vegetables, etc into every day food) that it inspired me to make some Zucchini Bread - SOOO yummy!! P.S. This isn't one of her recipes as I don't have her book - just heard about it...EVERYWHERE lately.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
6 tbsp cocoa
3 eggs
2 c sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c sour cream
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c mini- semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour two 8 inch loaf pans. Combine ingredients. Bake for 1 hour. Dust with powered sugar after cooled. (you can easily freeze one of the loafs to enjoy later too!)

My Little Pumpkin

Joshua has just become more and more fun each day. His continued growth in language skills is just fascinating. It is just truly amazing how much these little sponges pick up and SOO quickly. If I could just learn 1% of what he picks up in a day I would be even more of a genius than I already am. :) Here are just a few of the cute things I got to be a part of today...

• After letting the dogs out, I always call them..."Rilllleeey...Chessster!" and Joshua mimics me and says, "Riiiii-weeee....chaaa...cheee!" Oh to hear his little voice calling the dogs..I just can't express how absolutely darling it is.
• Today, he picked up a little stuffed ghost that he got last year that I just pulled out of the closet and said....'oooooo' (like the ghost sound) and I swear if I've ever made that noise it was only once...so it's always amazing when he does things that I don't intentionally teach him.
• I also recently made him a stool for the bathroom - to wash his hands & brush his teeth. So today while I was peeling vegetables I let him stand on his stool next to me - it was so precious - cause he was sooo intrigued with everything I was doing. I can't wait till he can really start helping me bake cookies & stuff. Of course, I've wanted to take a picture of him on his new stool... but...again...my camera is broken. ***Big SIGH***

Well, that is just a tiny glimpse of all the adorable things I get to be a part of every day - it just warms my heart!!

Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. - Psalm 127:3

Time Out!

We practice 'Time Out' at our house and while I'm still debating it's effectiveness, Joshua has gotten really good at sitting there when we tell him. Well, tonight I was so tired of bringing him to the time out corner that I said, 'Go put yourself in time out' not really thinking he would. Imagine my shock when my little 18 month old son went over to the corner and sat down.

Now, originally 'time out' was effective because it really seemed to be a punishment. Now, he just sits there and looks all cute and repeats, "Don't Touch" since that is the usual offense that gets him there in the first place. But the second he gets up he just goes back to doing what he wasn't supposed to. The scariest thing is how much my son reminds me of all the stories I've heard about my husband growing up. Like John being told he was going to get his mouth washed out with soap and he would say, 'Lava please'. Well, that is what my little precious son is doing, acting like 'time out' is just another place in the house to sit and not seeming to care at all that it's a punishment. ***Sigh*** And we aren't even to the terrible two's yet! ;)

P.S. If you have more creative & effective punishment techniques for an 18 month old...I GLADLY welcome them all!!

Good ol' Pumpkin Pie

I feel all naked again without my camera...so just imagine a pretty little piece of pumpkin pie with a dollop of cool whip on top right HERE! This is a pretty simple recipe but the reason I'm sharing is because most people use evaporated milk in their pumpkin pies and I find this recipe makes a much better pie and sets up much better without overcooking!

Pumpkin Pie
1 can pumpkin
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch salt
( you can also add cinnamon & nutmeg for more flavor)
pie crust

Preheat oven to 425. Combine ingredients, pour into pie crust. Cook for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 cook additional 30-35 minutes.

Swaps & Christmas

I am so excited because I'm participating in the Sister's Shoebox Swap and it's really got me in the crafty mood again. I'm so excited about the little treats I'm putting together and it's also getting me in the Christmas spirit. I love making Christmas gifts because I know how much I love receiving homemade stuff. So along with my Swap stuff I'm also working on my Christmas stuff too! Unfortunately, because I don't want to ruin any surprises this is going to be a rather dull post because I can't share all my cute craft ideas. **Sigh**

Pushing Daisies

It seems every year there is a new T.V. show that I like that for some reason gets canceled or doesn't get renewed and it makes me so sad (like Justice from last year :( ). So even though my blog is not so influential that it will make a difference I am marketing the new show Pushing Daisies for my own personal gain (i.e. - so it doesn't get canceled). Anywho, the previews made it look so weird but after I saw a review that gave it 4 out of 4 stars I just had to watch it. It was really cute and totally different than the typical run of the mill shows. So PLEASE give it a try - it's on TONIGHT at 8pm and tell me what you think! It really surprised me how good I thought it was.

P.S. Why is it that you can spell canceled with one 'l' or two 'l's'? (This is a rhetorical question so don't feel like you have to answer.)

"Special" days

I recently lost my standard gold hoop earrings that I wear everyday. So I had to find something else that was simple but pretty and I remembered that I had a pair of my mom's earrings that would be perfect. My mom absolutely LOVED these earrings...but the more I think about it, I don't remember her wearing them ONE time! For my mom was saving them for a special occasion. Now, these might not be fancy to most people but they were special & fancy to my mom but yet, she never wore them because that special occasion never came. This has really been heavy on my heart lately as I've been wearing the earrings every day and I think why do we save so many things for a "special day". Why does my china only come out on holidays? Why don't we make more days "special days"? I really am taking this as a challenge for myself to make sure that I make more days "special". So John might just come home tonight to find us dining on our china! I hope maybe you will make more of the "everydays" special too!

Crescent Roll Apple Pies & Spiced Apple Waffles

Since it's apple season I've been really inspired lately to eat a lot of apples and cook with apples so I found these two great recipes one at Cherry Hill Cottage & the other at The Homespun Heart. Also, if you haven't tried a Honeycrisp Apple - you have to look for them at your grocery store - they are TO DIE FOR!!!


Crescent Roll Apples - I made this recipe as is - but would probably only use 1/2 cup mountain dew in the future. It tasted more like cobbler to me and my husband LOVED it!!!

Spiced Apple Waffles - I have to admit that I am weak to using Bisquick as the easy way out so I don't know if my waffles were even close to Monica's but they were definitely inspired by her recipe. I simply added pumpkin spice, vanilla, & shredded apples to the Bisquick waffle recipe. YUM!

HELPFUL TIP: I always have more batter than we need so I made the rest of the waffles and froze them and had one this morning by popping it in the toaster!

Ghosts!

We drink a lot of milk so I decided to make little ghosts out of some of our extra milk cartons.

To make - simply clean out the milk cartons, cut small holes in the back, decorate with a permanent marker and sting Christmas lights between them. They are now sitting on our front porch. And they glow better at night.

Joy in the midst of sorrow

Yesterday was the 5 month anniversary of my mother's death so as usual I wanted to take a minute to post about her and a funny story that happened a little more than a month after she died. My brother and I were on the phone together and as he lives in another state we hadn't seen each other very much after the funeral. And he said to me, "How have your tenths been?" - Well since it was a conversation over the phone I had no clue what he was talking about. I didn't know if he said, 'tents', 'vents', 'lents'...I just had no clue. And as I said, "huh?" - he would repeat "tenths", "What??, "TENTHS!". Finally, I was like what the heck are you talking about? And he said, "You know - your 'tenths' - you know - the day mom died." And I had to say, "uh...well, she died on the fourth." Which he replied, "Man, I was all sad on the wrong day." He will probably kill me for posting this but I couldn't help but think that it was a really funny moment in the midst of true sorrow. And I know, my mom, if she has any clue at all up there in heaven what's happening down here, had to be laughing too! By the way, I love this picture of my mom, you can really see her smile & sweet spirit!!

Works for me - Friday

Ok, so I know that Rocks in My Dryer hosts Works for Me Wednesday but I have to go for things when I think of them...So...here is my Works for me Friday idea. Where to put dryer lint after each load was always a problem for me...so I decided to make a dryer lint box out of an old detergent box. Now, I just empty it every few weeks. It works great, it's kinda cute, and I don't have stray dryer lint. :)

Haircut - Before & After

From a ragga-muffin to a stud-muffin. :)

Some cute Pumpkin Pics

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

I found this delicious recipe on Monica's blog HERE. It is really good - I did add 1/2 cup of oats to the crust and only made 1/2 the recipe and put it in an 8 x 8 pan. Yummy! Below is my modified recipe.



Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars
Makes 32
Prep Time: 25 minutes; Total Time: 2 hours

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 c. packed light-brown sugar
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup oats

1 egg
1/3 c. light corn syrup
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of a 8 x 8 baking pan. Mix butter, brown sugar, flour, salt and oats until smooth. Pour mixture into prepared pan; press firmly into bottom. Bake until lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool, 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in the same large bowl, mix egg, corn syrup, and sugar until well combined. Add chocolate chips and pecans; spread over crust. Bake until set, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan cutting.