This One's For Jason...

I have the best husband in the world. I am just sure of it. He sits up with me when I turn into the Cookie Mama late at night. He doesn't mind when there are 800 cookies laying all over the house drying, waiting to be boxed or bagged...he nicely offers to bring home supper, which we eat on the floor in the family room. He listens to me pitch fits, gives me advice, and knows when he should give me his opinion and when he should just keep it to himself. He was at Wal-Mart last night at midnight getting me hangers for my consignment sale clothes, and he was in the driveway at nearly midnight tonight waiting on me to finish my running. And he has to put up with ME...that deserves a lot of credit in itself.

He is also the best Daddy in the world. Macy and Lucy adore him. Lucy wakes up in the morning asking how many hours until her Daddy gets home. Macy has always been a Daddy's girl...she is fascinated by him. He plays with them, draws pictures for them, does crafts with them, and even lets them "do" his hair. Like tonight for instance...he had about 20 tiny ponytails all over his head. It was hysterical. Would you like to see? Well, with permission, I can show you...Oh.my.word.

I.love.it.

Another Matilda Jane Online Party!

I am hosting another Matilda Jane Fall/Winter online party through Tuesday, August 31st (only through TOMORROW!). A 2nd release of "Field Trip" was just added to the website today. You can check out the "Field Trip" collection by going here and clicking on "the goods." You will see the "Field Trip Collection" at the top of dropdown box. You can also view other items from seasons past and order from those as well. Macy and Lucy love wearing Matilda Jane...it makes getting dressed so fun and easy! Please e-mail me at shannonwillcutt@yahoo.com if you are interested in ordering any of these adorable clothes.

***Order deadline is tomorrow night, Tuesday, August 31st! I will be turning in all orders Tuesday night!***

***Matilda Jane is a unique line of clothing...items tend to sell out very quickly! So if there is something you love, order now!***

Fun Times, Making Crayons, and a Trip to the Coast

Lucy has been cracking us up lately with always wanting her hair in pig tails...and just all the funny things she says. She will be 5 in 2 weeks...so hard to believe! And everyday, we have to figure up how many days left until her birthday. We have a retired couple that lives next door to us that Lucy has really taken up with lately. Mr. Dick is always outside tinkering with this or that and smoking his pipe. Anytime Lucy sees him outside, she begs to run over and see him. The other night, she informed me that she now wants a pipe for her birthday. And she is serious.

Macy and Lucy are always begging to play "airplane." I figured I could get some good leg exercises in this way =)
While it is still pretty hot here in Mississippi, it is getting a little cooler with more breezes blowing (making it seem like we're getting ready for Fall!). One thing I love about our back-to-school routine is that we play outside lots of afternoons while we are waiting on Jason to get home from work. Lucy likes playing with Buddy...

And Macy likes to catch up on her magazine reading... Our church gets a pretty large quantity of the great magazine "homelife" every month. Your church might too, but if they don't and you don't get it at home, I highly recommend this magazine. It is a wonderful Christian magazine that deals with every aspect of home life. This month's issue had some kid-friendly craft ideas. Lucy and I thought it would be fun to make some recycled crayons one day while Macy was in school.
I tend to cull broken crayons pretty regularly, so we took some good crayons, peeled off the paper, and broke them up to make pretty color combinations.
All you do is spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, put the broken pieces in, and bake for about 8 minutes at 275 degrees.

So easy, and so fun!

Lucy is up with me right now and wanted to make sure that ya'll got to see her pretty colored sippy cup, so here it is...
We decided to make one last summer getaway this weekend, and headed to the coast to visit Jason's brother's family. We have very much been looking forward to our trip, and we had the most wonderful time. It was a very rainy weekend (you know my favorite kind!)...check out the view we had...

There is still so much devastation leftover from Katrina (which ironically, we were there exactly 5 years from the date she hit). Across the street from Brad and Erin is this massive and gorgeous home...it was being built prior to Katrina and ended up with 4 feet of water in it in the aftermath...so this monstrosity of a house has sat just as it was ever since then. While we were there, Jason and I decided to purchase the property and move to the Mississippi coast.

O.k., so I am just kidding. But it sure is tempting!

The neighborhood had some of the most beautiful trees...they were gigantic! I think I heard Brad (being the history buff that he is) say that a lot of the trees dated back to before the Civil War.

We arrived at the coast on Friday night and ate the most wonderful seafood at Petit Boys (I may have butchered the spelling, but I think that is what I saw on the sign...although I think it was pronouced Petty Boys). Then on Saturday, we went to Erin's parents' lake house to ride in the party boat and on the waverunners. However, when we got there, the bottom fell out, and it rained the rest of the day! So no boat rides, but the guys and Macy and Lucy did ride the waverunners every time the weather would break.

Erin and I stayed up in the lake house, sat on the screened in porch, and just chatted the day away. It was so nice. It is such a blessing to have family that we are close to and enjoy being with.

Miss Tatum has more shoes than any child I have ever seen. Lucy had fun dressed her lamb up in all of Tatum's different shoes.

It has been a great week and ended so nicely with our trip to the coast. It was a very relaxing weekend, and Brad and Erin made the best host and hostess. We loved being with them and being with our niece, Tatum. Macy and Lucy had a blast entertaining and playing with their cousin. I have to tell you that as we were pulling out of their driveway this morning ready to head home, Macy said (and she was MOST serious)..."3 days with that little girl changed my life." How priceless??!!

Since I Posted Last...

I don't really have an excuse as to why I haven't been a good blogger...I feel like I have apologized for this before very recently (like in my last post or two??). Anyway...we have been busy readjusting to a new schedule...Macy being in school, rising early, going to bed, early...you know.

So here goes, a catch up post...since I posted last...Lucy and I have enjoyed breakfast on our front porch some. The morning sun shines right at the front of our house, so it gets really hot really fast in the mornings, but we've had fun.

Lucy loves riding her bike in her pajamas...

I also had a birthday since I posted last. I turned "the big 33" (as Macy informed me) on August 18th. My Dad informed me that I am now 1/3 of my Nana's age (my 99 year old grandmother). My sweet friend Amy and her little girl Bes took Lucy and me to lunch to celebrate my special day. We had the most fun...we always have such a fabulous time together. Macy, Lucy, and Jason gave me a new MomAgenda (a pink croc one this time!), and I have a little package from MJC just for me that will be arriving anyday =)

Jason is all about getting me whatever I want for my birthday. So he calls me before coming home from work to see if there is anything he can get me...a cherry coke sounded so good to me that he brought me home 2 of them. He also brought me home some dark chocolate-covered raisins that my father-in-law had bought for me. So I had the best birthday supper ever =) And yes, I most certainly downed both 20 oz cherry cokes and ate that entire box of chocolate-covered raisins that night.

We ate with my family the Friday night after my birthday. My Mom always cooks for us for our birthday. It was yummy. I even got a stawberry cupcake cake.

Everybody got to help me blow my candles out =)

Me and my nephew, Carson...you know, my brother's little boy that looks just like his Aunt Shannon =)

The kids put on a little show for us. How hilarious are they in my Mom's old glasses?

Notice anything about Macy? Since I posted last, she got whopped in the head with a water bottle during one of Jason's softball games. Bless her...she has a gash on her eyebrow and a not-so-lovely black eye. Poor baby =(

I had such a wonderful birthday. I felt so loved...all the cards and phone calls and texts and e-mails and sweet, thoughtful gifts. I am so blessed.

And ya'll know that Macy is going to a new school this year. Seeing this at the end of her 2nd week of school just really warmed my heart and made me so very proud of her...

I am in awe of both of my little girls each and every day. They are such a blessing and remind me each and everyday of God's love for me. Their precious little souls make their Mama so happy.

And I promise I will try to do better about posting, Hal and Jason =)

What We Did While Macy Was at School...

Here is a brief synopsis of what Lucy and I did this week while Macy was in school. Ya'll know Lucy loves to change her clothes. Well, by 8:30 on Monday (Macy's first day of school), I think Lucy had changed clothes no less than 14 times. We went from a Cinderella dress...

To this sleek little number...

(Couldn't resist this picture of her sweet little back)...
To a winter coat (this picture makes me hot just looking at it!)...

One day, things got really quiet in the house. I wandered around to find Lucy, only to find her quietly "striping" her pants. She thought her plain pants were boring and needed some stripes, so she got out a magic marker and went to town. And I didn't get a picture...can you believe it?

One day, we went over to my friend Amy's house do crafts. I snapped some quick pictures of Lucy in front of her black-eyed susans (one of my most favorite flowers!).

The sun was so bright =)

Can you tell that this little girl is just full of mischief?

And in Macy's absence at lunch (sniff sniff), Lucy still insists that our napkins have to have "RF" on them (remember..."Royal Family")...

Sweet girl. Sweet, sweet, girl.

Macy's First Day of 3rd Grade!

Today was Macy's first day of 3rd grade...in a new school. She was SO very excited about it, which was such a relief to me. I prayed that she wouldn't be nervous or anxious, and my prayers were answered...she was a little eager beaver this morning and was so happy that it was finally time to start!

So I had this perfect first morning of school envisioned...wake up early, eat a nice breakfast, take our time getting her ready, and arriving at school early. Well...that vision went to pot when we overslept (not too terribly...just a little) and spent 15 minutes searching through the garbage for her glasses. I about had a panic attack when I went to get them off of the counter, and they were GONE. Vanished. Nowhere to be found. Oh my word. I had Jason on the phone from his office digging through the night before's trash (which he had put in the big dumpster at work). Finally, I thought to wake up Lucy and ask her if she had seen them. Guess what? Yep...little sister stikes again...that sweet (although develish at times) thing had laid them on Macy's pillow right by her head last night...only they had slipped under the pillow, hence us not being able to find them. So much for a perfect first morning of school...turns out it was a wee bit stressful...although very memorable =)

While Macy was at school, Lucy and I got busy making her a cake. I always celebrate Macy's first days of school with a fun treat. This year, I got my inspiration from a box of markers...
This is what we came up with...a funfetti cake with homemade butter cream icing (details done with my "Cookie Mama" icing)...

Macy loved it, and Lucy was so proud that she had helped with it.

Looks like we are off to a great school year. Hope your little ones are enjoying school too!!