Hippity Hoppity Halloween

Hippity Hoppity Halloween!

This Halloween was so much fun! We spent the weekend with our good friends Ben & Mary Catherine & their sweet daughter Charlotte (who is exactly 3 weeks younger than MS) on their families farm. Farm is an understatement, more like an estate. Maybe Matthew will be a guest blogger about "The Farm." He captured some great shots & I think somewhere there may be video..... something the boys enjoyed capturing Saturday evening.

Back to Halloween. On Saturday evening Mary Catherine and I dressed the girls up and took them into the nearby town for trick or treating. The downtown merchants all stood outside to hand out candy. I must say the girls were precious. They insisted on walking and couldn't wait to grab out of the buckets. Of course Mary Catherine & I were happy to help them eat their candy! Mary Stewart enjoyed her first tootsie roll pop! I was so surprised to see her make it down to the tootsie roll. How many licks does it take?

Sunday we headed back home to Marietta and participated in our neighborhood events. We walked over to a parade with some new friends (so wish I had pictures: the cutest pig and puppy you have ever seen!). Mary Stewart took it all in.... I loved seeing all the sweet neighborhood kids and some of my old students.

Then we quickly jumped in the car and headed a few blocks over so Mary Stewart could join up with her twinkie! My friend Erin picked up matching costumes for Mary Stewart & Helen. They were the most adorable pair of bunnies. Erin gave them pink noses and whiskers too!

By this point Mary Stewart was starting to wear out, but like all good rabbits she nibbled on her carrot. All in all it was a fun Halloween weekend with lots of sweet memories!

Mary Stewart's twin, Helen!

"The Zoo"- Andrew, the zoo keeper; Evan, the ferocious tiger & the bunnies!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go....

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go......

That's right, Mary Stewart and I are off to work. Well Mary Stewart is playing hooky this week with Ya Ya (my mom) as I get settled into my new role. I was offered the Mothers Morning Out (MMO) Coordinator position at First Presbyterian here in Marietta. It's about as ideal of a job as you can get. It's 30 seconds from our house, Mary Stewart gets to come play (& we all know how she adores children), and it's part time!!!

Yesterday as I entered my first day, I was totally taken under the wings of the 2 ladies I will be working closely with. Today as I was introduced in the church staff meeting, everyone was so warm and welcoming. I am thankful to be in such a wonderful environment.

I know this will be a transition for both Mary Stewart and I, but am excited about the months ahead!

Read more: http://www.mylivesignature.com/mls_wizard2_1.php?sid=54488-89-56475EC3FA1EA919FFD20E1E021D3E93#ixzz0gVY8U8ZP

and we're walking.....

It's official. Mary Stewart is walking. It is so very cute!

Apples & Ponies

Think October in North Georgia. Cooler temps, leaves changing, and the Apple Festival in Ellijay, Ga. It's everything you'd imagine a rural fair to be! I love looking at all the handmade crafts, listening to cloggers, but mostly the fair food!!! I'm not particularly fond of apples but no worries here the apple fest has something for everyone! My favorites include foot long corn dogs, gyros, homemade root beer, son cones ( I haven't been able to find them anywhere else in GA) & funnel cakes!



Just as I thought Mary Stewart loved the fair food too! It's getting hard to share with her, as she wants her portion and mine!


Besides the food Mary Stewart was smitten with the animals! She enjoyed her first pony ride and was so proud of herself!



I wish I could have captured her fascination with the camels. She would stand at the fence just a talking to them and then as they would pass by her, she would bark at them!
It was a sweet day!

Sweet As Tupelo Honey

Sweet as Tupelo Honey. That she is. Rachel Donald that is. My newest sister in love!

Yesterday was sweet Rachel's birthday (yesterday being last Friday! I'm a little behind)! A very special one.... her first one married! Having a cold on her birthday isn't so sweet.

As soon as I met Rachel, I knew I wanted her in the family. I love my relationship with Rachel because it feels so natural. There is no agenda or pressures and it doesn't matter if we talked yesterday or two weeks ago, it's just natural. We are people people and she loves so well.

If you know my husband, you know he loves to pick on you (especially if he likes you), and that he can be what he likes to call "honest" and I like to call "harsh". He loves to pick on Rachel... and I love that Rachel has 2 older brothers and will dish it right back to Matthew.

Then there is sweet Rachel's love for Mary Stewart and well that makes my heart melt too! I was shocked to see the depths of her love for Mary Stewart when we opened a precious LSU outfit for her for her birthday (Rachel is an Ole Miss Alum).

Rachel, we love you! We are thankful you are in our family and your love for us! Thank you for being my sister in love, but my friend too!

Happy Birthday!!!

P.S. Rachel is a great writer. Check out her blog......

The Birthday Party

On Saturday, October 2nd we celebrated Mary Stewart's birthday with a party of course! I could write this fabulous blog on how wonderful everything was, how precious Mary Stewart was, how delightful her guest were and how thankful we were to have so many of our family but we know what your really interested in is the pictures! So I'll let the pictures do the talking.....

Why the tears? Well the first go round, I put the cake with the burning candle to close to Mary Stewart trying to get a family photo and she burned her hand! It took everything for me not to cry with her!!!

Once she tasted the cake, she was all better!

and Mary Stewart ate and she ate and she ate her cake!!

I hate that you can't see her absolutely precious birthday bib Ms. Cathy (the other Ashley Donald's mom) had personalized for her. So sweet.

Oh, and lets not forget ice cream!

(I must say her daddy captured some great shots!)

I didn't intentionally plan the icing matching her special birthday dress, but it is a nice touch!

Mary Stewart was showered with presents!

Notice her sweet dress that Dee Dee smocked for her!

I felt so blessed to have my family here to celebrate!

There's only 1 Hattie!!

Some kids never grow up!

Matthew & Mary Stewart with Dee Dee & Papa

I have to thank Claire Strebeck for the super cute invitations & cakes on the corner for her adorable birthday cakes. Sadly I didn't get a good pic of the cakes on my camera so visit their blog to catch a glimpse (& they are doing a give away this week!!!)

I am thankful for such a sweet birthday celebration and weekend for Mary Stewart. The Lord once again was so faithful to answer my prayers!

Out of Control!

This is my confession. I was out of control. Now wait a minute! Before you start picturing me dancing on top of the table, it's not that kind of out of control (& those of you who know me well, know I don't need any liquid courage to brave the table top!). I was out of control with my spending! I don't have a great new pair of flats or even a new piece of jewlry to show for. Mary Stewart wasn't the beneficiary of the crazy spending. As Mr. Monk used to say, "Here's what happend....."

I over spent on grocery's! How? I coupon right? I confess, I got caught up in the "weekly deals!". If you have been reading my blogs, I have warned you about this. Before couponing I probably went to the grocery store 3 times a month. The fun and games of couponing is maximizing the weekly deal and making the most of your buck. For some reason this month every week I over spent, even though I was using my coupons.

I asked Matthew to show me some grace, as this is the first time I can really recall going over my grocery budget in 5 years (how bad you ask? well it was almost double my monthly budget!).

Going forward I have a new plan for October! I took my budget and divided it by 4 (each week of the month). Hopefully this will help me keep my goal in mind weekly, and also make me really prioritize what we need!

I don't mean to discourage any of you with your coupons and weekly deals, just to warn you it can happen to the best of us =)

Time to go look at the weekly deals at Publix & CVS.....