Five on Friday {Fall Edition}

It's been a very long time since I've done a five on friday (I think Easter was my last!)  Five on Friday is just a unique way to post about the randomness of life.  And you know me, twist my arm to make it about something seasonal;-)

{ONE}

Sunday is our Sabbath day in our household...and we had a wonderful Sabbath last weekend.  We had a Halloween/ fall day.  After church we picked up some groceries for making some appetizers, buffalo chicken cups (see number 2), "mummy dogs" aka pigs in a blanket, and apple cider.  We enjoyed playing the leaves with the kids, drinking hot apple cider, a campfire while we ate our appetizers.  Then we carved our humble little pumpkin and the kids got to show it off to our neighbor. It was truly one of those days I'll always remember (& I hope Anya does too!)

{TWO}

Our new favorite appetizer....

Won ton Buffalo Chicken Cups

Photo by: www.happygoluckyblog.com

"Recipe courtesy of Kraft Food Recipes:

what you need

4

oz.  (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/4

cup  FRANK’S® RedHot® Buffalo Wings Sauce

1

cup  shredded cooked chicken breasts

2

 green onions, thinly sliced

12

 won ton wrappers

make it

HEAT oven to 350°F.

MIX cream cheese and wings sauce in medium bowl until blended. Add chicken and onions; mix well.

SPRAY 12 muffin pan cups with cooking spray. Line each cup with won ton wrapper, with edges extending over top of cup. Fill with chicken mixture.

BAKE 18 to 20 min. or until edges of cups are golden brown and filling is heated through.

FRANK'S and REDHOT are registered trademarks of The French's Food Company LLC.

kraft kitchens tips

FOOD FACTS

Look for won ton wrappers in the refrigerated produce section of your grocery store.

SPECIAL EXTRA

Garnish with additional sliced green onions before serving.

These little guys are amazing!!

{THREE}

Tea for Three is going to be at the November Flea Market!!  Woohoo!  Katie and I are very excited for our surprise appearance at the Kane County Flea Market.  We weren't planning on attending, but we are back by popular demand!  God has been SO good to us with this business and we are so excited to show our clients our November treasures.  To God be the glory.  Come EARLY if you plan to buy...we sell out fast!  

Wowza...terrible picture:P 

{FOUR}

He's WALKING!  And you wouldn't even believe if you knew just how difficult it is to capture a picture of it.  Okay, maybe you do if you have a one year old;-)

{FIVE}

I have the best father-in-law EVER!  This morning he stopped by to give this Mommy a much needed PSL & pumpkin scone.  Thank you for thinking of me on this beautiful fall day!

Yes, that is a bite taken out of the back.  Y'all don't understand...I've got a very hungry little girl who must be starving.  #thanksanya

Happy Friday Friends!

Apple Crisp

Me- "Anya say 'cheese'"!
Anya- "Mommy can I take a bite?"
Love her!!


We make a TON of apple crisp during September and October.  And Anya and I have the best recipe for you, although I rarely follow recipes.  We ALWAYS double the apples and probably triple the crisp.  But if you like following recipes...here's one that's delish!

4 diced apples
2/3-3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup softened butter
dash of salt
1/4 cup of water or less

Place the diced apples in an 8x8 dish.  Pour in 1/4 cup of water over the apples.  Mix together brown sugar and butter.  Add in flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Stir mixture until crumbly.  If it's to dough-y I just add more flour and oats.  Sometimes I add vanilla too.
Bake 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

I love it a la mode!

                                 

My Littles

Life is moving in fast forward around here.  I am finding it more and more difficult to document about our life.  Not that our calendar is really hectic but just that every minute of my day is spent doing hands on things like helping my son learn to walk, and getting hungry kids fed, playing at parks, teaching my daughter pre-school.  I remember a time before kids when I could reflect more and blog about life.  Now I just seem like I'm trying to keep my head above water that, sadly, I don't have as much time to document our moments.  This is such a great stage the kids are in... but boy is it exhausting and oh so rewarding!

 {Oliver}

 He is my little gentleman.  He's such a laid-back, joyful little dude.  He's 13 months now, and loving life and all of it's adventures.  He LOVES going to the park "pak", trucks "ca", food, doing whatever his big sis is up to.  This kid can climb a slide by himself, but finds it challenging to walk across our family room.  I think I'd classify him as a "laid back monkey" if there is such a thing.  He is a social butterfly as he is learning new words everyday and babbles on and on in baby language.  As long as he has his "Daniel Tiger" (lovie) and his two fingers to suck on the world is good;-)

{Anya}

Anya is now 3 years & 4 months old, which is such a surprise to everyone who meets her as she is as tall as most 4 & 5 year olds.  She is such a beauty inside and out.  Anya is my big helper.  Any household chore I ask her to do, she does...with joy! She loves helping me out with Oliver in any way I let her.  Sometimes she gets too much in the way!  She is such a lover of life and people.  When she wakes up at 6/6:30 each morning she's happy and ready to start her day.  This morning I found her upstairs helping Gigi pack her lunch.  She's very excited that "fall is here" and can't wait for the upcoming holidays.  Anya will introduce herself to just about anyone (so far she's always asked permission) and makes friends easily.  The other day at the doctor's office she asked me if she could say hi to a lady waiting in the office.  It was humorous to me to see how quickly she opened up to the lady about herself and her brother after the lady said "hi" to her.  She has a will of her own and enjoys being in control of things...to put it nicely.  Anya has a growing curiosity to learn about God, Jesus and Heaven and I've gotten in some deeper conversations with her than I have most people about faith.  The other day she asked me who answers the door in heaven and was happy to hear my response was Jesus.  I was impressed with her imagery of heaven and the "door" image (as it is described like that in scripture).  This girl has a huge love for baking, doing preschool with Mommy, listening to stories about Anna and Elsa that Mommy and Daddy make up, and playing outside. 

 The love these two have for each other is the sweetest thing ever!  I love watching them hold hands in the car or how they giggle when they play.  They are so blessed to have each other!

August 2014

Oops!  I am a *little* late in posting our family recap for August.  This was a big month for us! 

Josh began his new career with Farmer's Insurance and loves it!  God continues to amaze us and He guides us along the narrow way.  Josh feels a strong calling to what he is doing, and it's awesome to see the passion in what he does.  

Like every month during the summer we had our flea market shop!  What a great month it was...and beautiful weather too!  Always a success there:-)  Katie is amazing at what she does.

Oliver turned ONE last month, and continually amazes us with his joyfulness.  Jolly Ollie!  We had a family party at the petting zoo/ park nearby and had a great time.

We also went on a family vacation with my parents and sister Katie to Door County.  What a blessing that was to get away and enjoy good quality family time.  We enjoyed visiting the eclectic coffee shop in walking distance from our inn every morning, and ice cream at Wilson's for dessert.  Al Johnson's for breakfast, and walking around and enjoying the sights of  Lake Michigan and the shops.   We even got a date night at an outdoor winery!   This month Josh and I took a day away and went downtown to celebrate his belated birthday and new job.  We visited Didi at her salon and then went to dinner at Melting Pot.  

Anya started Preschool with me at home.  She is so eager to learn and frequently asks if we can do Preschool rather than play.  Crazy girl;-)

We made our trip out to Didi's house later in the month to celebrate all of the August and September birthdays (Nana, Oliver's, and mine).  For those of you who are new to reading my blog, Didi is Josh's biological mother whom we met December 2012!!  We have developed great relationships with her entire family.  We are blessed that they live in the Chicagoland area so we see them often!  It's been an amazing ride!  

We found a new church home just ten minutes away from our house (it's amazing to be SO close to church!!)  It has a similar style to our old church and we are anxious to get plugged in!  Next week we start our marriage group.  Our heart will always be at Christ Community Church and we hope and pray to one day be apart of that community again.  Best. Church.  Ever!!!

At the end of the month we did a surprise service project at my in-laws house.  People from the church helped us serve them...because they do so much for everyone it was time for us to give back.  My kids now have a wonderful play area in their backyard for them to use when we visit them.  

As for me...my two littles are keeping me SO busy!  I hardly have time anymore to do the things I love, like take pictures and blog....or just breathe for that matter;-)  But it's a good problem to have and I am so blessed by my loves.  I'm sure I'll look back and say this was definitely one of the more challenging times but one of the best!

So that was our August in a nutshell...:-)  

Pre-K at Home

My baby is a preschooler!  When did that happen?!

We have been praying for God's guidance over the last year of how we should educate Anya and we felt the Lord leading us to home-school her this year.  

Anya has been SO ANXIOUS and ready to start Pre-K!  She is so eager to learn about everything and anything!  I know she enjoys the one on one time with Mommy and likes the structure and

 routine it brings to our day.  

We started our first day with a special little twist to make it more official.  Mr. Ollie Man was asleep for his morning nap...Anya got on her backpack and we took first day pictures and then we held hands and walked around the house.  When we got to the house she rang the doorbell and we walked inside.  I welcomed her to her first day of preschool.  From there she decided she would call me "Teacher."  It was SO cute!!  It kind of felt like we were playing "house".  :-)

 The first two weeks of home-school I have laid out to be our character foundation.  I found the perfect unit for Anya on the Fruits of the Spirit {Thank you ohamanda.com}  I just love how she goes through each of the fruits of the spirit coordinates it with an actual fruit and gives ideas for how to teach your child about each one.  Yesterday and today we have been talking about the Fruit of the Spirit -"Love" (cherries).  I felt this unit was perfect for our foundation for home-school before we start our Preschool curriculum.

Why does Miss AV look SIX in these pictures?!

 After spending much time on Pinterest, searching other homeschooling blogs, etc.  I decided that I would use "God's Little Explorers: A-Z Adventures in God's Word and World for Preschoolers."  I love how simple and straightforward the teaching is with connecting the lessons to God's Word.  Everything is already planned (I can add/ take away parts if I want) it's such a time saver and is exactly what I was planning to do.

As God as our teacher, I am so excited to see what Anya (and I) will learn this year!

 I pray that God uses what is taught to teach and nourish her heart and mind.  

Welcome to preschool Little Miss!

Happy 1st birthday Oliver!

Dear Oliver,

I can't believe it....you are a one year old now!  Where has time gone? Fastest year of my life!  I will forever remember how you were the best baby ever.  I say this in every post about you, but you seriously amaze me.  When you cry it's because something is wrong.  You don't cry just because...like some little girl I know;)  You are the sweetest, happiest, cutest little boy!  We call you Jolly Ollie because you are just so joyful...I love it!

 We had your one year check up a few days ago and you weighed 23lbs, 31 inches!  You are 90% for height, and 75% for head and weight.  Another baby with tall genes! You wear 12-18 month clothes, just moved up to size 4 shoes, and size 4 diaper.  You have two bottom teeth and just cut the two top teeth.

 You love Anya, climbing, music, Daniel Tiger, playing in water, food, your lovies, animals, Clifford rocking dog, the park, your football.  You hate not being allowed to explore, and your not a fan of swinging.

You take two naps every day 9am and 1pm...like clockwork.  You still snuggle with your lovies like you always have...and still suck on your two left fingers.

 You mean the world to me little boy.  I cherish your cuddles and sweet "words".  You are such a chatterbox and try so hard to tell me full sentences in your baby gibbering.  I love it!

I love you Oliver James!

Happy first birthday!

Love, Mommy

County Fair

Last Friday my in-laws took the kids and I to the fair.  The kids (& us) had a blast!  Anya and Oliver loved seeing all of the animals. They wanted to pet all of the animals.  Even Oliver wanted out of his stroller so he could touch them and "talk" to them.  When Anya saw a man taking care of one of the cows she whispered "Mommy can I ask him if he's a farmer?"  She was too shy to ask, so she made me.  But she was so excited to hear he was one.  It was so precious!

  

 Piggie tail girl looking at the pigs!

Anya also went on her first tot roller coaster/ and rides at the fair!  I loved seeing the look on Anya's face when she was zipping around on the rides....she loved it!  

 Mama took her on her first roller coaster.

 My little farmers loved the tractors!  And both wanted to test drive them;-)

And Ollie was so tired from all the fun he crashed in the stroller.

I'm hoping we can do it again next year!