Pics

I have lots and lots....and lots and lots of pictures up all over the walls in our home.

I love how a picture can forever capture a moment. I love seeing how people change and remembering special occasions.

I thought I would share some of our family photos.
This is a picture of my grandparents (my moms parents). I think that my grandma is 15 or 16 in this photo.

Here is a photo of them from this fall at my cousins wedding.

How great is that? Still standing side by side after all those years!

This is a picture of my dad when he was a small child. I love the beautiful china cabinet in the background and the wallpaper.

I love being able to show my children their papa when he was a baby.

This picture looks like it is from an old movie but it is actually our family. I love the authenticity of the outfits and their demeanor's. This photo spews personality.

I love old pictures. I love new pictures. I love creating memories and being able to share them for generations.

The Pool

Last week we had a pool installed. I have begged John for a long time for a pool...I guess he got tired of listening to me. Don't let him fool you he enjoys it just as much as we do! Here are some pics from Saturday. PS I have been in the pool every day since it was installed...love it!

My sister and I

My mom and Jag in the pool

My mom and my sister

Jagger and Johnie before our swim

I am hoping for hours of fun this summer in the pool. How will you spend your lazy summer days??

Date Night

So...I have been in need of a date night with my hubby for awhile now. Life is so busy and there is always something to do, somewhere to be or someone to see. Last week I requested a date on Saturday night and I got a night away...a whole night...but here's the catch it was a whole night at the river in a tent. I love being outdoors and I actually love to fish but fishing and camping seemed so much easier when I was a kid. I was very excited for this adventure even though I knew it would mean a muddy, dirty, stinky mess. So date night - camp version- up ahead!

Saturday here was an odd weather day. It was nice in the morning and then rained in the afternoon. We planned to leave at 4pm. At this time it was still raining so we weren't sure if we would fulfill our camping plans or not. We went to the bait store and to grab some camping items, by this time it was clearing off and we decided we were going to go for it.

Here's a pic driving in to the campsite. We camped on the Nodaway river in Oregon, MO. This is a small river with sandy beaches. Well usually pretty sandy beaches except for the day that we decide to camp...on that day it is wet and muddy beaches.

The tent was set and the fire was started.

Even though it was wet and oh so muddy the place really was beautiful. I was very grateful to be there in the peace and quiet with John.

John's brother and a couple other friends fished with us in the evening. We were however the only one's that decided to spend the night :)

The night was FREEZING, the ground was HARD, the bugs were ANNOYING. The quiet was AMAZING, the time to relax was REVITALIZING, the alone time with John was UNFORGETTABLE. I can choose to remember the freezing, hard and annoying of the trip or i can choose to remember the amazing, revitalizing and unforgettable part of the trip. I bet you can guess which memories will last longer in my memory.

Morning

Here's the catch of the evening.

 We were so tired and dirty when we got home. Showers and naps were defiantly in order! Life is not perfect and rarely turns out as you plan or envision but it's all good in the end. I thank God for every chance I get to make memories with my husband and every moment I get him all to myself (even if he smells like the river). Love you babe....thanks for the date night!

Summer Patio

I thought I would share some pics of our patio. We spend a LOT of time out here in the spring/summer. We love to cook on the grill and eat supper outside.

We are in the process of doing some landscaping out front so that is why there is a huge patch of dirt with no grass.

I bought this trunk at an antique store for $8.00. It was rusty when I bought it so I just knew that it needed to be my coffee table outside.

I got these lounge chairs at a garage sale last year for $15.00. These are the most comfortable chairs!!! Johnie loves to rock in these chairs when the sun is going down.

This bench was a junk find. I LOVE the colors. I am sure some people see it and think it needs painted...but I love it just the way it is.

Art by Daddy and Jagger. Girls are pink and boys are blue :)

Small flower garden count DEFIANTLY use some rain and some attention!

                                         He tends to show up in almost every post :)



                 Pinwheels, some old jars and flower pots from Wal-Mart. Pretty.

I got this metal tray at a garage sale for $1. It holds all of the misc items

 Old coffee tins for sidewalk chalk

I don't know how to flip this image (can someone please tell me how!) I bought this stool with the intention of it being seating in my house. Once the seat was broken it then became a very cute plant stand. I love it either way. If God gives you lemons you make lemonade.

So there it is our summer hang out. Hope you enjoyed! Where's your favorite hang out in the summer time?



Peanut Butter Pie

Sometimes on our lunch hour at work we watch the show Semi-Homemade Cooking on the Food Network. This is a recipe that was on the show last Friday. I made this pie Friday night and we enjoyed it Saturday and Sunday at my house. The pie is AMAZING!!! It is VERY rich so you need to cut small pieces. It is defiantly a new one on my favorite list!!!





Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
• 1 (8 oz) pkg tub whipped topping
• Ice cream topping (I used Magic Shell)
• 1 cookie pie crust (my store was out of cookie crust so I just used a regular graham cracker crust)

Directions:

In large bowl combine all the ingredients except the toppings and crust.

Blend with a hand mixer.

Gently fold in whipped topping; pour into prepared crust and freeze for 2 hour.

Once frozen, drizzle with ice cream topping and re-freeze for 20 minutes.

Thaw slightly before serving and cut into thin slices because this is a rich pie.

I hope you love this recipe as much as we did! Enjoy!!!

Our Weekend

This weekend was fun. Lots of things going on...here's a little recap...

John went fishing with his brother Sam on the Nodaway River Saturday night...they had a great time!!!

I rearranged the furniture in the living room on Saturday morning. Here's a pic of the the transition point with everything all messed up.

Here's an after pic. I traded out our big coffee table with a truck I found at a garage sale for $20. That little table between the rocking chairs I got at a garage sale for $2! I love great garage sale finds!!!

John is in the process of creating a retaining wall beside our house. Saturday morning he was doing this with some friends. Everything went really well except he broke the water line! Luckily he is a plumber :) so it was quickly fixed.

This is Johnie girl while I was rearranging furniture. Guess she is already a little trickster!

I made an AMAZING peanut butter pie this weekend!!!! I'll share the receipe later this week!

Should have taken a pic a little quicker!!! It didn't last long!

Another great weekend...no big plans just staying home, eating good food and enjoying the fam! Hope you all had a great weekend...what did you do??

Parties

I thought today I would share some pictures of some displays I have created for parties/showers that I have hosted.

This picture is from 4th of July a couple of years ago. I love using fresh flowers in table settings. The flowers in this pic were picked from our yard. I had printed the menu and framed it for a table decoration also.

These pictures are from a wedding shower that I threw for my cousin. I made the picture window as her gift. I have made several of these they are always a favorite. Her theme was rustic.

John cut tons of wood pieces for me to use as candle holders on the tables. They turned out great. (I later made costers for Christmas gifts out of them :)

Jaggers 2nd birthday was a Rio theme, his favorite movie at the time. I made the cupcake stand and banners here. I also made a Rio cake. It turned out pretty cute!

These pictures are from Thanksgiving this year. I spent allot of time this fall collecting pretty plates for my collection. I have pretty table settings for 20 people. Again fresh flowers on the tables. I put hankerchiefs in mason jars which held the knives and forks.  

You may notice that the chairs in the picuture above are just metal fold out chairs. I am currently in the process of collecting wood chairs for entertaining. My goal is to have 10....5 more to go!

I love the entertain it is my passion. I love creating a mood and making people feel special when they sit down at my table. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by.