Adventure 46

let me first start by saying that this shower was not at all my idea.

it was all contrived around the idea that the mommy to be had for a woodland themed nursery.

the ladies that I had the honor to serve with in hosting this shower did such a great job of coming up with ideas for all the details for the shower. we had an extensive email chain going of ideas and thoughts. there was one lady that wasn't able to make it but ordered the cutest invitations for the event from here

at the last minute Melissa and I decided that favors may be something that we should have for the ladies that were to attend. I had pinned this on pinterest here, and decided to go with something like it. I found two boxed of Celestial Seasons Peppermint tea, I was advised not to get chamomile because that was momma to be's least favorite tea flavor. I was even more thrilled to find out that Anne loved tea and that they had just gone to the Celestial Seasons tea headquarters. So cool!

I went to Michaels and found the favor boxes but upon further looking was able to find these cute bags in the Halloween section and knew they would be perfect. (it was after Halloween so they were  a good deal too)

Melissa ordered this cute diaper cake off of etsy

she also borrowed these great mason jars from a friend who had just gotten married and they went great with the woodsy theme, filled with pine straw it was perfect. I had seen this on pinterest, here and thought it would be fun to have a jar like this. I had one around the house so filled it up and brought it with me.

my daughter collected the acorns from my inlaws yard for the other mason jar. loved all of the touches of nature around the place.

truly the club house that we had the shower at was pretty much perfect so we could have done nothing and it would have been lovely but it was fun adding all of the other details

I found the bunting banner right when we first started planning the shower and Paige cut some templates for BabyGirl and she gave me some fabric to cut out to create this banner. I love the way that it came out and went great the with quilting activity that we did.

One of the details that was at the shower, that I loved, were these cuts of trees. somewhat like this, but thinner cuts. they were on top of the fireplace mantel and those jars were sitting on them. I wish I had gotten a closer picture of them because I loved them 

our main activity was to make this quilt for Anne. we were blessed to have Paige who can sew and make, truly amazing things. she created the checkered side and then the templates of all sorts of woodland cutouts for us to trace and iron onto the squares. she was going to stitch around all of them and then sew it to the backing that is hanging on the window back there (a closer picture is below.)

the food, of course was wonderful. Kadee, Sara and Karen did a wonderful job getting all of that together.

thank you Karen for doing this. you made my heart happy. I just love it.
( I know that you did too.)

the advice cards were something that i have seen and admired before. I had even pinned them here. so when Melissa said that she had ordered them for the shower I was thrilled. I told her how excited I was that she had ordered them and how much I loved them. they did not disappoint either. they were made on a great card stock and were beautifully done.

the beautiful momma to be. She was just stunning. I am so thrilled for her and her husband.

here is one last look of all the creatures and foliage that were cut out and placed on the quilt for Baby Girl. I can't wait to see the final product. Paige, you are sure to amaze.

Thank you J.Crew for getting this picture and sending it to me.

here is the group picture of all that attended. It was sweet that Chad was there, although i am sure he heard way more than he would have liked to about us ladies.

thank you Blakeley for taking these i really appreciate it. they came out great

is this not the sweetest picture of the mommy and daddy to be?

the hostesses of the showers.
it was so great to plan with these ladies. they had it all on the ball and had such great ideas. I loved being a part of it and helping to bless Anne

Paige, Kadee, Sara, Anne(mommy), Melissa, Karen and Me

i mentioned above that i missed the gift opening and that is usually my favorite part of showers. here are a few things that she got that i loved seeing pictures off

my guess is that this is from Kelly

 this little hat is from me. i saw it and knew that i had to get it for Anne

a picture of the full quilt. isn't it great.

Adventure 45

Adventures in freezer meal preparation.

A friend of mine hosted a freezer meal party at her house.

This was the second time that she did this and I decided to give it a try. it was so much fun. there was a ton of food and quite a few ladies there ready to stock their freezers with the yummy concoctions.

 

Lemon zest (always makes me feel like a fancy cook) ha

 

so much meat, oh my goodness there was so much meat.

 

supplies

here is the list of items that we made:

 



Slow Cooker Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

Ham, Potato and Broccoli Casserole

Butterflied Chicken with Thyme, Lemon and Garlic

Italian Chicken Roll-Ups

Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas

Chili Rellenos Casserole (not spicy)

Hot Roast Beef/Ham Sandwiches

Melt in your mouth Pot Roast

Finger Lickin’ Good Ribs

Italian Beef Sandwiches (making this one on Friday night)

 

It was such a great experience. so much fun too.

Adventure 44

So we took the kids camping this weekend but this adventure is not going to be about the camping trip, it is more going to be about a specific event on our camping trip.

while camping we made a trip into Gatlinburg. we were going there to trick or treat with the kids. we went trick or treating 6 years ago. I blogged about that trip here

we went trick or treating on the strip (we didn't even know that they did trick or treating there, and we had so much fun) my hubby has been saying that when Halloween fell on a Saturday again he wanted to make a trip there. this was the year. again that isn't the adventure that I want to blog about, but hopefully I will get around to blogging those pictures.

the adventure that I want to post is out adventure on the ski lift.

we honeymooned in Gatlinburg, we have been to Gatlinburg many, many times since we have been married, but I can never remember riding this ski lift. I texted with my mom asking her if we had and she thought that we had but my dad couldn't remember ever going on it so my mom said that maybe it was there when she was a girl and she remembers going on it from when she was little.

the kids wanted to go on it do badly. we were not going to go because the price was insane. $55 for all four of us to go.

granny and papa had given them $10 each so we told them that if they really wanted to go that they could put the $10 up for the ride.

there was no hesitation, they were ready to ride it.

we paid the money and got on. Little girl rode with me and Golden boy rode with Michael.

it wasn't until I got on and there was no getting off the I was a little freaked. to be honest going up wasn't all that bad but I had my arm wrapped around Little girl and she was gripping on to me as well.

we went over the river

and then after paying the $55 to ride it when we got to the top they wanted us to buy a photo that they took of us as we were coming up the mountain.

um, no thanks

but the view on top was beautiful

I put the camera round little girls neck and had her snap this picture of us

then it was time to go down. if I thought going up was bad this was worse

my hubby asked me if I could turn around and snap a picture of he and Golden boy.

UM, NO WAY!!!! not happenin'

I told him that when we got lower I would try and snap one.

this was my attempt to hold up the camera and try to get a picture of the two of them.

FAIL!

I had a death grip on the side pole

little girl decided that she didn't want my arm around her and that she didn't want to hold onto me either.

WHAT!?!?!

I was crazy scared, it would have been a comfort to have my arm around her, but I let her sit untouched.

she did occasionally reach up and hold on to the bar.

here we were pretty close to the bottom and I turned around and got his picture of the two of them

here are the ones from my phone