SEMO Homecoming Bonfire

My parents hosted a bonfire at their house for all the SEMO college kids over Homecoming Weekend.  We didn't stay too long, but it was fun to hang out!!

We probably need to buy another sock-cap for this winter.  Clearly, our Tiger one doesn't match everything...HA!

YUMMY!  Chips and rotel!

If a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words...

Then this picture deserves a rather lengthy post...


Look closely...what is this?  I know it looks like the Wicked Witch of the West's feet...HAHA...but in actuality it is Brynn's baby hiding behind her changing table...it fell all the way to the bottom, got stuck, and landed like this.  How it got here exactly is STILL a mystery to me...

Now that you know the baby has been safely found, let me back up.  Today, Tuesday, Ryan was off work so we decided to take a trip up to the St. Louis zoo.  My mom normally works on Tuesdays but had the day off as well, so she and my dad went along as well.  We had a GREAT day at the zoo (blog post coming soon...don't worry, I'll delete Ryan's one million pictures of the monkeys and tigers) and made it home safe and sound.  We took "baby" along but she stayed in the car the whole time.  Brynn really hasn't been very attached to her the last month or so (other than us putting baby in Brynn's bed for naps and at night) but I just figured we'd take her "in case."  When we got home I remember getting her out and setting her on the back of the car...why I put her there I don't know.  But we have been sitting out there in the evenings to play in the leaves and draw with chalk, so I guess I just got it out and then we started playing??  Fast forward to bedtime.  Brynn took her bath and got her PJ's on.  I realized I didn't know where baby was, so I told Ryan that I thought she was outside sitting by the car.  He checked and said he couldn't find her.  I had a mini panic attack, but realized we didn't have enough time before bed to find her.  I then decided maybe we had enough time to go out and look so I asked Brynn..."Did we take baby outside to play?"  She says "uh huh."  Sometimes she really does know where things are, so we take Brynn outside in the dark in her PJ's and I'm saying "Where did you put baby?"  "Do you remember where you put baby?"  She walks around in the leaves and I'm like "oh my gosh...she either thinks we are out here playing or she really put this baby in the leaves somewhere!"  Well...we couldn't find her so I brought Brynn in, got out her little stuffed owl and talked about how "pippy" (the owl's name) is going to sleep with her tonight.  We read books and she goes to bed just fine with the owl...didn't hear a peep out of her.  I, on the other hand, am a wreck.  I feel like I've put this baby somewhere and I HAVE to find her.  Even if Brynn never needs/wants baby ever again, I want to keep her because she is so special.  I never shed a tear but I was close.  I got back outside with Ryan and we start raking and looking through the leaves WITH A FLASHLIGHT because we have to find baby!  Yes, we were those people.  Just picture us at 8:45 at night...it's pitch dark, we are raking leaves with a flashlight and looking for a baby doll.  Then one of our neighbors comes over and offers to bring over a METAL DETECTOR because clearly people probably only look for car keys or something like that at that time of night.  We told him we wouldn't need a metal detector because we are looking for our child's doll...HAHA!!!!!!!!  But he has two girls so surely he understood?  =)  I'm going to tell myself that.  We continued to look outside everywhere, around the car, in the garage, etc.  CAN'T. FIND. BABY.  We look inside.  I finally decide to give up, and am literally on the couch praying "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away...blessed be the name of the Lord" (yes, I know that sounds dramatic, but I'm just telling the whole story people).  Ryan decides to go check in her room while she's asleep.  He comes out and SHOWS ME THE PICTURE.  Somehow I guess we took baby inside after we played and she fell down the back of the changing table.  PRAISE THE LORD!  He took the picture because he thought it was funny, then put baby in Brynn's bed while she was sleeping.

Oh the JOYS of parenting!!!!

Fall Baking: Too Much Cooking Makes Us SICK!

Something about this fall (could it be all the cute fall food ideas on Pinterest?) has turned me into a wanna-be Martha Stewart.  So last Thursday morning I decided we were going to make homemade applesauce in the crock-pot and then make some white chocolate chip pumpkin muffins in the afternoon.  We were also going to make these chocolate dipped "acorns" (using donut holes and sprinkles) but we never got to that...

Yes, we peeled all the apples in the family room...we needed a big space to sit!

I think she ATE half of my apples!

Stirring in some cinnamon, brown sugar, and some lemon juice (and peel).

 By lunchtime...it was DONE and very yummy!  It didn't really taste like applesauce...more like the fried apples you can get at Cracker Barrel (well, if I'm being honest, not THAT good, but close!)

YUMMY!

 Before nap-time we whipped up some white chocolate chip pumpkin muffins.  Thank goodness we have a kitchen-aid mixer...we popped them in the oven and they came out right after Brynn went down for her nap. I got to have one all to myself while watching "The Talk".  FUN TIMES!  I even added in some dried cranberries because walnuts didn't really sound that good...I felt like Martha Stewart!  HAHA!  And the entire time I was cooking, I felt like "mom of the year" because my sweet little child was scooping little beans so nicely into an egg carton...I thought I'd snap a pic because I was so proud.

And then I remembered I had tried this before and it didn't end well last time.  WHY WHY WHY did I think it would work this time?  See pic below...mom of the year award had been revoked and vacuum award given out.  WHAT A MESS!  And Brynn is now scared of the vacuum and my vacuum didn't pick the beans up anyway...

After I ate my delicious (or what I THOUGHT at the time was delicious) muffin and had a couple hours to myself, I realized I was starting to not feel very good.  When Brynn woke up I had to be back to my energetic self, but wasn't feeling it.  I decided I'd go to the gym so I could drop Brynn off at the gym daycare and just walk quietly and have some time to myself to see if I'd feel better.  Two laps later, I was feeling TERRIBLE...I decided to go lay down in the sauna (probably not the best idea but I wanted to lay down and I had to do it somewhere at the gym).  I thought I was feeling better, but when I got out I literally didn't think I would make it walking back to my gym locker.  I drove home and stopped at Ryan's parents house to see if they could watch Brynn for about an hour until Ryan got off work.  I started BAWLING at Pam's...I was a mess!  I went home and starting puking...moral of the story...don't make my pinterest pumpkin muffins!  HA!  When Ryan and Brynn came home Brynn tried to cheer me up...ha!

Later that night Ryan was getting Brynn ready for bed and I heard him say "UH OH!!!"  Brynn had THROWN UP in the bathtub!  It was the first time she had ever thrown up.  That started a cycle of her throwing up every half hour to hour until 4:30 in the morning...what a night.  Ryan was such a trooper...I felt so bad that I was NO HELP at all.  He had to give her another bath about an hour later because it had gotten in her hair and on her PJ's.  She was in our bed and she would lay there and all of a sudden she would make a coughing noise and Ryan would sit her up as fast as he could, shove a little bucket under her, and she  would throw up in it.  He would wipe her little mouth and she would lay back down and fall asleep until about 30 minutes later when it happened all over again.  WOW...so needless to say I don't think I'll be making anything with pumpkin in it for quite a while...

By about 4:30 she was sleeping good and when she woke up she was completely back to her normal self.  You wouldn't even know anything had been wrong...me on the other hand, I was still so yucky feeling.  I think not sleeping all night probably added to not feeling good.  I was supposed to sub the next day which obviously didn't happen, and when I told Nonna that Brynn wouldn't be coming she said that several had been throwing up.  My sweet mom offered to watch Brynn for awhile on Friday so I could just sleep, and I finally started to feel much better.  Thankfully it was just a 24 hour thing, but still...

Sunday my mom called and said that my dad was sick!  And then my mom threw up Sunday night!  YIKES!  Thankfully it didn't last too long and they are both feeling better.  NO MORE FALL COOKING FOR ME!

Smiles at the Park

Anytime we have a spare 30 minutes we seem to go to the park...and there are a lot of good ones close to us.  The other day the weather was just beautiful and I was just having one of those "glorious" moments (something I get from my mom...growing up she would be like "oh this is just glorious" and I used to think it was so dorky and make fun of her.  Now I UNDERSTAND what she was talking about.  The fall leaves and weather and being outside...sometimes I just get overcome with that "glorious" feeling!!!)  ANYWAY - I snapped a few pictures on my phone because she just couldn't stop smiling!









I could just eat up that little smiling face...and the bubbly laugh that goes with it!

Begg's Family Farm

On Saturday morning we got up and headed to Begg's Family Farm and Pumpkin Patch!!  Pamaw and Papaw went with us, and it was such a cool place to go.  I had been there like 8 years ago, but there was SO MUCH new stuff...they had EVERYTHING and then some for kids...we didn't get to half of it (and obviously the older Brynn gets the more stuff she will be able to do).  Here are some pictures from our fun morning!

After petting a lot of animals (and even though I'm sure you don't believe it, I'm sparing you lots of pictures...) it was time to ride the big wagon out to the pumpkin patch!!

I hope you are looking at her shirt and thinking "oh my gosh...where did she get that adorable thing?"  HA!
Because YOURS TRULY made it!  HA!

How cute is this little pumpkin...when we got back they weighed all the pumpkins and we had to pay
30 cents a pound...this cute little pumpkin cost us 36 cents!  BARGAIN!

After this we pet the animals AGAIN, saw a beehive, went into a little barn and went down a big slide, etc.  This place is NEVER ending...it cost $10 each to get in (she was free though), which at first I thought "that's kind of pricey", but after seeing all the things we got to do, it was worth it!  Then we got to watch the PIG RACES!

CRACK ME UP...every single time the pigs ran by she would make this face!  I guess she got
a whiff of that lovely pig smell!

She loved this little duck water game so much that she didn't want to leave...see pictures below!

And lest I ever give off the impression that I have a child who never fusses...
see exhibit A.  I made Pam take this picture because this is REAL LIFE...yes, we had the screaming child
who didn't want to leave the duck game.  Oh brother!

We continued to try to force Brynn to take a family picture..she had kicked her shoes off at this point!

ENOUGH ALREADY...I JUST WANT THE DUCKS!

Other than our little meltdown above, we had such a fun time at Beggs.  I hope this is something we keep doing every year.  =)