{Halloween 2014}

The day before Halloween Landon practiced trick-or-treating in our living room in his Jammies. He kept saying, "Mommy, I goin' trick-or-treatin'". 

Later that day, we went up to Hodge Park to scope out places for our family pictures. 

On Halloween, we woke up in such a festive mood! I immediately told Landon that he would get to go "trick-or-treatin'" today! Of course both of the kids were in their Halloween best! Landon wore his PJs all day because I looked and looked for a shirt for him last minute and no one had them! I will definetly be planning better for future holidays!

Then he wanted to read some Halloween-ish books! Definitely in the spirit!

That afternoon, we made some Halloween cookies! I made some drop cookies with 1/2 of the dough and with the other 1/2 I rolled it out so we could decorate some witches hats, cats & ghosts. 

The above photo was the aftermath. They were really good though!

Trick or treating didn't come so easy for Landon. Landon took a late nap from 5-7 so when he woke up he was a Halloween Grinch! It took a lot of trick-or-treaters for him to get the concept. He finally loved it once he was in the wagon and getting Candy! He was so shy at first. If you know Landon, you know that he is never quiet unless he's tired or out of his element. 

 He kept saying he wanted to do more trick-or-treating but it was so cold out and when his snot was running to his mouth it was time to go home...poor guy!

 Harper stayed warm in her swing all night. 

I'm already brainstorming costume ideas for next year! I hope you had a wonderful Halloween! 

{home tour: downstairs}

I wanted to wait to do our home tour until my Halloween decor was down & now is that time. After Halloween comes down and before Christmas goes up! Although I would put up our stockings and tree today if I could ;) {my husband would freak out} 

Anyway, I'm excited to share our new home on the blog! Here goes starting with the entry.

Moving on to what may be my favorite room in the house and where we spend tons of time! The KITCHEN!  Almost every morning, Landon walks into the kitchen and says "I yike dis kitchen!" Me too, buddy!

This fixture is from Ikea and I got a matching smaller one for over the sink in here. I didn't love the fixtures that came with the house, but they wanted an arm and a leg to replace them with our choices.  These were $39 and $19 respectively. I am loving the bronze and black and white chevron detail. 

This is the over the sink fixture. 

I didn't know if I would love this sink being larger on one side, but I do! It's great for large pots and pans!

No kitchen can be complete without Ms. Meyer's Basil Hand Soap!

An up close of Landon's watercolor painting that I love so much!

I love having flour and sugar on the countertop for baking {especially in the fall}

Then the living room, which connects to the kitchen.  It is a very open floor plan. The little rugrat came with the house.  

As you can see, we have no tables in here now.  We are going absolutely crazy without anywhere to put our drinks.  I think I have recently fallen in love with a kid proof one that would fit in here perfectly.  It is a clear acrylic simple coffee table. Just need to purchase it!  This is the look that I'm going for.  I love the pouf underneath too! It is the same material as our barstools, so I think it would flow nicely and not take up a ton of room visually.

 Also, we will purchase a tufted chair for the corner by the fireplace eventually, but are in no hurry for that and I haven't found one yet that we love. 

  We are getting plantation shutters for all the windows in the front installed on November 19th thanks to our amazing families for the housewarming gift! Can't wait, for the last 2 months we have basically been living in a fishbowl.  

The furry pillow I love.  It's from Walmart!

Fireplace! We already used this when our heat wasn't working the other day.  A faulty thermostat had us wearing sweatshirts and gloves all morning!

A cute and simple little area behind the couch.

That is a fiddle leaf fig which is amazing that has been alive this long.  I bought it online from the Home Depot.  I like it because it's really low maintenance and I love that we have a live plant in our house.  I may get some more of these!  

We also have a small 1/2 bath off the hallway

I haven't done much with this bathroom as you can see. As you can see the ceilings {throughout the house} are pretty tall.  I am thinking of possibly some Ikea shelves behind the toilet, but that wouldn't happen for a while, if at all. 

I like it because it has a pedestal sink, so no storage.  No clutter can build up!

Lastly and most boring, door to the garage and door to the unfinished basement.  We would like to finish it out in the next year or so for Mike's man cave ;) Don't you LOVE the doors?! I do!

With this house, we definitely got rid of a LOT from our last house! I think it's refreshing to not have any clutter for once {other than the playroom which is always a hot mess}.  I am liking this motto right now that I saw on Pinterest!  

Next up, the upstairs! Way more exciting.  I hope you enjoyed the tour of our home. 

{feeling fallish}

We are totally feeling fallish over here right now! This rainy cooler weather may have something to do with it. Here are a couple random things that helped us ring fall in this year:

Fall clothes: I pulled out my Hunter rain boots the other morning after 2 full days of rain! I got Harper Kate dressed and then myself and realized that we were wearing the same colors and twinning without even planning it! I am loving the black, white and army green for fall! Side note: who says you can't wear white pants in the fall? 

I also twinned with my other offspring too, on a recent trip to Target. The white pants decided to make their appearance again as well! I break all the rules.

Pumpkin hunting: A couple weeks ago, we went and got some pumpkins for our front porch. It was so fun seeing Landon pick out his favorites. He LOVES pumpkins! Me too, buddy! 

These and a larger greenish one are the ones we came home with. When we got home, Landon wanted all the "yittle" ones inside. The one he was pointing to in this picture, he kept calling it "yucky punkin" and saying it was "eeww goss {gross}". 

My mom came over the other day and I told him to go show her his yucky pumpkin.  I let him go outside and he immediately went to that one and brought it in. He says it's dirty...this child. Endless entertainment, seriously. 

Our annual cousin trip to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard this year didn't disappoint! We went to the Red Barn Fatm on Weston. We typically go to Carolyn's but switched it up this year! We all voted that RBF is leaps and bounds better than Carolyn's! More activities for the kids and less expensive. Plus, their Apple Cider Donuts with caramel dipping sauce and apple slushie are a little too good to resist! 

Food: it goes without saying that I love fall foods and drinks! I made a couple fall food purchases that I'm pretty excited about. 

First up, spiced apple cider, these are little individual packets. My all time favorite drink at Starbucks is not a PSL, although I love that one too. It's a caramel apple spice! Fall in a cup! 

I can't wait to make some mulled apple cider with some cinnamon sticks in the crockpot this coming weekend! It's perfect to keep on warm and sip on it the whole weekend. As an added bonus, it should make the house smell amazing!

I also purchased some pumpkin spice pizzelle cookies. My mom and I have made these cookies before. Homemade pizzelles are delish but these are pretty good too, with peanut butter on them :)

We love them and they are so light! They offered an apple cinnamon pizzelle as well. Would like to try that one too!

The other night before bed, I made Mike and I pumpkin pizelle ice cream sandwiches! They were DELISH!

I read on the inside of the packaging that you could make s'mores with them too. You know I always have all the ingredients for s'mores, so that was next on the menu the next day. Obviously I'm not on an after-baby diet. My brother the other day said, "Kailey, you should really put together an after-baby diet and workout plan. You could call it 'Doing nothing'.

Needless to say, the s'mores were wonderful! 

I also had a bunch of apples to use, so the other morning some apple Dutch babies that Landon and I devoured! So so delicious and so easy. The waiting for it to cook was the hardest part!

And finally, for some added Halloween festiveness for snack time, I made a bat out of Landon's raisins on a whim the other day. 

Of course, no fall post is complete without Hocus Pocus! We don't own it, but definetly should...I always record it and then just watch it whenever I feel like it. Landon was so into it this year too. He always wants to watch "Bitches". Yes, you read that correctly. I told him it was "Witches" with a W, but he insisted that he was right. You have to choose your battles with a 2 year old and I guess they are bitches, really ;) I'm sure Thackery Binx thinks so....

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of the BEST season as much as we are! Go Royals!