What Happens When...

Mommy leaves her two kiddos with cupcake goodness to snap a few photos of her products while the light is good - this mess! I am guessing the kids had fun, don't you?

Weekend photos coming soon. Hope you enjoy these in the meantime. :)

Twins?

Whew! I am tired from a very fun, wonderful and full weekend. I had half my family here to meet Sarah's boyfriend, Rob. Sarah and Rob flew in from Houston on Friday night and left yesterday. We went pumpkin picking on Saturday, adults only dinner and drinks that night, rested and watched football on Sunday, mall shopping Monday, and then to the airport. Not to mention that I cooked like it was Thanksgiving. We ate ourselves silly. :) So, please pardon me while I get my house back in order and get my photos downloaded and edited. I am hoping to have more highlights in a couple of days.

I couldn't let the week get away without posting something. This one is of Sarah and me. She has always been a blonde and decided to "come over to the dark side" right before she came. We get the twin comment when she is a blonde, but oh my do we look more alike with the same haircolor. :) Don't really mind getting that question - seeing as I am five years her senior.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Pumpkins

I must admit, I truly wish I had enough time to make one of these beauties this October. I love these little velvet pumpkins and this little shop offers a PDF pattern for a small fee. My poor home would probably be covered in them. Unfortunately, there are way too many sewing projects that need to be done for me to start a new one - like monogramming fall clothes and Christmas outfits (oh, how I need to really start those). Maybe next year, right? If you want to take a stab at it you can find them here and please let me know if you make one. I want to know how wonderful they are.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I am so excited about ours - my little sis is coming with her serious boyfriend - along with some more of my siblings, my sis-in-law, and my niece - for the long weekend. I am stoked!

Happy Friday!

Potato, Cheddar, & Broccoli Soup

Photo credit: www.foodnetwork.com

One of the things I LOVE about the company we use for our Farmers Market Baskets are the recipes she sends us. This one was included when we had - you guessed it - a lot of potatoes and broccoli. It is truly delicious and very inexpensive to make. I have made it several times over the last year and I am sure will be making it again as the temperatures get cooler. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Potato, Cheddar, & Broccoli Soup
6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 head of broccoli cut up
6 Cups chicken broth (I do 4 cups and 2 cups of water - you really can't tell a difference if you use Sharp Cheddar Cheese)
3 bay leaves (optional)
2 medium carrots diced
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. Pepper
½ tsp. finely minced garlic
1 Cup Cheddar cheese (I use Sharp or Extra Sharp)
½ Cup Sour Cream
Garnish with diced green onions if desired.
Cover the potatoes and broccoli with the chicken broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add bay leaves (optional). Cook until the potatoes are tender. Using a wire whisk or potato masher, mash the potatoes and broccoli as much as possible (finished product should be fairly smooth with just a few lumps of potato). Add carrots and seasonings and simmer for 30 minutes. Add grated cheese and sour cream and stir until smooth and cheese is dissolved.

Time's a Passin'

I got a glimpse of my Charlotte the other day and realized time is a passin' way too quickly. I snapped this picture of her and it wasn't until I looked back at the image that my breath caught in my throat. I thought, "Look how tall she is, so grown, pigtails - which she requests everyday now - and opinions." Where has the time gone?

It is hard, sometimes, as a mother to truly be present, to notice the small changes in one's child, to see their growth, their personality, their present world. Motherhood is busy, the tasks never completely done and sometimes I get so caught up that I catch myself wondering where the time has gone.

Sad that snapping a picture and looking back at the image was what got my attention, but sometimes it is difficult to see the growth through the playful blurr that is my life. With several friend's grieving the loss of their little ones, friends mourning their empty wombs, and friends watching their sweet babies struggling to keep the life that is theirs today, I realize I take my time with my two so much for granted... and time's a passin'.

Here's hoping I look through that lense just a little more often.

Sweet Autumn

On a table in my foyer

Glitter pumpkins - I just love them with my autumn berries on the mantle

Another view of the mantle

On the kitchen table - the kids have also been bringing me leaves from outdoors that have fallen to the ground as presents - I proudly display my little gifts with the jeweled fruit

This glitter pumpkin was happliy displayed on our bar in the dining room until the kids decided it would be much more fun to play with it - resulting in glitter all over my floors, so I moved it to the built in shelves between the foyer and living room

There is no question, Autumn is my most favorite time of year - the cooler temps and changing colors. I just love this time of year.

I seriously had to hold myself off from decorating until the end of September. I wanted to pull out my fall decor earlier in that month, but our 90 degree temps at the time held me off (not to mention these will stay up until we start decorating for Christmas). Thankfully we got a little cool snap over a week ago and up they went.

I plan on making a few crafts with the kids over the next few weeks to put on display and allow them to get into the spirit of the harvest holidays approaching - this month will be halloween, next Thanksgiving. I can't wait to find little ways to celebrate the season together.

So how do you like to decorate your home for the fall months - spooky halloween, harvest decor, or none at all? Are their any fun crafts you are going to do or want to do for the holiday? I would love to know!

Art Box

One of Charlotte's friends from church recently celebrated his fourth birthday. Jaden was gracious and invited both of the children and we were excited to be asked to celebrate.

If you are like me I am always in a dilemna over birthday gifts - lets face it, my notecards may get mom excited, but not a kid. So I set out to make our normal gift a little more exciting.

We recently found out that Jaden enjoys painting. He is also the middle child of three boys, so I designed a little box that would be ALL for him, while still including my signature gift.

I decorated a stationery box (I have a ton of these - I wonder why), picked up a few paints (with his mom's permission) from the local drugstore and decided to label everything - so it was specific to him. I also included the labels with "Jaden's Stuff" on them so he could "tag" anything that was his (not his brothers'). Obviously I couldn't go without including some thank you notes for him to use for his art "fans." I was pretty pleased with the result and think Master Jaden was too.

I, like so many of you, am on a tight budget and little extras like birthday presents can get expensive. Honestly, I personally feel that any gift can be fantastic - especially if it is created specifically with that person or child in mind - and you don't have to break the bank to do it.