Cranberry Wreath Party

We now have a beautiful wreath made out of fresh cranberries on our front door thanks to my good friend Sarah (far left)! She hosted a wreath making party two years ago and I was so excited for the chance to make another one! Aren't they so beautiful?? You take a foam wreath, a 2-4 bags of fresh cranberries, sewing pins (the plain silver kind with no little ball on the head), some felt to pin on the back side of your wreath, and ribbon for a bow! I hear that good ol' Martha explains it all on her website: http://www.marthastewart.com/

Joanne (Pam's Mom), Sarah, Stacey, Mandy, Me, and Pam

Pam's Mom brought a foam tree and it turned out so nicely as well! My wreath went through a bit of trauma when I got home! I walked in the door at 1:30am and set the bag holding my precious cargo on the counter. Seconds later, it slid off the counter and broke into 4 pieces! All that work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't freak out, just said, "Well, that's really, really nice, isn't it?" But, Jeremy and I salvaged it with some skewers and Gorilla Glue, wrapped it in plastic wrap for the night. By morning it was good to go! We had to take a bunch of the cranberries out to glue it, so when I woke up, I pinned them back in and it now graces our front door!!!

I love it. Hopefully it stays cold and frozen so my cranberries will stay happy out there.

Pumpkin-y Christmas-y Day

Yesterday, I had a wonderful hour or so in the kitchen all by my lonesome. It was glorious. So I decided to break out the White Christmas CD, and make my Mom's famous (well.. in our family) Pumpkin Rolls! Ooh, they are these sheets of pumpkin bread-like yumminess that you bake in jelly roll pans, then spread with a cream cheese frosting and roll up and cut into pinwheels. They are SO good!

My Mom made these for the holidays growing up, and this is the first time I've ever made them! I'm proud to say they came out beautifully! I was very afraid of ruining them, and I just couldn't imagine them coming out quite like my Mom's masterpieces.

The Christmas music came out right as November started and it will be playing well into January. I'm a Christmas music fanatic. What is my favorite album you might ask?? A Charlie Brown Christmas, of course!!!

It is so good! I love jazz and this is the perfect combo of my two favorites, Jazz & Christmas! If you don't own it, go get it to add to your collection this year!

Well, goodnight friends... time to get the Bacon bits headed into their jammies and Nighty Noodled for the night. That is what I say to them as I leave their rooms, "Nighty Noodle!"

And a very Nighty Noodle to you too!

what a day...

The day finally came...

when I stepped through the glorious door of a Pottery Barn store! You can't imagine my excitement after pouring over their catalogs for years! And thankfully, to Jeremy, I walked out the door with only two small items from Pottery Barn and one item from Pottery Barn Kids! Saturday afternoon of the event I was attending in Kansas City (read the next post) was left open for us to choose our lunch activity! Anita and I, along with a group of women chose The Plaza in downtown Kansas City. It was an amazingly beautiful area of town with equally amazing shopping!

The wonderful woman that is seated at the kid's Thanksgiving table in PB Kids with us is Pamela, a woman we met from Florida. She was a super sweet and sassy gal that bought our sweet baby girl an entire outfit set from The Children's Place! She started grabbing all of these adorable newborn baby girl things for me.. and I thought, "I can't afford all of this, I wasn't planning on buying that much for our baby!" But she wanted to buy me a gift and was SO sweet. Thank you, Pamela!

I was SO tempted to buy a few of these super cute Christmas ornaments at Pottery Barn, because our tree is getting a major facelift this year! At $6 a pop, I just couldn't do it! But Pamela reminded me of how easy they would be to make! So I took this picture to remind myself of what they looked like! I have already bought some of the

supplies and can't wait to get to work!

My trip to Stonecroft

I arrived home late Sunday evening from a trip to Kansas City with my mother-in-law Anita. We were at the Stonecroft Ministries campus for 4 days at the Pray Up, Lead Out event.

What is Stonecroft, you may ask? It's a women's ministry that has been around for 70 years! Anita has been involved for around 30 years! They have a large variety of programs and events for women of all ages. Outreach luncheons, Bible Studies both for women and couples, Moms on the Run, Prayer Connections, etc... I learned a lot about a minstry I've known about for along time. My Mom was involved when I was younger.

So... what in the world was I doing there?

• Anita invited me


• it was free!


• I love gaining more leadership skills


• the prayer focus of the event


• as the event got closer, I was asked to be on a panel and speak about reaching younger women and mentoring!

It was a great weekend! It was the 5th Pray Up, Lead Out event they ran them from June to November. We attended the last event held. Out of 125 women attending, there were 2 of us that were 30 and under! So I felt like I was in the room with 123 of my Moms and Grandmas. It was wonderful. I got lots of hugs, encouragement, and inquiries about my pregnancy!

The 2 questions of the weekend for me were....

1. "Is this your first baby?"


2. "4th baby! Are you old enough to have four children?"

I loved these women.

It was a unique experience for me. At the MOPS Convention that I've attended these past three years, everyone is like me! At Stonecroft, I felt like a bit of a novelty... It was a fun feeling. And I got the chance to speak to these women about something close to my heart: Reaching my Generation! I also had two other fun opportunities! I'll be featured soon on Stonecroft's website in their "Generation Now" feature, and was interviewed on film for an upcoming video project!

It was a very unique trip and a huge blessing to me.

Here is a shot of the unbelievable home Anita and I stayed in! It was the dwelling of the Stonecroft founder, Helen Baugh. It recently went through a major restoration! It was beautiful! I wanted to move in right away!

Here is the room Anita and I shared! Each room was elegantly decorated, each with a different color scheme. It was a dream to stay there!

The following pictures are of different areas of the home affectionately called The Manor. My camera battery died before I could capture the downstairs of the home. There are 6 bedrooms, 7 baths, an amazing double dining room, sitting room, formal dining room, kitchen with 2 islands, and a covered porch area in the back!

The Girlfriends Room!

2 birthdays and 1 farewell

Last Sunday, the 4th, we celebrated Drew and Jen's birthdays together!

It was a fun occasion and a sad one, it was our last night together

before the Howells flew out of state.

Drewy turned 7 and Jen 32! Happy Birthday to you!

The Howells are doing well. I haven't spoken to Jen yet this week, but last week they received a call as soon as they arrived in Missouri from a church in Tennessee that they are interested in! And I think they visited there this last weekend! I'll update you all on the job hunt as soon as I get word! We sure do miss them.

Last week, after talking to them the day after they left, Drew said sadly, "It sure it disappointing when your best friends leave you. It's really, really sad."

Well put, son.

Keaton's self portrait.

November Bunko

Here is a picture from this month's Bunko Night! It was my sister's last night before moving out of state, so it was fun to capture our group together that night.

There are four of us preggo Mommies in the group! Allison (to my left), Jessica (Allison's sister, on the far right with short sleeves), myself, and Rachel (in the back row with the green shirt)! We are all due within 3 months of each other! So far there is one boy (Allison) and two girls (Rachel and I), and we have will know what Jessica is having this month!

I always look forward to that blessed first Thursday of each month! :)

So funny

Last night, the Howells came over for dinner and Morgan was into toting her dress up box around with her! After dinner, Jen and I sat down with her and started digging through it putting on necklaces, etc... she was just slightly annoyed at first by us wearing her things... "Um, can you put that back, that's mine!" (Don't worry, we corrected her... but she's not exactly used to anyone being interested in her girl toys except Mommy) Then I would put a bunch of necklaces on and a crown and she would ask me to put them back and I would... then she would turn around and my sister would be covered in ribbons and necklaces... "But those are mine!" She completely fell apart when Uncle Kris put on her dress up shoes, earrings, necklaces, and a hat. She collapsed in my lap and we were all laughing SO hard! She finally was okay with the idea of sharing with her Uncle and this is when we took these cute shots!