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

Softball

Have I bragged lately on how thankful I am that my husband is athletic?? That was one of the many things I loved about him when we started dating.  Even though his baseball career is over, he still stays active playing softball.    

Picture is a little blurry because I was holding a squirmy Trigger while trying to take the picture! :o)

The softball games are fun!  There are many young guys on the team, so there are girlfriends and wives that are around our age.  I love supporting Jacob in the things he loves to do!

Jake plays on two softball teams.  One plays on Monday and Wednesday and the other plays on Tuesday and Thursday.  We are pretty busy with his softball games, but it sure is fun and gives us something to do rather than sitting at home watching movies all the time.  Don't get me wrong...I love relaxing at home, but I also love watching Jake at his softball games too.

PUMPKINS!!!

A few weekends ago, I bought pumpkins and took them to my parents house and we decorated them.  This is the first time we have ever painted/carved pumpkins with Janessa.  She had the best time...shoot we all did!!! I really wanted a pumpkin to put outside our apartment door and thought it would be fun for everyone to participate!

Janessa watching Gran Gran put a face on her pumpkin

Soctt was the only one that wanted to carve his pumpkin.  

Janessa painting "hair" on her pumpkin.  Of course its pink!! She is such a girly girl just like her Aunt Lucy!

Scott Still hard at work!

Janessa hard at work!

More Hair!

The final product!  We had to make sure it looked like a girl pumpkin!  She wanted her pumpkin to have a BOW!

Me hard at work on our "G" pumpkin

Granny said she was NEVER invited to do pumpkins with us and she was excited to finally get an invite!  She over saw Scott, since he had to use big knifes! HA!

The finished product!  The scary side of Scott's pumpkin

The finished products with Janessa's initials carved.  Pretty impressed?? The "B"  was the hardest letter to carve!  We all had to be creative and help with it!!

 Overall we had such a good time painting and carving pumpkins.  I have a feeling this will become something we do every year!!! I can only imagine one day having ALL of the grandkids sitting around my parents table carving and painting pumpkins!!  Oh the things we have to look forward to!! 

Our Front Door!!! 

10 Things We Love About being Newlyweds

Happy October Everyone!!! I am very excited for all the Holiday festivities that take place now through the end of the year!

Lauren
1.  I love coming home to Jake when I get off work.  I enjoy seeing him in the morning and in the evening.  I see him everyday, no questions asked, no curfews, I enjoy being with him.

2.  I enjoy cooking!  I love cooking for my husband!  To be honest...Jake cooks more than I do.  He gets home from work about 30 minutes earlier than I do and he is sweet enough to start dinner.  Normally by the time I get home, it is already finished.

3.  I enjoy how encouraging Jake is about staying active.  Now that we are married, have jobs, and do other activities during the week, it is hard to find times to work out.  Even if we get home late, we will leash Trigger up and take a walk together around our apartment complex.  It might not be an intense workout, but its better than sitting on the couch!

4.  I LOVE that we no longer have to pray together over the phone.  Throughout our relationship, Jake and I have had a special time together at night where we pray for each other, family, school, work, etc.  It is so nice to be able to sit on the couch or lay in bed and pray together.

5. We enjoy taking trips together without chaperones! I know this is a given, but during our six years of being together we have taken many trips together.  Each time the trip has included many family members.  Although we LOVE our family members and we enjoy spending time with them, it is also fun to take trips just the two of us!

Jacob  (Much shorter and sweeter than mine! lol)
1. Spending time together
2. Never leaving each others side
3. Coming home to Lauren in the evenings
4. Watching movies together on our couch
5.  Cooking for Lauren

Funny how some of our "Things" are very similar!!! Happy Monday everyone!