She-nan-i-gans

she·nan·i·gan   /ʃəˈnænɪgən/ Show Spelled[shuh-nan-i-guhn] noun Informal
a. mischief; prankishness:
b. deceit; trickery.
2. a mischievous or deceitful trick, practice, etc.

So......lately our lady has been up to some shenanigans instead of napping.
Exhibit A:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy takes off her shirt....




Exhibit B:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy takes off her pants....and then has to be put in a sleep sack to avoid further depantsing occurances




Exhibit C:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy figures out how to get the canopy back over to her crib....



Exhibit D:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy flattens her bumper and tries to remove it...


Exhibit E:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy learns to kneel and sucks on the knob of her mobile but she stopped doing it before I could snap the photo :( and don't worry, I immediately took the mobile down since she is proving to be too old for it :*(


Exhibit F:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy puts her legs through the crib, over and over, and a lot of times she ends up sleeping that way.....







Exhibit G:
Sometimes instead of napping Lucy practices all her skills, such as rolling, crawling and sitting up and now the big one is kneeling everytime I go in to get her. We have seen her pull up to stand just a couple times, but not in the crib yet...I'm sure it will happen soon enough though. SLOW DOWN LITTLE LADY, I CAN'T KEEP UP!!!

It's that time of year.....

For all of this wonderfulness......






Ok....so the Anti-packers photo is random, but necessary...GO BEARS :)
Yes, we are enjoying our favorite holiday treats and I'm starting to feel ready for Christmas.....ahhh, I LOVE this time of year!!!

Cheeseburger Soup

I had some ground beef to use up and wanted to make something good out of it...so I found this recipe and despite how the website's photo looks, it was amazingly delicious. And Joe said, "This is excellent," so that always helps... :)

Cheeseburger Soup
Ingredients:
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
2 to 3 teaspoons olive oil
1 large onion, yellow or sweet, chopped
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced sweet red bell pepper
1/2 cup julienne sliced carrots (I just cut them in round slices)
3 medium yellow or red potatoes, peeled, cubed, about 3-4 cups
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried herb seasoning blend or dried leaf basil
1 quart chicken broth
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half or milk
8 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded or cut in cubes
salt and pepper, to taste
Preparation:
Brown ground beef, onion, and celery in a large saucepan or stockpot; add a little olive oil if necessary. Add the diced red bell pepper and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the chicken broth, carrots, potatoes, parsley, and basil or herb seasoning blend. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
In a saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat; stir in flour until smooth, about 30 seconds. Slowly stir in the half-and-half or milk. Stir in cheese. Continue cooking, stirring, until cheese is melted and the mixture is thick and begins to bubble. Stir the milk mixture into the soup mixture until well blended. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Heat thoroughly. Serve with biscuits or crusty rolls. Serves 6 to 8.

HOORAY for Nephew(S)!!!!

I'm going to be an AUNTIE to the most precious little twin boys from Ethiopia. The Lord has answered so many prayers and has given these sweet boys to Don and Sara!! They are 4 months old and Lord willing they will be home right around Lucy's age - 9 months. Praising God for these wonderful gifts!!! James 1:17

Check out their blog here - Sara will be posting more details soon!!!
http://donandsarajones.blogspot.com/

Dry Shampoo??

I got my hair cut a couple weeks ago and talked to the gal who cut it about dry shampoo. I don't always get to shower everyday or if I do it might not be until right before I go somewhere...so would love a quick option like this for running errands, going on walks, etc. I've stopped caring what I look like in these scenerios, but pretty sure the people I see somewhat regularly at stores think, awww the poor new mom who is tired, greasy and run down...which I'm not but I know I look like it every morning :)
My hair is even greasy when I wake up after showering the night before...so this all might be a lost cause, but thought I'd ask if anyone has any experience with dry shampoo brands or any other product suggestions for a quick fix??

Thankful!

Thanksgiving is approaching QUICKLY and I just wanted to write a little post to say that I am so thankful for so many things...I probably won't even remember all that I would like to say, but I will give it a try.

I'm so thankful for Joe.
He is a faithful, loyal provider for us and he is such a great, caring and forgiving husband to me and such a wonderful daddy to our girl. I'm SO blessed to be married to this man.

I'm thankful for our families.
I just love my brother and all of my brothers and sisters in law. God gives us such a gift in providing us with family to call our own. And to have all of our parents to be able to spend time with and love on our girl....wow, such a gift.

I'm thankful for friends! College friends, friends from even farther back than that, friends from blogs, friends from church, friends from the community and work. Have loved being able to get together more with friends because of being at home - and also having playdates with Lucy's little friends and their Mommies :) such fun!

I'm thankful for Pinterest and blogs where I can get new recipes, cleaning and organizing ideas (I need a lot of help in that department...), where I can read fun tips and hilarious experiences and encouraging stories and testimonies of God's faithfulness.

I'm thankful for our little house. Having a place to call our own in this season has been such a blessing to us. It's teeny and we love every little square inch!

I'm thankful for all the little things, like occasional starbuck stops, for walks into town, for pumpkins to decorate the house, for living close enough to both of our parents so that our little LJ can know them and love them already, for halloween candy and warm meals at home with my love. I just want to treasure all these days and all the little things that fill them.

I'm thankful for our church! It's such an amazing body of believers who encourage and challenge me constantly. It is such a unique place and we are just so thankful for a place we can go to freely worship our Lord and for the people of God who are our family.

I'm so thankful for our little baby. Having a miscarriage got us to a place of greatly desiring to be parents sooner than we had imagined and then trying to get pregnant for 10 months increased that desire all the more and after those hardships to be given Lucy, is just an indescribable joy to Joe and I. I am trying to cherish every single day and moment with her as it all is going so fast already. But just thanking our Lord for this good and perfect gift from above.

Most importantly I am SO thankful for Jesus. For His death on the cross for all of my sins: past, present and future. I'm thankful that I am able to see how sinful I am, especially lately, so that it is utterly clear in my mind that there is no amount of good that I can do to earn God's favor, to be worthy of spending an eternity with Him or to gain salvation. It is only through Jesus that I can be saved from my sin and be given new life. Praise God, there is no greater gift than this!

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling"

Halloween!

We had so much fun taking the little girl to trick or treat on a main street in town where all the local kiddos go. Everyone seems to love a baby in a costume, even if they all know that her parents will be eating the candy... :)
Friday night was a fall festival party at church, then trick or treating monday night and then dinner with Joe's family at Don and Sara's! So fun!!

Here are a few photos of our little horsey and I'll post more when I figure out how to download them from my camera :)

Watching Daddy

We love going to watch Daddy play sports :) This time it was flag football at church, I didn't get any pics till we were back at the car, but it was a bright, chilly morning. Here are some pictures of me and the girl:

A story

I thought I had some significant time before my girl started getting real smart and tricky, but apparently that has already begun...
So Lucy was real quiet during her morning nap, which has always meant that she is sleeping, naturally.
Well I went in to get her because I was meeting up with some youth group girls for 2 hours and here is what I found...
Someone reached over her bumper, through the crib and into her laundry basket to retrieve this....

Then she had to last 2 hours with the girls I met with, so we were heading home at 12:45pm and she hadn't been asleep since 7am, so I gave her a water bottle and was throwing things back there trying to keep her awake, but all was in vain. She was out immediately.....


She was so tired that she did not wake up with opening the car door so I carried her inside in her carseat, still not a flinch so I debated what to do since normally if I woke her up now there would be no chance for a nap, but I wanted to risk it to try for a good nap instead of a sub-par one in the carseat...

I laid her down and she cried for like 10 seconds and didn't really wake up, just rolled over to her normal sleep position :)

Then little girl went to bed at 5:45pm since she had entirely missed a nap...BUT then I am woken up at 2:00am and I finally go int to see what in the world is going on and sure enough, little lady has her face pressed against the crib slats and her arm is reaching out as far as it can reach trying to get to the laundry basket that I had kicked a foot farther away...nice try little sneaky lady...
Now the laundry basket is on the other side of the room.
The End.

Fall Fun

We have been enjoying these fall days, especially the warm ones with walks to the library, playing in the leaves, trick or treating, visiting Michigan and riding Bailey :)
Here are some photos: