{Thanksgiving}.

What an odd Thanksgiving we had this year.  We started out with 4 extra families that were going to join us and one week before 2 of the families said that depending on how their road trip goes they may or may not be coming (they were 2 of my cousins and their kids).  Then, the day before Thanksgiving a 3rd family informed us their kids were at the doctor and wouldn't be making it.  So, plans changed and on Thanksgiving morning I was left home to cook all by myself while all other adults in the house took a Thanksgiving meal to the family with all the sickies.  After sweating to death in my kitchen I really could have cared less to eat at that moment but did anyway cause it's tradition, right?  The meal was quick, no sitting around the table conversing or anything like that.  It was a wham, bam, thank you mam, type of meal.  

About 15 minutes after we ate, it was decided that it was a good time to swim and sit in the hot tub;)  Not a traditional day, but it worked and I was thankful for leftovers and the 1 family that did come:)

I made it all by {myself}.

I had an Essential Oils class at my house on Friday evening and for the soiree I decided to make the goodies for the goody bags myself!  I decided to do two homemade essential oil infused body products.

First up was a homemade body bar.  In it I used cosmetic grade filtered beeswax (not the Hobby Lobby crap, this was the nice shiz!), cocoa butter, shea butter, vitamin E oil and EO. 

You have to get yourself a cheap metal box grater for the beeswax, I bought mine at Wal-Mart for less than $3.  But here is the beeswax melting down in a double boiler.  As it nears the end of melting you throw in your butters since those melt super quick, then you take it all off the heat and stir in your Vitamin E oil and EO. 

I used a silicon brownie bite mold.  I cleaned up the sides of where the liquid overflowed and just added the scraps to another square.  Don't want to waste anything! 

Setting up nicely:) 

And the body bars crowning glory, I infused them with pure therapeutic grade Peppermint EO.  These bars looked and smelled like a peppermint white chocolate bite, but don't be fooled cause these are lotion! 

I then moved onto the  lip balms.  The process is the exact same as the body bars minus the butters, I used virgin cold pressed organic coconut oil instead:)   

Isn't my contraption neat??  Depending on the types of lip balm tubes you buy, they have these nifty trays your empty balm tubes snap into for easier filling.  Awesome purchase!

My lip balms for everyone were infused with pure therapeutic grade Lime EO to make them a lime-coconut flavor.  YUM!   

This is how I packaged them up, I think they came out adorable:)  I'm getting rave reviews on my body bars so guess what teachers are getting this year??

{Halloween}.

Every year my church has a big Fall Party/Trunk or Treat extravaganza.  Of course my kids look forward to being able to wear their costumes more than just once so we go:)

G chose to be a blue Angry Bird this year (surprised??).  Here he is enjoying the hay ride:)

Little R chose to be Strawberry Shortcake, it was a little chilly so we had to fashion a jacket, but that's way better than the full snow suit we had G in one Halloween when we lived in Minnesota:)  She's playing the fishing game, she just pulled her prize over:) 

Baby R's turn to go fish:)  She chose to be a "boing boing bunny" in her words.  She about freaked out at the costume store when she saw this Littlest Pet Shop bunny, she loved it and wouldn't take it off the entire day that we bought it:) 

Throwing glow necklaces over witches hats for a prize.  My girls didn't grasp that they had to stay behind the line to throw but this is a church function, kids are allowed to break the rules right? 

Now I know what some of you are thinking, "Heather??  Do you have a fever??  You allowed your girls to eat those nasty, chemical, sugar, preservative filled donuts??".  Sadly, yes:(  The girls saw all the other kids laughing trying to eat their donuts off strings and it just sort of happened.  I won't lie, I kept wishing their donuts would break and fall to the ground so I'd have an excuse to pick them up and throw them away.   

And a couple days later it was Halloween night and it was time to go trick or treating!  Here are all my munchkins right before we left:)  Now for those who may be new to reading my blog, I do allow my kids to trick or treat, however, they are not allowed to eat their candy because the Candy Witch steals their candy and leaves them a present instead.  We have a whole story down on what the Witch does w/all the candy so if you ever want the run down let me know, it's actually quite fabulous!

Hope all your ghosts and goblins had a great holiday as well!! 

Costume {dance}.

The week of Halloween my girls got to wear their costumes to dance class.

Here is Baby R's class:)  I felt horrible because I was in such a rush to get out of the house that I forgot to bring her costume!!  THANK GOODNESS this is a dance studio that has costumes galore from past recitals!  Miss Jessica, (Baby R's teacher) found her an adorable tutu w/matching fairy wings, and Baby R loved it! 

I love this little bugger so dang much it hurts!  Look at that smile! 

Little R's class:)  She is in the back dressed like Strawberry Shortcake.  They didn't invite the parents in to take pics so I had to take it from the viewing room in the mirror, it worked though:)

{Fall}.

Happy Fall Ya'll!!

{DWTG}.

Dancing With The G!

G's school had it's annual Mom and Son dance, it was themed as "Hollywood Chic" and the boys all had the option of ordering these adorable "suit" T's:)

Here we are, getting ready to leave for the dance:) 

My G looking dashing in his "suit":) 

G got in on the conga line, it was so fun to see him wanting to be part of the group:)  He's the one w/the only blue glowing necklace if you can't pick him out of the lineup. 

Group pic!!!

A little of his mad dancing skills:)

And finally, our professional photo from the night:)  I seriously hadn't had that much fun in a LONNNGGG time!  It was fun to just dance again and especially w/G.  G was a dancing machine!  Every time I asked him if he was getting too hot or needed a drink he'd say, "NO!  I don't want to miss this song".  I love having a boy to be able to do things like this at school:)

Thanks for a wonderful evening G!

He's a {Bear}.

G is moving up ranks in his Scouting:)  This past Pack Meeting our entire family went to support G in his passing over to a Bear ceremony.

This particular ceremony is always held out on a gorgeous ranch where there is nothing but acres upon acres of rolling Texas land.  Here is Baby R playing in the ceremonial tee pee before we got started:)

Little R with Cheryl, the horse's owner (his name is Night).  Depending on which rank you took this evening they have the boys ride these horses while an Indian goes through some ancient wisdom with the boys.  G isn't to the rank yet that gets to ride the horses this night though.

G, with the paper airplane he made waiting for the ceremony to start:)  By the looks of all these boys, they are all a little bored and ready to get on with the show;)

G getting his face painted in the liking's of a Bear.  The Scoutmaster was reading a story of what each marking on his face represented. 

It's official, my boy is no longer a Wolf but a Bear!  Good job G!!! 

Here he is posing w/his ceremonial makeup:)  He wanted to wear it to school the next day but unfortunately, the boring parents we are told him he had to go take a shower to wash it off.  I did feel a little guilty because he did express he "wanted all the kids to think I look cool".  G, you don't need face paint for the kids to think you look cool:)  

The Indian once again giving his words of ancient wisdom to the boys. 

During the ceremony, it was interesting, an owl flew in and perched itself on top of the home we were at and just watched the entire time, not making a noise.  He was quite fun to watch:)

Again, congrats to you G!  We are so proud of what you have been able to accomplish in the Scouting program!!  Keep it up buddy!!

Our little {weirdo}.

The things we catch our 3yo doing are so funny!  

Mr.D and I were having a conversation when I looked over and this little one was walking around with her siblings shoes on all fours.  She had figured out how to get all the shoes on by herself and was trying to walk like a bear.  Mr. D and I couldn't help but just shake our heads and laugh.  Never a dull moment with Baby R around!