He's Done It

He's made me love it.

The sport I have spent the greater part of my life loathing....football.

Not that you're going to find me on couch every weekend cheering on college football or anything, but I definitely tolerate better.

But watching this guy play? Doesn't get much better than that.

He's a natural.

Love it.

Did you know that Superman can bake banana bread?

Neither did I. :)

This kiddo has LIVED in this costume for well over a week now. He's the third of our 3 to wear it. I love that. And I'm guessing that the love of all things superheros must be hard-wired into boys' DNA because with the exception of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob, none of ours have really watched any of it. Interesting.

I didn'teven tell him to pose like this. He just did it. Crazy. To infinity, and beyond!

Oh wait, that's Buzz Lightyear. Whatever. :)

3heart Designs

So....I started a new blog today. You can read more about it at www.3heartdesigns.blogspot.com.
Basically....I'm back in business. And it feels great! Read on, my faithful blog friends.

This will continue to be my family blog~ the one that records the adventures in our world that my horrible memory will most certainly otherwise forget. :) 3hearts will focus on scrapbooking, decorating, and everything else that encompasses my part-time job that I have missed so much and am SO READY to get back to.

So, here we go. Thank you for joining me on this journey. :)

You're Going Down

Today was Hud's first football game.

As you can tell, he had his game face on.

Still has a touch of sweetness, even when he's trying to look tough. ;)

A little pre-game pep talk

Gearing up for the big game with his friend Will.


Hud scored a touchdown...a 30 yard touchdown. It was pretty awesome. I didn't have my camera ready for that, of course, but I did record him running this play. Such a proud mama. :)

Mid-game pep talk with his Daddy. I sooo wish you could have seen the pride beaming on B's face. Priceless. :)

A little post-game chill time. It's hard work being a football player.

This baby has turned his mama into a football fan in just one game. Here we go, people.

It's Coming!

Do you see it? See the red-ish orange leaves on our tree?

Fall. It's coming. It's my favorite time of the year. And I get more excited about decorating for Fall than I do about decorating for Christmas. Maybe because Fall leads into Christmas....not sure. All I do know is that there is something about pumpkins and leaves that makes me really happy and cozy on the inside. Wish I could go and put a sweatshirt on. Unfortunately, the 90 degree temps outside aren't allowing me to do that yet, so I'm just going to have to pretend for a couple more weeks. That's okay. Because it's coming. This tree promises that. :)

This is our kitchen table. Picked up this tray and the acorns, and the hemp table runner at Pottery Barn OUTLET (did you know such a thing existed? It's pretty fantastic), and everything else is just stuff I've had for awhile. Fun giving new life to it. And it's really great that each night at dinner I can just grab the entire tray and move it without disrupting the decorations and having to re-do them. Huge help.

I spent most of the morning fighting with this grapevine, trying to get it in just the right spots. That stuff is a beating to work with, but it screams "Fall" to me, so it was worth the fight. The pumpkins are from when I worked at Recollections....I made these for the class sample and got to co-teach the class, and then my fantastic boss let me keep them. I love them, and I really love the happy memories they remind me of from that special place.

What did Hunter do as I worked? He made up his own version of Veggie Tales with this little gourd and the pumpkins. Thankful on days like this that he has a fun imagination to keep him busy. He also watched way more tv than I usually allow....at least we've had a full week of active, non-tv things....takes away some of the mommy guilt for letting SpongeBob and Dora help me today. :)

And yes, I even did a Halloween area. I know it's early. But I was on a roll and just wanted to get it done. That jack-o-lantern is too fab to just be out for one month of the year. And I really love the boys' treat buckets (made by my very talented friend Trisha Louise)...they really need to get some time in the spotlight, don't you agree? ;)

Now, if this doesn't make you want to go pick a pumpkin, then nothing will. Happy Fall!

SpongeBob and Football

This weekend has brought a much-needed break.

Between Brian's hectic schedule and the sickness and yuck

we've been dealing with, it was so nice to get a reprieve.

Friday we decorated SpongeBob cookies.

From a kit.

Which goes against everything I believe in, but whatever.

They loved it, so I did too.

Hunter's was a little green, but he thought it was delicious.

Yesterday I met a friend for coffee.

She has been a HUGE encouragement to me in getting adjusted to our move here.

She's a minister's wife too, so she gets it. And I love that.

And there is no doubt in my mind that God placed her right in the middle of my world at just the right time, because I know He knew how much I would need her.

It was a great way to start my Saturday, made even better by the

really yummy Pumpkin Spice Latte I got to enjoy while we met. I so love fall. :)

But anyway....after coffee Brian and I loaded up the boys and a picnic lunch and headed to the park. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. So beautiful. Perfect for a picnic.

We took along a football so we could play a little, and practice with Hud some too.

The boys were more interested in tackling each other, but we threw the ball around, kicked it some, and just goofed around and had fun. It was perfect.

We ended the day with dinner at our neighbor's house.

The kids played, we talked and laughed,

and then when it was time to go home we just walked back next door to our house.

Loved that. :)

Life is good.

I'm Gonna Miss This

Something monumental occurred in our house this week.

Something that we (or I, admittedly) had been putting off for far too long.

The tiny one gave up his paci. With no drama or sadness of any kind on his part.
His mom, however, isn't handling it quite as well. ;)
Don't get me wrong....I mean, I know it's time. I know it's WAY past time.
I guess because he's my baby I just wanted to delay this last "changing from a baby into a big boy" milestone for just a little longer.And it just doesn't get much better than getting a paci kiss from this kiddo. And because he might have acquired my addictive personality, I kind of assumed taking it away would be a total nightmare.
How wrong I was. This kid is a champ.
The whole thing was way too easy. His (very last one) got lost. We couldn't find it anywhere, so one "you're a big boy now, so it's time to give your paci to the babies" pep talk coupled with a bribe trip to Target for a prize the next day, and he was all good. 4 nights later, and we're still good. No baby detox at all. Crazy. Crazy good.

Today he found his long lost friend.
He brought it to me and said I need to give it the babies.
My baby is growing up.

Want a lick? ;)

Today Hunter helped me make brownies. He can crack an egg better than any other 3-yr-old I know. While they were baking, he happily licked the bowl. By the looks of these pictures, you would think he had actually climbed into the bowl. I'm sure that if he could have he would have. Never thought I would have to clean chocolate off of my child's armpits, but I suppose after 9 years of raising boys, nothing should really surprise me, right?

I will happily clean whatever off this sweet baby.

And yes, that is a pile of clothes needing to be folded in the background. This afternoon we had more important things to do....like make brownies. And lick the bowl. But because having clean underwear is important too,

I actually did get around to doing that this evening. :)

And speaking of clothes....

....what do you think of the boys' choices of clothing for their

afternoon of playing outside?

I recently read somewhere (another blog, I think) that a "good" mom lets her kids dress themselves. Don't really know if I agree with that or not. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm kind of a control freak. And letting them go out in public like this kind of seems like child abuse to me. Hahaha...just kidding. But when we're just hanging around the house or playing outside, I have no problem letting them pick.
For school, church, and other public outings, I still lay out their clothes each night so they know what to put on in the morning.
Because if I don't, this is apparently what they will come up with on their own. :) Wow.
I guess I thought that after all these years of dressing them pretty darn cute (if I do say so myself) some sense of style would have soaked into their smart little heads. Looks like I'll be laying out their clothes for them for a long time to come. :)