We are alive...
We are surviving...
And most of all, we are enjoying our newest addition!

Days are good... nights are still sort of a trial. You never know how long he's going to sleep. 1 hour, 2, 3 or sometimes 4! One night he fussed till 12 and then slept till 4 and then till 8! That felt wonderful! :) Late evenings he often has a belly ache and fusses but it's not too bad ... other then that, he just eats and sleeps! 

 Is it a boy thing to think he needs to eat every 2 hours? He deems himself positively starved when 1.5-2 hours rolls around. I have never saw the likes, eats his hands, sucks the time out of his pacifier and then attacks that bottle once he gets it. Guess he's starting to eat us out of house and home already.

I have a wonderful little babysitter at home with me. :) Both girls do a good job helping take care of him, altho Madison doesn't like giving him the bottle cause she doesn't like the "noises" he makes when he drinks. :) Reagan will be his entertainer once he's a bit bigger. She loves to show him things and tries to make him look and smile already. :)

We got this beautiful fruit bouquet from the church last week! Wanda went to a lot of work on it and it was delicious.

Sunday morning he went to church for the first time. He did very good. Slept almost all morning. Eric wasn't feeling well so he went to teach his Sunday School class and then came home. I had all 3 of them after SS.... didn't go to bad till he was ready to eat! I didn't trust Reagan to sit there by herself (and behave) so I sent her off to sit with someone else.

I forgot how much babies sleep... often evenings I feel like waking him up so that he'll sleep at night! :) That doesn't work well cause once he's out, not much will wake him!

Last Friday I had him to the Dr for a check up and he weighed 9lbs 13oz and was 23in long. All those 2 hour eatings are catching up with him! :)

Took a few pictures to do a birth announcement... They didn't turn out like I was imagining them, but they'll work. I had too many high ideals floating around in my head from other photo sites I look at. :) I tried taking them when he was awake. Disaster! I just waited till he went to sleep and tried it again. Much better.  

This is a natural one, I laid him down and both hands went up beside his head and he put one leg up on the side of the basket, so I just helped him out and crossed the other one for him. :)

Overall, I pretty much have a model baby... oh, he has his moments but nothing I can really complain about. I'm just thankful he's as good as he is or this mama would be in danger of loosing her mind. Babies bring a lot of adjustments!! But we love him!

There is nothing more to say!!

Fall is in the air...
Crisp, cool days...
Pumpkins, gourds, corn shocks, mums... 
Combines in the fields...
Leaves floating down...

And COLD weather that makes me want to stay inside!!
It was 30 something this morning. 60 in the house. I decided enough with that, I started the furnace for a bit. I am rather hot blooded right now, but even 60 was a little chilly.
I love fall colors, fall smells, but I don't like cold weather that comes too early every year in my opinion.

One good thing is pumpkin foods. I love them! Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin bars. Pumpkin cake. And most of all. Pumpkin cookies.

I made these last year and loved them. Freida had the same recipe and was raving over them too, especially with Carmel frosting.  I gave Mom the recipe and she liked them, so make 'em and taste 'em.
They. are. good.

Pumpkin Cookies

1 C. Crisco
1 C. Sugar
-Cream together, then add
1 C. Pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
-Mix well.

2 C. Flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
Mix dry ingredients together and add to previous mixture.

Bake at 350* for 12 minutes.

I made a double batch cause there are just hardly enough to get started on with just a single batch! This is about half the dough left, give or take.

That middle dough pile bothers me. Looks like someone took a bite out of it.

Fresh out of the oven... but....

...you can't forget the frosting.

Some people like the cream cheese frosting, and if you want that, I'm sure it will be great,  but you're gonna have to find your own recipe.

I make Carmel frosting.

1 stick of butter
1 C. Brown Sugar
-bring to a boil and then add
1/4 C milk
-bring to a boil again, remove from heat and add
2 C. Powdered Sugar

And don't lick the beaters. :) Let your kids do that. Save the calories for the cookie!

I'm telling you, you need to make them!

Make them small like mine, then you'll feel better when you eat 3 or 4 at a time, cause after all, they were small cookies! :)

Happy fall.

What is better then just relaxing at home for the evening?
At the moment, I can't think of much! 

We had nothing to do tonight so the girls and I started a fire and when Eric came home he roasted hotdogs for our supper and we had marshmallow s'mores for dessert.  

Cool weather made the fire feel good. Sitting in a chair watching my meal being made was quite fine too. :)

Reagan is not a hotdog fan but she sure likes the ketchup!

She had a little restaurant going at the top of the slide. The icecream she was selling consisted of a pile of sand! :)

Once we were done eating they had a little golfing expedition...

More swinging and missing happening then anything with these 2. :)

We have a busy weekend coming up so a relaxing night was just what we needed.

There are more of Sarita's wedding photo's here.

Shannon's Photography