One Year

Somehow our little Joey went from this:

to this:

Happy FIRST Birthday, sweet boy! 

Silly Kids

Ponies need pajamas too...

Hi there!

Happy Wednesday!

Linked to "Wordless Wednesday" @ 5 Minutes for Mom

Fawn-Doe-Rosa

Yesterday afternoon we went to Fawn-Doe-Rosa with my parents and family that I have in town from California and Indiana.  It is a wildlife education center about thirty minutes north of where Jason and I live.  They have lots of deer, elk, raccoons, skunks, bobcats, mountain lions, timber wolf, foxes, beaver, farm animals and more.  

The deer are loose in the park and will walk right up to you, eat from your hand and let you pet them!  The farm animals they have are penned in but you can still feed them and pet them.  Amelia had a b-a-l-l.  She loved being so close to all the animals. 

My favorite picture of the day:

You can see how much she adores horses/ponies in this picture.  

We had a fun time and look forward to visiting Fawn-Doe-Rosa again soon!

Simplified Kitchen

A read a blog called "Intentionally Simple" and for the month of October Rachel is doing "31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple."  I'm following along and working on the projects she posts each day!

The first four days of October were dedicated to the kitchen.  This week I have gone through every cabinet (except the spice cabinet...that one is Jason's and I am hands off in there!) and every drawer.  I eliminated so many things from our kitchen that we just don't use/need.  We use the same pots and pans over and over but we had a few "spare" ones included in our collection - they went!  In the silverware drawer there were 23 plastic utensil sets (you know, the ones you get with your take-out) that we were saving, I assume, for that one day when we would need them.  That day has never come since we both bring actual silverware in our lunch bags to work with us - so into the trash they went!

With all the space I was able to make in the cabinets and drawers I was also able to move our flour and sugar containers underneath into a cabinet.  I realized they were just taking up valuable space and I honestly haven't used flour since we've lived here - except the one time a neighbor asked to borrow a cup a few weeks ago.  To me, that indicates very little need for it to be taking up space on the already crowded counter-top!

I cleared off the top of the refrigerator as well as cleaning it out of questionable food items.  I went through the pantry and got it all cleaned out very thoroughly and organized.  I went through all the things we had up on our refrigerator with magnets and decided it was time for a lot of it to come down. 

I was a machine this week in the kitchen.  The best part?  With it being broken up into several days of smaller tasks it was much easier to achieve this goal and having others participating kept me motivated!

Our simplified kitchen

The next room to be worked on this month is the master bedroom! 

PSA from Amelia

Yesterday Amelia informed me of something and I thought you all might want the reminder too...

"Mama, wee-ko ih com-een.  We nee guy-ee.  Wee-ko ih coh."

Translation - "Winter is coming.  We need scarves.  Winter is cold"

So family and friends, there you have it.  Winter is cold so be sure to get yourselves some scarves.

80 Years

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated Jason's grandma's 80th birthday!  His sister made lasagna and had everyone over for lunch and cake.

We tried for a nice picture of Great-Grandma and her Great-Grandchildren but, alas, it was not meant to be.  Joe was the only one paying attention - he's such a ham!  

More pretty fall colors on our way home last night :)

Fall Drive

Today we went to the mall to find Jason's grandma a birthday present.  We found exactly what we went for at the place I was sure wouldn't have it, therefore, it was the last place we checked - in desperation.  Isn't that how it always works?

On the way home we decided to take the scenic (and slightly longer) way home to see some fall colors!

We were not disappointed!