Exhausted!

Maybe I shouldn't be writing this right now, maybe I should get some sleep before making a blog entry, but I feel like I should write to all my "fans" and let you know there will be plenty of posts to come. I say all of this, because we just got home from a 12 hour car ride with 2 small kids. We got to go on a week long trip to Alabama/Florida to visit Ryan's family. We had a great time. We threw Paxton a birthday party, celebrated Thanksgiving with his family in FL, got to hang out with good friends and got to spend a lot of good quality time with his family. It was a long week, with lots of stories to tell. I will post them soon. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for and a lot of times we take things for granted, so much so, we can't even notice how blessed we really are. I have been blessed beyond measure, God is so good!

Fender Bender

Last week, Ryan got into a small accident. He was going down a busy street in Springfield, and a lady cut him off and Ryan slammed on the breaks and hit the rear right side of her truck. Thankfully no one got hurt, the kids weren't in the car or it wasn't any worse. I am highly irritated at the lady who cut him off and what a huge stress this little accident has turned into. Between rental cars, insurances and our trip to Alabama (which the wreck happened 10 days before) it has caused for some extra stress in my life.

Here's the picture of the van. Like I said, it wasn't bad, but has cost over $3000.00 in damages.

Here is our rental. A 2010 Chevy Tahoe. Don't get me wrong, its a nice vehicle, but MAN, I miss my van. This thing is SO huge, its hard to get use to.

Our body shop should have the van done by Thursday or Friday of this week, we leave on Saturday. In all of this God is teaching me patience and being content with what I have.

Family Pictures

Well better late than never! We got family pictures taken almost a month ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting them. I just haven't really had the time or the patience to sit here and let so many pictures upload. Well, today's the day! My aunt Jody took these pictures for us and I'm forever indebted to her for doing this for us. I LOVE how they turned out. She is truly talented! Here are some of our favorite from the 220 pictures she took. Enjoy!
(Note for my records: Adriana 3.5 years old and Paxton 10 months old).

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Here's one of my favorite, easy fall recipes. Whenever I take it places, people can't get enough of it. I wish I had a picture for you, but every time I make it, I forget to take one. Here it is, hope you enjoy it!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 (15 oz) can of solid pack pumpkin
1 (12 oz) can Evaporated Milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of Sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C. Chopped Pecans
1 Cup Melted Butter

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13 pan. Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Pour in dish. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Top with pecans. Drizzle melted butter over pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool. Top with Cool Whip.

Sneaky Little Man

Does this picture look familiar?

Yeah? Well Adriana had gotten into a red marker when I was laying down for a nap this summer. She NEVER gets into stuff, so that's why I kind of thought it was funny. I had wrote a blog about it when it had happened.

Well, you would have thought I would know better by now. When one child is really still and quiet in the other room, this should be a cause for concern. I was sitting in the family room messing with our camera, Adriana was watching something on TV and Paxton was back in Adriana's room playing. He had been so quiet and I was just getting up to check on him, and I hear him crawling down the hall. He enters the room with a HUGE grin on his face, this was what I saw....

He's such a little trouble maker. He thinks it so funny to get into trouble and he will sit and wait for you to look at him and then he will do something that he knows he's not suppose to. I don't know if this is one difference between boys and girls, because when Adriana was his age, when she would get into trouble, she would cry, she has such a tender heart.

Its hard to get mad at Paxton when he's getting into something he's not suppose to, because he just gives you the cutest little smile. This mishap was my mistake, since I wasn't watching him any better. I thought it was cute nonetheless.

Halloween Festivities

Well, this last Halloween weekend was filled with lots of fun, candy and friends. We wanted to the kids to be a "pair", so we came up with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I made Adriana's outfit and my mom helped me with Paxton's outfit. I was pleased with out they turned out, but when Adriana wasn't around Paxton, everyone just thought she was a fairy, they didn't get that she was Tinkerbell, but she loved it nonetheless.
On Saturday night, my good friend, Hilary invited me to her church for their fall festival. We knew Adriana would have a blast, and we were right. They had games, candy, popcorn and inflatables. Adriana had a BLAST and Paxon enjoyed seeing everyone in their costumes. There was a little kid there that was dressed like a dog, and Paxton just wanted to stare at him the WHOLE time. He didn't know what to think. Here are some pics from Saturday night.



My little Peter Pan


Tinkerbell

Yes, we all wore green on purpose,

I just thought it would be cute to match

the kids.

My friend Hilary and her dinosaur, I mean son

Zachary. He looks like he's up to something.

We had a blast on Saturday, thank you Hilary for the invite, what great memories.

Well, Halloween fell on Sunday this year, so we went to church and then hung out at my parents house all day. We had plans to go over to our friends, Matt and Mandy's house that evening. Adriana couldn't wait to go. We got pizza, ate cookies and got the kids ready to go trick or treating. They are so cute at this age. Here's a picture of Adriana with Matt and Mandy's, son and daughter, Parker and London, who was dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat.

Paxton in his outfit again. He wasn't

really a fan, but he was a good sport.

Adriana and Parker all ready to go!

You know your kids don't quite get the concept,

when a lady says "Take all the candy you want",

and they grab about 2 pieces and say that's enough.

We'll give them a couple of years to catch on.

After about 45 minutes out, the kids were wearing down and so were us parents. We went back to Matt and Mandy's house and the kids were in hog heaven with their candy.

Me and Mandy.

Thank you Matt and Mandy for a great evening, it was so much fun! This weekend was filled with so many memories. We are so blessed to have good friends like Hilary and her husband Kevin and Matt and Mandy, thank you guys for everything!

Lamps

Its funny, tonight I went into Paxton's room to turn on his little lamp and my mind was flooded with thoughts of my mom. There, I said it, lamps remind me of my mom. I know she will be so flattered by this statement, but let me explain. To me, there's nothing more cozy than having a lamp on in a room. Its just sets a soft light that makes the room so cozy. The reason I think of my mom is because growing up, both of my parents worked. We thought it was wonderful when mom took the day off. (We later found out, when she took days off, she was throwing away junk from our closets and rooms.) Anyway, there was a warmth in the house, when we would get off the school bus and come into a house that smelled like chocolate chip cookies. Our rooms were always so clean (b/c of all the junk that had been thrown out), our beds were made with the covers folded down, looking so inviting and our lamps were on. It totally made the room feel so cozy. I remember when we moved about 3-4 weeks before I was due with Adriana, my parents still lived in JC, and my mom knew how exhausted I was, so she came down and helped me settle into our new place, before the baby came along. I remember when I left for work that morning, the house was in shambles, but my mom, being wonderful and hardworking, had that place so homey by the time I got off work. Part of that feeling, she had the lamps on throughout the house. I know I may sound crazy for writing about lamps, but its the little things that can bring back so many good memories. Thanks mom, you may not be Motel 6, but I'm glad you always left the light on. (Sorry, I had to.)