Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Stanton family!  Spent the holiday at Uncle Spencer's house.  Can I just say I love having family 10 minutes away!? We had a wonderful feast, complete with Pioneer Woman's Sweet Potato Casserole. Be jealous.  It was an amazing feast, as Conner kept calling it.

Shep is a southern boy and loves his sweet tea. Wearing Uncle Caleb's shirt because we had a little spill.

So thankful this little girl joined our family this year.

Trying for some pictures.

This is real life folks.

Well, maybe next year.

Daddy's girl.

Cousins at 7 and 4 months.

Decorated the tree Thursday evening. Julia was pretty excited to see it when she got up.

Thankful for this crazy year and all the ways God has provided. Thankful for the experience Zack has gained here in Nashville and for continuing opportunities to learn and grow. Thankful for a new member to our family.  Thankful that we have a house! Thankful for the generosity and love shown to us by our friends and family.  We are blessed.

Peppermint Brownie Recipe

Ok, as promised, here is the recipe.  It's funny.  I used to make these all the time when Zack and I were dating.  He loved them.  I was looking through recipes and I realized it had been YEARS since I last made them.  Felt a little bad and wanted to show my husband I still love him very much:)

Warning: the following contains huge amounts of butter.

Peppermint Brownies

Cake layer:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
4 eggs (yes, you saw that right)
1 cup flour
1 16 oz can chocolate syrup

Mix in order given and bake in 13x9 pam @350 for 20 min. Chill.

First frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 T milk
1/2 t peppermint flavoring
few drops green food coloring

Mix all of the above and pour over cooled cake. Refrigerate to set.

Second frosting:
1 cup chocolate chips
6 T butter

Melt. Stir well. Cool a little and then pour over green frosting. Refrigerate and then serve when set.

Enjoy!

peek into our home

We lived in an apartment for 5 years and it definitely has its perks, but we have enjoyed having a home, with a yard these past few months!  Our home is on the corner between a dead-end and a cul-de-sac, so very low traffic.  There is a small playground down the street and lots of children.  I miss Austin, but this neighborhood is a good fit for our family right now.

Here is a peek into our home.  It has 3 bedrooms (one of which is Zack's office), 2 1/2 bath rooms and living rooms in both the upstairs and downstairs.  We are loving the space.  Our apartment would have fit in the upstairs of this house.

Fall decor on the mantle.  Excited to have somewhere to hang the stockings for Christmas.  

Part of living area. The fire place does work, so I'm hoping we can have a fire sometime this winter! It is much colder here.  We have already had several nights below freezing and it's only November 3rd!

Trying my hand at picture displays.  I know what I like, but putting my decorating ideas into a reality is a completely different matter.

There are two rooms on either side of the entry way, but it's all open.  We have our kitchen table on one side.  This is the other side.  Conner's school desk was my Mom's from when she was little.  At some point we will refinish the top and get a little chair that matches better.  Love this desk.

The laundry room is upstairs off the living area.  Love the convenience of this.

The boys call the upstairs area the "kid living room".  Here is their reading corner.  So excited about the awesome big map we found at Office Depot.

Growth chart from a local children's store at my home town.

Master bedroom.  This house as so much more natural light.  We through our comforter away because after 3 babies, it was in rough shape.  Just using a full-size one I had.  Love the colors, just a bit small. Hope to get a new one someday, in the same style.  Shopping for a new lamp.  Any style ideas or places to look?

Living area, looking into the kitchen.  The door there is the half bath.  The kitchen has a breakfast nook area and I'd love a small table there someday and also some bar stools.  There is so much cabinet space and a nice big stainless steel fridge!!

One cabinet just for coffee mugs.  Love my coffee nook:)

The boys room is definitely a work in progress.  They have bunk beds now, but bedding is pretty far down the list. And then Shep broke their lamp.  Life with boys.  Pictures of J's little closet room coming soon!  

jewels

Little sister is growing fast.  The boys call her jewels. Uncle isaac started it and it fits her. 

Month 5 was big for sister.  She started sitting and has gotten two teeth (so far!).  Yesterday, I saw her bunching her knees up will lying on the floor.  Looks like she may start scooting soon.  Both boys crawled at 7 mo.  That's not too far away.

She's so happy she can sit and play with toys now.

Somebody left some crayons out.  Took sister about 2 seconds to dump them all out.

Straight to the mouth.

Sister has some funny hair.

She's so dainty.

And like her brothers is very, very curious.  I've yet to have a low-maintenance, laid back child. Shep was close as a baby, but that ended rather quickly. She's very dramatic and always has a big smile for her daddy.

I think we'll keep her. She's pretty sweet. Love this girl.

soccer

Both boys are playing soccer.  They've enjoyed it and the games are highly entertaining. 

Conner has improved a lot since the season began.  He's finally getting a little more aggressive and scored a goal in their last game.  He mostly just runs around, but he's starting to get in there and kick the ball more.  

 Shep is funny during the games.  He becomes almost shy in those kinds of settings.  He did the same thing in swim lessons.  I think maybe it's the attention??  He gets aggressive in the wrong way and mostly wants to run around tackling people, usually his teammates, but he's learned a lot, too and enjoys it.

Practicing before the game.  Conner was trying to kick the ball in the goal and was taking forever lining everything up just right.  Shep got tired of waiting and just ran in and kicked it.

Reminding them which goal to kick it into. Good thing we have a girl on our team.  She's the only one who pays attention and the only one who really has any idea of what's going on.  Me: Conner, who won the game? Conner: Kyla won!!  Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Conner throwing the ball in.  Usually at any given time someone on our team is on the ground pouting.

Nothing like a little gatorade.

Shep getting ready to kick it in.

Go Shep!

Conner trying to guard the ball, so he could kick it.  We've had to work on that one:)

Best part of the game...snack time!

I'm really a soccer Mom now.

state fair

It's that time of year.  

We told the boys they could pick one ride and that they better enjoy it as much as it cost.  This is the one they wanted to do. I think it was approximately a dollar per second.  Zack and Conner vs Spencer and Shep.

 And the winners are...

Spencer and Shep!

The other little Stanton girl with her Daddy.

Zack and the boys.  Julia and I were there.  She slept in the ergo almost the entire time. She did wake up and enjoyed looking around at all the sights and colors of the fair!

Snow cone

Enjoying the show.

The Kenyan acrobats.  They were amazing.

Petting zoo.  A lady gave Shep a bag of animal feed.  He wasn't too sure at first, but warmed up to it.

Kid area

I think Shep was starting to have trouble seeing with his sunglasses on.  I told him it wasn't sunny anymore so he could take them off.  I guess he tokk it very literally when I told him he would need to wear his glasses at the fair.

Oh, yeah

Look what we found!  Up close and personal with the Oscar Mayer truck.  They were giving out samples and Shep tried to take all of them.  Conner wanted to wear his Texas shirt to the fair, so everyone in TN would know he's from Texas.  That's my boy.

Fun evening and totally worth the meltdowns at bedtime (I think:)