Happy Halloween

from a Rockstar Cowgirl, whose hat didn't fit quite right, but the boots more than made up for it...

an adorable lion who isn't so cowardly..but not quite walking..loved trick-or-treating especially when getting tons of pretzels...

and a baby giraffe who had so much candy she was dumping her extras in the stroller to make room for more in her bucket!!

Hope yours was just as sweet!

A Wedding Shower

While in CS we celebrated a wedding shower for my little brother Jeff, aka Toodge (the nickname given to him forever ago by my older brother and the neighborhood friends)(I wonder if he hates that I call him that) and Natalie. They are getting married in Austin on Lake Travis in less than a month! I am in the wedding and am a little nervous about the dress and shoes.

Lets just say they are tall shoes (cute but tall), not really my thing, like I never wear shoes like that, like the first time I wore them I seriously got a cramp in my calf! The dress is decent but the color is one that is not going to go well with my pastey skin..so off to a spray tan I will go, hopefully!
The shower was at the Ernst's house. They live in the country so-to-speak and I knew the girls would have a great time. It was at 3 and we stayed til the kids 'told' us it was time to go. HB and G were ready to go at 8! Emmaline could have stayed forever..she's my party girl and has been since she was a baby..if there is music, lights or people she is good to go! She is also quite the flirt once she gets over her initial shyness.

Fun times ahead for the Listis! HA! G, on the other hand, asks to leave places to go home and gets to a point where she can't be coaxed to stay. We should definitely make them share a car in 13 years...that won't cause any extra drama!!
So Mark (who they call Mudslide) cooked up fried fish, fried oysters, etouffee, sausage, etc. I tried my first fried oysters, only oyster ever!! It was good but not sure I could have it any other way. This other guy was there cooking and he walked up to me and said, You must be Coon Juices' daughter?! Um, well, I guess I must! HA! What fun nicknames, I suppose!

Liz made Italian cream cake (Nat's fav) and a strawberry cake(my fav but don't think she made it for me!) and snickerdoodles (Jeff's fav). I made some brownies (which Emmaline ate most of those and kept sneaking them, but the proof was all over her face. I also made my dad some Pumpkin Bread pudding. I had left over pumpkin muffins so I decided to make him one of his favorite desserts. I used two different recipes and they were both pretty good.

My dad liked Bobby Flay's best (I didn't make the Vanilla Anglaise) and my mom liked Sandra Lee's (this one was easy and good). I know the sauces weren't perfect, but I tried and was glad he liked it and shared with others at the party!
Sara (Rachel's sister), Rachel (Michael's fiance), Natalie and Erica

My Dad (Coon Juice apparently) and Jeffrey (Toodge)!

There were lots of fun family and friends there and we got to eat, drink and watch football!

Mark has a motorcycle and brought it out for people to ride on. Then the stories started flying about how Erica, Pauline and Mollie drove the go-cart all the way across Highway 6 from Emerald Forest to the Binions! It was fun to remember!

We also realized Natalie's cousin Morgan, who lives in Bryan and is a freshman at A&M, was in my Athletics class I taught while at Sam Rayburn. I remembered her once I knew her name..she was in all the sports I didn't coach and in the other Spanish class, so we just barely crossed paths. I was glad to figure it out because I hate when someone looks familiar and I never realize the connection!

Hayes was really good the whole time and had the most fun when we put him on the ground to play. Liz introduced him to the art of throwing dirt. He had a blast and barely flinched when he got it in his eyes. What a boy!!
Congrats to Nat and Toodge! It was a fun day and we are so looking forward to the real party in a few short weeks!

Campbell Joy

One of my oldest and dearest friends had her 1st daughter, but second baby, last week. We threw a shower for her a few months back and were so excited to get to meet Miss Campbell Joy this weekend while in CS.

Autumn was nice enough to let us come over and see them for a short while on Sunday before we headed home from a whirlwind weekend. Hoyt, the big brother who is G's age (3), let the girls play with his toys while I got to hold the little bitty thing! She is beautiful and looks like Hoyt who looks like Autumn. I think I enjoyed getting to see her room and all her bows and adorable outfits as much as I did getting to see her. She is gonna look so stylish all the time..she will have to change outfits multiple times a day! Thanks to Autumn asking the girls if they wanted to hold her, we now have named our baby dolls 'Campbell Joy'!

Congrats to Autumn, who looks amazing already, Justin and Hoyt! Little girls are so much fun. The drama is just beginning..

Pumpkin Patch

{I want to draw your attention to G in this picture. Look at that expression on her face and her hand placement square on her hips. And she would not even entertain the idea of sitting on the same haybale as her siblings! Typical.}
I love Fall and all the fun things there are to do. The smells of pumpkin & cinnamon and football always being on our tv! It is great..I just wish it was a bit cooler outside.

Our MOPS group took a trip to the Medina Pumpkin Patch last week. It was fun to carpool with our friends Anna & Lisa. The weather was actually decent that day and overcast which kept it cool until lunchtime. We also got to hang out with the Torres girls, including Godiva, their new puppy! They always have a fun time together. I love this particular patch because it is one of the cheaper ones and the admission price includes more activities.

The first thing we did was force the darlings to pose in the pumpkins before they got all grimy. It went ho-hum.

I was just so excited that G actually agreed to wear the dress I picked for her! It was a Pumpkin Patch miracle!

Then we were over all that pretty quickly, so we ran through the maze on our way to the 'symphony'.

The kids get to play instruments such as pumpkin shakers, triangles & spoons while we sing random songs. They tell stories & we listen on haybales. This always goes over well until someone is seen with a snack then they all are soooooo hungry!

After that, we headed to the Native American dancing & storytime. HB was flapping his hands to the music, but it bores me.
The barrel train was next and the moms decided to ride also.

I thought HB would like it and he did! The man driving the tractor was hauling ass and doing donuts. The kids were squealing and bouncing around and my tailbone will never be the same. The girls rode 3 more times and didn't seem to have the same issue as me.

I told them to just wait until they are mommies and they would understand!

We had to make a stop at the face painting booth where all the girls got theirs done and looked adorable for all of 10 minutes until it started to smear.

That was definitely $10 well spent.

It was now time for lunch at this point so we got a seat at the puppet show and ate some BBQ and PB&J. At this point the sun came out and it got warm. Thank goodness for iced tea! But the kids were ready to do more so we made a beeline for the petting zoo.

They had the sweetest baby pig and chicks.

G finally got brave enough to hold a chick!

The turkeys were flying around wildly and the goat almost ate Emmaline's dress off of her. How I missed that picture still escapes me. Oh right, probably because my son apparently isn't a fan of animals and clung so tight to me the entire time.

When we were brushing the horse, he was terrified. Poor thing. I don't know what is going on there...!

Finally, we picked up our free pumpkins and made another maze run and decided it was icecream time. They have the best apple icecream! YUM!

I made the mistake of getting waffle cones. It was melting out of all the cracks within seconds and we were all a sticky mess, but it was worth it! HB loved it of course and it staved off the tantrums long enough for us to take the hayride back to the car. It was a successful trip and a great day. The girls had a great time and loved telling Daddy all about it.

Pumpkin Fun & so much more!

We love Fall around here. Even if the weather isn't going to cooperate I want to feel like I am experiencing the cool breezes and leaves floating to the ground!

We decided to make some yummy pumpkin muffins & bread.

We also had a playdate and painted pumpkins and made some fun turkey handprints..

I don't typically love the color orange, because ummm, hello, football conflicts, but pumpkin orange is different than burnt orange! So I run with it!!

From a fellow blogger I was reminded about cool uses for chalkboard paint, so we painted pumpkins so the girls could make as many faces as they want and do it over and over again! I also got some other fun ideas to use for it and so excited!!

I also cooked like 4 times last week..WHOA, I know, impressed much! My main recipe that was a hit for Daniel was some pulled pork sandwiches done in the crockpot. MY recipe will follow cause I just made it up from stuff I had because I am a poor planner and usually am missing a few key ingredients!
Here is the Pumpkin recipe: Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread (shared by Allison Wendler, found in Southern Living)
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
4 large eggs
Cream cheese filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (I leave out the nuts)
1 large egg
Directions:
Stir together 3 1/2 cups flour, sugar, and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together pumpkin and next 3 ingredients; add to flour mixture, whisking just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon 3 cups of batter into each of 2 greased and floured 9- x 5-inch loaf pans. Spoon Cream Cheese Filling evenly over batter. Spoon remaining batter evenly over Cream Cheese Filling. I have left out cream cheese before and it still works great! But why would you!!!?
Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of bread comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Then my Pulled Pork Sandwiches...I was going to use the Pioneer Woman's recipe here, and have before and yummy..as her stuff is usually, but didn't have the right ingredients, so I improvised and crossed my little fingers for the best!! I like to NOT play by the rules, live on the wild side of 'will dinner be edible or not'? Ya know, crazy!! (I was actually called crazy by 3 different people this week! I was shocked too!) ..so maybe I write like I cook, sporadic and get off topic too easily and just do things the way I feel even if it makes no sense...
I wanted to use my crockpot. It just makes me feel safe, like I'm not really doing anything, and if it burns I don't feel as bad because I really didn't cook it myself..
OK, back to my recipe:
Cut up like 2 medium white onions and placed most in the bottom,
Then I put some 'rub' we had in our cabinet and rubbed it in the pork butt
Then I layed it on the onions and put the rest of the onions on top.
Then I realized I was out of DP or anything similar to that.. and HB was napping and crap, what to do!!
So, I searched my frig...found a Sprite and a Beer (Bud Light I think..I don't typically drink those so I was willing to give it up)
Poured those in the pot and wasn't sure what else to do!
I added in a pinch or two of Brown Sugar and stirred
Then I added in some beef boulon just because my juice looked too clear for my likin'.
I can't really remember what else I did..I am pretty sure I flipped the pork and reversed it a few times throughout the cooking.
I cooked it on High for about 5 hours and then turned it down on low for a bit. It would probably be best on Low for like 7-8 hours.

It was so yummy!! I served on sliders (which my girls think are awesome!) and made this great coleslaw and felt all Woman-y-ish. Then I dipped my slider bread in the juice to slop up the druggins and it was heaven!

The Coleslaw recipe is from my friend Leslie:
Packaged coleslaw, cilantro and 2 cans of shoepeg corn (drained)
Combine ingredients early enough to cool it all down and add in jar of Marzetti's coleslaw dressing found next to the coleslaw in cooler area.
It is so refreshing and yummy..I don't think mine tasted like hers did, but probably cause I made it. Don'tcha hate when that happens..or is it just me?!
Ok, that turned in to the longest post..I am the only one up still watching the Monday Night Football game..but I won this week in my Fantasy League..so at least I'm doing something right!

Next up, Pumpkin Patch pictures!
(maybe all my posts should be written like I have tons of people who will read it! It's like I'm not sitting here by myself!)

weekend in CS

We finally got to go to CS for a longer weekend..when there really wasn't anything going on. It was nice to not have a long list of things to do and nice to not have to high-tail it home on Sunday afternoon (especially since I was so busy bowling)!
So we drove in Friday morning and ate at my favorite Mexican food spot right away, Coco Loco, with my dad. The girls were having a blast with the queso and let's just say HB had lots of beans to eat! Fun times!!
That evening was the Crosstown Showdown aka Consol-Bryan highschool football game.

It is always fun and is held at Kyle Field so I was excited to take the kids. The girls were little balls of excitement and Hayes never stopped moving!

He took his first big steps (at least 4) there and loved climbing up and down the bleachers! Between huge buckets of popcorn and all the crazy kids dressed up with mohawks and such, the girls never got tired!

We left at the end of the 3rd while Consol had control of the game. It was 10 when we got home and HB was pretty ready for bed but not fussy.

Saturday was a lazy day with football watching :) and playing outside in the baby pool. That seems to never get old! My mom snagged some new things at a garage sale for the kids: a pink Big Wheels!

AWESOME!!
Saturday after a good nap, I headed to Michael's to watch the Aggies BTHO Texas Tech...so excited we beat them! He and Rachel have it all set up with tvs everywhere. It was fun to hang out with friends and family there!! Later, we headed to Carney's to meet up with lots of other people. It was one of those unexpected wild & late nights.

I ended up sleeping at Michael's house and waking to the rain falling. I did not want to get out of bed.
Sunday, the girls and I went to brunch with Natalie and Jeffrey and then were going to do the Buddy Walk. Unfortunately, it got cancelled due to rain. I felt so bad for everyone who put it together. We decided to head to the bowling alley instead.

Can I just say I wouldn't usually hang around in my workout clothes, especially with cute bowling shoes..I was just 'in the moment'..
It was so fun!! Emmaline ended up going to the movies with my mom, so it was just us with Georgia. My dad kept Hayes and I think they had a good time getting to hang out by themselves for once!
G did really good at bowling at first and then she kindof fizzled out.

She kept wondering where Emmaline was (thought she was playing in the gameroom without her). Once she got cotton candy it was all good!

Sunday afternoon we napped and had more Mexican food.
Monday we met up with Autumn, Hoyt, Pauline, Tai and Peyton at the park. It was lots of fun, great weather and fun to catch up on things. Autumn is just about to have Campbell so that is exciting!!

Tai loved to carry Hayes around and help him (so I didn't have to!!) and they all wore eachother out. We got lunch and baths before we hit the road to SA. It was a great weekend!

HB even snagged more adorable things from Hoyt, like these boots..just look at those thighs!!

Also, my cousin, Dan and Kendra, welcomed their 2nd baby, Olivia Paige, on Friday!! How fun!! Here is a pic of my mom's sister, Boom Boom (Dan's mom and his kids). They didn't find out the sex so it was even more of a surprise...I soooo want to do that...I'm just saying if I ever had another baby..