Swoosh Turns One

I wrote this post about 9 months ago... 

Hard to believe, but our baby Swoosh turned one last week.  The first year of his life was so fast, yet it seems like he's been a part of our family forever.  We feel so blessed to have him.  He's started walking and absolutely loves being outside.  Whenever a door opens he's walking or crawling as fast as he can to try to get out.  He's his dad made over.  Here's some pictures from his first birthday party.

I ordered the printable sea life designs from HERE

 

 

Pin It

Pictures from the Weekend

Here's more pictures from our weekend at my mom and dad's farm. It was fun. The kids ran wild exploring the woods, catching butterflies, gathering eggs and swimming.

The good stuff in life for sure.

Good morning cows!



Swoosh...red faced and hot!

My grandpa Hank

Grandpa talking to the newest baby in the family...kids love him!



Going for a morning walk...yes, Happy Feet is still in her pajamas. 

Throwing rocks into the creek

Look at those muscles!

My mom made this scrap metal owl! She's so creative.

Freshly picked onions, carrots, peas, beans and broccoli

My sister cooked us lunch over mom and dad's kettle.  It was so good!

It's not even the dog days of summer yet, but it sure feels like it!

Pin It

Celebrating 66 Years with a Garden Party

This weekend my mom hosted a garden party.  It was a truly magnificent day.  We celebrated my grandparents 66th wedding anniversary with a brunch.  It was a girls only event.  Except for my grandpa...I think he kind of liked it that way. 

Mom asked all of the girls to dress up (that request isn't ever made).  She had us contribute to the meal and based the menu assignments on stuff we had pinned on Pinterest.  That made it interesting.  I made miniature frittatas.  Everything was delicious. 

We spent the entire day outside.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  We enjoyed catching up and just enjoying each others company.  We also got to meet my cousins sweet little girl.  She's seriously the happiest baby ever.

There was so much to celebrate.  Life is so precious, and God is so good!  I'm so glad he gave me Grandpa and Grandma D as an example of what marriage should be.  They are still madly in love and make each other laugh.  I love them.  I'm so glad to have their example in my life. 
 

The table setting

Celebrating 66 years of my grandparents' marriage

My cousin and her precious baby

My momma and my sisters, and me

I love this picture! I love how everyone is so loving this new little life.

Pin It

Parterre Gardening

   Do you know what a parterre garden is? I didn't either, not until my mom and dad designed one. According to Wikipedia, "a parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all."

  As we've started having some warmer days my thoughts lead to gardening.  I was looking at pictures on my computer and came across my mom and dad's garden. Their beautiful, beautiful garden.  Thought I would share it with you today. 

Aren't they lovely?  Hope you have a happy, cheerful day today!

Pin It

Red Shoes Goes to School

I'm going back....way back to August when Red Shoes started school.  It was a little different than I had anticipated his first day being.  I had pictured this in my mind many times. A happy yet tearful momma sending him off.  In some ways it seemed hard to believe that it was time for him to go. Yet, in many more ways it seemed like finally it was time. I don't mean for that to sound as bad as it does.  It's just with the 5 1/2 years of therapies (physical, occupational, speech) it seemed like we had been working towards this for a long time.    Does that make sense? 

As I've mentioned before I started back to work in August.  Earlier than I had ever anticipated, yet everything just seemed to lead me to believe that I was being called to go back.  I still do believe that if you're wondering. 

As a school counselor I am the one who schedules every student in the entire school. Pretty important that I'm present on the first day of school and early at that.   So, my first day with students was also Red Shoes' first day of kindergarten.  That didn't allow for too much time to ponder the emotions that normally go with sending your first born off into the world. Or, maybe if I'm being really truthful I had so much stirring inside that I couldn't even "get" it all.  I think I cried a few times.  Yes, I'm sure of it...just look at my puffy eyes in this picture.  My husband took the morning off to see Red Shoes off and to drive our daughter to her first day of pre-school.  A lot of firsts for our family on this morning. 

We're not so sure we can do this

 

He looks a little nervous, doesn't he?

 

Not so sure about this...

 

Got my groove on now!

It's going to be a great year!  (It has been too)

Pin It

2011 Harvest Party

Pin It

Menu Plan January 2-6

If you're wondering why all of a sudden I'm blogging again it's because I can. About the time I stopped blogging in August I started back to work as a school counselor.  I hadn't even thought about returning to work yet, but it felt like a God driven thing so I went with it. I'll share that story another time. It's a neat one.

I started back to work and had to take a class, and somewhere in the midst of all of that needed to take care of my family too,  so something had to give. I'm hopeful that I will be able to get back to this.  I have lots to catch up on, and I will.  Thought I'd start with our menu plan for the week.  My husband and I want to get back to healthier eating.  I pulled out my Comfort Food Diet Cookbook that I referred to many times before. Here's what we will be eating this week.

Monday-Slow-Cooked Sirloin
               Mashed Potatoes
               Green Beans

Tuesday- Black Bean & Rice Enchiladas

Wednesday- Spaghetti Pie
                     Garden Salad

Thursday- Easy Arroz Con Pollo

Friday-  Chicken Marsala (one of our favorites)
              Steamed Vegetables
              Orzo Pin It