Last day of November....

Crazy to me that this is it. Fall is over.

A lot of people decorate for Christmas early.

They listen to Christmas music first of November, put their tree up before Thanksgiving and all kinds of other nonsense. : )

Not I. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving and my favorite season is Autumn.

So I have a harder time letting go of all my favorite things.

Don't hear me wrong, I LOVE Christmas and all that goes with it.

I just like it December 1st.

We did however break that tradition tonight by decorating our tree, drinking hot choc. and watching a Christmas movie.

But in honor of the loveliest holiday, Thanksgiving, here is our home all decked out.

My Thankful mantel.

That turkey platter was a martha stewart steal from Macy's years ago.

Sweet little leaf people from my friend and old co-worker. Aren't they cute?

Scarecrow, thank you Moma!

Our table.

The Man looking all cute. Notice the "chevron print" afghan behind him...his grandmother made it. I love older family treasures that come back "in"!

Another little scarecrow. My kids love all these characters everywhere!

Love this little home on a hill with gigantic pumpkin in it's yard.

Makes me think of the Bluff house!

Another view of the mantel.

Can you tell I'm super excited about having a mantel to decorate?

: )

Stairs railing garland and in background, front door wreath.

Glass leaf ornaments I hang on our light fixture over the dining table.

This is probably my favorite decor this year, just simple sweet wreathes that Scott' s grandma gave us. She wasn't using them and I think they looked so great here with our platters.

***

Goodbye November, fall, colorful leaves, football games, hayrides, apple pie and pumpkins.

Hello December, winter, colorful lights, seasonal movies/programs, snow, cookies/candies and Christmas.

It's all happening too fast!

I waited most of my life to be a wife and mother.

It's all I ever really wanted to be.

And now that it's happened, it's all going by way to quickly!

I want to scream, "SLOW DOWN"!

But I know that is not possible and our life "is like a vapor".

So to celebrate a BIG moment in our boy's life and to be thankful for for where we are in our family...

Happiest Birthday to our son!

He is FIVE and I cannot believe it.

This past week we've:

been thankful and spent tons of time with our families

celebrated with just the four (almost five) of us for our Boy

had a crazy and fun Pirate Party (details later)

I tried to convince The Man to dig all the Christmas gear out of the attic after the party last night, but he declined. : ) So I'm taking that as a sign to RELAX today.

I'm doing just that: relaxing, spending time with my girl and editing photos.

Happy Monday!

Finally....

Finally, I've used an idea off of Pinterest.com.

I have so many pins and things I'd like to try, but the truth is it's extremely hard to actually do them.

Well, my boy is turning FIVE this Friday and he wanted a pirate party.

I couldn't resist the above invite I found on pinterest so I decided to make my own.

I was pretty impressed how they turned out.

What do you think?

I also made "treasure maps" on how to get to the party! : )

Thank you Pinterest for finally making me craft instead of dreamily pin craft ideas!

Fall Family Picnic

Picnics are something I always have on my list of things to do together as a family, but they some reason never happen. Anyways, we decided to make it happen on Election Day while Daddy was off work!

What we learned is that it doesn't have to be complex to be fun. We just ran through Subway (which is a story all on it's own) and grabbed our picnic gear as we headed to a local park.

Here is Daddy making our tiny little blanket spread out enough for the four (almost five) of us.

We ate.

We explored.

We even posed for a few pictures.

Self timer is helpful to actually get pics of The Man and I together.

Trying to feel baby Liv!

I got some great shots of these cuties. Wish they didn't have red hearts over there sweet little faces.

Our family.

We also just let them loose to run and play.

We packed all of our stuff up and was going to head home.

L made sure to pack a few of his own leaves.

I think this makes a better replacement of the hearts.

: )

Life by Pictures

This is a random attempt to make this post about the mundane details of our lives not so jumbled and boring! I'm just gonna let these pictures and short captions tell what is going on in our lives lately!

I was completely stressing over fabric for the girl's room (I love saying that btw). I finally have found the winners! I'll post more on this later!

"E" is growing up WAY TOO quickly. "L" has too, but I guess it's the age she is where she seems to change every week or so. She is now sitting at the table like a big girl! : )

There is other things growing around here too....like my BELLY! I'm not sure how big I'm gonna be at the end of this pregnancy but oh my GOODNESS. I've only gained a little bit so I guess previous chub is moving to the belly because I'm definitely out there! I get all the "Wow, only one in there!" and " You aren't due til when?!?!?" comments. But oh well, she's worth it!

We've been enjoying the awesome typical autumn foods. Baking, eating and especially devouring carmel dip and apples became an obsession for me!

My niece is 13...WHAT!?!?! I cannot believe this. It happened at the end of September, but I'm way behind posting pics so I wanted to include this one. Hayrides are soo fun! Scott argued with me on this, but I'm pretty sure this is their first hayride! Funny, this is the first weekend of Oct. and look how everyone is bundled up and last night we were wearing short sleeves outside.

Plenty of horsing around has been going on here too! Especially, when Daddy is home from work or on the weekends when we get him all day. We are so blessed to have him!

I've scored BIG TIME in yard sales and consignment sales this fall! Well, I should also say my moma, cousin and sis have helped in this endeavor too. Anyways, with their help we are now fully stocked for rest of fall and winter (as long as everyone stops growing for just a few months). Isn't my little panda cute? I for whatever reason called her my little puppy all day...how did I confuse panda for puppy...oh, well!

"L" back in September had Grandparents Day and he LOVED having some of his grandparents come to his school. This is his Papa and Key!

And here is Papaw and Nana in his classroom.

Playdates have been much more fun with the great weather we've had this fall. It's almost every week we get to play with friends or cousins. My kids ask everyday who is coming over or where are meeting friends? : )

Soccer is finally all wrapped up. I personally am not sad the season is over. That may sound awful, but I missed our free weekends. Don't get me wrong "L" loved it and we had the best coach...I'm just a little selfish with our weekend free time. He did get his FIRST ever trophy which he is super proud of. Here he is with cousin, Kaylen! They got to play on the same team.

Another reason, we love Daddy (or more so why I love Daddy) is how he spoils us (me). On the weekends he lets me sleep in and even makes breakfast! Single ladies, TAKE NOTE....Wait for a good man. They may take awhile to come around, but they are WORTH THE WAIT!

We've been planning "L"'s 5th birthday party. He picked pirate themed so I've been working on plans and gifts and such. Why don't adults do themed parties any more?!?!? I want a Rainbow Bright party this year! : )

Anyways, that is the latest fall update from the Bluff House.

Enjoy the weather, I'm thinking it's going to get cold quick here in bit.

Little Corners of our home: Halloween decorating

Remember when I teased you with this? and left you hanging all this time. Well, forgive me and the two children & growing fetus that leaves me too exhausted to take pics for blogging! (or clean the area i want to take pics for blogging, for that matter!)

Well, here is what all the suspense is about,

a faux mantel!

But not any faux mantel. This mantel was removed from the house my Daddy (who is 75) grew up in. It was dirty, falling apart in places and covered with chipped paint. I'll post the before/during pics tomorrow so you can see how far it's come!

It took us two years of half-hearted refinishing to finally get it done. And if I'm being honest with myself, the Man is the one who actually got it finished! I helped of course, but he was motivated to get it done and in the house. I'm so excited to finally have a mantel to decorate with and love how it perfectly fits the space I dreamed it into two years ago!

So here is the first of many, holiday inspired mantel displays!

My decor is mainly made up of the MANY pieces my sweet grandmother-in-law has given us, ones my moma has gave me and the very few I've bought/put together.

These little spiders and jack-o-lantern men are my FAV! They are soo cute and not scary.

We kept the same wall hangings above the mantel that were there before (just moved them up some). I love that we got those little iron candle sconces right before we were married. Not until almost a year later did we realize, they are owls!!! Do you see it?

before owls were cool!

Another thing I love is my candy corn...oh wait, this is about decor! : )

pregnant women and Halloween candy EVERYWHERE is such a mistake...I will stick to that!

But seriously, the mantel normally has several of these items. I wanted it to be colorful and fun! I got that turquoise urn at Hobby Lobby from a sweet friend : ) and it inspired the rest. I painted several frames I already had, added an old book, and one last amazing thing.

My grandparents' little Brownie camera! I've always wanted to get some vintage cameras for decorating, but these are even better because they are sentimental. I have my sweet Uncle Larry to thank for such a thoughtful gift. I will post more on those later too.

These little kitties are on the kids table. They rock which the kids think is soo fun. They also light up (if you actually put batteries in them). What I didn't get good pics of is some ceramic Halloween pieces and then I didn't capture stuff I'm leaving up for Thanksgiving since I'll do a Thanksgiving decor post.

I told you we had TONS of candy (there is the exact other bowl filled just the same on the other side of the counter...seriously, too much candy).

Finally, a outside decor shot. I really do love fall/autumn! Everything is so colorful, warm and exciting. Don't you just love our fabulous landscaping! : ) NOT! Wow, I haven't used the NOT gig in like two decades. But that is how seriously NOT fabulous our outside maintenance is. We really need to landscape, paint our trim and uh, get some new blinds. Most people have dogs to destroy blinds, we have a two year old! : )

Good excuse to get the man to invest in the nice ones!

Bad blinds, weeds and all, still dreamy to me.