Fall pigtails...

It feels like fall is in the air here! Our house is nice and cool in the mornings and we start each day snuggling on the couch under a blanket. We also started going through Emelyn's closet in search for fall clothes that fit (which ended in me shopping for Ems yesterday!)

We did find some pants that fit... but the real reason for this picture is Emelyn's pigtails. I wish I could get a good picture that really showed what she looks like head on. They look so cute on her... and make her look quite grown up.

Pigtails after nap and lots of playing...

Finally, this one is a little orange, but I wanted to show you how long and curly her hair is getting. (She's helping daddy change the lightbulbs in the bathroom - such a big helper these days!)

On a random note, here are some other things going on these days:

• Our neighbor is due (actually over due) to have her baby boy any day and we're anxiously awaiting his arrival. Emelyn randomly will ask where baby Logan is... we are so thankful to be surrounded by such sweet neighbors!
• Tonight we went to visit a friend that owns cows. I made the mistake of telling Emelyn this morning that we were going to visit him after Jake got off work. All day she kept randomly asking "Mommy, go see cows at Papas? And piggies?" Then I'd proceed to tell her (again) that no, we aren't going to Grandpa's and that we won't see any piggies, just cows and horses, but not until daddy got home. To which she'd reply "Go pet the cows?" "Cows won't get you" and "Cows far away." I'm not sure what her fascination is, but throughout supper she watched the cows out the window giving us a play by play of what they were doing. "Momma! Cow eat grass!"
• Jake is feeling really good. In fact, he'd probably tell you it's the best his felt in many years... and we can tell... he has so much energy, sleeps great, fits into his clothes and has a normal hemoglobin - words can't express how grateful we are!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

A week ago, we met our new "Hog" in our church's "Adopt-a-Hog" program. We are blessed once again to be paired with a super sweet and fun girl! Hayley is a freshman from the Dallas area and we are looking forward to weekly family meals together. Friday afternoon she came over and we made cupcakes to take to Jake's office as an early birthday surprise.

We decided to experiment with making cupcake wrappers out of card stock... and once we had the football paper on, we thought it would be really cute to add "grass" on top.

So while we made some with Jake's favorite peanut butter frosting, we made some regular vanilla frosting in green too.

I wish we had found some cute football picks - maybe field goals - to put in them - wouldn't that have been fun?? Either way, we had a blast making them... and I think Jake's office enjoyed eating them.

I am so thankful for the man Jake is, and even more thankful that over 7 years ago he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him! It was especially fun getting to spend the day celebrating him - we went to Denny's for breakfast (he loves breakfast foods - especially on crisp 50 degree fall mornings!) then off to Tractor Supply, Lowes and all kinds of manly stores.

Emelyn always enjoys being with her daddy, but today she was especially particular to him, wanting daddy to do everything with her... she wouldn't even let me take her potty. All day long I heard "NO MOMMY! I want daddy do it!!" Sweet music to my ears in many ways!

Divine Dessert

Start with an amazing recipe that uses sour cream, cream cheese AND cottage cheese (along with butter, eggs & sugar) to create a rich yet fluffy cheesecake.

 Drizzle on some homemade mulberry jam from my sister...

Enjoy with precious friends from near and afar with all of their cute kiddos.

Literally, a sweet night. :)

And in case you're wondering, here's the amazing recipe I was given years ago... seriously, Cheesecake Factory is no match for this recipe.

• Graham cracker crust

• 1 lb. carton small curd cottage cheese, drained
• 2 – 8 oz. Pkgs. Cream cheese, softened
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ½ cup REAL BUTTER, melted
• 1 – 16 oz. carton sour cream
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place a shallow pan of water in the lower rack or bottom of your oven. This will add moisture while baking and keep your cheesecake from cracking on top. Be sure to add enough water to keep it from going dry during baking. I usually use a jellyroll pan (like a large deep cookie sheet) and add it as full as I can with water.
Prepare a graham cracker crust in the bottom of a LARGE springform pan. (Follow directions on side of box.)
Blend the drained cottage cheese (don’t worry if it doesn’t all drain out.) in a food processor (blender) until very creamy (looks like sour cream when ready). Beat cream cheese at high speed of mixer until creamy. Add the blended cottage cheese and mix well. Add sugar and beat well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add cornstarch, lemon juice, and vanilla. Blend well. Add melted butter and sour cream. Mix until all is well blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 70 minutes at 325. Turn off oven and leave cheesecake inside with oven door closed for 2 hours. Remove and cool completely before removing sides of pan. (NOTE: If you choose to top the cheesecake with a sour cream topping, you will need to add the topping as soon as it finishes baking and leave it in the 325 degree oven for about 10 minutes BEFORE turning the oven OFF. Turn the oven off and DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. Allow it to sit for about 2 hours to cool before removing to cool at room temperature. Once cool, slice a sharp knife around the rim of the springform pan and open the spring latch to remove (lift straight up for smoother sides).

For SOUR CREAM TOPPING: Mix well 1 - 16 oz. carton sour cream blended with ¾ to 1 Cup sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla. Spread evenly from the outside rim (touching rim) to the inside middle. Smooth flat on the surface. Return the cheesecake to the oven for a final 15 minutes to “set” the topping.

"Paci Doesn't Work"

Last night we "broke" paci in hopes to stop the paci habit at bed/nap times. Jake snipped off the end, and when Emelyn went to bed, she goes "Uh-oh! Paci doesn't work!" And that was it. We asked if she wanted to throw it away and she said, "No, Emmy hold it." Then this morning when she woke up, instead of asking to take paci out of the crib with her she said "I don't want paci... paci doesn't work." And that was that! Could it really have been this easy to break the habit?!? Time will tell I suppose. I still let her have it... she just doesn't want it since it's "broke."

So long, dear friend, paci... there were many many months that we didn't know what we'd do without you!

K-S-U

We ventured to Kansas City Friday afternoon for a quick weekend away. Friday evening we were able to visit some college friends and their daughters - it was so nice to catch up over dinner while the girls burned off some energy. Saturday we met up with some of my family at Arrowhead stadium for the KSU/ISU game. It ended up being a really good and exciting game, but I must say that spending time with family far trumps any sporting event!It was so nice to catch up with family and hear and see what the Lord is doing in their lives.

Walking to the gate with daddy

Dad, Jonathan and his friend, Corey (who's like a brother) - I'm pretty sure Corey has never worn purple a day in his life and may have even felt sick wearing it (poor guy is a die-hard blue and red guy.)

2 and a half Vissers :)

Valerie and Megan were both there showing their 16 and 17 week baby bumps... so sweet!

Hanging out waiting for the rest of the family to show up.

The only (blurry) family picture we took.

Chasing daddy

Sporting her new KSU shirt compliments of Uncle Jonathan (Thanks, Jonny!) It said "Saturdays aren't just for Cartoons. Little Wildcat Football Fan"

Cheering for the purple team!

Dad and Uncle Mike - can you tell they're brothers?

One tired little girl - she fell asleep in Jake's arms leaving the stadium.

It may be safe to say that Emelyn now knows 3 letters of the alphabet - K,S, and U. :) 

Wagon Rides

This summer we've spent many evenings putting miles on Emelyn's wagon going up and down our driveway.

A cheesy smile to get mom to stop taking pictures.

Getting in the wagon with dad, ready to go!

Whee! Down they go, across the street and up the neighbors driveway.

Then Ems lays down for the ride back up.

Quite simple, but we've spent hours doing just this, over and over and over.

New Dress

Thursday morning Emelyn and I decided to make a dress.

Step 1: Take a shirt and cut it off around the empire waist:

2.) Take a piece of fabric that is 54x18 inches long (although, I'm pretty sure this was longer than that) and make it into a tube by connecting the two short ends and hemming the bottom:

Then gather it once every inch until all 54 inches have been sewn to the shirt... and you have a dress!

And a girl that won't stand still for a horrible picture because she just wants to twirl in it!

We thought it turned out alright... I'm still wondering if it's a little too long, but I may want it that long this winter when we pair it with some boots, perhaps. Either way, for less than $5 and 30 minutes of cutting/sewing (thanks to my helper!) we made a simple little dress that Emelyn loves and insisted on taking to show Grandma this weekend. :)

23 Month Check Up

Before I forget to write this down, we went in for Emelyn's 2 year appt on 9/13 - basically at 23 months.

• 26 pounds
• 33 inches tall
• Average in both height and weight (not that that really means anything anyways...)

Pretties

Ahhh sweet Emelyn. We're realizing more and more what a girly girl she is. This past week I ran into Gap and Emelyn stopped at nearly every stack of clothes to exclaim "Ooo Mommy... CUTE!" or "Oh wow, pretty!"  And then I went to buy new running shoes this weekend and Emelyn had to look at and touch almost every pair of shoes and exclaim some ooo or ahhh over them.

Earlier this week (actually a week ago tonight) Aunt Valerie and Uncle Justin stayed the night and Emelyn remembered one of her fav things about Aunt Valerie (other than that she has kitties. :) Aunt Valerie always has pretty nail polish, so first thing in the morning (after they snuggled watching Mickey Mouse) Emelyn requested "pretties" and Val painted both Emelyn's finger and toe nails. Emelyn still admires them daily. :) 

Emelyn likes pretty hair too... whether that's combing mine or Jake's hair, or wanting us to fix hers (especially bows - she requests them daily!) Here's her hair braids today for church.

Such a cutie! (In my unbiased opinion of course!)

Art project

I know, I know... two non-artsy people like Jake and I should not tackle art projects, but I've had this idea in my head for some time and decided to try it. A couple of weeks ago we repainted our master and guest bedroom. With the new wall color, I was ready for some new wall decor but can't seem to find something I really like.

So... until I find the perfect decor... we went to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore and for $5 bought a large canvas and 2 different sized picture frames.

Then I went to my favorite fabric store and bought these two fabrics ($7:)

Then with the help of a little gorilla glue, I glued the print to the canvas, and then took the glass/backing out of the picture frames and covered the frames with the solid fabric. After placing them in different ways, I finally decided to glue them like this:

I really like how it turned out. Now I'm contemplating adding something else... maybe a large, painted, wooden letter "C" inside the middle frame? Or else a funny picture of us? Who knows... I'm just glad to have something on the wall. :)

Also, while at the fabric store, I picked up some cute Moda Fabric to use to make a dress for Emelyn this fall.

I had found this brown long sleeve shirt on clearance and now have the perfect use for it. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I can either keep it simple and have a fun every-day dress for her, or I could add some cute ribbons to dress it up too... we'll see what kind of sewing mood I'm in when I start. :)

County Fair

Saturday night we went to our county fair... we purposely waited until Saturday night b/c the weather was suppose to be nice... but mainly b/c there was a home Razorback game which meant we knew we'd have the place practically to ourselves... and we just about did. We all had a blast! When we told Emelyn we were going to the fair to see animals she immediately asked to bring her cow (seen in her hand in pics.) The first place we went at the fair was to the barns full of show animals. She thought the cows and pigs were neat... the sheep not so much. :) So we headed to the "petting zoo."

Not terribly crazy about the bunnies (which were so furry that you couldn't really tell what they were!)

Her favorite stop, hands down, was to see the baby calves.

She talked to them and asked if they were tired...

Then we found her least favorite animal... as in she may be having nightmares about this "beast" for months to come. Behind the ewe below, are two cute little lambs. Emelyn bent down right next to them and said "ahhh.. sheep... soft!" and about that time, the momma, seemingly out of no where, was all of a sudden in her face, as close to Emelyn as she could get and let out the loudest "BAAAAAA!!" that she could. It scared us all, but if effected Emelyn the most. I seriously don't think she breathed or moved for about 10 seconds, and then started screaming at the top of her lungs and couldn't stop shaking. Poor girl. She was jumpy the rest of the night.

So from them on she just wanted to see the tractors (the first thing she spotted when we arrived.)

In fact, she forewent the prettiest pig contest (super funny and adorable I might add... who knew pigs could look so cute when dressed up to match their owners!) to go from tractor to tractor with daddy to sit on each one.

We ended the night with a yummy funnel cake.

A quick funny: Emelyn sometimes carries on conversations with herself. On the way home from the fair, we asked Emelyn if she had fun and what was her favorite part. She answered tractors and so we asked her what else she saw, and she goes "Cows! What else? Pigs! What else? Chickens! What else? Bunnies! What else? Kitties! What else? Puppies! What else? Horsies! Yaaahhhh Emmy!"

Such a hoot! She even cheered for herself at the end. :)

Ballgirl

Last night Jake played softball and Emmy & I were there to cheer him on.

She also had fun running around playing with her "bouncy ball." She didn't seem to understand that it was a softball.

Going up and down the stairs entertained her much of the night...

Well, that and the mud at the bottom of the sidewalk. :) The mud was between mommy at the top of the stairs and daddy in the dugout, so she went through it often.

As her shoes show: