life-n-pics

Let's catch up shall we...

 Sunday pic of my sweeties

Big surprise, Sunday's sermon was on the great reformation--gets me everytime.  Check out my post from last year.

The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God --Martin Luther

Didn't Graham do a great job on our pumpkin?

He did use one of those carving kits if you must know!

It's getting chilly, so we broke out the leg warmers.

S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G

Know what this is?

My friend let me borrow her professional doppler to hear the baby's heartbeat whenever I want.  It's consistently in the upper 150s.  Hmm....makes me wonder! Girl?  :)

Graham and AG went to Moore Farms in Bullard and picked up a couple of pumpkins.  AG drew this jack-o-lantern face.  I'm pretty impressed.

We are looking forward to a fun family night of trick-or-treating and dressing up.  

Coming soon:

Homeschooling pros/woes/questions

Fall Recipes

Sunday, I had a Scentsy party.   The food seemed to be a hit and I wanted to share some of the recipes.  Everything is simple and quick!

Corn Dip:

16 oz sour cream

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

 one can of whole kernel corn drained

one package of Fiesta Ranch 

Mix all of the ingredients and chill until ready to serve.  I serve it with tortilla chips.

Halloween Trail Mix: 

I got this recipe off of Pinterest last year, but it seemed to be too sweet so I tweaked it to my taste.

Mix as much as you like of:

honey nut cheerios

 bold Chex Mix

Cheese-Its

candy corn

Reeses peices

honey roasted peanuts

Apple Dump Cake:

Ingredients:

2 cans of apple pie filling (use your favorite pie filling)

3/4 a box of yellow cake mix

3/4 stick of butter

Directions:

Coat an 8X8 dish with cooking spray

Pour in both cans of pie filling

Drizzle the dry cake mix on top of pie filling

Cut up butter into squares 

Place squares of butter on top of cake mix

Bake at 350 until bubbly

Sharing a Room

In a few months, the girls will be joining forces and sharing a room.  I wanted to make some small changes to AG's room to make it good for both girls.  

For starters, I painted an armoire that I have had since I was a little girl.  Boy, has this set of furniture served me well.  The armoire was originally oak.  A few years ago, I stained it a dark espresso.  I did several posts on that transformation HERE and HERE.  Now it's....

...creamsicle?

At first, I was scared of the color, but now that it's finished and in their room, I LOVE it!  What do you think?

It only took about 5 coats!!!

I added some pics of both of the girls on one side of the armoire.

Don't you just love this peddle car?  This was a gift to AG from my dad when she was still in the womb.  They love playing in it--and banging up my walls. :)

A&E--like the cable network!

 

The chore of moving their closet into one was daunting to say the least.  They have SO many clothes--which is a blessing and a curse. *I'll take this opportunity right now to thank all the grandparents and aunts for keeping my girls clothed.  I have bought very few clothes for the girls which has been an incredible blessing!  I am so thankful.

One side of the closet is Edy's and the other side (not pictured and identical) is AG's.

EDY is moving in!

one of my all-time favorite pictures of my sweeties

 

For now, AG is going to stay sleeping on the bottom bunk and Edy is going to sleep on the trundle.  They have been rooming together periodically and LOVE it, but it's hard to get them to go to sleep.  I think we are going to move them in together around Christmas.  By then, we should know if we are having a boy or a girl and I will begin working on the nursery.

Ever share a room?  Do you kids share?  How is it working out?  Tips?  I'd love to hear from you.

Boo at the Zoo

We had planned to go to Boo at the Zoo as a family, but AG woke up with a stomach bug.  So....Miss Rosie Rose Bud and I shared the day together.

We arrived at the zoo at 10AM and it was nice and chilly!  

Just go ahead an SMILE at this one!

We LOVE the mountain lions.  They are always SO active.

Caldwell Zoo has two uh-mazing white tigers.  We love it when they are out and about!

Just chillin' by the enormous tiger.  No big deal.

 incredible.

Good gracious!

The zoo had lots of Halloween decorations and jack-o-lanterns.  

 

 

 

We always end our zoo trips with a 50 cent prize from the gift shop!  Edy missed her sister and picked a tiger mask to take home to her.  

Halloween Treats

Graham always gets the girls a little treat for Halloween.  We enjoy fall festivities: dressing up, trick-or-treating, hayrides, Boo at the Zoo, pumpkin carving, and fun with our friends.  This year will be no exception.  

Today has been chilly!  It's wonderful.  They girls bathed and then put on their cozy pj's. 

Edy got Barney Halloween  and AG got Madagascar 3.  

 

Tomorrow, we are off to Boo at the Zoo.  It should be a nice chilly day and hopefully that means the animals will be active!

Pig Racing

I promised you the pig racing video.  Here ya go:

Pregnancy Update

In the last 'pregnancy post', I played catch up and shared what's been going on since we discovered we were expecting.  This journey has been far from easy.  I've had bouts with spotting for the last four weeks.  There are times when I will go days and days without a trace of spotting, but then it appears out of nowhere with no cramping as a warning sign.  After thinking that the spotting was over, I was confronted with more on Wednesday.  My doctor has been SO good about letting me come in for a quick look at the baby.  On Thursday, I saw baby (turning flips in my uterus!), heart rate was a strong 152, and my doctor (who is usually pretty pessimistic) gave me a lot of much needed reassurance   I left the appointment thankful.  On Friday, I spotted once more.  Since then--none.

Here's the deal.  We have faith that God is going to bring us this baby.  We are thankful that He has given us this life and we are dedicated (even in the hard times)to giving Him all the honor, the glory, and the praise.  Oh...ahem....and just when I struggle with faith, I'm slapped in the face with Hebrews 11.  Thank you, Jesus for your Living Word!

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

Get this: I'm almost certain I have felt the first of the baby flutters.  I'm not too surprised, I felt Miss Edy at 13 weeks.  I guess by the third time around, you know what's gas and what's baby.  Praise the Lord for this little reassurance!

I've shared my story thus far with my blogging friends, so I will keep you posted.  Please continue to lift us up in your prayers. Also, you can always email me, msg me on FB, or comment if you have anything specific you would like me to pray for...I'll surely do it!

Pumpkin Patch

Whew....I've been a terrible blogger lately.  Life has been crazy, fun, difficult, busy, etc.  I'll give an update in a later post. For now, let me catch up...

Last weekend, we headed to Yesterland Farms in Canton, TX.  It was FABULOUS.  Just what you think of when you think FALL!  

Pumpkin pickin', hay ride, pumpkin catapult, kettle corn, roasted corn, lots more yummy food, pig races, petting zoo, corn maze, country shopping, open fields, cool breeze, corn shooting, and much, much more.

Here's a look at our day...

Yesterland is actually a wonderful Christmas tree farm.  We are looking forward to picking a tree this year!

[lost in the corn maze]

Apparently, the corn maze was cut in the shape of Neil McCoy's face.  Here's my tweet while lost in the maze:  Never thought I'd say, "I'm lost in a corn maze in the shape of Neil McCoy's face."  We finally made it out alive!

Pumpkin catapult = egos, egos, egos!!!

So that's that!  We had a wonderful time and we highly recommend Yesterland Farms. 

Next up:  A video of the hilarious pig races and some pregnancy updates.

Great article

We moms need encouragement. Amen!  Check out this article and be encouraged: Dear Moms, Jesus Wants You to Chill Out.

Catch up...

Let's play catch up...

*A few weeks ago, we had a minor scare.  We headed to the doc and we saw baby.  Our fears were eased.

*Fast forward a week, we had a major scare.  We went back to doc and saw baby again.  Baby looked great.  Our fears were eased for the moment.  My parents came and got the girls so I could have some time to put my feet up.  Graham and I spent four days in deeper communion with the Lord and He brought us a ton of comfort although the spotting did not decrease.  

*Last Thursday, the spotting stopped altogether.  We got a call from one of my nurses in Dallas and she gave me an explanation for why she thought I was spotting.  It was good news--unrelated to pregnancy.  

*Yesterday, I had another appointment with the doctor.  I saw baby--even bigger--even wigglier (?)--even better!

*At ten weeks we aren't far from the dreaded first trimester's end.  I'll be glad to say "goodbye" to this one for sure!

________________________________________________

Now let me tell the story:

*August 29th will forever be marked in my mind as a wonderful day!  It's the day we found out the news we had been waiting on for nearly 18 months.  Complete shock!

*The pee wasn't even dry on the stick and the nausea set in.  I've never really experienced it before at this magnitude.  It's strange to say, but I've welcomed it.  It's the constant assurance that I've needed.  

*Is it too early to show?  With AG, I didn't wear maternity until 6 mo. (35lb weight gain).  With Edy, 4 mo. (23lb weight gain).  This one, I'll probably be in maternity by the end of this trimester--not kidding (no weight gain so far).  I guess my body is just going into pregnancy mode sooner.

How cute is this pregnancy kit!?!

My friends have been so good to me.  Along with this basket, I have had several home-cooked meals brought to the house, and a $50 Motherhood gift card!  What a treat!

Love these shirts!

**Drum-roll please**

Introducing Baby Hale:


Isn't he/she perfectly adorable? Ha!
Can you tell we're excited?

I promise not to blow-up my blog with pregnancy posts, but I've had some catching up to do.  I think I've covered most of it.

Oh, one more thing...

Baby is due around the 12th of May, but doctor is thinking I'll have my c-section closer to the 5th.  Can't wait!

{Our Joy...His Glory}

fall.fun.

What's a bon fire without a hayride?

Well....we don't have a trailer, so this will have to do...

The kids loved our "redneck hayride". 

What's going through these guys minds:  "Arr, Arr, Arr"
 

 

The fire was SO hot that we had to build a little fire beside the big one to roast our wienies and marshmallows. 

Those s'mores may look yuck to some.  To me, they're perfect. 

 

 

 

love my family.
love my friends.
love fall weather.
{making memories}