Surprise Mail

Yesterday I got the funnest surprise in the mail!  A friend from college sent me a sleeper that was custom made by her friend.  It is SO cute.  Her friend has an Etsy shop called Just A Mama with more super cute things!!

 

 This gift really meant a lot as it was personalized just for our Abby Lue and it made me oh so excited to meet our little girl! 

  Thank you Melissa (and Just A Mama)!!!

Kid's Thanksgiving Table

This will be my first year having Thanksgiving at our house!  I am excited about my family being together and making memories!  Growing up we had a "kid table" and I plan to continue this tradition.  I wanted something to occupy the kids at their table and found some great ideas on pinterest.  If you just type in the title of this blog "kids thanksgiving table" into the search box on that website you will get all kinds of ideas!
This is what I pulled together this morning using stuff we already had around the house:

Click here for free printable placemat!

We added a sheet of construction paper underneath to make it larger and more colorful.

I loved this idea for the turkey/pinecone/coloring crayon holder
(gotta come up with a better name for that).

Click here for turkey body print out and napkin rings and a whole bunch of other cute printables!!

There are SO many cute ideas out there, but this was super quick and it was nice not having to go to the store to pick up anything!

Perhaps next year...

The curtains are HUNG!!

It's only been what...7 months since we moved???  I FINALLY found window treatments I am pleased with (we won't mention how many screw holes our poor walls have suffered at the hand of my indecisiveness). 
I love seeing "reveals" or "makeovers" so last night after my hubby did the hard part of hanging the rods he went down to his man-cave while I cleaned up and put everything together.  It was so fun "revealing" the final product!  It is also amazing at what some finishing touches will do. 

Here is a picture of our living room pre-crown (one wall was done and we had painted), pretty much move-in stage:

Here is what it looked like when we looked at the house (previous owners):

Here is the current state as of today:

Found a pair of  mirror lamps at a boutique yesterday and was exactly what I was looking for at a great price!

My Grandma Burnett crosstiched this a long time ago and the blue accents are perfect in our living room.  I love seeing things that have sentimental value!

We made our own brackets/rods with stuff from Lowes (love that place).

Other angle...

Close up of the "picture wall"

The lighting was really difficult to get the colors to show realistic, but this is pretty close.

 

 

Just for kicks, I am going to go out on a limb here and put "numbers" up...we had gotten a quote for window treatments to be made and (please contain your gasps) the total for this window ONLY was $1900.00  Yes, that is the correct amount of zeros.  Now imagine if you will being in MY shoes having to look natural and not laugh/cry at that lovely person giving me that quote.  Granted, I did experience first hand the frustrations of the cheap quality of most curtain rods (metal thingy's/thin rods etc.) but still?? $1900.00??  Here is the breakdown of my window treatments:

Finials/rod/bracket/rings: $101
Curtains: $24 (only $12 a panel!!  Super clearanced on JCP.com and a LONG 108" which is a hard length to find).
Pictures: $40 ($20 each)
Lamps: $80 ($40 each)
Mentos for a good lil' shopper in the checkout lane: .98 cents (priceless) :)

Grand Total: $245.98 

Saving just over $1600...not too shabby?  I joked with my hubby that I think I'll get more ridiculous quotes because it makes whatever I spend look really good after such sticker shock.  Muuwahahah...he is a good sport. :)

November 4th

Today has been a day of remembering and reflection...
three years ago today my dad went to heaven.  It was election day, a beautiful sunny fall day, Bible study day...those are the things I remember.  I had talked to my mom on the phone early in the morning and dad wasn't doing good.  He had been "battling" for a few days and it seemed like a waiting war.  Do I go right now?  Should I vote first?  He would want me to vote...my car had a flat tire and I was driving on a doughnut...I should get that fixed first.  Life.  I got "the call" from my sister while loading the girls into my girlfriends van.  It seemed like a whirlwind.  It is honestly a day I don't really like to remember...it is exhausting to grieve.   I remember feeling overwhelmingly exhausted.  I was pregnant too.  It makes me sad that my dad hasn't met our little M&M.  He would say she is a "pill"...because that is what I say! :)  Funny how we become more and more like our parents.  I got this picture (below) right before we left the cemetery today and to me it is beautiful.  I had kept scolding Megan for jumping off grave markers...it seems disrespectful to me.  This time I didn't scold her though, it felt ok like she would climb up into her grandpa's lap.  So this is her with her back to me (in defiance I'm sure...like "ha, is mom OK with this?!?!"), that fact alone makes me laugh because I was the stubborn child and he always told me I'd get my justice some day. :)

I also can't believe that three years ago I was pregnant and low and behold, here we are again!  I think he'd be shocked that we are having four kids (I don't know that I am over that shock yet!). :)
Here is my dad with me on my birthday:

I think he is pretty handsome...even with the 80's glasses. ;)

So thankful for his love...for the loving home I was blessed to be born into and that through my parents I was pointed to a Father who will never leave me.  I have a goodly heritage.  I have the hope of heaven.  God is good.

Outdoor spaces...

I have a deep love for front porches/entryways.  It is lots of fun decorating.  This is one of my favorite things to check out on pinterest!!  So many fun ideas.  I didn't have a ton of time/energy to spend on our front porch this summer with moving and all the inside projects, but I did notice some ferns that were growing randomly and decided to transplant them into pots.

Note the white door...soon to be black.  I think it will pop with the shutters!

I obviously did not sweep my porch before snapping this picture!

I. Love. Fall.  I plan on hunting for some unique items for next year (one item is a vintage/antique wagon).  This year we kept it pretty basic and my mums finally bloomed last week!

Door is painted!!

Happy Fall!!

Chicken Pot Pie

Yesterday I decided to cook up some good ole' comfort food and had purchased all the ingredients for a chicken pot pie recipe I found in this month's Bon Appetit magazine.  It was one of those things that the "picture" looked really good so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I had glanced through the instructions and was banking on an hour to prepare...totally miscalculated that one.  I started dinner around 4pm and it was 8pm when we ate!!!  Pretty much a bedtime snack - ugh.  I think I used as many pots and pans as I would on Thanksgiving.  It was insane.  Needless to say the description of this recipe is accurate, "If you're only going to make one pot pie from scratch in your life, this is the recipe to use"...should that have been a red flag or what?!?!  Granted it was ahhh-mazing, my ability to enjoy it was diminished as I looked at the pile of dishes and chicken carcass awaiting my clean-up.  I almost took a picture of my kitchen...I should have, let's just say it wasn't pretty!
On the positive side, this dish is packed full of flavor and the herbs really add great flavor.  It was a great culinary learning experience!  You can view the recipe by clicking on the link below:
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/10/chicken-pot-pie

The sauce thickened up quite a bit too, but we had no time to spare as this puppy came out of the oven at almost 8pm!!  It was a good thing the hubs was out late working on a remodel project and didn't get home until 10pm...dinner was still warm. ;)

Spelling City

 I have to share this website!!  We use it weekly to practice our spelling words.  It generates printables for practice writing (in cursive or manuscript), it will play word scramble games, vocabulary games...all with your child's personalized spelling list.  There are all types of curriculum on here...just look up your child's lesson via the search engine and voila! It is great and has saved us on a couple nights when the spelling book got left at school. The following list is the Abeka curriculum from 1st-3rd grade (other grades available!). 

Abeka 1st List 1 Nicole Patterson Nicole Patterson Liberty MO