More 30th Birthday celebrations!

It seems like everyone around me is turning the big 3-0!  My college BFF's/sorority sisters/roommates (who just happen to be twins) turned 30 this past Friday and had a weekend full of celebrating!

We missed the Saturday night celebrations because we had a wedding to attend.  The wedding was beautiful and I got to chat it up with some old friends.  It was lots of fun!

Sunday morning bright and early, Don and I hit the road to Nashville to attend a Titans tailgate/game party for Jess and Jenn.  Their Dad had been planning this for months and bought 20 tickets for all of their friends to attend the game.  How nice is that?  We were on the 8th row in the end zone.  GREAT seats!  Oh, and it was all a surprise!  They had no idea we were coming so that made it extra fun!

Our signature pose!

Most of the girls...

Don was of course loving every minute:)

Their parents even had a Birthday message posted on the Jumbo-tron!  So sweet!

While we were enjoying the game,  Peeps, DeDe, Uncle Matt and Aunt Rach took Ellie to the Fall Festival at church.  I know she had a great time! Thank you to everyone who took care of our girl while we were gone!

We've got a fun night of hayrides and trick-or-treating planned with our good buddy Will and his parents.  You know there will be a full recap later this week.  Happy Halloween!

Scarecrow crunch

All thanks to Pinterest, I decided last minute to whip up a little treat bag for Ellie's MDO teachers and office ladies.

                                                                   Source: noragfiffin.typepad.com via Emily on Pinterest

I got to work late last night on some personalized Halloween tags and I thought they turned out pretty cute.  They weren't perfect and I would have preferred ones not so "Halloweeny" but they will do.

  This is an easy, yummy treat to hand out today.  It also made a TON!  I filled 8 treat bags generously with the mix.

In case you can't read the recipe on the picture, here it is again:

Small pretzel twists
Reeses Pieces candies
Autumn Honey candy mix (pumpkins & candy corn)
Wheat cereal (I used Kroger brand "Life")
Chocolate grahams (I used Kroger brand but will use Goldfish next time because they are much smaller!)
Caramel popcorn with nuts (I used Crunch' n Munch)

I just dumped it all into a bowl and mixed around with a large spoon.  I filled the bags and tied them with some black tulle and polka dotted ribbon.  That easy!

I hope they enjoy!

This little "punkin"...

...is 21 months old today!

I can hardly believe it!

Unofficial weight: 30 lbs. 5 oz.
Clothing size: 24 month, 2T and some 3T t-shirts
Shoe size: 6!  2T socks
Diaper size: 4
Favorite toy: Puzzles, babies, Barney, books, Elmo, coloring books and crayons
Favorite foods: Chicken nuggets, yogurt, apple sauce, string cheese, gold fish, mandarin oranges, occasional mac-n-cheese, newest food to try: pizza!

Taking your picture is actually a pleasant experience right now.  You say "cheese" and smile a lot more than  you used to.  This makes me happy!

You are talking up a storm!  You can now say "I love you", hungry, lunch (every meal is lunch!), "hold you" (means "pick me up!"), heavy (everything is heavy) and sooooo many more that I can't think of right now.

• You LOVE to color and draw and write.  
• You have started to hum and sing.  You even know a few words to Old McDonald and The Wheels on the Bus!

You are an absolute joy and we couldn't love you more!

Pumpkins and parties

I am sure my Facebook friends are ready to "hide" or "unsubscribe" from me by now.  I am a picture crazy mom these days.  Oh well...they don't have to look!

Anyway, we had a fun little weekend!

Yesterday we attended our friend Elam's 2nd Annual Halloween party!  As usual, everything was super cute and tons of fun.  The kiddos had a blast (and so did the parents!) and we all enjoyed hanging out and catching up.  There was a hayride, story time, a little craft project and yummy food.

Reading a story...

She stole Elvis' glasses!

 Kim made these super cute pumpkin-cats and we put stickers on their name tags!  

Ready for the hayride!

Today after lunch we finally made it to the pumpkin patch!  We went before nap time so we were unsure how it would go.  Thankfully, Ellie had a great time and wanted every "punkin" in that patch to be in our wagon.

Fun times...we are now mourning the thought of Fall break being over:(

Girls night in

Don headed to Jonesboro, Arkansas last night to see some former colleagues and watch the Arkansas State/Florida International game.  He had sideline passes and was even spotted on ESPN!

Since he was gone all night, I decided Ellie and I needed to have a little fun too! We did what any normal girls would do on a girls night...eat!  All kidding aside, we ate tomato basil pizza and baked Halloween cookies.  Ellie loved being my little assistant in the kitchen!

DeDe brought over a few Halloween goodies and included some Halloween cookie cutters.  It's pretty hard to tell what our cookies are supposed to be, but oh well.  I even let Ellie be in charge of BLACK sprinkles.  They were everywhere after we finished!

We had bats, pumpkins, ghosts, and tombstones.  Can't you tell?!?  Ellie got a little "sprinkle happy" on a few of the cookies!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor:)

It was a fun girls night with the sweetest little girl I know!  It was nice to just relax and play with her after being gone all weekend and working like crazy the past few days.

Too much football? No such thing!

Ohhhh, the things we do for our husbands!

I am a Memphis girl taught to "dislike" the color orange and bleed Tiger blue.
As a kid, Don had an orange bedroom with UT wallpaper and orange curtains.  Does that tell you anything?

I experienced Neyland Stadium a couple of times but only as a Tiger fan.  Unfortunately, that never ended well.  Ha!
Don grew up going to Knoxville and has shared countless memories of going to games with his Dad.  Can't help but love that:)

About six years ago when we were just dating, I attended my first UT game as a Vol fan.  Gasp!

This past weekend we went back and I have to admit, I was pretty excited myself.  We went with our friends Leigh and Cole and had a blast!

Don was SO excited all week leading up to the game.  Let's just say he was in his element and took full advantage of all of the fun to be had:)

 These two together are TROUBLE!

Vol fan or not, a game in Neyland Stadium is an experience.  Can't wait to go back next year!

In case you were wondering if we don't get to watch enough football, PLEASE don't worry. We still have a Titans game and an Arkansas State game in our future.

Thankfully, there is a light at the end of our never ending football tunnel.  Two more weeks of JCM ball is all that is left:)

Good morning!

Ellie just wanted to drop in and say "good morning!" to you!

This was taken this morning before school.  I have a feeling she is not going to be a morning person.  Drama!

Do you Pin?

A couple of months ago, I finally gave in and joined Pinterest!  Pinterest is basically a site full of ideas and inspiration from home decor and party planning, to recipes and clothing.  You create boards for different categories.  For example:  I have a "photography tips" board, a "my wish list" board, an "I like to eat" board, and so on.  In essence, it's a place for you to keep all of your online ideas and websites all in one place.  It really is genius!

I don't have much spare time to spend on there, but when I do log on...there are "pins" galore!  I have tried out a couple of ideas and so far, so good!

First off: chicken bacon pasta.  So bad, but so good!  I even lightened it up with turkey bacon, neufchatel cheese, and milk instead of the alternatives.  It was a hit with everyone in our house!

Board: I like to eat.  www.plainchicken.com

Next up...2 ingredient muffins!

Board:  I like to eat.  www.bigredkitchen.com

These have gotten rave reviews!  I just finished baking my own batch and cannot wait to try them. I "spiced" mine up a little bit with some mini chocolate chips and pumpkin pie spice.  Yummo!

This recipe is SO easy, and I had all of the ingredients in my pantry!  That's my kind of baking:)  All you do is mix the cake mix with the can of pumpkin until combined.  I then added my chocolate chips and a few sprinkles of pumpkin pie spice.  Spoon into your muffin tin and bake!  It's that easy.

Lastly, I went with this easy hurricane candle idea.  I just took my Southern Living at Home hurricane, filled it with candy corn, and inserted a scented white candle in the center.  Voila!

         

                                                   Board:  Holiday.  www.womansday.com

I have big plans for wreath making, teacher gifts, holiday baking, and Ellie's 2nd birthday all in one place.  What have you pinned?