Taco Soup Night

I am a bit of a soup-a-holic.  Soups are just so easy, filling, and soothing on cold nights.  My family particularly loves taco soup, and Hadley loves to help me prepare it.  It takes so many canned goods, that we use her shopping cart to go to the "store" (pantry) and pick everything up at one time.  She has been on a major cooking kick for several months now.  My little helper.

I let her think she was reading the recipe, and then I REALLY read the recipe.  She got all the canned goods and put them in her shopping cart.

 

Our favorite Sunday night meal that Ma (Justin's grandmother) makes, is Soup Night!  She makes potato, vegetable, jambalaya, and chili.  And then there's cornbread, sandwiches, and desserts galore.  She's one amazing woman.

 With every can, I had to give one little push to make sure she was well in the middle of the pot before pouring.  She tends to stay close to the edge, which makes me nervous.  I guess all that is good practice, though.

Mmm, delicious soup from a delicious little helper.  Bring on soup season!

Canaan County Apple Festival

Well, it's no secret that the newest addition to our family is the "apple" of our eye.  We are beyond blessed to have this rambunctious ball of fire in our family.  I really had no idea what we were missing yet, somehow, it feels like he has been with us forever.  We had what truly felt like the first day of Fall, to host the Canaan County Apple Festival.
 

The Giving Tree has a little boy on the cover, hoping to catch an apple as it falls from the tree.  I thought that was appropriate decor for the gift table ;)

I loved this sweet verse that was a prayer of David's, when he felt troubled.  I pray that Canaan will always want God to take of him.

Weldon Park provided a beautiful backdrop for our rustic, Fall-themed party.  The walking trails throughout the woods are so serene.  They kids loved sliding and swinging the most.

I cut out apples and hung them from branches.  On each apple, I wrote a fun fact about Canaan.  It was so sweet thinking about special things about our sweet boy.

I used the apple theme for some of Canaan's newborn photos. Displaying the picture of him in the apple bucket wearing the crocheted apple diaper cover and hat, helped tie our theme together. 

 

It was, especially, bittersweet adding Canaan's 12 month picture into his frame.  Oh, how I love watching him grow, though. 

 

We served apple juice for the kids at the party and apple cider, from Jackson's Orchard, was a refreshing treat with our sweets.

For sweet treats, we had cupcakes, red and brown thumbprint cookies from the local bakery, apple fritters, and apple dip.

I saved Canaan's baby food jars, for a few weeks, to store homemade apple butter.  The house smelled amazing when all those ingredients stewed together in the crock pot.

Individual old fashioned apple pies were the other party favor for guests to take home.

Canaan was not a bit shy about digging in to the icing on his cupcake. I put some on my finger, at first.  But after that, he just dug right in.   At least one of the two whole teeth in his head, is definitely sweet.  He even got icing in his eye at one point. 

 We were so thankful for the sweet family and friends who came to celebrate Canaan's first year of life. We are thankful for Godly people in our lives who will encourage Canaan in the ways he should go.  Canaan, we love you so very much.  Happy 1st Birthday to our sweetest boy!