The Ingredients of Fall

It's fall, y'all!  This is what has made up our fall so far:

Sitting in front of the fire cheering on the Frogs....

 

Lots of snacks..  Pumpkin cookies & cheese to be exact.  I'll cook anything with pumpkin in it these days.

Wishing our Happy a Happy 52nd Birthday!

Attending MOPS and meeting the Duggars!  Hi-light of my week!

So I know there's lots of controversy about the Duggars.  I admire them.  Michelle truly has a heart for the Lord and strives every day to instill a love for Christ in all her kids.  They constantly look for ways to bless others, even when they're raising 19 kids.  You may not agree with their reproductive views, but I think we can all learn from them.  

Murry came over for a few play dates last week.  These cousins are going to have so much fun together over the years!

Tiny was in town last week, too.  She was in grandma heaven with all her babies.

We were supposed to go to a pumpkin patch last Friday, but it rained all day, so we took pictures on our front porch instead.

This one cracks me up!  This is my pouty, drama queen, two year old.  

And finally, out of over 75 photos, we got one of them all smiling and semi looking at the camera!

Friday night Tiny took us out to eat at PF Chang's.  Adeline got to practice her chop sticks skills.  I hope one day she can master it, unlike her mother.

I worked all day Saturday doing my monthly Saturday at the rehab hospital.  Jon took the girls to Noah's fun, sports-themed birthday party.

I think they had fun.

Saturday night we danced and cheered our Frogs on to a victory!  

I was so proud of our freshman QB Boykin.  I'm hoping I'm just as happy after this weekend when they play Texas Tech.  

Sunday was gorgeous.  We took the girls for a long walk at a nearby park.

Monday, Adeline's KDO class had a hayride.  I got this picture text from Braxton's mom.  Funny story here.... Braxton has been in Adeline's KDO class the past two years.  It wasn't until midway through last year that we discovered that Braxton's dad was my one neighbor growing up in the country in Texas.  We were great friends and rode bikes together and hung out all the time.  He even drove me to school a few times before I got my license (he is Jon's age).  Then when he graduated and moved up here for college, we lost touch.  Who knew our kids were going to end up in the same pre-school class?!  Crazy!

And this is from today.  Adeline put a ball under her dress and declared she had a baby in her tummy.  Can you tell she has lots of pregnant aunts in her life these days?  We love you, Aunt KiKi, Aunt Amanda, & Aunt Ashley.  We can't wait to meet all your sweet little babies!

And lastly, check out these beautiful fall colors from around my neighborhood.

I've never lived in a more gorgeous place for fall colors.  It's a wonder I don't run off the road every time I drive this time of year.  I'm just in awe of all the beautiful, vibrant colors.  Thank you, Lord, for loving us so much to provide us with such beauty here on earth!

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today & tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith?  Matthew 6:29

House Projects

We've been working on a few big house projects lately.  Neither one is quite complete yet, but I'm tired of waiting on it for the blog, so I decided to show them now.

First of all, I've had this idea to renovate my laundry room for over a year now.  I was tired of our coats, backpacks, & purses piling up on the dining room table.  I was also tired of shoes always being back in the bedroom closets rather than by the door where we needed to put them on.  So I had this great idea to get rid of this....

And put something else in its place.  We very rarely used the sink and there's a half bath on the opposite wall across from the washer & dryer so there was really no need for two sinks in such a small space.  I commissioned my dad for the job.  He used to renovate houses & build cabinets and he's a perfectionist, so I knew he'd do a great job.  Plus, it would be FREE (to me, anyway)!  I don't think he took me seriously at first.  Then when he knew I wasn't joking he told me he had to finish building his shop first...that took a while.  Then finally, this summer I asked him to PLEASE finish my project before the girls started "school."  He took me seriously then, and he and my mom got to work.  They worked their butts off.  

And this is what they came up with...

Wow!  What a beautiful piece of furniture.  Then they rented a trailer and hauled it up here to NWA.  Jon removed the old sink/cabinet and he & my dad put this in its new home.

Then it was up to Jon to paint and put trim, etc, and then my job to decorate!

I absolutely love it.  The only thing left to do is put tile down where the old tile ended.  My parents and husband sure do love me!

Another, not quite as fun, but even more practical, project we had going on simultaneously, was "fixing" our roofline on the back of our house.  I don't have a "before" picture, but I'll try to explain what it looked like. 

This is what it looks like now...

On either side of the faux chimney (our fireplace is gas) the roofline was cut out.  It did not go out over the windows.  It looked pretty ridiculous.  The door you can see goes into our bedroom.  It used to have a window the whole length of the door.  So anyway, because there was no roof over that area, every time it rained water would blow in around the door.  The hardwood floor in our bedroom by the door is ruined.  Plus, in the summer, we could never open the blinds in those windows in our living room because the sun was so bright & hot in there.  So, we extended the roofline to make it all even and replaced the door.  The only thing left to do is put up a new gutter so that it goes all the way across and fix the floor inside our bedroom right by the door.  I really like it.  It makes our bedroom darker so I can take better naps (hah), and it shades the living room so we can finally open our blinds.  Not to mention it looks a lot less weird by having a uniform roofline. I think I'll get some cute little chairs & put out there.  Maybe Jon and I will use our little bedroom porch now!

Home renovations can be such a pain, but they're usually so worth it in the end!

TCU Football

We almost didn't get to go see my alma mater play football this past weekend.  Annabel ran a slight fever all last week, and I just thought it was teeth.  However, Thursday night her fever started to creep higher & higher & then her heart started racing.  We called some neighbors to come stay with Adeline, and Jon and I took Annabel to the ER.  By the time we got there her heart rate had slowed to almost normal, but her temperature was 104.5.  They ran all sorts of tests and couldn't find anything wrong.  They told me that fevers make all kids' heart rates increase but that we did the right thing by bringing her in since she does have the WPW heart condition.  They gave her a shot of antibiotics in each thigh and sent us home with some oral antibiotics.  I was impressed with how quickly we were in and out of there (not more than an hour or so).  We kept a close eye on her & got up throughout the night to give her meds for her fever, and when she woke up Friday morning she was in a good mood so we decided to go ahead and get on the road to Fort Worth.

It took us about 7 hours to get there since we had to stop several times for potty breaks and then we went through Dallas right at rush hour, but I was happy as could be because both girls were perfect angels the entire trip.  They never fussed or anything.  It was nothing short of a miracle! We got to Ashley & Peter's house just in time for dinner and we grilled some burgers with some friends.  What a fun night!

This was a welcome sight during the drive.

By Friday night Annabel was completely fever-free and feeling great.  Saturday morning we waited patiently for Nana & Happy to arrive so we could head to the stadium.

 

Adeline was a bit grouchy and did not want to leave the box, so she stayed put with Daddy, while the rest of us took a tour of the new stadium.

Posing with the Frog Horn

My aunt & uncle are huge supporters of TCU football.  They have a bronze of themselves at the new stadium.  Here's my aunt posing with hers.  :)

She took me inside their new Founder's Box & I ran into the chancellor!  He was so sweet to pose for a picture with me.

Back at the other box, we had lots of fun visitors.

Super Frog & a cheerleader came by.  Adeline was enamored!

She let her hold a pom pom!

Then we had a silver medalist from this year's Olympics come visit.  His name is Darvis Patton & he ran the 4X100 relay.  He graduated from TCU in 2001.

But the best part of all was just getting to watch TCU football and hang out with family.

On Sunday, we ate breakfast then headed home.  The ride home wasn't as long because we didn't get into any traffic, and the girls were almost as perfect as they were on the way there.

What a great time had by all!

Two Cuties

Have you missed seeing my two cuties?  Well, I've got cuteness overload coming right up.


They came home from AWANA last week starving.  We had to stay up another 30 minutes eating snacks.

It's fun to go grocery shopping with Daddy.  He lets us take Ace inside & sit next to a pumpkin!

Annabel found a pair of Big Sister's panties the other day and she tried her darndest to get them on.

Happy Girl!

We all wore purple for Go Frogs Friday last week.

She climbs in herself then pull the tray on top. 

I caught Annabel getting into my stationery the other day.  When she knew she was caught she tried to put it all back in.  Sweet girl!

The other night Adeline was drawing on her easel.  I told her to draw a picture of herself, and this is what she did.  I was impressed!

She got some stickers in the mail today from her Nana.  She immediately stuck them all over herself.

Ok, are you ready for this?  You're about to see one of the cutest pictures ever.  The girls did a dress-up princess tea party photo shoot the other day.  I can't wait to see all of them!

Is that enough cuteness for you?  I'm so glad I never get tired of it. :)