a final fall recap!

It truly was a fun-filled Fall! This was Way's first year to recognize and learn what a pumpkin was! Perfect, since he's such a cute little pumpkin!

 It was Miles' special JK year, so we had our first field trip together (though this was my 3rd time to attend the JK pumpkin patch field trip)! I was so excited to go with Miles! We had a blast!

  James, Miller and Miles and then Miles and Walker

Thanks for having me, Miles! I love you!

And of course, Halloween comes with pumpkins! The boys and I were so proud of Daddy carving our Baylor and "Wink" pumpkins! You did a great job, Daddy!

And this year, we had a ninja, Harry Potter, a punkin' and Spiderman! We went out trick or treating with our neighbors and had a fun evening together!

Finally to wrap up Fall in one fell swoop (or blog post). . .Thanksgiving!! Again, JK is a big year and in JK, they also have their big Thanksgiving Feast! So before Thanksgiving break, Miles invited us to his classroom where he and his friends, sang songs, told us what they had been learning about the Native Americans and Pilgrims and then served us beef stew they had made!!!
Flying Eagle, we loved the Thanksgiving Feast, and love you even more!!

Then, we were off and headed to South Carolina for Thanksgiving! This year we were particularly thankful that Chad was okay. He had just suffered a severe ear trauma incident on a plane ride to NYC. He was incapacitated for over 2 weeks suffering from hearing loss and extreme vertigo! But praise the Lord, he has been restored to full health!

It was wonderful to be together with Mimi & Grandpa and Mary and Kevin! We made s'mores, played spy outside, had a big family photo shoot, watched lots of football (even if the games ended poorly), ate and just spent time together. We are thankful!

 Happy Fall, Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! ;)

goooalll!!!!

 Soccer season is now over, but what a fun ride it was this year! We had 2 boys playing soccer this fall and it was a treat! Chad and I both talked about how much fun we had being entertained by them! This was Miles' first experience at trying a sport! I think he had fun. Not completely aware of what is going on at the age of 5, but eager to get his uniform on and go out and kick the ball!! He did a great job!

Chuckles was ready to play! He's been playing a few seasons now and soccer is his thing!! He's fiercely defensive and so very fast! Charlie can weave through competitors like you've never seen and his confidence on the field grew leaps and bounds this year! Gooooalll!!

 Way to go, Miles and Charlie! We enjoyed your soccer season so very much!

Neglected.

Neglected. Overlooked. Forgotten.

That's what's happen to this little space. But I love it still. And when I can sit and breathe, (which I shouldn't be doing right now because of All. The. Stuff.) I love writing here. Recording memories and sharing thoughts.

I do a lot of that on Instagram now, but in short bursts. I am printing those photos out in ChatBooks, and my sweet boys have loved flipping through the 12 we already have received! But they love the blog books I print each year as well and I'm afraid this year's book will be quite small! Yikes!

Fall is here, though different for me this year. We had a Fall Break the first weekend in October and were out of town the first 2 weekends, which threw me for a loop! I think I finally put pumpkins on our door step the middle of October! We actually added lots more pumpkins (because I can't resist the cute and beautiful and welcoming orange signs of Fall), but I took this before the adding. Needed a photo of our new front doors. I am in love!!! Wish I had a photo of our old ones, but they were cream, with tiny windows at the very top. And, they had the full, black wrought iron storm doors in front of them. Definitely gave our house an older feel. Now, I adore the outside of our house! The pop and open windows----so much more inviting!  Especially when there's a real, live pumpkin waving to you from the doorstep!! ;)

I have lots more to catch up on, but felt like putting down a few thoughts, to shake out the cobwebs up in my mind and to shake them out here on the blog! We are still around! Living, loving life!

FYI Friday--the light will shine on | Day 31

By now, we've carved and scooped out our pumpkin! We've talked about how the seeds and goop are like our sin. We put a candle in our jack o' lantern and talked all about God's light shining in us! I will forever love this pumpkin metaphor! We have our costumes ready (and even right now, one of ours has a new costume he doesn't even know about yet--sure to thrill him--because as he walked out the door he just wasn't sure what he was going to dress as and didn't make a fuss) and our 4 year old couldn't be more excited to be Batman and tell everyone Trick or Treat! He's been talking about this day for a good month!

Yes, October 31st is here! You know what else that means? It means, it's time to put some flannel sheets on our beds! Earlier this week, we were playing outside in 80+ degree weather, record warm temps, but tonight we have a freeze warning out as it's supposed to be in the lower 30's! I love it!!!!! Bring on the flannel sheets and the fire in the fireplace, a couple of blankets and some warm tea. I am in heaven!

Oh, October, you bring such inner warmth and happiness! But before, we move on to November, one other thing marks the end of October. Today is the end of my #write31days series! Is that the end of blogging? Of course not! This light will shine on! I've been doing this for years now! That was actually part of the reason I decided to jump aboard the Write 31 Days series--I've been blogging for years. I was just feeling a smidge stuck and I was in a writing rut. I thought writing for 31 days would be a way to awaken my writing.

I'll tell ya, it was challenging for sure. I think by Day 3, I was ready to quit. How could I write for 31 days about light? But Hubby spurred me on. He usually does. Anyway, I was really inspired by writing for the series and I'm so glad I did it! I did miss 5 days, I think. Some of that was due to travel and some was just due to life. I knew it wasn't the end of the world if I missed a day, but I tried hard not to skip. I also followed some other bloggers who did the same and enjoyed several series. If you write and have ever even thought about joining the #write31days series, I think you should try it next year! If you missed any days in my series on light, just click here to find the links to each day! Check out Day 3, FYI Friday spotlight on Down syndrome, Day 10, Lighten (and Brighten) it up, Day 14, A light shining halfway around the world and Day 16, We are lightweights, they were some of my favorites!

Thanks for reading through 31 Days of Light! 

I'm still writing, so stick around for a while and join me!

art on fire (almost wordless Wednesday) | Day 29

Art on Fire

4 boys + 1 man = the lights of my life | Day 25

Life isn't always perfect. Sometimes, life is hard. But I recently heard it said, that if life is hard, but the relationships in your life are good, then really, life is good. But if life is good and your relationships are bad, then really, life is bad.

I'm thankful my life is good. Not without problems, or issues to be worked through, but good. The Lord is faithful and never leaves us and he has blessed me with a husband who is the same. Faithful and loving. He has made our quiver full, and even when life with 4 boys seems so loud and crazy, we wouldn't change it for anything! Even when Hubby and I work through difficult times, the Lord brings us out stronger. I would not want to do life without my man!

Thank you Lord, for my boys and my man--my pumpkins!

The lights of my life!

I love my family!

I am truly blessed!

Fall books for your littles (and a giveaway)! | Day 18

They say it's not how you act when you win that matters, but how you act when you lose that counts. Or something like that, right?

Ugh. I'm coming off fresh from a Baylor Bears loss. #4 goes down to an unranked team. Bummer. And, what I really want to do is kick and cry and pout, but my sweet and wise and amazing Hubby, who also bleeds Green and Gold, encouraged my boys (and also me, it turns out) to handle ourselves in a much more positive way. Plus, he said we'll get em next game! So, tough loss, guys, but we still love you, BU!!!!

So while this was us last week, when we were in Waco, at McClane Stadium for our amazing win over TCU, we are not looking like this now!

And just because I want to throw in another pic from that game, I'll also acknowledge that I missed my FYI Friday post I had planned for yesterday. You could say I was asleep on the writing. . .

You just melt me, Buddy!

But anyway, moving on. . .

I intended for yesterday's FYI Friday to be about fall books for the littles. A little light reading! Wink!

I was inspired by our recent trip to Target where Luke was eager to use his recent birthday gift card. While he was busy finding his perfect item, I was glancing at the end of the aisle book display. There were lots of Halloween type books for children. Several board books, lots of character books (think Dora and Clifford do Halloween) and a couple of counting pumpkin books.

We don't own any of them, but as I glanced through them, they don't hold a candle to our 3 favorite Fall books we do own! You ready?

Our Fall Faves--3 books for your child's library

1. The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz -- We absolutely love this book! Our oldest was given this book as a birthday present when he was 3 and we've laughed and eagerly awaited the first seasonal reading of it each year since. Maybe because Chad reads it with the best voices and enthusiasm around, but I also think it's because it's kinda endearing! You can make a lesson out it, I do, or you can just enjoy it for it's rhythm and rhyming and happy ending! Just a fun little book to have! *I do need to add that though the pictures are whimsical, and in my opinion not scary, there is a skeleton in the book. Just FYI.

2. P is for Pumpkin, God's Harvest Alphabet by Kathy-jo Wargin-- This book has cute childlike and colorful Fall illustrations as well as a rhyming text. I'll admit that our 9 year old might be past this book, but it's definitely one our 6 and 4 year old can read and enjoy! A gentle remind of the Lord in this beautiful season!

3. The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs-- My personal favorite for the season! I just love how the Farmer in the story grows his pumpkin, cleans it out and puts a light in it, and it is compared to how God grows us up, washes our sin away and gives us His light! So simple for young children and yet such a miracle for all of us!! This is the sweetest Fall book around!

And okay, here's why this could be even more exciting to you. . .I'm going to give a copy away to one of you! And even more exciting than that? I'm not some huge blogger, where you might have a 1 in 888 chance to win! If you leave me a comment on which book you'd choose to win, and maybe some other sweet comment (think, Poor Baylor! or You have the cutest family! :) ) you will probably win! Don't get me wrong, I'll do this the fair and square way. . .like put names in a hat and have Hubby draw or something like that. . .

Because it's Saturday afternoon, I'll keep this going to Tuesday at noon. Afterall, I can't wait too late into the season to send your book to you! Happy reading!

Green and Gold, light the way! | Day 4

And because it's a Saturday in the fall, which equals college football.

And because our Baylor Bears have a big game against Texas today. . .

Well, I'll let our school song take it away. . .Green and Gold. . .light the way!!

FYI Friday--pumpkin quinoa dish fail and a call for help!

**We made it back from Disney last night--just shy of this morning. And like I predicted, lots of babies to cuddle and encourage and heap grace upon and already they've had to give me grace too. So I'll plan on being back fresh next week.

But, 2 things in the mean time ( I had this post already worked up--planned on posting before we left, but it didn't happen). . .First, I mentioned last week that I am now a monthly contributor over at One Fun Mom. Well this week, Christy has been posting the contributors information, (my info is up today) so you can get to know them better. I'm excited to get to know them as well!!
Second, hopefully you know I try to keep it real here. I've been super thrilled with several of my quinoa dishes lately--well all of them so far. . .(have you tried any of them?) until now. I tried this dish last week with my family and it did not work. So I need your help. . .all of us need your help. Who doesn't want a delicious pumpkin quinoa recipe in October??

Y'all, this pumpkin quinoa just didn't work for us. I didn't follow the recipe exactly (hmmm, maybe that's the problem) because I had to triple the recipe in order to feed us, so I may not have used enough pumpkin or almond milk. However, it was just bland. Hubby was encouraging and said it wasn't a disaster, and I ate it, sort of, but we didn't even have our boys finish it. Just bleck. I lined our bowls with pita chips and apples, and when we dipped the pita chips and apples into the quinoa, that helped. In fact, that's how I ate as much as I did. Chad attempted to spice his up with pepper flakes and green onions---which definitely helped as well. Also, ours wasn't warm when served, contrary to what the recipe told me to do. Soooooo, that may be some of the problem. But I know there are some of you reading out there who might be able to salvage this recipe. Wanna try? Here's what I sorta followed. . .

Pumpkin Quinoa (that needs your help)

Ingredients:
--1 cup canned pumpkin
--1 cup cooked quinoa
--1/2 cup Almond Breeze (unsweetened)
--Sea salt and pepper to taste
--Shredded coconut to garnish

Mix together. Heat and serve warm.

**So, maybe this dish isn't making you want to run out and try to fix it. Or, maybe it is. I'd truly love to hear if you have ideas, OR if you actually make the dish and think it's great. After all, it is Fall y'all and a pumpkin quinoa dish that tastes flavorful would be awesome for all of us!!!

Happy Friday!!

Can you smell it?? Fall has arrived!!

Can you smell that? It's Fall!!! Ohhhh, how I love October!! It's everything Fall and Fall is perfection! Well, snow is really perfection, but I do so love Fall!!

Miles and I have been busy making fall treats today. Just fun little mouth happies! Pop them in and enjoy! Who knew that just unwrapping chocolate kisses would be such a great fine motor skill for this newly turned 3 year old?! Filling a cookie sheet makes so many that you can easily put them on a plate and deliver happiness to some friends. I think we will do just that!

October 1st, is also the first day pumpkin is allowed in the kitchen! Why? I don't know. I just like to save things until it's time. Although, I used to have a rule that there was no Christmas music allowed until December 1st--that's been long tossed aside. Now we start listening the day after Thanksgiving! Ohhh, big rule breaker. I know.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. It's October! So, there are chocolate chip pumpkin muffins being made and a quinoa dish for tonight--that involves pumpkin, and little else! Yum!!

And, one more thing. I'm excited to tell you that I will be a monthly contributor over at One Fun Mom! If you've never stopped by the website, you should check it out. This week, there are some great giveaways--all to let you know that One Fun Mom has relaunched its site with a new purpose and new writers! One Fun Mom is embracing God and embracing others with the purpose of encouraging moms and bringing glory to God through the gifts he has given us! Hope you'll check it out!

five things Friday

Five random thoughts and things this Friday. . .

1. This week, as a loyal Penn State fan, has been tough. This week as a mother of young boys, in light of the horrific incidents in State College has been beyond tough. I so wish I could express everything that has been on my heart, but I don't know how. Words cannot express. My heart is breaking for those children first and foremost, and for Penn State University.

2. On a much needed and lighter note. I love fall. It seemed to take a while for it to get here this year (and with the forecast in the 70's next week--it's not the fall I think of) but I love the beauty of the leaves, those that are still on our trees!

3. Last year our family made a thankful chain and each added something we were thankful for everyday. This year, we made a thankful tree. We've really enjoyed adding to our tree daily. It melts me to hear our boys chime in with their thanksgiving! No doubt that sea creatures and birds of prey have made it on our tree, courtesy of our 6 year old!

4. Next week is Operation Christmas Child's National Collection Week. I'm excited to head out this weekend for our family's yearly tradition of going to the dollar store to find goodies and necessities for children all over the world who haven't heard of Jesus Christ and who won't get a Christmas without these shoe boxes. Did you know that American Idol's Scotty McCreery is demonstrating how to pack a shoe box this year?


5. Okay, lemme make it 4 things Friday! Happy weekend to all!

favorite moments Friday!

This week has been a whirlwind. But, it's been good! Heartwarming. Lots of sweet moments. Encouraging moments! Seeing our boys grasp God's Word even more. Watching my hubby pour out his love on our littles and me. Getting some precious one on one time with each of my boys. Finishing yet another fantastic book this year. I could go on. No, not every moment of everyday has been stellar. It never is. But, I'm thankful for it all!

Some of my favorites of the week. . .

A beautiful orange Fall sunset

Pumpkin carving on a World Series game night! It's tradition in our house to do so! P.S. Did you see last night's game? Unbelievable! Here's to Game 7 and I must say, we are cheering for the Rangers in our house!

Going with Charlie on his first field trip! I loved it!

My favorite month (though it rivals December) is coming to a close, but not before a Fall Fest party, trick or treating at Daddy's work, a birthday party, Sunday worship, the Taylor Swift concert, and Halloween! I like this kind of busy!

food for thought Friday

For the last full week of October, you need to make these!! I was given this recipe 5 years ago, made it once (did something wrong---don't know how) and never made them again until last week. Oooooh how we've been missing out! These chocolate chip pumpkin muffins are delish!!! We devoured them and Luke has been asking for more everyday. I'm making another batch today. So, so yummy!

Start with the dry ingredients first.

Then mix together the pumpkin, eggs and butter.

Combine both bowls and add the chocolate chips. Then put some cute Halloween or pumpkin cupcake liners in your muffin tray.

Fill the muffin cups up and bake!

In about 20-25 minutes these bites of heaven are ready!

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

1 and 2/3 c. flour

1  c. sugar

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. baking powder

2 large eggs

1 c. canned pumpkin

1/2 c. melted butter

1 c. chocolate chips (I used a smidge less--shockingly)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spices, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl. In a small bowl, beat eggs, pumpkin, and butter. Add this to the large bowl of dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon mixture into greased muffin pan or use paper cups. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. I filled the muffin cups all the way to the top because my recipe said they don't rise much---and that left me with 11 muffins. However, they rose more than I thought, so you can fill them up almost to the top and get 12 muffins!

hello pumpkins!

Hello 50 degrees! Does this mean I can officially turn off our air-conditioning? Hello rain and warm sweaters! I am ready to pull out little Miles' flannel crib sheets and add the olders warm blankets on their beds! Hello yummy smell of chili simmering in the crockpot! Watching the countdown on the crockpot everytime I walk by it in the kitchen has been painful--I can't wait for comfort food tonight!

Just a few days ago it was hot, for October anyway! I think it might have been our first family trip to the pumpkin patch in shorts and short sleeves! Well, except for Miles--he had a pumpkin outfit that had to be worn anyway! But the heat didn't stop us. We climbed on the tractor and headed off to the pumpkin patch. . .

Where Miles discovered he loves pumpkins. . .

and wasn't going to sit still too long. . .

because he had a hay maze to tackle and a photo to pose for that will make the little girls (and his Mommy) melt. . .

And older brothers climbed huge barrels of hay. . .

and had a blast swingin' on a tire. . .

Do you think they enjoyed the pumpkin patch?

I think so! Thanks again Cedar Hill Farms! You never disappoint!