Another one.........

tooth that is! Can you believe it? Looks like he is taking after his older brother! Conner had a mouthful at a year old!!

And just another of my baby boy's beautiful blue eyes!

Decluttering

Last year before I got pregnant, I was on a mission to declutter my life and my house, thus "Toward a Simpler Life"....

So after I found out I was pregnant, things got a little crazy wondering if I would have to go on bed rest or not, and I had to be a little more careful and try to slow down my life a little bit (although to hear everyone else tell it, I didn't slow down at all!!) So the decluttering got put on hold.

Now that it is almost time for the kids to go back to school (I can't believe it is that time already--only one more week of summer vacation!) and Hayden is working into a nap schedule in the mornings and afternoons, I am starting to think about decluttering again. Obviously with a baby, I can't just go wild and count on getting it all done in a really short amount of time, but I can start with little projects and at least feel some sort of sense of accomplishment about what I am doing. As I am doing this to our home, I am also hoping that I can teach Mari Cate (and Conner, but he is not quite as bad) to try to keep things orderly, get rid of what she doesn't need, and just try to keep her room tidy in general. For some reason she really has a problem with this and I just don't know how to help her care more about it. We have tried chore charts, reward charts, punishments, and somewhat clearing the room out, but none of these have worked!! Does anyone have any ideas on how to encourage her in this area?? PLEASE share them with me if you do!

So this was my project for the day. I collect makeup...not on purpose, it just happens. When my eyeshadow gets really low, I go get another one, but keep the teeny little bit in the other one...just in case I run out, ya know? So I have a collection of teeny little bits of eyeshadow. The same with foundation....I have multiple foundation bottles that are pretty much dried up at this point. (After writing this, I am beginning to see where Mari Cate might get her problem!!) So this morning I cleaned all the makeup out and put the good stuff (colors I didn't like and such) in a yard sale box and threw away the dried up, teeny bit stuff. I also cleaned my lotion basket out. I have "flavors" we don't care for and such, so I threw away the older ones and put some of the good stuff that we just don't use in the yard sale box. Mom and I will be having a yard sale after school starts back and we have found that this kind of stuff sells really great if you price it right!!

So I am going to add my decluttering tally on my blog again and I hope you watch it grow with me! Here are some before and after pics:

There is still a lot of makeup, but at least it is not nearly empty bottles and such and it is organized again! Here's to decluttering!

More Blueberries.....

Blueberries are number one in antioxidant activity when measured against other fruits and vegetables. Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (1998).

"Blueberries are rich in vitamins and minerals such as C and E, beta-carotene,
folic acid, iron, fiber and potassium. Plus they are naturally free of fat,
cholesterol and sodium. A serving of blueberries (1/2 cup) counts as one fruit
serving, is only 80 calories, and makes an easy, nutrient packed snack perfect
to pop into your mouth during a summertime hike." (excerpt taken from this article)

I was looking for some more blueberry recipes and came across this one to try for Blueberry Buckle. It was really good. I served it warm with vanilla ice cream over it and it was a very refreshing and a little bit different dessert for a hot summer night. Try it for something a little different this week!

Blueberries and Beach Balls

What a combination, huh??

I went to the store the other day and they had blueberries Buy1/Get 1, so I bought two pints of them. There is a "blueberry picking" place (that's the correct term, right? hah) not far from our house and we took Conner there on his birthday and picked blueberries when he was 2 years old and it was so fun, but for some reason we haven't been back?? Weird. Anyway, I just found out that Frank's aunt (who lives behind us) has blueberry bushes also, so I think I will just have to walk through the trail and get me some! We love blueberries, but I need some more recipes---anyone want to share some of your favorites? Leave me a message!! Please!!

Anyway, my family loves muffins, so I made some homemade blueberry muffins. Not everything was homemade (I did use Bisquick), but oh they were sooooo good!! I will share the easy recipe later.

Then for VBS last night we had Rice Krispy Beach Balls. They turned out really cute and were a big hit. Wanted to share a picture of them, since I have shared all the other snacks I have done for VBS. Will post the recipe later on this one too. A little boy I know just fell asleep and I think I better take this chance to get a shower!! :)

Testing a new feature..........

I have wanted the ability to type a post up, but publish it at a later date. I "THINK" I have figured out how to do this so I am going to try it out. This post should be published on Wednesday, July 23rd. We'll see............

************YAY!!! It worked!! Thanks for letting me know Amber!!********************

The Latest Camping Adventure

A few pics of our camping trip last weekend. We also had Conner's birthday party while we were there. Everyone had a great time cooking out and swimming in the lake.

In Memory...

Abigail Grace Hamilton

Born into Jesus' Arms 07-19-2005
She left footprints on our hearts that we will never forget.



Glory Baby by Watermark

Glory baby you slipped away as fast as we could say baby...baby...
You were growing, what happened dear?
You disappeared on us baby...baby...
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe until we're home with you...
Until we're home with you...

CHORUS:

Miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there’s a day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies, it’s hard to
understand it ‘cause we’re hurting
We are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we’re stronger people through the growing
And in knowing-
That all things work together for our good
And God works His purposes just like He said He would…
Just like He said He would…

BRIDGE:
I can’t imagine heaven’s lullabies
and what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing, heaven is your home
And it’s all you’ll ever know…all you’ll ever know…

Conner's year in review.....

Happy Birthday Son!! You are growing up way too fast!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Birthdays and Baby Dedications

Yesterday was Frank's birthday and we decided to also have Hayden's Baby Dedication at church. We thought that would be a really special day to remember. Both of our families participated and my Dad and Frank's Dad prayed over Hayden. It was very special to have my brother-in-law leading the service. He shared the story with the congregation about how we had had prayer for several people last year and one of them was me. He had prayed that if it was God's will that I would get pregnant. Six weeks later at church one Wednesday night I went to him with a big smile and said "Guess what??" He laughed as he told that my pregnancy was high risk and how I was supposed to be on bed rest and have the worst time ever, but instead I had the most boring pregnancy he had ever seen (not fully true, but for the most part it was!!) What a beautiful blessing we received and what a wonderful way for Frank to remember his birthday.

Upcoming events this week................Conner's birthday and Camping!!

What's for supper?

I am trying a new recipe tonight and hope it turns out yummy!

Here it is...

Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup salsa

1 package Taco Seasoning or Fajita Seasoning

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

1/2 cup sour cream cream

Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker

Layer on seasoning mix

Layer on salsa

Add cream of mushroom soup

Cook on Low heat for 6 – 8 hours

Stir in sour cream

Serve on fajita sized tortillas with some shredded mexican belnd cheese

I will be sure to post some pics of the finished product and let you know if you need to try it too later!!

EDITED: This was wonderful!! You must try it! And boy did it smell yummy while it was cooking!! I served with Cheese Crisps and Corn.

Beach Bear Cupcakes

We are having Vacation Bible School at our church right now. We are a smaller church and last year decided that just incorporating the VBS curriculum for Wednesday nights throughout the summer would work better for us than to do the usual every day or night schedule. It worked great last year and is going great again this year too! We use Lifeway's Outrigger Island curriculum and were blessed to receive all the materials and decorations from our former church Westwood Baptist. This is such a blessing when you are working on a very limited budget!

So anyway, when we were at Westwood, I was always in charge of the snacks for the Preschool Children, and I did not like to do the normal cookies and juice snacks! :) I thought "why should the older kids get cool snacks and the younger ones not?" So I always tried to do some really neat/cute snacks for them. So my job of "snack maker" just carried over when we started VBS last year at Straightway. I try to theme my snacks around the theme of the curriculum, so this year we had fruit cocktail the first week, "Sand" (I will share pics and recipe later), and Beach Bear cupcakes so far. The Beach Bear cupcakes turned out so cute I wanted to share the pics and recipe with you.

Regular white cake mix and prepared as directed.

Canned whipped icing

Crushed graham crackers for the "sand"

Teddy grahams with a gummy lifesaver around the waist

Paper drink umbrella

Wordless Wednesday (a little late)

Now I lay me down to sleep...

Just peeking in....

Look what we found just peeking in this past weekend!! I can't believe a tooth---already!!

4 month old well-baby visit

I took Hayden in for his 4-month well-baby visit today. He is doing awesome! Obviously after our last reaction with the vaccines, we have chosen to delay them--at least for now. So we came away happy campers and aren't having to spend the evening in the ER like last time!

Just a few tidbits of info:

• He weighed 14 lbs 1 oz.
• He was 25 1/2" long
• We can "officially" start giving him some rice cereal now (and boy is he ready for it!! He wants everything we put in our mouths these days!!)
• He is now rolling, and rolling, and rolling! Gone are the days of laying him in the middle of my bed and knowing he was ok!
• He plays peek-a-boo with you now. He will put his bib or blanket over his face and when you say "peek-a-boo", he pulls it down and laughs.
• He imitates...today Granddaddy was turning his head to the side and Hayden started copying it everytime he did it--so cute!
• He is absolutely rotten to the core---but oh so adorable!!

50 Years--What A Testimony!

First of all, let me say I am LOVING these new collages done on Picasa. It makes adding lots of pictures so quick and easy! Remember too, that you can click on the picture itself and it will enlarge it so that you can see the pictures better! So cool!!

Ok, back to what this post is actually about. Frank's parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on June 28th. Frank's sister did a fabulous job planning a surprise celebration for them. Saturday afternoon we walked over to their house (lugging baby carrier, base and all). They had no clue why we had walked over of course and we had to try to act nonchalant about it too. So we go inside their house...and sit. They knew that something was going on, but really had no clue of what was to come....which was a limousine no less. They had never even ridden in one before! It was one of those really really stretch ones and the kids thought they were in heaven (as you can tell by the pictures!). They loved driving by people and having people look and possibly wonder who was in there (and I have to admit it is kind of neat!) Frank's mother even cracked the window just a little bit and waved just her fingers out at some people on the side of the road and they waved back, kind of hesitantly. It would have made a funny "Funniest Home Videos".

So the limo took us down to the Chattanooga Choo Choo where we ate at The Station House, which features singing waiters and waitresses. They dedicated two songs to Frank's parents.

After the incredibly expensive dinner (the food is high, plus they added gratuity since we were a big party, PLUS they add a music/entertainment fee of 15%---WHAT????--And the food was not really even that good---oh well, the fellowship was worth it), we went on a horse carriage ride through downtown Chattanooga. It was kind of stormy right after we ate, so we had to wait just a little bit, but then it cleared up and was nice and cool and just the perfect night for the ride. All the grandkids (except Hayden) got to ride in the "Cinderella/Wedding" carriage with Grandmomma and Poppa (Frank's parents), other friends that went with us rode in a carriage, and Frank's sister and husband rode with Frank, Hayden (who loved the ride!), and me. We had a really nice evening. But the best part about it is having parents/in-laws who have survived 50 years with each other. That is such a testimony for their children and their grandchildren, not to mention all the other lives that they affect. I thank God for them and what they taught my husband about a healthy marriage and family.

Congratulations on 50 years and I pray you will be blessed with many many more!