Happy Birthday From Dad and Mom

My parents came to town one evening a week ago, to help celebrate my birthday.  We got some food from Carlos O Kelly's and ate it at our house.  (When you have three little kids, it is much easier to eat at home.  And, more relaxing.  And, I actually get to eat my food.)

Then we had cake.  I requested a homemade chocolate sheet cake.  My Mom makes the BEST chocolate sheet cake in the whole world.  I love it!  And, I love my Mom.  Chocolate sheet cake and a big glass of cold milk... Get in my belly! There just happened to be enough of it leftover that I may have had a piece of it every morning for breakfast for five or six days after my birthday.  YUM!

I had a little bit of help blowing out my three candles.  Three candles, one for each of my kids.  Anything over eighteen and that is just way too many candles.  Thirty-six candles would have taken over that perfectly yummy chocolate sheet cake, or set it on fire, and that would have been tragic.

After eating cake, Sarah told us we needed to do some silly pictures... so here are our silly face pictures.  Some people's faces were more silly than others.  Mom was having a hard time getting into her silly face.  The rest of us had no problems.

Lastly, my gift from Dad and Mom... a new K-State shirt, some Halloween tea towels, and some scrapbook albums and scrapbook page protectors.  

Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun evening and thirty-six years of unconditional love and support.  I love you both so much!

Kansas Barn Sale

One week until the KANSAS BARN SALE...

Plan to spend the day with us on Saturday, October 5th, 2013.

The good times will start at 9:00 am and will continue until 4:00 pm.

There will be antiques, vintage and repurposed goods, furniture, all sorts of handmade goodness, delicious food, live music, pumpkins, and a fantastic FALL atmosphere that you do not want to miss!  Bring your friends. Bring your sister, your mom, your grandma, your husband.  Bring your whole family.

There will be something for EVERYONE!

 My best BS (Barn Sale) friend, Beki and I have been working hard all year to build a bigger and better Kansas Barn Sale!  Boy do I think we have hit a home run this year... Get ready to have your socks rocked on Oct. 5th!  There is a BRAND NEW BARN, almost 90 QUALITY VENDORS, and a LIVE BAND.  We couldn't have done this without the support of some amazing men... Her fully bearded husband, and my cousin, Josh.  And, my handsome-hubster, Eric.

Our vendor list for the 2013 Sale is AMAZING!  We are pleased to have so many quality vendors this Fall.  This is our fourth year for the Kansas Barn Sale and we have been working hard to make sure that it keeps growing and getting better and better each year.  Last year we saw over 2000 shoppers, and this year we anticipate many more.  Word of the Kansas Barn Sale has spread like wildfire..... KANSAS! magazine featured us in their Summer 2013 edition!  And, we are on FOLK magazine's "Live Authentic Tour"... "Visiting the marvelous markets across America."

Below are our 2013 fliers with driving DIRECTIONS from Wichita, KS and Salina, KS.

Please feel free to copy, print, pass out, hang up, and share these fliers and directions.

From WICHITA:

From SALINA:

 

We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Oct. 5th at the Kansas Barn Sale.  We hope you will come enjoy the day with us!

Our Littlest Helper

Both of my girls can be very good helpers, but just recently someone else decided that he too, can be a good helper.... He likes to help unload the dishwasher.  Mostly just the silverware, one piece at a time.  So far, both Sarah and Phoebe are tolerant of him "helping" them with this task, and don't realize that it takes them a little longer to put all the silverware away when he is "helping".

I am hopeful that he will continue to want to be a helper around our house, and as he gets bigger and older, a helper to others around him throughout his life.

No Pacifier Attachment For Kid #3

We gave Silas a pacifier when he was very small.  He took them for awhile.  They helped to quiet and calm him, but when they would fall out of his mouth he was still too little to grab them and get them back into his mouth... so, he became attached to these two fingers.  When he gets sleepy he likes to snuggle with this very soft little tag blanket made by "Minky and Me" and suck on those two fingers.  At night, as soon as he is in his crib he finds this little blanket and those fingers.

He usually does not carry his blanket around the house.  We try to keep it in his crib so that it and the little fingers will be associated with going to bed and to sleep.  But, a couple of times lately he has gone into his bedroom and grabbed it out of his crib and proceeded to walk around the house like this...

Beautiful Summer Blessings

Below are some random pictures that I took this summer... when in that moment, I thought, THAT is beautiful, a beautiful BLESSING.  Thank you God for those "moments" that remind me of all the things that YOU made and created for us to enjoy and make life that much sweeter.

"This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

"With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

"He leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul" Psalm 23:2,3

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Corinthians 9:15

"I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:6

"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ...nothing shall be impossible unto you." Matthew 17:20

"We thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations." Psalm 79:13

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

"Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." 1 John 4:4

"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15

Our Family At Menards

Lowe's, Home Depot, True Value, and Menard's... These are just some of Eric's favorite places to "shop".  I do not enjoy these places as much as he does.  Okay, the truth is a lot of times I will wait in the car with the kids while he goes into these stores.  If I do go in, I look at items like decorative garden flags, lamps, home organizing items, magazines at the check out stand, and beyond that I start to get pretty bored and impatient... except at Menard's.  Menard's is the most family friendly store on Eric's list of favorite stores.  There are things there that men, women and children would enjoy looking at and shopping for, plus they have a few of these fun cars attached to their shopping carts that small children like to ride in and pretend to race around in all over the store.  This was Silas's first time to get to ride in one of these car carts and he clearly loved it!  (Notice Eric in the background.  He is very intently studying the lawnmowers and deciding whether or not this is "the one" we should buy.) 

So, while Eric looked at the lawnmowers (for about thirty minutes) the kids and I entertained ourselves with this yellow car cart.  We had already walked around the store and looked at all of the normal things we like to look at that day...  

When Silas had enough of the yellow car cart, and in an attempt to speed things up a bit, he decided to help Daddy out with checking out the lawnmowers.  I am pretty sure he had some good suggestions about this model and drooled all over it while making the suggestions.

 

Finally when the decision was made to buy "the one", I was relieved and we were ALL ready to check out, so we loaded back into the yellow car cart and headed to the front of the store... in a fashionable little Hendrickson parade... three kids, a yellow car cart, two adults, and a new mower.