Taking a break

Hi Ladies, I’m going to take a brief hiatus.  At least I plan it to be brief.  Things are crazy right now in my life – and I just need a breather.  I’ll be back soon!  Have a great week!

Random Pictures

I am so blessed.  I've been reflecting on God's amazing beauty, His grace and His amazing love this week.  His love is amazing and never ending.  Cooper sings this song at church every Sunday and it might be one of my favorites: "My God is SO big, so strong and so mighty, there is NOTHING my God cannot do!"  On my way to bible study on Wednesday night, a storm was ending, and from the parking lot of church, I saw this beautify sight.  God was showing us some of his beauty.

Cooper last night, inspecting his car to make sure the "engine" was all fueled up and running well.

Tim playing with Soup last night, she was in such a good mood and is such a cutie.  Grandpa loves his grandbaby.

Here she is again!  Isn't she a dollbaby?  She's sitting up so pretty in the Bumbo.  She really wants to sit up so she can look around at the world.  And she's so smiley just makes me want to kiss her cheeks!



If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, you've seen most of these pictures.  I apologize, but wanted to get them into my journal here too!

Have a great weekend friends! :)

So What Wednesday!

Linking up with Shannon for SWW! :)

This week, I’m saying SO WHAT….

…..If all I have to talk about on the blog is COOPER, he’s adorable, right?

…..If it’s going to be over 70* today, we’re still having soup for dinner.

…..If I have done multiple loads of laundry in the past couple of days (4+) and have most folded, but NONE put away

…..If I ate a bowl of cereal at 9:30 last night.  It sounded good, darn it!

…..If I already ordered my Christmas cards.  I like to be prepared.

…..If it took me over a week to get Thank You cards out for Cooper’s birthday presents.  At least I did it, unlike so many who don’t!

…..If I cannot wait until my birthday week.  I’ll be off work for an entire week and CANNOT WAIT.  (It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so I’m only taking 3 days off for an entire week’s worth, yippie!)

…..If I’m taking a long lunch today – I’m going to meet up with some friends I don’t see often and eat at PF Changs.  I’ve never been there, but I’m looking forward to it!

What are you saying SO WHAT to today?  Link up and share!

Interviewing My Little Man

I played 20 questions with Cooper last week.  Not 20 questions the game, but I asked him 20 questions interview style.  My plan is to steal copy the idea from a couple of sites I found via Pinterest.  Reaves, Party of Four and Oopsey Daisy both had similar ideas – so I mimicked and came up with this.

Because I cannot make my pictures very large on blogger, here is his interview:

1.  What is your favorite color? 

  Red

2.  What is your favorite toy?

  Baseball stuff

3.  What is your favorite fruit?

  Strawberries and blueberries

4.  What is your favorite TV show?

  Charlie Brown/ Sesame Street

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?

  Yogurt, strawberries and bread

6.  What is your favorite outfit?

  Football shirt (adidas football jersey) &

  Snoopy Home Run Shirt

7.  What is your favorite game?

  Lunchbox on mommy's phone

8.  What is your favorite snack?

  Goldfish crackers

9.  What is your favorite animal? 

  Pig

10.  What is your favorite Song?

  Row, Row, Row your boat

11.  What is your favorite book?

  Peekaboo book

12.  Who is your best friend?

  Layne & Max

13.  What is your favorite cereal?

  Cheerios

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?

  Jump on the trampoline

15..  What is your favorite drink?

  Lemonade

16.  What is your favorite holiday?

  Christmas

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?

  My bear

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

  Cereal with milk

19.  What's your favorite thing to eat for dinner?

  Breadstix & breakfast foods

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up? 

  Fireman

It was so fun to “interview” him.  He is just like his mama, indecisive.  He had quite a hard time coming up with the answers to some of the questions.  He just couldn’t decide on his “favorite” for a few of them, he had to choose more than one answer. 

I hope I can get this printed every year and create a book just for his answers.  It’s a good idea anyway!

Happy Tuesday!

Meal Plan Monday

Good Morning Friends!  I’ve been slacking on Mondays lately and haven’t been sharing our meal plans.  It’s not because I don’t want to share with you, it’s because I’ve been so completely lazy, I don’t know what to do about myself!

So – our meal plan this week is mostly simple things – because I am really not liking spending oodles of time in the kitchen in the evenings, I’d rather spend it playing with Cooper.  It gets dark so darn early that I don’t want to waste the daylight playing outside with him.  Plus, its going to be winter soon enough, and outside play will be greatly limited.  BOO! 

So, in no particular order:

 

·         Lemon & Garlic DUMP Chicken (this was made during my freezer cooking session with Shannon and we’re just getting around to making this one) – we’ll have a rice side dish and some broccoli – maybe a salad thrown in there too.

·         Salmon with pearl couscous and green beans

·         Harry & David soup mix with grilled cheese (We love these Harry & David soup mixes, we buy them from the Harry & David outlet store, and most of them only require a couple of ingredients that lead to a delicious soup!)

·         Shannon’s Mini Meat Loaves (ground turkey) with baked potatoes and salad  (recipe coming for mini meatloaves, we made these during our freezer cooking day also)

·         Spaghetti with meat sauce and salad (ground turkey)

 

And, that’s it!  Simple, easy dinner week!  What’s on your meal plan for this week?

a funny not to be missed.

Now before you think I'm going all political on you, I'M NOT.   I am not a fan of politics, and I rarely watch or listen to anything political, I just am not that into it.  However, when my coworker told me to watch this, I just had to do it.  You need to also, and you won't regret it.

My boss fell off of the arc trainer at work while watching it, he was laughing so hard.  The coworker that told me about this nearly keeled over from laughing so much.  Now keep in mind, I watched this at my desk, on my iPhone with headphones on.  I was nearly peeing my pants laughing so hard.

It is complete nonsense, but it is worth ever single second.  Please!  Let me know what you think!

I thought everyone could use a good laugh on a Friday.   TGIF!

Cooper's 3rd Birthday Party

Prepare for picture overload….

Saturday October 6^th, 2012, we had Cooper’s Circus Birthday Party.    There were many in attendance, and it was a lot of fun.  The kids played with each other, they played on the trampoline, they played with the bean bag toss, they played with Cooper’s toys, they just played.  We ate, we ate some more, and we visited with folks that we haven’t seen in a while and others that we see nearly daily.  I think his party turned out to be pretty successful.

Ryan (RyRy) the juggler.  As the party was winding down, Ryan found enough room to actually perform for the crowd.  Everyone loves watching juggling.

Opening presents.  The pumpkin (From Bill & Mary) was filled with Tim’s not so favorite things, lol.  A Stanford tshirt and a Giants baseball.  Then there was also a Snoopy doll, which Cooper just loves.

Thomas the Train pillow for his big boy bed, from Great Grandma Heil.  J

Cooper’s friend Jackson (my friend Shannon’s son).  He decided to wear a clown nose.  One of the first kids to actually try it on.  Brave soul.

Digging right into the cake.  That boy loves chocolate.

Picture with Mommy and Daddy after blowing out the candles.

Posing with the awesome cake.  (Can you tell he’s already had some M&Ms?)

Julia and Gabby, two of the three neighbor girls and Cooper’s buds.  (Alexis couldn’t make it, boo!)

Party fun.  Layne and Larissa playing with Nana and Pappa Shawn.

More party people.  Mary with Kampbell (Soup) bottom left, Erica and Mel with Addison (Shannon’s daughter) Ryan and Steph, Jill and Jason and Max (Cooper’s best friend) and Layne in the middle of the room.

Janna and Julia, digging into her treat bag.

Grandma Gwen trying on the clown sundglasses.

Larissa going all out in the hat, glasses and nose!!  Oh, and our still open and dirty pool in the background, yuck!

All the kids fighting over the balls.

I couldn’t believe I got them all mid jump!

More trampoline fun.

Max and Jackson checking out the bean bag toss.

Larissa was brave and put her head inside the clown face J

Somebody got sleepy.  Cute Soup!

I just had to share this picture again, aren’t we just the cutest?  Three clowns!

Pappa Smith and Cooper when everyone had left, playing on the iPad.

Finally trying on a nose and a hat!

Nana spoiling Cooper with MORE sugar!

Look at that precious little girl.  She is getting so fun!

Smiley Soup.

Mom, Shawn, Coop and me!  3 generations.  Missing Grandma Heil…

Grandma Gwen, Grandma Kieran, Grandpa Norman, Pappa Smith and Coop and me.  4 generations.

Well, I told you picture overload!  If you made it through all of those, I’m proud of you!  I think everyone had a pretty good time, at least I did.  All of the hard work was definitely worth it! 

I’m so thankful we do not have a crazy full weekend this weekend – visiting the zoo for Zooboo on Saturday, church on Sunday and I think that’s it!  AMAZING!  I hope you have a great Thursday, I can almost taste Friday, it’s almost here!!

Cooper's Circus Party Decorations

Today, I’ll share with you the decorations pictures.  I worked my rear off on these decorations, so I really hope this post turns out so that you can see them.  

Front Room Decorations
These decorations were pretty easy – and there weren’t too many of them.  Pulled Cooper’s cirus tent down from his playroom, put the bean bag toss out that I purchased,  and put some party hats, clown noses, huge clown sunglasses and punch balloons out for the kids and adults to wear/play with.
Hallway Decorations
Hallway – I put these circus subway art and sparkly stars up on each door in our hallway – since we have four doors – I wanted to give them a little “something.”
Living Room Decorations
I put a “Happy Birthday Cooper”pennant banner above our loveseat, and put alternating white and red streamers to the middle of the ceiling with balloons in the middle.  The kiddos treat bags were on the TV stand, along with their circus animal crackers.  That blue and white board to the left of the TV is that clown that is to the right.  We cut the head out – and the kids (some of them) stood and put their faces in for a picture.
Kitchen Decorations
I put some balloons up on the light fixtures another happy birthday banner above the sliding glass doors, and you can see the overall kitchen in the first picture, then the cake!  My mom and Shawn made that cake, isn’t it adorable?  Of course it was inspired by Pinterest, but they did a spectacular job of recreating the cake!!  I dipped some pretzel rods in different colored sugars, and then we had cake pops that hubby and I made and individually wrapped.  Then of course, popcorn and peanuts!  Circus food at it’s finest.  We had lunch too, but it wasn’t as circus inspired, so I didn’t take pictures.

Well, those are the decorations!  Tomorrow I hope to post pictures of the actual party time.  So, what do you think of the decorations?  Does everyone else spend an entire week getting ready for their kids’ birthday parties?  This party wore me out, I’m not sure I’ll be going this crazy next year, we’ll see!