Eli's First Haircut

About a month ago we gave Alex a trim, his hair was longer than Eli's. It was time for Eli to have a cut too. He was such a good boy about it, he didn't fight mama and daddy when they held his hands and kept his head still for Lolli to give him a trim. He's such a handsome boy!! We love his new look, and he and his brother look more alike than ever!

Autum has arrived at Shabby Miss Jenn Designs

Shabby Miss Jenn's Autumn Flea Market Kit
Tabbed Album (www.scenicroutepaper.com)Individual pages for the Tabbed Album

Mini Clipboard featuring Kali

Desk Supply Containers (Target)

And I'm loving it! I used her Autum Flea Market kit to create a few awesome hybrid projects that were so much fun and a couple of layouts too! I'll be uploading the layouts in my Shabby Miss Jenn Designs Gallery ... be sure to check those out too!

Photos from Hurricane Ike 09-13-08

You can see some pics from our area the day of the hurricane here:
Hurricane Ike Photo Album

Heading for Higher Ground

Bayou Petit Anse @ 12:45 today

This little 'coon decided to head for higher ground today when the Bayou Petit Anse near our house started cresting and running into the woods he lives in.

Pop & His Boys

The other day when Pop and the boy's Daddy needed to make a run to Houston they rented a great big truck and the boys got to ride home with Daddy in it. Here they are with Pop before their big trip.

At the Hop

Kali had a wonderful time at the SES Back to School Sock Hop. She wore her little poodle skirt Aunt Debbie made for her for Aimee's birthday party last fall. It was a fun evening filled with yummy snacks and dancing. Kali really got into the dancing with Jack and Ethan, her twin cousins who also started school at SES this year. She and Riley had a great time too. She really loves her school and she's going to have a super school year!

Sweet Little Boys

Elijah and Alex
Alex and Elijah
Elijah and Alex

I love these photos of the sweetest little guys ever. Saturday night they came over for a sleepover and they took a little ride over to Granny's house while Pop cut her grass. They adore their twin umbrella stroller and were too cute holding hands on the ride across the yard. Later they were hanging out in the house and sharing toys like the sweet boys they are, just too cute! They're wearing the little "Saints" football caps I got them just in time for football season.

Corn and Beef Soup in Tomato Gravy

One of our children's favorite dishes is corn and beef soup in tomato gravy, I adore the same but substituting shrimp for the beef. So today a good friend asked for my recipe and I decided it was as good a time as any to type it out and make a recipe card. Give it a try if you're so inclined. I'm including the recipe below. In the coming months I'm going to do the same with lots of their favorite dishes, print them out on 5x7 cards and put into a recipe box for each as a Christmas gift. I'm going to have them make a list of their favorites and spread the happiness around. I hope you enjoy this one!

Corn and Beef Soup in Tomato Gravy

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh chopped corn

1 1/2 pounds cubed soup meat

3 small cans tomato paste

2 large white onions

3 stalks celery

1 large bellpepper

3 quarts beef stock

1/4 cup olive oil

Tony Chacherie's to taste

Directions:Brown soup meat in olive oil in a large soup pot. Add chopped veggies and cook until wilted. Add corn and tomato paste, blend and cook together for about twenty minutes on medium low heat. Add seasoning to taste. Pour beef stock over entire mixture and cook for at least three hours, the longer you let it cook the better it will taste. Left overs are usually divine! I serve mine with potato salad and crusty buttered french bread.

We Have Power!

Not in some crazy sense, but electricty! After four days and being spared the worst of Hurricane Gustav, we've finally gotten our electricty back on and I'm happy to say we've got minimal damage and a whole lotta leaves, branches and limbs to clean up from our property. Thankfully we were spared from a water surge in our area like we had with Rita and the losses were minimal in comparison. The roads of our parish are filled with power workers from around the state and country getting people back on with electricty and people are slowly going back to work. Our kids don't go back to school until Monday, as a whole lot of people don't have power yet in ours and the surrounding parishes. There are people all along the coast, up in Baton Rouge and along corridor 49 who don't have their power back up yet and it will be a while in coming for them. We are hoping and praying that the rest of hurricane season is mild and uneventful. Thanks to everyone who opened their homes to our family during this time and the offers of safe haven. To everyone who thought about us during this time, your love and prayers are truly appreciated.

Just for Me

I decided to create a little notepad cover to keep on my desk. It made sense to me to put a photo of my favorite guy on it and to also make it pretty. I used Shabby Miss Jenn Design's new collab kit with Annie Manning named "Spiced Apples" to create the cover. I adore how it came out!

Ive Been Dying to Share These!

Shabby Miss Jenn has a super new collaborative kit she created with Annie Manning of Paint the Moon! Its called Spiced Apple and its just simply divine!

My Layouts with "Spiced Apple"

These are the layouts I created with it. I went totally crazy over these and went out and shot some photos of our animals and yard, garden and trees to highlight with it. I love how each one is so very different even though they're all made with the same kit.

The second kit I'm featuring is Shabby Miss Jenn designs "Art Class" kit. Its bright and cheerful, filled with art supply elements and cool papers!

These three layouts make me smile! They're colorful and bright. I love how the photos just pop off of the pages! So much fun to create!

Click on the kit previews to go to the Shabby Miss Jenn Designs shoppe to check them out! Click on each layout to see larger versions and on my gallery link at Shabby Miss Jenn designs on the right blog bar to see full credits and the layouts in the gallery.

So Nice to Have Them Here

Elijah James
Alex Scott
Alex Scott
Elijah James
Naptime was quiet and long today, the Motrin must do a great job of helping the boys to rest well when they're sickly. Alex went to sleep first and that gave me a few minutes with Eli and then Eli was sleeping when Alex woke up and we had time to play together after he ate his bananas and had a bottle. Here's some photos of them both that were shot during their one on one time with me.

Update on Alex and Eli

They had their Motrin this morning around 10 and haven't been cross or feverish at all today. We went to town to pick up school supplies for Lexi who started college today and a few pack n' play cribs for the boy's naptime. Here they are just up from a mid-day nap. Just as happy as two little guys can be! They've been up for twenty minutes just playing with their toys and looking at one another through the side mesh on their cribs. Good times!

Ear Infections and Smiles

You wonder what they have to do with one another ... usually, absolutely nothing ... but our boys are cheerful even though they both have colds and ear infections.

They can't help themselves, they're just jolly little guys! These are two photos taken a few minutes ago when they were playing with their toys on the floor in the den. Alex is on the left, Eli on the right. Have a wonderful day!

SMJ Scraplift Challenge Winners

We have WINNERS!
Our top two winners in the scraplift Ranie's Rest layout Challenge are...
Tammy/tconlon and Michelle/michellerv!
Here are their winning layouts:
Tammy's

Michelle's

The seven runner ups can be viewed here:
Shabby Miss Jenn Challenge Forum

What I did Tuesday Evening

My good friend Gilsey gave me studio privileges and I took him up on it, I'm not used to dealing with lighting and all that jazz, but he helped me with them a bit and we came out with some cute pics of Kali in her two school uniforms. She's one happy girl about going to school and loves dressing up in her uniforms. I also had a photo of her Daddy, Bryon at around the same age, so I made a little blended image of the two of them. Afterward I went over to Davey and Claire's house to watch the boys while they went to a business dinner for Tabasco. The little ones were tired after not sleeping good at the babysitter's house that day and they were a little bit cross. So after feeding them their cereal and carrots for dinner and bathing them, they each had another bottle and went to sleep around 8 PM. I wish I'd have had more play time with them! Have a wonderful day and enjoy the new photos of my favorite people!

PS. Eli is the first photo and Alex is the second.

Two Layouts

I had a productive afternoon scrap session. Click for larger versions. You can find credits in my Shabby Miss Jenn Gallery.

Kali Goes to School

I love the photos Krista took of Kali on her first day of school. She was beaming in them. She was so excited about starting 'big kid' school and it shows on her face. I used all Shabby Miss Jenn designs on this layout. Click on the image to see a larger version and full credits in my SMJ Gallery.

Sunday Alex and Eli spent time with Granny when everyone came over to our house for a big Sunday lunch.