A Lovely Fall Evening

Where we live, out in the country, we don't have much for paved areas around our house for Halie to ride her bike. There's only the dirt/rock driveway, which she can do but it's a little difficult and frustrating for her, and about 10 feet of concrete at the front of our house. So, she has never had a good opportunity to really ride her bike for any length of time or significant distance. So Friday evening, instead of going to a restaurant to eat like we usually do, we picked up a pizza and drinks and went to a picnic area up on the dike around the lake. After a yummy supper we took a leisurely walk while she happily rode alongside on her bike. I think she was amazed at the freedom she felt of being able to just ride and ride. She had so much fun!

It was such a beautiful evening, sitting by the water, feeling the cool breeze, and just enjoying being together as a family. By the time we left the moon had risen, there was a chill in the air, and we left as a contented little family.

Added Blessing

I already felt like I had a blessed life, but as of September 10th I feel doubly blessed! Our sweet baby boy, Robert Burl Cantrell, III came into this world. Everything went smoothly with the delivery and we are praising and thanking the Lord for a healthy lil' man! I am so grateful that the Lord saw fit to answer our prayers for a boy. I'm not worthy of anything, but for some reason He blessed me anyways.

(Almost 4 weeks old)

Big sister, Halie, loves her new little brother so much and is a great helper. Sometimes too much of a helper. : ) Burl loves her back and listens intently when she talks or sings. I can't wait to hear his giggles when he watches her silliness.

He has been such a smiley baby right from day 1 basically. I love to see his face fill up with his huge grins. Now at 1 month old they're getting more frequent, and happen more in response to something rather than just randomly. This morning he was laying on his play gym checking out a dangling toy bug. He reached out and hit it, it jingled, and he lit up with a big ol' smile.

I just can't get enough of this lil' Chubby Bubby!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Halie's 3rd birthday week started off with taking cupcakes to share with her friends at the library story time. Instead of the usual cupcakes, we made Rice Krispie Treat cupcakes. I had seen the idea in a magazine and thought they were really cute. We used the Cupcake Pebbles cereal that has little sparklies in it and topped it with pink frosting and sprinkles.

The kids really seemed to like them, although that doesn't really show up in this not-so-great picture, lol!

Mmmmmmm!!!

On her actual birthday, which was Thursday, she requested pancakes and eggs. We made chocolate chip and birthday sprinkle pancakes.

It was her day so I didnt' do much housework, I just let her choose what she wanted to do and I tagged along. : ) She watched a video, went outside and played with Mimi and played on her slide and swing, we played games and read books. A fun day!

For dinner, we took her into town to McDonald's (or as she calls it Old MacDonald's).

Before we got there we stopped at Winn-Dixie and let her go in and pick out a birthday balloon.

She got a happy meal and when she was done eating she ran off to the playground. She had been SO excited about that part all day long!

After some play time we let her open her gift. We kept it small and just got her two little things since she had an actual birthday party coming up and also, we'll be getting her a new bed and bedding set for her room soon. She LOVES to sing so I thought this microphone would be perfect.

We ended the evening with an ice cream cone! Her daddy helped her out a little, but she ate most of that all by herself!

Saturday of that week we had her actual birthday party. She really loves the pool and August in Florida is just too hot to do much else, so we had a pool party. My goal was to keep it low key since I'm 8.5 months pregnant, but still make it cute, colorful, and fun. We used Great Grandma Staffa's pool and kept it really small with just a few family members.

I decorated with a pool party theme and used lots of bright colors that coordinated around beach balls. The banners were from the dollar store and I also got several punch balloons from the dollar store and clusterd them together as part of the decorations. I thought it turned out kinda cute. When the party was over, the balloons doubled as a party favor the kids could take home with them.

I bought bright colored, big, lollipops and put them in a bucket of sand and surrounded that with oversized sunglasses as the centerpiece. Again, both of those items doubled as party favors for the kids.

I found this cute pool party set online.

Gift table.

To keep everyone comfortable, we arranged it so that the ladies and kids used the pool first, then all the men came and joined us for a pizza lunch, cupcakes, and gift opening. After that was all completed, the mommies took the kids home for naps and the daddies and grandpas stayed and swam for awhile. It worked out good that way.

Emma and Halie, FINALLY getting brave and using the floaties all by themselves!

She LOVES to jump in!

Isaiah, Emma, Halie, and Josiah

Instead of spending extra money on ordering a cake done by someone else, I decided to do the cupcakes myself this year. The little sun toppers were actually rings and also doubled as party favors. : )

I saw the idea for these flip flop cookies on a "beach towel" in a magazine. I was only planning on doing the cupcakes just to keep things simplified, but these were just too cute to pass up!

Cousins having fun together.

Birthday girl!!!

I have always chosen the theme for her parties, but I think next year she'll be ready to choose for herself! : )

I'm No Seamstress, but........

I don't claim to be any sort of a seamstress at all. I know my way around a sewing machine just enough to do a straight, basic stitch. I've been known to tinker here and there and make basic valances and such, but nothing more than that.

With a new baby coming along I was looking at nursing covers (something I didn't use last time around, but wish that I had made use of) and came across a pretty basic looking one that was selling for $10 plus shipping. I didn't like any of the fabrics they had, and I thought to myself, "I think I could make that for about the same price and then I'd have a cute one that I actually like." So I perused JoAnn's one day and came across this cute boy fabric with dump trucks. I liked it because it's fairly neutral, not too "It's a boy!" looking (pastel blue with footprints), but not so theme specific that I would come to hate it after a few months.

I was so upset with myself because I walked off and forgot my 40% off coupon. I could have spent several dollars less, but oh well. In the end it came to be about $10. I bought a yard of fabric and a yard of coordinating ribbon.


I had Robert haul out my ancient Singer sewing machine that Grandma Cantrell gave me, and I set to work. It's not perfect by any means, and I think I should have made it a little wider, but all in all I think it will be functional. And if it's not wide enough, maybe just maybe, I'll attempt another one.

I do have a bit of fabric leftover and I think I may try to make a couple of burp cloths out of it. I'm feeling ambitious. : )

Daydreamin' of Shabby Chic

Inspiration! I've been wanting to redo Halie's room for awhile now. She still has the same bedding set from when she was a baby and now that she's basically 3 years old, I think it's time for an upgrade. She doesn't have any favorite character or theme other than that she LOVES pink. But all of the kids bedding sets that are "pink" are fairies, princesses, or butterflies. I knew I wanted something a little more generalized and something that could grow with her for the next few years. I couldn't find what I wanted until I came across this magazine picture that really inspired me. I love the idea of the shabby chic look for a little girl's room. It's feminine (and pink!) without being overly foofy and frilly, and not Disney princesses! I think this look could easily last a few years until she's ready for something new.

Now I can't wait to start the hunt of collecting, buying, dreaming, and pulling it off at some point.