Simple Pleasures

I decided to do a Simple Pleasures post! I am linking it to Kellys Korner! You will find many other great simple pleasures!!!


It made me think of what were the simple pleasures in my life! And so I am going to share them with yall!

Being with my family! And lots of bluebonnets! I could see endless fields of bluebonnets! That is how much I love them (even used them at our wedding).





Adoption!!! (my girls are blessings to me, from the gifts of God! And there isn't a day that goes by that I am not amazed by the love that comes from adoption! It's a beautiful gift!)

Sleeping babies!

Little girls with dolls!

Taking pictures!




Boots and Dresses! Boots anytime really, but I do love them with dresses!




Homemade Pecan Pie! My sisters recipe! And even better topped with homemade whipped cream!

Bows we make on gifts, packages! (my mommy tought us girls how to do them! all by hand, no machine!)

Little Bit Snuggles! (I love that dog)

Christmas trees! Especially the one hubby made me!

CRAFTS And Scrapbooking!

The sound of kids playing!

Trips to the Park!

Hairbows!!!!

Fireworks!

Dirt Track Racing! (Saturday night short track!) (MODIFIEDS)

Dr Pepper!

Blue Bell ICE Cream!

Texas Sunsets!

Watching my no fear wild child have some fun!!!!! She has a big need for speed!!!

SNOW!!! Yes you read that right, I LOVE snow!

Winter!

Laughing about the good ole days!

Spending time with friends!

Long Bubble Baths!

Snuggled in my bed with my favorite Dale Earnhardt blanket (my sister made me) to watch a favorite show! Or to take the most awesome nap!

These are a few of my favorite things!!!!!!!!!! They all bring me happiness in their own way! All the memories have made me smile so much today!! What are the simple pleasures in your life?

Hugs and Blessings,

Show us your life ~ Fashion Tips

I am going to partcipate in Kelly @ Kellys Korner's Show us your life. This could be lots of fun!!! Click on the button above and it will take you right there!



I really don't have many fashion tips for myself! Being a full figured stay at home mom, in the middle of no where, I tend to fall into the stay at home mom comfy disaster! Yes I am admitting it! But I have always been more jeans and racing t shirts, or boots and jeans type of a person! Now days, I really do love cute tops and capris! But still really pretty casual! I was determined as a mom of a princess, that she would be a bit more girly girl that her momma ever was! So I started right away with many dresses and lots of pink! I was accused of only allowing her to wear something if it had some kind of pink in it, some place... I don't think that is completely true, but we did have tons of pinks!



Now it's five years later, and she loves to wear dresses! She is as tom boy as they come, but she has a girly side and totally loves dresses! But for me, I have found the best fashion for us is layering! I'm all about leggings, shirts, and dresses! And we do a lot of dresses and boots! Something my mom always hated and I never did growing up! But something I totally love and think it's just too cute!



I also love monogramming, personalized clothing! I think this is not only precious, but gives each child a sense of pride! I really love boutique clothing, but I love to shop where I get the most for my money! So I would recommend to everyone, Cowgirl Creations!

And as you can see in all the pictures, I'm a hair bow girl! Hair is important to completing a look for me! (more to follow on this)...

So most improtant to me, in completeing any outfit / look is to top it off for all little girls with a matching hair bow! I'm crazy about making sure the girls hair is fixed and they have a bow in their hair all the time! Even if they are in jeans and a t shirt or shorts, they get a bow to match! Our bow collection is huge, with over 200 bows, I can always find a bow to go with what they have one! for some great bows you can check out, Heavenlee Hairbows!

And I have to say I am a believer in even if I am wearing something comfy, in the fact no matter what you wear, if you fix your hair, it makes you look together! A big reason I keep my hair cut off lots of times to the shoulder and shorter, so that I don't keep it in the famous pony tail! I think it makes such a difference in the way we feel about ourself and the way our fashion looks! We can have the cutest outfit on, but have unkept hair or that famous pony tail, and it ruins it all! In my opinion, that is!

Check our the Show us Fashion this week for lots of great ideas and looks!

Hugs and Blessings,

Enjoying warmer temps the last couple of weeks

In the last couple of weeks, besides birthdays and home projects, we have been having some fun too! We have been playing outside and going to the park, and just enjoying the family!!!


Little K was so excited about her new boots! Aren't they so cute! I just love kiddos and cowgirl / cowboy boots! Darling!

The girls were having so much fun just playing outside! They still love to swing all the time! Or dig in the dirt!



We (Mommy and Lil E) were cheering one of our favorite football teams to the Superbowl, but as everyone knows they did not make it! They actually lost to to the Vickings, the day we took this picture. Daddy's favorite made it to the super bowl though. He loves the Colts.

We had so much fun at the park! We have been enjoying several visits to the park! And the girls have had a blast! Our sweet new friend, who is like a Grandma to the girls, has been spending time with us too! We love her, and are so thankful that God brought us together! But do not worry, nothing or no one could ever take the place of our Sweet Mammaw and Grandaddy or, Grandma S and Papa R! They are the BESTEST! Just ask my kiddos! They will tell you!

I can't tell you how much all the sudden, literally over night, my sweet baby girl grew up! Just look at the pictures below and you can see it! And she is talking way way more! It's really unreal! But sure does make me proud too!!!

Lil K and I were spending some one on one time togehter, while sissy was in pre school! It was lots of fun! And look at how silly she was being!!!

Then Mommy took Lil E out a couple of days later to run some errands and take a few pictures!

Lil E loves to model for pictures! She hams it up and will create her own poses! And I love it, as I love to doll up our pictures with borders and such!

The above picture is unedited, it is just how I snapped it. The below picture is very much edited! I recolored the background! :) But I do like it this way!

Even got a few pictures of the love of my life and me! Can yall believe it, a picture of me! (taken earlier this week).

Hope yall are enjoying life. I can't get over how fast this month has flew by! But it's been great! We had our home visit and all! And we are in the very final stage, and looks like we will be going to court within the month, most likely, to finalize our adoption! I can't wait!!! What a blessing for us! We are all so excited! And can't wait to share all the joy with everyone really soon!

Tonight as I typed to all of you, we are in the middle the huge winter storm that moved across much of the nation, and is still moving! So please stay warm and safe! We weathered it well. Daddy got stuck out though. That's the life of a trucker! Please remember all the truckers that keep our country going, as they spend way more time rolling down the highway for everyone in our country, than they do with their own families. And when weather hits many times they are stuck out and not home with the ones they love! I appreciate all of them, but I'm really thankful that my hubby is blessed enough to work for one of the best companies, and is home most every day! I can't imagine cross country travels for weeks on end! I love you baby!!!

Stay tuned for pictures of Mr Winter! And there will be some really beautiful pictures too!

Hugs and Blessings,

It was the big 34 for me and more...

It was my birthday week and I wanted to start a home improvement project! With some Christmas gift cards, we had gotten the stuff to redo our bathroom! I had searched and searched trying to decide what we wanted to do. We only have one bathroom in our home. (remember our home is around 100 years old). I didn't want something to childish, nothing to foo foo, and nothing to drap. I really had thought about brown and turquious, but hubs really doesn't much care for brown. Then We found the shower curtain that was the center of what we were doing.

So that week Lil E and Mommy started doing the work on the bathroom. This is what it looked like before we went to work! hee hee


Yes, I really did want a bright color in there! It's not that blinding in person! And being as hte bottom of all the walls is tile, the bright color on top isn't too bright after all.

Look at my big helper! It didn't last too long, as we had paint everywhere and lots of runs. But she did great for a cutie patootie that is just 5 years old! And she was so proud of being able to help mommy!

It's my birthday and I'm really wanting it finished! Hubby took the day off to be with me and spoiled me beyond! And he finished up in the bathroom too!!!!!!!!!!! *BIG SMILES*

Here's a picture before I cleaned off the mirror from all the smudges and junk in there!

And yes, this is the shower curtain that we created the bathroom around!

I have found some great vinyl decals rings and dots to put up in there too. SO we will be ordering those! I can't wait!

Hubby made me this wonderful orange cake with pineapple orange glaze! It was so awesome!!!! And he even made a kickin dinner for us! Grilled steaks and corn on the cob out, baked potatoes, cheddar garlic biscuits and salad! YUMMY!!!!

I am blessed to have the most wonderful husband around! He is trully the BESTEST Friend I could have ever dreamed of and he makes me feel like a Queen! He is so supportive and spoils me with the little things that mean the most to me and with so much love! Even when the world said some 11 years ago, we would never make it, I knew they were way wrong!!! I'm so happy and thankful that I followed my heart and God's direction and took the poor boy in money, but the riches in love and heart of any man I knew! He trully is wonderful!!! I love you, James!

So that is how I spent my 34th birthday!

Hugs and Blessings,

K's 2nd Birthday Party

We are about 6 weeks past her birthday, but with us having the FLU and then Christmas and the New Year, and nasty weather, we finally were able to host Lil K's 2nd Birthday Party! The theme was monkeys!!! She is our lil monkey and is always making the eee eee sounds and climbing on everything and anything! So it was fitting! I did the invite and printed them as pics, one to frame for the party, but as a picture to send for the invites too.

Before her party, we went to take a few 2 year old pictures in her birthday outfit! I just love this wall that we used as a background and this is my favorite picture of the ones taken!

I love her lil sunglasses from the treat bags! Too cute!!!

Mommy and Lil E decorated the cake! NOthing fancy, but it was yummy!!!

We are so thankful for our friends that came to celebrate with us! Sorry that more didn't make it up here, but we do understand! We had lots of fun though!!! And most of all, Lil K had a blast!

Hugs and Blessings,

Cooking Thursday

Click the banner and let it take you to other great Cooking Thursday recipes! Sandra is our wonderful host at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom! She is a great cook! You will find many other awesome recipes there too!

This week I am sharing a favorite of ours, but even better, it's a weight watchers recipe too!

Stuffed Peppers

Serves 6
WW Points -5

6 medium green bell peppers
1/2 cup diced onions
1 pound ground beef, 95% lean
1 Tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
15 ounces canned diced tomatoes
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup cooked instant rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice off the tops of the peppers, remove seeds and membranes, wash under cold water and set aside. Coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray, saute onions and ground meat until brown. Add parsley, garlic, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for about 3 minutes, continuing to stir. Drain the chopped tomatoes and add to the mixture. Cook for 5 minutes, continuing to stir. Add the cooked rice and continue to cook over low heat for another 5 minutes. Stuff the peppers with the mixture and place them in a baking dish ( add 1" of water to the dish). Evenly spoon tomato sauce over tops of peppers. Cover the dish with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and allow tops to brown for 5-10 minutes.


Hubby was blown away that this was a weight watcher recipe, and I tell you, they are so filling! Now they are a favorite of ours.

Cooking Thursday (a day late)

Check out all the other great Cooking Thursday recipes at A Diary of Stay at Home Mom.

Since I am making spaghetti and this for dinner this weekend, I thought I'd share the recipe with all of you too!


Cucumber and Tomatoe Salad

2 sliced cucumbers, thin
2 or 3 med sz tomatoes, diced
1 sm to med. Size onion,diced
½ tsp oregano
Cracked pepper to taste
¼ tsp sea salt
3 TBS Italian Dressing

Mix all together and refrigerate for 1 hour prior to serving.

This is a GREAT addition to any Lasagna or Spaghettie dinner, among many others! Hope you enjoy!

Hugs and Love,

What have we been up to???

We have had a nice start to the new year! We started it off New Years weekend hanging out at home and having lots of fun! Even had a some friends over and had lots of visiting and fun with them too! It is great to have such nice people in our small town!

The girls are growing up so much! I can't get over how much in the last year! It has flew by! I can't believe how big they have gotten, and yet just how much more grown up they look! When does time slow down?

We had so much fun playing outside! We all played ball and it was lots of fun! The girls were having the time of their life! They love to play outside!

Then it was a week inside, because of artic cold cold winter temps! It was freezing! (Thats an under statement!). We had did lots of fun stuff inside too! From baking to crafts, and card making! To just playing with our toys!!!! The girls have had so much fun riding bikes inside! We have kept their new bikes from Santa inside so theycould enjoy them!

Look at that! The girls got what they wanted, a cat! Wubzy adopted us and the girls love him! He is darling and so sweet and gentle!!! He has the best temper I have ever seen in any cat before! We love him! And he and Little Bit get along well too!

We have finished everything to date for our adoption! Yeah! So we are very close to the end! And we are beyond excited!!!!!!!

Mommy's Snow Princesses!!! Can you tell we are wishing for more snow! We hope that by wearing our snowman stuff, we can get us some more snow! :)

So that is what we have been up! Having fun as a family and wishing for some more snow, and getting all the adoption stuff done! It was another big pile on us for Dec and Jan. But it is well worth it! Our greatest blessings are our girls that God gave us!

Wishing yall a wonderful week!

Hugs and Blessings,

Fiesta Corn Dip ~ Cooking Thursday

Click on the Cooking Thursday banner and it will take you on over to Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. She use to host Slow Cooking Thursday, but found after a long time, it was getting harder and harder to share crockpot recipes and opened it up this year to all recipes! I'm so excited, as I had stopped taking part, because I was out of crock pot recipes.

I thought with all the football play offs and Super Bowl coming up that I'd share a party food this week! :) And Race season is right around the corner too! :)



Fiesta Corn Dip -

2 cans of mexi corn
3 green onions chopped
1 cup mayo (not miracle whip)
1/4 tsp sugar
3 chopped jalapenos
1 small can green chiles
1 cup sour cream

Mix all together and chill. Serve with Fritos or tortilla chips.

Hugs and Blessings,

Happy New Year

Wishing each and everyone a wonderful and blessed new year! Good bye 2009 and hello 2010!

Here's a collage of our year in review! There is a picture from each month in it!

What a year 2009 was!!! I can't believe it flew by so very fast either! But it sure has!

2009 Review

Jan: Daddy was off a lot, and we spent a lot of time playing at the park! We had lots of warm days and not very many cold ones. The girls had portraits taken and we gained some new friends, from that very day! Mommy turned 33.

Feb: Valentines came and went! And it was Daytona time!

March: We had fun making green cookies for St Patty's Day. Lil E feel totally in love with the horses! We spent some time with Mamaw and Grandaddy, for his surgery. Bio mom surrendered her rights.

April: Spring is here! Easter egg hunts and lots of fun! Daddy was offically laid off. Race Season strated at Route 66 and daddy started helping JT.

May: Mommy and the girls started going to the races with daddy. It was our Memorial Day family reunion and we got to spend some time with Debbie and Emmaleigh! Can you believe it was 1 year ago that we got our sweet Lil K and she is 18 months old now!

June: Lots of summer fun and too much rain for race season! Mamaw and Grandaddy came to visit us too!

July: We had lots of July 4th fun! We didn't get to go racing, but we had lots of fun just hanging out! Daddy turned 35! And we went to Dallas for a week! It was lots of fun visiting everyone! We went to Incredible Pizza, to The Little Farm, Spray Water Park, and just had fun hanging out with the family! and can you believe it, all parental rights were officially terminated and we are moved to Adoption for Lil K.

August: Where did time to! We went shopping for fall and all. Still can't believe how much time has passed us by. Daddy is very busy at work. We got things ready for Lil E to start Pre School. Enjoyed a little more race season! And it was Lil E's adoption Anniversary!

Sept: What a fun and exciting month! We started it off at the local carnival! Then can you believe my sweet Lil E started Preschool! And even more she turned 5 and was the flower girl in a wedding too! We had her birthday party and we went to see our new home for the first time!

Oct: It was a busy month of packing! Pumpkin patches and trick or treating! And Grandma and Papa came to visit! They even got to go see our new house too! It was such a special treat for them to visit us! We were so very happy!

Nov: OH WOW, we moved into our new place! And things really started rolling in the adoption process! More visits and homestudies to get us to the end! We had a great thanksgiving with all our family! And can you believe Lil K turned 2!

Dec: We visited Santa at the mall, Celebrated 10 years of marriage, Santa visited our home. We fought the terrible h1n1 flu! Lil E injured her foot! We celebrated Jesus Birthday! We had so much fun doing all sorts of Christmas stuff! And we finally got snow on Christmas Eve! We braved the crazy Texas Blizzard to travel home for Christmas! We had more Adoption stuff to do too! It is going to be final really soon!

What a year we have had! And these are just a few of the highlights! We have been hit with lots of personal loss and gains this year, in many different areas! We have grown as a family in more ways than we thought possible! And we have had seen some very close and dear people really struggle! But we know that God is with us, and will get us through every trial or as Daddys says rub in this race of life we live! (his quote is rubbing is racing, and these are just our rubs in our race of life!) This is true!

As for 2010 what lies ahead for us? Well we will be able to finalize our adoption of Lil K! And making the most out of every bit of life we can!

As for my list of resolutions, I am not going to sit here and make a huge list of crazy things! But what i will say is this, I have learned to not sweat the small stuff, or take life for granit. I will cherish every moment and spend as much time as I can with those close to me. I will life live to the fullest and do what I need to be healthier, so that I am able to be the best mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend that I can be! I have a goal to get back to scrapbooking. Growing in my walk with Christ. And doing all I can to make the most special memories for those I love!

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Blessed 2K10!

Hugs and Blessings,