NASHVILLE IN PICTURES

Oh, Nashville...
Earlier in the month we went to Tennessee for a wedding and could have stayed much longer than three nights and still would have wished we had more time there!
Honky Tonks, cowboy hats and live music everywhere and so much to do/see/eat/drink.
There really were a lot of cowboy hats, don't get me wrong, but there was so much more there than just the country music scene- And just for the record, I am not much of a country music fan myself, but any music scene is pretty cool in my book.
I am so happy my friend got married and I got to go to Nashville for the wedding!
We came across some seriously cool shops, delicious homemade biscuits, The Ryman Auditorium in person, a beautiful evening December wedding, live music, good drinks and super yummy coffee- Those were just a few of my favorite things about Nashville.
At the very top of my list though would have to be the bar with the skee ball machine AND the photo booth. Seriously?
Beer + skee ball + a  booth = Heaven.

The first night we stayed at a super cool little converted apartment in East Nashville that we found on airbnb- my first experience using airbnb and will definitely do it again!
*Photos 1, 14, 15 and 22 are from the airbnb rental, it was functional, clean and it was decorated so cute- major bonus points for the super cute decor.
Also- East Nashville? Loved it, some of my favorite places we went were there and I can't wait to go explore there some more again next time.
I most definitely see a Girl's Trip to Nashville with all my best girlfriends in the future !


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And Suddenly...Here We Are

You know how when your kids are younger and not sleeping so well, or they are in a real hard stage like tantrums, teething, potty training(the three worst!)...And you feel like this will always be your life and your kids will ALWAYS be in this stage and they will never grow out of it, you will never sleep normally again and you kinda want to jump out the window?
Yeah? Me, too...I so remember those days. Very well.
When someone with older kids would tell me to; "Just wait" or something along those lines referring to wait until they are moody preteens, wait until they are hard to handle teenagers, wait until instead of not sleeping, they are sleeping until noon... Somehow you kinda think those days will never come.
Like logically you know they will, but you feel like it will be twenty years away and no time at all in the near future.
Right? Or is it just me? Maybe denial?

I don't know why we think that way-Maybe it's just because the difficult stages really seem as though they will never end.
Maybe it's self-protection, I cannot get emotional about every new stage/change, everything they leave behind and every little new thing they become.
I mean, I would be in tears constantly. Right?
Suddenly we are entering that stage where things are changing, just ever so slightly, but you can feel it, and you can see it... Small changes.
My baby boy that was a teeny tiny 6lb 8 oz baby and stayed in under the fifth percentile for height until he was about six years old(or older) now reaches my nose. I know he will soon be taller than me! What? When did these things happen?
Sigh.
The annoying saying about the days being long and the years being short is oh-so true.
I was kinda hoping they were wrong.

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Happy Wednesday!

Will Brake For Fall

I am that person driving in front of you that slows down to oooh and ahhhh at all the pretty Fall trees.
No seriously, I am.
Sometimes on my way to work I am slowing down, pulling over, taking pictures because I am convinced I just saw the MOST gorgeous tree ever on Earth...and then I see the next more gorgeous one like, thirty seconds later.
Ha! And then somehow I have turned my quick 5-minute drive to work into a 14-minute drive to work and I almost late. That pretty much sums me up.

{These first two were on my drive to work on Monday...}

Oh, I love the colors- the yellows, oranges, browns and reds.

LOVE the colors, the crisp cooler air, the jean jackets, the boots, the leaves falling from the trees almost like rain when you look out the window. 

I love this in-between time that is Fall and wish that it lasted much, much longer than it does here. 

So, I will stop and take all the pictures whenever I want because I know it will soon be gray, bare, cloudy, cold... and frankly, very depressing. 

Every year I almost forget how much I hate Winter and those dreary days, until we have our chilliest rainy day and then it all comes back to me....and I am ready to run away until April. 

Just two days until Halloween and the craziness of having kids and so much going on(in the span of a week, and in our case, the whole month!)has officially begun.
School plays, Halloween parade at school, treats for school, running around to find all the costume supplies we need, grabbing last-minute pumpkins to carve....
The list goes on.
These days are the bright spot for me though, the part I feel like makes up for everything else.
I remember the excitement of Halloween and the days leading up to it, those are favorite memories of mine as a child and I hope they are for my kids, too.
I love getting to do these things again with them and through them, one of the best parts of being a parent for sure.

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I hope you are enjoying this season where you are...
Happy Thursday!

Last Minute Birthday Party

This past Tuesday Charlotte turned nine.
Nine.
My kid's Birthdays normally really kinda depress me but we have had so much going on lately that there was no time to really feel too bad about it or lament how old I must be by now.
Anyway, we threw together a last minute party for her on Sunday and she invited three friends.
With the kid's Birthdays being just ten day apart, we usually celebrate them together with a family party but this year they wanted their own parties and I was happy to oblige.
Months earlier we saw this the tiny mushroom pinata along with Woodland-themed napkins, plates and garland at Target and snatched them up.

We saw so many cute ideas online and ooohed and ahhhed over all the cute things we saw on Pinterest that we didn't have time for(luckily). Charlotte she definitely wanted to make the acorns above and she wanted a bowl of chocolate covered raisins that she saw someone had labeled "bear poop"... I didn't think it was funny, she did, and I have long since learned to pick my battles.

Just the day before we were at my parent's and my mom came up with that little tiny deer sitting on her cake, it used to sit on a dresser in my bedroom when I was a kid. The little banner that says "Happy" on the cake I made in 5 minutes, using tiny tags, string and chopsticks. We scrounged up found real acorns outside and cut some leaves off of our tree in the backyard for a few jars and we were ready for a party.

One idea that did not come from Pinterest but I thought up all by my big-girl self, was for them to make terrariums to take home.
This was fun and took the place of sending them home with little bags full of candy or junk-and also, they look so cute. They are super easy and not expensive and I love how they all turned out.

Had I planned ahead, I would have been watching for these little things that we used to put in the terrariums on sale at Hobby Lobby, Michael's or wherever. I hate paying full price for things that regularly go on sale but this time I had no choice.
I got the dinosaurs at the dollar store and Wyatt hand over some army men of his own, there were two boys there(Wyatt included and I wanted some fun "Boyish" options, too)so I wanted more than just the mushrooms and deer. The tiny deer were found at Hobby Lobby near the dollhouse accessories and the mushrooms near the floral/garden/fairy garden area.
If you were one to plan ahead, I think after Christmas time you could stock up on deer, little trees, fences, houses, etc. at some seriously bargain prices.

I didn't get ant good pictures of the table- and I know you can see baskets of shoes and all of our every day junk in the background but this is real life. And it's messy and filled with dust, dog hair and baskets of shoes.
The napkins and plates were my favorite, along with the pinata, so sweet.
This little girl had a great time, she loved having her "very own Birthday party" and it was a special little day for her indeed.

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It's Friday again and another busy weekend ahead....Hoping for some more beautiful Fall weather like we have had lately here in the Midwest. Fingers crossed.
Have a great weekend!

This Week In Pictures

A crazy, busy week.
That is what happens when there is something going on most weeknights(at least this week)and in the span of 8 days we have four family Birthdays- Wyatt, my mom, my dad and Charlotte.
Whew.
Just this weekend we squeezed in- five boys camping out in the backyard Friday night, my niece's homecoming Saturday, a soccer game, and dinner out to celebrate Wyatt's Birthday Saturday night.
The week was lots of running around + Birthday shopping, grocery shopping, soccer practice, a school celebration one afternoon, swimming lessons, present wrapping and a few early mornings of walking before work.
That is just way too much for me if you want the truth- But it's a busy season and all days and weeks are not like this one, thankfully.

One of my favorite things from this past week was deciding at the last minute to drive out to the country with the kids to see the eclipse.

We left at the last minute to be able to drive about 10-15 minutes and get a really good view of it away from a lot of lights/town...We made it.
We were already in our pajamas and all I really wanted to do was get in bed and read my book- But I am glad we went. Such a cool thing to see and I hope the kids remember these things when they are older, these simple, last minute things, the memories we are making and just spending time together.

In the midst of all the chaos I try to constantly remember to slow down, take a breath and appreciate where I am right now in the moment. Just breathe.
A lot of time it's not easy and it takes effort to push things out of my mind-the worry, the thoughts, anxieties and ugly stuff. A great reminder for me is taking pictures... Every single day.
Even if right now the pictures are just with my phone, it is a great way for me to appreciate the little things, to capture them and to remember what is really important to me amidst all the craziness and stress of daily life.

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Happy Sunday!