2nd Half of November

And here are the rest of my iPhone photos from the rest of November :)

 ^^Lot of sibling smothering.

 ^^A photo I found of my phone from Eleanor.  Gotta love the candid mommy moments.  And look at Ford laying down for a diaper change! That RARELY happened for that 4 month stretch.

 ^^The cutest PJ's from my friend Lucy

^^A little Santa at Cafe Rio in the middle of November :)

 ^^A true Cafe Rio lover right there.

 ^^At 9 months Ford was already standing up on everything and furniture cruising.

 ^^Classic Ford cry right there.

 ^^We've been in a major puzzle phase that starting in November and has been going strong ever since.

 ^^"Look Mommy! This is my costume and I'm Daddy!" 

 ^^A fancy dinner dinner with friends thanks to the beautiful Jessica.

 ^^Gotta love those dancing buns

 ^^My little Joann's shopping buddy

 ^^A family date to get macarons.  Eleanor always says, "Macarons? My favorite!"

 ^^One of our many holiday shopping trips.  I was trying real hard to get all my Christmas shopping done before Dec. 1st and the kids were pretty good sports about coming along.

 ^^Eleanor started doing this mid November.  I was grateful she was keeping herself occupied and happy in the cart but it got really difficult when I needed to actually put anything in there with her.

 ^^An unfinished corner of my bedroom that was made a little happier with my new eBay painting! The fireplace has been untouched for a year now but we really do need to fix it.  I like having that blue reading chair in that corner though.  And the painting brought in some happiness and greenery to the room :)

^^Girls night out to Chesterfield's holiday party. Gotta love antique shopping at night with friends!

 ^^Talking with my friend who was in the middle of remodeling her kitchen.  It's finished now and AMAZING. 

 ^^Eleanor loved wrapping and coloring her gifts.  

 ^^That one time Eleanor fell asleep during quiet time.  Such a happy moment because she NEEDED that nap!

^^Best $15 I ever spent at Costco were those flannel sheets! We've been so cozy all winter!

Halloween Playgroup Party

I hosted a little Halloween party for our weekly playgroup last week.  My goal was to do it as simply as possible so I wouldn't stress out too much.  I loved seeing the kids pour in with their cute costumes.  They frosted some cupcakes, ate snacks, colored and ran around the backyard.  We had a full house for sure, which is the best.  I love all these wonderful friends we have here.  Thanks for coming to celebrate everyone!

 ^^Ford's bear costume hadn't arrived yet so Ford was a hot dog for the morning (thanks Audrey for the backup costume!).  The costume lasted for all of two minutes seeing as Ford couldn't sit up or crawl in it but it sure was worth those two minutes.  Everyone needs to be a hot dog at some point :)

 ^^My new neighbor came with her two darling boys.  Her boys are almost the exact same ages as Eleanor and Ford.  So glad they moved in!

We might have to make this an annual Halloween tradition.  We had so much fun :)

Labor Day

We had a pretty low key Labor Day but we loved soaking up that extra day with Aaron around.

We went on a drive look at dream homes and then ended up trying out the Meat Market for lunch.  So good!

^^Eleanor devoured her beans and rice

While Eleanor and Ford napped, I ran to Home Depot for potting soil but then got side tracked by tile samples.  

I had just read this blog post about redoing a kitchen backsplash and I was feeling inspired.  I'm not ready to jump into kitchen projects yet but I would totally love to redo our backsplash down the line. 

(Also, I totally nodded my head in agreement when I read Mandi's explanation for why she put off kitchen projects for so long: "I didn't really do anything cause it was just too sad not to do everything."  I feel ya, Mandi.  I'd love to change so much about our kitchen but that's just not reasonable or necessary so for now we just wait. But someday we should take the plunge and at least do something :))  

Anyways, back to Labor Day activities because they really were awesome...

After naps, we headed to the park for some KFC with the Winters.  Eleanor sat on the play structure with London chatting away about their bedrooms and things.  It was darling to witness from afar.  And then they ran around wild and free while we adults talked.  It was a great afternoon.

Then we put the kids to bed and watched Bridge of Spies.  I've been wanting to see it forever and I really liked it.  I'm starting to notice though that every time I watch a movie just before bed I end up having a crazy dream that night where I'm living out the movie in some way.  Interesting stuff...

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I wish we could have Mondays as holidays every day!  Wouldn't that be dreamy?  Saturday you get chores done, Sunday you focus on spirituality and Monday you play!  Now that's a recipe for happiness right there :)