Serious Potty Training

We have been working with Olivia for a while on her potty training. I can't believe she is old enough now to be doing this. Time sure does fly. Seems like only yesterday she was a newborn and pooping the tar-like stuff (sniffle, sniffle, wipe my crying eyes). She has done so well the past couple of days. Today she has been dry the whole day. She also has been waking up in the morning and after naps DRY. Anyway, now we are really serious!! She has a potty training chart and she gets to put stickers on it each day. I'm still thinking on the "bigger reward" for being dry the whole day. Also, I bought a package of the cotton training pants and a package of the plastic pants. I have heard good things from my girlfriends about them so I am very hopeful! We also upgraded to MM's for potty treats. 2 if she is dry, and 1 for each bm. She got three before nap time and giggled the whole time she ate them. It was so sweet. I'll have to keep her Daddy out of them or she won't have any potty treats. John LOVES MM's!! Since this is my first child to potty train we'll see how it goes. Like I said I'm hopeful. Livy will do great. If any of you Mommies out there have any potty training wisdom to share, I would love that. I know some of you have done this very recently and have been successful. So please, share!

I'm really praying about this potty training thing. I know that may sound weird, but I know that God cares about every part of our lives. Since He is apart of our day everyday, we will include Him in this. I love what my friend Meredith told me one time..she said, "Lora, God cares about everything that is going on in our lives EVEN potty training. God cares about when our kids use the toilet." I laughed and laughed but hey, she's right! Love ya Mere!

Cast all your care upon Him, for he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

God has taught me, anything that is a "care" to us God cares about too because he loves us.

Late Birthday Wishes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOSH AND LIBBY! Sorry guys. I have been preoccupied with other stuff lately. I'm the "not with it sister". Know that we love you!! Come down and we'll go to SDC. We only live about an 1hr. and 15min from the park. We got a coupon to get someone in for $10. Consider it a late b-day present.

Picky Chick

Well..not picky really..I just like to try new things. I wanted more color in my background. Isn't it cute! I think I've changed my background a couple of times today. The one I changed it to recently (today, if you saw it) was cute, but it wasn't the easiest to read my posts on(so John said..he was right). He likes this one, so I guess I'll keep it for a while or until I get the hanker'n to change it.

Halloween Costume Poll

Thanks to my friend Meredith's daughter Abby. Livy has a Halloween costume. Thanks Abby! She is going to be a ballerina-fairy-princess. It's really a conglomeration of the three, but she will look cute. Which do you like? Leave a comment and tell me. The light pink fits a little better but isn't as cute as the hot pink one. I still have to buy tights and some other things for the cold. I'll put her hair up with a big bow.

Light pink. Or....

Hot pink. I think she's hot!
Other accessories. Her treat-or-treat bucket. Yard sale find. I think I got it for .50 or a $1.

Sparkly shoes. Also courtesy of Abby Chamberlin

Even ballerina-fairy-princesses have to brush their teeth..

A Frosty Beginning

Good Morning. It's cold outside! The weather forecast said it was 30 degrees. Burrr! However the frost looks beautiful against all the autumn leaves, and the sunrise is the icing on the cake! God's world is simply gorgeous this morning. I also love how the sunrises after 7a.m. Thank you Lord!!

Livy was just waking up and wanted to watch Cinderella. Momma said, "after while". She loves that movie. While I was watching the sunrise this morning and looking at all the coldness outside. I was reminded of how awesome God is. My devotional was in the book of Psalms, chapter 143. This discribed what was going through my mind at that moment.

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

Psalm 143:8

One Of My Favorite Things

It's a sickness really. I love this stuff!!! I drank the last packet yesterday and..I really need to go get more! If you haven't tried this I highly recommended it! Although I won't be held responsible for what might happen once you drink it. The best way to drink it is to put just one scoop of vanilla ice cream in it after you have fixed the cocoa. It melts in. So good! Note, I said ONE scoop. Don't O.D. on the ice cream. At SDC they call it a "snowball'. I feel a trip to the Sunfest Foods is in order when Livy wakes up from her nap. Oh my, Mommas got to have her fix!

Kudos to John

My hubby carved a jack-0-lantern last night. He wanted to steer away from the "traditional" pumpkin carvings, so he tried his hand at a 3-D pumpkin. He looked at some carvings on-line and he liked this one. Can you guess what it is?

He said it was supposed to be a pirate. I think he did a pretty good job! I couldn't have done that!! This is what it looks like with the light off. Cool huh!?!?

Happy Early Anniversary To Us

I know it's early. Our anniversary isn't until December 7th, but we have to plan now because any hotel in Branson will be booked up! I found the greatest place. Actually we have friends that stay there once a year and said it was really great, so I can't take credit for finding it. The place we are staying at is The Bradford Inn. Click the name to check out the website. It is way cute!! It's a bed and breakfast. We are too excited!! This is our room we are staying in. It's called the "Mountain View" room.

We are excited about our Branson anniversary tradition. We love going to SDC (we met there)and Christmas shopping. It's a great time. Couples need to get away together!! It's important for us to have that time for each other.
YAHOO FOR ANNIVERSARY!!

My Wounded Weekend Warrior

This weekend about 30 men from our church went on a retreat to Shepherd of the Ozarks (known as SOTO). Saturday morning John and some guys went on a hike to get out in to God's beautiful creation. It is so pretty down there! They went caving. This is a picture from the mouth of the cave. A goat cave. (I don't know why it's called a "goat cave" maybe for mountain goats I guess???)During the caving expedition, John bumped his head on the cave ceiling. The ceiling was sharp and to make a long story short he gashed his head open. Our friend Jason took his shirt off to help stop the bleeding. Now that is a friend! Someone who will take the shirt off his back for you, quite literally! Thanks Jay.

Yes, I know..YUCK! Our friend Joe took John to the ER to get stitched up. When they got to the ER they said they would have to shave his head to give him stitches or they could staple the wound. John opted for the staples. He told me he wanted to keep what little hair he had left. Here is my warrior all fix up.

He got 7 staples. Poor sweetie!

John said other than the caving accident he had a great time. He will go back in 7 days to get the staples removed. Accidents do happen unfortunately..

When Boys Are Away, Girls Will Play

While John was away at SOTO, we had a sister's weekend. My sis-in-law Buffy and my sweet niece Bethany came. My sister Angela came too. Friday night we got together with some ladies at my friend Kim's house and visited for a while. Then Sat. we hung out, ate, and went to some antique places. Lots of fun. Buffy and Bethany left yesterday evening. Angela left late this afternoon. We had a great weekend. We are going start this as a yearly tradition.


This such a great picture of Bethany. She is a little sweetheart!

A Good Laugh

Our friend Nathan forward this to me in my email (Adrienne your hubby cracks me up!). Next season on "Dancing With The Stars"...

Don't think is partnership would work..... That is one of my fav shows. Nathan, you are too funny! It was a good laugh though.

Girls and Guns

We had Mommy group today at my friend Meredith's house. A couple of the gals made soup. Perfect day for that. I got some really cute pics of Livy and her friend Audrey. Audrey is a year and a few month older than Livy. Can't tell..

Cutie kids!!

After Mommy group, Livy and I met John at Colton's for lunch. He took the day off to deer hunt. He shot at a VERY nice buck but he said his gun misfired. He said it's one thing when it's your fault because you didn't aim right, but another when it's the gun. He has a good place to hunt so he knows he can go back and try again. I know you can do it babe!!

Little Lady at Play

This morning we were playing and Livy brought me the camera. Oh my, she's turning into her Momma. You all know how I love the camera. I got some fun pics of her at play. She's such a cute little chick. How I love being home!

Fall Fixins

Yesterday after smelling the apple butter that was cooking in the crock pot all day, I decided I would stray from the menu and fix breakfast. I so love breakfast at night! I made biscuits to go with the apple butter. Oh my word..so GOOD!!! Today I canned it up. Pretty yummy stuff. The recipe is below try it. It's so easy!!!





CROCK POT APPLE BUTTER

Put 3 quarts of apples, sliced thin, in a crock pot and cook overnight on high. Next morning, add 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cloves. Cook all day on low. Tastes like old-fashioned apple butter that is cooked in copper kettle.
You can use applesauce if you do not have time to prepare the apples. The crock pot makes it possible for apples to cook a long time without being stirred.


**A note from "the chick": You may want to taste as you add. I didn't add near the sugar because my apples were sweetened already (I used maybe 1/4 cup of sugar. I guess they have you add that much if your apples are really sour). If you use applesauce you may not want to add all that sugar. I added more cinnamon and cloves, but it's all what you like.

Cute Candy Corns!

Sorry Kim, I'm just now getting these out to use them. Oops... She gave me these salt and pepper shakers for my birthday last month. They are so cute! I had the urge to blog them. Sounds silly I know, oh well... I love them friend. Thank you.

Ode to Chrisie

Chrisie and I met in college our first year at BBC. We were both children's ministry majors and we have been great friends ever since. It was during that first year we met she felt God's call on her life to go to Indonesia. She has been in Southeast Asia for over 5 years. She sent me some pics the other day of a Bible study group she has started.


She's the only white American girl in the picture. The gal on the left.


She thought I would like this picture. She said this is how people will carry there babies. Notice the guy on the bike (right side of the picture).

Interesting huh...


She is coming to the states soon. I hope we can get together. She called me last time she was here, but it didn't work out that we could get together. We will make sure that we get to see each other this time! Can't wait!!

Apples + Deals=Sweetness

In my mind I have always equated Fall with apples. I put up apples today. This afternoon, I peeled a big Wal-Mart bag full of apples that I got from John's parents, plus I had the rest of a big bag I bought at the store. I was a peeling machine. I got apples put in the freezer for pies, crisps, and such (dessert is my favorite part of a meal!).

(that was about half way through)

This evening before bed I plan to start a big batch of "crock pot apple butter". I LOVE apple butter so! It brings back memories. My Momma used to make apple butter every year when I was a kid. It was quite tasty! I hope I can make Mom proud . I found a great recipe for the crock pot so, why not!?! It looks pretty easy. I'm making it with canned apples that I got from John's Granny. Last year! I don't know why I hadn't used them yet. I guess I was waiting for the right recipe. I'm pretty excited about being so domesticated today. I'll blog the recipe and the finished product later. I really need to make biscuits for the apple butter when it's finished!! I heart biscuits!!

Granny's apples + Kim's crock pot=yumminess (p.s. I need a big crock pot for Christmas..really bad!)

It gets even sweeter...on the way to Viburnum this weekend we came across a yard sale. I have been praying that I would stumble on to some play equipment for Livy. Well, John caught a slide/play house thing out of the corner of his eye. We turned around to check in out. The gal that was selling it wanted $10 but I asked her if she would take $7. So , we got it for $7. What a deal!!! Typically these things cost almost $100. We got such a sweet deal! Livy loves it. She didn't want to come in tonight. The slide has faded, but other than that it is perfect. It serves her playing purposes right now.

Our little "Arkansas wild woman" without shoes (thankfully the weather was very pleasant). God is so good to even provided those little wants for our kids.

The Weekend And Prayer Requests

After coming home from the craft festivals in Northwest AR. on Friday night, early Saturday morning we got up and headed for John's folks. We had a good visit however, Granny still is not good. We are thankful that we got to see her. Still praying for her. John's Dad is having some health problems too. He was in the ER last Thursday night. John and I thought it was a blessing that they didn't end up coming here to watch Livy while I was gone. It would have been hard to deal with the problem away from home. It's kind of a long story. Keep him in your prayers too.

It's late and I'm going to bed. Long day. Good night.

The Not So War Eagle Trip

Well, we didn't make it to War Eagle Mill this year, but we did go to our other regular stops. There just wasn't time to do it all this year. The back of Kathye's van was full of our stuff. I did make three purchases for the house. My most loved purchase is a black distressed shelf that is mounted on my living room wall. It is nice! The great thing about buying things there is that it is half the price that it would be at one of the local antique stores. We got some great deals and had a great time! We had a new comer with us this year. Our new Children's Director at church, Brittney came with us. Glad she was able to come experience the fun. Here's some pics.

War Eagle Road Trip

The weather is so very "Fall like" today and I'm going on yet another road trip. Me and three other ladies are going to the crafts festivals in Northwest Arkansas today. Yahoo!! I so love this trip! I look forward to it all year. We are head'n out later this morning. This trip really puts me in the Autumn mood. The weather, the food, and all the wonderful antiques are great. It's really kind of overwhelming there's so many great things! I'm tummy gets all tingly talking about it. We go to other places that have crafty and antique stuff, but the atmosphere at War Eagle Mill is pretty awesome!

Happy Autumn!

Sweet Girl + Sweet Icing

These are pics of our Mommies group we had last friday. A big thanks to my friend Meredith who email me these sweet pics. Livy so loved that icing! She is sweet enough all ready.

My Quest For Organization Continues..

Since Livy went to MDO today, I thought I would tackle a project that I have been meaning to do for a week, but have been procrastinating until today. I cleaned out my pantry, YAHOO! It was a mess! The shelves were soooooo dusty and everything was just nasty. Couldn't take it anymore!! We even had some empty containers (don't ask me why they were still there) and some stale things in our pantry. I took everything down off of the shelves and cleaned them with bleach. You know you have been using too much bleach when you get lightheaded so I opened some windows. Even our cat Twix was beginning to act funny. (who needs catnip..just use bleach!) The kitchen was a wreck! Here's the progress. Caution..it's not pretty!


YIKES!







The finished product!!!!
I'm proud of my shelves.


Pretty.


I thought I looked so good that I should blog it. It was about a two hour effort but totally worth it. Try it. It will make you feel good!

P.S. My sink is still shiny! :)