Happy Halloween!

We went to the pumpkin patch two weeks ago and the kids had the best time. There is a huge pumpkin patch here in Omaha called Vala's that gets somewhere around one million visitors a season, which is crazy because the pumpkin season only lasts one month!! (If you're ever in Omaha during pumpkin season it's definitely worth a visit!) It's huge and a lot of fun, however, this year we decided to hit up a much smaller patch with a bunch of little kid friendly activities. I'm so glad we did too, because it was much less busy and a lot more enjoyable with small kids; not to mention much cheaper! Here's a little photo recap for ya!

I loved this display. What I wouldn't give to have it in my house!

The corn box was by far the favorite activity of the day!

This was my favorite part! I adore horses.

I hope you have a very Happy Halloween filled with lots of sweet treats!

Five Favorites

I'm not finished with my Pinterest Challenge project yet (big surprise), so I thought I would post a few of my favorite things at the moment.

1. Midwest Living Magazine
It's the November/December 2012 issue in case you want to pick one up for yourself. It's filled with all things holidays and I'm loving it! I actually need to get started on my pages for December Daily, so I was looking for a little holiday inspiration to get me in the mood.

2. Our new family photo

We finally had a professional family photo taken by a photographer named Danny Bligh, who also happens to be an old friend from my high school days. He's pretty selective about his projects, but I think my cute kiddos had a little influence on his decision. I couldn't be happier with the outcome! It's actually our first "real" family photo of all four of us. Please don't tell anyone that. How embarrassing. Thanks Danny!

3. The Dreaming Tree Wine

Jeremy and I bought a bottle of the Cabernet and really enjoyed it! I think it's my new favorite for the holiday season! And not only is it good wine, but it's also made by Dave Matthews (along with some other guy), one of my favorite musicians.

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4. My (Almost) Completed Summer Mini Book

It's an Elise Cripe mini book that I bought to document our trip to Big Sur. I'm loving how it's all coming together. I'll be sure to post about it when it's completely done. I still have some journaling and embellishments to add. Here is the link to her shop if you are interested in making your own summer mini book. She will also be adding holiday mini books soon too. I've seen a sneak peak on Instagram and they look pretty rad!



5. The Walking Dead

I seriously am obsessed with this show. I'm constantly telling everyone I know how awesome it is. I need to get out more...but in my defense, it is awesome. We started watching it on Netflix last Spring, finished the the first season in less than a week. We were hooked.

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I'm hoping to be done with my Pinterest project before the end of the week. Fingers Crossed!





Pinterest Challenge-Fall 2012 Edition

Sherry from Young House Love and Katie from Bower Power are hosting another Pinterest Challenge this week.

I'm all over this! I need to browse my DIY/Craft board and my Holiday Inspiration board for some ideas!

The plan is to take the rest of the week and the weekend to find and finish a project and then blog about it and add it to their link parties.

I've been a crafting maniac so far this fall and I can't wait to get started!!

Are you going to join in on the fun too?!

Rice Heating Pad Gifts

Last month I decided to make both my parents rice heat pads for their birthdays. My mom's birthday is in September and my dad's is in October, so I figured they would be the perfect gift for the cold weather that's on its way.

I found a great tutorial from The Green Wife on Pinterest.(Be sure to check it out!) It was easy for a beginner like me to follow. I followed every step with the exception of the the step where she sews her sections. Since I'm still learning and not a great sewer, I tried to sew 6 sections in my dad's, but only managed 5 and then I only sewed 3 large sections in my mom's. Sewing the sections was the hardest part, because you have to add the rice and then pin off the section and sew. I could not, for the life of me, sew a straight line along the pins!! UGH...

Oh, and I also didn't serge the edges like she does. I just sewed them with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

And I didn't buy flannel fabric (because I didn't read that part before I bought my fabric), but I did line both warmers with a layer of white flannel to help keep in the heat in longer.

I snapped a few pictures of my dad's heating pad, but I didn't get one of my mom's before I gave it to her and then she left our house before I remembered to take any. Darn it!

It's definitely not the best looking rice heating pad ever. Not even close, but it gets the job done!
My dad is a die hard Nebraska Cornhusker fan, hence the Husker fabric.

I put this one through a few test runs and it worked great! My dad has a bad neck, so he's used his a few times and loves it! Yay for useful, handmade gifts!!


I also thought the heat pads would be great for heating up the end of the bed before they climb into it on those freezing cold winter nights.

I bought some pretty flannel fabric to make one for myself too, but still haven't gotten around to making it. Go figure! And I need one desperately!

My next sewing project is a quilted Christmas pillow case for each kiddo. I've already bought the fabric, but need to cut the pieces and then learn how to put it all together. Yeah, that should be interesting. But I did pin a fantastic tutorial on Pinterest, so we'll see if I am smart enough to figure it out!

It's Kind of Spooky In Here

I finished getting all of our Halloween decorations up this weekend. This year I decided to go glittery with my decorations. I already had a glittery skull, so I picked up some glittery spiders and an owl. I like the idea of collecting decorations over time, mixing and matching, so I'm still working on my collection. Here is a little photo tour of our decorations.

I got this awesome barn door at Junk Stock here in Omaha over the summer and finally just got it hung up in our living room. I love the way it looks with the spider web! And I can't wait to decorate it for Christmas!!

As I've mentioned before, we don't have a fireplace, so no matel for me to decorate. Hopefully in our next house! I do always try to decorate these shelves that hang above our tv. This is what I did this year so far. I'd like to add a few more glittery items though.

These cool votives were a gift from my mom a few years ago. I'm pretty certain they came from Kirkland's.

This owl came from the dollar section of Target, but I think it was $2.50, not $1.00. I wish I would have bought 2 of them and now they're gone. Bummer.

That's pretty much all of the decorating inside. I put up some orange and purple lights outside, some pumpkins and a couple of cute Halloween signs. I still want to make a wreath for the front door at some point, but I may just settle for a Fall wreath instead of a Halloween wreath.

My Life-September 2012

This post is a little overdue, but I wanted to share it anyway. We were pretty low key this past month. Hudson starting soccer for the first time was probably the biggest event that took place, as well as my favorite event. It is hilarious watching 3 and 4-year-olds running around a soccer field! We also hit up a carnival, watched a lot of college football and had my whole family down for a visit for 3 fun-filled days and I planted some new bushes and some mums. Here is the photo recap for you!

We had Rhododendrons planted, but the roots didn't spread for some reason and they dried up in the heat this summer. I even separated the roots, but apparently not enough. I bought these Winter Gem Boxwoods at Lowes 50% off. I think I paid $3.50 each. They're not my first choice, but they are medium growers (which means they'll grow fairly fast) and will fill out the space nicely next year.

My mums look kind of sad here, but they are thriving and look great now!

Hudson loves it when his cousins come for a visit! Yes. There is a snowflake blanket draped over Hudson's window. I'm not proud. But I haven't found the "right" fabric to make him curtains yet. And the blinds just don't keep it dark enough. Oh, and I've been looking for some pallets to make him a base for his bed. We just have so many projects going on at the moment that that one has kind of been put on the back burner. And I just noticed that the stripes on his bedding are going the wrong way. I think my nephew made the bed.

Harper hanging out with her cousin Emersyn. They're only 11 days apart, but it looks like Emmy is a lot older!

Mine and Jeremy's idea of a perfect Saturday night. College football, coffee and our computers! Boy, are we getting old or what?! Ha! Ha! (Please don't look at my awful looking nail polish!)

There's been lots of playing in the leaves! So much fun!

So, that pretty much sums up our September! Fun and low key! Hopefully I'll get October posted in a more timely manner!

Enjoy the day!

Alphabet Book Complete!

I finally got a chance to order Hudson's alphabet book that I've had sitting on MyPublisher since March! They had a really great coupon deal on Groupon a few weeks ago, so I took advantage and ended up only paying $16.00 for the book, which is great because any other time it was going to cost me $30+ dollars to buy it.

As you might remember, his alphabet book was my Winter Pinterest Challenge project, so I'm glad to finally have it done and here. It turned out great, with one exception. While I was making the book, the My Publisher program kept switching 2 of my pages around. I have no idea what the issue was, but even after I would switch it back and save it, it would switch it again. I actually had a similar problem with our first family album. With that one, I wanted the date on the front to be white, but every time I would change it from black to white and save it, it would always go back to black! It was very irritating and I ended up with a black date on the front that isn't very visable. I was disappointed when it arrived that way, but in the end, the rest of the book is so great that it doesn't matter all that much. Anyway, I digress. So, I had the pages just the way I wanted them in Hudson's book, saved it and ordered it. Well, when we received the book, the same two pages were switched AGAIN! I'm a little disappointed, but since Hudson has a pretty good handle on his ABC's, it's not that big of deal.

I wanted to share the finished book with you today! The pages turned out great! The colors are bright and the text is clear. Most importantly, Hudson likes it! Here it is; warning, this post has lots of photos. I included one of each page.

I chose photos of objects or activities that are special for Hudson with the except of umbrella and vacuum. Those are really hard letters to find corresponding words that fit on a personal level.