Simple Fall Decor in Our Entry, Living and Dining Rooms

It's Thanksgiving Week! I'm not one for decorating early (before Thanksgiving) for Christmas. However, this year, I find I've got the itch to move the autumn things out to make way for the lights and sparkle. Last fall, we had painted lots of the trim and the door white, but the walls were still pretty awful. I love how fresh and light the space looks now.

 Simple but festive on our front porch

I'm still loving the sectional sofa in our family room/living room. It opens the space up the way I'd envisioned.

Here's a look at the dark leather furniture in here- it was still such an improvement getting the TV mounted on the wall so we move the couch to that wall.

I admit, I did not bring up even half of the decorations I normally do. I used fresh flowers and food basically. And I liked it, but I missed some of my favorite things.

Somebody didn't mind all the pumpkins and gourds around the house!

Plus they made fun bath toys :)

Just some candles and faux flowers for this hallway.

I have not finished with that far wall, but it looks so much better than when we started. This was taken a couple of days after we moved in. You can see all the wood trim and that ginormous brick fireplace with the stone cold slab of granite (which weighs like a thousand pounds...no joke!)

This is not a very good picture...I'll have to change it out... but it shows our framed ship lap wall. We removed that awful gold wall mounted fixture and finally kissed the green farewell. A year later and we still haven't done the mantel. #lifewith5kids

And because this picture always makes me smile. This was really the only decoration that I ever loved on it. :)

Baby shower post HERE

I'll be making Pumpkin Pecan Pie and Sweet Potato Casserole this year...can't wait! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Ten on Ten // November 2017

I couldn't believe how quickly October flew by, and now we're nearing the middle of November! Why is time speeding up? And how can I stop it?

Friday was the 10th, and there was no school due to Veteran's Day. It was a really low key day, which actually felt really nice. Poor Ethan was sick and had to forego driving up to Maine to meet up with my Dad for a few days, and then Jonah started feeling kinda lousy. Obviously that part wasn't nice, but I tried to make them feel better with lots of yummy treats and stuff.

Well let me back up a bit. This nugget has been having some sleep regression so we were up and at 'em early early.

It was hailing and snowing outside, which was a complete surprise- I know I took a picture of it but I can't find it, weird- and Levi played in our room while I made the bed up. Of course we had to have hot cocoa since it was the first snow!

He licked the whipped cream off the spout but had zero interest in the hot chocolate. Silly boy.

Isabelle wanted to take a hot bubble bath, and Levi was acting tired and fussy, so I popped him in the sink for a little bubble bath of his own.

 His little serious face kills me. He really was having fun, promise!

This was also right before he yanked the faucet and sprayed water all over the window sill. HA

Thankfully he took a nap. I've become obsessed with taking sleeping pictures of him. I mean, how can I not? Look at him!

I'm cheating with this photo, it's older. But I did spend time simply enjoying our fall decorations, and planning ahead for Christmas. I put up just a couple of small things before Thanksgiving but don't all-out decorate until that weekend. I've loved our fall things but I'm definitely getting the itch for Christmas everything!

The kids were all plugged into something while I tried to get some sewing done. I figured it was a day off so they should be able to enjoy it with something I'm normally much stricter about.

 Next, I was photographing nightgowns and pajama pants in the sun room, only it was freezing out there, ha!

After my husband got home, I headed out for a bit - JoAnn Fabric and the grocery store. Patterns were on sale! They're like my drug. I can't get enough. I love making these fun tops for Isabelle. (Also, I don't sell things that I make from patterns like these- these are just for fun.)

Here's one of the small Christmas things :)

Isabelle was modeling one of my new designs- the listing is here if you want to see the whole thing.

I was running late because everything was taking soooo long, and I had the most of the stuff for pizza, so they couldn't really get started without me. Yes, I know, Friday nights are Burger Nights, but I'm the boss and I mandated a change, ha ha. Doesn't that look so good?! It's BBQ Chicken Pizza, sooo yummy!

 

I was in bed pretty early. #lame 

Or #momlife

You decide, ha! I think these dark afternoons are making me think it's time for bed by seven o'clock, yikes.

And that was my day. I love looking back on posts like these. I always think I'll remember every single detail, or at least the big ones, and I don't. I would forget everything if I didn't write it down or blog about it. Granted, it may not seem like much for the time being, but in a few years, it seems really special to have these details. Now it's late, so goodnight!

Our Family Themed Fairytale Halloween 2017

It's hard to believe that this was nearly one week ago! It's the first family theme we've ever done, and while I'm a little sad that it didn't include ALL of us, that didn't stop me from having lots of fun with the whole thing.

Somewhere along the way Isabelle and I came up with the idea about Little Red and her Big Bad Wolfie. We could even reuse her Laura Ingalls Wilder outfit, which is always music to my ears! But then I wanted to participate, which meant I forced the hubs to participate, ha ha, and it just worked out great.

Truth be told, I had seen one image on Pinterest where the Mom was the hunter and the Dad was Granny. I thought they looked SO cute and I couldn't wait to try that. However, Isabelle was having a fit and refused to cooperate. Fun, right? And also, if I were to take a completely honest viewpoint, it just didn't look that cute for us. It was kind of creepy, and not in the good way.

So back to the traditional roles we went. Scowling faces somewhat restored. And we did have fun. First , there was a big trick or treat party at the high school, so we met with friends and had a blast there. Then we were going to have a fun trick or treat brunch, but either everyone got sick or had last minute things come up, so we had to postpone that, and on Halloween night, it was just the four of us, walking all over our neighborhood under a nearly full moon, and it was such a beautiful, balmy fall night. I'm calling Halloween 2017 a big success. :)

 Happy Halloween from the Hunter, Granny, Little Red & the Big Bad Wolf!!

I just realized that I've got some really cute pictures still on my phone and I hear someone upstairs, so I'll have to get to those later. How was DST for you? Surprisingly, things went pretty smoothly here. I was shocked!