pumpkin picking

We spent this afternoon at a local farm picking pumpkins! Such a fun family time and definitely a tradition we will continue throughout the years!

Adeline loved her first tractor hayride out to the pumpkin patch.  She was a bit groggy from her nap...but the excitement was there...promise! ;)

As soon as we got off the wagon, we had to stop for some photos with our cute little pumpkin!

We spent a while finding the perfect pumpkins! But had tons of fun doing it! Adeline was mesmerized by all the "buhs" (her word for pumpkin since they look like a ball to her ;).

We found two great, bigger pumpkins easily.  One nice, bright orange one for carving and a fun lighter color pumpkin that I just thought was "pretty".  We had to search hard to find a little one for Adeline. :) But after much searching, her Daddy found her the perfect one....knotty, green and all....but she loved it.  She hugged it and smiled at it.  It was precious! I think she has a thing for green!

We found our three perfect pumpkins!

And of course our gal had to spend some time at the petting zoo!

fall fun

Our home has been humbly decked with Fall decor.  I decided that if I didn't do it now, it might not happen before Adeline makes her debut.  Now let's hope we have the energy to take down the Fall decor to put up Christmas. ;)

Happy Fall!!

our weekend

This weekend was one of those great weekends where Justin and I were able to spend a lot of time together relaxing.  We also were very productive.  Relaxing and productivity....weekend perfection in my book! (Sorry for being a bad blogger and slacking on pictures...)

Friday

-Dinner out with my parents and little brother.  He was in from school and I was happy to see him!

-TJ Maxx trip where we found the perfect lamp for the nursery.  (Justin actually spotted it--go hubby!)

-Home Depot trip with Justin to get much-needed hardware items for hanging things in the nursery.

-Couch time

Saturday a.k.a. "Baby Date"

*Justin decided that this past Saturday was a "Baby Date" because we had lots of things to do that revolved all around Adeline (yes, she's stealing the show already ;)*

-My first experience at IHOP (Justin loves the place!)...the traditional French Toast hit the spot! I received my first crazy stranger attention.  As I walked in the door, the ladies went crazy over my "cute bump"...oohing and ahhing.  It didn't stop until we left.  So funny.

-We had our "Basic Baby Care Course" at the hospital.  Some good stuff.  But we both decided that all-in-all it was pretty boring.  The breastfeeding class kept our attention a lot more...much more informational.

-Our hospital tour followed right after.  (Not gonna lie...seeing the actual delivery room made me nervous.  I'm still going with the "what you don't know won't hurt you" motto.  I can remain naive for a few more weeks, right?)  The tour was good.  We feel great about the hospital.  Their security system for newborns really impressed us.

-Wendy's stop because this pregnant girl is always hungry.

-Hobby Lobby stop to get mirrors I just had  to have for the nursery...but we ended up not even using them.  Now I have to take them back.  Grr my indecisiveness and impatience.

-Home to relax for a bit and then we worked for a long time on the nursery.  So fun...but definitely took patience.  Let's just say my husband holds me together when I often want to fall apart over silly things...such as the curtain rod not looking just right.  (We are still placing a few finishing touches and then I will let y'all see it!)

-I actually cooked dinner--Fettuccine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken--it was Justin's "reward" from me for working so hard on the nursery.  Food works every time. :)

Sunday

-Church

-Lunch after at Arby's with our families

-I organized my new coupon binder (more to come on that).

-Justin worked outside while I went to the grocery.

-I took my first attempt at freezer cooking (more to come on that, too).

-Dinner at home

-Decorated the house for Fall

-We ended the evening playing Yahtzee (Justin had never played!) and relaxing.

That's it in an nutshell.  It was one of those great weekends that makes a Monday morning even more difficult! How was your weekend?

giving thanks...

For precious time with wonderful family and friends over the Thanksgiving break! What a much-needed time of relaxing and fun that took place! Here's what we were up to over the weekend through pictures.

My grandma and brother carving the turkey...since my parents are in the middle of remodeling, they were using the top of the dryer to do this! ha!

My PaPa (left) and PaJack (right) waiting on lunch

With the hubby on Turkey Day

Boone "helped" my brother

With our annual ornament....Mom started a tradition last year of giving us all an ornament on Thanksgiving to welcome the Christmas season.  So fun!

With our momma!

The guys cleaning off the table!

Family portrait numero uno

We got a little silly....

And then even more silly.

 In the evening we celebrated with Justin's family at his Aunt's and Uncle's.  I was so busy having fun chasing around my little, twin nieces (and watching my 4 year old nephew investigate video games for the first time) that I forgot to take pictures! It was such a fun time celebrating with family there as well!

We came home Thursday night and relaxed for a while.  We looked out the window at one point and saw SNOW!! So festive!

The pumpkins getting covered in snow...we had a nice, white blanket of snow by Friday morning!

Friday consisted of A LOT of shopping! We don't get out super early, but it's a fun tradition to spend the day together shopping with my aunt, grandma, and mom.  After a whole day of Black Friday shopping, we had to be extra careful getting all the bags out.  Yikes!

 

 

And Boone had fun cleaning up the left overs after we ate them again on Friday night.

So much fun! What a wonderful time of celebrating! I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed as well! See yah tomorrow for our 12 days of Christmas link-up!

friends, pumpkins, fun

This Sunday we spent some time with our friends, Chad and Cheri, at a local farm.  We took a hay ride to pick pumpkins, acted like kids by taking some silly pictures, and ate homemade ice cream! A much needed relaxing day that was good for the soul! 

(All pictures are courtesy of my talented friend, Cheri, with the amazing camera.  

Hope Santa's listening and gets that hint!)

a hut of pumpkins

Chad and Justin being silly...they're good at this role

Chad and Cheri

us with our pumpkins

on the hay ride

cheesin'

my man with our first pick

nothing says fall like the perfect pumpkins

Fall Link-Up...Today!

Welcome to the party and Happy Fall! Grab the button, link-up, and write about anything Fall!

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For a few weeks now, I have been tempted to break out the fall decor. Rationalizing it in my mind...I decided there is really only October and November left before Christmas...and I like to start decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, so I decided it was time.  Time to break out the fall decor! (Does anyone else play mind games like these in their head or is just me?)

I was delighted to be able to walk straight to my "Fall Decorative Items" Rubbermaid tub in our basement.  It's moments like those, where I am so thankful I take the time to try to get organized (by no means is it a perfect system) as I decorate for different seasons and put decor away after each season.

I even keep items like decorative towels for each season in the designated tub so that they're out of our way during the rest of the year, but handy when we need them for the season!

Something else that I find helps me stay organized as I decorate for different seasons and times of the year, is to have a Rubbermaid container that is dedicated to home decor items that I don't have room for during a special holiday or time of year, but plan on bringing them back out once the season is over.  (Another option to this dilemma is to re-purpose items around the house.  For example, I moved a vase that usually is next to our television to another table so that there would be room for this wonderful decoration...one of my favorites that I bought at an arts and crafts fair last fall.)

On with the actual decorating...

Who doesn't love using a wreath to say "Welcome to our home"? I took a long strand of flexible berry garland and wrapped it around a grapevine wreath to create this look.  I've had it for quite a while so it's showing a little bit of wear...but I'm always a sucker for a grapevine wreath.

Another fun idea is to leave the items you normally have out...but decorate around them so that they fit in with the new season or holiday.  One example are our candles that sit on a table next to our entertainment center.  I left them...

But added a little fall color to the table.  (With help from a place mat I found on clearance at Kohl's...I have a thing for circular place mats.)

I also did this with our magazine rack in the living room.  I simply traded out fake moss around the candle....

For a gold candle holder to add an orange-y (yes, I made that word up) glow to the corner of the room.

Of course, I also had to change over the kitchen table decor.  I dispersed the lovely flowers (that I talked about here) around the house in different locations.

The materials:  large vase (from our cabinets), fake leaves (from the fall tub), candle (from another room in the house), two place mats folded in half and layered, our lazy susan, and the canvas table runner I talked about creating here.

I'm loving the layered look with the varying stripe patterns.  Plus, the orange-y (there's that made-up word again) colors are fun and add a pop with the other neutral tones.  Again, here I am using place mats.  They honestly are hardly ever used for their real purpose in our bungalow.

Since we don't have a fireplace or mantle, I tend to use our foyer table as my decorating outlet.  It gets "spruced up" with every new season and holiday.  It recently went from this...

To this...

The materials:  a fall runner, a vase we had, a pumpkin I purchased a couple years ago that I love (it says "Trick-or-Treat" on the other side...so I will turn it around closer to Halloween), some fake fall foliage, and a scarecrow that my grandma gave us (Boone barks at this little man quite frequently).

I simply stuck the fake foliage into the already existing house plant.

And turned this orange-y (I'm sensing a trend) vase upside down to elevate the pumpkin for a little more "pizazz".

Fall decorating is fun for me...and I really don't overdo it, because I feel like our bungalow nestled among so many trees, already lends itself to this time of year.  Our home decor colors are very earth-toned and include pops of yellows, reds, and oranges all year long.  Fall just seems to "fit" our home.

And as us southerners like to say....Happy Fall y'all!