SHOWERED WITH GIFTS...

The wedding fun stuff is already happening! Our daughter and her fiancee were the recipients of a shower from the church they attend!  

They wanted to invite men too, and would you believe some came???  I guess it's a new trend!

So thankful for these sweet ladies who hosted and made it so special for them!

FALL FUN...

Loving this Indian Summer and being able to get out and enjoy it!  

The Hubs and I rode along the Oklahoma River bike trail and went on an "adventure" as I like to say, finding the Skydance bridge!  It was a thrill to go over it, with semi-trucks honking at me from below!  

Then I guess I have to admit that I have embraced our son's "Mystery Machine" for his snow cone business by using it for our church's Trunk or Treat.  We have some pretty great friends who joined us in being the Scooby Doo gang!

PUMPKIN FAVORITES...

Enjoying pumpkin season!  

I don't think we've ever had so many jack-o-lanterns around here, but the boys and their friends have been busy!

 I've made these 3 times already this fall - Pumpkin Sugar cookies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting!  They are SO GOOD!  Check Pinterest for the recipe.

One of my favorites!

I'm also a big fan of pumpkin bread - my MIL has a great recipe with lots of ginger in it!  Another favorite treat is a Starbucks hot chocolate with a pump of pumpkin spice in it.  

What are your favorite pumpkin-y treats?

FOLLOWING THEIR LEAD...

 I spent fall break in Denver with my girl and her fiancee!  Did some wedding buying and planning and tried to appreciate all the beautiful fall colors too.  Pretty busy but fun!

 This is what you do when you live in the city - you park and walk a few blocks to the good restaurants because of parking issues.  But it's a gorgeous walk.  (Maybe that's why Coloradoans are the fittest people in the US?)

See what I mean?  Beautiful!

Checked out the venue...

Spent some bucks...

 and I made fast friends with the MOG since the kids were working and she had a car to drive me around!

We had a good time tasting food for wedding catering and did a little antique shopping!

This was my favorite time with my girl - just the two of us after a busy day - we were crafting and planting and she was grilling dinner.  I think she'll miss this little house in this cute neighborhood!  But she's excited to be starting a new life in a new neighborhood with her man!

My morning walk in Wash Park - how great is our God!!!

MY NEW FAVORITE SITE AND GETTIN CRAFTY...

http://tentsandevents.finelinenrental.com

Knee-deep in wedding planning and I stumbled onto this rental place in Colorado.  They have a virtual design center where you can pick your table cloth - colors and patterns, runners of different colors and patterns too!  You can actually see how the colors and patterns work together.  I'm thinking of making some runners so this is awesome.  Kinda like one of those sites where you pick wall colors and papers for home decorating!

The hubs and I got a little crafty over the weekend and made this marquee letter after our daughter expressed some interest in having them at the "theater wedding."  There are a lot of tutorials on Pinterest and this one is the one made out of foam board.  We wanted it to be lightweight, versus the ones made of wood and metal.  Turned out pretty cute, I think!  Now to figure out just where we might use it...

NEW COLLEGE CREW...

So it begins (again)!  We had our first college kid dinner with our freshman and his new friends this past week.  We missed September due to all the stuff going on in our family.  But we had a big group and met lots of sweet, appreciative boys who claimed "this is the best meal I've had since I got here". We made a basic meal of smoked chicken, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, salad, and bread.  Then I added in a couple of unexpected dishes like spicy roasted butternut squash and marinated tomatoes from our garden.  We also had lemon cake, but the hit of the evening were these:

Pumpkin sugar cookies with Cinnamon cream cheese frosting - look on Pinterest for the recipe!

STEPPING OUT...

this past weekend and trying some new things!  Always good to keep you on your toes!

The International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie has been going on a number of years, but we had never gone, nor did we think we'd ever want to...but our friends had gotten some tickets and asked us to go with them.  We were pleasantly surprised and had a great evening!  One of the groups, the Cleverly's, had just finished performing in Branson and had a very polished act.  Not only were they a great band, but great comedians as well!  We laughed a LOT.  Another act we really enjoyed was a young lady from Canada who played the fiddle and danced.  Impressive!  It was pretty funny when her shoe broke on the first song and she just duct taped it together and continued on with her act.

Also, I spoke at a Ladies' Day at the Weatherford church.  I didn't know a soul there so was a little nervous!  I shouldn't have been - met the coordinator of it as soon as I walked in the door and met many others who had connections to people I know in my home congregation.  They had a great day planned and I enjoyed being a part of it.

M-O-B FASHION ADVICE...

Here's your chance to weigh in with your vote for the mother of the bride dress!  I have had a hard time deciding and felt the time crunch so I just bought all these and will be taking four of them back.  Believe it or not, I shopped 5 stores one day last week, and the last stop was at a well known discount store.  They were having a "dress event" and they had all these dresses there that looked as nice as some of the ones in the better stores.

So my initial criteria for this morning brunch wedding with the bridesmaids in green was this:  No long dresses, no matching the bridesmaids, and sleeves!

So, what's your vote? (sorry for the bad phone photos)

 Purple with sheer slit sleeves

 Emerald full length

 Taupe with gold sequins

 Navy with jacket

Burgundy with side sweep

MY ADVENTUROUS GIRL TURNED 25...

It's hard to put into words how much I love her and how proud I am of the beautiful Christian woman she is...she has done things I never dreamed of:  going to college 6 hours away from home, having some incredible adventures in this big wonderful world, moving to a new state, trusting that a job would come.  She works hard and plays hard.  Happy 25th, sweetheart!

And now she's engaged to be married and getting ready for another great adventure!  

(playing dress-up at age 4)