Birthday and Baby

This week I celebrated my birthday.

Thanks to all who messaged or sent cards.

Turning 31 has been a very exciting time!

This picture marks week 23.

To date, I've gained a total of seven pounds

and have been feeling pretty energized.

Harbor wanted to help make lunch one day last week,

so we made pigs in a blanket.

We ate them at the bar on the new place mats

my mom had shipped out to us from Arkansas.

This past week I also finished up all the paper and ribbon cutting for

our MOPS craft at church.

We made these mini binder clip frames to hold the dates of all of our upcoming

MOPS meetings.

: )

The steering team from MOPS came over to our house for a final meeting to make

sure we had everything ready to go. One sweet girl brought cupcakes for my birthday!

How I go from having absolutely no friends in this state, to having friends with cupcakes

is such a blessing! Only the Lord, I tell you, can bless like that!

Harbor received a package from Arkansas this week full of Halloween and

Thanksgiving craft supplies. He takes a bit after me in that area-

he is happiest when he is "doing" and "making" something.

We are thankful as his little hands have been very busy with new projects!

Last night was our first MOPS meeting.

I didn't decorate the main tables- so many of you have been asking me that- but

I was in charge of the craft and craft table and took the pictures for our MOPS directory.

It is nice to have a team with so much talent.

We have so many exciting activities in the next few months:

Harbor and I are making a trip home to Arkansas for a baby shower by way of the commuter train

out of Chicago's Union Station soon, we plan on taking a family trip back to Arkansas for Thanksgiving, and perhaps {fingers crossed!} my entire Arkansas crew will be spending Christmas with us here in Detroit!

Lots to look forward to!

Including this ever growing baby bump of mine.

: )

Fall Mice 2012

This year, instead of cutting out my mice and throwing them away,

I used large packing tape to "laminate" them poor man's style.

: )

Blue painter's tape works great to keep them in place without damaging trim and walls.

I also incorporated white and black mice instead of all white.

Harbor is especially fascinated by this large black mouse

walking on only two legs!

He was quite enthralled when he traipsed downstairs and discovered  them all!

He spent a good deal of time inspecting each one.

But the truth of the matter is that Mommy and Daddy really think they are fun, too!

{Fall Mice 2011 can be seen here!}

Harbor has grown so much in a short time!

So thankful for family traditions and a camera to capture all the moments.

Our 2012 Fall Mantle

Last week, Harbor and I made leaf "flowers" to hang on our mantle

in honor of my favorite season- Fall!

They were an easy kid inspired craft that added a fun punch of color to the living room.

Do you remember our mice from last year?

{See them here}

This year, they brought a few new friends... spiders!

I hope to show you very soon the mice invasion from the last few days...

apparently the more the merrier is the word on the street staircase.

During the day,

Harbor will sometimes move them around and change the

angles of their webs.

I plan on allowing these little critters to nest at our house

until after Thanksgiving.

And then Christmas garland will take it place!

Looking back at this post here makes me giddy! 

: )

Just Life

Sometimes when I'm uploading random pictures for my blog,

I have to remind myself why I take the time to do so.

Let's face it..

Blogging is a lot of work.

I don't keep a bedside journal.

I don't keep fantastic records for Harbor anymore now that he has gotten older.

I don't live close to any of my family.

My blog is my heart.

It is the real me grasping at some way to

record our life, however exciting or mundane.

I've been blogging for a long time now,

years before Harbor was ever born.

So, when you see pictures of us cooking, or playing board games and you yawn...

Just be assured that I'm allowing you a peek into our family life

so that I, too, can someday recall

what life was really, truly like.

I just really want to blog about the normal, the everyday.

I love looking back at the exciting posts through the years:

the day David graduated from college,

we closed on our land,

we built a custom home,

Harbor's birth,

our vacations,

our moves to and fro from home to home...

{this home in Detroit is our 4th to own in 11 years}

but more importantly, the days in between

tell the greatest story..

I think these are the days that will slip through my hands, lost forever.

Week 22

Last week, as most weeks for us, we spent a great deal of our time in the kitchen.

We made a batch of old fashioned rice crispy treats.

And I whipped up a big platter of southern potato salad.

Harbor requested kool aid play dough.

I love being able to share time in the kitchen with him.

The weather is getting cooler and cooler each week.

I'm in heaven!

I endure summer, but it is the Fall where I really feel the happiest.

My boys hand washed my car and I had my camera close by

and snapped a few pictures out the front door.

Our landscaping is really full and lush.

I'm thankful to have escaped the drought so many states are suffering from,

including my family in Arkansas.

We have a Fall wreath out, a Razorback flag for college football season,

and a big pumpkin in the front window.

I've been decorating the house with lots of pumpkins, spiders, and mice.

We are really not huge into the Halloween scene at our house,

but I grew up in a home with lots of "decor" nonetheless.

They are some of best childhood memories and something

I enjoy doing for my family now.

In fact, I had a recent flashback while grocery shopping this week.

When I was a kid, my parents grew huge gourds on the side of our house.

Long green vines wound up the brick

like a Hansel and Gretel movie scene.

My mom would tend to them and pluck them off.

They were a good foot long, if not not longer.

They would hang from various places in our home to cure.

She would dry and paint them to look like

Santa Clauses, pumpkins, and animal characters.

Gourds this time of year really take me back to happy place.

I grew up surrounded by folk art in our home.

And, I found this little guy sneaking a very hot cookie right out of the oven.

Kudos to him, though, for getting a spatula out of the drawer all by himself.

If he is going to sneak, at least keep the floor free of crumbs, right?

: )

Halloween Shelves 2012

Our Halloween Shelves 2012

And a look back at the Halloween shelves from 2011...

It is fun to see how the decor changes  from year to year...

and amazing to me that we are about to spend our 2nd Halloween in Detroit!

Time, you keep on passing us by!

: )

 

Do you have pumpkins out and about yet?