Ashlyn turned ONE, Daddy turned THIRTY-ONE and a few extras.....

The last couple of weeks have been a whirl wind of  craziness fun-ness! 

We've had birthdays, weddings, baking, baking, baking and more baking.  I figured up and last week, I decorated 21 cakes all together!  Whew!!!!!  I am VERY grateful for a husband that helps me and a God that gives me strength and help every time I need it!!!!!

This picture does not have anything to do to with cakes, wedding, or birthdays, but I thought it was hilarious!!

Don't you love the fashion statement?? :)

 I was asked to make a wedding cake for a dear lady that was getting married in our church.  Now mind you, I do not claim any kind of cake making skill and the only ones I have done, except for a shower cake and a graduation cake, is our kids birthday cakes.  But I felt like I wanted to help her out, so I agreed to make it for her.  I am SO SO thankful for God's help!!!!!  My friend Heather came over Friday and gave me a helping hand, too.  Keith kept the kid out of icing and clothed and fed - thanks, Honey!!!! :)

 Not the greatest lighting for the picture above....

Megan was the flower girl in the wedding!  She did a super job and I was SO proud of her!!!!  She was waiting to get her picture taken.

Ashlyn turned ONE!!!!!!  My how this last year has flown by!!!!  Keith turned Thirty-one two days later, so we had a double party! We were invited to have dinner with another family, so we just took our party with us. :)

 Okay, I was really trying to make a cup cake, but somehow this turned out more like an icing hut! :/  Oh, well, she didn't care and it tasted just the same, I suppose. :)

 Keith shot this nice doe this morning!!!  He brought home 40 pounds of meat for the freezer!!!!!! :)

Thanks for checking in on us.  I hope you have a BLESSED Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Free*......

We all like *free*, right?

Well, Caroline

over at  The Modest Mom   and
Mrs. June Fuentes  

are sponsoring a give away from Vision Forum. 

They have just about anything you could possibly want. 

Everywhere from Christian Books to cool things for the kids!

My boys would love a set of these!!!

Kristyn has a doll like this and LOVES it!!!

 So hop on over to The Modest Mom , or visit A Wise Woman Builds Her Home and enter this fabulous give away!! :)

Megan Turns FOUR......

Megan turned FOUR years old last Monday the 7th.  It's so hard to believe!!!


We named her Megan Joy and she runs true to her name.  She brings so much JOY to her little world and those around her.


For her birthday, she wanted a blue angel cake.  So I tried to make her dreams come true.


It sure wasn't perfect and certainly not one of the best cakes that came out of our kitchen, but Megan loved it!!

 

I just made the angel a "shaw" :D Instead of trying to make some kind of clothes for her out of icing -  much easier that way!!!

 Happy four year old!!!

 Blow out the candles!!

 We celebrated a couple of days early because Grandma and Papa were here.

 Okay, now the real secret.   I just bought a couple of angel food cakes and stacked them and put the doll in the center and covered with the fondant.  We sliced up the angel food cake and had it with strawberries! 

Perfect, easy and mighty tasty!!!!!!

 We enjoyed Grandpa being here for a few days!!  THANK YOU, Grandpa, for coming.

 Thanks, Grandma and Papa, for your visit.  We enjoyed you being here. :)

 On her actual birthday, we took Megan to Dairy Queen for ice cream.  What a treat!  She opened her present from Grandma and Grandpa - and wore her princess crown the rest of the day. :)

A huge puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa.  Megan LOVES puzzles!  Thank you, Mom and Dad!!!

What a fun few days we had celebrating her birthday.  She woke up the day after her birthday and told me she didn't feel like she was four.  She still felt like she was three. :D  I don't exactly know what she was expecting.  (I'm usually happy when I wake up the day after my birthday and don't feel any different. ~ha)

Megan Repost

Today is Megan's birthday and I do have current pictures to add, but I love this post about her so much, I thought I'd post it again. :)

Enjoy!

We have this beautiful little girl in our family we call Megan. She is "one of a kind" and I wouldn't trade her for the world. She can play alone just fine and likes to have tea parties all by herself. But sometimes she likes to think she can "run with the big dogs."

In her little mind, she should be able to do everything her big sister and brother do...

She is always so proud when she accomplishes a challenging task...

When her older siblings decide they need to make tracks and leave her behind, she does pretty good about staying with them...

Except for the small fact that she is very easily distracted...

When she realizes they are far ahead and turning the bend in the trail, she tries calling out to them..

Being the loving older siblings that they are, sometimes they stop and listen and wait for her.....and sometimes they don't.

So she kicks it into high gear and races after them again...

After much sweat and panting, she finally catches up.

Who wouldn't want a 2 year old helping them throw rocks in the creek?

But soon she gets distracted again and doesn't notice that her "elders" aren't anywhere in sight...

So she beats it back to the barn...

Only to get distracted again along the way...

Soon she decides that there is more to do in life than keeping up with her older brother and sister and tries her balancing act on a tractor rut...

She never let's life keep her down..

She just jumps up and tries something different. Like walking IN the rut...

Yes, much easier...

For this moment in time, she has completely forgotten that she even has an older brother and sister and is enjoying walking to her own little tune...


What would our world be like if we didn't have this girl we call Megan?

October Recap

Boy, what a month!!  My last post started with, "I blinked and September flew by"  Well, ditto for October!  Where DOES the time go?

In case you have missed us, I'll share some pictures of our exciting month. :)

This is one of the kids favorite things to do while they're waiting on breakfast. Kristyn is an excellent reader and a terrific big sister.  She loves to read!!!

 The end of September, my mom came for several days - we had a super-fun time.  She spoiled everyone rotten.

The kids found a turtle strolling through the yard while she was here.   I love how Owen has his arm around Jeren - he is such a protector. (although I'm sure the innocent turtle was quite harmless.)

 She treated us to Dairy Queen one evening - very fun!!

 We had a cook out and s'mores one night and took a visit to school.....

   

The ladies in my mom's church are having a craft fair to help raise money for the building of their church.  We made some craft things and had SO much fun!  (pictures below, because blogger is being stubborn)

THANKS FOR COMING, MOM!  We enjoyed you being here!!!

**********************************************************

Okay, Angie, here is the peanut update: 

Here is the plants before we dug them up - the yellow thing in there is a stray tomato that got planted in with them. ;)

  

 Here's the peanuts - yep, they grow under ground!!!  Some people didn't know that, I found out. ;)

 YUM!!!!

 Just crack them open and indulge!!!  I could have eaten the whole patch by myself.  I don't know if they tasted that good, or if it was the instant flood of memories that took me back 20 years when I was a dirty little girl digging with my friends in New Guinea. Or walking through the grubby market place and buying a handful to pass the time in town (I hated going to town - still do - HA)

Either way, they were wonderful and I plan to do it again next year. :)

*****************************************************

Kristyn was playing ambulance the other day and had Jeren in the wagon.  I'm guessing he was the patient.  Anyway, this is what she brought back after her flying trip around the grounds.  He must have been super tired to have fallen asleep on that trip.   Just look at that sweet face!!!!!!!!!

He decided to help me make rolls for Sunday and I guess he wanted to lick the bowl???

***************************************************************

A couple of weekends ago, we rode the Ferry over to Illinois.  The kids thought it was a huge journey across the mighty ocean.  It only took about five minutes. :)

 About the only interesting thing we found was this farmer's market type thing.  If anyone lives in IL and reads this blog, please enlighten the rest of us what this jelly is.  Do you really slay innocent frogs to smear on your peanut butter sandwich?  Not really, you can see the ingredients on the jar - kind of funny that they came up with FROG.  :)  It made me look that's for sure. :)=

 Even though we were disappointed that there wasn't more to do over there, it was beautiful scenery!!

 Our fierce protector again. :)

 The Ferry.

 At the farmer's market

 The sign for the little place right off the river. :D

****************************************************
Our littest lady turned 11 months old this month. :(  She is almost always smiling and such a good baby.  We are SO thankful she is part of our family.

 **************************************************
Another highlight of the month was that we got a visit from Misty and Wesley, and they invited their 6 kids to come along!!! :D  We had gobs of fun!!

The creek was getting a little too cold to swim, but they had fun trowing rocks and having a picnic.

 I got to take family pictures - LOVE!

 

****************************************************

This is completely out of order, but here are some of the craft things that we made while my mom was here. 

Is this great?  An old piece of wood, some spray paint, scrapbook paper, mod podge and lettering!

 This was an old mirror that we picked up at a thrift store.  Took the mirrow out, painted it and mom painted the chalk board paint on the back and Ta-da!!!!

 More old boards......

 And more........

 We found these bottles at another little store and she painted them and added the letters, and wheat.

So if you are traveling through OK next weekend, you MUST stop by the church and spend a few hours and lots of money. :)

***********************************************************
Tomorrow is November 1st.  I'm thinking this month will fly by just as fast as the last two.  We are enjoying our life and thankful for every day that we have!

Thanks for stopping by to check on us.  Hopefully, it won't be another month before I update again, but one just never knows. :)