Fall Decorating Ideas

I'm thrilled to show you some of the fall décor around our house! 

Mainly because I finally got around to doing it, ha!  Last year I kept meaning to show you my décor but we were so busy that I never got around to do it. 

This year though I am doing great with my schedule and am feeling like I am ahead on things.  When I have the time and am doing great around the house is when I have time to blog and show you the things that I am excited about.  If you check out my blog and it's all crickets then you know I must be under water here and can't come up for air let alone to blog. 

Anyway, I have a multi-faceted fall décor approach. Anyone else do this?  Labor Day I decorate with just leaves, apples, general fall stuff.  October 1st I add the Halloween décor I have.  November 1st I will swap out my Halloween stuff for my Thanksgiving stuff.  And then tada!  That's fall folks!

Here you go, let me show you around our home:

Okay, for starters this is on our coffee table in our living room. I have a hazelnut scented candle in this simple votive.  It is just a votive but it makes me smile...I have had this since we first got married.  Back when we didn't have any money this was just one of the few decorations for fall that I had.  So when I see it, reminds me of simpler times.  I still love it.

In the same room is our tv above the fireplace mantle.  I gotta tell you a secret: there are times I hate having the tv above the fireplace.  I know it's convenient but it really makes decorating a challenge sometimes. I can't say this is exactly my favorite thing in the world but I think it is nice.  I would like to have some more colors but the monochromatic is also nice. 

I know I am not the only one who has to decorate with kids in mind.  I say that because if you will see on top of the middle pumpkin there is the wii sensor. Of course.

I got the garland from QVC.  They light up and twinkle with LED lights.  It's so pretty and romantical when Nick and I are watching sports after the kids are in bed. The pumpkins are mercury glass.  I got them from the Yankee Candle Flagship store.  I believe you got one when you spent $100 or some absurd amount.  As you can see from my pumpkin amount, I have a hard time saying no to candles...they seem to leap into my cart when I am in that store.

In our living room between that and the blue room (yes that's what we call it) there is this weird window thing.  It is tall and just begs for tall décor.  It's always fun to see what I can come up with.  So I have a million artificial flowers and leaves and leaves and flowers, oh my!  My grandma decorated the altar at her church for years and she is always giving me tons and tons of arrangements.

This year I came up with this arrangement.  Nick had purchased this vase for me a while back.  The studio where Cal takes pottery classes frequently has things for sale and he purchased this for me (isn't he just the sweetest?). 

I just came up with this arrangement to be honest.  I knew I was going to need a biggish vase so I saw it and just started cramming everything in.  I love the leaves on top and how it all kind of fans out.  On the other side of the arrangement is the blue room (where the kids play and eat their lunch) so I made sure that the back of it looks nice as well. 

Next to the vase I have a simple candle votive and a statue of our family.  I love it!

In our dining room I again used when I had to make my decorations.  You should notice a theme around these parts, folks :)

This year I filled this hurricane with apples.  I had bought a kajillion pounds of organic apples at the store.  We go picking too but I couldn't beat the price for organic apples to I bought tons.  These were some of the ones that I still have and I just love the look of them. They are sitting on top of our china cabinet. 

I also have this sitting on our china cabinet as well.  I purchased this lantern years ago at a thrift shop.  I never knew what to do with it but somehow it just spoke to me.  So I have it crammed with all things fall.  I put a cute bow and some flowers on the handle to dress it up a little more.  I love it. 

Even this cute guy (a gift from my Grandma Jean!) makes an appearance in our dining room.  Our dining room is very formal but for holidays it's always nice to make things fun and celebrate.  After all, making others happy is what makes ME happy!

Moving on to our downstairs bath will give you an example of how I "sneak" fall décor into little areas of the house.  I love putting small things around.

I found this sweet sign and just had to have itHow sweet is it with the fun background pattern and the adorable burlap flower?  This is on a 9 cubbie shelving unit we have where I keep loads of cleaning supplies. 

Even on the back of the toilet I have some fun pumpkins.  Have I mentioned I love decorating??

In our solarium I must admit, I don't do much.  I have several large pieces of furniture but never know how to do anything with them.  Instead I like to put little hints of fall around.  This apple plaque and stand are from Hallmark and I paired them with this sweet apple basket candle holder I have.  How adorable is this thing?

In our foyer are these fun plates.  These suckers were super popular a few years ago. It seemed like everywhere you went there were tons of sets to choose from for tons of different holidays and occasions.  But I think they have faded in their popularity because they have been pretty difficult to come by.  But I love them anyway, and that makes me cherish the ones I do have even more!

On a side note you can see that we have a real "mission control" situation going on with the switches.  Geesh, it's a lot of them to handle!

Also in our foyer is this sweet shelf from Pottery Barn.  I like to put definite kid-friendly things here as this is what our kiddos friends see when they come to the door to ask if our kids can play.  Also, our kids are in the foyer lots in the autumn with their shoes and as they start to get back in the habit of wearing jackets again after the summer weather. 

For serious though, how stinkin' cute are these little guys? 

Our outdoor décor is where it's at.  Legit.  Which by the way, I had lunch with my best friend this afternoon and she reunited me with that word so you can thank her for that.  Legit.

Anyway, here's the "from far away" view of our door.  You've got 'cha garland and pumpkins, and ornamental kale, and pumpkins, and gourds, and mums.  The standards are there.  

I love our pumpkins.  Love, love, love.  Has anyone else seen a price increase in pumpkins?  Our pumpkins cost us $40 this year!  I almost fell over...like a pumpkin!

I always love a good pumpkin tower.

I love this sign on our house.  I purchased it earlier this year when we were visiting Tennessee and have been so excited to put it up! 

The last photo I have to show you is this festive wreath that my sweet grandmother made.  I love the giving spirit that my grandma has passed down.  She is always making things for people just to make them happy.  It makes me smile when I see it because it reminds me of her!

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So there's a taste of our fall décor.  I hope you enjoyed seeing what we have been up to in our house.  I love decorating and enjoying the seasons with our sweet, little family!

Ooey-Gooey Caramel Apples

We have apples coming out of our ears.  

For real. 

You can read all about our apple picking adventures here.  For some reason I always say we're not going to get that many apples this year...

And then we wind up with gobs and gobs of apples.  Budget fail!  Because they always go bad, ya know?  It really is true that one bad apple ruins the whole bunch...

Anyway, so I've been trying to use up these dern apples and I decided to just go for broke and make something super nutritious...

Caramel apples.  Which sounded super easy until I realized I have never made them.  So here's what I came up with and what I learned along the way...

Crock-Pot SCCPVC605-S 6-Quart Countdown Oval Slow Cooker with Dipper, Stainless Steel

I made my caramel sauce in the slow cooker.  I found a bowl that fit in my crockpot that still had room around it so I could lift it out.  I am sure this will be different for everyone so just mess with your bowls until you can find one that works for you. 

And by the way if you need a crockpot you can buy the same one I have on Amazon.  And right now it looks like it's on sale for 45% off for only $29.99.  You can click here to check it out. Deal!

Anyway, I then opened up the two bags of caramels that I bought at the store.  I got about half way through unwrapping one when I got this great idea and called in the kids to finish the rest.  I have no idea how many they ate.  I decided to turn a blind eye and not judge them. 

Anyway, a few minutes and a ton of wrappers later they were done and all of the caramels were ready to go. 

I then poured water carefully AROUND the bowl (not in the bowl).  You have to play around with this too.  I think I ended up with about 6 cups of water.  I say I think because I dumped a bunch of water in there and then when the bowl began to float I had to take some out.  As difficult as caramel apples are I didn't want to complicate things by having to follow a bobbing bowl around in the water. 

I then turned my slow cooker to high and let it go.  I stirred it about every half an hour to see how it was coming along.  My caramel took about two hours to get soft enough to dunk apples into.  The photo is what it looked like when it was time to dip.  I posted that one to show you what it should look like.  I didn't think it would be ready but upon completion of stirring it was ready and we were thrilled! 

I dipped the apples just as a precaution but the caramel didn't get too hot so I probably could have let the kiddos.  But safety first!  As you can see I used popsicle sticks and just jammed them in there about half way through the core.  None fell out which was good.  And no one had kabob skewers to try to impale each other with so even better! 

I would like to point out that these caramel apples are not what you would call "magazine perfect" but they are what you could call "kid perfect" because they helped and loved them and to me that's all that matters.  And besides who doesn't like an apple with ooey-gooey caramel running down the sides?

We dipped half of the apples in sprinkles and the other half left bare. I was thinking nuts but we had these when we had new friends over and I wasn't sure about nut allergies.  So maybe nuts would work next time.  I'm also posting these AFTER Halloween because I thought that chopping up leftover candy and using it as a topping would be a really great idea!  

My mother hen piece of advice here is to make sure you really scrape down the bottoms of your apples before you put them on the wax paper.  The caramel will ooze that way as God dictated that's how gravity works, so only scraping a wee bit off results in this big boogery end.  Which is just all caramel and sprinkles which can't be totally bad, right?

Oh and I thought that was my last bit of advice but it wasn't.  Make sure you spray your wax paper with a cooking spray.  We did not and on some of the apples I was stuck (get it? ha!) trying to pick wax paper pieces off of the apples.  Not so fun.  

I hope you enjoy making your own ooey-gooey caramel apples!  

Note: This blog contains affiliate links.  You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

Apple Picking 2015

These are the moments that I try to shove into the deep recesses of my mind so when I am old I can remember them.  I am so thankful for things like blogs so I can jot down the details of the day along with all of the wonderful photos and try to remember the time when they are this small.  I love these two children so much.  They fill my life with such joy.  

We go apple picking every year.  This year however was the first year that we went during October.  Picking apples in October apparently is very lame as there were hardly any apples.  But we learned our lesson and from now on will make sure that we go in September.  Before apple picking we always travel all the way to Bonneyville Mill for a picnic and some football.  

They have the most gorgeous Dahlia garden.  Seriously, out of a dream or something.  So of course I love taking pictures of our little lady with her little lady.  Can I please just bottle this age up of carrying a doll around in a sweet dress? I am sure I will blink and it will be gone.  This sweet girl and her happy heart captivate me.  I love being her Momma. 

And in a stark contrast from the sweet girl in a flower garden is the rowdy boy having fun climbing all over an old dam.  I love his adventurous spirit although most of the time it makes me feel like my stomach is up in my throat and I am suffocating.  But I am learning to let go and try to watch him have fun exploring.  

If you ever get the chance to go to this mill when it is operating you have to go.  You just have to.  Built in 1832 it's incredible that it is still working.  They have the cutest store that we buy our cornmeal from every year.  The photo above is the chute of the cornmeal coming out from the stone. 

There were these darling old bags and promotional items posted up from back in the day.  I thought they were so neat.  

After that we left the park and made our way to the orchards. 

These two are the apples of my eye...ey?  ey?  Ya get that? 

For the past few years I've been able to say "okay, bucket heads" and they've put their buckets on their heads.  But this year it was aparently cooler to shove his sisters bucket on her head than to put the bucket on his head.  

<sigh> it's the end of an era...

This year it was nice that they wanted to use the grabby stick thing because up high was about the only place that we could find apples :(  Boo.  

Success at last!  This seriously felt like it took forever!  Forever, Jerry! And can I please just have her clothes in my size?  So stinking cute! 

And then there's this guy.  He is such a goof.  Which I love.  He thoroughly enjoys going before me and looking for ways to make me laugh.  That or ways to make me freak out.  Either way he's looking out for my entertainment benefit.  I guess I will choose to look at it that way.  

Is there anything more peace inducing than to take the time to look at an apple and it's leaves.  It's such an amazing thing that God created because He loves us.  It just takes my breath away and I love sharing this type of thing with our kids.  The way that the star is formed inside the apple, all of the varieties, the way they grow on the tree, it all is just simply amazing.  

This is all we picked this year.  One reason because all they had were the "delicious" varieties which I tend to not find so delicious.  Another reason was that you could see these were heavily sprayed.  And the third reason being that Meijer has apples on sale for 59 cents this week and these puppies were 85 cents.  We got this amount for the memories, thank you. 

Have y'all gone and done your apple picking?  Were you late this year like we were or did you go earlier?  I'm curious is apples were in short supply this year or if it was because we were a week later than we normally are.  

Happy Fall, Y'all! 

Mommy's Back to School Shopping

I am so thankful for a husband who believes that the teaching Momma needs supplies too.  So in addition to the crayons, markers, notebooks, and gym shoes, I got some things too!


Nick bought me this cup at the Henry Ford Museum.  I  really do love history so this is the absolute best mug for me.  It was the last one and I was over the moon to be able to snatch it up!  I still can't tell if Nick got it for me to tease me or not, but I love it either way.

He also treated me to these beauties!  They are  Crocs!  So comfy!  I love that I can wear them with jeans and only the toes show and they just look like shoes.  But they are cozy and light enough to just wear around the house.  Perfect for me staying home and running out around town.  Plus they are the navy and pink I love!  

Last but not least I wore my new necklace Nick bought for me on our Anniversary trip.  It's a bubble necklace and I love it!  The colors are all the jewel tones of fall!  

So those were the things I looked forward to yesterday on our first day of school...it was hard to get up at 4 in the morning!  But it was worth it to get myself around, get dinner in the crockpot, laundry in the machine, and feel ready to go by the time I had to wake the littles.  

A Perfect Autumn Afternoon

Isn't it nice on those rare days when the stars align and you somehow find yourself in the ideal situation: a house full of new books to explore, a quiet afternoon to relax, and a fresh pot of coffee all to yourself.  

I think that is just about the closest thing to heaven.  

 Fresh from the library, I managed to coerce the children to read quietly while I flew through the adult section, frantically throwing books into my library bags...these are what I managed to come away with.  I threw my coffee in there for effect...you want to be here with me, don't you?  Snuggling under down comforters on either end of the couch and showing each other neat-o ideas we find in the books.  So fun!  Come on over...

 I've gotta tell 'ya, I am not much of a fiction reader.  I absolutely adore The Mitford Series and read those repeatedly.  Other than that I am not too much into the stories.  I seem to find myself gravitating to books on organizing, cleaning, cooking, and all things Christmas.

 This is one of the books that I absolutely adore.  It's "The Farm Chick's Christmas".  You can check it out here.    The book has so many ideas for decorating and cooking and gift giving.  And the pictures are gorgeous.  It's just fun, ya know?

 Here are some of the pictures...

 And this one...this looks like the easiest thing in the world but so stinkin' cute.

 And an old typewriter with a festive Christmas message.  See?  It's so fun!  Go out and buy this book!  Borrow it from your local library...do something to get this book!!!!

Can't wait to crack this book open.  Those are cake pops on the front...how adorable do those look?

So that's how I'll be spending the afternoon.  I hope you can find some time to sneak away and enjoy a yummy cup of coffee and a stack of good books.

Happy Halloween!

Well here we are, on the other side of Halloween! 

Hope you all had a great time!  I know our kiddos did.  My parents came over and went trick or treating with us in our neighborhood.  Living in a historic district it is so much fun to go to the old houses and beg for candy.  Half way through our jaunt my mom said "it's like we're on a movie set!"  and it really does feel that way.  You could be trick or treating in the 1950's and it would be the same. 

This year I dressed the kids as Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski from the famed show Saved by the Bell that aired in the 80's and 90's.  How cute are they? 

 Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba...Bayside!

 He heart's big phones :)

 Emma was cool being a cheerleader but Cal had no idea who he was supposed to be.  So half way through I told him his phone shoots lasers at people...so here he is shooting everyone and everything...then he liked it. 

And just so you don't think I am a horrible mother, I did let them dress up how they wanted.  Here are is our little Tinker Bell and our little Spiderman.  Halloween was about the 3rd time we had dressed up so I thought it was okay to have two different sets of costumes this year..we may do it every year just to make each time different and special rather than "okay you know the drill, costume back on!" 

Hope you all had a great time with your little ones!  We now have a bowl full of candy on the counter which is very tempting :)

Weekend Amazingness

Well this past weekend I can't say that we did anything spectacular.  Except one thing...

we got to love on Nick! 

Friday was the start of a three day weekend for him and we had so much fun with him!  It was his first day off in a month...no weekends off, and he's gone about 15 hours a day so when he does get home there's not much time for him to do much of anything other than eat dinner, shower, and go to bed. 

It was wonderful having our family all back together.  And kind of funny.  Nick hasn't been around so much that he kept trying to get the kids down for a nap (who don't take naps anymore), sending the kids up to their rooms with toys that we now keep downstairs, and trying to get them to watch programs we don't watch.  So funny.  I can't imagine what it would be like having a husband deployed or something...

We visited a lot of amish, went on a field trip, went to church, our zoo's halloween festivities, carved pumpkins, and laughed a lot. 

It was so wonderful.  We are so blessed.  Nick Sunday at dinner told us thank you for such a great weekend. 

But it's us that should be telling him Thank You. 

I'm sure there are so many guys who wouldn't be home on their first days off.

They'd be at the golf course.
Or a buddy's house.
Or a bar. 

But not Nick.  Nope.  He has no where else he'd rather be than at home with us.  With our messes and our tantrums, our loud playing, and our sword fights. 

And that to me, is amazing. 


Sidenote: I have pictures somewhere on my camera...goal today is to find camera :)

Little Pumpkins

As mentioned in my previous post, Emma and I have been sick.   Well yesterday (Saturday) I was still sick but I was determined to not spoil our plans.  Nick took the day off and we had so much planned I was a little worried about getting it all done and having it still be a fun day.  I mean, at what point does running errands on a beautiful Fall day stop being fun and simply become checking things off of your list of "to-dos"?

Well I shouldn't have worried because we had such a wonderful time together!  We started the day super early...we were out the door without any breakfast.  We stopped at this Italian bakery in our neighoborhood for doughnuts and coffee and then made the drive to a tiny town south of us that has a great butcher.

Since we were down there we made a drive to Nick's hometown to another store with great cheeses and bulk baking items.  We stocked up on things we need.  I love the fact that we live in a metropolis area but can drive 10 minutes in any direction and be in the country.   LOVE that.  I also love that we live so close to the Amish folks and can take advantage of their wonderful baked goods, produce, and meats. 

Anyway, we FLEW home, changed clothes and then it was off to a fashion show Emma was a model in.  After that it was time for some shopping, lunch out, a trip to a Nursey for mums (I heart Mums so much!), and then onto Pumpkin Picking!

While Pumpkin picking we had a great time but it was so weird!  It was 82 degrees out...Nick was in Birkenstocks for crying out loud!  Usually we're wearing gloves!  It was a weird day, and while picking pumpkins we had a Stealth Bomber circling overhead for the football game going on.  It was kind of weird but neat all at the same time!  :)

If you'll remember apple picking pictures the children were enamored by the wagon and as you can see here, they still love the wagon!  Apparently they have a system where Emma pulls, Cal pushes.  They fell into their positions quickly. 

 Emma found her pumpkin quickly and how cute is she?  I just love her to death!

 Here's Cal's...his isn't that heavy but he just could not figure out how to hold it...Nick's teaching him how.  Cute!

 These little pumpkins made Emma's day...she thought they were sooo cute!  They were 3/$1 so Nick told them each to pick 3.  Well Emma did quickly and Cal only had one.  He kept saying "I only have one" so Nick kept trying to help him pick 2 more out.  Finally Cal declared "I only have one because I only need one!"  Oh!  Now we get it.  I love that Cal doesn't like excess.  And sometimes he's confusing but when he let's us into how his minds working and what he's thinking it makes so much sense to us.  Nick just said "okay, that's cool" and we were done.  It's times like those that I love when he tells us what's going on in his mind. 

Here's our shopping trip.  I got pumpkins to stack so I'll have to take a picture of that when I'm done. 

So that was our day yesterday!  We came home, made dinner of burgers, brats, green beans, and pierogis, ate dinner, and collectively crashed on the couch to watch Gnomeo and Juliet.  It was a full day.  It was a gorgeous day.  It was a wondrful day. 

Happy Lord's Day! 

Salted Caramel Mocha Latte

Thanks, MomAdvice!

I would like to introduce you to the website of Mom Advice!  Mom Advice is Amy Clark's blog and while I've never met her (I saw her in Target once!), I consider her a friend.  Yep, that makes me sound like a weirdo stalker but I'm not I promise! 

I just consider Amy a friend because 1) we share a butt load of friends, 2) we live super close to one another (again, not a stalker, promise!), and 3) I've been reading her blog since the day when she was journaling about their journey out of debt long ago. 

Anywho, Amy does this crazy awesome thing in which she gets super high on caffeine in the process of copy-cating Starbucks' coffee specials.  The one she has put together this time is the Salted Caramel Mocha Latte.

The kids were good today, I managed to get out of bed at the correct time (it's the little things, right?) and so I thought I would treat myself so I followed her recipe jobby and made this. 

One word...amazing!!! 

The only thing I didn't have though was Caramel Syrup but I did have some weird Caramel Cinnamon (or Vanilla?) creamer so I used that.  I was a happy camper. 

Here is my reasoning for making these at home: I don't have the luxury of having a Starbucks right down the street...close it is, but I just hate schlepping the kids out to get myself a coffee.  Also the last Starbucks coffee I had was horrible!!!  I can't even tell you how bad it was.  Bleh.  Thirdly, I always feel bad buying coffee.  It's 5.08 for the pumpkin spick dealy and I don't make the money around here so I always just feel bad.  Sometimes I even call Nick and ask permission in which he acts like I'm this huge waste of space and time and tells me, yes for God's Sake just get the stupid drink. 

Okay then.

So now I can make them at home and everything will be right in the world.  Birds are singing, angels are all aflutter.  Ah, it's a beautiful thing. 

So click on one of the many links I've snuck in here to get the recipe yourself or click here to get it.  Just know that I couldn't get the exact recipe's link to work so if this doesn't take you to it just explore her blog until you find it.  It will be worth your time! 

A Tour of Our Autumn Loveliness

Thank you readers for keeping me accountable and on track with the whole idea of decorating.  Yesterday afternoon I was lounging around the house during naptime, trying not to fall asleep and wondering what house work I could do that would not disturb the children when I suddenly remembered decorating...I had told ya'll I would finish decorating and post pictures. 

So away I went.  In fact I was still at it when Emma came down from quiet time, so she was thrilled to help as well.  Here are some of the decorations...

 It's all about simplicity here.  I filled a bowl full of apples.  I am still so busy with apples, so these few can do a good job of sitting and looking pretty for the time being. 

 This is the newest member of our family.  Do you like?  Our neighbors gave it to us!  Can you believe the rocking awesome neighbors we have?  Nothing like having  neighbors who you feel are like a fill in set of parents and friends all at the same time.  They are such wonderful, wonderful people and we are so blessed by them!  Anyway, I really want to decorate the dern thing but can't come up with anything...any ideas? 

Ah, my little Hallmark sign and some pumpkins.  The sign sits on the buffet which is the perfect size for a five year old to add some pumpkin candles!

 Alright I left out the best part of this picture...the tv right above the cut off.  Here is my mantle this year/so far/I give up.  It's lame.  Emma added leaves.  Which are dead.  D.E.A.D. But she REALLY wanted to add them.  I want height, flare, pizazz, but again, ginormous television about it kind of prevents from having huge cornucopias or anything...I'm still working on this.  I think I may have to go shopping for some inspiration! Do they sell inspiration?

Here's the center of my mantle, again...LAME!!!  I'm working on it.  This is by no means the finished product.  I'm just going to keep telling myself that. 

 Here is my centerpiece on the dining room table.  Simple.  Is this lame that I used a wreath as a candle ring?  Let's call it inventive!

Giant candle...I have fun with thing adding things in around the candle...candies, sand, shells, it goes on and on.  This sits in a window between the blue room and the fireplace alcove in our living room, which I realize makes absolutely no sense if you've never been to our house and perfect sense if you have.  One of my best friends, Elizabeth, who has in fact never been to my home (hi!!!!) said she really wants to see it because she has this idea of what it is...so come on up!!!  We'll go shopping!!! 

Anyway I have a HORRIBLE confession to make to you...I had to scrape, scrape!, conversation hearts out of the bottom of this thing to get the pinecones and pumpkins in.  Yep, you heard it here first folks, I had left that thing sit since Valentine's Day with the same thing in it.  And do you know what the mortifying thing is?  It's in the center of our home. Not tucked away in storage or anything, nope, right there for God and everyone to see that I am some kind of moron who got used to looking at the gross nasty candy.  But that will just be our little secret so, shhhhh!

Here is the mirror in our entry way.  Hi mirror!  That's the top of my twinkly light tree in case you are wondering there on the right. 

 Here's my front door wreath.  Kind of proud of this thing because there's a story behind it.  My Grandma (whom I love dearly) makes wreathes, bless her heart.  Well since I had a purple bedroom when I was, oh about six years old, every wreath I get has purple roses.  Big, plump, lacivious looking roses.

Well anywho when we moved back home from Indianapolis she wanted to make me a wreath for my door.  I summoned all the courage in the world to tell her I had a different idea for a wreath...one with Fall colors since we moved in in September, and I gave her a picture of one like this. 

And she made it for me.  As far as I know I'm one of the only people to ever get a wreath with no flowers on it.  She thought it was ugly but said if that's what I want she'll make it.  I think it's just grand. 

And finally here's my pilgrim lady on the foyer table.  Hi pilgrim lady!  Her hat makes her look like a WWII nurse, but that's totally beside the point...and if you look REALLY  close you'll see that she has boots accompanying her at the bottom. 

So there's my tour...whew! I'm pooped...see yourselves out will ya?  :)

Decorating for Fall

This year I thought I was being pretty good about the decorating.  The week after Labor Day Nick schlepped the bins down for us and Emma and I got to it. 

But as life sometimes does, it got crazy, and for the past few weeks the two bins have been stacked together and the end of the couch, making for some weird collegy concoction of a coffee table. 

Today however I am vowing to get the Fall decorations put out once and for all.  I have so much stuff and a blank mantle right now, so there is no reason to do some decorating, there, if no where else. 

I browsed the internet this morning for some inspiration. Isn't that just the best thing?  So many creative ladies at the simple move of my fingertips...heavenly! 

Some of my favorites are below.  And I am making this promise to you...I will post pictures of my fall decor tomorrow...and it will be around the house, not just in a bin! 

I love the banner...not sure if I have enough creativity in me to make one but I have the "drive" to make it to Hobby Lobby :) 

I am in love with the twinkly lights!  We have twinkly lights for Christmas time outside but I am in love with this...What is that plant?  Wisteria?  Some neighbors down the way have wisteria like that with twinkly lights and I LOVE it!

Nothing is better than big, huge mums inviting you into someone's home. 

Happy Friday ya'll!  Have a great last day of the week!

Free Fall Printables

A Huge, Pumpkiny Spiced thank you to Myra at My Blessed Life for posting 12 free Fall Printables!  I LOVE printables!  Mainly because I can't design anything to save my life.  Period.  I mean, if you were to put a gun to my head and make me come up with something it would look like something off of Windows 95 and would have the creativity of a four year old. 

But anyway, I also love printables because I am a stay at home mom who doesn't have a lot of money to refresh my home decor as often as I would like.  The printables allow me to swap out frames with cute, seasony things from time to time.  They make me smile and so grateful for them. 

Anyway, you can click here to go and print some of your own. 

Fore!

Nick took the kids to the park by our house to teach them to golf.  The kids have been begging him to teach them for, like, totally forever. He didn't want to have them hogging the golf course somewhere so I suggested the park. 

Like, duh dude. 

The kids both seemed to really enjoy it. 

Cal liked it but had a hard time positioning his hands (gee, like he doesn't do that with every other thing he does).   It will be good for him to practice.  Well, the hands and how to NOT try to hit everyone in the face with the club/stick thingy. 

I love her little foot... :)

We made her carry the bag home...isn't she just so cute?

Nick really wants to get Cal into sports of SOME TYPE so he suggested golf...no other people you are trying to watch out of the corner of your eye while your brains telling you to intercept something, something and block, and grab and...We thought that was just too much for him right now.

So like I said the kids really enjoyed it.  And seeing how Nick is crazy good at golf, he enjoyed teaching them as well.  This is something we will definitely be doing more of. 

That is, if it ever stops raining here.  It's been a werid rain in that it has been raining pretty consistently for the past 4 days but there are no puddles anywhere.  We must have needed the rain. 

Well, pray for us.   Cal starts soccer tomorrow :)

Apples to Apples

Apple picking is one of the highlights of the year for us.

This girl is ready to go!  She grabbed the wagon on her own and hightailed it out of there.

Here we are!  Aren't they cute?

Bucket heads!

They are so cute...I just can't get over how cute they are!

Here's Emma's first apple

Here's Cal's first apple

Okay this is so cute!  I love these series of photos...while Nick and I were picking apples, you know, the actual work, they kids took the wagon up the hill in the background and then would come back down...

They would go up....push and pull, push and pull.

And then they would come tumbling down the hill like Jack and Jill...sometimes quite literally! Nick and I just held one another and listened to their squeals and watched them.  I praise God that they are able to live perfect childhoods...what a gift He has given them.

Here's Emma's basket!

Here we are almost reado to go.  We had one more basket too but we couldn't get it to fit...50 pounds of apples folks makes for one happy Mommy :)

Yummy!

Check out the size of these apples!  They are huge!