Bring on the fleece

I'm not sure my children are going to survive the bitter fall  of Southeast Alabama. It dipped below 70 this week and they were frozen. They certainly won't make it through the winter. Happy weekend!

An Attempt at Camping

We inherited a projector from my mom a couple of months ago. As soon as she gave it to us, I thought it would be so fun to have an outdoor movie. We've also been itching to try a little camping. So we started small, in our own backyard, this past Friday night. The five of us went to Wal-Mart around 5:00 and filled our cart with head lamps, tarps, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate bars, lighters, a white sheet, a fire pit and a movie. While Steven got to work setting up the outdoor theater, I whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. After dinner, we started a fire, enjoyed a little fall film, and finished off with s'mores.

Elle and Grady wanted to try to camp out so we set up the little tent for them. We put Reese to bed inside and Steven and I sat by the fire pit while Elle read stories for them in the tent by the light of their head lamps. They lasted until about 9:30, then we let them sit with us by the fire for a bit, and took them inside. They were pretty happy to see their own warm, cozy beds:).

Saturday morning, we decided to take a day trip down to Gap Lake. We packed food for a camp fire lunch, the tent, some chairs and toilet paper. I went skiing a few times on this lake in high school, so it had been, let's just say "a lot of", years since I'd been. It was more beautiful than I remembered.

Steven cleared out around the fire pit, got a fire roaring and cooked us lunch. About a month ago, we went out to some friends' farm land on a Friday night to hang out. There were several couples and lots of children. Our host forgot to bring the tools to cook the hot dogs over the fire, so he improvised and used the rake. Steven was apparently very impressed by this method, because he chose to copy it on Saturday. These delicacies are affectionately known as "rake dogs".

After lunch, we hiked and explored. Notice how wet Grady's pants are already.

We came back from our hike and the boys rested in the tent. I tried to lull them to sleep by reading aloud, but was unsuccessful. Then, Steven decided to let them wade in the water. Or in Reese's case, go right on in with his boots. Needless to say, all three pairs of pants were wet by the end of the excursion. Mommy failed to pack a change of clothes, so they all rode home in their tshirts and underwear:).

It was, by far, one of the most fun weekends we've had. We've already had another movie night and plan to keep our outdoor theater set up for awhile. And maybe we can get up the courage to try to stay in our tents all night somewhere other than our backyard!

We had company

This sweet little face was with us for a couple of days. She belongs to Steven's sister and husband and she has the biggest and brightest smile. It's been a long time since we've had a baby in the house and it was fun for everyone! She just turned 9 months old and was crawling and pulling up like a champ. {Check out that toe point!}

During 95% of her waking hours, she had at least two, if not three, faces in hers constantly, making sounds, calling her name, playing peek-a-boo. She was precious and smiled and laughed and never got upset with her overly-excited cousins. Her parents were just as gracious.

It's funny how I still thought of Reese as my "baby" but he was huge in comparison to Andi. I helped her drink her bottle one time and remembered how sweet it was to have one in your lap, snuggling, filling up that tummy with good milk. I think Reese would have made a great big brother too:).

I had high hopes of a family trip to a local pumpkin patch, but the weather did not cooperate with my plans. So instead, we treated Andi to her first ever experience at a mall food court. We like to treat our out of town family in style. They left us for their home this morning and five minutes after they pulled out, Grady said, "I miss Andi already." We are excited that we'll get to see them again in a couple months for Christmas at Callaway Gardens. Thanks so much for making the trip Aunt Rhonda, Uncle Luke and Andi! We loved every minute!

Mostly about Food

Most weeks when I get ready to go to the grocery store, I ask the members of my family if they have any requests or ideas for meals for the coming week. I usually get the following responses:

Elle: "Breakfast casserole!"

Grady: "Corn dogs!"

Reese: He'll just repeat whatever Elle and Grady say.

Steven: "Cheese."

And those are the same responses I get every week. You can imagine there could be opportunity for frustration when you have had breakfast casserole, corn dogs, and cheese for several weeks, not to mention the strain on our digestive systems if that was all we ate. So when our meals get a little stagnant, I like to get crazy, pull out a cookbook, pick several new recipes from it and not consult my family at all:). Last week was "Paula Deen" week. Here were a few of my choices:

Sausage Balls {Mine were a little on the giant side, but that didn't deter Elle!}

Oven Fried Chicken {Very delicious and the kids loved it.}

Piggy Pudding {How could you not be excited about trying something with a name like this?}

Spinach & Artichoke Dip {Steven's personal favorite}

I do love having our cookbook weeks. It helps break up the monotony and encourages us all to try new and different foods. And speaking of food, yesterday was the annual Phillips' family reunion. Steven and I decided that people should try to crash family reunions instead of weddings. We think reunions would be easier to blend in to because nobody knows who anybody is anyway:). What's a couple more strangers? We did have a good time, ate some delicious food and saw most of my Dad's immediate family. The kids got to play outside and it was a beautiful day. We met at the church where my grandfather is buried. I had not been back to his grave site in at least 15 years. I couldn't believe it's been 20 years since he passed away from lung cancer. I was glad to be there and for Steven and the kids to see it as well. That beautiful lady in the pink is my grandmother, who will celebrate 88 years in a couple of weeks!

These pictures have nothing to do with food. The kids found this caterpillar earlier in the week and were so excited about it. They requested pictures of their little friend.

Can I have a "Thankful Tuesday"?

I'm thankful today turned out the way it did. Grady has had a cold for a few days. But last night, he didn't sleep well and we were up a couple of times. By the morning, he was extremely short of breath. His heart was racing and he was wheezing some. I called the pediatrician's office and they were able to see him at 9:30. They gave him a nebulizer treatment and Grady said as soon as it was over, "Man, I feel so much better!". The doctor wanted him to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia {and that if it was pneumonia, they would admit him!}. Steven brought him home from the appointment and I took him to the hospital to have the x-ray. That sweet little boy was a trooper. He did everything the tech asked him to do and didn't move a muscle. He was so excited about "getting a picture of his bones". We were able to get a dose of antibiotic and steroid in him by lunch and he took a nap. The nurse called in the afternoon and said he did have some "infiltrate" in his left lung, but that the steroid and antibiotic, along with an inhaler every 4 hours, would hopefully treat it and get him well. No hospital! He is already feeling much better. Still coughing, but not struggling for breath.

In other health news, my aunt has her last chemo treatment on Thursday. It's been about 7 months since she was diagnosed with breast cancer and I have lost count as to how many chemo treatments she's had in that time. But I do know it's been a lot. I can only imagine how excited she is to be finished with this phase of treatment. She'll have surgery with in the month. All of my mom's sisters have played significant roles at different times in my life over the years. She helped me through some monumental stages when I was a teenager. For instance, she used to buy tampons for me and leave them on my back porch because I lived with my dad and brother and when you are 15, it's just too hard to add that to the grocery list. She saved me multiple times from having to throw tampons in the cart when I thought my dad wasn't looking and then go read magazines while he checked out, although that might have happened a time or two.... Anyway, I'm thankful to have been in Dothan and close to her for this time and to be able to see her as much as I have. She's been a trooper too and her positive attitude has been an encouragement to me.