Girls' day out!

You know the kind of friends that you can totally be 100% real with? The ones that have walked a lot of life's road with you and have stuck with you through thick and thin? The ones that you swear if you lived next door to them (or even in the same town) your life would be SO much brighter? Well, these are mine.... 

Beth (left) and KT (right) and I am in the middle:) You know Beth from the delicious recipes she has become known for on here and KT is the all time Disney expert! I love these girls to the moon and back! We lived together in college and have almost known each other for 10 years. Wow. Well we got to have a fun little Saturday "day out" this past weekend and it was just lovely. 

We ate at this darling little restaurant a little over an hour from my house. It was halfway for Beth and I, KT made the long haul for us! Anyway, we just talked and talked and laughed and acted silly. The time went by way too fast! Doesn't it always happen that way? :)

There were lots of cute little antique stores and boutiques within walking distance so we strolled around a little after lunch... and tried on hats...

We each found our "signature" head pieces...

And then we went to Target and did some "have to" shopping (i.e. dog food, tissues, snacks, kitty litter for KT, etc.) It was hilarious because we each brought our own lists of things we needed at our houses, but it was still fun because we were together!

I hope you have friends like this. If you don't it is no reflection on you or on God's love for you. He just has not brought them into your life yet. He will put them right in your path at just the right time. Just ask Him! He truly is the giver of good gifts. Amen?

And now I will leave you with this... 

 This is SO Beth. Hippy Beth. Love it! 

P.S. Just in case you were wondering about my sweet little SJ, she spent the day with her Daddy and loved it! Thank you Mitch!! You are the best. 

The best days of our life.

Lately the days just feel long.

Mitch has got so much going on with school. Lots of deadlines to meet and important dates coming up. It's like we finally get to see each other for an hour or two in the evening and we just want to crash. Most days we feel like we never get enough sleep. And, then we get up and do it all over again! But, I realized something this week while our little 21 month old "baby" was romping around on our bed after bath time.... 

These are some of the best days of our life. 

This girl smiles so big you cannot see her eyes. I love it. 

Call this post sappy if you want. When I looked over at Scarlett staring intently at this picture of Mitch and I on our wedding day that hangs in our room, it's like my mind went into a time warp for a second. It won't be long before our little girl will be walking down the aisle. 

I always tell Mitch through tears, "She is going to leave us soon." And he just laughs at me, in a sweet way. Probably because he sees that my parents cannot get rid of me!! HA! Momma and Daddy, I know you are laughing as you read this :) 

If you have a little one romping around on your bed too, squeeze them extra tight tonight. Here is to some of the best days of our lives!

Fun Friday -- our day in phone pics.

Scarlett and I have already had a full day and it is not even 2:00 in the afternoon yet! Whew. 

This morning we went and saw Dr. Wilkes (who we love!) for a little ear check. He just wanted to be sure her ears healed up well after our double whammy last week, and they did! Thank you Lord. I kept telling Scarlett we were going to see Dr. Wilkes and he was going to look in her ears. It was so cute because every time I would start to talk about it again she would point to her ears and smile. My little smarty! I just wanted to be sure she was prepared because it can be a little scary sometimes. She was a champ! 

How sweet are these little embellished overalls? I have been so excited for SJ to wear them. 

Then we headed to Hobby Lobby to pick out something special for some sweet friends who have an important date coming up next week. We found just the right thing and more! How fun is that store? Too much fun for a girl who is trying to stay on budget at the end of a long month :) 

 Okay, now I have to confess. This little puppy dog Scarlett is loving on while she rode along so nicely in the cart.... he did not come home with us. He was very loved while we were shopping, but I quickly snuck him back onto the shelf while SJ was distracted. AH! Am I the meanest mommy ever? I just don't like clutter and I don't like spending money on things we don't need. So sorry little scotty dog, I hope you will find a home very soon! 

And then it was lunch time! 

Kristin and Kingston met us at none other than Chick-fil-A...

Oh how we love our little cuties. They were so good while Kristin and I chatted it up for an hour or so!! It's so funny because we both realized it was the first time we had been out all week :) 

And now I have to get my tail in a spin and get this house of mine back in working order. I don't think the elves are coming to pick up these toys and everything else that has somehow ended up on the floor :) 

Thanks for reading :) I hope you have fun plans for the weekend! xoxo.

Recipe and expressions

Scarlett and I did a little decorating for Valentine's Day today. I just have a few little hearts I like to put out around the house to be festive. 

Here is my little sous chef as she sat on the counter (I know I am a crazy mom!) eating shredded cheese and puffs while I made dinner. 

Speaking of dinner, I made something to share with y'all. Of course this recipe comes from none other than my BFF Beth. She is my recipe source!! This is spaghetti pie... I changed it a little tonight and made it with penne pasta instead of spaghetti and it was just a delicious. Easy and tasty!

Spaghetti Pie (by Beth)

1 pkg. spaghetti

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup melted butter

*1 pound hamburger, browned (optional, I like to make mine without meat so it is vegetarian!)

8 oz. carton cottage cheese

1 jar spaghetti sauce

8 oz. mozzarella cheese

Cook spaghetti and drain. (While spaghetti is cooking, brown hamburger.) Return spaghetti to pot after draining. Mix parmesan cheese, eggs, and melted butter in with spaghetti. (TIP: Don't add the eggs yet if the spaghetti is extremely hot. Otherwise, they will scramble!!) Pack the spaghetti mixture into a 9 or 10 inch pan. Next, top the spaghetti layer with cottage cheese. Next, top the cottage cheese layer with spaghetti sauce. Last, sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese. Bake 45 minutes at 325.

We enjoyed an evening of playing on the floor together before bath and bedtime. The hours go by so fast after Mitch gets home!! Scarlett's new favorite thing is to go outside and look at the stars and moon. She waits until it gets dark enough to see them (which I think is a fun way to teach her patience) and then Mitch wraps her up in a blanket and they go count stars. It is really sweet :) 

And, oh the many expressions of our sweet girl...

This is SJ's "choo-choo" face... 

And I think this might be, "Seriously, mommy. Put the camera down." 

And I think this means, "Fine, if you won't put it down then at least hand it over so I can look at pictures of myself."

Whooo loves you?

When I wrote my last post almost a week ago I thought we were over the sickness hump. Apparently I thought wrong. I have since been battling a sinus infection which has made my "leisure time" (when I usually blog a little) slim. Anyhow, I am on the mend. Miss Scarlett is back to herself and that is really all that matters! 

Here she is sporting Nonni's most recent masterpiece.... 

 An appliqued owl and personalization! Perfect timing for Valentine's Day. Way to go momma! 

 Whooo loves Scarlett? LOTS and LOTS  of people. You are one PRECIOUS girl!!!

So, I am way behind on Scarlett's 21 month post. And now 22 months is quickly approaching. It seems like just in the last month she has changed SO much. Here is some info on my sweet girl:

- Wearing size 2T and some 3T clothes. Size 5 diaper and size 8 shoe. 

- Talking, talking and talking. The communication barrier is almost completely gone! I think we may have a word count higher than 30 now!

- Eating. What is new? You love to eat! What is really funny is your current favorite foods: straight up butter, clementines (at least 3 a day), pistachios and Nonni's special fruit kabobs. 

- You are and have always been very sweet natured. That is something we don't think you are going to grow out of. 

- You love your baby dolls. You carry a purse full of baby bottles and clothes and all sorts of things at all times so you can take care of your little ones :) 

- You love to be outside. The cold weather puts quite a damper on this though. 

- You love to give hugs and a lot of times when I say someone's name or say something in the car like, "look at the horsies!" you kiss the air and make a big "mwah!" sound. It is so funny and sweet. 

- Nonni always says God blessed me with a little girl who doesn't mind trying on clothes. It's true! You are so good about letting me dress you up and you even look through your closet with me. 

- You can almost put your shoes on all by yourself. 

- You are very helpful around the house and do such a good job picking up your toys. 

- You are just a JOY!!!! 

Meet Bitty... She was a Christmas present from my Aunt Barbie, Uncle Bill and cousins Elizabeth and Lyndsey. Bitty is very loved in our house! Here she is dressed up in a new outfit :) There is even a matching top for Scarlett (thanks momma!)

This face is cracking me up... it's like she is saying, "Sup? Just me and Bitty here chillin out" 

 One of your newest antics is opening the refrigerator. Oh the convenience. It makes me think "yikes!" because you are always trying to see what new thing you can find. Tonight it was broccoli. You had it in  your hands and kept saying, "Nummy...nummy." And I asked you if you liked it and you said just as plain as day, "yea." You are a nut! (And every time I tell you that you say, "nut, nut, nut.")

You keep us laughing Scarlett Jean! 

double whammy

Well, our weekend (a 3 day at that!) turned out to be nothing like we expected. Sweet Scarlett was sick starting Thursday evening/Friday morning and I had some kind of a virus too. Mitch was the last man standing! He took very good care of us and saw us through until he had to be back at school early this morning. Scarlett woke up from her nap today with a temp of 102.5 and after a visit to see the pediatrician on Saturday, I knew she needed to be seen again. But I had that feeling of, "should I really take her, they will probably say it is just a virus." Well, I am so glad I ignored that voice in my head because our sweet girl has a double ear infection!! Bless her heart. She has been such a little trooper. The doctor said each ear was at a 9 on a scale of 1-10. She has never had an ear infection or even been on an antibiotic in her 21 months of life. I am so glad I took her! As I was driving to the pharmacy with my little darling in the back seat enjoying her blueberry sucker, I was almost overwhelmed with thankfulness. I am going to get sappy for a second :) I was/am so thankful that I was able to drive to a pharmacy, drop off a prescription and wait 20 minutes for something that would heal my little girl. It made me start thinking about all of the parents who don't have the promise that their child will be healed, this side of heaven at least. I just cannot imagine. I think about how precious Scarlett is to Mitch and I and how we would do anything for her to be healthy and able to live a full life. My heart goes out to parents who hold children that will not get better in the next 5-7 days. Those who don't even have a diagnosis or a plan to make them better. It made me realize that we are not promised an easy, pain free life. We are promised the gift of eternal life and that will be one with no crying or mourning or sickness. Praise Jesus!!! Wow, all of that on a 10 minute drive to the Kroger pharmacy :) 

We just laid around in our pj's all weekend, so we don't have any recent, exciting pictures to report. But, today's cold, cold wind made me think about how I would love to be at the beach with our little beach bum... 

(These were taken this past July while we were on Perdido Key, FL. Scarlett was 15 months)

 Oh how I LOVE that little physique!!!! 

Thankful to be on the mend. Wishing warm, sunny thoughts your way today!!

Better late than never (Christmas at Tara)

I am super late on this post, but I just cannot leave this out! Before we left for Christmas out west with Mitch's extended family, we had a celebration together with my family at my favorite place in the whole wide world -- Tara. That is what I call my parents' home because I, like Scarlett O'hara in Gone with the Wind, find rest and rejuvenation there. You might think I am crazy, I don't care! 

My mom sets a beautiful table... Here are the kids from left to right: Scarlett, Mitch, Chaz, Ryan and me.

Scarlett and Daddy were preparing for the reading of the Christmas story from the book of Luke. 

Scarlett, all on her own, found Rudolph's nose during breakfast! 

It was the first year for this new tradition, matching pajama's for the girls... SJ included!!!

SJ and Aunt Ryan checking out her rocking chair from Nonni and Pepaw... (Might I add that it has already gotten a lot of use!! There are lots of babes to be rocked at our house.)

The big reveal... A KITCHEN!

On the move and hammin' it up!!

Pepaw and his girl...

Chaz and his girl, Karrine ;)

What a blessing to have a husband that my brother and sister love as if he was their own brother! LOVE!!!

Ryan and my Daddy... simply the best. 

My momma and her little boy -- Chaz. 

SJ and Mitch during a very brief snow flurry...

 These are precious memores from Christmas 2011!!! What a blessed year. Let the King of Glory come in.... to stay.