Ornament Exchange

Each year, my mom's family hosts a girl's ornament exchange. It's a fun time to hang out with family. This year's gathering was quite small, but nice none-the-less.

Here are a few photos.

Each year we each bring a flower to make an arrangement for my grandma. We began the exchange to honor her before she passed away, so I think it's special that we still honor her. This year, it will also be by grandpa's grave.

This year's exchange was a little early, so there was no Christmas tree to stand by. But we made do with this decorative Christmas towel!

Annnd I don't have a picture of my ornament, but I got a cute felt Christmas tree. It reminds me of something that would be in Dr. Seuss. I seriously love it!

Better Late Than Never?

Happy Halloween!

My little man looked awesome as Bumblebee!

Here he is with his girl, Little Bo Peep.

The object of this game was to throw the life preserver around the pumpkin... which the kids couldn't actually accomplish. But they had fun trying.

With Grammy.

I stopped by Vincent's preschool Monday. The kids thought it was hilarious to throw TP at their teacher.

Playing musical chairs.

With Popa.

And Memaw.

Vincent really, really wanted to go to this house. He talked about the "haunted house" for weeks.

My stinky niece.

...checking out the monster.

Hope you had an awesome Halloween!

This is

... only a test!

Hmm. What to post in my test post is a testing task to post in my test post.

Growing Up!

Two weekends ago (Halloween weekend), Gary, Vincent and I visited the botanical garden (more about that later). When we were finished there, we decided to take a trip to Toys R Us to look for ideas for birthday presents for Vincent. I can't believe he will be 5 in just a few short days (8 to be exact!).

After testing out literally every bike that was his size, Vincent fell in love with a bright, gold bike. Yep, he skipped over the Spider Man, Transformer, Toy Story and all other themed bikes in lieu of a gold bike. You see, thought he could go faster on it, as well as learn to do tricks. He was standing up on it as he was riding it in the store! I think he really could go faster on it, but the frame is made from something lightweight.

The bike features alloy wheels, front and pedal brakes and pegs...yes, pegs.

The next morning (we got home late), Dad put the bike together and we "went for a spin." We went down to the track where Vin zipped around half a mile, no problem. Then he rode over to the park and back home. The past couple of times we've only gone about half a mile before coming home, but he's working on body strength to go up hills (he can't really even do tiny ones yet) and is figuring out the brakes.

Check out this little soon-to-be stuntman.

Putting the bike together.

Excited helper.

First ride.

Tiny incline...

Riding over to the track... nice, flat surface!

And away he goes!

First crash...

He's ok!

That's it for tonight. Happy Monday!

Carving Time!

Gary, Vin and I carved pumpkins Sunday. Vincent and I drew what we wanted our pumpkins to look like, and worked on cleaning out the pumpkins as Dad carved. Here's our rough sketches:

I drew the top one and Vincent didn't like it, so he drew a new one on the bottom. He wanted a spooky pumpkin.

Here's mine. I wanted a happy/goofy pumpkin.

Look at his little dimple.

Gary's spooky pumpkin.

Turns out I will have to add photos of the other finished pumpkins later.

Here is Vincent, his pumpkin and my mom. I didn't actually get a picture of mine... :( But note how his looks just like his drawing...

Fall Scenes

I've been watching the leaves on the trees at our work for weeks, change from bright green to gorgeous fall colors. The other day I finally decided to take a photo.

This past Saturday I had to cover an early morning run. This is what the lake looked like when I arrived for the photo. I think it's pretty.

Happy Thursday!

Got Pumpkin Seeds? Toast 'em!

I know, I know. Halloween is over. But, if you're like me, you bought several pumpkins and didn't carve all of them. So, if you have extra pumpkins around, or if you saved your seeds planning to make something delicious — here is the perfect solution. This pumpkin seed recipe is so easy you won't know what to do.

Step 1: Separate pumpkin seeds and wash off any extra goop.

Step 2: Gather your supplies. You'll need Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, salt and of course the pumpkin seeds. For an added splash of flavor I added an eensy bit of red wine vinegar (not shown).


Step 3: Combine

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
• And a dash of red wine vinegar.
  

Step 4: Place in a shallow baking pan and put them in the oven for one hour at 275 degrees.


And Voila! A delicious, healthy snack. Don't you just want to run and grab a half-price pumpkin now?

Oh, and I've also seen and tried delicious sweet pumpkin seed recipes, but I didn't make any this year. Hey, maybe I'll rush out and get some half-price pumpkins!

Enjoy!