Fun Fall Day

On Saturday we went up to The Garden Patch to get some flowers for the fall. We got up there and found out that it was their Fall Festival. Boy did Emmaline have a great time!!!

First she got to ride a BIG horse. She loved it and wanted to do it again.

Then she ran through the hay bale maze.....repeatedly. She was soooo happy!
Emma and Steven watching the really long train off in the distance.
My beautiful girl!
Emma would not cooperate when I wanted to take pictures, she was too mischievous!


Showing off her pumpkin that she picked out....all by herself!
One of her favorite things when we go up there is to pull the wagon. Of course, by the time we got all of our stuff in it, she could hardly make it budge! But she sure did try hard.If you are from the area and have never been up there, I suggest that you go. She has beautiful flowers and awesome places to get some great pictures.

Emma and I are flying out tomorrow to go see my Grandma in Oklahoma. I will post when I can.

So Good - "Try it Tuesday"

This week-end when I went food shopping, I stumbled across Purity's Snow Cream Ice Cream. I remembered making and eating snow creams when I was a kid and so I thought we would give it a try. I have one word to describe it - YUM!!! I was expecting it to be like a sweeter vanilla ice cream, but it actually has the consistency and flavor of an old fashioned snow cream. I found it at Wal-Mart, so if you happen to come across it - TRY IT!!!! BTW - it only has 2.5 grams of fat per serving (vanilla has 8 grams)

Purity Dairies

**Updated: - I now have this post linked to Mrs. Who's Open Book. She has a weekly "Try it Tuesday" post where people review things that they have bought.

Question for Moms with Toddlers

Next week Emma and I are going to fly to Oklahoma to visit my grandmother. We will be staying in a hotel and my grandmother lives in an assisted living facility. Since we are flying this time, I will not be able to take the usual large basket of toys and DVD player and movies that I use to keep Emma occupied and out of trouble. I have the usual stuff that I take on the airplane for her (coloring book, crayons, her Color Wonder book, a couple of story books, a little etch-a-sketch.....), my first thought was to just pack a suitcase full of toys and such, but we are flying on American and they charge you for EACH bag and you check!!! I have already gotten a couple of small things to take - she has a set of small wooden letters and pictures that she loves to play with (plus this helps with letter recognition), and I just bought her a little set of princess playing cards (crazy eights and go fish). HELP!!! I need some more ideas!!!!

For those of you that have traveled with your little ones and stayed in hotels - what did you do! For those of you that haven't, what would you suggest.

THANKS!!!!

Emma Doodlebop

One night when after I had gotten Emma all bathed and ready for bed, she decided she wanted to play in her room for a bit. So I headed on back down to the living room and plopped myself down on the floor to sort through some of her books. I could hear her just babbling away and I was just happy that she was happy. Then she walked into the living room and I just busted out laughing. She had managed to unearth her DeeDee Doodlebop costume from 2 years ago. And get it on!!! She was bring me all the extra parts to help her get those on too. I tried to explain to her that she was too big and it was all too small, but she was having no part of it. She wanted it on....the tights, the gloves, the hair, the boots. And then she wanted me to take pictures, so here they are!

Notice that her nightgown is hanging below the Doodlebop dress about 6 inches!

These tights were like an 18 month size. She just couldn't understand why they would not come all the way up. I on the other hand, was really impressed that they came up as far as they did. But would she take them off.....Nope!

Her fingers would not even fit into the gloves any more. But she sure did try :-)

And the hair....she was so proud of the pink hair. Even when her daddy got home and he managed to get the rest of the costume off of her, she would not take the wig off.
DeeDee, Rooney and Moe watch out, cause here she comes!

I just love my little Emma Doodlebop.

If you happen to be in the area...

I have been working a lot the past few weeks but I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel (at least I hope it is a light and not a freight train!) Tomorrow is our big annual fundraiser here on our campus. This is a really fun day, so if you have nothing to do tomorrow and live around here, pack up the kids (and your checkbooks :-)) and come see me!

Best Buddies

I took this with my cell this morning when I dropped Emma off at school.
This is her little buddy Tori. They are sooooo excited to see one another every morning. They hug first thing each day and laugh together over nothing. I am so happy for my girl that she has someone like Tori that she looks forward to seeing. I love to watch them together, it is really too sweet for words!

I think I have lost it

My mind that is.....

This is one of our craziest and longest weeks at work. Our Fall Festival is this coming Saturday and there is still soooooooooo much that needs to be done. I worked some over the weekend but I still feel like I am barely treading water. I had hoped to get some stuff done at home over the weekend and I guess I did, but not as much as I had hoped.

Friday night we went to eat at Ruby Tuesday's with my BIL, SIL and the kids. Let me tell you, the food their was great and their mango ice tea was incredible!!! After we ate, we took Emma to get some ice cream. That girl loves her ice cream. It makes me think of my grandpa, everytime she asks for it, which is like everyday beginning as soon as she gets up :-).

Emma and I left the house Saturday to go run some errands, met Steven for lunch at Rafferty's and ate outside on the deck with the strong breeze from Ike. At that point it felt pretty good. I took Emma to work with me for a few hours and then off to Wally World to do the grocery shopping. Since there is no such thing as a quick trip to Walmart, it took longer than I had hoped. Rushed home, made some Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes while Emma slept (thank goodness), then loaded her up in the car to go eat dinner with our friends, Barry and Jill and their girls, Natalie and Jenna. Steven met us over there, we ate and then while the kids played, we played some cards. Jill and I lost, but just barely. I think the guys must have cheated :-)

Sunday was church and then we got takeout and went over to the IL's. By this point the wind from Ike had gotten really strong and their yard was a mess. We were just thankful that no trees had come down in their yard, just some limbs and TONS of walnuts. Before we were even done eating, Emma was falling asleep at the table. We got her all laid out on the couch and finished our dessert. I just didn't have the heart to wake her up so we could go home. So what is a mommy to do...........why curl up on the other end of the couch, church clothes and all and go to sleep herself! Emma slept for almost 3 hours and I slept for about 2. It was wonderful!!! I did manage to get a couple of loads of laundry done last night. Even got some folded and put away where it needed to go. :-)

But from now until next Sunday, I won't be home much, so it is going to be hard to get anything done there. And today, I found out that I will be going to Oklahoma to see my grandmother in October. My parents are going to be there and I got a good deal on plane tickets so Emma and I are headed to the plains for a few days. Unfortunately we leave October 1st, so I have 16 days to work an unreal amount of hours, get out some fall clothing for the two of us, find Emma some new shoes, figure out how to keep a 3 year old entertained not only on an airplane, but in a hotel and at an assisted living facility for 4 days, do laundry, and pack. Yup....I think I have lost my mind! But like most people, I seem to get more accomplished when I am under stress and have an absolute deadline. I have 16 days...........I can do this.........really, I can! :-)

A Princess & A Puppy

Emma loves her puppy, Patches (of course Patches is 10 years old, so she really isn't a puppy anymore, but Emma calls her a puppy). Emma loves taking a bath. So imagine her surprise when Steven put Patches in the tub with her...

Emma was incredibly happy....Patches, not so much.

Emma helped to make sure that Patches got all clean. Poor Patches still wasn't having a good time, but then she never has enjoyed a bath like Emma does.

After her bath and Emma was all dressed, hair dried and curled and we were just finishing up getting ready to head out the door, I discovered that Emma had left the building and Snow White had appeared.

She was so very proud of herself for getting her Snow White dress on over her outfit.

I just love that my girl LOVES to play dress up. She is so happy to just put her little dresses on and go and do her thing. But I do have to make sure that she has all the matching accessories, because she just isn't happy unless everything coordinates. You know....a good friend told me (you know who you are).......it is all about the accessories :-)

A Day of Firsts

Saturday was another busy, fun filled day for us. We started out by going to Miss Jenna Claire's 2nd Birthday celebration. The theme was a Pony Party since one of her favorite things to say is "Whoa Haus!". And what is a Pony party with out a pony. I really didn't know how Emma was going to do on it, but she LOVED it!!! It also helped that one of her favorite people, Uncle Barry, was walking alongside of her.

She just kept grinning and would not stop! She has been talking about riding the pony again.

After she was done with the pony and eating some great BBQ for lunch, we went out to the playground until it was time for cake, ice cream and presents. Aunt Jill's nephew Walker was kind enough to help Emma out for her first ride on the Roller Coaster.
That afternoon, after a little shopping for some fall clothes and bargains for next summer, we took Emmaline to the movie theater for the first time. Wall.E was still playing, so that is what we choose.
I knew that the movie did not have a lot of dialog during the beginning, so I knew that Emma would ask a lot of questions......and she did. But she loved the movie and she did so well in there. She had only had about a 30 minute nap all day, so at one point she took turns curling up in our laps, but she never went to sleep. Once it was over, she looked at her daddy and told him "I want to see the robots again." Needless to say, she wasn't real happy with us having to leave.

Last WONDERFUL Fling!

I just cannot believe that it is SEPTEMBER!!! Where has this summer gone! It is going to be Christmas before I know it and then it will be 2009!!!!

Every year, except for one, for the past 12 years, we have gone to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents. My grandfather passed away in 2004 and my grandmother fell and broke her hip yearly last year and is now in an assisted living facility, but we have still made the trip. This year we did not. There were a lot of reasons, but the end result was that we decided to stay in Kentucky. I hated not going, so I wanted to stay busy..........and boy did I!

Saturday, we got ourselves all up and dressed and out of the house. We ran some errands that we hadn't had time to do during the week, we went to the Farmer's Market and got a lot of fresh veggies, we went scavenging at a warehouse store for some new but incredibly cheap goodies, we spent some time with my brother-in-law, had a good lunch and did grocery shopping. The plan was to go home, eat a little dinner, watch a movie with Emmaline and call it a night. Only I had this stupid little sinus headache that turned into a big migraine. So I ended up in bed by 6:00 p.m. I got up for a little while to see Emma before she went to bed and then I drugged myself up and went back to bed. I will say, that I felt much better in the morning and I actually felt well-rested :-)

Sunday, we went to church and then lunch with the family and ran home to change our clothes, pack up our swimming stuff, some food for dinner and off we went to our favorite swimming spot. It was just the 3 of us and we had a WONDERFUL time. We swam and played for a few hours and then I went in and fixed dinner and we had a 'picnic' out by the pool.

Emma had a great time splashing, making noise, floating (she called it swimming) around the pool and attacking her daddy.

Emma was kind enough to give me kisses through out the day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. It was just us and I managed to get it on camera...all of us actually looking at the camera and smiling.

I went out to gather up the last of Emma's things while she was in the bath and this is what I found when I got outside....a beautiful sunset. Thank you Lord!

Monday the plan was for the whole family to join us at the pool and Steven wanted to fix everybody dinner. He made some Paella. It was really good, but it was a lot of work. I only got two swim for a short while and then I felt guilty, so I went in to help him. It was another WONDERFUL day to spend with the family. The only picture I took on Monday was of Steven's Paella. I was too busy running around to even think to take any pictures. I really need to get better about taking pictures of our family when we are all together!

Steven's yummy meal!