Baby Emirsynn Brooke Has Arrived

The newest addition to our family has arrived!!! Emirsynn Brooke Spencer was born on August 7, 2013. She is the fourth generation to have that birthday. My grandmother, father, daughter (Emirsynn's mother) and Emirsynn all share the same birthday.

I can't believe it's been so long since I've written a post, life has definitely been busy. My youngest daughter got married back in October and is now expecting a sweet baby girl in August. It will be my third granddaughter. Our family is quickly prospering.

Here are a few wedding pictures from way back in October:

 

My two sisters and I did the wedding cake and grooms cake

 

 

 

 



My husband and I took an anniversary cruise in February of this year for our 26th wedding anniversary. We traveled on the Carnival Magic to Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, New Mexico. It was probably one of the best vacations I've ever been on in my entire life. Our trip to the Smoky's was nice but the cruise topped it. Here are a few pictures highlighting our trip:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Your Home A Haven

Making Your Home A Haven 31 Day Fall Challenge

When I saw this challenge, it reminded me that I haven't read my book Making Your Home A Haven by Cyndy Salzmann in quite a while. I used to read it at least once a year and I always give it as a gift to new brides. It's one of my all time favorite books for the homemaker. I highly recommend reading it even if you think you have it all together. I'm going to be doing the 31 day challenge with WomenLivingWell.org as well as re-reading this wonderful book. Please join me in this challenge and pick up a copy of  Cyndy Salzmann's awesome book!!

Meme's Little Helper

My little granddaughter Ava spent this past weekend with us so I let her help me in the kitchen while I was rolling out the dumpling for our chicken and dumpling dinner. She'll be 2 years old in December and for one so young,  she has a very good attention span and didn't get bored with it at all. I can hardly wait to make Christmas cookies with her this year!!  What a little doll!!

 I also sat down with her and gave her a little sewing lesson. I just punched some holes in cardstock, got a big fat blunt needle, threaded it with yarn and showed her how to go in and out of the holes. She loved it and was surprisingly very precise about it.

I remember when I was little I used to have some sewing cards that outlined a picture and you would sew around the outline. I googled it and sure enough I found some cute Learn to Sew Classic Retro Lace up Cards on Amazon that will be under the Christmas tree this year.

Anticipating Autumn

Although it's officially fall, here in Texas it is still a bit on the warm side with today's high being 93 degrees. The weather channel promises cooler temperatures for this weekend and early into next week in which I am very thankful. 

There's just something about this time of year that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Although I'm extremely busy right now planning my daughter's wedding, I am anxious to pull out all my fall decorations and start getting the house and front porch ready for the season.  My husband has all the hay for the winter stacked neatly in the barn but I'll have to swipe a few bails to decorate the porch. 

I've been perusing pinterest for fresh ideas on fall decor and also some recipes I'd like to try. Here's what I found. 

I'm really loving the banner idea a lot!! 

I love certain elements of each of these and not real sure exactly how I want to decorate my mantle yet but I'll be working on it this week and hopefully have pictures up pretty soon. 

I also found a few recipes that I'd love to try

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles and Chia Pumpkin Spice Thumbprint Cookies

There's lots more where these came from, check out my pinterest board here!!

           

Pillowcase Dresses Completed

Originally I was just going to let the hem out of these dresses and put a smaller hem in them, but I decided to add a ruffle or extension and added some embelishments and a tie. They turned out really adorable!! I was also able to finish the two other pillowcase dresses as well. That's three unfinished projects down and ........ a few more to go!!