Sledding in a Winter Wonderland

Papa Hughie got the Farmall all revved up to drag some little boys (ok me too) around the yard.
It was a blast!!!!!!

Here's Brooksie and Nana watching from the window.
Notice his shirt, "all mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night." :)

"Crazy man" (Uncle Joel)

My crazy man- Sawyer

Yea! Get him!

"Crazy man" trying to give Jace a pep talk.

And they are off!

Check out those smiles! (and Jace's look of shear terror)

One of my favorite pictures...

Pretty, pretty snow! All 10+ inches of it!

Hey look, it's "Crazy Man" making a snow angel!

My Favorite Christmas Song

I love the words in this song.
Merry Christmas!
amanda

Chucks

The boys got a few Christmas presents yesterday. Their new "Chuck Taylors" were a huge hit! I had two pairs when I was in middle school and I am wishing I still had mine! I may have to splurge and buy myself a pair of low top yellow ones. 

Here's Jace, Sawyer and Charlie showing off their new kicks.
Thanks Uncle Greg, Aunt Amy and Cousins Jace and Will. The boys love them!

For the LOVE of Sprinkles!

Finally a post from me! I needed to take a little time off from the blogging world. For those of you who were wondering I did get to finally attend the homebirth. The poor gal went 8 days overdue so I felt like I hadn't stopped staring at my phone/computer waiting for word to jump in the car. So... my eyes needed a break.
But you don't have to wait any longer... here are a few pictures from me passing on my love of sprinkles to my boys!

Confession: store bought cookie dough from Aldis

Oh, I'm so proud. Look at all those sprinkles.

Charlie showing off his masterpiece

My entire kitchen was covered in sprinkles!

Would you like a cookie with your sprinkles?

Decisions, decisions. Which one to eat first?

That's my boy! Spoon on the sprinkles!!!!

Finished products. They got to do more cookies with Nana a few days later. I think they are officially sprinkle addicts also.

And my attempt to get a picture of all three. (The impossible task.) Notice how they picked out their own clothes, no one is matching and no one is really looking at the camera.

As good as it gets. Pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Caution: Random Cuteness Ahead

Here are some random pictures I am going through...

My little monster. Thanks Nana and Papa Hughie for the outfit. 

 We don't celebrate Halloween but they dressed up and passed out some candy at FJSHS.

My cowboys and indians.... 

Trashman

Eating lunch with Cabana Boy at his other job.

Bathtime at our house... 

Watch out. These are the deer hunters at our house. They climb like half way up this pine tree and "shoot" at things. 

Ohh... and Date Night! Thanks Darc for the pic!
I love going on dates with Cabana Boy and having a best friend that is a photographer. :) 

peace out, a

Thankful for Crafts

I love fall crafts! I am thankful that my boys are starting to enjoy crafts a little more. We collected all of these pinecones at the park a few weeks ago and then one rainy morning we decided to paint them beautiful fall colors.
We also made these name cards for the Thanksgiving table. They are supposed to be ears of corn. Cabana Boy said they looked like coconuts. Either way I think they are cute.
Charlie practiced his writing on them. It was a good way to get him to work on his handwriting a bit.
The boys are super excited to see a certain Aunt and Uncle! 

I am hoping to fit in one more craft before Thursday but we will have to see.
Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!
a

Who's tired of me talking about squash?

I think I was Amish in another life. I would make some bearded man proud right now. I cooked up about 8 squash yesterday. Plus the oodles I had done a few weeks ago. So... I have 14 bags of frozen squash in my freezer.
If you ask us over to dinner be prepared. I will probably be bringing something made out of squash.
a
ps. I am making 3 squash, 2 apple and 1 pumpkin pie on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. Sounds like a feast to me!

50 Free Christmas Cards

Shutterfly is running a promotion for bloggers. You know us cool folks who waste time late at night writing about mindless things instead of doing important stuff like sleeping!
Anyhoo... go on over to Shutterfly to check out their photo products. I use this site for all of my photo album prints, invitations and Christmas cards.
Here is their new selection of Christmas cards. Anymore I hate to be a humbug but it just isn't much fun to get a Christmas card without a picture in it. I love running (ok walking fast) to the mailbox in December to see who sent us a picture and even sometimes an update on their family.
This card style cracks me up! I'm thinking it might be perfect for a picture of our punks.
I have also ordered quite a few (sometimes totally free!) photo books. Ben claims I have a "Platinum"  Shutterfly credit card stashed away some where. I promise I don't!
If you are not already registered with Shutterfly, do so! You get free prints just from signing up and then special offers are continually sent to you. Totally worth it.
Now... if you haven't ordered your Christmas cards (um.. me!) get to it!
a
ps. I now get mine free from Shutterfly for writing this post!
Woo hoo!!!! Pays to be an insomniac blogger!

Whoopsie Daisies

Wanted to take a minute to brag about Whoopsie Daisies. This is my sister's business. She is based out of the DFW area of Texas.
She is super creative and talented when it comes to handmade goodies. She has been published on other blogs/websites and even in a book!

She surprised me with two fall items.
I am a wimp and HATE for my ears to be cold so this headband is PERFECT for me! It is also good at helping to camouflage really bad roots! (i solved this problem yesterday by going brunette) :)


This adorable pumpkin is making it's home on my buffet in the dining room. 

And these hats were supposed to be for photo shoots but Punk 3 just looked too adorable in them! 

Man, i could just eat him up! He is so cute!

So... if you are looking for a fun, unique fall gift for someone check out her blog at Whoopsie Daisies Days and her Etsy Shop here. She is starting to fill her Etsy site up with Christmas items as well. Can't believe that is just around the corner already! Yikes!

You can also see the link to her shop at any time on the right hand side of my blog.
Thanks sis for the goodies! a

Man I wish we lived closer!

I have been pretty busy this past week. Cabana Boy laughed that I have become quite the traveler lately. For the past two weekends we have driven to Indy and Muncie to watch school events and then this week I got the brilliant idea to throw all three boys in the car early in the morning and drive 3 hours by myself to go see our cousins Matt, Courtney, Nolan, Meredith and Liam for a few hours then drive 45 minutes to see my wonderful friend Nikki and her whole family (including her brand new baby girl!). My original plan was to do this all in one day and drive back home by 4pm. Well by 1pm I realized that wasn't going to happen. So... we drove back to our cousin's house, stayed the night (without any of our overnight things!) hung out the next morning and then made the long trek back home on Wednesday.
The moment we walked into the house Punk 3 decided to puke all over me. Fabulous. So... everyone had baths/showers, we ate lunch at 2:30pm and after another puking session all over me and our couch all the boys were in bed by 6:40pm. Not kidding. We were beyond exhausted!
I'm so glad we got to see everyone even though it was a short visit. I sure wish I lived closer to these wonderful friends and family.
In other news not much else is going on here except for Cabana Boy working like crazy, the dreaded hunting season has started and I am super excited/scared/nervous/honored that I am on call for my first birth photography shoot. I can't wait!!!! It will be a home waterbirth and I just am so humbled that this family is giving me the amazing experience to be there with them and allow me to capture these moments for them. I hope I can see through my tears that i know will be flowing as I take the pictures.
As much as I love the posed pictures of babies/kids/families I love more the moments in time I try to capture of life with these families. I know this is what I want to remember about my babies.
With that being said here are two photos that I took of my family and friends. Thanks guys for having us!