Fall Bucket List

Visit a pumpkin patch
Carve Pumpkins
Find our way through a Corn Maze
Decorate for Halloween
Play in the leaves
Fall Family pictures
Carve Pumpkins
buy/make costumes
DIYHalloween Craft
Attend Revival
Make carmel apples
Take a fall Color Drive
Fall Hike
make a homemade pie
bake a pumpkin yummy
Enjoy a pumpkin spice latte
Paint Pumpkins
Watch Hocus Pocus
Have a Holloweentown Movie Night
Roast Pumpkin seeds
Go to a tailgating Party/watch a game
Go Trick or treating
Watch Halloween wars with Vivianna
Plant Spring Bulbs
"Boo" a neighbor
Church Carnival
Tell ghost stories around the fire
Go on 2 dates
Eat Comfort food
Make Pumpkin Pancakes
Make a Thankful Tree
Volunteer

Its Never goodbye..

It has been a difficult week. On Sunday I got a phone call while at work that my mother in law had passed away. Just hours earlier I was planning the 2 hour trip to to go visit her in the hospital the next day with my sister in law, so when my Sister in law was on the other end of the line I just assumed it was to tell me what time to meet for our trip to the hospital. Instead it was to give me the news that on her way home on from the hospital that day she got a phone call from the nurse she just left that about a hour after they left she passed away. I found coverage at work and met my husband at My in laws house. It felt like a bad dream. We went down to the hospital to "say goodbye" to her. I clenched her hand and as I tried to tell her goodbye.. I heard her voice tell me, like she had a million times while dropping my kids off to baby sit or when we were leaving "Never say goodbye, goodbye it to final.. its always see you later!" out of the 11 years I knew her this was she always told me.

I stepped out if the room and sat down in a chair in the lobby near her room. A little old man came out of his room.. hospital gown on and pulling his IV pole.. stopped beside me.. and began to hug me. He told me exactly what I needed to be reminded of in that moment.. "it's not these Dr's who heal us.. it's our God who does the healing" She was free from all her pain , the cancer, any imperfection.. She was not healed her on earth but she was eternally healed.. she was with him.. He made her new and perfect.. This stranger began to pray for me.. hugging me and praying with me.. he then asked me "young lady.. do you know our lord? Are you a born again christian?" I am still in awe of the entire conversation.. not only is it exactly what I needed in that moment but also an inspiration. . I want that... I want to push all my fear aside.. be the comforting shoulder for someone, there when they need someone.. and use every opportunity to show his love and lead others to him.

Big News..

I'm going to be an Auntie again!!!

My sister sent me a text asking how I felt about being a aunt again with a picture of her official due date from the Dr's office. I am sooo excited.. she has a little girl already, who I adore. We went on vacation for a week and I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of little kylar with her "big sister" news.. :-)

Coleslaw

I haven't posted in awhile so I opted for a easy post, a recipe.

Cabbage from our garden done very well. I don't use cabbage, other than fried cabbage, so I need to come up with some recipes, after searching for a few coleslaw recipes I came up with a version I could make (I had all the ingredients). I was making Fried chicken so lucky for us I had the buttermilk on hand, its not something I regularly keep on hand so its nice to have few recipes that you will use when buying something like this, that doesn't keep a long time.

Ingredients
 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
salt
 pepper
1 head of cabbage
1-2 carrots
1/2 onion


Make things simple and use a shredder or food processor. I don't have a food processor so I used a shredder. The medium side worked well to get the size of the ingredients.

Shred cabbage, carrots, and onions and set aside.
Combine all of the dressing ingredients and whisk well.
Pour dressing over the slaw and turn to coat well.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Basketball Birthday

My girl asked for a basketball theme birthday. I booked a local gym and let all the kids play ball majority of the party. Just had cake and a variety of chips. The party was a lot of fun.. see the pictures for yourself.

Cool Down Punch

 

Party Favors & Drink

Game time balls= Cheese Puffs

Half Time Pop corn

Slam Dunk Chips

 

Instead of a card, we invited the guest to donate a can of food that Vivianna donated to our local  food pantry.

She is in the double digits.. 10 today!

I find it hard to wrap my head around the concept that my oldest 'baby' is 10 years old today! I swear it seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home, watching her first steps, and wishing for her hair to grow long enough to put in a pony tail (it took awhile for her). Now I have this tween girl who is turning more and more into a little lady every time I look at her.  

 

You will forever be my baby!

 

We already had her birthday party on Sunday, but we always have a birthday dinner on the family members actual birthday (or as close to it as we can). Birthday Girls choice of dinner. She picked country fried steak, mashed potatoes, and corn. She also requested that daddy make it. she loves her daddies cooking and to be honest I love it to, my favorite part is I don't have to cook. We had cake and then went to the playground and had a family walk and sat on the swing set and talked about our hopes for the up coming summer, since school is officially out for her next week. Her summer is booked solid with adventures, camps, and vacations (with her grandparents). I'm not sure if I will actually get to see her to much this summer. Slow down time baby girl. The days are long and the years are short. It was a good day.

 

Banana Bread

So here I am, up past midnight making banana bread. that's normal right? In my universe, yes! I've had a busy day of re-arranging the boys into their new bedrooms and I just happened to notice the bananas on our counter were in that "we are ripe now, do something with us before we go bad stage", which also happens to be the perfect stage for banana bread.

I love banana bread, which is strange because I don't like to eat an actual banana by itself. My Granny, who was the best cook of all time (I'm not biased either) made the most amazing banana bread. Its another recipe people think is too complex but its actually easy peasy.  Its yummy, easy, and hard to screw up. My favorite qualities in a recipe!

Ingredients

• 3-4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 350. smash banana and mix in the melted butter. Next mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle baking soda and salt and mix. Add flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.