Ladybug & Skeleton

I don't remember Halloween being at least 5 different times of dressing up.  I remember dressing up on Halloween night...and that. was. it.

This will be a shocker to my kids.

So far we've done:

- Storybook Forest @ Lake Arcadia

- Trunk or Treat/Fall Festival @ MRCC

- Fall Festival @ Sonshine School

-Trunk or Treat by OC Clubs

-Actual Halloween night.

But they are all so much fun that we can't pass it up!

First up, Storybook Forest with Fancy Nancy (aka Julianne) and the Lumberjack (aka Hudson).

Storybook Forest is at the lake near our house and you walk through the "forest", stopping at different story book character booths for candy (Humpty Dumpty, Snow White, Three Little Pigs, etc.) So cute.  You can also do a hayride, play games, roast marshmallows, drink hot chocolate and hear a story read live. I'm saying this is a must-do for all local Edmond-ites.  Preferably when it's not freeeeezing.

Jace doesn't really have a costume.  We borrowed an elephant from a friend, but it was a little snug so we only wore it once.  He was thrilled.

 
So we settled on being a fluffy skeleton.  This was right before their fall festival at school.

It's been a fun time.  We definitely got a bunch of candy that we don't need, but had lots of fun getting it. 

Happy Halloween!

Girls Night Out

Monday night my mom, sister and I went to Hefner Grill to try out a painting class - Wine & Pallet.


Our self-portrait didn't turn out so well.  At least Mom is in the picture!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was so much fun.  You could use your own creative direction on the original painting.



This is what we were supposed to paint.  I liked it on the website, but when I saw it in person, I knew I wanted to do something a little different.  To me, it just looks messy.  It's called "Antique Key."

So, off we go.  We could each paint our canvas whatever color we wanted.

Canvases to my right.

 This was mine. So far, we just painted the whole canvas one color.  That we mixed in a circular motion.  (Some of the directions she gave were more like "painting for dummies".) Not too difficult.

The beauty of this painting experience?  The food.  The wine.  The laughing.  Especially at the three drunk sisters across the table.  Thanks for sharing every (uncensored) detail of your life...

This is progress on mine.  At this point I thought I might hate it.

But in the end, I liked mine!  And I liked my sister's and Mom's.  I thought we all did a great job for our first time.

I'd definitely recommend this to any group who wanted a fun night out!  I plan on going again!!

Melts My Heart

"Thanks! My sister made that."

Yesterday, I hosted a luncheon for the ladies in my Thursday bible study.  Needless to say, I was a little stressed out.  It was on a school day so getting my kids ready to go and out the door is usually quite hectic.  We usually just leave major messes to clean up later.  The pressure was on to walk out the door (on time!) with a clean house for the ladies to come back to.  As well as not burning down the house with leaving two crockpots on high full of soup.

Regardless of all the stress, it was a great lunch!  And I had to laugh because a lot of the things around my house that were complimented on, my response was usually, "Thanks! My sister made that!"

 Like these.  Cloth pumpkins from different fabric and a real branch for the stem.  Super cute...perfect centerpiece!

These she made from bull nose tiles and although this was news to me, she put a decal on them.  I thought ever since I got them that she bought decorative tiles but nope! Then you just use dry-erase marker on them to write what your lunch selections are.

And while she didn't make this for me, she found me the tutorial and I bumbled my way through it. I blogged about this before...

So, a big thanks to Emily for making such cute things for me to use and have around my house!  You are quite the crafty one.  My luncheon wouldn't have been as cute without your help!

Easy Recipes

I'm not professing to be a great cook or anything, but I have three recipes that I have collected in the last couple of years that I really love to make.  I thought I'd share with anyone who wants to try them.  They are pretty easy!

Lasagna
8 oz uncooked lasagna noodles
1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs
2 (26 oz) jars of favorite pasta sauce
1 lb bulk Italian sausage, cooked and drained
2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 350'. In medium bowl, combine ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and eggs; mix well. In 9x13 in baking dish, spread 1 cup pasta sauce. Layer with half each of the uncooked lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese mixture, sausage, remaining pasta sauce and mozzarella. Repeat layering. Top with parsely.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil; bake covered 1 hour. Remove foil, bake 10 minutes longer.

Farmhouse Ham Chowder
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
4-1/4 cups milk
2 cups frozen cubed hash brown potatoes - thawed
2 cups frozen corn - thawed
2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
shredded cheese for topping

In a large saucepan, saute the onion, celery and red pepper in butter until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Stir in flour and dressing mix until smooth; gradually stir in milk.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Add the potatoes, corn, ham and thyme.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes or until heated through.  Sprinkle with cheese before serving.

Banana Pudding
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter (not margarine)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 large bananas
1 box vanilla wafers

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in large, non-stick sauce pan. In seperate bowl, mix together milk and egg yolks until frothy; add to sugar mixture in sauce pan.  Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture comes to boil; continue to cool 1 minute at boil.  Remove from heat.  Add butter and vanilla.  Peel and slice bananas. In 11x7 dish, layer wafers first, then bananas, then half the pudding.  Continue layering until pudding is the top layer. Cover with cling wrap and chill.

I hope you enjoy these like I do.  If you make them, leave me a comment and let me know how they were!

Princess Haylie Carves a Pumpkin

Last night was a family night.  After a pretty hectic (but great) day, I was exhausted so I wanted to just be home.  And since Haylie is picking up more about different traditions to each holiday,  I was excited to have her help us carve a pumpkin.

Don't worry, we let her play with knives all the time.
 (That's a joke for all you serious ones)

This is where she turned into a princess.  She didn't want to get her hands dirty or help scrape out the pumpkin guts. Wah wah.

So on FB, a friend from college put on her status that her daughter wanted to carve her hand in the pumpkin.  I LOVED that idea so I copied it unashamedly.  Jace got his hand on our pumpkin too!  It's different and not spooky at all...but I adore it.  I'm a mom, that's why.

After we got our carve on, Jace woke up from his incredibly late nap.  I wanted to get his picture of our festive night and I was saying, "I see you!"  Haylie creeps over right by him and says, "Can you see me!?"  She is not very camera shy.

Practicing "the sprinkler"

This sums up a lot...

Just another normal night at the Cornells.  What are you carving into your pumpkin this year?

Something's Different...

When we moved into this house, we were pretty excited because there was already existing landscaping!  Our other house, we had to start from scratch and neither one of us have a talent or vision for something like that.  Well, this house definitely has some trees and bushes...they just didn't look that great.

Something about our front entrance has bothered me for 2 years.  I thought it was the hedges...but I think I finally figured out what it is.

This.

So this afternoon I called Justin to see if he would be mad if I took it out.  

He didn't care, so I did.

Before...                                                               After...

 

 I think it looks so much better.  You aren't attacked by some crazy bush walking up to the door.

Instead you are greeted by something a little more seasonal.

We'll see if this helps me like the front landscape better.  If not, I fear those hedges will just have to go.

Blah Blah Blah

I'm sorry for the lack of posting lately.  We really haven't done anything really exciting or blog worthy. Last week for fall break we took advantage of going to the library on Wednesday, shopping for a friend on Thursday and holding a wet garage sale on Friday at my sister's.  She wanted to do a sale over fall break since she would be home with the kids, but the weather didn't cooperate.  We did manage to have a pretty good turnout as well as getting rid of a BUNCH of our baby clothes and lots of Emily's extra's that she just didn't have room for anymore.  The kids basically entertained themselves...with a few necessary referee calls between Evie and Haylie.

Justin and I celebrated our anniversary on Saturday night by going to watch Pitch Perfect (SOOO hilarious) and eating at Nhinja for some quick sushi.  It was quick and delicious - a pretty perfect evening.  Haylie and Jace were with my parents and my mom showed Haylie how to do a somersault.  H was so proud.  It's quite the new trick.

Soo.  Life is slow and steady.  It's good though since we are still trying to find a renter for our duplex and that is taking a lot of extra phone calls, showings and time spent reviewing applications.  We just can't find someone who wants to move in AND has the money to pay for it.  Funny that you actually need money to move in somewhere.

Anyway, since this post has no point or topic, I don't know how to not awkwardly stop typing so I'll leave you with a pic of my favorite baby boy.

Happy Tuesday.

6 Years Wedded

*10/14/06 - photography by Mandy Stansberry Photography*

Ahh.  6 years ago I had a nice waist line and Justin had...wait...Justin looks exactly the same. 

 Not fair.

6 years ago today Justin and I had a beautiful wedding surrounded by our loved ones and we started our journey together.  Since that day we've...

• Moved into a cock-roach infested home.  But hey, it was GREAT deal!
• Renovating every. last. inch of said infested home.
• Lasik times two, knee surgery
• Lots of fun vacations with friends
• Struggled with infertility
• Got pregnant and welcomed our baby girl
• Decided on a whim to sell the house and move 1 mile around the corner
• Got pregnant and welcomed our baby boy
• Wedding ring got flushed but that won't break us up!
• And lots more in between!!

It's been a crazy past 6 years, with lots of changes and new beginnings.  But we've been with each other every step of the way (whether we've liked it or not :oP) and I hope it will stay that way for 50+ more years!  I love you Justin!  Happy Anniversary.

8 months!

10.2.12

This happy boy turned 8 months old.

If I think about how he is 4 short months away from a year, I just might lose it.

He is such a happy boy, especially when eating.  He has two teeth and will get frustrated if you are eating something and you won't share.  It doesn't matter what, he just wants to eat.  Something. Anything.

Jace is actually looking pleasant for me in most of these pictures, instead of looking frightened.  Maybe he figured out that the camera wasn't something that would hurt him.

Jace loves to be outside, discovering new toys, rolling around on the floor and playing in his exersaucer. He loves using his feet for most anything - except standing but especially kicking!

 He can sit up for a little while but then catapults himself back so you have to be on guard. He still doesn't use his legs very much, but hoping more time in the exersaucer will help.

We just moved Big Baby up to Haylie's convertible car seat because he was too big for the infant carrier. I wasn't sure if Haylie would allow that, but she did once she saw she was getting a 'new' car seat.

 He is exploring his world a whole lot more and I love him trying out new things.  He is also doing GREAT at Sonshine School and loves his teachers.

I love this little guy so stinkin' much.  It's funny how time passes so quickly, but how great new milestones are.  I love spending my days with BOTH my babies.

Reason # 216...

...why I'm falling further in love with the mini-van.

A roadtrip.

This past weekend we went on a trip to see the Missouri Cornells.  We were a little excited at the idea of having a ton more space than in our previous little beep beep car.  So we loaded up and got on the road.  I was relaxed instead of frustrated from having everything jammed in around me.  We ate dinner in the car to alleviate an unnecessary stop and had both kids in their pjs.  At one point Jace needed a diaper change so I just crawled in the back and took care of it while the car was still in motion.  He was safe and kept his belt on.  The ride there was uneventful - which was wonderful.

G&B hosted a youth retreat the majority of the weekend so Haylie got to spend lots of time with her cousins.  She loved it.  They stayed up late Friday night watching The Little Mermaid (thanks boys for indulging me her) and ate lots of popcorn and brownies.  Saturday we got to watch Jagger play soccer (3 goals!  Wow!) and play at a really cool park.  It was a relaxing weekend.

The ride home was actually okay.  I dreaded it since both kids would be up for a pretty good amount of time.  Haylie was in underwear and that stressed me out but she survived the 7 hour car ride with dry panties!!  Jace kept getting bored, so it was a constant task with keeping toys within his reach. 

Two teeth! 

The last hour it was just easier for me to be in the very back seat so I crawled back there to keep Jace happy and to chat with Haylie.  To keep her from whining, I kept asking her LOTS of questions. I was pretty exhausted from thinking of interesting things for her.  We finally reach the last turn towards home and she suddenly gets upset and says Jesus scares her because he takes her up in the sky and it's dark...um...look we are home!!

(Don't worry, I reassured her that Jesus loves her and wouldn't ever scare her.  I think we reached an understanding.)