A Love for Dogs

Levi has developed a great love of all dogs. It works out well for him that all of our family (both sides) have dogs. These are some snapshots from Thanksgiving. He had a good day :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give thanks
with a grateful heart
Give thanks
to the Holy One
Give thanks
because He's given
Jesus Christ
His son

And now
let the weak say I am strong
let the poor say I am rich
because of what the Lord has done
for us
Give thanks 

Anna's Musical Wreath

I can't claim this project as my own although I am going to write about it because I love it! My aunt Cindy and uncle Mark made this wreath for my grandma (Anna) for her birthday. Anna is passionate about music and has been a member of her church choir for over 50 years; thus, something musical is always a good gift idea for her.

My aunt sketched out a treble clef on a piece of plywood and she and my uncle cut it out with a jigsaw....freehanded! (wow) Then they painted it black, drilled a bunch of holes, and stuck a Christmas light bulb in each hole (labor of love!). Then the treble clef was attached to a basic wreath with black pipe cleaners. My aunt asked me to help run some silver metallic glittery ribbon through the wreath, and later I found out that it was because she knew it would make a big glittery mess all over the floor, and my floor was perfect for that! (kidding)

My grandma loved her wreath (I heard she cried) and can't wait to display it on the wall of her porch, to share with all the world. I will try to add a better picture later once she has it displayed. Good job Aunt Cindy & Uncle Mark!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Snapshots

I'm kinda a party pooper when it comes to Halloween in reality, but I try to be a good sport for everyone else who loves it (and now for my child). I'm just not crazy about the holiday, but fear not, I won't keep my kids from dressing up or trick-or-treating. You just probably won't see me dressing like a witch or screwing orange light bulbs in all my porch lights.

With Halloween being on Wednesday this year, things were a little up-in-the-air as to what was going on. Our church was planning on doing a few fun things for the kids (and they were suppose to wear costumes if they wanted to) so we planned on doing that. I wasn't sure if there would be kids trick-or-treating before/after church so we just planned to go with the flow. As it turned out, trick-or-treating was from 6-8pm and surprisingly most everyone followed the rules. So, we didn't go from door to door, but we did have a fun Halloween. Tyler's parents came over for dinner and church, and then after church we trick-or-treated at my parents' house. Levi didn't get shorted on fun, and he was wound up pretty much the entire night (I didn't see him eat much candy but someone had to have given him loads of sugar when I wasn't around!). They had inflatables for the kids at church and they went trick-or-treating in all the different classrooms.

Here are some (terrible) snapshots from our night. Levi wasn't cooperative with pictures at all if you couldn't tell. He was WOUND UP but he was having lots of fun, so that's what I will think about when I see all these pictures of him trying to wrangle out of our arms.

{He was a brain surgeon (doctor) for Halloween}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{Here, we are coming off the sugar high and realizing it's definitely time to go home and go to bed;)}

 

Monkey Bread

I'm not even going to search Pinterest (or the rest of the internet) for the origin of this recipe because I got it the old-fashioned way: from a friend, pre-Pinterest era.

I was talking to my friend Shawna about a family recipe I had (shout out to Aunt Gin - it's her recipe -yum!) for monkey bread that you make the night before and let it sit in the cold oven overnight. After I explained all the steps and ingredients she said to me "ok, listen to the recipe I use..." The one she gave me had about 3 steps and 3 ingredients and I was sold. SO great and SO easy. I don't make this all the time because I want it to remain special (it's part of our Christmas morning tradition, and sometimes we do it on birthdays for breakfast).

A couple of weeks ago we had this for breakfast on a certain little 2-year-old's birthday before we headed to the zoo. He loves it like we do:)

Ingredients:
1 package of Rhodes frozen cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing
1/4 C crushed graham crackers & 1/4 C brown sugar, mixed together

Instructions:
Before bedtime, spray a bundt pan with cooking spray (make sure to get good coverage all over, you will thank me for that tip) and put 6 of the frozen rolls in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the crackers/sugar mixture over the rolls, then place the other rolls on top. Spray a piece of plastic wrap and cover the pan, then let the rolls sit/rise in the cold oven overnight. When you get up in the morning, take the plastic wrap off then bake at 350 for about 25 minutes (I don't preheat, I just turn it on). After it's done, take it out and flip them over onto a platter and cover it all with the cream cheese icing (I just let the icing packages set out on the counter all night so it's nice and soft). Then, try not the eat the whole thing and you'll have leftovers for breakfast (or dessert) for a couple of days!
 

{The morning after. Sometimes they rise a lot more because they were in there longer - it totally doesn't matter}

{My vanity wants me to tell you that you can make this a LOT prettier by putting the icing in a fine-tipped squeeze bottle and drizzle it on - either way it tastes the same;)}