The First Cool Snap

We had our first cool snap this weekend. 
I live for this time of year! 
I kept waking up very early Sat. morning because I knew it was going to be really cool and I could hardly wait to get up and open all the windows!  As soon as the girls got up I made them open their windows, which here in Lubbock means cleaning all the dirt off the window seal too, so they weren't very excited and pretty much just gave them another reason to thing I'm weird.
They'll understand one day...

Saturday was a great day. 
One we don't seem to have often. 
Cool weather, everyone was at home all day, we all watched football together, I got all the fall decorations and cooked a big pot of soup for dinner.   My favorite kind of a family day!

                                     Here is Kellie having her very first Pumpkin Spice Latte...



Today at church we had a great lesson on prayerful consideration vs. sinful worry.  What a great reminder it was and food for discussion for the girls and I this afternoon...

This afternoon I even found my girls lying in bed together watching a movie! It was like a little miracle! I had to bite my lip to keep from telling them how sweet it was!

It's been a great weekend!  What about yours?

A few fall things...

You know how much I love fall right?
I got out all the fall decorations yesterday. 
Katie asked why I decorate, "no one comes to our house"... there were two extra kids in the room when she said that to me...
I had my favorite Pumpkin dump cake at a friends while we were out of town and I can't quit thinking about it.  I'll be making it this weekend and eating it all.  Just fyi...

I bought goodies to "Boo" a couple of people at school and wanted to make some treats to go with them...

Luckily I decided to taste one because the white chocolate tasted weird... wonder how long that has been in my pantry... I want to make them again though... very quick and easy

I added some sprinkles to a cute jar... it is only a matter of time till Kellie shakes up the candy corn colors...It's killing her...

Katie hates my new twigs with old scary bird pictures... Personally I like the random branches...
I've started a cute wreath fall wreath... everything in the house is covered in orange burlap fibers but it will be cute...pictures to come...

This picture doesn't go with the others but Elvis loves his bed.  Last night he moved it right into my path and I almost fell over him in the dark this morning.... I think he might be trying to kill me...

A cool weekend

Katie's BFF lives with her grandparents who are young fun grandparents...
They have a house in Ruidoso, NM and have been inviting us to come for a weekend and this weekend we finally made it!
Thursday night while I was with her making the large amounts of spices that I'm excited about, I left my car at her house... I came home to some lovely decorations on my car

I then kidnapped the culprit and brought her home with me so her friend wouldn't have to clean it up alone...

It was a real treat driving home with toilet paper smearing the shaving cream around....

There was some quick cleaning when I got home and a car wash at 7 a.m. where I learned that you get a discount at that hour!

We got there Friday night, spent some time on the balcony and enjoyed the cool crisp night. 
What a treat...sleeping with windows open,  nothing we had to do... mountains, rain, cool weather, good company and other than major allergy problem I had while we were there it was wonderful!

We sat out and watched blue birds come up to get peanuts from us, watched for deer and had a leisurely morning!

Sleepy girls eventually got us up and moving towards a little shopping in the old down town area...

They seemed to enjoy the antique store we took them in....

They begged to go to the Old Time photo place

This one is really funny to me since Katie has such a fear of jail...

gun tote'n saloon girls, it makes a mama proud!

Kellie stayed with a friend while we were gone and from the pics she texted me, I believe she had fun too!

We even came home to cooler weather.  Is this just fall teasing me?  I hope it's beginning of my favorite time of year!  As soon as we got home, I opened windows, lit candles, and really wanted to get out the fall decor but held off on that!  There is a pot of potato soup in my future today though.

Everything goes by so fast, we should try to take mental pictures of the high points

You know there is nothing I like better than a good dreary day!  Today was just that.  Football has been on the t.v. all day and I only got out of my p.j.'s long enough to run to the store.
Here's some of what happened at our house today...

Kite flying...I think Kellie's kite may have been in another county at one point! 

Cake balls.  I have I told you of my love of cake balls?  Well, today I decided I needed to make a batch of carrot cake cake balls that may or may not resemble pumpkins.

They are not Bakerella worthy, but they taste good.  I put them in egg cartons to send to a couple of friends.

Katie has been asking for a cute Texas Tech dress that we are seeing a lot recently.  After looking at it in the stores, I decided that I could make it and it wouldn't cost $65 like buying it.  So, today we took one of my camp tee shirts that is too big now and tried it out. Worked great. Took an hour, very easy and looks just like the one in the stores...

And finially, there was some pumpkin carving....

A big pot of soup got both college student niece's to stop by to eat...It was a wonderful day. I'm tired now.

A quiet Sunday

Today I spent a little time getting a few fall things out. I lit all the fall smelling candles, baked more zucchini bread, and spent some time enjoying just being at home. The laundry is almost done, a rare thing around here...I even cooked dinner...it's been a very productive day

I worked on the Halloween wreath...

I saw this idea on a blog recently (I wish I could remember were to give credit) and decided I needed to borrow the idea since I already had the glass things on my mantle....

I found just the little skeleton I needed for this at Target. I had decided I wanted to do lights but needed something else. I was planning on going to Hobby Lobby tomorrow to look for a boa or something to add to it and today when I ran in Walgreen's they had this great black, feather boa on clearance for $1.75...bargin!

I couldn't get a good picture of the mantle as a whole... just know it's cute...

I love fall decor!

Rainy day Friday

It's been raining here in Lubbock for about three days. The first couple of days it was showers off and on... Yesterday it rained constantly. We got about 8" in 24 hours... here's the odd part...Lubbock doesn't have any drainage systems... I heard them say last night on the news that the roads are designed to be the drainage system...What??? How will that work??? Oh, wait, that doesn't work!!!!

When we were trying to get to dance last night, the boat would have been a better choice! It was crazy!!!

And here's the craziest part, school was canceled today. School. Canceled for rain and flooding??? I am just finding this to be the strangest thing!!! Since its not raining now I think I'll try to get to the grocery store and then come home and enjoy the rainy day at home... Maybe I can call some city officials and explain that if the roads weren't the 'drainage system' for the city we could be at school today! Maybe no one has ever pointed that out...

But I am thankful for the treat of a Fri. off!

An apple a day

If an apple a day keeps the Dr away then my cold should be gone and I should stay healthy for quite some time...

I drug the kids to the apple orchard on Sat. They actually enjoyed it until we saw ants the size of small dogs... I have never seen anything like those ants. Then we had to stand in line to pay for all the apples we picked, that's were they got hot and grouchy and were over the fun of the apple orchard. They enjoyed it so much in the beginning that they both insisted on their own cart to fill and wanted to check out many different rows of trees for just the right apples...

I didn't think of three carts of apples being a problem till I peeled 18 lbs of apples and still had a ton left! We have taken apples to all of the neighbors and I still have a whole drawer in the fridge full! I made a very large batch of apple butter and two apple pies.

Having grown up in a family that every summer would can vegetables, make 85 different kinds of pear preserves from one Aunt's huge tree, and buy 50 pounds of shrimp and put them in the freezer, 'putting up' things is a normal thing for me. My kids however, wanted to know if we needed food for the winter, was that why I was putting apples in jars. The youngest explained to me that she recalled seeing apples in the stores all year long...

If you need apples this winter, let me know.