Shakin' Bakin' Tuesday! {+ Christmas Shopping}

Well yesterday was a crazy/amazing day.  It started with taking the Hadster to school and then it was off to conquer some serious Christmas shopping.  In order to be in the full Christmas spirit I blared my Christmas music and got a cup of Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend.  

Don't you just love their holiday cups?

 I knocked out a few gifts right off the bat including Audrey's and Hadley's (from my mom), and some stocking stuffers.

Andrew has been talking about wanting a sports coat to go with his jeans so I headed to Kohl's knowing they usually have some good deals.  Oh my!!  Ladies all their CHAPS sports coats are between 30%-70% off!!!  I got him a corduroy coat, normally $175 for $69.  They also had suede marked down from $225 to $89 and Houndstooth from $225 to $99.  Just to fill you in.  =)

Then I looked at 6 different places to find Hadley's HoHo gift. (Because Santa asked for my help, of course.)  It wasn't until the 7th location that I found a place that wasn't already sold out.  Unfortunately for the next person, I got the last one.

Once I had found that last thing it was about time to pick Hadley up and start on our baking activity.

Shakin' Bakin' Tuesday!!

Pumpkin Cookies

(Simple yet satisfying.)

Mix and bake as directed on package.

Ice your cookie.

Sprinkle with pumpkin spice and ENJOY!

 ***

After baking Andrew and I had a volleyball game to attend. Incase you're wondering our team infact won the first two games, WooHoo.  Unfortunately we were unable to stay for the 3rd because I had an SAA meeting, which also went well.  This semester has been so much fun and so busy with SAA and I love it!

Thanks for checkin' in!!

Women Of Faith

Thursday we headed to NWA.  Jolene and I were leaving from there together to head to the conference and Hadley was actually going to go to school with Audrey Friday morning.

THURSDAY

Mom came over after the Hadster and I got in town and Jo made us a delicious dinner.  After dinner the girls made Jolene and I some cookies for our trip.

After the girls went to bed we had a sleepover in Jo and Ryan's room (Ryan was out of town for work).  I'm sure by the picture you can see how much fun we had, bahaha!!!  Jolene had to go outside to detach the hose and she went in style!!!

FRIDAY

That morning we dropped the girls off, picked up a delicious breakfast at Panera and met up with some other girls so we could caravan together.

We got to KC fine but once we got into the downtown we drove probably 10 circles trying to find somewhere to park to pick up lunch.  Then across the Missouri River 4xs trying to get to Rachel's (Jolene's sister-in-law) office to bring her lunch.  We blame it mostly on her GPS, Roxy.

Due to all our misguided directions we missed the 2:15 session so we decided to go shopping.

When we went to the evening session they wouldn't let you bring any outside drinks in.  I took this picture because only women would start arranging the cups in rows once the trash can ran out of room.  Seriously, if this were a men's conference they would have still been trying to figure out a way to stuff it in then run before they noticed it falling back out.

We heard from Andy Andrews and had a concert by Mandisa!  

What a great way to start!!

SATURDAY

We had stayed with Rachel and her husband the night before and he got up and made coffee and got breakfast, thanks Blair!!

We then headed out for another amazing day of fellowship.  We heard some wonderful testimonies from a group of truly amazing women of faith: Patsy Clairmont, Deborah Joy Winans, Sandi Patty, Lisa Whelchel (Blair from The Facts of Life), and Brenda Warner (Kurt Warner's wife).

And to top it all off Amy Grant did a concert that afternoon.

 This was such a spiritually uplifting weekend and I am so thankful I was able to go.

When we got back in town I was so tired I didn't want to have to drive back to Tulsa so I decided to stay the night.  While watching a movie we felt this little vibration so we paused it.  Then it went from just vibrating to rumbling and things in the room actually started shaking.  Somewhere in central OK there was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that we were feeling!

I called Andrew immediately not even knowing that was where it had come from and he said he experienced a similar thing.  It had started kinda small, but escalated quickly.  He said it was pretty loud outside too.  

This is #3 for me now.  I'm good if its the last.  =)

 SUNDAY

This morning on my drive home I took this picture while in Siloam Springs.  When you're in the AR city limits there is an American flag on EVERY light pole.  I feel so blessed to live in a country where I am given the right to make my own choices and I'm always blessed to see others feeling the same way.

I also took this because... Well, it was just too beautiful not to share.  

Thank you God for fall, Amen!

 Thanks for checkin' in!!

Shakin' Bakin Tuesday!!

Shakin' Bakin' Tuesday!!

Hope you enjoys some of our activities from last week.

*SPIDERS*

1. Ice non striped side of rounds.

2. Add chocolate sprinkles then M&M eyes.

3. Add pull-n-peel pieces for legs.

TADA!

*BONES*

 1. Stretch dough to about 18 inches and tie knots on each side. Bake @ 350* for 11 to 15 minutes or until golden.

2. For dip combine: icing (in canister), 1 tbsp peanut butter, 2 tsp milk, 1 tbsp chocolate chips

 YUM!

*CAKE BALLS*

 

1. Make cake as directed.

2. Let cool, crumble, add 1/2 tub icing, and form into balls.

 3. Melt almond bark, coat balls and add sprinkles.

Serve in mini cake cups.  =)

 *MUMMIES*

 1. Use Pillsbury bread sticks.  Stretch to about 18 inches and wrap hot dog.

2. Bake, then add mustard and poppy seeds for eyes.

Thanks for checkin' in!!

Trick-or-Treat!!!

This weekend was tons of fun!  We had our playgroup Halloween party Friday, Saturday we just kinda took it easy, then Sunday was our church's Trunk of Treats.  Cece came in for the weekend too for an added bonus!

Getting ready to head out Sunday night.  We did a 50's theme.

Andrew in full costume, ha!

Hadley really enjoyed passing out candy.  Although her concept might have been why we ran out of candy so quick.

After we passed out candy for a bit we went around to visit some of the other trunks.

While trunking we ran into our friends Emerson and Erin and took our annual Halloween picture.

There were also several JumpJumps set up.

The cutest Dinosaurs of the night!!

S'mores anyone?!

 

 Monday (Halloween) morning we had blueberry muffins for breakfast, yum!

That night we went with some friends of ours, Airika, Jai and Aubrey, to Caney to Trick or Treat with their family.  We met at Airika's grandmother's house then her dad took us around the town on a hay ride.

This Arkansas Cheerleader and Buzz Lightyear are ready for candy!

Some of the kiddos before we left.

Hadley starting on a sucker.

Loading up!  Oh and I'm pretty sure the stick she's holding was already #3.

 We made a stop by the fire station and the kids got to get in the truck.

Some of the houses went ALL out on the decor!

Best stop of the night, the Cotton Candy House.

 SCORE!!

It was a fun night.  Hadley was asleep before we pulled in and we toted her to bed.  Around 3 she came in our room frantically but we didn't think anything of it because we were pretty worn out.  At 4:30am she was throwing up purple.  I think this girl had one too many suckers!  

Next year we'll do more restricting, oops!  =/

Thanks for checkin' in!!