fall.

i. love. this. kid.

 I bought these today at the Dollar Tree. Totally cute.
Gonna make up some Christmas gifts with them.

Add some popcorn, drinks, candy, and a movie or blockbuster gift card. Voila!

My friend Kylie told me about this stuff.

It tastes pretty good to be sugar free.

Totally fall-ish!

FREE candy corn at CVS today!

On sale for 99 cents, and a 99 cents off coupon printed at the Coupon Machine.

Cha-ching!

I made Turnip Green Soup for supper tonight.

Don't knock it, till you try it.

It is delicious. One of Alan's favorites.

Very healthy too!

This is my shopping buddy.

He was sooo good today.

Sometimes he makes me sweat.

Look at that curl, wouldja?

This is a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch we went to in Charleston.

I thought it was hilarious. I instantly smile when I see this picture!

                                           And here's my cutest little pumpkin in the patch!



nap.

anyone who knows me well, knows I love to sleep.

rowan is his mother's child.

today he got on the couch with me and went to sleep. a first.

he is very predictable.

usually three hours after he wakes up in the morning, he is ready to go back to sleep.

I can ask him if he wants to take a nap...and he will get up and run over to the bottom

of the stairs and wait for me to unlock the gate.

it is the most precious thing.

but today, I got the pleasure of watching him fall asleep.

and I got to take a little nap too.

(then i had to lay him down so I could take these pictures.)

 Rowan has a bear that he is very attached too. He usually has the bear in his mouth.

He wallows around on him. Sometimes the bear will be laying in the floor,

and he will literally dive

 into the bear and smoosh his face on his bear.

 He will cry out at night if he can't find him.

those sweet little feet. sock-less, and shoe-less. imagine that!

i love to tickle them. and kiss them.

and imagine all the places they will go.

I am so glad I have these pictures.

My baby boy is growing up.

my big boy.

Rowan,

You are a whopping 14.5 months. Hard to believe.

You love for me to chase you around the house.

You fell asleep on me today...and I just loved it.

I am loving all of your new fall clothes (18 months-24 months). You look so adorable!

You have wild hair...it's the first thing people notice about you. And it's still VERY blonde.

You still will NOT look at the camera.

You are the apple of my eye.

You are the last thing I see when I go to bed, and the first thing

I see when I wake up.

I don't think I could love you any MORE.

You loved the cows at the fair tonight.

You are the BEST sleeper ever. I hope you stay this way! 11 hours at night and

still taking 2, 2 hour naps each day!

But, you wake up crying every morning and after naps? I don't get it?

You try my patience every. single. day.

You have gotten FOUR new teeth in one week.

You have hardly been eating anything lately?

You make the cutest noise when you are pushing your cars around on the floor.

You still love animals!

I don't know what I would do without you, Rowan.

You still love books. and music.

You are very in to pushing your toys over...then you say "Uh-oh".

You are very strong-willed.

You like to rip my magazines, throw freshly folded clothes on the floor,

shake your sippy cup so that milk flies everywhere, take off your shoes, dump out your toys, etc...

all of which drive me bonkers!

Your daddy loves you so. And your duck noise too!

We love you, sweet boy.

Just slow down, and don't grow so stinkin' fast!

today was great because...

- 2 girls I work with asked me about Operation Christmas Child.

- One of my friends gave me some pumpkin-y smelling goodies. Love them!

- It was not MONDAY!

- I was reminded to not take life for granted.

- Rowan gave me a HUG for the first time.

- My sweet friend, Hope, is letting us borrow two of her little boys PRECIOUS outfits.

- As I was singing "This Little Light of Mine" to Rowan as I was getting him ready for bed...

  he held up his little pointer finger. Lord...let his light shine!

- the air was cool and crisp.

- even though I came home to a messy house, at least I got to come home.

- I learned something new.

-my husband took the car to get it serviced. (something I hate to do!)

What was great about your day?

Oh yeah, and one more thing...

you never know who is reading your blog! :)

Operation Christmas Child.

Today, at church, we kicked off Operation Christmas Child.

Last year was the first year we (Alan and I) participated...and let's just say, I loved it!

To get me even more excited about it this year we had the opportunity

to hear a girl give her testimony

about receiving an OCC shoe box when she was in 7th grade.

She is from the country of Belarus. She is 26 years old and now lives in

South Carolina with her husband. She travels around Georgia and South Carolina

telling her story of how OCC changed her life.

 Jamie Hardenbrook, who is the Regional Director for OCC in Atlanta, also spoke.

Here are some statistics he shared tonight. (I wrote them down.) :)

Since 1993, 77 million boxes have been given to children all over the world.

Shoeboxes have been sent to 135 countries.

8.1 million boxes were sent out in 2009 (worldwide).

There are 1.6 BILLION children in the world right now under the age of 14!

From the last statistic you can see that there are many more children to be reached.

So, our coordinator, at our church, is challenging each family in our church to make

ONE more shoebox than they did last year!

We have a church wide goal of 2000 boxes this year!

I have NO CLUE how many people even read my blog...

from the followers on the right, I know there are at least 27 of you, plus my Mom. :)

I want to encourage each of you to make ONE more box than you made last year.

Our church is the drop-off location in Warner Robins.

If you have boxes you want me to drop off, I would love to do it for you!
Collection week is November 15-22.

For more information you can visit the OCC website.

Let's help spread the gospel throughout the world one child at a time!

Rowan's First Birthday

Rowan's first birthday was celebrated on July 24th, 2010.

All of his grandparents and great grandparents attended, as well as, 

his Aunt Paige and Aunt Maggie.

His cousins Taylor and Cade also came!

And last but not least Chris, Lauren and Gage.

Chris took several of these pictures for me.

When I started thinking about Rowan's party

back in early May, I knew I wanted to do red, white, and baby blue. 

I didn't really want to do a theme, or so I thought. 

Well, as I was browsing the internet late one night I saw a red, white, 

and blue sailboat party. 

I just knew that it would be perfect.

Red, White, Blue and sailboats scream July to me!

I also love it because it is very classic and very little boy-ish.

So here are the pictures...finally!

First of all, the precious birthday boy.

We love you so much Rowan!

You are a total joy and the most precious gift we have

ever been given!

You can't see them, but his bubble has sailboats on it!

 

I love the invitations!

I am so glad I decided not to make them. 

The life preserver wreath!

I made this with a straw wreath form.

I pinned the red and white felt to the back of the wreath.

I free handed the banner on a plain white gift box lid.

I printed the words out on Microsoft Word, 

 traced them onto the blue fabric, and painted them

with acrylic paint.

I modge-podged the fabric to the gift box,

then I cut out the banner.

I hot-glued the banner on the wreath.

This is our dining room.

I was originally gonna put the food on this table,

but it made more sense to put it in the kitchen so people

could eat in here.

I made the tablecloth with the help of my sister, Paige.

It's red and white gingham, blue seersucker and white and red polka dots.

I ordered the balloons off of E-bay.

I bought these sailboats for a dollar at Michaels.

They come unpainted and unassembled.

I painted the red and white.

I used blue tissue paper for the "water".

The silver tub was borrowed from my friend Tara!

Here is Rowan's smash cake.

It turned out so very cute!

My sister made this bunting for his highchair.

She used the reverse applique technique for the "R".

This was the big cake!

Delicious pound cake with buttercream icing.

 Sailboat details. Aren't the puffy clouds and waves just precious!

One single candle for my baby boy!

 He wasn't so sure about the cake at first...but then he decided it was good!

The bunting on the mantle!

My sister cut out the triangles and I hot glued them to the jute!

I love this Southern Living at Home plate.

I always change out the ribbon and personalize the message.

Happy Birthday Rowan!

These were the favors!

I used a picture of Rowan on his exact birthday.

We were at the beach!

I made these on picnik.com,

printed them at CVS, and

attached a magnet to the back.

I put them in a cellophane bag and tied them up

with some ribbon.

The grandparents loved them!

I'm linking up to the

and

pumpkin topiaries...

 So, I have seen this picture around blogland and I just love it!

I wanted to make my own pumpkin topiaries.

Our front "stoop" is similar to the picture already...

I started with these "funkins" from Michaels.

They are carvable, fake pumpkins.

Of course they were 50% off when I bought them!

I bought some acrylic metallic bronze paint also.

I painted these bad boys with a foam brush very quickly and a little messily too.

Real pumpkins aren't perfect, right?

My very sweet husband drilled holes in the bottoms of all three pumpkins

and through the tops of the bottom two.

He also cut off the stems of the bottom two.

Then he slid the pumpkins on a piece of rebar in topiary order.

We stuck them straight into the planters (from Walmart).

Then I wrapped a fall garland around them.

I LOVE how they turned out!

The best part of it all.

It was quick and easy.

And my pumpkins won't rot!!! :)

I'm linking up to the

and

Gage turns 2!

I cannot believe Gage is already two years old.

My how time flies!

Everything turned out really cute!

Isn't his stance so cute!

 We were singing Happy Birthday to him!

                            A very cute tractor cake. One of Lauren's teacher friends made the cake.

                                                                         Love this!
                                     Look at his cute shirt. Lauren ordered it off Etsy!

                                                     Can't have a birthday without presents!

                                                                       Happy Birthday Gage!

                                                                       We love you!

               

                 Somehow I didn't get a picture of Chris in there.

            Probably because he was beside me taking his own pictures!