Menu Plan Monday: November 28

Do you have a Thanksgiving hangover?  I do!  We only ate one Thanksgiving meal this year and I cooked it.  We had the best meal!  Our favorites were the cornbread dressing, fried confetti corn and chocolate ice-box pie.  (I pretty much live and die by Southern Living recipes now.  They are guaranteed to be good.) 

Monday: southwest taco soup, corn muffins

Tuesday: chicken enchilada soup, chips & salsa, sopapilla cheesecake (I'm hosting book club ... dessert required)

Wednesday: pizza, salad (we love Papa Murphy's take & bake ... plus we have BOGOF coupons to use up before the end of the year)

Thursday:  Thanksgiving leftovers (one last time)

Friday: Dinner out with my old bible study group and spouses

Saturday: Spaghetti casserole, salad

Sunday: lunch out with a coupon, breakfast for dinner (at Claire's request)

Check out Laura's blog for more Menu Plan Monday.

So Thankful ...

This is a picture of my parents and all of their grandchildren that was taken with my sister's phone.  (I haven't gotten my TG pictures off of my camera yet.)

I am so thankful for all of the MANY blessings that God has given me.  I was reminded of how truly blessed I am as I was spending the entire weekend surrounded by my loving family.  I am so thankful that we were able to spend all day Thursday with my family and all day Friday and Saturday with Will's family.  I am so thankful that Will was off Wednesday-Sunday and we were able to spend family time together cooking a Thanksgiving meal, Christmas shopping, watching the Iron Bowl and putting up our Christmas decorations.  It was so nice to have an extra "helper" at home.  I am so thankful for my three sweet children who are so loving and kind and funny and sweet and sometimes a big fat mess.  I am so thankful for my heavenly Father who has saved me by grace and loves me in all of my flaws and weaknesses.  I am thankful that it is those weaknesses that I am made strong in Christ.  I am thankful for the material blessings that God has given me, but I am also thankful that my joy is found not in what I have or don't have, but who I am in Christ. 

I hope that you and yours had a blessed Thanksgiving day!

It’s been a while …

Since I got any pictures off of my phone.  I looked back at my blog and the last time was here.  Oh my, that has been a while!
Claire and David playing around our hotel lobby on the day we left Disneyworld (in May).


My cuties on Memorial Day … all dressed up in their red, white & blue.

All dressed up for our knight/princess tea party.  One of our theme weeks over the summer was princesses & knights.  The kids had a virtual tea party on my ipad (Toca Tea Party app).  They had a blast dressing up.  (David is actually wearing a ninja costume that I bought on clearance after Halloween last year.)  We made the crowns they are wearing too.

This was when Luke first starting pulling up and standing. 

Claire’s new haircut back in June I think?

Showing off their metals after swim lessons.  David thought this little caution guy was grand.  He would stop and play with him every day on our way back to the car.

At the beach with RiRi and DiDi.  She brought David some Toy Story band-aids and he immediately covered his body with them.  She spoils him rotten!

The cookie that was formerly Elmo made quite a big mess with all that RED frosting!

Claire loves this BIG BEAR at Costco.  Can you believe it is only $30?  We did not purchase it but she wanted me to take her picture with it.

Luke loves black beans!  It looks like he missed his mouth a few times!

A nice day for a jeep ride … helmets optional.

Grocery shopping with 3.  I had never seen this cart before.  I typically try to avoid going grocery shopping with all 3 but sometimes I have to.

Showing off more band-aids.  He doesn’t even care if they don’t have characters.  He still wants them!

Riding the dolphin at the dentist.  I’m glad they have lots of things to keep my kids entertained because we waited forever.


This boy gives the best sloppery kisses.

And I’m guessing you don’t want a chocolate kiss from this guy?  That would be pudding.

My very own Mr. Potato Head.  David does this often, but I finally caught it on camera.

I’m pretty sure this is not the safest thing to do, but at least it kept them from fighting over the tricycle.

Eating pizza at Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jon’s house.  So proud of feeding himself.

Heading to the beach … and riding face-forward in his carseat for the first time.  He thought he was BIG STUFF!

David helped me make pumpkin muffins one Saturday morning for breakfast.

Claire and a friend at soccer practice one night.


Claire and David with hooded blankets from RiRi and DiDi.

Sweet CeCe’s … one of our favorite after school treats.  Claire always gets chocolate with M&Ms and David gets chocolate or vanilla with sprinkles.  I love the cheesecake, cake better and Dulce de luche on any given day. 


Luke gets pretty upset when the ice cream is all gone.


Playdate with Aunt Ashley, Ian and Evie at Meme and Poppy’s playground in their neighborhood.  What a beautiful fall day!




Claire modeling her cute Halloween outfit.

Luke has figured out how to stick his finger up his nose and he thinks it is the funniest thing.  Boys are so gross!

Pilgrims.  Claire made this hat in her homeschool program when they were learning about the first Thanksgiving.  They included a boy hat in the packet so we made that one for David.  Don’t you love the look on his face?

My kitchen helper David helping make a cake for a wedding shower.  I’m beginning to think he only helps me so he can taste the batter!

At our neighbor Kate’s 4th birthday party.  My kids had so much fun.  They love Kate bunches.

Time for princess cake and Happy Birthday singing.

Kate and Claire.

Luke loves pulling things out of our garbage can.  The other day I had run upstairs for something real quick and as I was coming back down David said “Luke has something on his face.”  I knew exactly what he had done. 
Now he is known as Headwound Luke.  (Remember that SNL character?)  I had lasagna for lunch and he found the container I had thrown away with some leftover sauce.  He thought he was pretty funny!

Goodness … this was a lot!  I need to get photos off my phone more often.

This is Alabama Football!

Since I have not managed to get any of our football pictures up, despite the fact that we have been to several games this year, I decided to lump them all into one big post. 

Will made the trek down to Tuscaloosa with some guy friends for the Arkansas game in September, but I stayed home for soccer.  (Those are words I never thought would come out of my mouth!)

My first game of the season was the Vanderbilt game (which was also homecoming).  We got to take Claire and David with us and they were so excited!

Luke stayed home with Meme, but he still showed his school spirit!

C & D loved their Big Al shirts.  Our only family photo of the day.

Our best buddies in Tuscaloosa ... David and Nikki.  We stopped by to see them at their awesome tailgate before the game.

We finally made it to the Quad.  Will and the kids in front of Denny Chimes.  An U of A landmark.

Checking out the handprints and footprints of captains past.

David got this fun hat as his game-day souvenir.

Claire and Daddy.

In front of the stadium ... heading into the game.

Daddy and Claire in our seats.

David and Me.  David was pretty content as long as the snacks were running freely.  There was a little incident with sticky hands after he ate a fruit-by-the-foot that I thought might send him over the edge.  Did I mention he doesn't like loud noises?  (He covers his ears when he flushes the toilet.)  He was NOT A FAN of the fly over after the National Anthem.

I love this picture.  The kids made it until the 3rd quarter before we started packing up to head home.

Will has definitely succeeded in raising two Bama fans.  Claire still does some of the cheers she heard at the game.  She watched intently.  David ... not so much yet.

The next big game was the Bama/UT game and we were without kids which was a nice treat for the day.  It took us forever to get to Tuscaloosa due to a wreck in North Alabama on the interstate.  We finally got there and had a quick little tailgate time before the game with David & Nikki.  The blond is our friend Rebecca, who works in the Southern Living test kitchens and she is AWESOME!  You should check out her blog here.  You definitely want to eat whatever she brings to the tailgate.

Me, Nikki & Casey

David & Will

Alabama takes the field with lots of fanfare!

Will and I eating yummy football cookies.

Pictures of the field from our seats.

The last game we attended was the big one ... Bama vs. LSU (#2 vs. #1) ... maybe you heard about it?

We left the kids with Will's parents for the weekend and headed to T-town for a big day of tailgating and football.

Rebecca, Me and Nikki

We met up with our friends Jay and Jennie (we drove 4 hours to hang out with them and they live 5 minutes from our house ... go figure).  It was a long day so it was nice to change up our tailgate site for a bit.

Will and Jay unintentionally wore their matching shirts.  Funny!

Here's to another great football season even if we don't bring home the big title.  (I think it's still a possibility at this point.)  Every year we say we are not going to buy tickets the next year, but then we have a great time and decide to keep them another year.