Wordless Wednesday: How did you get up there??

Trick-or-Treating

This weekend while Janessa was at my parents house we dressed her up in one of my brothers OLD costumes!  She LOVED it!! She wanted to wear it all weekend!! She was too funny!! She only trick-or-treated to our house.  Granny, Aunt Mac, Scott, and I all had candy and she would go outside and knock on the door and then come around and get goodies from each of us.  We did this about 4 times!! 

Getting Ready to go inside!!

Getting candy in her Pumpkin!

Janessa and her Daddy!

Janessa and Granny

Janessa and Aunt Mac

Gran Gran and Janessa

Aunt Lucy, Janessa, and Trigger

We had such a fun time watching her trick-or-treat!  No matter how ugly the costume was, she LOVED it and enjoyed getting her goodies!! 

Are you Pouting??

When I get ready to leave for work in the morning Trigger knows that when I start gathering his toys and putting his food bowl into the bathroom that I am getting ready to leave.  He normally goes under the table or under the bed and pouts!  It makes it so hard to leave and go to work!  When I call him he won't come out.  He just looks at me and lays his head down!

Trigger and Camden

Jake's parents dog and Trigger LOVE each other.  Camden is a Black lab/Chow mix and is a pretty big dog.  Trigger is about 11 pounds and thinks he is a big dog!  Camden is so sweet with Trigger.  He will roll around and let trigger bite his ears, his tail, etc. they really do play well together!  

We went over to Jake's parents house for Jake to go hunting and to watch the State football game.  We really had a fun time.  These boys enjoyed each other so much!  They played and played and by the end they were completely tuckered out!

 Who would have thought such a small puppy could tucker out such a big dog???

NC State FAIR 2012

Oh how I LOVE the fair!  I have gone to the fair every year since I was little.  This includes working at the FFA Children's Barnyard when I was in High School!  My mom used to sing a song about a week leading up to our planned trip.  It goes...

We're going to the Fair, Fair, Fair.

How about you, you. you

You can come too, too, too

We're going to the Fair, Fair, Fair!!!

If you know my mom you know that she makes up songs about EVERYTHING!!! I realized this year that the reason I love the fair so much is because of the excitement my mom shows toward the fair!  I came to the realization when Jake and I went over to my parents house on Friday night, Janessa was spending the night and we were eating supper.  All of a sudden, Janessa starts singing, "We're going to the fair, fair, fair..."  At this point I KNEW my mom had been singing that all afternoon!  I LOVE seeing the traditions Scott and I had growing up are being passed down to the next generation even if it is just a silly song about being excited about going to the fair!  

At the FFA Children's Barnyard!
This barnyard is special to me because I worked at the barnyard for 4 years while I was in high school.  It just so happened when we went by the barnyard it was closed and we decided we would come back later.  As we were walking past, my high school agriculture teacher was opening the large barn windows! He invited us in the side door and we were able to enjoy the barnyard all to our self!  As we were leaving they opened the doors to the line waiting outside!

Pony Ride!  Janessa was so scared, but she had fun anyway!

Janessa was such a big girl and rode rides all by herself!  I had to remind her that I couldn't ride all the rides with her.   Her response was, "Thats ok Aunt Lucy.  I'm a big girl!" Oh how we love her so much!  She found a friend who was also riding by herself and they became best buds!

Pops and Janessa on the swings.  Janessa does NOT like to swing because they go high.  We were not sure how she was going to enjoy the swings, but these did not go high, they just spun around.  She LOVED them.   

Hobby Horses

Roller Coaster

AHH corn!  We all LOVE corn!! How cute is she holding it all by herself??

Pig Races
If you have small kids and have never been to the pig races you are missing out!! The pig races are so funny and are such fun!  They only last about 15 minutes and are HILARIOUS!! They race 5 different times.  The pigs start off, then its the billy goats, ducks,  pot belly pigs, and the rookies (Pigs that have only raced a few times).  They are too funny!    

After the pig races, my parents left because Janessa was getting very tired.  Then it was time for Jake and I to enjoy riding the big rides and eat some of our favorite food!  I only got this picture but we enjoyed a chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, Al's French Fries, Corn, and a fresh squeezed lemonade.  Oh how we love fair food and look forward to it all year round!

Jake at the Turkey Shoot.

We rode the BIG swings.  By BIG swings, I mean the ones that go REALLY high.  We were able to sit together  and talk and really enjoy ourselves.  In the picture above, Jake could not get out of his swing!  HA too funny!

We also rode the Himalaya.  This was HILARIOUS! Jake of course sat on the outside because as the ride is in motion gravity pulls you to the outside of the cart.  We laughed the entire time.  I was trying to pull myself off of him as he was yelling, "GET OFF OF ME!"  My stomach hurt when we got off this ride from laughing so much!

What a great year at the fair!  This was my first year being able to go with Janessa as my parents always took her while I was at school.  We had such a fun time spending time with my parents and Janessa and watching her ride all the little rides.  Jake and I also enjoyed having a "Date Day" as they left earlier than us and we spent the rest of our day at the Fair and then went out to dinner after.  We went to Which? Which?, a sub/sandwhich place because we were so tired of smelling and eating fried, greasy food!  

Granny's Soup

My Granny makes the best vegetable soup I have ever had!  I do not enjoy many vegetables and Jake likes more than I do, but neither one of us like a huge variety of vegetables. We both enjoy green beans and corn and Jake will eat some okra and broccoli.  Vegetables are not our favorite.  So it is a little ironic that my favorite soup is my Granny's vegetable soup!  There are peas, butter beans, corn, onions, and a few other vegetables I'm sure.  To say that Jake and I both love this soup is an understatement!  We like to wait until it gets cold to start eating soup and I just couldn't wait any longer!  This is definitely a Faison favorite!! When we go over to Granny's to celebrate Christmas this is our meal of choice.  We have Granny's soup and hot ham and cheese!  Oh how I love family traditions!

Wordless Wednesday: Trigger's New Doo

Before

After

My Bible Study Buddy

I was doing my bible study one day last week and Trigger came a lay down right beside me with one of his bones.  How sweet is this?? I could have just eaten him up!  

Jake caught with the camera

I got up to get something to drink and Trigger gets up and sits on my book as to say, "Please pay attention to me for a little while!"

How can you resist that scraggly little face??? 

Fall Cookies

I love it when Janessa comes over.  My mama always has something fun planned and I am so glad they invite Jake and I to be part of it!  I love to see my mama re-using fun things that Scott and I did growing up and seeing them from a different angle!  Being a grown up and watching how much joy and child has when making cookies is awesome!  Its the little things in life that we look back on and smile.  I hope one day Janessa will look back on the fun time we had making cookies and remember how much fun we had!  

Using the rolling pin to flatten the dough!  Look at that concentration!  She would blow out her cheeks like it was hard work!

Using cookie cutters!

Proud of her cookie cutter pumpkin!

Gran Gran helping to pull away the extra dough

Look at that face!! We all had so much fun making pumpkin and ghost cookies!

Look at all those cookies!!!

Added a little frosting to make them taste better!

Janessa frosting her own cookie!

And this is why we didn't let her help with ours! :o) JK

Adding sprinkles!  Funny Story:  When mom first opened the sprinkles and handed them to Janessa, mom said, "Shake it, Shake it."  Well to a very literal almost 3 year old...SHE SHOOK IT!  Straight up and down!  Sprinkles went EVERYWHERE!!  We all started laughing!  This is when mama added a little assistance! 

Finished pumpkin cookie!

Very proud of her cookie!

YUMMY!!!

Cooking FAIL

I am not a very good cook.  Growing up I was not interested in cooking.  I would much rather have been watching ESPN with Daddy and Scott than helping mama in the kitchen.  So now that I am married, I am learning slowly how to cook.  I normally do pretty good in the kitchen and Jake has liked everything I have cooked.  This week was a different story!   I have had TWO cooking fails!!  

First, was Monday night.  I made my mama's homemade BBQ sauce and I used my crockpot to cook everything while we were at work.  Well, I bought chicken thighs instead of breasts.  I had no idea there would be so much fat on the thighs.  After I cut all the fat off, there wasn't very much chicken.  So when I cooked the chicken and BBQ sauce on low for 4 and a half hours, the chicken came out WAY over cooked.  For dinner that night I had green beans and Mac and Cheese.  Needless to say...I was STARVING when I got home from bible study!  Jake ate it willingly, but he didn't ask for seconds! HA!

My second cooking fail of the week was last night.  I was making Chicken Helper Fettucine Alfredo.  We didn't have any uncooked chicken, so I had a bright idea of using some frozen, grilled chicken breasts we had.  I PROMISE I read the directions on the box!  I pored in the milk, water, and the mix and stirred occasionally.  When I was getting ready to put the chicken in, I started stirring and everything was stuck to the bottom of the pan.  I think I had my eye turned up too high. Oh Well...Better luck next time!           

 Thankfully I had not put the chicken in and we were able to have an awesome grilled chicken salad!  

I am so thankful for a husband who is willing to eat anything I fix.  Even if it is overcooked and tastes nasty!  I am also glad we had enough stuff for salads!  

AWANAs 2012

I LOVE AWANA!!! I became an AWANA leader the very first year our church had AWANA.  I was an Leader In Training (LIT) for the Cubbies!! Oh how the cubbies hold a special place in my heart!!  When I was a senior in high school, we started the Journey program, so I left my leadership role and completed the bible study.  When I went away to college, I missed helping out with AWANA.  I missed the kids, the songs, games, bible verses, etc.  I love that the kids learn so much about the bible!! Now that I have graduated, I have returned back to helping with AWANA.  This year I help with the Truth & Training (T&T) age group.  

One of my T&Ters and a Sparky 

Sir Mix A lot!  (He pushes the Start AND Stop button! HA!)

A few of my girls!  Oh how I love these girls!

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet Trigger