thanksgiving recap

We've eaten a lot of turkey and ham this week. And we were blessed to spend time with both sides of the family. 

I didn't take my camera to Anthony's family. (shame on me) 

But here are some pics of my crazy bunch.

So the little carbon copies - they got a lot of attention from everybody. Pretty sure they were in everyone's lap at some point during the night. 

 I think a song was being sung here 

Anthony and I played a little game with them where we sat in the floor and they'd run to me and I'd toss them in the air, then they'd run back to Anthony and just run right into his chest. Then one of em started head butting Anthony - it was so funny. Boys. 
My shoulders and arms were a little sore the next day. #oldpeopleprobs

They absolutely ADORE Trevor. Not a shocker. That joker's such a kid magnet.

You may have noticed in these shots the twins aren't wearing their cute matching turkey shirts with their names. Unfortunate. 
They got dirty. 
Which meant Aunt Lyndy could no longer tell them apart. :-/

But alas, they wore different pants. 
And because I'm a smart cookie I figured out that Brady had on the brown pants (BRady--->BRown) and Conner had on the black pants. 
So what if people noticed I had to look down at the pants before calling the right name. 
And so what if I still got it wrong some. 

Yeah, I'm that aunt. 
Eh, there are worse things. 

There was fun had by all <3 
->games
-->songs 
--->laughs 
---->stories 
----->memories made.. 

Here are a couple more of those little carbon copy cuties for good measure. 

Hope you had a very blessed Thanksgiving!

thankful Thanksgiving thoughts

I suppose I'm jumping on the thankful bandwagon that's running rampant on social media today. ;-) 

That's not so bad, is it? 

I am thankful. 

Thankful for a God I serve who knew me before I was formed in my mother's womb. 
God who loved me enough to send His only son to die for MY sins. 
God who forgave me of my sins when I knelt at an altar when I was 9 years old. 
God who loves me no matter what. 
God who promises me eternal life when my heart beats its final time here on earth. 

I could stop there. Because that's all that matters, isn't it? 
 
But I'm also thankful for my family. 
And lots more. 

Pretty sure we could all make a list of a thousand things we're thankful for. 

Here's my hope - that we can go past just saying we're thankful and actually show it. That we'd stop and say something pleasant to the cashier in the store even if we're in a hurry. That we'd send that text to a friend we have on our mind and say hey, I'm thinkin about ya. That we'd be intentional about showing the love and appreciation we claim to have in our hearts. Take time to show we really care. 

Because I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there who need just that. 

I'm thankful tonight for a lot. 
I hope you are, too. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh hey November

I.love.fall

Happy fall from our little creek in the country 

I don't know where October went, but hello November. 
Hello fall leaves floating in the air. 
Hello cooler temps. 
Hello sweaters, leggings, scarves and boots. 

Helloooooooooooo falllllllllll :-) 

I.love.fall

:: doesn't everyone ::

 Be sure to check back for a Halloween recap and a couple other goodies real soon.

Lyndy builds with Legos

This 

turned into this 

Notice the real dumping action folks! Impressive I know... 

Yes, I had to use the directions. Duh... but 271 pieces is 271 pieces. 

The other night I had a babysitting gig for some friends and I brought the hub along. He and the 4 yr old boy had a biiiig time. 

They shot me with Nerf weapons for a good hour. Fun times. 

Gettin shot in the face, the neck, the ear is definitely funnnn times. (sigh boys) 

The hub built this without directions. 

Not bad.

Anyway the moral of the story is adults can enjoy legos too. 

The end.

Oh wait... 
how cute is this ----->

the scene in the living room around 10:00

Me: His mom says he should lay down. 
Anth (sitting in the recliner whilest the child is hugged up with him):  He's fine. He's basically laying down now. 
Me: Well he at least needs to put on his pjs. 
Anth: He's fine. 
(sigh and roll of the eyes by me as I throw in the towel on being a responsible babysitter... eh, it was fall break anyway)

September you FLEW BY

Y'all. . . 

Is it just me or does a month fly by quicker than a state trooper in hot pursuit? 

Ok, maybe it's just me. But whew. 

I don't know how we seem to pack so much into a month, but we keep doin it over here in Thompsonville me and the hub. 

September 1st was Labor Day. We don't usually do anything special on Labor Day. So I was wide open for a photo op for Anthony's uncle that lives next door. They wanted new pics of the grandkiddos while they were all in town. 

I love how Avery is playing with her toes. Toddlers are so stinkin cute. Yes? 

While we're on the subject of toddlers, I had another photo shoot in September. 

Avery is all boy, do you hear me? ALL BOYYYYY

His parents are good friends of ours. Love em.

Well here's the rundown of what September looked like for me and my beloved. Besides the regular gettin groceries, goin to work & church life stuff we always do. 
Prepare yourself ;-) 

watched Guardians of the Galaxy
lunchin' with the gals I used to work with
dinner with friends from our old church
got the windows tinted in my new car
had a stupid sinus infection
got a stupid flu shot
got dumb ole allergy shots
went to the eye doc, got new sunglasses weeeee
dentist for routine cleaning/oh you need a filling :-/ 

Ok wait, can you just stop and feel sorry for me for a sec? Nobody should have this much medical stuff in one month. What in the world? And I was supposed to do the ob/gyn this month but I cancelled because I mean come on... Geez! 

All right, movin on . . . 
mil cooked breakfast for dinner for us aka brinner 
celebrated a coworker's birthday by stuffing ourselves with pizza #noregrets
tailgate party for small groups at church
downtown for some depositions with my boss
bonfire for 8th grade girls at church #toomanyroastedmarshmallows
birthday celebration/girls night out for friend at work
anth went with a buddy to the Vandy/SC football game
breakfast and shopping with the madre to celebrate her birthday
volleyball games of some of my girls from church 
panera with a friend to catch up and chattttt (my 1st time to eat there)
musical of one of my small group girls, drug the niece along
choir singing and what not ;-)

Oh and I might have bought like 4 pair of shoes but who's counting? Not this girl. #yolo

So. 
Here's more. Cuz I know you're beggin' for it. 

 I'm a cat person so..... this always seems to happen 

anything for the shot

 shooting toddlers is unpredictable

this is what happened while grandkiddo #3 had a crying spell... ok let's go with it, sure.

 my friend at work LOVES Doctor Who so I made her door look like a tardis. Google it. 

 bon fires & roasted marshmallows oh my... 

with some of my loves. . . my 8th grade beauties from church.

 oh hi lil momma... happyyyyy birrrrrrthdaaaaay (Sept 17)

Go Bucs! (some of my church girls)

Ok folks. That's it for now. I hope it was everything you dreamed it would be. 

bwahaha

Til next time. Deuces.

girl time = fun time

Before summer slipped away and school started back I decided to have a sleepover at my house with some of the girls from our Quest group earlier this year. One of the college girls I was teamed up with also came along for the fun. Bailey is one of mah faves! 

We started off swimming next door. Thankful for neighbors/family who share their pool. ;-) 

And we had pizza and played some games. Cuz what's a sleepover without pizza & games? 

Lots of laughs. 
Some squeals. 
All in all I'd say fun was had. If not, they're good at fakin' it. 

This game was a pretty big hit. 

Each girl wrote down a city, a job, a husband and a number for how many kids.. kinda like the old MASH game if you played that back in the day. 

Well of course they tried to get super crazy with their answers. We would draw each paper out of the bag and it would apply to one particular girl. 

One of the husband answers made one girl scream, jump up off the couch and run upstairs hopping across the balcony, where she eventually slid down the wall with her face in her hands. I'm guessing she thinks that boy is gross. 

We also played hide and seek, sardines style. In.the.dark. Pretty awesome. 

Then we finished off the night with 2 or 3 movies. And popcorn. Of course.

They eventually all went to sleep. 

In the morning we played hide and seek again. In the daylight. Inside AND out. Way more fun than it sounds. Trust me on this. 

Oh, one last thing - 

Bailey drives a Jeep. 

I've never ridden in a Jeep. Never. Not ever.

And Anthony has wanted one since the beginning of time but I've always said no no noooooo. . . . I may have even gone as far as saying you can get one, after I'm dead. 

Well, I asked Bailey to take me for a spin in hers and.... it was pretty awesome. 

Another reason this sleepover was sweet.

  Ok. 
The end.

August was a kinda busy one

I realize that my blog is kinda all over the place. A little DIY here, a little here's what we've been up to there.... sorry but my brain is pretty much all over the place so it makes sense that this blog would be, too. 

August has been a pretty busy one. 

So I'm gonna crank up the time machine and travel back. 

Here's the highlights yall.

Started off the month with a sleepover at my house with some middle school gals that have my heart. 

I had these girls in my group back earlier this year in a student event at my church called Quest. -> read about it here! We had so much fun that night that it deserves its own post. So more on that later. 

In August my little daddy started pastoring again. He's been retired from pastoring since fall of 2011. So we surprised him and showed up at his church on his first Sunday. My oldest brother had the same idea. Lol Great minds think alike.

That same Sunday I started teaching small groups again at church. They've moved em back to Sundays. This time I have 8th graders. They seem like they're gonna be a great group!! 

They're already talking about wanting to have a sleepover and do stuff outside of our group time on Sundays. I think they like me and Lynsey. 
Yeah, my partner is Lynsey. Lyndy and Lynsey. Isn't that special? Oh and one of our girls in the group - her name is Lindsey. So there's that... 

The next two pics are nature and work related. As I was leaving one day I saw a group of ducks in the road on campus. We have over 100 acres so it's not unusual to see animals around campus. But this was a first - I was glancing over at the ducks and noticed A HAWK sitting in the grass. 

I got pretty close to him and lemme tell ya, he had his eye on me. I was worried he was injured but he wasn't - cuz he flew off after a couple minutes. I really think he was about to have duck for dinner. But I s'pose I interrupted his little plan.

Then one night this week I was working a little late and as I went to my car I saw a group of deer near the parking lot. So I did the obvious thing - I walked over, snapped a pic and tweeted it. 

disclaimer: this is NOT my truck

In other work related news, this happened...

and was not planned ... lol

I made these monkey bread muffins... And I made cream cheese icing and drizzled over some of em. Pretty tasty.

here's where I found the recipe Thank ya Pinterest!

Speaking of food... 
the other night we went to the Barrel with the inlaws... and this happened... 

me and the hub ordered the exact same drink (water), and the exact same meal (pancakes with a side of bacon).

They say the longer you're with somebody... if I start wearin polo shirts and cargo shorts yall smack me. 
bwahaha 

Last weekend we went to the Wildhorse and saw/heard Vertical Horizon and Tonic. Cuz we're 90s people after all... 

Standing for 4 hours+ is my favorite... um.. but it was a really good show. I didn't enjoy my ears ringing for 5 days after that... but... it was fun. I swear it was.

Moving on.

Thursday night I went to a Titans preseason game with my friend Kelly (one of the back row Altos from choir). 

We got rained on but eh. I always dig spendin time with this chic. Even in the rain. <3

All in all August was a really good un. I am loved. And I love people. And life. Life is good. 

Stay tuned. Cuz I have more to share with you. I know you're excited. 

DIY sign for a friend with Cricut vinyl

This is a little wooden sign I made for my friend Bridgett. 
She just started teaching so of course she needed a sign with her name on it. Read about her graduation H E R E < - -

So my little daddy cut the wood for me and I painted it. It sits up on its own, but he also put a little hole in the back in case she wanted to hang it on the wall. 

I have a Cricut { everyone should have one } and I heard there was this vinyl stuff you could buy to use with it. 

So I bought some vinyl in a creamy oatmealish color at Michael's and lemme tell ya - it was so easy and I was pretty much mind blown. 

Here's a video that shows you how to do it - - > using vinyl on your Cricut

Let's pause and be thankful for youtube instructional videos. 

I wanted the sign to look distressed so I sanded it a bit, especially on the edges. 

Well that's pretty much it. 

Homemade gifts are the best, aren't they? 

DIY initial door hanging thingy

I don't know what to call this, but I stole the idea from someone on Pinterest. A crafty someone you can find here. 

I usually only put a wreath on my door in late fall and at Christmas time. Cuz I'm lazy like that. And I don't have a knack for decorating. 

But when I saw this little cutie pie on Pinterest I pinned it and forgot about it and decided to do it many months later. 

To do this you need: 
8x10 picture frame 
Wooden letter
Yarn (1-2 colors)
Craft paint 
Paintbrushes
MAYBE a staple gun
and last but not least - Patience... plenty of patience

My sister-in-law and I decided to make one the same day and you should've seen us in Jo Ann. . .  We pined over yarn like the most indecisive duo in history lol 

The fun awful part is wrapping the frame with yarn. It feels like you're never gonna finish. 

And I goofed on mine - I meant to do the striped yarn on the longer side but I was halfway through before I realized it. Cuz I'm a dork.  

Anyway, there's really no need to explain this - it's so simple. You people are smart & crafty, right? 

I didn't have any fabric to make the cutesy little rosettes or flowers or whatever they're called so I just used some fat fuzzy yarn and did my own thing. Hot glue perfection yall.

Here's the rundown of my cost for this here project - 

10.99 Frame (on sale)
 2.99 Wooden letter
 2.99 Yarn one
 2.99 Yarn two 
 6.99 Fat fuzzy yarn 
 4.99 Black paint 
 0.69 White paint

If you're crafty you'll probably already have some yarn and paint. 

Because my letter was a T I had a bit of trouble deciding how to hang it within the frame. I opted for stapling the yarn to the back. With a C (like the example I pinned) it makes sense to just loop the yarn around the letter. 

Oh and one more thing I did on mine (at my sister-in-law's suggestion for which I'll be eternally grateful) - - I cut circles from scrapbook paper and mod podged em on my T. Cuz I love polka dots! I think that's my favorite part of this little cutie pie project. Thanks Les! (insert emoji kissy face here)

Glad I ran across this little idea and I think it's just cute as can be on our front door.