I just love it when they get along!

My kids are starting to get to that point where they annoy each other at times. A lot of times they do well together, but there are days where it seems they are just out to bug the other one. This morning was one of those great mornings. Drake had woken up before Hadley and was watching a cartoon when he heard Hadley in her room talking. So, he went in and crawled in her bed with her and they played together, laughing and having a good 'ol time for probably half an hour. I tried to video tape it but I think I waited too long and I had missed all the giggling. It was so cute! Here is a picture just before they both got out of her bed.

Leaves and Pizza

The leaves were getting a little out of control and I knew yesterday was going to be the last fabulous day to do anything about them for awhile. Of course, with the time change and it getting dark earlier, I knew afternoon was going to be my only shot at it. So, Drake was perfectly content to play in the backyard while I mowed/mulched the leaves. Hadley, however, really does not like the mower. So, I either have to hold her while I'm mowing or watch her cry on the deck the whole time I mow. I decided I would try holding her this time and mowed about half the backyard with her on my hip, mowing one-handed. Then, my arm couldn't take it anymore, so I put her in a chair on the deck with her baby and she soon fell asleep to the hum of the mower. I couldn't believe it, she rarely falls asleep anywhere but her bed. I had Drake run in and get the camera so I didn't have to shut off the mower, for fear of waking her up.


Then, later in the afternoon we got a call from some good friends who were coming over for a surprise visit AND they were bringing the fixings for homemade pizza! We had some yum-0 pizza and fun conversation while we waited for Gabe to get home from his late night at work. He got home around 7:30 and then we stayed up late talking and laughing while the kiddos snoozed away.

November?!?

I can't believe it is November- not only can I not believe we're in the 11th month of 2008, but the weather is also amazing for November! Today, after church, we did away with our normal routine of eating a quick lunch so we could get home for naps because the day was too good to pass up outside. So, we grabbed some lunch at a yummy sub shop and took it to Washington Park. This park is breathtaking right now with so many big, old trees with amazing colors. We had a picnic on a blanket at the park and let the kids run around and enjoy the awesome weather. I just had to take some pictures of this perfect fall day. After we finished at the park, Hadley was sound asleep within seconds of getting in her car seat and Drake was saying he was ready to lay down when we got home. I think the fresh air did everyone right.

Hadley's usual "cheese" face!

Warning: I'm Advertising for Uppercase Living!

That's right, I'm doing my own free advertising!

As many of you know, I have started selling Uppercase Living. If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should. It's an amazing product, if I do say so myself. I have put many around our house and love them! They are vinyl expressions that you can apply to just about anything: glass, walls, wood, mirrors, etc... AND they are removable without damage to your wall! Anyway, I have been working on a few giveaway items and Christmas gifts and wanted to share them. (Hopefully the recipients are not reading this.) The gifts I have pictured below are very inexpensive to make and you can personalize them which makes it even more fun! If you are interested in ordering anything, orders to be received by Christmas must be placed by December 2nd! You can check out the link above to see the whole catalog with hundreds of phrases, word or embellishment expressions or go into MyDesign Tool to design your own sayings or initials.

This one is in my living room. It says HOME in black and "where your story begins" in mocha brown. That's right, you choose the color(s) for every expression you want!

Glass blocks from Menards= $3.24/each
4 inch ornament embellishment in soft gold=$4.00

(all embellishments are $1.00 per inch)
Spool of ribbon =$1.00-$3.00
Letter P made on MyDesign Tool=$1.25
(4.5 inch, Chocolate Box Font)
Total for ornament block= $8.24 plus leftover ribbon
Total for letter block=$6.49 plus leftover ribbon

These 4x4 tiles below are from Lowe's. I made them into coasters by adding cork pads from the Dollar Tree on the bottom-on each corner. Then, I added a personalized look by creating a 3 inch M in MyDesign Tool and a 3 inch embellishment, both in chocolate brown. I made a total of 4 coasters, 2 with M's and two with the embellishments to make a nice set as a gift.
Total cost for the entire set= $9.30

Quick trip

Last Wednesday, Hadley, my mom and I headed down to Nashville for a few days. We stayed with my sister and she graciously hosted an Uppercase Living show while we were there. I also attended a Regional Conference for Uppercase Living and saw some really fun ideas. We had a fun time and the littlest cousins got a little playtime in. Drake got to stay home with Papa Ken and Nana for a day and then got some good daddy time. These are a few shots from the week.

Celebration

This morning, I told Drake that we were going to go to Lincoln because today was the day that Papa died last year so we were going to go take Grammy out for lunch. He said, "So, you mean we're going to celebrate Papa with Grammy?" I said, yeah that's a great way to put it. Then, he said "Let's have coffee at Cracker Barrel because that's what Papa and I liked to do." That really made me smile because that is a perfect picture in my head. However, our plan kind of back fired because I thought we would make this a surprise to my mom and just show up. But it seems some of her friends had already made plans to take her out for the day so we missed her! So, instead we made a trip by the cemetery and then went and had a little play date with the Stuckeys. Drake did get to talk to Grammy on the phone this evening though and we found out that Kara and Bart made an honorary trip to the donut shop today in memory. I'm so glad my dad liked to eat fun things!

Drake-o-lantern

We took advantage of our Monday off by carving a pumpkin. This was Drake's first attempt at carving. He was very excited about it before hand and really wanted to make a pumpkin pie with it too. However, as you can see from his face, after Gabe got the top of it off, the insides really grossed him out. So, we just baked up the seeds and made a nice looking Jack-o-lantern. Drake also planted two of the seeds in the back yard and checks every day to see if there are pumpkins yet.