The Weekend and Some Decorating Tips From My Dad

Another week flew by! This whole year is going FAST! I brought the girls in my Sunday School class candy canes on Sunday, because it was the 25th and only 3 months until Christmas! Doesn't that seem crazy? It's been close to 100 here, so it seems crazy to me!

We got to visit Marcus at work this weekend!

Katie loved playing on the fire truck.

Can you tell how much she loves her daddy?

He has big boots to fill!

On Friday night we went out to eat with the Osbornes in Fort Worth! It was a beautiful night. First we went to Dutch's for the world's best hamburger then to Sweet Sammies for ice cream sandwiches. I met a blog reader, Nikki, when I was there. That was pretty exciting and embarrassing. I always forget that people read this thing.


Charis is a little doll:

She wasn't very happy with me earlier in the night:

Earlier in the week I had a decorating job. Here are just a few pics of that:





When I was at my parent's house my dad told me that he had gotten into decorating!
He wanted me to see how he made the bed:

He said, "Up is in!"

Then he told me that I wasn't allowed to put it on the blog! When you say that, it automatically goes on the blog! And I can't get grounded anymore, so I'm not scared!

A Report

We have been busy around here! I have been getting ready for a decorating job that I am starting tomorrow. My car is loaded down with tons of fun things, my hands are splattered with spray paint, there is some hot glue stuck to my table, and I am ready to go.

Tomorrow I am starting with the entry way and the living room of a sweet lady who is a friend of a friend. I will do other parts of her house later. It has been fun shopping and planning, but my house has totally been neglected. I will worry about that on Wednesday.

I wanted share a few pics from the last week or so. This blog is MY scrapbook, so I need to preserve these memories!

Katie never wants "pieces" of things. She wants the whole darn thing.

She likes to play "thank you" now. She will hand you something and make you say Thank You. Then she will want it back and say thank you, then you repeat that about a million times. It's pretty cute.
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We went to my niece's pep rally. It was so fun and it brought back memories!

Katie wasn't sure of the loud band at first, but she warmed up pretty quickly. She is quite the dancer these days.


Speaking of dancing, I loved this big dance circle they formed at the end. Marcus and I were dying to jump in the middle and show them how it's done!

That wouldn't have embarrassed anyone, right?

Last week we also went to their home coming parade.

This is Katie and her Annie (Marcus's mom).

She always wears jewelry she thinks Katie will want to play with! So sweet!

I had to take pics of Katie in this dress. This is the dress I bought a year before I ever got pregnant. And 4 years after I planned on getting pregnant. I just KNEW I was going to have a "Katie" someday.

She is such a joy and a blessing and I tell her all the time!

She was definitely worth the wait!

God's plan is perfect.

Katie's shoes squeak when she walks, so I could just fall over and die of all the adorableness!

I hope you're having a good week!

14

This super cool baby is 14 months old today!

Most of the time, I still can't believe I have my very own baby!
I love seeing Cheerios in my car, toys in my purse and picking up little toys and shoes from around the house. They all feel like rights of passage as a mom!

Today we went to Sam's and Katie was trying to steal my Coke Icee! She hasn't fully figured out the concept of sucking out of a straw.

I am not in a hurry for her to learn, because I REALLY don't like to share my Coke!

Yesterday was Katie's 3rd time at school and she did great! The first 2 times she went, I was told she was, "still adjusting". Yesterday she was super happy all day. That is more like her personality!


This is Katie's very first piece of art work:

I know you are so impressed with her abilities!

And the back pack scandal of 2011 is officially OVER! For those of you who don't know, I got Katie a back pack that, I THOUGHT, would be pretty original. Well, half the girls in her class had it!

It made me sick. I lived with it for a week and decided it was stealing my joy too much. So my friend Kari made an original one for her! Kari's business is on Facebook under the embroidery boutique.

I LOVE it!
I know having the same back pack as half the class is no big deal AT ALL!
It's just one of those things, as a newish mom, that I was excited about. I don't spend much on Katie. Lots of her clothes and shoes are gifts and hand me downs. So it was worth it to me to spend the $ on another back pack. I am sure we will get tons of use out of both!

And I am sure it is no coincidence that Katie had a great day at school on the day she brought her new back pack!
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And here I am TRYING to attach videos of Katie taking her first steps last night! FINALLY!

I hope it works, so you can see how Marcus ruined this precious moment. Or at least hear how he did!

And I sound like a character from the Chipmunks!

That is my "special" voice I use when talking to puppies and babies! And I turned the video camera sideways, because I wasn't getting her feet! It wasn't my most logical moment.

Yay! My baby is walking.

I love that girl!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I am very computer and technology illiterate.

I have tried to use one of those computer random number picker things for a giveaway before and it didn't work so great. I had to take a picture of it to put it on my blog. Pretty sure that's now how it's supposed to work.

So I just got a winning # for the candle give away the old fashioned way. I had my dad and my husband pick a number between 1 and 63. Marcus picked 49 and my dad picked 57.
(then I heard them talking sports and whose jersey #'s they were, boys!)

So I averaged them and it came out to 53!

That means Kathy from Wisconsin is the winner!

I have never mailed anything to Wisconsin before, so this is pretty exciting for me too!


If you did not win you can still purchase your very own Soy Country Candle AND receive FREE shipping when you enter the code: soy27candle24

I hope you have a great weekend!
We are headed out to a football game, but first we are getting some dinner...out.
If you read yesterday's post you know why!

I am NOT the Pioneer Woman!

While Katie was at school on Tuesday, I was very productive! I ran some errands and made some crosses to sell at Golightly's:

I am just noticing some Cheerios on my floor. oops! I CONSTANTLY have Cheerios on my floor now!

I love how the yellow and turquoise one turned out.
Now I want to decorate with these colors.

Yesterday I got a HUGE surprise and Marcus came home!!!
I thought he would be home today. He showed up yesterday with flowers! I was so excited!

BUT, I looked terrible and the house looked worse! Of course he didn't care, but I did. I had dreams of the house being perfect and Katie and I looking perfect too, when he walked in the door.

So I decided I was at least going to make a wonderful meal for him. I cracked open my Pioneer Woman Cookbook, and ambitiously tried her Chicken Fried Steak!

It did NOT turn out like it was supposed to! Somehow it was burned and RAW at the same time! And SUPER greasy. Marcus still put it on his plate. I was scared it was going to kill him. We didn't eat it. Even his manners are not that good!

Actually nothing on the plate tasted very good! I laughed and cried!

And look at THE MESS I made! Holy cannolli!

The goldfish weren't used in the recipe, but I guess I should have added a few. It might have helped the situation!

It took me an hour to clean the kitchen!
I really need The Pioneer Woman to give me a personal tutorial, since I am culinary challenged!

So today we forgot about that disaster and just enjoyed spending time together!

We went to Cabella's for Marcus:

We saw some wild animals:

And some cute ones:

He would totally wear this if I let him:

Katie didn't like it too much:

She LOVED this puppy though:

She has a "thing" for stuffed animals.

I saw this scary guy on our way out:

So today has been a good day!
I did not attempt to cook anything! I actually did make some turkey sandwiches for lunch and they turned out just fine!

I am so happy Marcus is home and hopefully we can go out to eat tomorrow night!

PS- remember to enter the candle giveaway from Soy Country Candles! I will announce a winner tomorrow!

A Gift For You!

First, I want to say thank you for prayers for Marcus and the other Texas firefighters! Marcus went to work Wednesday morning and is STILL not home yet! I told him I was going to issue an Amber alert soon, because I feel like he's been kidnapped! Right now he is in the Austin area, which is about 3.5 hours away. We miss him terribly. Before now, the longest we have ever been apart is for 2 days, in 12 years of marriage. So this has been difficult!

In happier news...
I got a surprise in the mail a couple of weeks ago from sisters, Colleen and Kathleen, from
Soy Country Candles!



It's a Vanilla Cinnamon candle. I LOVE it. The scent is perfect and not too overpowering.

And they sent me an extra candle to give to YOU!
The scent is Bahama Mama.

It took every ounce of discipline I have, to NOT light this candle and keep it for myself. It smells yummy!



If you want to order your own candle you will get
FREE shipping!
Just enter this code: soy27candle24
www.soycountrycandleco.etsy.com

Here's some info about their fabulous candles:

Our candles are made from 100% soy wax made in America from soy beans. We do not currently add any dye to our candles in an effort to make them as clean burning as possible. The fragrance oils we use are 100% pure with no fillers, and our wicks are lead free.

I can't wait to share one with you! Now that it's getting a little cooler, it's the perfect time for candles!

Just leave me a comment and that will enter you to win the candle. I will announce the winner on Friday.

Your comment can be something random, or you can tell me when you are going to put your fall decor out. I usually wait until it's actually fall, but I am getting the itch! Or you can just tell me how super awesome I am, and you might just be the winner!