Craving sweaters...

It's cold outside. And I'm so excited that sweater time is fast approaching. I have on a light sweater today and it just makes me happy.

My close friends are reading this and remembering how I used to wear a sweater in September in Waco during college, despite the insanely hot temperatures, because "you're supposed to start wearing sweaters in September." :)

Here are a few that have caught my eye lately...
love the feminine ruffles...

I really really really want this one. It just says to me, take a walk outside in the leaves, and then cuddle up with a good book and a cup of tea. And it's blue. I've missed blue lately.

Can't decide if I like the brown or green of this better. Green might be my new favorite color...but brown is such a nice steady color.
Cozy mornings teaching Hadleigh to read. Can't you see it? (All the above are from Anthropologie.)

I...am....SPEED!!!

Quicker than quick. Faster than fast. Kerchow!

If you don't know what that means, then you evidently have not seen the Cars movie enough :)

And Cars was the name of the game for Nathanael's fourth birthday party.

We had Lightning McQueen and Mater gliders...complete with rubber band launchers.
A pinata that Nathanael loved...but wouldn't break apart. (Apparently the string pinata they design for young children are better constructed!)

A cake full of Nathanael's favorite Cars characters...

and the happy birthday boy about to attempt to blow out his candles. (Another child blew out two candles while Nathanael was waiting for me to take a picture! But he got the other two out and didn't seem to mind at all! Phew.)

It was a fun party with a few of his favorite friends!

A Ladybug Picnic

We invited a few family friends over to celebrate Madeleine's second birthday with a picnic...sliders, mac and cheese, fruit kabobs, and cake!

She was SO sad that the pinata came apart...it was kinda cute!

She stuck her toes in the cake by accident :)

The cake...
And our two year old ladybug eating cake! It was a fun and very laid-back party!

The Paper Princess

On our last trip to the library we checked out this book:
This story of a paper doll princess who is blown away from the girl who made her is imaginative and sweet. The pictures are vivid and full of so many great details!

After reading this, Hadleigh wanted to make a paper princess, so I sketched a doll and Hadleigh decided she wanted the doll to look like the one in the story...so we worked on coloring it together, under Hadleigh's careful instructions:

She has had so much fun playing with it...and when it's forgotten about, one day it shows up in an unexpected place and is "new" again! We also made a prince for Nathanael, who has white feathers for hair :) Hadleigh's princess is waiting for me to finish knitting a scarf that I began long ago, so that she can have the perfect soft, wispy, brown hair that Hadleigh was imagining!

I love that my children love reading! And it's so much fun to bring the stories to life!

Nathanael's Fourth Birthday

He has been so excited about his birthday...and I think he had a special day!

All smiles about being four!

Celebrating his third birthday at the beach!

Two in Texas.

His first birthday in Waco, TX! (It was homecoming!!!)

My precious baby boy, the day he was born...
and before he spent a week in the NICU.

I love you Nathanael...Happy Birthday!

Dining Dilemma

Do you remember this post? Well, we decided on the second table, the Montego Table from Pottery Barn. We picked it up last week, and we LOVE it.

Brent surprised me on my birthday by also ordering the coordinating buffet, which is so nice to have.

But our dilemma is the chairs. I love the Queen Anne style... this table is not as "formal" as I would one day want for a formal dining room...yet these chairs lend a bit more formality, while still working with the lines of the table.

We ordered the espresso finish in the table and buffet. We love love love dark furniture. But the only color that PB doesn't make these chairs in??? The espresso. Seriously? (And I did call to ask if they could stain one set for me...and I'd even pay more...but alas...) So we ordered the mahogany finish in one chair to see what we thought. Because we really LOVE this chair.

So, I'd love your opinion on what you think of the mix of woods.

(I usually don't mind "mixing woods" but I'm afraid that this looks like we were trying hard to match but didn't rather than "intentionally mismatching" the woods.)


(The table and buffet are the same color, though the table looks darker from the side perspective.)



So, what do you think??? Please give me honest answers!

(And if you want to share links to furniture stores you love that might work, I'd love suggestions. I've exhausted many of my favorites already.)

Our little baby...is two.

I'm still a bit in denial that my baby is already two years old. I am just LOVING her at this age...so much discovery, so much new language, so much curiousity...but it still makes me a little bit sad.

The birthday girl with her balloons. "I two." But if you ask her twice, she'll tell you five.

At one, eating purple frosting at the beach.

Just a few hours old. Precious little baby girl.
Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

She's six today.

But it seems like just a moment ago...

she was turning five at the beach...

turning four with a cowgirl party...

smiling bright at three...

enjoying her ladybug party at two...

riding in her wagon on her first birthday...

brand new, in my arms for the first time.

Six years of being a mommy. Her mommy.
I treasure these years.
I treasure you, Hadleigh Caroline.

A Painting Party

It's October. Which in our home, means it's Birthday Month.

So we began a little bit early with a party for Hadleigh today. (Her birthday is this next week.)

We decided on a Painting Party, since Hadleigh just loves artsy, crafty projects. (In fact, she--in true Hadleigh form--asked me if we could paint outside. My outdoorsy girl. But given the steady Oklahoma wind, we opted to stay inside!)

The invitations.
The birthday girl experimenting with acrylics and canvas. (Each girl got a pink palette to use and take home. I got all our materials from Hobby Lobby.)

And then watercolors. She ended up with a very abstract painting full of gorgeous fall colors!

The cake. Hadleigh told me to surprise her, as long as there was a little pink frosting, which I achieved in the splotch of paint as well as in between the cake layers!

And my ever-bashful birthday girl. We've learned that the focused attention of singing "Happy Birthday" is too much for our girl. So instead, we just say "Happy Birthday" and then she blows out the candles. Even that was a bit much this year...but she did blow out her candles, one by one...and with a little help from me.