What I'm Loving Wednesday

October edition... 

Since we had so many fun things happen last month, I thought this would be the best way to update! :)

I'm loving the fun Saturday we had in Lepanto! It was so wonderful to visit and see our friends! Not to mention, it was a beautiful day for Terapin Derby!  

I'm loving the homecoming pep rally that we got to watch! Anna-Kate was so excited we came along and she loved getting to high-five the football team! Plus they won the game! :)

I'm loving that I got to go with Anna-Kate on her field trip to a farm! We had so much fun at cowboy day!

I'm loving that Thomas had such a wonderful birthday!! We took monkey cake pops to his school and then we had a small party the night of his birthday with family. We made mickey mouse pizzas and then had cupcakes. He had a cute mickey-themed party on Saturday with some friends!

I'm loving the cute going away party we threw! Anna-Kate's student teacher had her last day in October, so we gave her a little surprise party! Complete with a "Thanks for making us wiser" tote bag with all of the kids fingerprints turned into little owls! We also had ice cream sundaes and owl cake pops! 

I'm loving the wonderful time we had at Grandparent's day this year! Anna-Kate was so proud to perform and to show off her class to Nini and Granddaddy! 

I'm loving how adorable my little monkey and owl were this year!! Thomas got to wear his costume to school and he was so excited! 

I'm loving that we went to Anna-Kate's fall fest at school and got to play games with her! She was so excited to see us! 

I'm loving that we had a wonderful trip to Franklin! We went to Pumpkin fest and got to spend lots of time with family! 

I'm loving that we still had time to go Trick-or-Treating at several houses on Halloween! 

I'm loving my precious little family and all of the special memories we got to make this October! I know I say it all the time, but I feel so blessed that I was able to be home through all of it! :)

Sorry for the mega post- but that almost catches you up! What are you loving today? Link up here and play along!! 

Happy Friday!!

It's an absolutely beautiful day here! I'm excited to be feeling better and up to some fun things! 

First, I have to share two recipes that we tried this week. I got them off of pinterest of course! 

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Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

It was delicious! My only complaint was that ours turned out pretty thick, so I added about a cup or more of extra broth, just until I got it to the right consistency. 

Pinkies

How cute are these? I whipped these up last night to take to Anna-Kate's class for their snack. They've been having color days and today's color is pink. It's a really simple recipe (similar to cake mix cookies) and super fast to whip up! Oh and I did have to try one- so good! 

I've been meaning to share a few pictures of my class at school. I don't know all of the parents well, so I will only share Thomas and his friend Jackson right now. We have lots of fun at school and Thomas is doing really well with everything! He loves to play with the other kids.

Sorry for the poor quality- these are all from my phone!

I had planned to coordinating themed Halloween costumes for the kids this year. I've gone back and forth on this because I can't completely decide on what I want Anna-Kate to be! Plus, Thomas is very interested in mickey mouse and monkeys and even buzz lightyear right now! I love to see him get excited when he sees something he likes! Right now he'll say "loooook!!! looooook!!!" It's super cute. So, I don't want to share what he is just yet, but it is one of those three! I got his costume in the mail this week and it's adorable! Now all I have to do is decide on what Anna-Kate should be! I'm probably going to make her costume, but I'm a little worried about how that's going to go. October is going to be a busy month for us! 

We are kicking October off by going to Lepanto for their "festival," Terapin Derby. This is our first time going back (as a family) to Lepanto since last December! I'm looking forward to seeing some of our friends. We've missed them so much. 

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Tomorrow night I am going to a Busy Bag Swap with several other moms. We are getting together and putting together an activity for our children to do. Each activity helps develop skills and keeps the little ones occupied. By the time we leave, we will each have 13 little activities to take home for our children! It's a really neat idea and a great opportunity to get together with other moms! I'm making this color matching game. 

Oh and just in case you didn't see it, I'm participating in a 31 days challenge this month! I'll be sharing 31 days of fall cleaning. Look for posts about our organizing projects, cleaning tricks and even some simple fall decor! Not to overload you with posts, but I'm still planning on doing a few of my regular posts too, so I've created a 31 Days of Fall Cleaning tab at the top of my blog (under the header) next to my Menu Monday tab! If you'd like to participate, go here and get all the info!

Happy Friday Y'all!! 

On The Mend

I've not been posting lately because I've been sick. Last week I was really tired and drained. I could tell my allergies were the cause and unfortunately by Thursday night I was coming down with a sinus infection. I meant to go to the doctor Friday but I felt better and had a few things to do but I felt horrible by Friday evening. Sunday my ears started to hurt and I could tell I was getting an ear infection. I pretty much spent as much time as I could this past week on the sofa! Plus, I wound up going to the doctor twice. (lesson learned!) 

I'm thankful that today, I was able to do a lot more. I'm feeling a more like myself than I've felt in days! I can tell my ears are still pretty stopped up but thankfully they aren't hurting quite as bad and I've got a little bit more energy! 

Derek was amazing and kept everything going so I could rest! I know he's ready to see me back 100%. ha. Poor thing! It really is hard to do all that a mom does and it's even harder to step in for the other parent and play both roles. 

Derek and the kids actually had a pretty full weekend and he even took pictures for me! 

Thursday: 

They Love their rain coats!

Anna-Kate had picture day when I asked her to show me the smile she gave, this is what she did! ha! 

Friday: 

I made a simple sensory bin for Thomas and he loved it! 

He even picked everything up when he was done. 

The girls love going to the games!

We went to the high school game! Thomas loved it! 

They are so silly! 

 Saturday: 

They went to watch the Hogs play Alabama at a friends house. They love playing together!

Pretty Shelby

Derek said Anna-Kate wanted in that and they played with this for a long time! ha! 

Sorry for the picture overload, but I guess that makes up for the lack of pictures lately! 

Amanda, posted about a fun link up going on the month of October. Basically you pick something to blog about for 31 days. It can be 31 days of knitting or cleaning or your favorite books. Just something fun to share every day! 

I decided to play along and I'm going to be doing 31 days of Fall Cleaning! I don't know about you, but my house needs some good deep cleaning more than just in the spring! Since I've been home I've noticed several areas that need to be organized and deep cleaned. (Under my bed is a scary place right now...) I also think it'd be fun to share a few quick cleaning tricks and hopefully even some fall decor so that I'm not just blogging about cleaning! ha. I think you'd get pretty tired of that! To keep up with the 31 posts, I've created a separate tab, just like my Menu Monday tab. I'll put a link to each days post! 

If you'd like to join, you can go here to learn more about it! 

Oh, just for a change, I've added a new header! What do you think? I like it a lot more than the last header I had, but I really want to add a family picture. When I was looking for one of all of us I realized that we have not had a family picture made in almost a year! It's definitely on my to-do list and when I get a good one, I'll change my header again!