I Won!

A little while back, I entered a giveaway on This Southern Girl's Life. If you havent checked Joanna's blog out, you should! The giveaway was sponsored by Madison Reece Designs. It was for my choice of pendant, and as soon as I saw them, I knew which one I wanted. But before I show you, look how they come!

I thought this would be a perfect Christmas gift for Layla!

I hope she likes it!

I know I havent been blogging much, it seems like we've been so busy lately. Between soccer and dance, and it getting dark right after I get home, it seems like there's no time! And it's so hard to take semi-decent pictures, hence the above ones taken in my bathroom. Anyway, have a good week. Oh, and thanks again to Joanna & Madison Reece Designs!

Help?

After two years of complaining about the squirrels eating ALL of our pecans, we've hit the motherload. We are out there almost every day picking up the ones that fell that day. And let me tell you, we have a ton! We've given away I think two 1 gallon bags so far...

And we still have all this! AND they are still dropping. So... what can I do with all of these?! Any good recipes?

Halloween!

Another Halloween come & gone. I cannot believe it's November already! That and Morgan is 8 months old today! Its crazy, where does the time go? Anyway... I though I'd share some photos from our Halloween. Here are the kids pumpkins. This is Blake's. He had that orange & white pumpkin. It was so weird, it was an off-white color inside and it smelled exactly like a cucumber.


And Layla's.... It's a cat, but because her pumpkin was kind of short & fat, I couldnt do the whole body.



Every year they take pictures infront of this Monsters, Inc. sign.

It's kind of hard to get good pics of all 3 of them at once!

Dorothy...

My mafia man... (I asked for mean/mad faces!)

And the cutest little bunny ever!

Trying this again...

And finally Blake and his cousin, Trey.

It was SO hot on Halloween. Poor Morgie was soaking wet with sweat. I had to take her bunny ears off but she was still sweaty. Hopefully this heat will go away soon, I'm ready for Fall!

We took down all the Halloween decorations tonight. It feels good to have the house back, if only for a few more weeks! The Christmas decorations will come out on Black Friday. Who else is shopping this year?

"Fall" Fun

I say "Fall" sarcastically. It feels NOTHING like fall. I heard them say on the news this morning that Lakeland had RECORD high temps for the entire country yesterday. Not something to be proud of!! But even though it doesnt feel like fall, we still had some fall fun. Last Sunday we took the kids to the Pumpkin Festival at Hunsader Farms in Bradenton, Fl. It took about an hour and a half to get there, but I'm glad we went. They dont have anything like that here, and they had a corn maze!

My sister in law called this one "children of the corn".

Finally finding our way out!

Layla, looking happy as ever...

On a pony for the first time!

(Morgie watching her sissy)

Waiting for the bouncy slide...

The pumpkin cannon was pretty popular.

And so were the corn cannons!

Only in Florida do you spend the day at a pumpkin festival, 6 days before Halloween in 80° weather, and leave with sunburns! We had fun though.

On Tuesday, the high school down the road held a little carnival for the kids. It was at night, but still pretty darn hot. But at least the kids got to have fun & wear their costumes more than once.

Doesnt she look thrilled?

I cannot believe tomorrow is Halloween! Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies

I have been wanting to share the recipe I've been using to make Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies, and I thought the Recipe Party at Southern Hospitality would be the perfect chance!

For the cakes you will need:

• 1 C. canned pumpkin
• 1/3 C. butter, softened
• 1 package spice cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C. milk

For the filling:

• 1/2 C. butter, softened
• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 2 C. sifted powdered sugar
• 3.5 oz. marshmallow cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil (grease foil). In a large mixing bowl, beat pumpkin & butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add cake mix, eggs & milk; beat on low speed until combined, and then on medium speed for 1 minute.

2. By the heaping tablespoon, drop mounds of batter 3 inches apart on cookie sheet; keep remaining batter chilled. Bake 15 minutes, or until set and lightly browned around edges. Carefully remove from parchment or foil; cool on wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter, lining cooled cookie sheets each time with a new parchment or foil.




3. Beat together butter & cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar, marshmallow cream, vanilla, cinnamon & nutmeg. Beat until well combined.

Then combine & enjoy!!

Keep the cookies at room temperate, in an airtight container, layers seperated by wax paper. This recipe makes roughly 15 whoopies.

These things are delicious! They never last very long around our house!

Last Week's Finds

No yardsales for me this week, but last weekend, on the way home from soccer, I decided to stop at one. It was SO hot & miserable. I felt sorry for people having sales that weekend, it was miserable. But lucky for me, they had marked everything half off. Probably so they could be done with it! I got all that for $1.70.

I liked this chunky frame.

This little glass dish. It says Dynaware on the bottom.

Some old shoe stretchers & some knitting needles. I dont knit, or crochet, but I really want to learn. Any tips?

Some more embroidery hoops. I finally find some metal ones!

And I found this little bag of chicks & ducks. They say 'JC Made in Hong Kong' on the bottom. They look vintage to me?

Thats it! Head on over to Flea Market Style for their "I'm a Flea Marketeer Party" to see what great things everyone else has found!

Pumpkin Time!

It FINALLY feels like Fall in Florida!! No more 90° weather! This weekend at least. We had a yard sale this morning. Did okay, not fantastic. But at least I got some junk out of the house. We decided later to run and get pumpkins. I SO badly wish there were actual pumpkin patches here. Our only options are a grocery store, vegetable stands and churches. We went last year to one of the church's and decided to go back this year.

They walked all over the lawn, up and down and everywhere, looking for just the right pumpkin.



Morgie found hers! (with Daddy's help)




And Layla!

Blake had to be a little different.

I thought it would be cute to get the 3 of them with their pumkins. Morgie was more interested in checking out all the pumpkins than looking at me.

My plans for tomorrow include grocery shopping (blah), making some of those adorable Glowing Jack-O-Lanterns from Not So Idle Hands, making Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies & taking the kids to Spirit Halloween to look at costumes. They still havent decided! Well, Layla mentioned Ariel, Blake has no clue and I dont know WHAT to dress Morgie as. Does anyone else have kids that are still clueless about their costume?