Burlap Fall Wreath

I made this wreath for my front door this year. I tried using the gray foam insulation that goes around pipes for my wreath form. I saw this idea from Pinterest a while ago and bought the pipe insulation the last time I was at the hardware store. Well I will go ahead and tell you not to do that unless you are going to be using some type of wire in conjunction with the foam because it will not hold it's shape. Lesson learned!

Anywho, this is my wreath before it turned into a tear-drop shape. I just wrapped and pinned thick strips of canvas around the wreath form. Then I took some fall foliage that I already had and hot-glued it to the bottom part. It was actually already arranged into a piece of floral foam where I had once used it in a window box a long time ago and never took it apart. I then decided it needed something at the top so I fashioned a burlap bow and added a sunflower up there.

I hope you enjoy or at least learn the lesson to just spend the extra $1 and get an actual wreath form! LOL!

I am linking up to Rhoda's Fall Link party here.

An Entrance to Fall

This is my very first time to join a decorating link party in the big blogosphere so please cut me some slack on this one! I have enjoyed looking through these link parties on some majorly popular blogs in the past and I get so inspired by everything I see. I do not think I am anywhere near their league but I just want to share what I have done in my home to make it feel like Fall.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am very excited to decorate for the holidays this year with little Jonah getting bigger every day. It is going to be fun seeing the holiday events through his eyes!

So without further adou here is my entrance table all decked out for Fall. I tried to keep it simple and the only thing I bought new for this year are the two pumpkins on the right. They actually came from the Dollar General store and were about $3 each. I already had the frame on hand but spray painted it white. I printed the Halloween subway art for free from another blog. I will post the source at the end. Then I have a fall table runner I got from Big Lots a couple of years ago and my flower arrangement all came from Wal-Mart's craft department a couple of years ago too. I hope you enjoy it!

I am linking up to Layla's Fall Mantle link party at The Lettered Cottage, here.

Source for suway print here.

September Weekend

Last weekend we enjoyed some family time close to home. Saturday I worked in the morning time and then we ran to get some groceries for the week. Sunday we went to church and then played outside with Jonah. He LOVES to be outside and cries when it's time to come in. I am glad he likes to be outside and he rarely fusses at all while he's out there. He loves to push his wagon around and swing and ride in his cozy coupe. Here are some sweet shots I got of him while we were out there.

Thinking of Fall Already

The weather here has been so nice!! Crisp cool mornings and leaves beginning to turn. It makes me so excited for Fall this year. I think this Fall is going to be so fun with Jonah now that he is walking and into seeing and doing new things. We have big plans to go to a pumpkin patch at some point and I want to take some family pics (not professional ones) of us with the Fall colors.

I think I am going to be holiday crazy this year compared to last year when Jonah was only a few months old. I want this year to be the start of some family traditions of our own. So in anticipation of the holiday seasons coming up I have been doing some pinning on Pinterest of Fall/Halloween stuff I like. Maybe these will get others in the mood too!

By the way, here is my Pinterest site.


I am going to print this out and put it in a white 8X10 frame.

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I am going to Hobby Lobby and get me some burlap and wood letter!! Love this idea!

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Can you ever have too many Mums and pumpkins???

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Jonah would look too cute in a shirt with something like this on it!

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I think a pail like this decorated for Jonah would be great for all the candy too! Not that he can even eat any of it!!

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This is my favorite idea for candy this year! We will probably only be taking candy to our Church's Trunk or Treat and there aren't too many kids. So I may make something like this to take rather than the standard candy.

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Now I just need to get started on all these Fall projects before it's Christmas!! LOL!



September Updates

Things have been VERY busy around our place lately. September marks the beginning of my busy time at work so it's just eat, sleep, work all the time it feels like. Looking forward to the down time in late October. I've also been helping plan and coordinate for my 10-year high school reunion which is today. So the stress level has been high around our house this week.

On a better note, Jonah is doing great! He is all over the place now and a busy little man as long as he is awake. A couple of weekends ago we went to his 2nd cousin's 2nd birthday party. Below are a few pictures from that. Also, one morning this past week it was pretty chilly when I was getting him ready to go to Mom's so I put him in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. He looked so big and like such a little boy that I had to take some pictures of him. Enjoy!

 Jonah loved playing with their dog, Abby

12 Month check-up & Jonah's health

Earlier this month we went for Jonah's 12 month well-checkup appointment. He was healthy as could be and Dr. Roads said he was doing great! Here are the stats from that appointment.

Weight: 21 lbs and 2 oz. (21st percentile)
Height: 28 1/2 inches (9th percentile)
Head Circ.: 46% (34th percentile)

Basically he is as wide as he is tall LOL! They still say he is on the lower side for his height but this does not surprise us much because Michael was never the tallest in his class. The main thing is that he is healthy and growing.

He had to get 3 different vaccines that day so 3 different sticks. I cannot remember what all he got but I know he got the Chicken Pox vaccine and the Measles, Mumps and Rubella one too. He was pretty upset with it all this time but the nurse was super duper quick with the shots and she told us they stung pretty good. He managed to calm down fairly quick after it was over. I sure hate when he has to get those nasty shots!!

I also want to make note of how Jonah has faired health-wise over his first year. We are so thankful to God that he has been healthy the majority of his first year. I know it was God watching over him but I also think it has been attributed to some other factors as well.

The first one being that he has not been around other children much his first year. It's just him at Mom's everyday and he hadn't been staying at the nursery at Church until the last few months. No one else in our immediate family has any little ones that he is around very often. I think that has made a big differences. Also, I think that the colostrum and breastmilk that he did get (while I was breastfeeding) also helped build up his immune system. I wish I would have been able to produce enough milk for him to keep doing that. The last thing I attribute his health to is having him adjusted regularly by our chiropractor. He adjusted him the night he was born at the hospital and Jonah never did spit up on a regular basis.

He also NEVER had an ear infection his whole first year of life!! From what I hear from other mom's and book....that is just unheard of these days. Even when we thought he had one for sure, one time when he got a pretty high fever, they checked his ears and said they were nice and clear. We were so surprised! But everytime he gets adjusted they always do an adjustment to his ears so that they can drain properly. I think it has meant all the difference for us. I recommend it to all new parents....but sometimes they just think we're crazy to have an infant adjusted.

I just wanted to jot these things down before I forget to. We are so thankful to have our happy and healthy boy! We pray he remains that way!

First Steps and Funnies

On Monday, August 1, 2011 Jonah took his first steps unassisted!!! Below is a video we did of him shuffling around. He had been walking or cruising around on the furniture and holding our hands but we started letting go and he would stand by himself. It wasn't long before he took those first steps. The funny thing is that he has never got the hang of crawling. He just puts his head on the floor and pushes with his legs. He is definately one of those that went straight to walking. I think he will be tottering around all by himself by the end of the month. He is getting so big on us!!!

Here are a few funny things he has been doing lately that I want to remember.

Whenever he is in the living room he points to the lamp until we say "lamp" and then the basket, the picture on the wall and the clock. He just keeps fussing until you say the word of what he is pointing to and he knows the difference between them all.

Whenever someone around  him laughs or a large crowd (like at church) laughs he has to cackle too...usually a few minutes after the laughter is over. It is too cute and funny!