How is it the last Wednesday of September already?? I started reading my favorite blogs this morning and couldn’t believe it was already time for another What’s Up Wednesday. I wasn’t prepared ahead of time at all for this post but enjoyed writing it last month and wanted to do it again so here we go…

What We’re Eating this week…

Monday – Ground turkey tacos, corn

Tuesday – Grilled pork chops, Annie’s organic mac-n-cheese, broccoli

Wednesday – Spaghetti (zoodle pasta for the hubby & I), caesar salad. This is our busy night. Both girls have activities pretty much back-to-back so whatever I cook has to be quick and easy and not require grilling help from my hubby.

Thursday – Teriyaki steak, white rice, asparagus

Friday – Homemade pizza night!

Saturday – We are going to our very first Quinceneara so we will eat whatever is served at the reception.

What I’m Reminiscing about…

Last Halloween. My girls love to look at old pictures and we always have so much fun looking at last year’s holiday photos.

What I’m loving…

My new makeup from Ulta! I talked about it in my Friday Love post last week and I can’t say enough good things about these products. I had been using the same type of makeup for years and was a tad bit nervous to try something new but I’m so glad I did.

What We’ve been up to…

Normal life. School, activities, work, errands, rushing around and trying to get in bed by 8pm (that’s a challenge every night).

What I’m dreading…

The sick season! My kids are generally pretty healthy but we got hit hard last year and I’m dreading that happening again. It’s pretty hard to avoid when you have two young children. Prayers for health!

What I’m working on…

A “How to style your Fall family photos” post. We take family pictures in the Fall every year and choosing our outfits is one of my favorite things to do. I admit the post has gotten kind of long but I’m looking back at a few years at photos and going over how it was to select the outfits each year. I’ve really enjoyed working on this and can’t wait to share it.

What I’m excited about…

October! My girls excitement for Halloween is unparalleled and we have so many fun things planned for next month. Our annual pumpkin patch visit, Bass Pro Shop for pictures, downtown trick-or-treating, Dia de los Muertos day, this list is endless.

What I’m watching…

More House Hunters. Beach Hunters. Beachfront Bargain Hunt. Any and everyone home show on HGTV, lol. We’ve also started the new season of Kids Baking Championship, it’s so good! My girls love to bake and say they want to open a sister bakery when they grow up so this show is a family favorite.

What I’m reading…

Not much! I feel bad even saying that but it’s the truth. I really need to get back to reading before bed instead of looking at my phone.

What I’m wearing…

Pretty much the same things I wear most weeks except I’ve had to wear shorts, skirts  and dresses this week because its so hot. I’m really over wearing shorts.

What I’m doing this weekend…

Going to San Jose! We are all looking forward to getting out of town for the weekend and heading back to where we lived for many years before moving to Tracy and where my hubby was born and raised. We are going to a friend’s daughter’s Quinceneara on Saturday. I have never been to one and am excited to see what it’s all about. We are staying with my sister-in-law and I’m happy my girls will get some quality time with family. We are also thinking of going to a local Italian festival on Sunday before we head home. We used to go back when we lived there but haven’t been since Lyla was a baby.

What I’m looking forward to next month…

HALLOWEEN!! The pumpkin patch, the festivals, the cooler weather, Lyla’s school festivities, dressing up, just all of it. October is so much fun!

What else is new…

Not too much. Life is chugging along as usual.

Bonus question this month:   WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PUMPKIN THING TO EAT/DRINK?

When I say give me all the pumpkin spice, I mean GIVE ME ALL the pumpkin SPICE!!! I love anything and everything pumpkin and will pick-up almost all of the pumpkin flavored treats I see, I literally can’t help it. Of course I love the PSL but pumpkin cookies, loafs, donuts, bars, cereal, oatmeal, popcorn, ice cream, bundt cakes, poke cakes, PIE!!! I really do love it all.

With one of our favorite holidays quickly approaching, I’m naturally starting to think about Halloween decorations. Now I don’t go all out by any means – if I had a bigger budget to work with, I totally would BUT I do the best I can with what I can and love to decorate our home. My girls are pretty much obsessed with this holiday. They really enjoy the decorations, which makes me love them even more. These pictures are from last year and I added in a few things after I took these but they pretty much show how I decorate for Halloween minus the front door and yard.

Kitchen

One of my favorite areas to decorate is behind the kitchen sink. The ledge is the perfect place to display lots of fun stuff. I had completely forgot about this large Happy Halloween sign the year before but remembered to pull it out last year and was really happy with how it looked.

Jars of pumpkins, skulls and black and orange glitter balls, with a few sparkly silver spiders just hanging out.

A close-up of the cutest yet slightly spooky little scarecrow ready to trick-or-treat. I picture him walking in a forest of the black sparkly trees with fog pooling all around. The pom pom garland actually came with package of bat garland from the dollar spot at Target. I didn’t really like how the pom poms looked with the bats so I strung it around the tree and love how it looks. The RIP gravestone is a picture holder but I also never really liked it for that use. I saw some small gravestones at the dollar spot just this past weekend. I think they would look great in this little area.

To the right of the sink are these great little shelves. I put the girls Halloween pictures from the Bass Pro Shop up here last year. I love looking at them while doing the dishes, brings back happy memories.

Halloween subway art, a candy corn candy dish and a sweet pumpkin made by Sophie.

This jack-o-lantern windsock was passed down to me by mom. I remember this being out every year during Halloween when I was growing up,. We used to always hang it on our front porch. I love having it in my home now.

Fireplace

I bought the Happy Halloween sign from HomeGooods probably four years ago. It’s wooden and has held up wonderfully. I bought the small haunted house last year for Sophie. She loved it so much and the colors go with the sign perfectly. I switch out the flowers in my vase for black and orange sparkly leaves from Michaels, and also add a variety of pumpkins in a variety of colors and textures.

Living/dining room

Top of stairs – just one teeny, tiny jack-o-lantern!

Kids rooms

I keep it pretty simple with a door hanging and a small pumpkin in each room. Sophie has a small Halloween pillow too, I’m hoping to find a good one for Lyla this year.

Girls bathroom

Two small Halloween globes, new buckets to store their toothbrushes, etc. They always really love to put up the stickers from the Dollar Spot or other places on their mirror/shower. We also have the cutest little Haunted House wallflower, a family favorite.

Playroom

This is one of my favorite rooms in our house, especially during the holidays. This candy corn banner is just so cute and I love to add in their holiday artwork.

I hope you enjoyed our decorations as much as we do! Having this to reference each year helps me so much when I pull our decorations out and have no idea where to put them!

xo JRS

It’s Fall y’all! The holiday season is upon us and decorating my house is my absolute favorite thing to do! I should say “our” favorite thing to do because my girls love to help me. Walking around my house and seeing all the reds, oranges, leaves and pumpkins just makes me smile.

Another great thing about blogging my decor is that I have a place to reference next year when I’ll have forgotten where everything goes. So many times I take out my stuff and cannot remember at all where I put it the year prior. I know I could find a new place for everything but I’m a creature of habit, and I love tradition.

I’ll start in the kitchen. The area behind my sink has a great little ledge that is the perfect place for glass jars full of pumpkins, acorns and leaves, vases with fall foliage and pumpkin-scented candles. I think everything here is from Michaels, besides the candle, from Bath & Body Works of course.

There is another ledge in our kitchen where we keep our wine and fruit, and that’s home to one of my favorite pumpkins.

Next up is the fireplace and mantel in the family room. I really love the brick of the fireplace, it’s the perfect backdrop for pumpkins.

This is our half bath downstairs off the family room. I found the print online for free and I’m obsessed. It really completed the space.

Now off to the living room! At our old house, I used to put fall garland on the mantle but now that we have the TV there, it doesn’t really work. I wrapped the staircase with it and I absolutely love it there.

I have small pumpkins here and there in the living room, keeping it simple.

The dining room is simple as well. A burlap runner with a fall candle, and a pumpkin can vase with fall flowers.

Going upstairs, I have this lovely ceramic pumpkin on the shelving at the top of the stairs. It used to be an air freshener, you poured oil in the hole and it soaked the sticks but it’s a few years old so the oil has dried up. Still looks great as decor though!

Onto my girls rooms and their bathroom. They each have one pumpkin in their room – Sophie, a small sparkly one, and Lyla, a medium-sized velvet one. I love them both. The bathroom has fall-themed stickers for the mirror and a small case with fall flowers. We do the stickers for every holiday. They love to help put them up.

And last is the playroom, one of my favorite rooms in the house. There is a gallery wall that is princess-themed but I have one frame that I change out for holidays. Normally there is a princess subway art print but for Fall, I change it to a happy autumn print. There are two pumpkins on the mantle, one glitter and one homemade, and a shopkins pumpkin on the table, perfect for my shopkins-lovin’ girls.

With Halloween quickly approaching (this Saturday! ekkk!), I thought it would be fun to look back at last year’s festivities. Halloween has become Lyla’s favorite holiday (that is until Christmas arrives) so I do my best and try to make it really special for her. Halloween fell on a Friday last year, so I surprised her with a Halloween themed breakfast, a balloon, card, and a fun, little message on the chalkboard.

We had been watching the forecast like crazy because it had been raining on and off earlier in the week and rain was

 

Wow, I can’t believe its been close to a year since I’ve done a post. I’ve thought about this blog pretty much every single day during that time and often wondered, why I couldn’t just sit down and write a post? Truth is, once the holidays hit, things in our world got pretty crazy. I underestimated how busy things would get at Lyla’s school, I underestimated how difficult it would be to have a child with a birthday the day before Christmas Eve, and I really underestimated how hard it would be to watch my parents move back to Florida. I really focused all my time and energy went into my kids and my family and my blog just wasn’t a priority in my life during this time. But I missed it. I really did. I would literally write out posts in my head but just never sit down and write them out. I really hope to get back into a normal posting routine and continue to share my world.

That being said, I have so much to catch-up on! So much has happened in our lives since last Thanksgiving. Some good, some sad but so much happy! I hope I can maybe do a quick (yeah right) recap of all that’s gone on in the last nine months. It feels good to be back!!

 

 

Skirt and top both Calson via Nordstrom, Shoes: Isla via Nordstrom Rack. This is one of my comfy yet cute mom outfits. The tank and skirt are so soft and super comfortable. The skirt has a drawstring and zipper detail, and the tank is simple but it fits really well and has a seam down the center in the back. I love simple details like that. My style has changed so much since becoming a stay at home mom of two. I still want to look put together but I have to be comfortable. I don’t wear much jewelry these days because Sophie grabs it, pulls it and eats it and as much as I love earrings, I don’t want one pulled out of my ear. I LOVE these shoes. I tried to get a close-up of the sides because I love the double strap and the gold detail on the front gives them a little something and you cannot go wrong with leopard. I’m still working on the art of the “selfie” – I tried to get Lyla to take my picture but she wasn’t having it.