Happy Birthday!

Andy at 9 months old (cutesy)!

Andy at the elderly age of 24!

Happy 24th Birthday to my dear husband!!!!

Its My Party Skirt GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Its My Party Skirt GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is my friend Cindy. I just wanted to do a quick post to thank her for being such a good friend. I have known Cindy for quite a few years but have only really gotten to "know" her over the last year. I'm so thankful I have. She is a quick witted, energetic, encouraging woman of varied interests! She is dear to my heart!

Cindy, thank you for all your encouraging words and the neat little "care package" I received in the mail! You are a nut and you know me entirely to well!

Cindy is also I talented photographer, if you want to see some beautiful pictures check out her website:

http://crankin.photobiz.com/

One day she is going to teach me how to use a camera (IF I ever get one)!!

Snout

Aidan was playing football in the Fellowship Hall at the church and fell into the corner of a step! Much panic insued! These pictures actually don't do it justice, he had horrible black (green & brown) eyes and big bobo's all over his nose! Poor Baby! Thankfully he didn't break it! He was a very brave boy when he came back in for a follow up with Dr. Smith!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Well we've been trying to get ready for Christmas. I FINALLY got our tree up but only because Andy was driving me crazy about it. I promise he is worse than any kid! I don't know what is wrong with the tree, we make sure it has plenty of water every day but it's still just dry & brittle. Any suggestions on "perking" it back up will be greatly appreciated!

We've only had two Christmas Parties so far, Youth Leaders Party at Bro. Nathan & Sis. Mandies, they are always incredible hosts and have yummy food & make you feel right at home. Then we had my work party at Brave New it was delish and we had a wonderful time, I love my co workers & their spouses, so it was nice.



I'm almost through with Christmas shopping, just have to get Lori & Richard's, one more present for each of the kids & then stocking stuffers (my favorite)!! Yipee!!





Andy and I helped Lori & Richard put up their tree, it's GORGEOUS!



Here is Vivi with their tree!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Flop your dough on floured surface
Fill 'er up, Roll 'er up!

Let rise & then bake

Ice!!!

Finished Product!

So for some reason I decided to be Betty Crocker for my co workers & friends. I came across a recipe for Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Coffee Icing & thought that would be nice to make & bring to work & deliver to friends for the Holiday. Ha Ha Ha! I have never made anything breadwise that required rising, punching, rising again & finally rolling! It was actually quite fun-the punching part that is! So I made 7 pans of these beauties and did not make it to bed until 2am! I may expire from flour inhalation, but it was worth it!!

Pioneer Woman Comes To Town!

My new friends!

Nina & Ree BFF!!
Marlboro Man-a nice surprise!!

This post is a little late in coming but I'm still excited to write about it! A few weeks back my idol Ree Drummond (aka Pioneer Woman, or PW) came to Little Rock for a cookbook signing, I wrangled my fellow PW Fanatic Cindy & her daughter Madison into coming with me. We had NO idea what we were getting into. I guess the greeter at WalMart (yes it was at WalMart) laughing hysterically when she spotted me coming in the door with my cookbook should have tipped me off. It did not. Cindy is thinking there will be MAYBE 50 people there, I'm more optimistic & am thinking MAYBE 100...Uhhh, yeah right!! The line was all the way to the back of the store! It looked like we were going to be there a while so I quickly struck up a friendship with those surrounding me, I must say it was the best time I've had standing in a line for almost four hours.

Do NOT try this at home!

Cooking for four hundred is NOT as simple as it sounds. This is what happens when the waist high stand mixer vibrates off of it's stand!! HORRIBLE night!!!

Redneck Wife?

Okay so Andy has been working like 70 hours a week. In a unguarded moment I felt sorry for him, so I endeavored to think of a way to cheer him up! Since he was working 4-midnight I had plenty of time to think on this. What I eventually came up with was to make him a pot of deer chili. He LOVED it! I LOVED it! What I'm worried about is does this now classify me as a "redneck wife"?

If so I'll wear the title with pride!!!!

Alarming Muffins!

We had a MAJOR problem with our home alarm system earlier in the week. Long story short our alarm malfunctioned & called ER personnel to our home. I opened my front door to find (keep in mind siren's are BLARING) a firetruck, four police cars & an ambulance!! I couldn't explain myself for laughing hysterically! So anyway my good friend Dave (shout out to Alarm Systems of Arkansas) comes over last night to fix whatever ailed my alarm, it turns into a long drawn out process so I wound up cooking dinner. We had Spaghetti with creamy tomato sauce with Artichokes and for dessert I made Pumpkin spice muffins with cream cheese icing! They were probably two of the BEST things I have cooked in a while!! I'm obsessed with anything pumpkin right now.

Speaking of being obsessed visit http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ for yummy meal ideas & MUCH MUCH more. I LOVE Ree Drummond!! I can't wait to meet her in November!!!

Vivianne

A couple of Sunday nights ago one of Vivi's friends was praying down front at church, I went & asked Vivi if she would like to go up there, of course she said yes. When we got down front there were a LOT of kids around Ollie & Vivi seemed a little hesitant, finally she inched her way forward & it wasn't but just a few minutes & her little hand went up & I could read her lips saying, "Jesus I love you!" That's when she started REALLY praying. I love that God can touch anyone, even a little child with a sincere heart!!

Acts 2:39 (Whole Chapter) For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.

God Bless America!

First of all I apologize to all two of you who check this blog that I have not updated sooner. Things have been super crazy. I normally update my blog during downtime at work Weeeell, since my two wonderful docs have decided to go paperless we have been inundated with (of all things) PAPER! Ugh!

Many, many new things going on, Andy has been working a few days in construction & all of a sudden is finding me "great deals" on tile, sinks, ceiling fans etc. Never mind that they are ugly & cheap quality he can get them at a good price! I try telling him that there are other ways I would like to spend money on our house (hello, curtains?). He just tunes me out. Vivi & Aidan have started school. Vivi is in kindergarten & Aidan is K4 and blessings of blessings they both seem to enjoy it! I'm sure Lori is relived. I'm not sure I like how independent they are growing, even though Vivi assures me she is still my buckaroo!

I can NOT post a blog on this day without mentioning what a GREAT WONDERFUL country we live in and how I am THANKFUL everyday to be a part of such a great nation. I will NOT forget 9/11 and how ultimately good overcame evil. Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Stars & Stripes & Birthdays

I know, I know WAY past time to update this blog but I have been busy!

July 4th Andy had to work so I just lazed around all day which was kind of nice & then I met my family & we went downtown to the river & had dinner at The Flying Fish, and then enjoyed Pops on the River while waiting for the fireworks to start. My sweetie got off work just in time to enjoy the fireworks with us. My cousin Jillian is here for the summer from Louisiana & it was fun having her here for that. I LOVE July 4th!

And just a few days later my dearest friend Marilyn celebrated her birthday! Happy Birthday Marilyn I'm thankful for your friendship every single day. In the words of Anne of Green Gables, you are a "forever friend" PS couldn't figure out how to get Meam's pic down here with the portion of the post about her!

In other news. Our garden is flourishing but our cucumbers are so bitter I can't eat them. Any advice out there? Aunt JackWoman help?!

What nerds! Can you tell we just woke up?! Ha! Not a very flattering pic!

One Year Anniversary

Wow, what a weekend! Sunday was our one year anniversary!! We had both taken off work to go somewhere for a long weekend but our friends Michael & Renee' decided to get married Saturday & Andy was a groomsman so there went our plans. I must say it was worth our spoiled plans to see Michael pass out :)

My dear husband decided it would be a good idea to leave after the wedding & drive up to Branson, this was a swell idea to me as well only I had to be back at work this morning: we did it anyway! We arrived in Branson around 2:45am, slept in a little, went to the Titanic museum, shopped around at the outlets for a bit, bought some clothes and perfume, went back to the hotel to take a short nap, overslept, jumped up and got ready in twenty minutes & headed to the Dixie Stampede. I love Dixie!!! We had so much fun, I am hoarse from yelling so loudly. We sat on the "North" side because we could get better seats (front row) & guess what? The "North" won! We had some true Northerners beside me & I think I scared them to death with all my stomping, yelling & arm waving!! We had so much fun! We left right after that and got home at two this morning. Long story summed up....I am to old for late nights & early risings, BUT it was well worth it!

Happy Anniversary Andy. I love you Baby & can't wait to celebrate many more anniversary's with you!!

Yeah I have finally started a blog. I'm not sure why except I suffer from extreme boredom at times! Since we seem to live a pretty boring life, I'm not sure how often I will update but I think this will be fun :)

So for my first blog I even have a picture to post, albeit a fuzzy blurry cell phone picture since my wonderful niece & nephew broke my camera! We planted a garden this year. We are attempting to make tomato's, coocumers (as Aidan says) squash & okra (which hasn't grown) flourish in our back yard. I can't take credit for the tilling & planting but I seem to be the only one who thinks it needs to be watered! Anyway here is a picture of my beautiful tomato's I took this morning. I can't wait to sprinkle one with salt & pepper and bite into the juicy sucker until juice runs down my chin!!! Jealous?