Birthdays, Road Trips, and Baking Days

As I was perusing my site archives last week I happened upon a bunch of posts that were updates of our family. Friend, it’s been 3 years since I’ve shared an update of our family….3 years! (I’m hanging my head in shame!) If you want to take a walk down memory lane like I did you can do so here.

I rather enjoyed those posts and hope to share more often. Of course, you can always follow along with real time updates on Instagram stories.

So without further ado here’s a peek into September for ya!

Happy Birthday!

Trent and I both celebrated birthdays this month.

Trent brought home dinner and Gigi’s Cupcakes for my birthday. (If you’ve never had one of their cupcakes you must try them. Their mile-high icing is to die for!)

I was thankful to celebrate with three of my favorite people. (If you haven’t met Jayden, he’s like a son to us. He lives next door and we’ve known him since he was 4 years old – here’s one of the first posts I shared with him in it.)

(Don’t you just love Dalton’s face in this picture. I bet he was thinking, “Give me the sugar.” Ha! While I did let him have a cupcake I scraped off the icing. We both know what that much sugar will do to a kid that doesn’t have much sugar…it would not have been pretty.)

One of the things we did for Trent’s birthday was surprise him at his work for lunch. Dalton was in Heaven because he got to ride on the tractor with daddy. Boats, tractors and spending time with daddy, it can’t get much better than that for a kid. (This pic of them on the tractor is priceless!)

Road Trippin’

Dalton and I drove to Kansas City, Missouri to visit my sister and her family for a week. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about the trip but it went much better than I expected. Dalton did great in the car…even when our 10 hour road trip turned into a 13 hour trip on the way home when we ran into standstill traffic because of a sink hole being repaired.

Curious to how I kept Dalton entertained for 9 hours? Check out my screen free road trip activities for preschoolers and snag some ideas for your kiddos!

This is my nephew, Kade, and he wanted me to sit in between he and Dalton (and their car seats) whenever we would ride in the car. I squeezed in there a few times just to be “the fun aunt.” He also thought it was a big deal to hold my purse when we were driving. I’m not sure why he thought it was so great, especially since he never tried to open it. Like I always say, it’s the small things!

Dalton said that riding the golf cart with Uncle Doug was one of his favorite parts of the trip!

While we were there we visited a ton of parks. I was blown away at how many awesome parks they had within 5-15 minutes of their house. Of course, Dalton loved every minute of it!

This was too cute not to share. Of course we had to have a bit of fun with face filters.

So often I feel like my life is on repeat. Our getaway was refreshing to my soul not only because it switched up our routine but because I love spending time with a sister who gets me (and loves me no matter what). I know I can tell her anything and she’ll shoot me straight – and sometimes point me in the right direction when I’m off base.

What a blessing to be able to spend a week with my precious family.

Baking Day

I had a few baking days this past month. It always feels good to “get ahead” either with snacks for the week or to put a few things in the freezer for later. Here’s what I made:

Session 1

Fat Bombs

Flourless Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Heavenly Honey Banana Cupcakes

Cauliflower Sauce

Session 2

Waffles from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook

Brownies

Taco Seasoning

Super Moist Banana Bread

Copycat Chocolate Chip Brownie Larabar Bites

September Reading

At the beginning of the year I started listening to more and more audiobooks…I’ve fallen in love and I listen every chance I get!

This month I listened to Rachel Hauck’s series which includes The Wedding Dress, The Wedding Chapel The Wedding Shop (I’m finishing up this one now). If you’ve never checked out Rachel’s books, they’re a must! In this series her storyline goes from the past to the present which gives her books tons of depth. And I love that you never know what’s going to happen – there are twists and turns around every corner.

Francine Rivers books are always exceptional. Unveiled: Tamar is a story from the pages of the Bible. This book is part of The Lineage of Grace series and is a super fast read (it’s a novella). As weird as it sounds, even though I’d just read it, reading this book made me want to dig into the Bible and read Tamar’s story.

Looking for more fabulous reads? Check out these Must Read Christian Fiction Book Series or more suggestions on my I Love It. You Will Too. page.

A Day At The Lake

For the past 5-6 years Trent has helped his brother with a fishing event for kids whose parent is incarcerated. I haven’t been able to go for the past few years because Dalton has been too little. (Chasing a kid around a lake isn’t exactly my idea of fun.)

This year I decided that he was old enough and ventured out to join the fun. (To protect the privacy of the families that came to the event I’m not able to share pictures of the kids. But I have some of us that you’ll love.)

Along with fishing at the lake they also had horse rides. This is Sarah and I had the best time petting her…I think she would have stood there all day and let me pet her. (Isn’t it amazing how therapeutic horses are?!)

These are just a few fun pics of the scenery that I couldn’t pass up sharing with you!

September Writing

Check out the posts I wrote this month!

• Is Hosting Really Possible As An Introvert? – Learn three questions that you need to ask yourself before hosting your next (or even first) event.
• Screen Free Road Trip Activities for Preschoolers – The items on this list saved my sanity on our recent road trip to Missouri!
• My Monthly Game Night – How It All Began – Hosting a monthly game night isn’t something that I ever thought I’d enjoy…or even do. But the Lord has a neat way of stretching us in different situations.

Dalton’s Corner

Dalton started AWANA Cubbies in August but this was the first night he got to wear his vest. As you can see, he wasn’t a bit excited! ;o)

I love that he’s hiding God’s Word in his heart and that Cubbies also gives him a safe place to be around other kids. He’s stoked to go each and every week.

Recently whenever we get in the car to head to church he asks me to sit in the back seat with him. I know that before long he’ll stop asking so I’m doing my best to savor the sweet moments like this one!