Hey Ya'll, It's Fall!

I am so far behind, it's ridiculous. I give up and I totally blame it on Facebook. I have so much I need to post between here and April, but the more I think about it, the less I want to blog, so I am just going to do what I want to do and post the current happenings.

My house is ready for the fall season and I love it. Nothing extravagant, but I am learning more and more that I'm not a fan of clutter and that simplicity is the way to go.

Here are the things that are making me happy right now:

1. These cute fall blocks that my sister, Alyssa made last year when she helped me with my Super Saturday projects. They have fall written all over them....literally.

Mwahahahahah, I'm funny.

2. Orange lights on the piano. Yes, yes, and YES!

3. A thankful tree that the kids and I made. On the back of each leaf, the kids wrote down things that they are grateful for. It definitely looks homemade, but it holds some major sentimental value. I love it and I love that when my kids talk about it, they say "The leaf-is look so pretty!"

("Leaf-is" = Leaves)

And here's a Christmas creation.

No, I'm not decorating my house for Christmas yet, although many of you probably wouldn't be surprised if I did.

My sister, Jenna came up with the idea to make this after seeing something like this on display when we were on vacation in Grand Lake, Colorado.

It was so fun and simple, I thought I would share.

All you need are a set of branches from Hobby Lobby, some miniature jingle bells (I used red, but silver is really pretty too), and some clear beads.

The bells and beads slide right on and then you hot glue them to keep them from moving.

Tie some ribbon at the base of them stems and you have yourself a beautiful arrangement of jingle bell branches!

Now I will move onto us ( just in case you forgot who we were).

This is pretty much my favorite picture right now. Jim would die if he knew I posted this,

but oh well.

I love it because it currently describes how my man is when he gets home from work. He loves his kids and he makes sure they know it. As many of you know, Jim is a contractor and he works very hard. I often take for granted all that he does to ensure mine and the kids' happiness. Running a business is kind of a big deal, but he does it happily and comes home happy too! All three of my kids turn him into a jungle gym when he walks in the door every night.

It's tradition.

Don't mind this next picture. I look like a goon and Emma's hat is two years too small for her. It's sad when you have to ask your 5 year old if he can take a picture of you because no one else does.

Anyhow, life is going really well for me, not easy by any means, but I really have nothing to complain about. I feel very privileged to be able to stay home with my three little ones, and take care of our home. Yesterday, I was able to just keep things low-key at the house. We didn't have to go anywhere, nor did I have any desire to. My kids spent the entire day playing in the living room with a bin of their toys, while I did a bunch of laundry, ironed, cleaned bathrooms,mopped floors, and even made some bread! I do these things every week usually in a rush and stressing out about how I am going to get it all done, but yesterday I really tried to think about what a blessing it is that I get to do ALL of these things.

What a difference it made in my day!

Next up, we have this little dude who is turning into a very big kid. Braddock turned 5 last month and just started preschool this fall. He loves to wrestle, build anything with Legos, and pretend like he's in combat( Honestly, our house always sounds like a battle is going on). Braddock also can color like it's nobody's business. He will spend an hour on one coloring page until it is perfection. He is extremely meticulous about his work and very visual. Hopefully this will one day apply to the way he does his chores :) .

Emma is as feisty at they come. She has a strong spirit in a petite little body and wants everyone to know that she can do it herself. In fact, she tried to prove this to me yesterday when I specifically told her not to pick up a two gallon container of salsa that needed to be brought in the house because it was too heavy for her. Seconds later, I discovered that the 2 gallons of salsa was now flooding my driveway, thanks to our little ambitious Emma. It looked like someone had hurled from my car to the front steps.

Nonetheless, Emma is very smart, and loves to learn anything and everything. Her brain is a sponge that seems to retain everything she sees and hears (which means I have to be careful what I say and do). Emma's current favorite movie is "The Sound of Music". She loves all of the songs from it, especially "My Favorite Things". In fact, Emma is going to dress up as Fraulein Maria for Halloween.

Lastly, is our little Dawson who is growing up way too fast! He will be 8 months old tomorrow and I am not sure HOW that happened. For the last month, he has been crawling all over the place and is now pulling himself up onto anything he can get his hands on. He is by far my busiest kid, but he has a very bubbly personality and a contagious smile that melts my heart like butter every time! I'm pretty sure he'll learn to use it on me anytime he knows he's in trouble.

As a whole, we are enjoying our time together and this glorious fall season!