What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It is once again time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Link up here!

I'm loving that we had a great time last week spending the Thanksgiving holiday with my family! I'm very much looking forward to going back to Arkansas and Missouri for Christmas in a few weeks!

I'm loving the Seasonal scents from Febreese. This blue candle smells yummy! It is called Winter Magic & Glow.

I'm loving Christmas crafting. I am working on a project now, have one ready to start and made this one yesterday. I will put up a tutorial tomorrow. It was super easy and I love the way it came out!

And as always, I'm loving my wonderful family. Chloe Jo is so excited about the Christmas lights and all the trees around this year!

What are you loving on this wonderful Wednesday?

Um...what!?

A few weeks ago, Russ and I were in Wall-to-wall mart and we were walking by the women's pajama department. I looked over there and, to my surprise, saw this:Footed pajamas for adults. Apparently they are this years Snuggie. Because some adults don't act enough like babies. They will just need a binky to top off the whole ensemble.

So what we have now is adults wanting to look like babies in footed pajamas and babies wanting to look like adults in jeans.Does anybody besides me see the irony in this?

Thanksgiving!

Our family had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I hope all of you did, too!

Early Tuesday morning we loaded up our car and headed to Western Tennessee. My brother and his family just bought a house and wanted to host the holiday this year. Everything went smoothly until about hour #6. We hit Nashville at rush hour and it took us forever to get through the city. Then Chloe Jo had an extreme meltdown in the bathroom at a Wendy's. She had an accident in the car and it took us a while to get cleaned up. The whole time she was screaming and acting like I was abusing her. When we finally came out of the bathroom everyone in the restaurant was staring at us. I was already frazzled because she acted so crazy so I was really upset when everyone was staring at us. I'm not going to lie. We left without staying to eat and when we got in the car, I cried for a while. It was not my best mother moment for sure. We had left at 6:30 in the morning and didn't get to my brother's until 9:30 (our time) that evening. It was a long day.

My sister and her family came in on Wednesday and my parents came on Thursday. It was so nice to see everyone!

One of the things we do every year is go around the table after we eat and tell one thing we are thankful for. This year I am extremely thankful for our health and that our little family is doing great. I'm so glad we weren't in our house when the tornado came through our town and knocked the tree over on it!

We spent 3 fun days in Tennessee with my family and had so much fun!

There was a lot of singing with Grampy.There was a lot of goofiness going on.

There was a little bit of crafting.

There was some smooching on Grampy.

Of course, there was lots of delicious food!

Friday afternoon we went out to a local state park. Russ and I wanted to have my sister taking Christmas card pictures, but we also took several family pictures.

G-Jo and Grampy (my parents)

Jeremy, Kaylee, Jordan and Shawna (my brother and his family)

I think you all know this little family!

Chelley, Brenson (in utero), Brianna and Chris (my sister and her family)

You're never too old or big to sit on your Daddy's lap!

G-Jo and Grampy with the grandchildren...they look so proud of themselves!

We stayed out at the park and played for a while before heading back to my brother's house.

I think this is a really cool picture. I may have to have it printed and frame it for Jordan's room.

Cute picture of Shawna and Jeremy

The kids and their spouses (minus my oldest brother and his family...they weren't there)

Brianna thought hanging on these rings was fantastic!

Jordan thought so, too!

Chloe Jo preferred sliding.

And Kaylee preferred posing for pictures.

I'm so glad we decided to drive out to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year! We will also be traveling to celebrate the Christmas holiday this year. We weren't able to do this at all last year so this is very exciting for us. I haven't been back to Missouri since January and Russ hasn't been back to Arkansas where his family lives or Missouri since last summer. We are also going to have our annual Christmas party in a couple of weeks so we are going to be very busy for the next month. That's all for now. I have a date with The Closer now!

3 Things

Whew! We have had a whirlwind week! We left very early Tuesday morning to go to western Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with my family at my brothers house. I will have more posts about all of that up later this week. Right now I want to talk about my goofy nephew, Jordan.

Jordan (everyone except me calls him J.T. so I guess I should jump on that bandwagon...) is a typical 12 year old boy. He is a lot like my brother in that he loves to tell jokes and loves to make people laugh. The only difference is that he is good at it and my brother is...well...not. Love you, Jeremy!

We ordered out yummy BBQ for dinner on Thursday (we had our Thanksgiving meal on Friday) and after everyone had eaten, we just sat around the table and talked.

This is what my nephew came up with:

"There are 3 things that aren't allowed in this house.

Animals with rabies.People with scabies.And crack babies."

Curly Sue

When I was little every Saturday night my mother would put my hair in sponge rollers. I would sleep in them and then Sunday morning my hair would be curled for Sunday Bible Class and worship services. At the time I hated it, but now, as a mother, I think it is wonderful to see little girls dressed up in their Sunday dresses with their hair in curls.

So last night, I put Chloe Jo's hair in sponge rollers. I honestly did not thing the rollers would last an hour, but I was pleasantly surprised to find them all still in her hair when I went to check on her before I went to bed. I had told her to leave them alone and just sleep in them and she was great about it!

This morning, 4 of the rollers had fallen out, but I had expected that. I wasn't sure exactly what her hair would do with rollers because it is thin and very straight. This was the result:

It turned out a little crazy! She did get several compliments on it at church services and as the day went on, it did calm down. I had sprayed it big time with hair spray so it kept the curls until she slept on it at nap time. My little curly Sue. I'm going to wait a while before trying this again since it was so crazy looking, but I'm hoping to make it a Saturday evening tradition like my Mom and I had when I was little. :)

The funny things my girl does

Chloe Jo is one of the cutest and funniest kids I've ever met (and I'm not biased...ha!)! Every day she does something that makes me laugh.

One of the things she has been doing lately is play acting with her baby dolls. She has been doing this for a while, but lately she has has started mimicking things that I do and it's so funny!

She loves to play with her Cabbage Patch Dolls. She loves on them and feeds them and undresses them (and then I have to dress the again because she isn't quite coordinated enough to do it yet). Last week she started playing like one of them is going to fall off the table, bed, couch, etc. She will hang them off the side of the furniture and say "No baby! You faw! No!" She will then persuade them to mind. They will fall off anyway to which she will reply "I tode you you faw" and then proceed to snuggle the doll to make it feel better.

Another thing she does lately is try to save me from whatever predicament I am in (or she percieves me to be in). Last week when Daddy was home I went to the bathroom. Our bathroom is a jack-and-jill between our two bedrooms. I proceeded to close both doors and since Chloe Jo was in her room playing, I locked that one (I don't usually lock the doors when I am home with just CJ). Chloe Jo tried to get in (like usual) and when she couldn't get in from her bedroom she cried "Oh no! Don wowwy Momma. I doming!" She then proceeded to run around to the door in our bedroom, open it, run in and give me a hug and pat my back and say "It otay." I guess she thought I was stuck in there. :)

Our baby girl is such a blessing to have around...and she sure keeps us on our toes!

My Recipe Box: Savory Cheddar Muffins and Mike Ditka's Official Tailgater's Pork Chops

As promised earlier this week, here are the recipes for the Savory Cheddar Muffins and the marinade I used on the pork loin. I hope you guys enjoy them as much as we do!Savory Cheddar Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup butter or shortening
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2/3 cup raisins

Sift flour with baking powder, salt and paprika. Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in remaining ingredients just until moistened. Spoon into well greased muffin pans. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Mike Ditka's Official Tailgater's Pork Chops

8 bone-in pork rib chops, 1 inch thick
4 cups orange juice
1 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/2 cup Dijon-style mustard
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, combine orange juice, soy sauce, garlic, mustard, honey and cayenne pepper. Mix together with a whisk. Place pork chops (I used a pork loin) in two resealable plastic bags. Pour about half the marinade in each bag and seal bags. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Remove pork from marinade. Discard marinade (I saved it so I could marinade again halfway through baking). Season pork with salt and pepper and grill for 10-12 minutes, turning once (I baked mine in the oven until done).

Playing in the leaves

Here are the rest of the pictures that I took yesterday out in the leaves. I'm really happy with the way they came out!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

It's Wednesday! I hope you all are having a good week! Here is what I'm loving on this hot November day (apparently South Carolina didn't get the cooler weather memo this week).

Today I'm loving that we have less than a week before we travel to west Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with my family! I'm so looking forward to this trip!

I'm loving that our landlord hired a crew to come cut down the bit pine trees in our yard (a tornado came through our town last year, knocked over a pine tree and it landed on our house, hit a water pipe, flooded our house and we were homeless for about 3 weeks...glad to see the pine trees go!)!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo is doing great learning her letters! I've been really trying to work with her on them and she knows several and even the sounds for a few.

I'm loving trying new recipes. I made a marinade for a pork loin on Monday and it turned out delicious! I also made savory cheddar muffins and a fruit salad to go with it. Recipes for the marinade and muffins to come soon!
I'm loving that we are going to have my sister (hey Chelley) take the pictures for our Christmas cards over the holiday! I made a prop that I love so I'm really hoping they will turn out the way I am envisioning!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo and I went outside to have a photo session this morning! I think these 3 pictures turned out pretty cute!

What are you loving today?
Link up here!