Fall Carnival

The girls wanted to be unicorns this year.

They found costumes when we went to the "Witch Store" - which is really Spirit Halloween, but Mila's been calling it the "Witch Store" since she was 2 so...yeah.

Anyway, when we went back to get them, they didn't have the unicorn in both sizes. 

So then they landed on these adorable fox costumes.

Listen.

I always wanted to be the mom that made the costumes for her kids.

My mom made all of my costumes when I was growing up.

For one, because my parents were broke when we were kids.

And two, my mom can freaking sew. Like anything. 

A dress. Pants, shirts. Real clothes. 

And it looks amazing.

But me?

Um, no.

I tried being crafty a few years ago.

My sister ultimately made the costume and it was SO cute (a spider with legs that Mila wore, with a spider web skirt). 

Anyway. 

I'm not able to do that. I'm just not that mom.

The girls look SO cute. 

Their school held a "Fall Carnival" last week. They aren't doing any dress-up parties at school, which is disappointing, but they at least got to do this little carnival. 

Food trucks, a treasure hunt, games, and prizes. It was cute. It was cute to see the kids all dressed up.

My adorable little foxes! (Fox?) What's the plural?

The leg warmers were super cute. 

I was a chicken, naturally. 

We met up with the Twins (Mila's BFF and her twin sister)

Ring toss

Plinko

My BABIES!

It started to rain pretty badly, so we ended up leaving after about 2 hours. Which was pretty good! It was supposed to last from 1 - 4 and we were there from 1 - 3. Not bad! It was a little chilly but my chicken costume was very warm. 

The kids had a good time and I'm glad we got to do SOMETHING Halloween-related. Other than Trick-O-Treating, we really don't have any other plans. 

We're excited that Halloween lands on a Sunday this year so Steve can actually come with us! 

And because it's a weekend day, we want to start early - we'll be hitting up my mom's neighborhood, then heading over to Steve's parents, then doing up the neighborhood across the street from them (HUGE houses - full size candy bars lol).

His Dream Come True

We've lived out here in the country for 7 years this month!

October 1, 2014 is the day we moved in. 

I was 7 months pregnant with a 2.5-year-old. 

We moved here with very little in terms of equipment.

We had a 48" zero-turn lawn mower that quickly proved to be too small. 

So we had to upgrade it.

We had a get a plow for our ATV so we could clear the driveway. 

The one thing Steve needs is a tractor. 

With a shovel, a loader, a plow. You know, all the attachments.

But that shit is so expensive. 

There's no way we'd ever be able to afford anything new. 

They cost legit like $100,000. 

So nope. 

Every single time we'd see one on the side of the road, we'd stop to take a look.

We'd see newish Kubota ones for $15K frequently.

Just not something we could justify.

He was sure we'd eventually come across something that would work out for us.

We just didn't think it'd happen so....soon. 

Let me back up a bit.

Steve's old neighbor (that he grew up living next door to), now lives across the street from a little old lady. 

She's almost 80 and her husband passed away 10 years ago after a short battle with dementia. 

They lived on this farm with so many pieces of farm equipment.

Steve went over there one day to help her with her car; a favor for his old neighbor.

Well, Steve is pretty charming and little old ladies just eat him up. And he's pretty handsome if I do say so myself ;)

Anyway, as he's fixing her car up, she's talking about how he needs to teach me how to operate all the stuff on our property because she doesn't know how to use any of it. And when her husband passed....she didn't know how to operate any of it. 

And it's just sitting there rotting.

Steve tells her about us, the girls, our land, etc. 

She says "I'd just give the tractor to someone if I knew they'd appreciate it"

Long story short - we made sure to check with her family, the neighbor who's been caring for her since her husband died, and they decided on a fair price. (We were NOT going to let her just give it to us.) 

For a 1987 John Deere Tractor.

With a loader.

With a post-hole digger.

With a shovel/bucket. 

It comes with the original owner's manual. AND shop manuals (which Steve tells me you usually have to pay for).  

We are beyond excited. Grateful.

This all happened in about 2 days. From the time Steve met the little old lady, to when they offered and she accepted a sale price. 

It has a new starter and ignition. New tires. 

It's legit the tractor he's been waiting for.

It's incredible that it comes with all the attachments.

We just have to get it out of her barn and to our house. 

Next Summer's project will be a barn so we can put our tractor and boat in it. 

This boy. I haven't seen him this happy in a long time! LOL. 

Family Photos

We officially received our family photos and I'm in LOVE! 

I'm so thrilled with how these came out. I can't wait to pick out the ones we are going to print out and put ALL OVER OUR HOUSE. 

You Know You're Old When

It's obvious that the things that make you happy change as you mature.

I never thought appliances or new floors would make my heart skip a beat. 

I've spent far too many hours researching vacuum cleaners. 

Growing up my mom had a "thing" for linens. 

Our linen closet was always full.

Not to mention that she never got rid of any old linens.

Even now, having moved back to town, when I was helping her sort after the move, she legit had the same pillowcases I grew up with. 

Anyway.

That affiliation for linens was passed down to me.

I LOVE new sheets. 

I love TIGHT sheets on beds.

FRESH blankets and pillowcases.

There's nothing better.

I've never changed my bed linens for holidays. Because, like, no one would ever see it but us?

However, in this house, our master bedroom is downstairs.

Right next to our family room.

So you can see into it all the time. 

So I've been wanting to dress it up a bit to make it a little easier on the eyes. 

I probably should've cleared our side tables off before taking the pic. Oh well. Such is life. #reallife

OBSESSED with this pattern by Eddie Bauer! 

I also plan on replacing the full-length mirror we have in our room. It's one I've had since I was in middle school and it's in decent shape - could use a coat of paint. I plan on putting that upstairs for the girls and getting a large, rectangular stand up mirror for that corner of our room.

I think that will also help tremendously with the aesthetics in our room! 

Closed

Welp. 

Summer is officially over when the pool gets closed, right?

The wide view lens is legit

We closed it last weekend (October 3) and it was so hot out, we were both sweating. Iron, isn't it?

We pulled the stairs out, put all the furniture away and took the umbrella down.

Added the chemicals to the water and put the winter cover on. It didn't take more an maybe an hour total.

We will be getting new cushions for our outdoor furniture and I'll do a better job of bringing it all in when we're not using it all. They got gross really fast. Plus they were white and I probably won't choose that color again. 

We opened it like the 3rd week in May.

We used this pool SO much this summer! 

Till next time. 

DIY Stairs

Our house is an ongoing project. 

Aren't they all? 

The projects are seemingly neverending. 

Our most recent DIY remodel/renovation was our Living Room and Kitchen.

There are just so many projects we don't know where to start. 

Or we don't have a good renovation that won't cause us to tear the entire house down. You know, when you tug on that one string of a sweater, the whole thing will fall apart. 

Steve and I started recently brainstorming what we could do next. We're itching for something.

Our master bathroom is desperate for a makeover, but that would be far too costly. 

We thought about adding a wood stove to our living room. 

We finally decided to finish up our freaking foyer and staircase. 

Since we had finished our upstairs loft, the first step coming down the stairs had been ripped up. So it's been a bare piece of wood for well over a year. 

We never painted the foyer. It's such a high ceiling that it'd be a pain in the ass. 

So we never bothered.

But now it's time.

My new phone has a wide lens now...but...you get the picture. The girls put the ghosts there, I would not have chosen that spot, lol. 

Looking down from the upstairs 

View from the top & a view of our front door. We lose SO much heat through this door. 

This carpet is just so fucking gross. I cannot wait until this shit is pulled up! 

We are looking to do a farmhouse look (DUH), with dark wood stair treads and railing, with either white or rod iron ballisters. 

Here's my inspo board (check out those light fixtures!)

I will be very excited when we replace this God-awful light fixture.

Like everything else, Steve will be doing all the labor. Luckily for us, this project isn't going to cost us a TON in materials, but it'll be a LOT of Steve's time. 

We want to do wainscotting or some sort of picture frame border on the walls. It would then make it so I won't have a picture gallery wall - so we'll need to figure all of that out.

We will be going from this teal - which I liked when we first moved in, to a much more neutral white. I want to go minimalistic in this area since it's like the ONE area we could possibly do this. The kids don't really play in this area.

No one really "hangs out" in this area.

No one comes to our front door either. We don't have a front walkway. LOL. Not sure why.

So everyone comes through our garage. 

ANYWAY.

New front door to come too! 

I will continue to post on our progress. We hope to complete this over the fall/winter time frame.

Don't get me started on the floors...