Our Fun Football Saturday!

In case you were on another planet today and didn't know it, today was the big Alabama vs. Arkansas game!  My family came up for a visit and we all went to the game.  We also celebrated Mom's Birthday yesterday!  We went out to eat and then came home and had cake and opened presents.

And of course we just had to have a Rick's Bakery cake!

We didn't really "tailgate" today.  We just grabbed some sammiches and chips and I made some brownies.  We ate once we got to our spot.  Before we hopped on the bus to go to the stadium we changed diapers, packed the diaper bag, and packed everything back up.  And yes, that's a Razorback chair, but Jordan won it, we didn't buy it!

Roll Tide!  We didn't get to go to a game last year, so we were super-excited to go to this awesome SEC match-up!

Uncle Ray has an arm-FULL!

Once I put Matthew in his carrier he promptly fell asleep and stayed that way through a bus ride, a walk through 70,000 crazy fans, and waiting in a big line to get in our gate!

Our seats were pretty high up, but we didn't care!!  We were just glad to be there and we were so excited to take JM to his second Alabama game!  He loves football and he did really, really well today.  I was so proud of both boys.  They acted great and were entertained the whole time.  Granted, we only stayed until after half time, but still, that's a long time for little kids!

John Michael just took everything in and watched the players and clapped and yelled "ROLL TIDE ROLL!"

Me and Matthew!  He was so sweet today!  I could just eat them up in their matching houndstooth outfits!

Snack time!  Luckily I packed whales, juice, and graham crackers.  Apparently, Matthew can eat graham crackers now!

Jordan and Matthew enjoying the day!

We had a great day.  The biggest problem of the day was leaving with Mom and the boys after halftime.  We got to the car and discovered that I didn't have the car keys.  Yikes!  Poor Jordan just went ahead and left the game and came on to bring us the car keys.  We promptly got on the road and we made it to our house pretty quickly!  What a fun day!  We were so glad Alabama pulled out a win!  Roll Tide!

Jewel the Camel Has One Hump!

I have one more post relating to our Labor Day adventure to the Drive-Thru Safari!  The last time we were there we didn't get to ride the camel, so this time we made sure to make time for it.  Originally, I was going to ride the camel with JM, but he wanted his dad to ride it with him!  Oh well!

Here they are waiting their turn.  I think JM was really excited!  I have come to realize that weekends are now strictly "dadin-time".  JM only wants to hold "Dadin hand" when we're out and about on the weekends.  And of course, he only wants to play "Dadin football" with Jordan.  Little boys love their dads for the guy stuff that they are learning to do!

We found out the camel's name is "Jewel" and John Michael is still talking about her!  He'll be talking and he'll say "bye, bye, Jewel!" and he now has a funny camel walk that he can do!  It's pretty spot-on because he walks on all-fours and hops up and down.  It's pretty cute!

He and Jordan had a really good time and made a fun memory in the process.  I mean, how often do you get to ride a camel?!  Pretty neat!

Have a happy Monday!  Matthew is developing an ear infection so we are hopefully going to get our prescription filled from the pediatrician we saw this morning and get him started on some antibiotics tonight!  Matthew has been sleeping through the night for most of the last week.  I'm not sure if he's going to always do this now, or if it was a lovely, wonderful side effect of the prescription allergy drops?!!  Either way, it feels so wonderful and refreshing to get an uninterrupted night's sleep.  Nothing like it!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Food, football, and my favorite fall fragrance candle!  All of these things scream "FALL" to me!!  Only, I wish it wasn't 95 degrees and high humidity outside! 

I am in love with my mulled cider candle!  I had one last fall and I used almost the whole candle up!  It smells just like fall should.

John Michael and Matthew were ready for the game this morning!  They were ready to cheer on The Tide, even though they're napping during the game.

We've been getting the world's best salsa from Sam's for our football snack.  It is so fresh and it goes so well with crunchy chips!  We're eating some right now as we watch the game!

We all moved from our regular seats to watch the football game during dinner!  JM was showing us his Alabama jersey.  He thought it was fun because he got to eat at his little table and he got to watch football!

One big happy Alabama family!

Safari, Take 2!

We couldn't decide what to do for Labor Day, so we decided to go back to the Drive-Thru Safari since Jordan didn't get to go with us last time.  Once again, we had a blast!  This time, we drove through first, visited the different animals that you can pet, and then ate lunch there.  We wanted to visit Pioneer Pizza again, but they were closed for Labor Day.

Here's John Michael looking at some buffalo!

And the evil ostrich.  Those are everywhere!

Look, a baby zebra! He was very dusty and very cute.

I felt like I was in Texas with all these longhorn cattle blocking our way!

The camels loved to come up to our car.  I think it's so cool to be so close to them!

And there's the rhino.  He was pretty big!  JM liked him too!

Now, when we got to the petting zoo part, John Michael really surprised us.  He ran right in and went up to every animal there.  He loved petting them and he even ran after some roosters, but they weren't very happy about that!

He really liked the roosters!

I pretty much stayed away from every animal there.  I'm afraid of lots of animals, but I didn't want it to show because I wanted JM to really enjoy them, and he did!  Matthew wanted to pet them too!

JM really enjoyed petting the donkey....

and the little cow (which I am also afraid of).  He even loved petting the little baby camel!

 

If you'll remember from my last post about the safari, the baby lemur was JM's favorite animal there!  Well, they had her out again that day.  He was so happy!  She really is very cute and quite sweet.  He was so excited to get to pet her again.

So then the lady who works there put her on my arm.  I have to admit, her little paws were so soft and felt like little bubbles on my arm.  And yes, I am freaking out here.

She was a little interested in Matthew and he was sort of interested in her too.  I'm starting to freak out more here....

And then my worst nightmare came true.  Matthew opened his mouth and the lemur got a really good lick in his mouth.  I was really, really freaking out then!  I kept annoying Jordan all day about whether or not he thought the lemur had any exotic diseases and whether or not Matthew could have gotten them from it.  I guess Matthew was OK, but he wasn't happy about it at all!

Both boys were really interested in petting the turtles.  I think I got laughed at by another mom because I was right there with my hand sanitizer right after they touched them.  Turtles are icky and I was prepared for the petting zoo with lots of hand sanitizer.

 

We had so much fun!  I'm hoping to go back again in a few weeks!

Suburban "Farming"

The boys are still working hard...

to bring in the harvest....

from our garden!

Our garden didn't do as well as last year.  It's just been ok.  We're learning every step of the way.  We already know what things we do and don't want to plant next year.  Even so, we've been able to share a small amount of veggies from our own garden with friends, and that's the best part of having a garden!

My Craigslist Chair

I found this cute little chair on Craigslist and I just had to have it.  It didn't really cost all that much and I think it's just darling!  The couple I got it from was so sweet, too!

Mainly, I figured it has character and I can recover it and even change the color of the wood.

I wasn't even thinking that it matched (ok, not really, but sort of) Matthew's green and cream room.  For some reason, he looooves this chair!  From the moment I brought it home he has crawled on it, pushed it, and pulled up on it!

Who knows what I'll end up doing with this chair.  Maybe re-purpose it and use it in our den with a little side table by the window?  But for now.....

I think I'll let Baby Matthew have fun on it!

About Last Weekend

Jordan and I had decided that we would like to have some neighborhood friends over one last time before football season begins and we all become football widows.  Little did I know that football season started this weekend, so we had to make it last weekend.  We are so blessed to have so many of our friends from church right in our own neighborhood and just one neighborhood away. 

I keep thinking, I wish we had a bigger house, or I wish I had a dining room with a table so that we could fit more people.  But, we don't and I'm happy with what we have.  We are so blessed with sweet friendships and a beautiful home that is just right for our season of life. 

I decided to make slow cooker boston butt since we don't have a grill - that's a long story too.  Maybe we'll have one by next summer and we can have people over for actual BBQs!  I put a HUGE boston butt in the crockpot on Friday morning and let it cook all day long.  I put salt, pepper, water, and just a little BBQ sauce so I wouldn't overwhelm the meat flavor.  I think it turned out great.

I tried to clean all Friday, but as my post from a while back showed, I got little done with Matthew hanging around the house!  My sweet, sweet husband packed up the boys and took of on Saturday morning to let me have a good shot at cleaning without interruption!

Even though Alabama football didn't start for a week, both my boys were ready!  They've both got their Roll Tide gear on!

 

 I made my BBQ the day before so I would have a lot less to do the day of.  It worked out great.  I shredded it really well and rehydrated it with some beef bouillion and BBQ sauce.  I then put it in pans and heated it in oven until we were ready to eat.  I made BBQ beans and we had fruit, potato salad, and macaroni salad and tons of soft drinks, lemonade, and lemon water (a personal favorite!)

Does it look like we had enough?!  Everyone brought something yummy and we ended up with THREE chocolate desserts!

 All of our neighbors have boys and so it's so fun when they all get together and play!  The bigger kids ate at the picnic table.

 Bless sweet Kaitlyn's heart, she's the only girl out of 8 boys! 

 The dads all played football with the little guys.  They had a really good time!

 And the little ones....

 scooted and cruised around the grass.

JM was ready to catch the football!

 We had such a fun time eating, visiting, and talking with everyone.  It was kind of sad to say good-bye to summer, but now we're saying hello to fall with all of its glorious drops in temperature! 

It was so nice to have friends over and I'm looking forward to doing it more often with more people.  There's something nice about filling your house with great food, friends, and conversation!

Verse O' the Day:

Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9