Trick or Treat!

Tonight I took Brock and Ava to the Halloween carnival and trick or treating on campus.  Ava had the best time! She loves halloween, especially the candy.  We met our neighbors and they went with us.  They were M and  M's and they were SO cute!!  We only had time to go to 2 residence halls, which was enough.  Ava got a TON of candy! 

Ava playing pumpkin bowling at the carnival. 

Trick or Treat!!  Ava wore her vest the whole time we were trick or treating she was so chilly!

I love this picture of all of them, they look SO cute and they are SO happy!

Halloween Fun!

Tonight I took Brock and Ava to a Halloween party at the Boys and Girls Club in our town.  Ava dressed up like an 80's girl and Brock (and all of his friends-ha ha) were too cool to dress up so he didn't dress up. 

The party was a lot of fun they had a costume contest, haunted house, gross anatomy room, games and lots of food.  It was a lot of fun!!    They got SO much candy!

Ava with her friend Olivia

We came home and got ready for bed and now we are watching the Yankees!  Brock is the biggest Yankees fan and he is SO excited they are in the World Series!

Tomorrow night we are going to a halloween carnival and to trick or treating on campus, it should be fun!  Friday Brock and Ava don't have school so we are going to stay home and relax!  I can't wait!

Outside fall decorations

I meant to post this on Friday when Kelly did her tour but I didn't get it up in time.  Anyway, I LOVE decorating the outside of our house for fall.  I didn't buy anything new this year because I think I have enough fall stuff, I didn't even put all of it up this year.   And I  didn't e buy any Mums this fall because I didn't have the time.  We still have to buy pumpkins to carve for Halloween. 

I really like this cute scarecrow, I got it at a craft fair a couple of years ago

Welcome to our Pumpkin Patch!!

This wreath is on our side door, I made it with my friends a couple of years ago.  I love it!  I always put my best wreath on this door because this is the door that everyone uses all the time to come into our house.   

I made this last year at our craft club.  The old fence is from my friends yard.  They took out this fence and put in a new one.

Our halloween flag

The wreath on our front door, I got this from ebay

These last two are Brock and Ava's favorite decorations.  I am not a fan of these but they love them so I put them up every halloween just for them :)

Happy Fall!!

Weekend wrap up!!

This weekend was kind of a girls weekend for Ava and I because Graig is still in his busy travel season for work (he gets home Friday thank goodness!!) and Brock went on his first ever middle school retreat with our church. 

Brock with his friend before the retreat

Friday night after we dropped Brock off for his retreat Ava and I came home and I made Pasta wih chicken, tomato and feta.  It's a Martha Stewart recipe and I never make it when the boys are home because they would NEVER eat it.  They are  meat, and potato kind of guys, they would never eat anything with feta or basil, ha ha!  Ava LOVES it!

Here is the recipe it's soooo good!!

12 ounces ziti (or other small tubular pasta)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (I just used the juice from one lemon)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 pound plum tomatoes cut into chunks (I used 5 tomatoes)
3 cups shredded chicken (Martha used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, I used leftover grilled chicken)
1 cup torn fresh basil leaves
In a large pot cook pasta until al dente, according to package directions, drain; rinse well under cold water. Transfer to a large bowl; toss with olive oil, lemon juice, feta, tomatoes, chicken and basil; season generously with salt and pepper.  Serve at room temperature or chilled. 

Saturday Ava had a friend over and I spent the day cleaning and  organizing our house.  It's a NEVER ending job!!    I cleaned out so many closets and drawers, when I was done I had 6 bags to donate!!  Unfortunately, I still have more to do!

The leaders of Brock's retreat called me Saturday afternoon and said Brock had a fever.  Poor thing he was so sick last night when he got home.  We didn't do too much today I think Brock and Ava are both a little under the weather so we just stayed close to home today and didn't do much of anything except relax and hang out and get ready for the busy week ahead. 

Pep Rally!!!

Last night we had a pep rally at the College where I work to get ready for Homecoming which is this weekend!  I took Brock and Ava and we met a few of my co-workers and their kids there.  All of the sports teams were introduced and the dance team, cheerleaders and kickline performed (Ava LOVED watching the cheerleaders and dancers that was the best part of the night for her!)  It was a great way to start homecoming weekend.   

Doesn't Brock looked thrilled!  Ha Ha

Ava (with ALL her polka dots) with her friend Marty.  They gave out Rally towels at the Pep Rally and Ava got about 10 of them, she cheered really loud and the athletes threw her a lot of them throughout the night. 

My interns went too, they loved the rally towels

Night under the stars!

Tonight my friend Chris and I took our kids out for pizza and then we went to the Planetarium on campus to see a show on astronomy.  It was a fun night.  I'm glad we decided to go together, both of our husbands are traveling for work this week so it was nice to do something fun and different together!

Here is a picture of Jake and Ava before the planetarium show.  They are SO cute together.  I love Jake's glasses!  Ava and Jake have been friends since the day they were born!  Chris and I work together on campus and they were born a month apart.  They went to the same daycare and preschool.  Tonight Jake said he wanted to grow up to be a college soccer coach (so cute because Chris is the swimming and diving coach at our College) and Ava said she wanted to be a dance teacher and she wants to work at Dairy Queen (umm maybe we go there too much! ha ha)

Brock getting ready for the show to start. 

After the show we looked at some animals they have on display.  Brock and Ava LOVED this bobcat. 

After the show I decided to take some pictures of Brock and Ava for our Christmas card.  For once, I want to try to order our Christmas cards early.    Anyway, I took about 50 pictures of them and I think I will have to take about 50 more to get a good one!  ha ha (I know their clothes don't match each other, I am going to print the picture in black and white or sephia so it doesn't matter)

Winter Storm Watch!

Tonight-Saturday night our area is under a winter storm watch!  It is SO cold here, it has snowed a little bit all day long.  It isn't sticking thank goodness, I just can't believe that it is ALREADY snowing, it's not even Halloween yet!  Graig was talking to some of the other baseball coaches tonight on the phone and they were talking about cancelling the baseball games scheduled for Satuday because of SNOW!  If that happens that will be a first for Brock!

When I came home for lunch today I had a TON of magazines in my mailbox, this month they all came at once.  I can't wait to read all of these over the weekend, especially if it is snowy and yucky out I will just want to stay home and relax.  I wanted a picture of all of the magazines so Ava put them all out and displayed them and took a picture of them with my iphone. 

Speaking of Ava she had a field trip today.  They visited a farm so she had to dress really warm, I love this outfit she picked out, she is such a cutie pie!

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday, we are looking forward to the weekend!!

My favorite fall scents

For the past few weeks Bath and Body Works has had their big candles on sale for 2 for $20 which is great because usually they are $20 each!  These candles make your WHOLE house smell good!  My two favorites are:

Spiced Cider A warm, magnetic scent that mulls three varieties of fresh apples spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves.

Pumpkin Patch-The perfect blend of fresh pumpkin, ground cinnamon, brown sugar and vanilla cream.

If you have a Bath and Body works get over there and get these candles, they will make your whole house smell like fall!  They are the perfect fall candle :)

Brrrrr

It has turned SO cold here, I can't believe how chilly it is.  I got out all of our winter clothes this weekend and I am thinking about some fall/winter recipes that I want to make for our family. I love when the weather turns cold and I can make hot, filling dinners like  pot roast, vegetable soup and chili.

Here is my recipe for chili (actually it's my Dad's recipe, he passed it down to me and hopefully one day I will pass it down to Brock and Ava, right now they STILL don't like it but I know eventually they will LOVE it like I do!)  I make this a few times a month in the fall and winter.  It freezes really well and it is really easy to make.

Dad's chili

1 small onion diced

2 lbs ground round (browned and drained)

1 large can of tomato juice

3 cans of hot chili beans (do not drain add the beans and juice)

1 large can + 1 small can diced tomatos (do not drain add the tomatos and juice)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon chili powder (you can add more or less depending on how you like it)

1 teaspoon hot chili powder (you can add more or less depending on how you like it)

simmer on stove for 1 hour

serves 8 people

I love my chili with LOTS of crackers and shredded cheddar cheese.  Cornbread is also delicious with chili.  I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

Happy Monday!!

Leaving on a jet plane

Today I got our plane tickets for our Thanksgiving trip to visit my family!!  I am so excited to see them I can't wait to see them all!!  Only Brock and I are going this time.  Ava is going to Colorado with Grandma Jan  to visit Uncle Garth and Aunt Jill.  Garth works on a ranch and they just finished building a new house.  Grandma Jan likes to take Brock and Ava on special trips alone each year so they get to spend time together.  I think they will have a great time!!   Graig is going to stay home to work, we are going to miss him but we will have have fun seeing everyone from my family!    We love to go out to eat and go shopping, my two favorite things so we will have fun!! 

Here are some people we will visit:

Papa Bob (this is Brock, Ava, and PaPa in front of his house in Wyoming last summer)

Grandma Rose and Aunt Shelby

Aunt Shelby and Uncle Ryan

While Brock and I are in Illinois Ava and Grandma Jan will be visiting Uncle Garth in Colorado.  Here is Brock and Ava with Uncle Garth last year. 

weekend projects!

I really want to work on a few fall projects this weekend, I hope I have time to get to all the things I want to do,  here are some things I want to try. 

I LOVE this idea from Angie at the Happy Homebody.  It is so simple and easy and it looks so cute!  I got this picture from her blog and the directions are here.  I can't wait to work on this project!

Last year I made this pumpkin topirary and  I loved it.  It was on our entertainment center and I kept it up until Thanksgiving, I saved the berries and little pot so this should be another easy weekend project. 

I also have a silver tray that I want to paint with chalkboard paint and some shutters that I want to paint.  So I have a weekend full of projects ahead!

Happy Friday!

 

Monogram mania!!

Lately I have been obsessed with monograms and all things personalized.  I am constantly on the lookout for E's and I love looking on Etsy for cute personalized things that I can buy.  My last two etsy purchases have been for monogrammed items.  Here's a peek at what I bought.

 I bought two name signs from Susie Harris.  I LOVE them!!  I found her blog a while ago and I LOVE reading it, she has such great style.  Her signs are perfect!

I also LOVE the rub on vinyl monograms.  They are such an easy way to spruce up things that you already have in your home.  I painted all three of these things with paint from the Distressed for Success kit from Caromal Colours.  I loved that kit so much, I painted so many things in our house with that kit-ha ha!  Anyway, I got the monograms from  decal monograms on etsy.  Ava loves helping me put these on, they are so easy and I did all three of these in less than 10 minutes!  I love those kinds of easy projects. 

Weekend update!!

This weekend was BEAUTIFUL!!!  We had perfect weather.  I will give you a quick update on what we did.

Friday-Brock and I went to the blessing of the animals at our church.  They had ALL kinds of animals there from goldfish to horses!!  We brought our dogs Daisy and Cotton.  It was raining so they had the blessing inside the church, it was so funny to see all those animals inside our chuch.  The horses did stay outside-ha ha! 

Brock with Cotton

Saturday-The usual, cheerleading, ballet, and baseball.  I took Ava to a sale at her dance studio and she got 5 cute dance outfits, that she can play dress up in for $20!!  Saturday afternoon she had some friends over and they dressed up in the costumes, they had SO much fun! 

Sunday-In the morning we all walked in the annual Pit Run and in the afternoon we went shopping with Grandma Jan in Binghamton.  Ava really needed some new fall clothes so she got a few new outfits. We also went to Homegoods which was fun, because it was Grandma Jan's first trip there, she LOVED it! 
Ava modeling her new vest, gloves and hat. 

Have a good week!

I have seen everything!!

Last night was a big night for Brock and Ava!  Brock started his middle school religious ed classes at our church, St. Mary's and Ava had her Open House at school. 

Brock was SO nervous about going, he didn't tell me but I can always tell-ha ha!  They have kids from 7th-10th grade together in one group and I think it was a little overwhelming for him.  In elementary school each grade is seperate.  Tonight he is going to go to youth group and he is going on an overnight retreat with our church youth at the end of this month! 

While Brock was at religious education, Ava had her Open House at school.  She was SO proud to show us her classroom and all of the projects and papers she has been working on so far this year.  She has the same teacher. Mrs. Andrews, (she is wonderful!) from last year,  her school does looping so kids have the same teacher for 1st and 2nd grades which is really nice. 

After we got done with the Open House we went to pick up Brock and then we made a fast trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond because I was reading on Our Suburban Cottage that they now carry Amy Butler patterns.  I was so excited!  I think her things are SO cute, anyway while we were there Ava found a Snuggie for dogs.  You know those infomercials they have on TV?  They now have a DOG version.  Ava really wanted me to get one for our dogs!  We didn't get one but I did take her picture with it, I knew Graig would think it was SO funny!

Happy Friday!!