A long awaited Novembver post!

Hey ya'll!  What a busy first 2 weeks of November!!  I had minor surgery, Chad and V had the flu and the weeks just have a way of slipping away before you know it! 

Thought I would catch you up on what's been going on round here.  :)

We did our trick or treating on the right day

but I can't say the same for carving/painting

the pumpkins!  We were just a wee bit late!

Garage sales have been my new "obsession" this

fall- every friday morning H and I hit them after

dropping V off at school.  We have gotten

some good deals and her new fav toy is matchbox cars!

I love the way V comes home from school

and finds something fun for her and

H to do together.  She's the best big sister!

This day she came home and took out

the play doh and played with her!

I think the play doh is a big hit!

You go girl!!  She is daddy's helper

when it comes to fixing cars!

I bet everyone wishes they had

a "Toria" too!!  :)

I'm giving you a "peek" into what I am blessed to

walk around/clean up every day!!!

I think it's amazing what a little 2 year old

can 'create' in a matter of a few minutes!

And if you stop by unannounced, you might

find this covering my family room floor!!!

Not only does she make huge messes-

she also uses herself as a big piece of paper!

And yes, she also occasionally finds

a piece of paper to color too!  :)

Look at my little turkey!

I got this idea off of Pinterest and

this morning we made it together.

It was so fun!!!

And she is SO proud of her turkey too.  :)

My mom gently reminded me I haven't posted a recipe

for a long while (thanks mom!!) so I thought I would

post this recipe I just made last night.  At first I didn't

like it but I thought it was waaay better the second day!

It was to satisfy my obsession with the salted caramel

mocha from Starbucks.  It was getting too expensive to

satisfy it there!  :)

Salted Caramel Brownies

(I got this recipe from my cousin's wife's blog and she posted that it was from Paula's Best Dishes Episode: Sweet Tooth)

Brownies:

One box devil's food cake mix

3/4 butter, melted

1/3 c. evaporated milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a 13x9 baking pan.  In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, melted butter, evaporated milk and egg.  Stir until smooth (the batter will be very thick).  Spread the chocolate mixture evenly into the prepared pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Frosting:

1/3 c. firmly packed dark brown sugar

6 T. whole milk

1/4 c. butter

2 c. powdered sugar, sifted

1 t. vanilla

1/2 t. sea salt

In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, milk and butter.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer 3 minutes.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating at medium speed with a mixer until combined.  Beat in the vanilla.  Gently spread over the brownies; the frosting will thicken as it cools.  Sprinkle with the sea salt, gently pressing to adhere.  Cool complely.

Mmmm.

Enjoy!!!



Halloween fun!

Tonight we went to our church's Fall Fest and then went back home to do some trick or treating.  All in all, it was a fun night but H had a few meltdowns that resulted in me having a "meltdown".  But all that aside, we were blessed to share the time together as a family and made some new wonderful memories that we will remember forever!

H is getting the bags all ready for

loading up with candy!

Getting her shoes on and ready

to go to the church fall fest!

We had a great turnout!! 

It was so fun to see so many people.

V pretty much left us as soon as we

got there and hung out with friends and

worked a few booths.  She said

she had a great time!!  :)

H wanted to go in the jumpy house so

bad and bless her heart, she tried to

go in there.... 3 times!  Each time she

would get to the entrance and stand there,

turn around and look at me like I was supposed

to go in there too.  Then I would take her back down

and she would scream and cry.  Thus was the

beginning of the meltdowns!  Throw in me

trying to put her coat on when she didn't want it on,

plus she had a cold and it was cold out!  Arrrgh. 

She did enjoy some happier times with daddy

eating candy and.....

being held by her sister.  V can

pretty much always calm her down!

Oh, how I laugh when I think of how this pic turned

out with just V.  I wanted a pic of the girls but H wouldn't

go near the bench to sit down but instead hung out on

the left side of V. When we tried to get her next to V,

she screamed and cried.  V probably wanted to too!

Daddy saved the day!

Then we came home and went trick or treating in our neighborhood!

At first we walked to the houses,

but Chad really wanted to drive the dune buggy

around so that's what we did!!  The girls

had an absolutely great time!!

H loved going up to the houses

and asking for candy!

Each time we would leave a house and get

in the dune buggy, she would immediately

say, "more houses!"  She was too funny!

She took her job of "collecting candy" verrrry seriously!  :)

Back at the homefront:



V took it upon herself to make 3 piles of candy,

one for Chad, one for H and one for herself.

I was kind of wondering to myself how she

divided it up!  She certainly had the advantage of

picking her fav's and putting it in her pile.  :)

Then H had fun "moving around" the piles and making

V just a wee bit upset!  But she wanted to organize it too!  :)

Well, there ya have it in a nutshell!

Hope you enjoyed your halloween too.  :)



Soccer and sisters

This weekend we have had the privilege of watching V play in a soccer tournament- her first season in soccer!!  Her team played two games yesterday and one this morning.  Their season was a good one- she learned a lot over the past couple months and she enjoyed making new friends.  They didn't win all their games but they played well and got to end the season on a happy note-they won their last game of the tournament!!  I am so very proud of her- how she tries new things and how she works hard.

There she is in the red!  I am so

incredibly proud of this girl!!!

V and Coach Ty

My favorite soccer player of all time!

And she always took the time to

kick the ball around with H who

LOVES to play soccer too!  :)

And while we watched V play, I had the joy of keeping H entertained and most of the time that wasn't a problem.

She would take off her shoes....

climb trees.....

or just lay around!

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my

phone got her through many practices and games!

Of course drinking sister's water was

high on the priority list also...

as was kicking the ball around to practice

for when she starts her soccer career too. 

Other days she would try and pull

daddy's string out of his sweatshirt....

or make funny faces.  :)

We musn't forget to give credit to the

most amazing soccer "mom" this year-Chad!!

He took her to games/practices when I

couldn't make it, carried the chairs for us

and kept up on the soccer info. 

Love you honey!

I am so incredibly proud of my V!!  Great job on soccer this year precious girl and we look forward to the many adventures you are going to take our family on. 

Love you V!

And so does your little sister.

My first fashion blog!

I sure love blogs!!  I have so many I read and keep up with that I almost feel like I know the ladies personally.  :)  One of them I follow is musingsofahousewife.com.  On wednesdays she links up with thepleatedpoppy.com for her 'what I wore wednesday' post.  It's purpose is to help moms get out of the rut of wearing yoga pants all week and some days that sounds so comfortable!!  She takes pictures of what she wore each day during the week and posts it on her blog and I have to say, I absolutely love it!  If you head over to thepleatedpoppy.com, you will see many other bloggers who link up to her blog too and it's really fun to see what other moms are wearing.  Ok, you might think I'm wierd but I'm sure you love to see what others are wearing too. If not, don't burst my bubble, ok?  :)
  I also really love watching What Not To Wear and find myself thinking of Clinton and Stacy's tips when I go shopping too.  Sometimes I wish someone would turn me in so I could go shopping with a $5000 Visa gift card in New York! 
Today H and I went to Kohls to use a $10 coupon and my 15% coupon  I had 2 things I wanted to get- scarves and boots.  I try to keep up with the latest fashions and I've read that two fall must-haves are scarves and boots!  So, off I went shopping.  After all, I can't be "last year" in my clothes.  ha!
I was so excited to show you what I got today and how much I saved!!!

Aren't these boots just so cute? 

I absolutely love them!!

I'm feeling "in" already!  :)

Ok, this is my first picture I took of myself

and it sure isn't an easy thing to do. ha!

Anyway, this is my new t-shirt.

Even though I'm sure you can't tell,

it's a really pretty fall shade of blue

and I paid only $7 for it!!

I bought this shirt last week but today

I bought the scarf.  I only paid $15 for it

and I really love it.  I must say, I do need

lessons in scarf wearing though!  I have no idea

how to correctly wear it!

And this is my second scarf!!

Isn't it just so fallish and pretty?

Again, only $15!

Check out my new dress!

Originally $90 and I paid only $24.

Love it!!

Well, I have to say, it's not easy
trying to take pictures of yourself!
Especially when you have a little H
trying to come in the bathroom to
wash her hands. That's her new "thing"-
washing her hands by herself in
all the sinks. And we have 5 to
pick from- she carries her little
wooden chair to each room, washes
her hands and proudly comes to me
and shows me her clean hands.
Silly girl!

I have to say- being such a germaphobic-

I am kind of liking this new "hobby" of hers!

The other day after school, V and H

were taking turns playing the piano.

V decided H could play the piano and she

was going to push the pedals.

It was so funny when H discovered that V was

under the piano!

I am so incredibly blessed to

have these 2 precious girls!!

Hope you enjoyed my first

"fashion blog!"  :)