Our Life

Right now is a bit of a crazy time for our family. For the past 7 months Shawn has been studying for his PE test. This is the test all engineers have to take in order to obtain professional status. The studying has been difficult for our family. Shawn's had many long days at work followed by endless evenings of sitting in front of a pile of books. It's been especially hard on him since he hasn't gotten to spend as much time with Lauren as he would have liked. It's also been hard to figure out our family's routine in the evening. Well, this Friday is the big day. We will be leaving for Eldon tomorrow. Lauren and I are going to stay with his parents there while Shawn will travel on to Columbia to spend the night at a hotel. This seemed to be the best arrangement to make sure he gets a good night sleep and doesn't have to drive an hour before the test on Friday morning. The test is 8 hours long. Please be thinking of him on Friday! I am so anxious to have my husband back!!! I know getting this over with will be a huge relief for him. He's been stressed about this for far too long. Crazy engineers!

Also, as if the test isn't enough stress, we have been contemplating making a move. We spoke with our realtor last week. We absolutely love our house, but it is getting a little small with our new addition and it seems to be the time to buy a house. Who knew babies had so many things?!?! Anyway, we are going to give this some serious thought and trust in God to lead us. We'd love to live on the eastern side of town closer to Shawn's work. If we move, this would be my first real move. When I moved in to this house, I was coming from a dorm room so there wasn't much to move. When Shawn and I got married, he moved all his dorm room stuff in and that was it. We've accumulated quite a bit of stuff (junk) over the years and I am not looking forward to the possibility of packing it all up! I'll welcome any thoughts/ideas on this subject should we make the move!

In Lauren news, she is holding her head up really well. She likes to sit in her Bumbo seat and she loves to suck on her fingers. She really doesn't like tummy time and I have to make myself make her have it. Sometimes I make her laugh by sticking her foot in her mouth. I don't know why that cracks her up but it sure does. She is very flexible! She is sleeping about 8 hours solid a night! Yeah!!! Today so far she has had 3 really good naps. That doesn't always happen so I am jumping for joy. I've been able to get caught up on my 30 loads of laundry. Seriously, it was bad.

Pumpkin Bread

Today I finally decided to use the information from this post to put to use the cute little pumpkin that had been sitting on my kitchen table for weeks. I don't have any pictures because I left my camera at my parent's house last week. I seeded the pumpkin and set the seeds out to dry overnight. I plan on making sugared pumpkin seeds with them tomorrow. Yum! Then, I cut the pumpkin in half, cleaned out all of that stringy stuff with an ice cream scoop, and put both pieces in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees. When the pumpkin had been cooked I used a tablespoon to scoop out all the cooked pumpkin. I had to put it in the blender to puree it. I ended up with about 4 cups of pumpkin puree! Then I found this recipe for pumpkin bread using my homemade pumpkin puree. It came out of the oven just a little while ago. It's pretty tasty if I do say so myself! Let me know if you try this. It was a lot of fun!

Grrr...

I had to change the blog template I had been using because it was really bothering me the way the posts with pictures were lining up. In the process of changing, I lost all of my added settings. How sad!

Apple Pie

I made my very first pie this weekend! It was a lot of fun and Lauren took a nap long enough for me to get it all accomplished at one time! That is a feat in and of itself!

I started with apples from my Meme and Papa's orchard. These are the best apples ever and they worked really well for the apple pie I had planned.










I cut up about 7 cups of these apples and added sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Yummy!!!










I made the crust from scratch and it was surprisingly easy. I also put slabs of butter to the top of this before adding the top crust.









I found these tiny cookie cutters at Hobby Lobby so I used the apple one to add cute little pie crust apples to the top!











I was so excited that it didn't burn or turn out horrible! Shawn even said it was good and he is very picky about his pies! :)

Cleaning House

Since Lauren arrived (and maybe before) my house has been crazy. I have all these little drawers and cabinets that would mortify me if someone opened them. I've seriously had these special projects on my to-do list for weeks and weeks. It's funny how I just skip over them and do other things to waste my time. Well, I've decided to change my attitude and get to work! I know that even though the clutter may be behind closed doors, it still makes me feel all cluttered inside. So, here are my first projects. Maybe posting pictures will help me accomplish the rest of
my to-do list. Does anyone else have these areas? If so, I'd love to hear how you get motivated to get to work. And, maybe more importantly, how do you keep the areas neat and tidy after you've cleaned them up???

BEFORE:










AFTER:











BEFORE:










AFTER:

Life Is Good

This was taken after a fun-filled day at Farm Fest with her Pops!


I have no idea what she was doing in this picture, but she sure looks funny!



Here she is with my Meme and Papa.



This was taken after church. She looks like she is watching TV.

Blog Makeover

So, I found this link while visiting MoneySavingMom.com and thought I would share it with you all. The website is Sassy Chic Designs and they have the cutest blog layouts! It looks like they will customize whatever you need! Very cool! Of course, it costs money...but this is a link for a FREE blog makeover - so that is awesome! Good luck if you enter! I know I am going to.