Yee-Haaalloween

BUB braved the wind storm last night and ventured out in the rain to make sure he got his first ever piece of Halloween candy! His daddy was such a champ and wore a matching cowboy hat. Gah! I'm in love with them both.

Cowboy Bennett made sure to bring his pony, Maggie, along for the ride :) ... Hehehehe she had a full on saddle and all!  Melts my heart how much they love each other already.

Our little cowboy was adorable thanks to Janet's Creative Corner on Etsy, and dad added some handy dandy rubber bands to keep those dapper little boots from falling off of his forever moving footsies!

I found this little trick or treat bucket (which he actually held for a good portion of the night) and the tiniest bails of hay for $1.00 at Hobby Lobby and about died. So perfect!

And because Halloween wouldn't be complete in a regular sleeper for bedtime. 

Superman watched over us last night.

Superman or Cowboy, Bennett is the best boy. 

Happy Halloween BUB, thanks for making it extra special.

Whatever Wednesday

I'm officially "back to work" all cozied up in my home office. Baby free for the moment thanks to Bennett's sweet grandparents. Sipping on my 2nd pot of coffee. Rocking my pjs until wayyy too late in the afternoon. I have 3 computer monitors with no less than 30 tabs open on each screen.  Working consistently on cabinet concepts, social media, rebranding efforts, organization of a massive server mess, accessing new emails and confirming existing accounts. You name it, it's happening. And I've hit the point where my thoughts on everything are just ...

For lunch I had a hard-boiled egg, some of Maggie's carrots and a few cucumber slices because I'm too lazy to make anything other than another cup of joe...I realize this does not count for a real lunch and therefore will be grazing the fridge for the rest of the afternoon. I may or may not have also thrown in a fun sized Twix, but I'll let you decide if I had one or three. 

So, while IT is currently overtaking my computer and using some crazy remote access to see what in the bananas is going on to why I am unable to access all of my server and email business via my work computer (which for the record I find amazing, I literally have zero access to anything I need to work on right now, and someone who is miles away is able to login to my computer and fix the problem and I am sitting here with what seems to be watching my screen magically open/close/reopen windows until it fixes itself .. technology is so cool!)  Anywhoodles, I'm running through everything that needs to happen in my personal life and thought I'd share ... for no reason other than I have no one to whine to, and I don't feel like writing it in my planner so if I make a blog post out of it and share it with the world, perhaps it'll be just the swift kick I need to get em' complete!

I need to pick up my trays from the dentist, that have been waiting on me for nearly 3 weeks now. I need to order the plaque for the chili cook-off trophy for the family competition ... in addition hubs and I are on this crazy eating regimen that makes normal cooking and eating impossible, so I am constantly faced with trying to throw together a gourmet meal in the matter of minutes, all while enjoying it and keeping the household running smoothly ... that shouldn't be too hard right?

I've got to finish a small project and plan Bennett's baptism because class is now finished and it appears we're already behind the ball. I've got to get rocking on the decor and shenanigans of this shower I'm hosting in a couple of weeks. My house is is DESPERATE need of being cleaned, but I've already decided that will have to wait for another day week. Bennett's Halloween costume came in, but there is still much to be done in regards to the additional parts that need to be created ... which will likely involve at least 3 trips to the thrift and craft stores .. and Halloween is tomorrow, PERFECT. I've got to complete my dad's Bengal's cooler before next week's game or what on earth will they use for their tailgate?

We need to find someone to come chop this beautiful piece of furniture in half so we can get it downstairs because I am DETERMINED this will go into our basement, and I want it complete before our entire family is here next weekend. I need to purchase numerous shower, wedding and birthday gifts ASAP as I am getting dangerously close to that one year rule. I need to get a new chair for my at home office before my back gives out on me while I continue to sit on this piece of metal that is breaking my spine. And I am also supposed to be placing some other orders that for the time being I just don't have time to talk about. 

Okay, email is dinging, I just glanced once again at my massive work to-do list before little man comes back home today and the coffee pot is buzzing. Lunch break and blog whining are over. Back to work!

Happy Birthday Penny!

Today is a very special day in the life of my main lady. 

It's Penny's birthday!!

We celebrated last weekend with quite the celebration and had such a great time!  We gathered the whole family, some friends too, and held "The First Annual Family Chili Cook-Off"!

We had some stellar labels and score cards, created by yours truly. I wasn't sure how many chili's we'd have, so I had way more entry space than actual number of entries, but I guess at least I don't have to worry about making new scorecards for quite some time!

We did as close to a blind tasting as possible (because my family is ridiculously competitive), so we put every one's crockpots in a separate room, and then served everyone a half of a little Dixie cup labeled with a number of a coordinating chili. Everyone got their own score card, their own tester cups, and a full belly!

After everyone had voted, we then opened up a free for all and at until our little hearts were content. Including a table full of fixins of course. Enough white and green onion, shredded cheese, hot sauce, corn muffins, oyster crackers, and sour cream to make every chili guru happy.

 It was a close race ... we had three people tie for overall winning chili's, so a tie breaker was in order! We had to break it down by actual number of votes. Vitor and Cris came away with the win beating Jon Ryan and Brooke by ONE POINT! They will forever be the first set of names on the family plaque. Ironically enough, this was Cris's first time ever making chili (they're from Brazil more on that here) and they still beat all of us! HA! Go figure.

After we'd eaten enough chili to make our little hearts content, we walked up to my parents barn in the woods to finish out the day shootin skeet. I mean really, is there anything better in the fall than a belly full of chili, football on the TV and shootin some guns while hangin' with the fam? Pretty sweet way to spend your birthday celebration I'd say ... or any day for that matter. 

Thank goodness Bernie was lookin out and got earplugs, because that helped the babes deal with the loud bangs. We all started out shooting the clay pigeons with a 20 gauge shotgun. Once we got the hang of the 20 we moved up to a 12 gauge, whew! That sucker had a little more kick! 

After everyone had hit at least one skeet (except for the birthday girl ... dang) we moved on to shootin pistols. I was TURRRRIBLE when it came to the hand guns. For some reason I couldn't seem to get a feel for the fact that I had to shoot a little below the target, because it kicked up so much. Oh well, it was fun.

Anywhoodles, more about the lady that this day was dedicated to. The best mom in all the land. And now, the best grandma there ever was. Bennett sure is a lucky little guy to have such a great lady in his life. I wish her the absolute best birthday ever. She is my bestest bestie in the whole world and brings so much light to my life. Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

Four Generations

Now that I've shared one of the greatest miracles to grace our family to date, I can finally share the most perfect weekend spent at my Aunt Toby's house!  While MaKenzie and I still had a short time left on maternity leave, we planned an overnight gals trip to gush everything baby and get our wee-ones together while snuggling with OUR mommies :) .... I told you it was perfect.

My Aunt Toby (she actually has a beautiful name: Treva Lynn) ... but we've grown up calling her Toby our entire life.  It has something to do with a doll she used to carry around by the toe as a little girl, but regardless she's always be our beloved Tobes :)

Anywhoodles, she and Uncle Dan recently built a BEA-UTIFUL new home, and that made for the perfect backdrop of our generational sleepover.

I mean, are you serious with this swing right now? 

I want one so bad! Amaze.

The rest of the weekend was filled with oodles of girl talk, playing with babies, and eating delicious food. Could there be anything better?

And what would a family get together be without Maebyn teasing her younger cousin :) hehe.

Love these ladies, and my sweet boy of course, so very much. In the words of my Uncle Gary "a moment in time, lived by all!"