Whirlwind!

This weekend flew by too quick. Between prayers for our new niece Maddie and visits to the hospital, we had Emily's first soccer game of the season on Saturday morning...

Emily went to the fair with her Nana and PawPaw Saturday afternoon...and then U of H played Texas Tech...so I watched the first part of that game in a hospital room FULL of raider fans!! The coogs WRECKED TECH so woo hoo!!
Eat 'em up coogs!!

On Sunday, Emily's soccer buddy and neighbor, Emma, invited her over to her house to play...so Jarrod and I took full advantage of that and went to the mall with Alli. Jarrod found two new pairs of dress shoes (he had worn the soles out of his others) and I found several cute tops at Old Navy for like $5-6 each! My sister-in-law and I have similar taste, because yesterday up at the hospital, she was showing us her new clothes and we had picked several of the same shirts...just different colors. Maddie has been making good progress each day so we are all so thankful for that! She is SO beautiful and SO loved!! How sweet is this girl?!?!Jarrod and I cannot WAIT to get our chance to hold this little angel!

We have a niece!

September continues to be the month for birthdays! Luke and Kathryn welcomed their sweet angel, Madelyn Kate Bilberry into the world yesterday at 8:00 a.m. by c-section. She measured 6lbs 11oz and 19 inches long and she is SO beautiful! We all love this little girl SO much already! She has been in the Special Care Nursery since she was born because she is working harder than her doctor would like to breathe...so they have her under a little hood that gives her oxygen for now. She came off the oxygen last night...long enough for Kat and Luke to get to hold her, but then started working too hard again this morning, so she is back under the hood. We all prayed all day that her mommy and daddy would get to hold her, so that was HUGE!!!! We all know that she is in good hands in the nursery, but she needs to be in her mommy and daddy's arms...so please say a prayer for Maddie to get better!!! And after you do that, check out these sweet pics:

Our sweet niece Maddie

Em and her Uncle Luke checking her out

September 24th Birthday Buddies!

My favorite time of the year

With the cold front that blew in today and the temperature in the 60s with wind, I am getting SOOO excited! Cold weather is my favorite because it means my favorite time of the year...deer season! Last year was not really a serious hunting year for me...I had Alli in September so on the trip when we went without kiddos, I was a slacker and took advantage of sleeping in a little longer than normal without disturbances. I also slacked a bit because I killed this deer in 2007 after basically hunting for him most of the gun season and missing him once before at like 40 yards...yes I know, stupid! But it was getting dark and he was moving, and I like my shot to be a perfectly still deer that is broad-side.


The hunting shows are starting to come on again with new episodes, and although I am not near as enthralled by them as my hubby is, they do kind of get me excited...and did I mention this awesome weather!! Hopefully this season will be great with plenty of rain so far and protein in some of our feeders...so I am super excited for our weekend trip in a couple of weeks! Are there any other female deer hunters out there? Do you gals bow-hunt? Jarrod wants me to bow hunt so bad but I just am not into it. Maybe some day.

Busy Weekend

OK, so I'm on a roll...2 blog entries in 2 days. We'll see how long this lasts! Ha! We had a really busy weekend with Emily's birthday party, a going away party for Jarrod with some of his favorite people from TK Gorman, soccer practice and we were also supposed to have a soccer game on Saturday morning but the fields were too wet...which was a bit of a relief. I swear, I am so bad...I enroll my kid in sports and then I am super excited when the games are canceled...what is wrong with this picture!

We did Emily's 5th birthday party at Double Dave's this year and the kids got to make their own pizzas. It was a HUGE hit! All the kids had a BLAST playing games and making their pizza. I think we have had one of her birthday parties pretty much everywhere in Tyler now, so next year should be a challenge. Maybe next year I might finally be prepared for a small slumber party. Did I really just say that??? I still cannot believe my sweet baby girl is about to be 5-years old. She is such a smart, sweet, funny little girl that keeps her mommy and daddy on their toes...constantly! She is going to get a pretty cool gift for her birthday this year...a baby cousin! We are SO excited to meet Madelyn Kate Bilberry on Thursday morning!

Emily's Hello Kitty cake that I made for her...it turned out WAY bigger than I thought. Jarrod seemed to think that Hello Kitty looked more like Stuart Little...
I guess he has a point...what do y'all think??

Making her pizza

Our crazy girlie

Saturday night, some parents from Gorman threw Jarrod a going away party and it was so much fun. Jarrod spent 7 years at TK Gorman and it was a very tough decision to leave such a wonderful environment. The people there are awesome and we miss them a ton, but we plan to keep in touch. It's so neat to see what a huge impact my awesome hubby has had on so many lives. I can't tell you how many people thanked him for everything he did for their sons or daughters...one mom actually got teared up talking to me about what a huge influence he had on her son's life so far. It makes me very proud to be married to such a great guy! He is loving his new job at Whitehouse High School so far, and we are looking forward to getting to know all the people out there as the year goes on.

On Sunday we had soccer practice and Jarrod took Emmy. Alli and I decided to stop by and check things out too and she had so much fun walking around in the grass with all the big girls. This little girl cracks us up!


She is getting so big...in fact, we got to turn her car seat around so she faces forward now since she is a year old and 20 lbs. She is really enjoying getting to see everything!

"Hello world!"

Alli had had 12-month check-up this afternoon and she is tall and skinny like her sissy. I am not really sure how that happened because the child is like a human garbage disposal. I mean really, we have to just stop feeding her because we get tired of sitting there. She could literally sit there and eat for hours I think! She likes pretty much anything, but can eat a whole banana in like 15 seconds...I am not kidding! She is in the 98th percentile for length and 51st percentile for weight...and her head circumference was off the chart as well so that's supposed to mean she's smart :) She got 4 shots, but did great. She got over it pretty quick and just seems really tired tonight. And there she is...crying in her crib. On that note, everyone have a great evening and good rest of the week!

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

In trying to be a better blogger, I needed to do a quick update today so I decided to share a recipe I really like. Every Friday, Kelly's Korner has a different "Show us your life" theme and this week it's dinner recipes. Although I don't know Kelly, I started reading her blog when her baby girl, Harper, was born and was in the NICU and I have been hooked ever since. I finally decided to join in and contribute something. This is a recipe that a friend made for us after Allison was born and I just LOVE it. I am probably going to make it this week and freeze it for my sister-in-law because she is having a c-section on Thursday and welcoming my first niece into the world! We can't wait to meet you Madelyn! Hope y'all enjoy the recipe!

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

2 (6.2 oz.) pkg. fast cooking long grain and wild rice mix
1/4 c. butter or margarine
2 medium onions, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
2 (8 oz.) cans sliced water chestnuts, drained
5 c. chopped cooked chicken
4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 (16 oz.) container sour cream
1 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. soft breadcrumbs

Prepare rice mix according to package directions; set aside. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onions, celery, and water chestnuts. Sauté 10 minutes or until tender. Stir in rice, chicken, 3 cups of cheese, soup, and next 4 ingredients. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 15x10 inch baking dish or a 4-quart casserole. Top casserole evenly with breadcrumbs. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Lately....

I know, I know...I am a total blog slacker. As many of you know, I am rarely ever at a loss for words, but I will sit here and open up my blog window and think "what in the world can I write about that anyone would care about reading". The past month has been SO busy and I always think "I should blog about this or that" and then I get home, get on Facebook and waste the night away.

OK, so let's start at the beginning...On September 1, after 7 years at TK Gorman High School, Jarrod started a new job as Assistant Principal at Whitehouse High School. Although we miss the people at Gorman, so far he absolutely loves it at Whitehouse. We went on a little road trip with Emily to one of their football games in Sulphur Springs and even stopped to eat at my favorite place along the way...Cracker Barrel.


Almost forgot, the weekend before Jarrod started the new job, several of us gave my sister-in-law a baby shower and this is the cake I made for it.


On Labor Day I got something I had been wanting for a really long time, and it's something Jarrod really enjoys as well...a new digital SLR camera. We got the Canon Rebel T1i and absolutely LOVE it!
I know absolutely nothing about photography but I really want to learn and understand it...but this camera takes the best pictures, even in "dummy mode" as I call it. Jarrod spotted this little tree frog by our garage door one night and I decided to test out the new camera on him. After some cropping (thanks to 15.1 megapixels) and a little color enhancement, voila...


On September 11, Emily had her first slumber party with 2 sweet friends from school, Emma and Lorelai and they had a blast! It was Emma's birthday party and her mom told me the girls stopped giggling at midnight and then they were up giggling again at 6 a.m. They got to sleep in a tent in the living room so they had a blast! When I picked Emily up, we had to go to Wal-Mart to get groceries and she actually fell asleep riding in the buggy. Everyone that passed us was cracking up at her.


On September 13th, we celebrated Allison's first birthday with cake, ice cream and presents. This is the cake I made for Alli's birthday and Alli once she was done with it. She is such an awesome little girl...I just can't believe it's been a whole year since she was born! We are so blessed to have two wonderful little girlies!


I currently have two more cakes in the oven for Emily's birthday party. After this, my cake decorating supplies are going away for a little while. Jarrod just LOVES the messes that I make in our small kitchen when I decorate cakes. I will admit, clean up is definitely not the fun part of cake decorating, but it is so fun to see everyone's face when they see a cool cake you have made.

I am really going to try to blog AT LEAST weekly, but I will shoot for blogging daily. Lord knows I spend enough time on the computer, I just need to use it blogging sometimes. Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!