a little pumpkin carving

perhaps too many photos for one post? but i couldn't seem to narrow it down. this is actually the first year we've carved a pumpkin with the boys. cayden's reaction to the top coming off was priceless. and both of them reacting to the guts was silly and adorable. overall, we had a great time. upon lighting the jack-o-lantern up, cayden squeals, "he's so cute!" yep, buddy, definitely a cute pumpkin.

trunk or treat

there are moments where are our kids look absolutely adorable and i think about all the great photo opportunities i'm going to have. trunk or treat at our church with the itty bitties dressed up in costume? yes! photos will be taken. lots of them!

& then reality sets in and you realize that while your husband is helping to run one of the spooky trunks, you're left with the 3 and 1 year old. which honestly, both require a hand because the place is packed. which leaves zero room for a camera in any hand. i snapped one quick photo before we got started of the nugget. and i only got this one because jeremy helped us all get to the festival in one piece and he was adjusting cayden's spiderman mask.

but you know what? we had a blast. sawyer ended up being completely uninterested in the trick-or-treating and was thoroughly content to sit in the trunk where jeremy was working. i'm not entirely sure how many smarties and twizzlers he consumed, but i'm guessing it was a lot judging from his excitedness the rest of the night. cayden and i? we went around to most of the cars and then spent some time in the bouncy house area. little man loved it! and we shared some cotton candy. and i ate most of it. and then the whole way home cayden repeatedly told me how sad he was that the cotton candy was gone. i promised him more sometime soon. and all was well.

instaFriday [10.26.12]

sweet boys at the zoo / a tiger! / my sweet jade kitty

backyard football after watching football all day / a slide / hayride with these two

jeremy & sawyer waiting in line / whole family takes a hayride / cayden says "cheese"

my new bubble necklaces / first stitchfix / trying on clothes

more backyard football / swinging and sliding / reading before bed

morning snuggles between cayden & jeremy / naked baby bum / bundled up for a jeep ride

linking up with jeannette

sawyer barks

ok, so he's looking at a cow while he's barking. now that i think about it, i'm pretty sure he barks at our cats too. so, i guess all animals bark? at least to sawyer? but still, it's a little bit cute right?

a fashion blogger, i am not

so there's apparently something that i'm really, REALLY not good at. taking photos of outfits. i mean, this was painful-hilarious for me. i was taking most of these photos in our full length mirror (please disregard the chaos going on in the room behind me) and i apparently can't even look in a mirror and aim the camera in the right direction. ha! so i'm giving you the best i have. some of these are phone photos, and for that, i ask your forgiveness in quality. ha, again!

ok, so stitchfix. miss kacia introduced me to this fabulous company a couple of months ago. and every time that she would post about it, a small part of me wanted to try it out, but that other part of me was afraid of feeling like a dummy – nothing would fit right, or i would become even more self-conscious of myself.

but stitchfix? they came through people. last night as i drifted off to sleep, i was for sure ready to purchase my entire fix. thankfully i slept on it, shot some photos to kacia this morning and i narrowed it down to keeping one piece (my husband and wallet will thank me for sure). but what's the fun in only sharing one of the pieces with you?

so with a little hesitation, some slight embarrassment and a lot of, "eh, what does it matter?" here are three of the five things in my box. why only three? one was a black sweater tunic that was near impossible for me to shoot without looking like a black blob. it also made my shoulders look too wide so it was a no go. the other item you won't see is a pair of earrings. they were lovely, but so not me. and  i also kind of forgot to shoot them this morning.

first up, this striped jersey dress. i do like this dress. although when i pulled it out of the box, i was definitely not so sure about it. i mean jersey? jersey shows every lump and bump there is. but the stripes of this dress and the pleats were so forgiving. and i really liked the way that it slimmed my hips. but this one? not the winner of the bunch (although a close runner up!)

next, this lovely gray cardigan. i fell in love with it as soon as it slid on my arms. the weight of it, along with the length of the sleeves had me at hello. it's also very easy to style. and it also looks like about half of my current wardrobe. so, while i'd love to keep this one too, it's going back. no reason to add something to my closet that i already have.

and third, the winner – this fish tunic! so unexpected. and a pattern i would absolutely never pick for myself. but y'all, the cut of this tunic is so lovely. and i think as i get more comfortable with trying out new fashion trends for myself, i can see how this little thing can be styled in many different ways.

want to try stichfix for yourself? get on the wait list here!

pumpkin patch [2012]

there are always three givens come the third weekend in october. one, alabama is going play tennessee and [hopefully] win. two, we're going to go to the pumpkin patch. and three, my nephew is going to celebrate his birthday.

and this past weekend? all of the above happened. my nephew turned seven (7!) on saturday. we watched alabama beat the poop out of tennessee (although, i'll admit. i got a little nervous during the first half.) and on sunday afternoon, we went to the pumpkin patch at the request of the newly turned seven year old as a way to celebrate his birthday.

and since it was october in alabama, it brought 80º weather. i learned my lesson last year when i tried to dress all fall-like. complete with long sleeves, skinny jeans and boots. this year? i wore a tank, shorts and threw on an infinity scarf in the hopes of looking somewhat fall-like. eh, i think it worked. or not. either way, we had a beautiful, sunny day. and it could not have gone more perfect.

for the last two years, we've gone to a farm about half an hour south of us. and it's, by far, the best place we've gone to pumpkin patch. there's an inflatable area for all the kids. there's a ton of open space for people to run wild. and that's just what the cousins did this year. these kiddos... man, they love each other. and poor lexie (my niece), she's surrounded by boys. they have so much fun together; we're all grateful for that. and sometimes (ok, most of the time) they are a little out of control. but it's awesome anyway.

but back to the farm... there's also a tractor that takes you on a little ride to the patch. where they actually have pumpkins still in the patch for you to pick out. true, they might move the pumpkins in from somewhere else, but it's still just so much better than picking one out of a giant display. don't get me wrong... we'll be doing that too this year; the pumpkin cayden picked out is so small that it can't possibly be carved. but he picked it out. and he loves it. and it's adorably cute.

anyway, the place was packed this year. the line waiting for the tractor took forever, but was totally worth it. and once we picked up our pumpkin, we decided to just walk back to the car from the patch rather than wait in line on another tractor. we got about half-way there and a nice gentleman drove up in his off-road/golf cart/buggy-thing (technical term) and offered to not only take us to the top of the hill, but to take us to our car! he ended up being the owner of the farm and was so wonderfully nice that it really wrapped the day up perfectly.

i'm loving this little tradition of ours. want to see the last few years? 2011 / 2010 / 2009
you can also see more photos on facebook. if we aren't friends, just request to be!

instaFriday [10.19.12]

sweet little headband / sawyer playing & cayden reading / cayden's soccer scrimmage

teething nugget is grumpy nugget / added another sofa / playing drums

baby shower design for my sister / looking ahead to the weekend / hard worker

linking up with jeannette

boys day out

boys of the big variety and boys of the little variety. it's probably no secret to those of you that know us that jeremy has a jeep. a wrangler. it's the car i dreamed of having at 16 and the car my dad repeatedly said no to having. (who could blame the man? a 16 year old girl in a jeep? i think that's asking for trouble.)

anyway, fast-forward to this 33 year old who loves riding in the jeep on the road... but ask me to go trail-riding or rock-climbing in it, and i promptly close down and say no thanks. for real, the jeep gives me anxiety unless we're on a flat surface. i've tried going roughly three times. and each time i would come home and pry my hands from the grab bar. and my upper back would be entirely too tense for something that was supposed to be fun.

so the trail-riding fun has been relegated to my boys. this past weekend, jeremy took both of our itty bitties with him – sawyer's first off-road experience! they all went with another friend of ours (hey ricky!) who has a jeep too. (andplusalso? here's some evidence that sawyer will let someone other than me and jeremy hold him. he's finally getting over his separation anxiety. that, or he just really likes ricky.) they all came home dirty and wet... but cayden couldn't stop talking about his adventure. i like that they get to do these kinds of things.

as for me? i sat at home and had a mini dawson's creek marathon. it. was. awesome.

soccer scrimmage

y'all? watching a bunch of 3 & 4 year olds "play" a soccer game? is out of control. white lines on the field? they mean something? ha! i swear, more game was played outside of the lines than not – mostly behind the goals. it was awesome, regardless.

cayden's not a very aggressive player. he was confused about not being able to kick the ball... but i think he wasn't quite grasping the concept of getting in there and getting the ball. he fell once and got kicked in the head, cried, stood up and ran back into the game. he was a trooper and ran after that ball with the rest of the kids. jeremy and i could not have been more proud.

all the kids got a medal after the game for participating. cayden still keeps asking us "what do i got this for?" we just tell him it's because he and his soccer-playing friends all won. and that seems to suit him just fine. and he says he wants to play again next year. guess we'll have to work on his skills in between now and then!

p.s. babylegs? make the perfect shin guard covers.

sleepy. head.

sometimes? it's just really hard to keep your eyes open. and sometimes? the three year old makes sweet suggestions while younger brother is being recorded. (we were sitting in a parking lot at the time of recording. no one was harmed in the making of this film.)

15 month check-up

jeremy and i were placing bets on how much sawyer would weigh at his check-up this morning. little dude feels much more substantial since his 12 month appointment.

j: probably 23 pounds?
me: most definitely. i'm guessing 23 and some change.

but we were wrong. little nugget is going to stay a little nugget forever apparently! he's still growing on the same curve though, so no worries there. dr c asked us all the normal questions: about his curiosity, his speech, if he was pointing to body parts...

wait, what? he's supposed to be doing that already? whoa. um, ok. but again, no worries. but you know what? as soon as the doctor walked out of the room, we asked sawyer where his nose was. (bet you've guessed where this is going) he pointed right to it! haha, little stinker is smarter than we gave him credit for. and looking back at cayden's 15 month check-up... it seems as though they take after each other as far as intelligence is concerned.

sawyer's 15 months stats:
weight: 21 pounds, 9 ounces
height: 31.5 inches
head: 19 inches