Game Day Goodness!

Unbelievable that it's already been TWO WEEKS since by beloved Aggies ran out of time against our new SEC rival Alabama.  September has absolutely flown by this year!  Luckily, there are still 8 games left this season and hey - 'Bama still won a national championship last year with a loss.

WHOOP!!

Football and tailgating go hand-in-hand around here, so I thought I would share some game day goodness with you just in time for Saturday's game!

The. Best. Banana Pudding. Ever.

2 small packages instant vanilla pudding mix

1 1/2 C milk

1 can sweetened, condensed milk

8 oz. sour cram

8 oz. whipped cream (I like to use the real thing but the freezer stuff works great too)

2 tsp. vanilla

6 bananas, sliced

1/2 box Nilla Wafers (I'm a brand snob here and prefer the minis too!)

In a large bowl, dissolve pudding mix in milk.  Stir in condensed milk and vanilla until smooth.  Fold in sour cream and whipped cream, then bananas.  Cover the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan with a layer of Nilla wafers.  Spread pudding over wafers.  Top with any leftover (what?!) whipped cream and some crushed cookies.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving.  Alternately, layer cookies and pudding mixture in a large trifle dish or other glass bowl.

Sheep helped me put this together and she got fancy with the cookies around the side!  This is actually a great recipe for getting in the kitchen with kids because there's no stove or oven involved!

My Aggies will be at it again this Saturday, this time in Fayetteville, Arkansas for the Southwest Classic!  So happy game day y'all and BTHO Arkansas!!

 

 Sharing this sassy sweet at some or all of these great parties: Under the Table and Dreaming, Totally Overflowing with Creativity, Three Mango Seeds, Classy Cutter, Serenity You, House of Hepworth, Skip to my Lou, LadyBug Blessings, Nap Time Creations, The Style Sisters, Polkadots on Pararde, Rae Gun Ramblings,Costal Charm, Not Just a Housewife, Domestically Speaking, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Sumos Sweet Stuff, The Gunny Sack, Gingersnap Crafts, Southern Lovely, Lil Luna, Someday Crafts, The NY Melrose Family, The DIY Dreamer, The Blackberry Vine, Homeworks, The Rustic Pig, Cornerstone Confessions, Kathe with an E, House on the Way, PJH Desgin, Glued to my Crafts, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Seven Alive, Made in a Day, Live Laugh and Love, A Creative Place, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson, Home and Gardens, It Happens In a Blink, I Gotta Create, Domestic Super Hero, All Pretty Things, Katie's Nesting Spot, 52 Mantels, Truly Lovely, Twinkle in the Eye, Happy Hour Projects, Six Sisters Stuff, Tutus and Tea Parties, Mop It Up Monday, Saturday Show and Tell, Moonlight and Mason Jars, The Scoop, Wow Us Wednesdays, Take-A-Look Tuesday

Fun Family Photo Idea!



 

OMG!!  I am so excited to finally share my awesome family photo idea with you!

 

We took these FAMILY TEAM JERSEY photos last fall to use on our Christmas cards, but I didn't want to blog about it until after the Christmas so I wouldn't ruin the surprise for those of you on my list, and then it seemed out of season.  Ugh!  Needless to say, I've been sitting on these babies FOR-EVAH it seems!

 

 

And it's been really hard to wait because they came out even better than I had imagined!  Don't 'cha just love it when an idea works out!

 

 

It's funny - I don't even remember what gave me the idea for the jerseys now, but I know that KerryAnne at Kablam Promotions gave me an great price on the 'Team Rollins' jerseys and gets high marks for friendly, fast customer service as well!

 

 

And with so many kids to keep up with, who couldn't use a number system for them anyway?!

 

 

"Hey!  One!  Can you take 4 and go get diapers for 5 while I start dinner?"

 

Or how about?

Me:  Hi honey!  How was your day?

Speed:  Pretty good.  Where is everyone?

Me:  1 and 2 are working until 6.  3 needs you to call him about his car. 4 is at a friend's until supper and 5 is still napping.

 

See how easy that is!

We've actually started making them where their jerseys all the time now - ha!

 

 

Now you know that there was a collective groan from the varsity squad (especially the boys) when I told them that we going to be wearing matching shirts for our Christmas cards.  But when picture day arrived, they were pleasantly surprised by the 'lack of dorkiness'.  So there!  Sometimes mama does know what she's doin'!

 

 

And Captured by Nicole did an awesome job on the photos too!  If you're in my neck of the woods and are looking for a great photographer - Nicole is your gal!

 

 

I mean seriously!  Could they get any cuter?  And she did such a great job capturing the relationships between them.

 

 

Such sweet siblings, I could not have wished for more for our 'blended' family.  Though after more than a decade together, it seems like it's always been this way now.  I love it!

 

 

In keeping with my football theme, we took pictures beneath the high school stadium as well.

 

 

We were trying hard to get a picture where you could easily read the 2012 on mine and Speed's jerseys - that's the year BTW.  Just sayin' cause a few of our Christmas card recipients 'didn't get it'.  Sometimes I am too clever for my own good I guess!

 

I love that Snacks is doing his own thing in this one!  That's #5 for ya!

 

 

We ended up with this one at the center of our Christmas Card collage.

 

 

But there were so many good ones, it was almost impossible to decide!  So, if you're thinking about Christmas cards (I know I am already) or just something fun to do for family photos this fall - here's a great idea!

  

Sharing this sassy story at some or all of these great parties: Under the Table and Dreaming, Totally Overflowing with Creativity, Three Mango Seeds, Classy Cutter, Serenity You, House of Hepworth, Skip to my Lou, LadyBug Blessings, Nap Time Creations, The Style Sisters, Polkadots on Pararde, Rae Gun Ramblings,Costal Charm, Not Just a Housewife, Domestically Speaking, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Sumos Sweet Stuff, The Gunny Sack, Gingersnap Crafts, Southern Lovely, Lil Luna, Someday Crafts, The NY Melrose Family, The DIY Dreamer, The Blackberry Vine, Homeworks, The Rustic Pig, Cornerstone Confessions, Kathe with an E, House on the Way, PJH Desgin, Glued to my Crafts, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Seven Alive, Made in a Day, Live Laugh and Love, A Creative Place, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson, Home and Gardens, It Happens In a Blink, I Gotta Create, Domestic Super Hero, All Pretty Things, Katie's Nesting Spot, 52 Mantels, Truly Lovely, Twinkle in the Eye, Happy Hour Projects, Six Sisters Stuff, Tutus and Tea Parties, Mop It Up Monday, Saturday Show and Tell, Moonlight and Mason Jars, The Scoop, Wow Us Wednesdays, Take-A-Look Tuesday 

Grrreat Teacher Gift Idea!

I know we're midway through our second week of school around here, but meet-the-teacher was just last night and the truth is, teachers appreciate a thank you anytime of year, not just on the first day!

I came across these cute little panda staplers after Christmas and thought they would make a sweet sussie for Sheep's teachers this year.  And though we didn't manage to get our package together on the first day, they have gotten them by now!

This was a quick and easy idea I put together using Chinese takeout boxes that I had leftover from another event.  I made all the stickers using only the free clipart on Microsoft, Powerpoint and my 2" punch!  

Then I stuffed in a few fortune cookies from my local Asian restaurant (Yum) and some red tissue paper to tie it all together.  I had also thought about adding a gift card to the restaurant as well, but decided it was enough.

Sheep and I worked on  clever little card to attach with some ribbon and voila!

Teacher gifts?  Check!

Happy Back-to-School Y'all!

 

P.S.   I haven't loaded these labels as a free printable yet because I made them very quickly and the printable would be pretty rough, but if you're interested in them, leave me a comment and I can get them to you!

Sharing this sassy sussie at some or all of these great parties: Under the Table and Dreaming, Totally Overflowing with Creativity, Three Mango Seeds, Classy Cutter, Serenity You, House of Hepworth, Skip to my Lou, LadyBug Blessings, Nap Time Creations, The Style Sisters, Polkadots on Pararde, Rae Gun Ramblings,Costal Charm, Not Just a Housewife, Domestically Speaking, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Sumos Sweet Stuff, The Gunny Sack, Gingersnap Crafts, Southern Lovely, Lil Luna, Someday Crafts, The NY Melrose Family, The DIY Dreamer, The Blackberry Vine, Homeworks, The Rustic Pig, Cornerstone Confessions, Kathe with an E, House on the Way, PJH Desgin, Glued to my Crafts, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Seven Alive, Made in a Day, Live Laugh and Love, A Creative Place, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson, Home and Gardens, It Happens In a Blink, I Gotta Create, Domestic Super Hero, All Pretty Things, Katie's Nesting Spot, 52 Mantels, Truly Lovely, Twinkle in the Eye, Happy Hour Projects, Six Sisters Stuff, Tutus and Tea Parties, Mop It Up Monday, Saturday Show and Tell, Moonlight and Mason Jars, The Scoop, Wow Us Wednesdays, Take-A-Look Tuesday

New (School) Year's Resolutions 2013

It's hard to believe, but we've already been 'back-to-school' for two weeks!  And while I should (at least theoretically, right?) be getting TONS of stuff done now that I have an uninterrupted block of time each day, I already feel like I am falling behind.

 

 

Ugh!

Fall is such a fun/busy time of year for us, as I'm sure it is for everyone with school-aged kiddos.  But those weeks leading up to class are always a time of reflection and preparation for me.  So last year I decided to take some time to write down a few of my New (School) Year's Resolutions to make me more accountable and help keep me on track.  Like most resolutions though, I found myself having to look back at my post to even remember what they were.  {Sigh.}

Well, I nailed 1 and 5 - not a single tardy in 2nd grade and I did NOT sign up for any more volunteer activities - so there!  I was at least averaging 50% on 2, 3 and 6, so there's definitely some room for improvement - but at least I was moving in the right direction.

Sadly, 4 and 7 were total fails last year.  And of course in retrospect they do seem to be the most important (after the tardies - ha!).  Physical and spiritual well being for myself and my family deserve to be a priority, so consistent prayer and exercise will be returning to the list this year.  Hopefully I can build on my success from last year and move closer to the balanced life I, really we, are all striving for as moms.

So hear goes:

1.  I will exercise at least three of the 4 days each week that both littles are out of the house.  Exercise will resume its place of prominence in my life.  It is good for me and for everyone around me.  Like they say, 'When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!'  To that end, I did carve out some time to reintroduce myself to our gym (ugh) today.  We'll probably never be BFFs, but at least we're back on track for a working relationship this school year!

2.  More than a blessing at breakfast continues to be hard for us, but it shouldn't mean that I don't spend some time with the Lord in the morning, even if (and perhaps better if) it's by myself.  I have been shopping posts about prayer journals recently and I think that's the way to go for me.  Since coming to this conclusion, almost every day I have been faced with a situation that I can do nothing about  . . . other than pray.  Such a humbling reminder of God's grace and the power of prayer.  I bought a notebook on Sunday.  It turned out to be a planner rather than a journal, but I will not be deterred so I am grabbing an old journal and getting started.  Who knows, I could be praying for you by the end of the (school) year!

3.  I will devote more time to sewing for my daughter while she still appreciates it.  I have more patterns and fabric than I could possibly ever use and will need grandchildren for some of them now (too many, maybe next years I'm afraid), but sewing has always been a pleasure of mine and I want to do it while I can.  And so I will.

4.  I will do more to prep for my volunteer activities and my evening meals in advance.  Enough said.

I would like to add something related to my bloggy life, like I will commit to two blog posts each week, but my heart is telling me that blogging may not top the list this year.  So, despite wanting to grow my readership, jazz up my layout and otherwise become a bloggess extraordinaire ( I mean who doesn't want that title?!), blogging may have to remain my musings for a while longer because I am 'busy' enough.  A friend of mine shared with me the definition of BUSY - have you heard it before?  BUSY stands for Being Under Satan's Yoke - that's pretty powerful stuff and something to think about this year.

I hope everyone has a great back-to school!  Slow down in those school zones and try not to get too busy!

Sharing this sassy story at some or all of these great parties: Under the Table and Dreaming, Totally Overflowing with Creativity, Three Mango Seeds, Classy Cutter, Serenity You, House of Hepworth, Skip to my Lou, LadyBug Blessings, Nap Time Creations, The Style Sisters, Polkadots on Pararde, Rae Gun Ramblings,Costal Charm, Not Just a Housewife, Domestically Speaking, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Sumos Sweet Stuff, The Gunny Sack, Gingersnap Crafts, Southern Lovely, Lil Luna, Someday Crafts, The NY Melrose Family, The DIY Dreamer, The Blackberry Vine, Homeworks, The Rustic Pig, Cornerstone Confessions, Kathe with an E, House on the Way, PJH Desgin, Glued to my Crafts, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Seven Alive, Made in a Day, Live Laugh and Love, A Creative Place, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson, Home and Gardens, It Happens In a Blink, I Gotta Create, Domestic Super Hero, All Pretty Things, Katie's Nesting Spot, 52 Mantels, Truly Lovely, Twinkle in the Eye, Happy Hour Projects, Six Sisters Stuff, Tutus and Tea Parties, Mop It Up Monday, Saturday Show and Tell, Moonlight and Mason Jars, The Scoop, Wow Us Wednesdays, Take-A-Look Tuesday