I'm Fabulous!

My friend Tricia sent me this the other day and I feel honored to have received this award! Excited really! Because I know someone else out there is reading my blog...besides me!

There are two rules for receiving this award:

1. You must list 5 current obsessions.
2. You must pass this on to 5 people.

My 5 obsessions are...

1. The well-being of my family--all the time! Its crazy how I worry and obsess over them!
2. Ladybugs!  My daughter's room is in ladybugs so I'm always looking for decor and such in ladybugs!!
3. The need for a talent (see previous blog).
4. Getting my house clean and in order! We've been remodeling for 2 years and the mess is driving me crazy!
5. Shopping!

5 people I want to pass this award to...

1. Caryn - My cousin.  She introduced me to blogging and is my inspiration & extra motivation I need for cooking, baking and trying things new in the kitchen. 
2. Kelly - We don't really know each other but have talked briefly on email.  We have daughters the same age (they were born exactly one week apart) so its wonderful to read about her adventures with her daughter. She too is an inspiration.
3. Mrs. Organized - I'm new to this blog but I am bound and determined to get my house organized so with this blog I hope to find lots of ideas and inspiration.
4.  Rhoda - Also new to this blog but anything Southern has to be good.  Once again, inspiration comes from her thriftyness and eye for decorating.  The recipes aren't half bad either!
5.  Amanda - I have been following this blog for a while now and this one is so very dear to my heart.  Amanda doesn't know me but I have said many prayers for her, her husband Thomas their six babies.  Her faith and courage inspires me every day. 

New Things

I have been wanting to learn how to make kolaches for a long time now. Its something I wish I had learned from my Mom but did not get the chance. Kolaches have been a family favorite for all my 37 years and then some! I have a 4-day weekend coming up so I thought this would be as good a time as any to try. Today I spent some time going through cookbooks and my Mom's recipes to find the best kolache recipe. I even called Aunt Mona, who is one of Mom's sisters. We love her kolaches. She talked with me about it and found her recipe that she thinks she got from Aunt Janet, another sister, but has tweaked a bit. This is the recipe she has been using for quite a while now so she's making a copy and putting it in the mail to me tomorrow. I have been trying a lot of new things lately...recipes I have always said I'd make but never have. I made homemade lasagna Saturday night. It wasn't great but I think still better than Stouffer's. I made some notes so I'll try again because it really wasn't hard to whip up. Sunday morning I made Monkey Bread which I have been wanting to do for a long time but for whatever reason I hadn't. Did this morning & needs one small tweak--it needs to bake longer than the recipe says. We had some doughy biscuits in there....but the done stuff was awesome! I love to cook and I love to bake, I just sometimes need a little motivation. My kids are my motivation. I want them to have lots of great memories and want to come home to Mom's cooking when they're grown and have their own families. I want there to be a special dish or dishes that only Mom can make. My Mom had lots of things that I love and am learning how to make. I don't think they'll ever be Mom perfected but they are pretty darn close! My new goal is to learn how to make all the recipes I've always wanted to know how to make...and I want to be good at it, comfortable with them so that I'll continue to make them. Kolaches are first on my list!

Cuteness

I have several pictures I've been wanting to share so I decided to put them all in one blog and talk about each of them. I feel bad because these all include Isabella and only one has Christopher in it. I'm going to make a point to try and capture him on film more often than I have been.

So just the other day Isabella was playing in her exersaucer squealing, talking and just having a good time while Jeff and I were taking care of things around the house. She got real quiet so I walked back in the living to see what she was doing. She had discovered herself in the mirror! These pictures just don't do the moment justice. She would lean back and then lean forward all the way touching her nose to the mirror to see herself. It was so cute.


Another view in the mirror....

Sunday we both were wearing our Luckenbach shirts so Christopher snapped a few pictures of us in them. Getting her to pose and smile isn't always the easiest but I think we look cute with our matching shirts!

Isabella has really started eating good for us. For a long time, she wanted nothing to do with baby food. She finally started accepting it mixed with rice cereal and formula. This particular day we were enjoying bananas mixed in....

My niece Makenna feeding Isabella her bottle. She's such a great little helper.

Big brother Christopher rocking his sister. I was trying to get some things together so he sat in the rocker with Bella and out she went. He was so proud of himself for putting her to sleep.

These next pictures were about the time Bella had been sitting up really good by herself. Just seems like one day she was wobbly and next day she was having no problems. My girl loves her binky!

My girl just being cute & sitting up pretty....with her binky!

I am so grateful and happy to have such a beautiful and healthy little girl. She brings such happiness to our lives every day...I know I laugh and smile a whole lot more now that she is with us. Christopher dotes on her every day and just adores her. We are truly blessed with these beautiful children of ours.

Singing & Back To School

Have you ever been so tired that all you wanted to do was lay down and go straight to sleep? But instead of falling into a peaceful sleep, your mind starts racing the minute your head hits the pillow. Even worse...you're hearing the same song over and over in your head and you can't make it go away. The harder you try to ignore all the millions of thing running around in your head, the harder it is to go to sleep and soon you find yourself laying in bed, staring at the ceiling wondering why you laid down in the first place because now you're wide awake thinking of all the other things you could be doing. Well girls, that was the case for me last night. I was tired...droopy eyes tired. So I got myself all ready for bed and laid down. And wouldn't you know it, my mind starting racing. I think at some point I did get a few winks in before Isabella started her stirring. After about 2 hours of stirring and fussing from both of us I finally got up and fixed her a cereal bottle thinking there was no way she was already hungry but let me tell you, she sucked that bottle down like it was her last one! After she went back to sleep, I laid down again. This time it wasn't a million things racing through my mind. No...this time it was singing in my head..."play the drum everyone, play the drum" "more, more!" This is from Isabella's Leap Frog Drum we play with daily. I could hear the music in my head and the girl singing, "play the drum everyone, play the drum." Over and over...I almost got up and played the drums! But somehow I was finally able to relax and get some rest before my precious baby girl starting her fidgeting again. Maybe tonight will be better. I can already feel the droopy eyes coming on.

BTW, it was the first day back to school for Christopher. 4th grade this year--the big man on campus! He had mixed feelings going back today. He was ready to see his friends. Not so much ready for the school work...but what kid is?!!? I have always tried to take pictures of him each year on the first day. As he gets older, this of course gets harder, especially taking any pictures at all at school. I did snap this one as he was coming out of the cafeteria heading to his classroom. See that smirk...he knew what I was doing.

This one I took of him and Isabella just before we loaded up and headed out for the day. So cute those kids of mine!


If you have kids headed back to school this week, I wish you a great school year, many blessings...and a great night's rest without the singing!