Life over the last 8 months!!!

Well.... What can I say? It has now been about 8 months since I have last posted on here. Since then my little June bug turned 3 yrs. old and her BIG personality amazes me daily!! She is definitely my mini me and has been growing like a weed!

 

In October me and the kids went to Kansas to visit family and go to one of my oldest friends bachelorette party!!

 

 We came back just in time for one of my favorite holidays, Halloween!!

 
This year I decided to make the kids costumes. I have had this caveman/flintstone idea in my head for awhile. These costumes were super cheap and super easy to make! I think I bought a yard and a half of faux fur from Joann's fabric for about $10! I then just draped it around June and Tucker and used safety pins to keep in place. I bought the accessories at Party America and spent about $15. Can't wait till next year already!!

(Hubby's b-day cake! Although he doesn't like sweets!)

 

November wasn't a very exciting month the hubby turned 34!! Although you would think he turned 40 because he is always complaining about being old!! Lol (Honey you are still young!!). We spent Thanksgiving here in Texas with some good friends of ours that are actually from Kansas :)

Come December we decided to go visit my husbands family in Illinois. So we road tripped it up to Steeleville Illinois!! But not before a slight delay with a flat tire in the middle of nowhere Arkansas!!

It was so good to see my husbands family I feel like I really never get to see them. Especially my stepson Jaden. Hopefully someday we will live closer and get to see him more than a few times a year :( Christmas with the Ennis' was great!!

On the last couple days of our Christmas vacations we decided to make a trip to see my family in Kansas. Boy were they surprised!!

 January came and this little man turned 1!! Crazy how fast a year passes! I remember thinking when I was pregnant with him that I could never love another baby like I loved my June bug. But boy was I wrong!! The amount of love I have for my little man is endless. He is definitely a mommas boy and just makes me melt with his smile. He is definitely a boy and keeps me on my feet. He climbs and gets into EVERYTHING!!! I really enjoyed planning his b-day party with a little help from Pinterest. I will share pics of his dinosaur themed party soon!
 
Now onto February. This month for sure ranks right up there with one of the hardest months I have had:( On the 13th my sister called and told me that my Grandpa had fallen down and hit his head at the nursing home. And that he fractured his skull and his brain was bleeding. With him being so old they only gave him days to live:( So me and the kids got tickets to Kansas and left the next day. Unfortunately he did not make it through the night. I can't describe the pain I felt knowing that my grandpa was gone. But I am sure for anyone who has every lost someone they know exactly how I felt and still feel to this day.
Me and the kids got to Kansas and for the next week it was an emotional roller coaster. My heart ached because my grandpa was gone and it ached even more seeing my mom and grandma in so much pain. All I know is that my grandpa who was maybe not always the best husband or father grew with time and learned from his mistakes and changed into the best grandpa, husband and father! I will never forget his love for trains, crazy stories about him growing up, his cars, and his white t-shirt, blue jeans and boots. He lived a long beautiful life!! And I will never forget him!!

 

Well, I was going to try to get through to April but the kids are screaming and things to be done so I will find time to catch everyone up to what's going on now very soon!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Meal Ever!!!

(According to my husband)

This meal is so easy that everyone should try it at least once. I first came across something similar when a friend of mine served this at her daughters bday party. 

Every Monday my daughter has gymnastics till 6:45 and by the time we get home and I cook something it is always so late. So I figured why not just throw something in the crock pot and have it ready when we get home. So the first thing I did was search good ole pinterest. Of course the choices were endless but I picked one that was similar to the one my friend made. Here is the one I chose;
http://millerfamilyorganizer.blogspot.com/2012/02/slow-cooker-salsa-chicken.html  

The only thing I did differently was add a can of drained black beans and drained can of corn. We usually eat it with tortilla chips or tortillas. You could put this stuff with just about anything and it would still be good.

Chicken Salsa

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I thaw mine)

1 cup salsa

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 packet taco seasoning

1/2 cup sour cream

1 can (drained) black beans

1 can (drained) corn

Place thawed chicken in bottom of crock pot. And then just start pouring all ingredients in except for sour cream. I kinda stir mine up just a little. Make sure chicken stays at the bottom. Cook on high for 4 hours. Right before you are about to serve shred chicken with two forks and stir in sour cream. You can eat with tortillas or tortillas chips and enjoy!!

SLACKING!!!

I knew this blog thing wouldn't be easy! Sometimes life just gets a little to busy to sit down and stare at a computer for too long. So since my last post summer has basically came and gone:( During that time I took a trip to Kansas to celebrate my big 3-0!! My husband left for 3wks and my niece came to Texas to keep us company while he was gone for 2wks.  My in-laws also came to Texas at the beginning of August to visit and meet their newest grandson!! I swear time just keeps speeding up every year. 

My little Tucker man is getting so big!!

Monga Ennis and June Bug (June calls all her grandma's Monga?)

Been taking pics of my pregnant friend every few weeks!! I'll have to share the others I have taken of her. I swear her belly is barley growing!! I can't wait till this little guy is born!!

Fun things to come!!!

Although I took a little bit of a hiatus doesn't mean that I have stopped crafting and cooking away. I have so many things that I want to share. Especially some fun easy recipes for fall, a few new wreaths, a rag quilt and some fun pics that I have been taking of my kiddos!! 

Wreaths!!

Happy Memorial Day!!

I saw this cute idea for a Memorial Day/4th of July wreath on Pinterest (go figure). And when I saw how easy it was to make I knew I had to try it out! Plus it calls for felt my favorite thing to make things with! Lol

Materials you will need: 

 
• 5 red pieces of felt
• 5 white pieces of felt
• 4 blue pieces of felt
• Safety pins 
• Styrofoam wreath
• Scissors or something to cut felt with
• White paper
• Ribbon for hanger

Cut pieces into 2 inch squares
I didn't take a pic of the next step so I borrowed this pic from http://ssbuffat.blogspot.com/2012/02/out-of-season-in-demand.html here you will also find more detailed instructions. So for this step you will basically take one square fold it in half corner to corner and then in half again (it's really easy).  The piece will end up looking like a triangle. You will then pin it to your wreath at the point of  the triangle. Then fold 3 more squares and pin at the point so that they all the point touch like in the pic. And then you fluff each square and continue to do that around the whole wreath. I didn't do the back cause no one really sees it anyways. Plus it would have been to puffy.

Once you pin a few you will get the hang of  it and breeze right through the pinning. I think it took me longer to actually cut the squares then to fold and pin.

The last thing I did was cut out some stars out and pin them to the wreath and pin a piece of ribbon to the back for a hanger!! Pretty easy if you ask me. And it looks great on my front door!

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day and remember what this holiday is really about and remember those who lost their lives for all of us!!

Photography!!!

Pictures!! I love taking pics!! I saw this idea of course on Pinterest and decided I had to try it out. So while my 2 yr old was still sleeping I did a little photo shoot with my little guy! Of course he didn't cooperate like I anticipated but I have an idea of what I want. I am also getting excited about taking photos of a close friend who is preggers. We have so many ideas we want to try. I am also headed back to Ks in about a week and plan on taking lots of pics of the family. I can't wait!! 

My husband recently got me a nice camera and I am excited to see what I can do with it. As of now I am using Picasa and Picmonkey to edit my photos but I am thinking about buying one of the photoshops. If anyone has any suggestions I would love it. I need to know how easy photoshop is to navigate and all that good stuff.  Well hopefully I get some good photos in the next few months and I will definitely be sharing them with all of you!!

Westboro Baptist Church Comes to Texas

Like I had mentioned in my post yesterday Westboro Baptist Church came to Killeen, Tx to protest the military. I decided I would go and see how the people of the military and the the town of Killeen were going to react to these people. Back home in Topeka where they are from, people have just kinda learned how to ignore them. Maybe that's why they feel the need to take their show on the road to get attention somewhere somehow(So sad). I really didn't know what to expect but when I got there it was complete craziness, there were people protesting against them everywhere!! I really didn't expect that many people. As soon as I got out of my car I could here chants of, "USA!! USA!! This immediately brought tears to my eyes (I am such a baby). But something about seeing all these people supporting our soldiers gave me a sense of pride! I started to make my way through the crowd and noticed that there were only a handful of WBC members picketing and by the time I got there they weren't holding their signs up and the police were just about to escort them out. As they headed to their cars with police surrounding them the crowd all of a sudden turned and started to follow them (crazy). They were yelling things like, "God loves everyone!", "Don't mess with Texas!!", and "Go back home!!" along with many other things. I was just so amazed by all of this. Once they  got in their cars a whole bunch of motorcycles followed them out!! After they left the chants of  USA did not stop. I talked to one lady and she said that they planned to keep picketing. After I talked to a few more people and took some more pics I headed to my gym which is across the street. I had so much energy from all these people I knew I was gonna have a good workout (I did). On my way out of the gym I wondered if anyone would still be out there. And sure enough the one lady I talked to who said they would be out there for awhile was the only one left with her one sign!! How awesome is that?! 

This guy was going crazy yelling all sorts of
stuff!

Drop dead Fred!

Ok, I know the title is a little inappropriate but it is a saying that I would see in Topeka growing up in regard to Fred Phelps who is the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. Needless to say if you know what him and his church stand for you might understand. Although I really despise the guy I wouldn't actually wish death upon anyone. With that being said tomorrow in Fort Hood Tx him and his follower will be protesting against the military and gays. When I was younger I grew up within blocks of these people and it was just part of life back then. You would see them picketing at the park, schools, churches or just about anywhere I guess they felt necessary. Not sure where this mans hatred for gays or the government came from but somehow he has convinced his family and members of his church to do the same:(
As a military wife I am part of groups on fb such as the Fort Hood Area Events. They just basically keep me in the know of things around the area. Since Phelps and his followers will be here this weekend they posted this article http://gawker.com/5911068/nine+year+old-stands-up-to-westboro-baptist-church-with-one+boy-counter+protest.

I just loved this article especially the pic!! What a brave little boy!! (he's got it right).