Elf on the Shelf from 2012

{photo via Wikipedia}
Click the link above to learn more about Elf on the Shelf.

Last year (when I still lived at home) Mom & Dad started the Elf on the Shelf. I have to say that even for me, at 22 years old, I had fun waking up and discovering where our Elf was hiding or what he had gotten into during the night. Hubby loves the Elf on the Shelf idea, as do I, and we plan to do this when little man is old enough to appreciate it. Because I never got around to sharing any of our Elf on the Shelf photos from last year I thought I'd share them this year for those of you who do this with your kids so you might pick up a few new ideas. Of course if you have ideas or have shared a post about your Elf do leave me a link as I'm sure I'll need all the ideas I can get one day!

The Elf at my parent's house is named Adam Robert Nathaniel Oliver Lucas Danfeild the 1st... or Arnold for short. It's quite a long name, but he ended up with that when all of us together couldn't agree on one single name. I think it's pretty cool that he has six names though, don't you?

Please excuse the quality of some of these photos...I've learned a bit about photography since last year so I think my newer photos usually look a lot better than some of the old ones from back then...

One day Arnold hid in the Grandmother Clock.

Arnold eating a Christmas Cookie with the Little People.

Arnold sitting on an empty roll of toilet paper...

He had stuffed one of the kids stockings full of toilet paper!

Arnold the Elf using Scrabble tiles to say "Merry Christmas".

Arnold the Elf hiding up on the kitchen light.

Arnold snooping in the presents under the Christmas Tree.

Arnold hiding in mom's Christmas Tin's collection eating walnuts.

One day Arnold got out the cherrios and wrote each person's name at their seat at the table. He was quite exhausted from all that work!

Arnold the Elf enjoying a candy cane.

Arnold the Elf at the manger scene with Baby Jesus & the Little People.

And my favorite, Arnold the Elf reading "The Song of Mary"

(Luke 1:46-55) to the Little People.

Another great source for Elf on the Shelf ideas is my Pinterest board: Christmas Elf. I try to pin all the ideas I find or come across that I'd eventually like to do with our little man. I hope you enjoyed seeing what our Elf was up to last year and the ideas I'd like to do in the future for little man! Be sure to share links to posts on what your Elf was or is up to below in the comments!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

{photo via A Night Owl Blog}

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you get to spend the day with your family

and enjoy some delicious foods! 

Little Man's Mossy Oak Quilt Begins

Work on the Mossy Oak quilt for my little man began earlier this month! I was SO excited to finally get it started. I had planned to make a baby quilt for him, but not having very much experience I started the squares out too big & too many in a row so when I do get it done it'll probably be a twin size quilt. Either way, I'm not really upset about this little mishap since he won't be a baby forever and this way the quilt will get more use.

Here are a few pics from the first days of working on the quilt:

First on the list the day I started work on little man's quilt was to iron out the fabric. I had washed and dried it already so it was in much need of ironing! Do you see my cat Demi who is hiding in the upper left part of the fabric? He was quite insistent on sitting on the fabric while I was trying to take a photo of it.

I first cut the fabric into 5 inch wide strips as far up as I could go with the first ruler length. I then moved to the next strip of fabric in the line.

Here's how the fabric looked once I got the first 5 inch cuts made. This is my cat Emerald (for those of you who don't know) she loves being involved in what ever sewing project I'm currently working on. She sat on the table while I was cutting squares, and more than once I had to make her move so the ruler would lay correctly!

I decided to go with 5x5 inch squares so that I would have less measuring to worry with. I am fortunate to have this lovely mat and ruler which make the job much easier.

This is part of the pinning process. I had to lay the fabric squares next to each other to make sure they were working in the same direction and wouldn't look too awkward next to each other on the finished quilt.

Here the sets are waiting in line for me to sew them together.

These are the finished sets. I did a single stitch and then did a zig zag stitch down one side and back up the other to make sure these squares don't come apart with multiple quilt washings.

Once I had the sets of 2 squares done I started piecing them together in rows. Once I got the first row put together I began working on the second row.

Here are two rows which are pieced and sewn together.

Once I got a row laid out I would pin together the parts which hadn't been sewn yet and did the sewing stuff mentioned above.

I had three great days of quilt work in when I sliced my first finger on my left hand with the roller blade. I was so mad! I saw my finger slip off the ruler just as the blade was coming the but there was no time to stop it from happening. It has taken about two weeks for my finger to heal. I have three rows of the quilt completely done and I plan to start work on the quilt again soon!

Prego With Style | Denim & Stripes

November 19th was 32 weeks for me. Just a few days before I took the photos below. I can't believe I've got less than 8 weeks left to go! Now that I'm close to the end time seems to be flying and honestly I'm quite ready for this baby to pop out. He has gotten to that point where there's not really room in my tummy for him to move much and there is no comfortable way for me to sit, stand or lay down anymore.

Grey & Navy Striped Dress: Rue21.
Denim Maternity Skirt: Made by Me!
Black Boots: L.E.I. from Wal-Mart.

A note about the dress: I'm finding that no matter how big I buy a regular (not maternity) tank or shirt, they are just not covering my entire baby bump anymore. I don't know why I haven't thought before to wear a short dress over a pencil skirt! This is probably one of the most comfortable outfits I've worn since having a bigger baby bump. I didn't have to worry about my belly showing (or in the case of this skirt, I didn't have to worry about the blue stretchy fabric showing), after I stood up the dress was loose enough to fall gracefully where it needed to be without me having to adjust anything... It was a really great experience and is now making me wish I had some of these dresses of my own to wear over my skirts! (The dress above was borrowed from a friend for the day.)

Little man has been growing fast the past two weeks. I had a few stretch marks show up under my belly button. I have to say I was surprised when I found them, but they don't really bother me too much now that I've had time to get used to them. My mom says they're trophies.

I attempted a new hair trick I found on Pinterest. You get your little 'poof' going on, pull up the top half of your hair in a ponytail, and then bring the bottom half of your hair up to the pony tail and wrap it with a second hair band. This gives your poof the separate support it needs to keep from being pulled down by the weight of all your hair together. I can't believe I never thought to do this before. I have a feeling it will become one of my most used hair tricks! For the original poofy ponytail tutorial check out The How-To Mom.

For the rest of the pony tail, I twisted it up in a bun and secured it with a few bobby pins and then gave everything a good soak with hair spray. I kept my hair up like this all day long and it did beautifully!

Cooking For 2 | Cheesy Potatoes

This recipe was inspired from my Crockpot Potatoes recipe. It's a huge favorite of mine, but I don't always want to cook this recipe in a crockpot, so this is the stove-top version. This is a really tasty potato dish and I like to serve it with Bacon Green Beans and any type of meat: beef, chicken, turkey, pork. It all tastes so good together!

Ingredients

3 large potatoes

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded cheese*

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Peel the potatoes and chop into dice size pieces.

2. Cook the potatoes in a pot of water on the stove. Bring them to a boil, then turn down to medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft, but not over cooked.

3. Drain the water from the potatoes. Put the potatoes back in the pot and back on the stove.

4. Stir in the sour cream, cheese, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a bubbly mix and serve warm.

Notes

*I like to use a mixture of cheeses when I make these potatoes. My favorite cheese to use in this recipe though is Extra Sharp Cheddar. It adds a nice flavor where as other cheeses (mainly the white ones) are mild and don't add as much flavor.

Cooking For 2 | Bacon Green Beans

A very popular recipe at my house when I was growing up was the green beans with bacon my Great Mary would always make when she came for a visit. It was tradition to have some meal while they were visiting which could have green beans as a side. Today I’m sharing with you the cooking for 2 version of this favorite recipe of mine.

Ingredients

3 slices of bacon

2 cans green beans, undrained

Directions

1. Cook your bacon in a skillet. We like to make it crispy so it’s easier to break into bits later.

2. In a medium pot pour your undrained cans of green beans. Turn the stove heat on medium-high and bring them to a boil.

3. When the bacon finishes cooking, pull it out of the skillet and let it cool off. Pour the bacon grease into the green bean pot.

4. When the bacon is cool enough to touch, break it into bits and add them to your green bean pot.

5. Once all the ingredients are in the pot turn the heat down to 2-3. You will want the green beans to cook for most of the day. We usually start ours around 9 or 10 and then serve them around 5 or 6 that night. I would say the minimum amount of time to cook them would be 4 hours.

6. Stir the beans periodically and check the water. If it gets to where there’s almost no water add just a enough to keep them from burning. The longer you can cook the beans the better they’ll taste.

7. Once you’re ready to serve dinner, pull the well cooked beans off the burner and serve hot.

FAIL | Planting A Late Herb Garden

The herb garden before I planted anything...
it didn't change much in looks even after I planted seeds.

Back in August when hubby & I moved into our new country home I was really looking forward to trying a late herb garden. I raked out the area I wanted to use, divided it into 10 sections and then planted my seeds. I watered them as needed and then waited for sprouts to show. I waited and waited… about three weeks later I had a few sprouts and was really excited…until I figured out that they were weeds. I did have one little sprout of lemon balm come up, but it didn’t grow enough to do anything with. Over all I’d have to say that planning a late herb garden was a fail. A good while after I had planted my seeds I was told that the raised bed I had used for the herb garden didn’t have great soil and almost nothing would grow there previously. So apparently if I want to use this bed again in the future I’ll just have to fix up the dirt a bit.

The packages of seeds I chose to plant.

I planted dill, lemon balm, cilantro, chamomile, lavender, catnip, parsley, and rosemary. Needless to say I was disappointed with the outcome.

The chart I made to keep track of what I planted where
in case anything popped up.

I do plan to start an herb garden in the spring…after I work on fixing up the soil a bit. Hopefully that run will go better than this one did. I really like herbs and am looking forward to drying them when I do finally have a successful crop!

Mexican Tortilla Pinwheels

In recent weeks I've been putting together a few appetizer ideas to share with you all for the upcoming holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc). Of course you don’t have to make this particular recipe for a holiday… you could make it for a baby shower or even just to eat all on your own! This recipe is one that my mom has had around for a while and occasionally we make them up. I didn’t have any good pics of the pinwheels though so I went ahead and made up half a batch to have a pic to share with the recipe. Here is the full recipe (which I recommend using if you’ll be making this for a party, holiday, etc.).

Makes about 50 pinwheels once sliced.

Ingredients

1 cup (8oz.) sour cream

8oz. cream cheese, softened

8oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*

4oz. can green chilies, drained

6oz. can black olives, drained & chopped to bits

4-5 10” flour tortillas

Directions

1. Set out the cream cheese to soften a few hours before you make this OR zap it in the microwave (without the silver wrapper) until soft enough to work with.

2. In a bowl mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, and sharp cheddar cheese. Stir in the green chilies.

3. Chop up the olives (if you haven’t already) into bits. You don’t want them in big chucks, but they don’t have to be minced. Stir these in once they’re ready.

4. Spread a piece of cling wrap out on a flat surface. Lay one tortilla on it.

5. Divide the mixture in the bowl into 4 or 5 even servings. Scoop one of those servings onto the waiting tortilla. Spread the mixture around evenly.

6. Roll the tortilla up and cover all sides well with the cling wrap. Set to the side.

7. Repeat steps 4-6 with the remaining tortillas/mixture until it’s all been used.

8. Put the wrapped tortillas in the fridge for a few hours or overnight (overnight is better for letting the flavors blend!).

9. When you’re ready to serve the pinwheels, pull them out of the fridge, unwrap them and slice them into even ‘pinwheels’. Serve on a pretty plate or tray.

Notes

*I like to get the 8oz. brick of cheese and shred it myself since it tends to have a much stronger flavor than the prepackaged/shredded cheese does.

Prego With Style | Grey Sweater, Burgundy Scarf

As of November 12, 2013 (11/12/13!) I was 31 weeks along and had about 9 weeks to go. I am so ready for this baby to be out and in the air. I really feel like he's taking up all my stomach space and that there couldn't possibly be any more room for him to grow but I'm sure I'll be surprised as he gets bigger in these final weeks.

Burgundy Scarf: Made by Kora @ Eclectic Darling
Grey Sweater: Vanity (thrifted)
White Tank: Wal-Mart (clearance!)
Denim Maternity Skirt: Made by Me!
Black Boots: L.E.I. from Wal-Mart years ago.

I can't believe how big my baby belly has gotten! It feels like it went from just a little bump to a big one overnight (although I know that's not what happened). He is moving around a lot! There is one particular spot he likes to kick and it's a nerve so it hurts when he does. Other than that he's just very active.

Sweet Potato Soufflé

 

This recipe is one my mom made for Thanksgiving last year. I am actually not really able to eat sweet potatoes on account that they make me really sick, but I did try a few bites of this because it looked SO good! And it was a really tasty dish too! So if you’re looking for a really delicious and different recipe to use for your sweet potatoes this year this one is for you!

Ingredients

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/3 stick butter, melted

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Shake of cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (we used pecans)

1/3 cup white flour

1/3 stick butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a bowl mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, salt, eggs, first butter amount, milk, vanilla, and a shake of cinnamon.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the brown sugar, chopped nuts, flour, and remaining butter.

4. In an 8x8 glass pan layer the first bowl of ingredients and top with the second bowl of ingredients.

5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and serve warm.

Notes

*You can mix everything together, layer it and refrigerate the day before if you want to make it up ahead of time.

Blogging Tips | Signature Those Emails!

This post isn't a long post or even a tutorial...it's just a tip from one blogger to another: when you write an email to a blogger it's really a great idea to include either a link or direct URL to your blog after you write your name/finish the email.

Why? Because if your a blogger like me and you get an email from someone you haven't been in contact with before, or even from someone you've emailed previously, you may not remember the name of their blog, much less the URL. I find this super frustrating, especially when emailing people who are interested in guest posting. If you send me an email with an offer to guest post on my blog (no matter the subject), if you don't include a URL to your blog so I can see examples of what you've written I will probably write you back and turn down the offer.

"Signing" those emails is also a good habit to form so that anyone you email has a chance of clicking your link and viewing your blog. Who knows, maybe they haven't checked out your blog yet but they do because of the link and become one of your biggest fans!

Here is an example of exactly how I sign 95% of the emails I send out:

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog
Exercise Encouragement GROUP Blog

I know that yahoo mail has the option to link text (and I'm sure other email systems do as well, but this is what I use specifically) so if you can do a text link I think that's a better, more professional route vs. just the plain URL itself as you can see here:

Helen
http://blueeyedbeautyblogg.blogspot.com/
http://exerciseencouragementgroup.blogspot.com/

See the difference? And if you're one of those bloggers whose blog name/title doesn't at all match the URL the first example is definitely a better choice because people are more likely to recognize the name of your blog vs. the URL by itself.

So, for those of you who write emails to bloggers or reply to emails sent to you, especially from bloggers, Please, Please, PLEASE! Add your name, blog name & URL at the end of your letter so we can find your blog! Thank you!

Oh, and one more thing: I'd avoid adding all the 'follow via' options (like follow me via: twitter, pinterest, facebook, bloglovin, etc). If someone really want's to follow you, and you're sending the link to your blog, they will (and should!) be able to find the social media options for following you on your blog ... not in an email. That just adds too much clutter to the end signature.

Guest Post | Shopping Modest on A Budget

Apostolic Pentecostal Ladies I have a treat for you today! Recently I met blogger Madison from Clothed in Glory and we had the chance to email a few times. After getting to know her I thought she would be someone you ladies would be interested in getting to know her too... especially since she shares a lot of cute, affordable and easy outfit ideas. She is here with us today guest posting and sharing yet another great outfit of hers!

Hello! I'm Madison from Clothed in Glory. I created Clothed in Glory to help Apostolic/Pentecostal ladies find modest and fashionable clothes. I'm not just a blogger though, I'm also a YouTuber! Clothed in Glory now has a YouTube Channel and I have really enjoyed reaching out to young girls and talking about all the fun stuff us girls do.

"Outfit of the Day" posts are my favorite so I decided to show you a fall outfit under $25! I love to shop at Plato's Closet & Goodwill to find amazing deals. Finding ways to put together an amazing outfit on a tight budget (not to mention a modest outfit!) can be difficult, but it's definitely possible!

Here are a few tips on dressing fabulously cheap...

1. Find a good consignment shop near you. Whether it's Plato's Closet, Goodwill, Savers, or whatever else. Do a little looking around your town or online to see what is nearest you.

2. Look for BOGO's and sales everywhere. Different online stores will do promotional sales... for example: JustFab (an online shoe shoe store) gives you 50% off your first item. All their shoes, boots, and bags are $39.95 so you get a purse or a nice pair of shoes for less than $20!

3. Set a limit. When shopping, give yourself a budget or guideline as to how much you can spend. I use this method: I won't buy a shirt over $30 unless it's higher than an 8 out of 10 on my must-have scale. Same goes for other items of clothing. Set a limit of how expensive the item can be to buy it unless you are in LOVE with it.

4. Sell some clothes. Plato's will buy some of your clothes used and in good condition and either give you a gift card or cash for them. When you have not worn something in 6 months and it still looks good... sell it! This is a good way to get a little extra spending money for those shopping days.

Here is my outfit!

My Outfit Is:

Shirt: Dollar General for $11.00

Skirt: Goodwill for $6.99

Shoes: Payless for $6.00

Grand Total: $23.99!

See, it is possible to look good on a shoe string budget! Have fun putting these tips into action and looking fabulous as a result.

...be clothed in glory!

Connect With Madison

Blog | YouTube | Pinterest | Polyvore

Prego With Style | Black Boots & Sweater

Hey everyone! I wanted to give a bit of a baby update since it's been awhile, but first a few recent photos to look through. I was finally able to find a sweater among the ones I owned previously that fit over my baby bump enough to wear it out in public. I have a feeling that it won't last too much longer though so I will enjoy it while I can!

Black Sweater: Merona.
Grey Tank w/Lace Trim: Old Navy.
Denim Maternity Skirt: Made by Me!
Black Sweater Boots: Old Navy.

These photos were taken around 30 weeks which would've been around November 5th. I'm SO glad to have finally made it to 30 weeks. Just 10 more to go! I totally forgot to get a good close up of the boots, but if you're a fashionista of any sort you'll probably know what I mean when I say they're sweater boots. They have that crochet look and the cute buttons on the outsides.

I really felt pretty this day, but when I saw the pics hubby took for me I thought I looked horrible. Who knows...maybe my mind was playing tricks on me that day. My hair was pretty...that I do know for sure. It had some really awesome curls going on and I loved that!

Of course I had to add a belly shot since you really can't see it well in either of the other photos. I can't believe how big it's gotten! This is a selfie and was much harder to take than you would think...

And now for the update if you're interested!

Not long ago I discovered the blog Domesticated Working Woman which is written by Lins. I was really excited to discover that her pregnancy is right on with mine (only a few days apart) and that she was sharing weekly posts on different things related to her experience with pregnancy. She is also having a boy (we're having a boy here too) so that was even more awesome! She has been writing a weekly post on her pregnancy and it's progress which I've really enjoyed. I thought I'd steal a few topic ideas from her posts and share a few fun things with you all today.

How Far Along: As I mentioned above, last tuesday (the 5th) was 30 weeks for me! I'm really glad to have finally made it to this point.

Weight Gain: In the last month and a half I've gained about 10 pounds. This came as quite a shock for me since I had been working extra hard this past month to eat things that would hopefully help me not gain too much weight. I was hoping for a 5 pound gain...not 10 pounds. Over all I think I'm getting close to 40 pounds that I've gained since I got pregnant which has been really hard for me since I went through a huge weight gain a few years ago (after my car wreck) and had a really hard time losing that. I have been told though that the 'birth gear' of placenta and amniotic fluids alone can weigh up to 20 pounds and then you have the weight of the baby at birth to take out of the equation too so that gives me some hope. Still, it has been upsetting when I think about how much my clothing sizes have changed over the past months (and not just because of a growing belly either).

Stretch Marks: I'm pleased to say that I haven't noticed or seen any stretch marks on my tummy. I was hoping that would be the case since my mom had 7 kids and only ended up with one tiny stretch mark after all that.

Maternity Clothes: I finally broke down and made myself a maternity skirt from some thrifted maternity jeans I got at Goodwill awhile back. That was a MUCH needed thing for me since I tend to wear skirts all the time. This has really opened back up the options I have for outfits and helped me feel a lot less upset about the growing pile of clothes that don't fit for one reason or another. I will say that I have moved from a medium size tank under shirts to an extra large (because they're regular clothes, not maternity tanks), but that doesn't bother me too much. I'm really missing not being able to wear most of the great sweaters I have in my collection. This is mostly because they're meant for a normal body shape, not a pregnant body shape.

Gender: As many of you probably already know, we're having a boy!!! Hubby & I are very excited about this. The last week of October we finally got his room painted, furniture moved in, and most everything put away in the closet and dresser. This was super exciting for me. I don't have any decor items in his room right now, but I hope to slowly build that up. I did start on a quilt for his bed, but I think it's gonna turn out to be twin size by the time I get it done. I'm not very good in the quilt making department so I made the first four rows too long and it's too much work to go back now and redo it. Besides, he won't be a baby forever so maybe the quilt turning out bigger than expected is a good thing.

Movement: Man does this boy like to kick! He did have his feet down by my bladder and he would kick a lot and it would hit my bladder and that was not a comfy sensation at all! As of the 10th (which is when I wrote this post) his feet are up by my ribs. This too can be uncomfortable when he kicks a rib or just kicks the top of my tummy. It must have something to do with pressure. Today I had the weirdest sensation in my lower abdomen (which I'm pretty sure is where his head was). It wasn't really strong enough for a hand movement, and it definitely wasn't strong enough to be his feet kicking... after talking with my mom for a bit she said she thought it might of been him hiccuping. This would make sense because when I massaged my belly or tried to get him to move it made no difference in these little soft sensations. It really freaked me out at first because it lasted more than 5 minutes, but later once I knew what they probably were I thought it was really cool that I could feel that.

Sleep: Well let's just say sleep and I are in no way friend right now. Little man wakes me up at least once a night, and the rest of the 10-15 times I wake up because of back pain. I talked to my midwife about this and she is ordering a session with a physical therapist trained to help pregnant women so she can asses the situation better and give me some exercises that are safe to do while pregnant which should help my back/hips and hopefully help me get back to better sleep.

Missing: I am missing sleeping flat on my belly! I really cannot wait until I can lay down and roll onto my tummy and not have a big bump to stop me from halfway through the roll.

Loving: Knowing that I have less than 10 weeks of pregnancy left is a wonderful feeling. At this point I'm just ready for the 2 months to fly by so we can pop out this baby and I can hold him!

Craving: Nothing too weird right now. For most of the pregnancy I've craved Kraft Macaroni N Cheese & McDonald's McDouble Burgers. The first part of the pregnancy I also craved rice krispy treats. I've eaten more meat this past 7 months than I've eaten in the last 10 years of my life. That is definitely a pregnancy thing. And during this last part of the pregnancy I've been craving several things, but they've skipped my mind and I can't remember what they are!

Feeling: I've been super emotional lately... like I've busted into tears for no reason, and been unable to stop crying long after the sad part of the movie has passed. It's something that I'm not really enjoying, but hubby is supportive and helps me calm down enough to carry on.

Looking Forward To: Holding the little man in my arms for the first time.

So there you have a different sort of update! I had fun writing that. I'm sure some if it was probably boring, but I think I did that more for myself to go back later and see the different things I was feeling and thinking at this point in the pregnancy. Either way it was fun and I hope you found it either enjoyable or helpful to read through it. I am at the point now where I'm just ready for the baby-growing-inside-of-me process to be over and for the next step to begin.

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• Wednesday's Adorned From Above #66

Fall Bucket List 2013 | Attend A Bonfire

This fire was about 3 men tall!

In October I was able to check off yet another item from my Fall Bucket List: attend a bonfire! The bonfire took place on a pretty cold fall evening at my grandma’s house. She had invited pretty much all the family and relatives out for the event.

Food for the bonfire event included hot dogs, smores, potato chips, Sweet Southern Tea (which Hubby made), white chocolate chip snickerdoodles (which I made) and more! Hubby roasted my hot dogs for me…somehow I ended up with one that was cooked well and one that was just warm but not browned.

This one was taller than one man for sure,
but not as big as the one pictured above.

My uncle was ‘fire master’ and built a wonderful fire for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Later, when everyone was finished cooking things, he put a bunch of cedar branches on the fire and man did it get really big! From where I was sitting it looked like the flames were two or three men tall depending on how many branches he put on at a time. I have to say that it was really, really hot though. I had to move my chair back several times and I wasn't even close to the fire pit! (See the first pic on this post.)

The cedar put out a lot of ash so that's whats all over my sweater & skirt...
 in case you're wondering.

My Grandma has a lot of dogs…four of which are lap dogs…and they ALL wanted on my lap! I only really had room for two at a time so Poncho sat in my lap, while Taco sat on my baby belly, and Penny sat beside me. Lefty decided he would rather run around and check out everything vs. sitting by me since he couldn't sit ‘on’ me. It was quite hilarious! Hubby tried to get a pic of it all, but it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.

I wasn't having a good pregnancy day that day so we didn't stay at the party too long. I did enjoy sitting by the fire and spending time with Hubby though. :)