Happy Birthday Miranda!

We celebrated Miranda's birthday last night with a family dinner

and affirmation around the fire after devouring the Oreo ice cream cake she requested.

Do you see that Birthday Care Bear next to the Birthday Beanie Baby?

Well, Miranda got that Birthday Care Bear on her 1st birthday 26 years ago.

And we make sure to include that Birthday Care Bear every single year 

when celebrating Miranda's birthday.

When it was Emolyn's turn to affirm her Aunt Miranda,

she said "you're awesome and nice, and your voice is pretty and you're pretty."

Isn't that the sweetest ever!

Oh and guess what ~ 

that young man sitting next to my daughter happens to be her boyfriend. 

And we could not be more thrilled!

And that purple crocheted hat that Emolyn is wearing ~

I made that when I was in high school ~ over 35 years ago! I know!

my blog friend Heidi

~ Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls ~

That happens to be the name of a blog that I've been reading for the past 5 years. And yesterday I got to spend the day with the author of that blog! And I am not even kidding, it was as though Heidi and I had known each other for years! We have so much in common. We clicked instantly. We talked about everything. And then we talked while eating lunch. And then like any shopping extraordinaires, we talked all the while shopping and thrifting. We had so much fun getting to know each other!
Heidi was here in Tempe with her family from Denver (Maren- 6 & Porter- 2) to support her husband while he competed in the Ironman Arizona on Sunday. He did amazing and finished the race in 15 hours. I can't even imagine ~ 2.4 mile swim ~ 112 mile bike ~ 26.2 mile run. No way! I'm exhausted thinking about it!

Before we hit a few of my favorite thrift stores, I took Heidi to SAS Fabrics Tempe. First of all, isn't she adorable! And oh my gosh, I forgot how much I love SAS! I found a couple remnants of colored burlap ($2.99 a yd.) along with 4 yards of burlap fringe ($.49 a yd.).

And then we stopped at the ARC of Tempe thrift store.

And much to our delight & surprise ~ everything in the store is 50% off this week!

And yes, I got that cake stand for 2 dollars.

And it's displaying the sweetest gift from Heidi!!

A VANILLA EXTRACT DO-IT-YOURSELF KIT

(containing 3 madagascar bourbon vanilla beans along with the recipe on the back)

I can't wait to make my very own homemade vanilla extract!

And I absolutely love the rooster cookie cutter!

Thank you sooo much Heidi!  What a truly fantastic day!

pinterest, the Packers & peppermint pretzels

• I've had a bad cold for over a week. So what does one do when one's sick?
• Well, lots of pinning on Pinterest. Want to see my boards? Clic HERE.
• The Green Bay Packers are 9-0. How cool is that!
• Bought the peppermint/ white chocolate dipped snowflake pretzels at Costco yesterday. Oh my gosh, so yummy good!
• My husband is building me the pantry of my dreams. The big reveal coming soon.
• Bought the cutest roller skating t-shirt in Door County... on clearance at Target!
• I love it because my Mom & Dad met at a roller skating rink.
• And Randy's parents met at a roller skating rink.
• And Randy & I did not. But you can read how we met HERE.
• The latest ultrasound showed the twins are a boy and a girl. Emolyn was right all along! That girl's a prophet.
• Be sure to check out my shared kids bedroom board. Cuteness overload.
• Speaking of cute. (photos curtesy of Cora Kingston Photography) 

elsie & daddy

elsie lane- 1 year old

me 'n em baking pies

Welcome to my cooking show! So excited that you could join us!

Let me introduce you to my lovely assistant Emolyn Kate.

Emolyn, why don't you tell our viewing audience what we'll be baking for them today?

And just like that Emolyn entered into the world of television... 

pretending we were doing a cooking show. And the girl has stage presence!

We'll be making apple pies today! Back to you Mimi.

(ok, so I made up that last line)

She was so fascinated watching me crimp my pie crust... 

that she could hardly wait to crimp her very own pie crust edges.

And crimp she did! 

She crimped and crimped till I thought our viewers might be a little crimped out.

(ok, I made that up too)

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting emolyn kate's impeccably crimped apple pie!

When the pies came out of the oven,

I did what any pie maker does. I took them outside to be photographed.

(oh, you don't do that?)

And how cool that those fall leaves landed so perfectly next to the pies.

Aren't they so pretty. me 'n em think so.

I'm sort of a bokeh junky... which is what I was trying to capture in these outside shots.

I know what you're thinkin' ~ pies and bokeh pie pics! Doesn't get much better than that! ha!

Linking this post to ~

SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY

my Packer girls

Woke up to temps in the low 40's ~ signifying Fall is finally here! So we fired up the wood stove and I made my first latte of the season. Life is good.

Ok, so for those of you that wanted more info on our grandbaby twins... oh, so no one asked? Well, too bad, I want to talk about them... so I guess you're gonna hear about them. ha!

They're arriving in April. They are considered high-risk (emolyn came early weighing 2# 7oz.) so please pray they stay put... and that Nicole and the babies remain healthy throughout the pregnancy and delivery. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that TWO BABIES are growing inside her tummy!

Needless to say, emolyn (3) is pretending she's 'pwegnant' with two babies now. She already has 'four kids'... so she will have her hands full. Her 'husband' is now working as a firefighter... but recently they took a 'fall break' from each other. Mmm, wonder what that's all about? Maybe Randy and I need a 'fall break' from each other :)

If you know me at all, you know that I eagerly enter into this vivid imagination of hers, and at times she has to remind me "Mimi, I'm just pwetending!". Yes, yes of course you are... I knew that.

The other day she started calling me Grandma. So I asked her "Emolyn, why aren't you calling me Mimi anymore?". She replied all serious "I just got tired of calling you Mimi." Thankfully she was back to calling me Mimi in a few days.

Randy & I went over to Shawn & Nicole's last week to spent time with emolyn & elsie while Nicole was at work (she's a nurse) and Shawn was at worship band rehearsal. I showed emolyn the pictures I took of her & elsie dressed in the Green Bay Packer t-shirts I got them. While she was looking at them she informed me ever so gently ~ "I'm sorry Mimi, but I really don't like looking like a boy. I like dressing like a girl. " haha! I love her candor. And I love my little Packer girls.

GO PACKERS!! LET'S MAKE IT 8-0!!

Randy's Christmas Concert

My husband Randy wrote this on his blog ~ A Believer's Journey ~

For many years I have done a Christmas Concert of my original music around the subject of the birth of Christ. I am accompanied by some of my closest friends as well as my family. It is a great evening of music and some stories I tell every year.

It has become a very popular concert for many people who know about my ministry. 

It is also a really neat way to introduce the Christmas season. I can honestly say that it is the most enjoyable thing I get to do every year
and I am looking forward to doing it again this year. 

I hope that you will come and celebrate the greatest gift ever given 

and enjoy a night of music and stories to focus our hearts on 

God's gift to us ~

 JESUS.

Happy Halloween

The Fall Festival at our church this year was so much fun!

I spent the week putting together Emolyn's Little Mermaid costume,

so I could hardly wait for them to arrive! 

And I must say, she made quite a splash! (I know, I had to say it)

I found the mermaid tail at Savers and then reconstructed it to fit Emolyn. 

And then after many attempts, I finally gave up and bought a girl's bra at JC Penney Outlet

and transformed it into Ariel's "crab bra". (as Emolyn calls it)

When I was done, I sprayed it with fabric adhesive and gave it a generous dusting of glitter.

I am more than pleased with how it turned out. And so was Emolyn!

 Introducing ~ The Little Mermaid family!

I made 75 miniature cupcakes for the Cupcake Walk that Randy & I love doing for the kids.

And they were gone pretty fast!

The kids loved walk 'n rock 'n to Phil Collin's Tarzan CD!

Point the camera in Emolyn's direction ~ when she's in her element ~ and the girl shines!

This innocent bystander got caught in the middle of Emolyn's theatrics, 

or maybe he was just a prop for her spontaneous antics.

But he sure was a good little sport... and as cute as can be!

 Ariel ~ King Triton ~ Ursula ~ Sebastian 

Our son Tyler loves Clint Eastwood movies and recently watched all his Spaghetti Westerns.

So this year he dressed up as "The Man with No Name" for Halloween.

I love that my adult kids still love pretending and playing dress-up. 

And Halloween gives them (and us) permission to do just that!

Appleton in October

After two days in Door County, we were so excited to visit family and friends in Appleton.

My brother Gary and I are so close, and as siblings we're only 14 months apart.

And let me tell you, we could talk for hours and hours. And we did!

We had so much fun with Gary and his wife Kathy.

Erica, Preslie, me and Kathy

 First up ~ they took us to my niece Erica & Nate's lovely home ~

so I could meet my great-niece Preslie. Oh my gosh, isn't she quite the beautiful baby doll!

And speaking of beautiful, my sister-in-law Kathy has the most beautiful flower garden!

This is but a fraction of the flowers that are still blooming in October.

And my brother Gary knows my husband so well. He & Kathy took Randy & I 

to the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh.

My husband was in heaven. He was like a little boy. He LOVES military planes.

 

In fact when he was a little boy, while his Dad was stationed in London,

their whole family flew to France in this transport plane ~ the C-47

and this is exactly what the inside looked like! Can you imagine!

Randy always wanted to be a fighter pilot and has had the pleasure of experiencing the Air Force simulators out at Luke Air Base. But watching him in the cockpit of this F-100 gave me a glimpse into his undying love of fighter jets.

Nothing better than the yard sales and thrift stores in Appleton...

... that is until they took us to their downtown Farmer's Market. OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Check out that GINORMOUS pumpkin stem! And how cute is the proud owner!

I was blown away! Yes, it was windy, but seriously, what a Farmer's Market!

And they kept telling us this is nothing compared to what it was like at the start of the season.

And that sweet corn up there ~ THE best sweet corn EVER!

I know, I've got a flare for the drama... but this cranberry scone was the best too!

Gary, me, Anna, Kathy, Erin & Erik and Randy 

So, SO fun hanging out with my brother's family! 

And as you can see, we put away a LOT of that sweet corn
along with Kathy's scrumptious roast meal.

Then we spent a couple days visiting our dear friends Jim & Laurie.

Jim was one of my dearest friends throughout high school.

And he knows me so well ~ 

Sunday morning we went on the most refreshing, exhilarating hike 

and then we watched the Green Bay Packers remain undefeated!

As we were driving back to Wausau for our flight back to Phoenix,

I couldn't help but long for a simpler life. 

I want to be on that hayride up there, with not a care in the world.

I want to be fully immersed and mindful of the little things in life.

And I want to never forget being in the van with my niece Anna,
after picking her up from UW-Oshkosh, talking about music and 70's fashion...

... and being stunned by the glorious sunset taking place right outside our window.

And sensing at that very moment that I was right where God wanted me to be.

tool box & pulleys

Every time I wear a Wisconsin t-shirt I meet the nicest people... 

and I get the best deals... because Wisconsin folks are nice like that.

Saturday morning I stopped at a yard sale near my home and the homeowner asked if I was from Wisconsin. I had forgotten I was wearing my Wisconsin cow-tipping t-shirt that I found at a yard sale a few months back for a quarter. Well, come to find out they were from WI and had recently returned from visiting family. We had the best visit till I was leaving and saw this ginormous old wooden tool box! I had passed one up several months ago and I was not going to let that happen again.

It had twenty dollars on the tool box... but it was also filled with old wooden pulleys and railroad spikes, tons of rope and barbed wire. I told him I would need to go home and get more money. He asked what I had in my wallet and I told him $15.00 and he said "that's plenty". I was thrilled! 

And I truly believe it was because I was a fellow-Wisconsinite. 

Any ideas of what I could do with these awesome wooden pulleys and rope? 

Yes I could put them on eBay and make a boat-load... but I might keep em.

Because seriously, look at them. How could I ever part with them.

Anyway, I have plans for this baby... BIG plans! But I welcome your ideas too.
Linking up with ~
NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAY
SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY