Happy Halloween

From Princess Cinderella and her Knight in Shining Armor!

Lots more pictures to come from our weekend filled with Halloween festivities (can't believe that there is still more trick or treating tonight?!)...but we didn't want to miss the chance to tell all of you that we hope you have a SPOOKtacular day and night!  Be safe!

Super Stars!

Yesterday morning I was able to eat breakfast with the kids at school before their big vocabulary parade/student of the month assembly!  Then, I joined the other parents in the courtyard for the vocabulary parade.  Each student had to pick a word and then decorate a crown or a t-shirt describing that word.  Kyan made his in class, while Lola's crown was made at home!  

Kyan walked around in the parade like a tropper, waving his pom-pom with the biggest smile on his face!  

 

Why no picture of Lola?  Oh she just cried {and I wish I would have snapped a picture of her, because it was hilarious}.  I knew that it was going to happen.  The jets were flying over and the echo through the school was super loud!  Plus, the amount of people that were there was just too much for her to handle.  She is crazy.  But, I was hoping that she could get herself together, because what she didn't know was that she was the student of the month in her preschool class and she was going to receive her award in about 10 minutes! 

Another reason why I went to their school yesterday!  I wanted to be there when Lola received her award!  She was already the star of the week a few weeks ago, now the student of the month!  Her teachers are killing me!  As if her head isn't already big enough?!  Her tears turned into smiles as soon as they showed her the crown and she gladly traded the one mommy made for her student of the month one!

The assembly was outside for the first time and it was kinda hard to hear, but it was so pretty and Lola grinned from ear to ear as she received her award!  No crying that time around!

We caught up with "brothie" at the assembly and snapped a picture or two with him!

He was very proud of his little sis!

Last, we had a doughnut and milk together before she had to go back to class!

 Best two hours I have spent in a long time!

Love Letters

This weekend Chad and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary!  Surprisingly, I remembered how many years it was this time around, usually I am a year off!  It has become a pretty big joke between us.  Guess it just took me that long to figure it out!  Love you boo.

  We spent the evening eating at Ah-So, something we have done with each anniversary, and then at the local high school football game with the kids, where they loved seeing their babysitters and the band/cheerleaders perform!  After we tucked the kids in bed, we sat down for my absolute favorite part of our anniversary...our love letters.

 This is hands down the best idea we have ever been given {thank you Rae Lynn}, and one that I try to pass down to every one that I know that is getting married or is already married.  Honestly, one does not need to give gifts, the power of words are more incredible than anything I know.

With each year, we open a letter written from the previous year from our partner.  On our wedding night, we sat down together and wrote our first letter to each other on fancy Hawaiian paper provided to us by our hotel {that was our first and probably our last time we wrote on fancy paper, now we write on whatever is laying around and seal it in a used envelope from a card someone else gave}!  On our one year anniversary we opened those first letters from each other.  When we were done wiping away the tears from our eyes {me for sure} we wrote our next letters to be opened on year two.  We have done this every year since.  I cry each year, and each year I go back and read old letters to each other.  It is a reflection of how we have grown together, as a couple and as a family.  I believe that it is never too late to start these letters. I am so grateful we have done them from our start.

Spreading my love of our letters this week at some of my favorite places.

An old door as decor!

The wall space above my bed has been missing something for over two years, but I have never been able to put my finger on what that something is.  I knew I wanted to make a sign of some sort that was on a large scale {our master bedroom is quite large}, but had no clue how to pull it off.  The hubs and I always say, "calmer than you are" to each other so I really thought that I would do something along those lines.  However, when I saw a picture on Junk in the Trunk's blog, featuring items for sale at a recent sale they held, I had full intentions of purchasing their sign or going to see it in person to see how I could create my own!

When my mother-in-law got to the sale, I immediately spied the sign and then looked at the price.  It was worth every penny, but I needed something a little bigger and the bigger I had to go the more moo-lah I was going to have to fork over.  So I passed on their sign, but it gave me a really good idea for how to make my own.  As we waited in the forever long line at the sale, I spied the most beautiful, old, chippy door I have ever seen.  But it was inside the barn, so I figured it must be sold already.  I didn't want to make assumptions on something so beautiful, so with fingers crossed, I found out that the door had not sold and it became mine, as it was the perfect colors and size to hang above our bed!

Pretty huh?

With a can of paint from the local ReStore {for only $5}, a pencil and two different types of brushes, I went to work.  I figured if I messed up, I had one more shot to correct it on the other side!  Lucky for me, it worked the first time around!  I very lightly sketched out the word love {kept it simple and thought the original quote would be too much for the door}.  I then began tracing it with the yellow paint.  It is far from perfect, but matches the look of the old door perfectly!

I thought about distressing the yellow, but when I started to, it took off even more paint from the door, so I stopped.  It was chippy enough.

No matter how much I loved it, it sat for about another three weeks.  You see, this sucker is big, old, and heavy {6 and 1/2 feet x 2 and 1/2 feet of solid wood}!  I knew it would require much more than a nail to hang it up and it would depend on when the hubs got tired of my whining to do it for me!   

He must have been sick of it, because it went up this weekend and WOW is all I can say!  I knew I loved it just sitting in the garage waiting to be hung but it looked so much better actually hung on the wall, where it felt like it always belonged!

I won't even begin to tell you how he hung it, because I have no clue.  He did tease me several times though by saying that a true DIYer could hang this on her own.  Seriously?!  Thanks babe, I love you too.  Just hang the door!

Once it was up, I didn't want to leave the room.  I just stared at it {and took pictures} from about every angle!

No matter where I stood in the room, the door looked amazing!  

It was just what the room needed and is my favorite piece of artwork in the house!  Especially when it comes in at under $50!

And just because I like a little before and after...

So...what do you think?  Love it too?!

Have you ever used a door as decor in your own home?

 Linking up with my favorite party people, including Crystal B.'s....Inspired By {a new party, you should head over}!

Fall Ball

Kyan started up baseball once again and today marked the first game of the fall 2011 season!  

 I know every mama on the team might disagree, but I happen to think my boy is the cutest little slugger out there!

 Kyan LOVES the fact that Chad is the "helper" coach!  It is nice to see both boys out on the field!

 The "Cardinals" {very original, I know} had quite the crowd cheering them on today!

Love that grandma Donna was able to catch the game!

Cutest fan for sure in her vintage red dress!

Three little girls, all in preschool.  Three little sisters to three BIG brothers.  Three BIG brothers, all of which happen to be first graders!  Small world, lots of cuteness.

 Our Champs!

Looking forward to many more Saturday morning games!

Lake Havasu

We snuck away for a quick weekend in Havasu with friends!

My girlfriend, Candis is from there and is always looking for an excuse to get everyone together, and she put together a little trip for everyone to show off her hometown!  I am pretty sure we ate at some of her most favorite places {I was having flashbacks}.  The last time I joined her on a trip was her bachelorette party!  It was nice to enjoy the town as a family!

 And I know that I can always leave it up to Candis to say at one point or another, "It's Havasu so...!" and she didn't disappoint!  Love it when she talks Havasu to me ;)

We got in pretty late and decided to just crash!  Boys slept in one room and girls in the other.  The kids thought this was so cool that they got special snuggle time with mommy and daddy!  It was fun, until the second night, when Lola and I got stuck on the pull out bed.  Ugh.  I mean, I know it was only fair that I had to sleep on it one night, but the hubs did NOT tell me that you could feel every single coil possible.  I would have tried a little harder to figure out a way to sleep in the good bed the second night.  Let's just say that I am still sore.

 Throwing rocks into the lake before breakfast.  Who knew this could be so fun? 

Ahhhh, breakfast!  I feel like I need to tell you about the highlight of my trip!   

Saturday morning we headed to breakfast as a big group.  Try seating eight adults and six kids together in hopes that others around us can enjoy a somewhat peaceful meal!  The conference room worked perfectly for that!  While waiting for everyone to arrive something CrAzY happened to me!  For the first time ever in my history of blogging, a total stranger came up to me and said that she recognized my blog!  I probably seemed like a snob and didn't really know what to say?!  Inside I was seriously doing cartwheels and doing the happy dance, someone recognized little old me?!  It came outta no where!  I mean, I know there are strangers out there that read about us every time I post {somehow I managed to snag almost 300 followers}, but it just caught me off guard!  I didn't even ask her name or her blog, so if you are that cute little stranger that had enough guts to come tell me you were a reader, PLEASE leave a comment so that I can come visit you and see if you ever got around to making those yummy peanut butter cups!  I mean, you made my whole trip up to Havasu and my hubs couldn't stop teasing me about it!  Thank you!

Now, back to the regularly scheduled post.  After my 15 minutes of fame, we headed to the beach!  This was by far, my kids favorite part of the trip!  In fact, when given the choice on Sunday to go to the pool or the beach, they chose the beach, no questions asked!

Kite flying, sea shell finding, swimming, sand castle building were among the many things the kids did together!  Have I said how much I love the ages of my kids?  It is amazing to watch them play together and independently without my help {giving me more time to just snap away}!

They really are growing up so fast.

After a few hours of hangin' out, the little ones headed back to the appropriate rooms to nap.  Perfect time for the mommies to shop!  Candis, Lisette, Kat, and I headed across the bridge to cram as much shopping time in as possible before naptime was over {my kids did not nap, Lola probably could have used one though}.

After shopping time was over, it was time to get ready for dinner.  The kids took advantage of the gigantic jacuzzi tub located in the bedroom and scrub-a-dub-dubbed until their little fingers and toes looked like that of old people!

Then it was off to dinner with friends.  The kids were running around like wild animals before dinner and I am sure the hostess was doing everything she could do to find us a table away from everyone, just like at breakfast!  Matix and Lola licking the window on the door was just the start of the craziness that was happening!

 And poor little Kyan got cut out of the picture, but he was there!!!

After dinner, we headed straight to bed...again!  You would think that we never sleep!  The day in the sun had us wiped!

We had breakfast as a family of four this time and then headed to the beach to get in a little bit more play time before we headed home to see Grandpa and Grandma Nebraska!  On our walk back to our room after breakfast, we walked out on one of the floating docks to pose for a picture!  I am so bummed that I didn't get a single picture as a family the whole weekend {ok, I am talking like we were there for a long time, but it seriously was like 40 hours}!  I did however, manage to snag some with my babies!

Lola was so nervous, with the dock shaking and everything, that I had to hold her and Kyan and his bucket of shells!  That is all they did, collect shells.  Both of them, but especially Kyan spent countless hours searching for those things!   He says when he is 10 he is going to open a shop and sell them and lemonade!  He wants to sell lemonade so bad!  Poor kid, I always donate stuff to goodwill, I am too lazy to have a sale, he will probably never sell a glass of lemonade in his life!  But it is good to have dreams!

We were the last family to arrive, as I had parent/teacher conferences Friday and the first family to ship out Sunday, as Chad wanted to spend some time at home before work Monday!  I ended my trip with a smooch from cutie pie, Nixen.

 And what a way to end a quick little getaway!

Thank you Creels for making this trip happen! 

Supper Club - Fall {2}

 We made it a full year and it was really fun to meet again at the first couple's home for round two!

 Say Goodbye to Summer and Fall into Fall was the theme of this year's supper club and wowzer was the menu delicious {not to mention filling}!  A warning should definitely come with this one and it goes a little something like this; no matter how delicious the appetizers are {and there are three} don't do seconds, remember the small portions rule {it is so hard though when the food is so good}, and lastly, wear stretchy pants, you're regular ones aren't going to fit afterwards!

*One would think that my husband would just cooperate and take a picture with me by now, but no matter how much I beg {as seen in pictures below} it is work to get one to go up there with the couples pictures!  I think I kinda like our goofy ones better...but still, just cooperate!

Love them.

How The Supper Club works:

1. No kids.
2. The host comes up with the menu and then divides out the recipes to each of the supper club members to prepare for the party (we have four parties per year, each couple takes a season).
3. The host always provides the main dish/side dish with a variety of beverage selections.
4. Remember that it is sometimes best to semi-prepare your dishes and do last minute baking, chilling, slicing, or arranging at the home of the host.
5. Menu items should be new and adventurous.
6. Portion sizes must be small so that you have room to taste every course of the evening, so feel free to reduce recipes in half where ever you see fit.

The menu:

Click on the name of the food/drink and it will take you right to the recipe!

Cocktail

Peppery Punch

Appetizers

Zucchini-Corn Fritters with Creamy Garlic and Chive Dip

Bacon Wrapped Potatoes with Honey Scallion Sauce

Eggplant Ricotta Bites

Salad

Tomato, Red Onion and Rocket Salad with Fried Egg, Grilled Chorizo and Grilled Provoleto Crostini

Main Course

End of Summer Veal Milanese

Apple-Sausage Mac and Cheese

Dessert

Open-Faced Plum Tart

Hungry or full looking at the pictures?  My mouth happens to be watering!  Just like I say after each menu, the food was delicious!  

It was so filling and we had to take some serious breaks in between courses.  Never in our first year have we been so full, or had to break so much, but it was worth it!  On one of our many breaks we played a rematch game of cornhole {boys vs. girls}!  Last year the girls crushed the boys, however this year, we hung our heads in shame.

 But at least they were fun girls to hang my head in shame with!

Usually the game {or whatever sort of entertainment} is played after dinner, but because dinner was so long, we played in between courses!  While the boys did beat the girls, the Butler's were the winning couple this year!  Guess Chad and I better get to practicing before next fall!

If you missed out on the first year, or want to see what we eat last year, head to this post, where it will share a link to the other menus!

 Linking up to these great parties!