Five on Friday

It's Friday! It's Friday! It's Friday!  Other than it being completely impossible to get out of bed every morning, this week has been a pretty good one!  Here are my top 5 from the week/upcoming weekend.

 

1.  Tonight we are heading to Hesston to watch one of our former youth group kids play volleyball.  Who knows.  Maybe we'll get crazy, stay up late, and head to Newell's afterwards.  I can hear cheese fries calling my name.

 

2.  Tomorrow morning, Lyle and I are going to meet my sister and kids at Botanica.  Tomorrow is Museum Day Live! from Smithsonian Magazine, and you can get free admission to tons of different museums.  We picked Botanica, well because we both love it, but it has a great kids area, and we weren't sure we had the energy to wrangle two toddlers and a baby in a real museum.  I can't wait!

 

 

3.  Lyle was sporting these jammies last night, and I am absolutely in love. 

 

 

 

4.  I ordered my new phone a week ago, so it should be arriving any day!  My current iphone is about 2 1/2 years old and recently has been doing all sorts of weird things.  My current mission is to find a case I like.  I like to be able to take my phone out of the case to put it on our ihome, etc. without it breaking the case.  Any suggestions of cases you love???

 

 

5.  What's more happy on a Friday than a cute picture of this guy! 

 

 

 What are your 5 on Friday???

 

Peanut Butter Trail Mix

We had snack day here at work today, and I was excited to try this recipe that I had found and pinned a long time ago!  It is AMAZING.  It was easy and is definitely going in the recipe book as one of my new favorites! 

 

Peanut Butter Trail Mix

 

 

 4 C. Golden Grahams cereal

2 C. Cocoa Puffs cereal

2 C. thin pretzel sticks

1 C. Reese's Pieces

1 C. peanuts

10 oz. white chocolate

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

1/2 C. powdered sugar

 

1.  In a large bowl, mix cereals, pretzels, reese's pieces, and peanuts.  Set aside.

2.  In a microwavable bowl, microwave white chocolate and butter uncovered on high, stirring at 30-second intervals, until chocolate can be stirred smooth.  Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly coated. 

3.  In a large ziplock bag, toss half the cereal mixture with 1/4 C. powdered sugar until evenly coated.  Spread on wax paper to cool.  Repeat with remaining cereal and 1/4 C. powdered sugar.  Store tightly covered at room temperature. 

 

(Original recipe can be found here.)

 

 

 

A Perfect Fall Weekend

This weekend was filled with lots of fun, projects, and relaxing!  The weather was beautiful, with temperatures that just made you want to be outside.

Lyle has not mastered the art of sleeping in on the weekends, so we got our cup of milk and cup of coffee, watched some Mickey, and hung out on the front porch.  Once Zach got up we headed out for donuts, pumpkins from the hardware store, and mums from the local garden center.  After Lyle got up from his nap and had lunch, we headed outside to do some painting.

We let him go crazy painting a pumpkin for Great Grandma for her birthday!

He was so cute painting with only one finger!

Until Zach started pouring paint on his hands!

Then he went to town!

I put chili in the crockpot, and let Lyle help me make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  He liked watching all the ingrediants mixing, and helped me add (teaspoon by teaspoon) the dry ingrediants to the wet.  He was loving it!

We spent the rest of the day playing, enjoying our fall foods, and watching movies.  I made some good progress on reorganizing our "mail station."  Pictures to come soon.  As soon as I decide if the new system works or not! ;)

A terrible quality of picture, sorry!  Changing up the decorations for the mantel.  The "B" was made by my awesome sister-in-law Kodi, and the print is from here.

Sunday was full of a great message at church, lunch with family, decorating the front porch, and then back to church for the fall business meeting. 

Our front porch.  I love it and can't wait for my mums to bloom!

These boys make my heart smile!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  And guess what?? IIIIITTTSSSS HUMP DAY!!!!!!!!!  :)

Kid-Test, Mom Approved Link Up

Today (a day late, I forgot to post it last night!) I am linking up with some great gals, and sharing the things that are loved most by kiddos!  I could go backwards and write about the things that were the best with Lyle was little.  But I think I'll stick to the toddler edition and go with what we are loving right now!

 

1.  Mini GT Stroller

I have written about this before, but we LOVE this stroller.  It has such a smooth ride, folds up remarkably easy, and the back lays all the way down making it perfect for napping when we are out and about.  We didn't have this stroller until Lyle was about 1 year old, but the straps are adjustable, and since the back lays down, I think it would work great for little ones too!

2.  Mega Blocks

Lyle got these from his Aunt for Christmas and he gets them out every night to play with.  Most of the fun is dumping them all out of the bag, but we also use them to work on colors and numbers. 

 

 

3.  The Little Blue Truck book

First, let me explain a little about Lyle and books.  When he was little he had no interest at all.  He wouldn't even sit still for one page.  He is getting much better now, and he will bring books to us to "read."  And by read I mean, he will flip the pages and point to things, but you will be lucky to read three words on that page.  The Little Blue Truck book is Lyle's favorite.  He picks it every night before bed to read, and it is the only book I have been able to read through completely to him.  As I was searching for a picture of it, I realized there are more Little Blue Truck books (even a version in Spanish that would be so fun to try!)  Hello Christmas presents! :)

4.  Tractors, Tractors, Tractors!

We have a farm loving boy for sure!  He loves to go ride with his Dad or Papa in the trac-tor, bomb-bine, or dump-dump.  He will scoot around on this little John Deere all over the house!  He only recently learned to go forward very well.  Before he either scooted backwards, or picked up the tractor between his legs and waddled forward. :) He also loves his play tractors that he can push all over the floor. 

5.  Our final love is the tubberwear cabinet.  It is so true that they love "non-toys" as much or more than the expensive ones!  Whenever I am in the kitchen, that is mostly likely where you will find Lyle. 

 

Kansas State Fair

Yesterday after church we headed over to Hutch to go to the fair with Zach's parents.  I was starving by the time we got there (I was stealing Lyle's cereal in the car) so we headed straight for the Pronto Pup stand.  Lyle is definitely my son and ate almost a whole one by himself!   

Pronto Pup!  Hah, this is what he does when I tell him to say "Cheese!"

Checking out the chickens

He loved that giraffe!

It started pouring just as we were getting ready to ride the train.  Lyle was not impressed.

Eating Grammy's ice cream!

A trip to the fair is all about the food!  Besides our Pronto Pup's, we enjoyed fried pickles, funnel cakes, kettle corn, and a trip to Bogey's afterwards for burgers, fries, and ice cream.  Stuffed.  A successful trip I would say!  Lyle's loved the animals, and we saw newborn sheep and piglets in the birthing barn.  Although we skipped through the carnival rides, we still were able to get in some good people watching!  The State Fair is probably the best place to people watch!  

Fan Club

Lyle and I headed up to Wichita this morning to watch my sister Kristen run the See Jane Run half marathon.  The weather was beautiful, and she did awesome!  We were so proud!

The kids enjoyed playing together, and I love any time that I get to spend with my family!

Go, Kristen, Go!

Cheering on their Aunt!

Where's the candy????

Hey!  Who's in here???

It's Me!  The adorable Eric!

Carrie and Eric

Gigi taking Lyle for a walk

Such a happy boy!

All done!  And still talking and smiling!  I would have collapsed and never gotten up again!  

Woo-hoo!

Breakfast on the Go

Unless it's the weekend, sitting down for breakfast at our house doesn't happen.  During the week, Lyle eats once he gets out to Annie's, Zach typically doesn't eat breakfast unless I make him a smoothie, and I usually take yogurt, a bagel/English muffin, or something similar and eat it on the way or at work.  The other day I came across Pioneer Woman's recipe for breakfast burritos.  I absolutely LOVE breakfast burritos.  I get them 95% of the time when we go to Sonic, and Lauren and I depended on them to survive nursing school clinicals!

They ended up being more simple than I thought they might be!  I used frozen southwestern hash browns instead of making breakfast potatoes, which made it go a lot faster.  I wrapped each burrito in foil and stuck them in the freezer.  

In the morning I will unwrap the foil, wrap it in a paper towel and microwave for 2 minutes.  The very edge of the tortilla tends to be a little hard, but I just tear that little bit off, and it is good to go!  It's so nice to know I have something in the freezer I can just grab.  

Ready to go to work!  Find Pioneer Woman's Recipe here. 

If you have a quick or easy breakfast recipe I'd love to hear it!

 

Weekend Rewind

I love the weekends.  Why they can't all be three-days long is beyond me!  Friday Zach had a crazy day at work, and after a long week he headed to bed early.  This gave me time to pull out my fabric and start working on Lyle's quilt!  I bought his fabric quite awhile ago, but since I haven't set a deadline for his quilt to be done, it keeps getting pushed lower on the project list.  I'm not sure why, because I am so excited about it!  Just look at that farm animal cuteness!  I'll try to post pictures of the progress.

Saturday morning we headed up to Wichita to take my car in for a service appointment.  They loaned us a new 2013 Honda Odyssey while my car was being taken care of.  Let me tell you we almost became a mini-van family on Saturday.  It was soo nice and comfortable!  I couldn't believe the amount of difference between it and my CRV.  I told Zach we couldn't even talk to the financing people because I was that sure we might actually do it! Ha!  We ran several errands, got some great deals, and had lunch at Panera.  One perk of needing to be in Wichita at 9 AM is that you are done and home by 2! 

Playing Sunday morning before church.

We went to church Sunday morning, then took lunch out to eat with Grandma.  Lyle was decked out in his Chiefs gear for the game!

Look at this app I downloaded on my phone!  I was laughing so hard!

Scary Campfire Stories

Today's topic: A story about a time you were very afraid.

I was trying to decide which story to tell today....here's what I settled on!

My senior year of high school, a group of my girlfriends decided to go camping.  We gathered up all of our supplies and headed out to my friend's grandpa's pasture.  We had to call her cousin to come unlock the gate for us, and he casually mentioned that we should be careful...they think there had been someone camping on their land, but they hadn't seen anything for awhile, so they thought he was gone.  We all laughed it off, and didn't think anything else of it.  We had a great evening and were pretty proud of ourselves for starting our own camp fire, cooking dinner, and setting up our own tent. 

After it got late and our fire went out, we were all gathered in the tent with a lantern talking.  One of my friends noticed that the fire had started again, but we figured it was just the wind.  A little bit later, we heard my friend's car start, and drive away.  Now we were freaked.  Was that story about a homeless man camping out there true??? Yes, we were dumb (gullible) high school girls.  But when you are out in the middle of the country in the middle of the night alone...everything is scary.  We weren't sure whether we should get out of the tent or not.  Pretty soon we heard a huge crash.  Everyone screamed and jumped into a giant hug in the middle of the tent.  We heard footsteps running towards us, and soon they were running around the tent, pounding on the sides, and yelling!  Our hearts were pounding like crazy, and we were all in a huddle in the middle of the tent screaming and trying to jump away from whatever side the pounding was on.  It makes me laugh to think back to the picture we made.  It seemed like this went on forever, when finally I had convinced myself enough that it had got to the point that surely this was a joke.  I unzipped the tent, and went storming out, yelling, "WHO THE HECK IS OUT HERE!!????"  Of course it was the cousin and his friends.  They had started the fire, drove away the car, and tipped over a stock tank.  We were so mad (plus a little relieved), and just worked up enough that we made them stay for an hour or two, then refused to go to sleep for the rest of the night. 

Anyone else have true or funny scared silly stories??

Advice

Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered. 

Source

I learned this verse when I went on a mission trip during high school to a Navajo reservation.  The boys on the trip were busy building shelves for the school, other kids were teaching bible school, and I was painting trim in a trailer for a new teacher.  I kept thinking, "Painting trim?  I thought I was going to be making a difference on this trip!"  Each night one student led the devotional for our group.  I can't remember who shared this verse, but it changed my whole perspective of the week.  Painting trim and cleaning that trailer probably meant the world to that new teacher.  Giving up a week of our summer to go help others was making a difference even if we didn't share our faith in words with anyone.  Actions speak so loudly.  It is so easy to think what we do doesn't matter, or that we don't have the chance to reach someone.  But people notice.  They notice things like hard work, patient answers, and not joining in the gossip or complaining.  "So whether you eat or drink or WHATEVER YOU DO, do it all for the glory of God."  The point is that our attitude about everything can reflect our love of God.  So when I'm complaining about cleaning the house or going to another meeting, instead I should be reminding myself to do it all for the glory of God instead.
   

Three Months

If you could take three months off from your current life and do anything in the world, what would you do?

Hmmm...three months?  That sounds like a teacher's summer vacation.  How about I just switch professions?? :) Kidding, Kidding.  I think I would vacation with my family.  Rent an RV and drive anywhere we wanted.  Go to national parks, beaches, and zoo's.  Spend one day or ten.  Hit up restaurants we see on the Food Channel.  See festivals and fairs.  Visit our friends from high school and college that are scattered all over the country.  

Colombus Zoo
The Top 10 Zoo's in America (Wichita is # 7!)

Whenever we plan vacations, I tend to gravitate toward somewhere tropical.  And growing up we vacationed where we had family (North Carolina or Missouri).  I would love to hit up places like New England, Savannah, Georgia, Chicago, San Antonio, New York City, and Oregon.  And everywhere in between.  And drive a NICE RV (we are dreaming right??), so Lyle can take naps when he needs to, play without being strapped to a car seat, and we can stay in our pajamas all day!  Doesn't that sound like so much fun!?  Who else want to come with us??  :)    

Source

Blogtember

I am trying this challenge to post everyday in September.  I am absolutely sure I will miss a few days here and there, but it sounded like fun, and a way to expand my topics on the good 'ol blog a bit.  Hope you enjoy! :)

(This is yesterday's topic)

Describe where or what you come from. The people, the places, and/or the factors that make up who you are.

I was born outside of Houston, Texas and lived there until I was four.  I think it's something about Texas, because even though I lived there such a short time, I still feel like I need to claim it!  Maybe that's why I hang on to those good old Dallas Cowboys!  :)  We moved to Kansas, and that is where I have lived ever since.

 I am the second to youngest of five kids.  My two older sisters were always gracious to me growing up (I'm sure I was the annoying little sister at SOME point), and are now two of my closest friends.  My older brother was only 1 1/2 years older than me and we were best buddies.  My younger brother was three years younger than me, and the three younger kids always played together.  Being in the middle of the boys, is where I attribute some of my "peace-keeper-ness."  I don't like to fight or argue, I would much rather everyone be happy, and compromise.  My husband should also thank my brothers for helping me learn to love action movies, outdoor adventures, and shooting guns.

My dad is a pastor, and my mom was able to stay home with us until my younger brother went to school.  My parents and the Christian home I was raised in, has been the biggest "factor that makes up who I am."  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, something I try not to take for granted.  I had such a great examples to follow.  In my work as a nurse, it has hit home how many children do not grow up with things such as respect, joy, and thankfulness being "normal" in their house.  What a difference putting Jesus in the center of your family will make!

So now I am still living in Kansas, in a different small town, raising my son with my husband, and learning to become loyal to the Kansas City Chiefs, KU Jayhawks, and KSTATE Wildcats (mostly for you Jeffrey).  

How did where you come from shape who you are????   
   

125th Celebration

This weekend our church celebrated their 125th anniversary.  The weekend was full of activities, most of them involving food!  Saturday lunch was a BBQ cook-off with everyone making their best burger recipe.  Outreach planned/sponsored this, but I missed this part of the day.  Saturday afternoon/evening was a worship service, silent auction, and dinner.  Everyone was asked to bring something to donate for the silent auction.  I used this as motivation to complete some of my projects from Pinterest!  It was a fun evening, and we came home was an awesome porch swing! Sorry it's too dark outside, but I'll post a picture of it later!

Minky Blanket

Burp Rags -I bought cloth diapers at Target, used leftover fabric from my nephew's quilt, sewed right sides together, flipped it inside out, and sewed again.  I love how they turned out!

Sunday we had a breakfast before church to benefit the new preschool, then church, and another meal.  I was so full from breakfast I hardly ate any lunch, and we weren't even hungry for supper either.  Although that might be because we made a run to D&J's for malts and drinks. :)

We spent Monday cleaning and playing.  It was so so nice to have an extra day to recover!