friday favorites

F R I D A Y   F A V O R I T E S

These are my favorite moments of the week! I have so many good moments to share from the past seven days!

Above is Ephraim eating (and LOVING) yogurt for the first time. He and I have been passing thrush back and forth to each other, so we’re eating lots of probiotics to get rid of the stuff for good :) 

This was AMAZING! It was the first time either of our children have fallen asleep while eating or playing. His eyes were slowly closing, and he started nodding off. We had a good laugh about it!

Checking out a caterpillar in the back yard :)   


I had one of my Instagram photos featured in the MOPS “Hello, Darling” magazine. :)

 
At Goodwill, my weakness is dishes. I graduated from high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, so who better to buy this cute tea set?

 

I was so happy to hold this little pumpkin at MOPS on Tuesday. She’s two months old and was so tiny compared to E!


We had our last warm day of the year, which called for a delicious strawberry lemonade from Wendy’s :)


This is probably the coolest moment of our week: this is our new baby grand piano!!! We went to see it on Wednesday night for the first time and we can’t wait to get it moved to our house. We weren’t actively searching for one, but it fell into our laps, which can only be explained as a God thing. We are THRILLED!! :)  (More details after we get it moved!)


Just checkin’ out those NIV Commentaries :) I love when babies get to the stage where they like to clear shelves.

I was really blessed by your nice comments on this outfit from Wednesday. THANK YOU!

My nails are ready for Halloween-partying today (Essie’s “Fear or Desire”). Had to.

 
This is my favorite Flashback-Friday Halloween photo. It’s my dad, my sister, and me on my first Halloween :)  Ephraim is going to be dressed as something quite similar today! Watch for some cute boys on Instagram (@floralandfudge).

Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend. Stay safe and eat a lot of candy! :)

Linking up for Friday Favorites with Andrea, Erika, & Narci.

halloween decor

Happy almost-Halloween! I like to decorate more for fall than Halloween so that I can leave everything up through Thanksgiving, until we’re ready for Christmas. Above is our mantel from last year. I wasn’t able to recreate it exactly for two reasons. 1. I cannot find that darn wreath anywhere. I saw it recently, but now it has fallen into the black hole of the house :)  2. For Christmas last year, we bought ourselves a flat screen which is now perched above the fireplace. Having the TV there makes the best sense for the shape of the living room. (Plus little hands can’t reach it :) I miss having that space to decorate, but there’s a good three feet on both sides above the built-in bookshelves that we can still use.

See the pumpkins on the mantel? I let them compost in our garden over the winter. And in June—we had our own little pumpkin patch! It was definitely the highlight of the garden over the summer, watching them grow from seeds. We ended up with a beautiful 22-pound pumpkin (below)! There were four smaller ones as well. Two rotted before they were ripe. And the other two sit on the back porch.



This little foil print by Phil Austin is new, and I love it! Steve bought eight foil prints of Austin’s on Ebay for my birthday. I am excited to share the rest sometime!


”Mommy take a picture of my cookie!” Okay. :)

  
Bunting I sewed last year.

 

My mom made these pumpkin dessert bars on Saturday, and I want to share the recipe again (click the photo below). It’s a cross between yellow cake and pumpkin pie. Yum!

 

What are your plans for Halloween? A friend of mine is throwing a “Little Monster Mash Halloween Bash” tomorrow night, and I’m super excited to take the kids in their costumes :)

what i wore wednesday

Yesterday, we had our last warm day of the year. 75 and sunny—so perfect. When the afternoon hit, I took off the cardigan and ran errands in just the white tee. The boys and I got groceries, and I swung by the Wendy’s drive-thru to sip on a strawberry lemonade :)

I am loving my new fringe infinity scarf. It goes with everything! I found it for a great price on Groopdealz a few weeks ago. I get nervous ordering scarves online because I like to touch them and make sure they won’t be rough on my neck. But this one arrived, and it is so soft! Since it’s an infinity scarf, it styles itself, and it adds a lot of texture to any shirt.

Scarf | Groopdealz
Cardigan | Target
White tee | Hanes
Jeans | American Eagle
Booties | Toms desert wedges in “brown herringbone”

 
 
Still loving my Toms! At my MOPS group, two other girls were rocking the desert wedges. They look good on everyone! :)
 

Enjoy your Wednesday! I’ll be taking Ephraim for his 9-month check up, and getting caught up on some chores :)  Exciting stuff!

 

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Linking up with Lindsey, Alison, and Shanna.

 

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Ephraim at 9 months

 
Another month has gone by already!? My job seems to have gotten a bit harder this month. Ephraim is into EVERYTHING, and he will be from now until forever, I’m sure (like his brother). :) He is continually crawling towards shoes, the dog’s dishes and bones, Nolan’s potty, garbage cans. . . all that good stuff! He can cruise along furniture, climb up stairs, and pull books off of the shelves. And he is just as in love with his Mommy as ever. I know I say that every month, but the little guy still thinks we should be attached at the hip :) I would do anything for this blue-eyed heartbreaker!

9 Month Stats

Weight: 19 lbs, 13 ounces

Length: Around 28 inches

Eating: We have short nursing sessions every 3 hours during the day (and at night too, but we’re working on that). He is crazy about mashed bananas and raspberries. We do a lot of oatmeal and fruits, and he doesn’t like his veggies so much. He loves eating puffs and pumpkin teething biscuits!

Bedtime: He falls asleep around 9, and wakes up sometime between 12-2, and again between 4-6. We’re in the middle of sleep training, so hopefully in the next week, we’ll get it down to just once a night.

Awake: He’s been getting up somewhere around 8:30.

Naps: Naps are pretty short, but he’s taking three a day. He still falls asleep really easily in the car.

Diapers: Size 3

Clothes: 9 months, probably moving up to 12 shortly

Latest Tricks:

CRUISING—He just started walking along furniture. I’ve also seen him walk while pushing a toy across the floor!

CLIMBING STAIRS—So yesterday, I went upstairs to get something, and Steve found the baby halfway up the stairs following me! He has never attempted one stair before, so it was pretty shocking to see that he knew how to do that! Installing more baby gates, asap!

He started waving the other day, and it’s the cutest thing ever.

Favorites: All toys, remotes, shoes, pens—anything he can put in his mouth, and anything that he can pull up and stand next to. :) He loves bathtime and splashing in the water!

 

I wish ya’ll could see him (and hold him) in person! He is just so inherently sweet :)

I’m not sure I can remember this tiny baby anymore! :)

friday favorites & a free printable

F R I D A Y   F A V O R I T E S

This week has flown! We have been at home mostly, recuperating from our trip out to Indiana. Ephraim has become a terrible sleeper at night, and our immune systems are all down because of it. We are hoping to get him healthy and sleeping through the night very soon!

Here are some of my random favorites of the week!

Favorite 1: Newly-found food staples

 

I'm not leaving my Land O' Lakes any time soon, but I had to try this new Swiss Miss Simply Cocoa since I love products that don't have preservatives and fake flavors/colors. This only has cocoa, nonfat milk, sugar, natural flavor, and salt. And it's pretty delicious!

I picked up these Ghirardelli Minis and let's just say the bag is gone :)

 Duncan Hines makes a blueberry streusel muffin mix called "Simple Mornings." Again, it makes me happy because there aren't artificial ingredients. I didn't have muffin wrappers, so I followed the instructions on the side for "quick bread". Turned out amazing!! Nolan called it "blueberry cake", and asked for serving after serving until I cut him off :)

Favorite 2: "Trick or Treat" package

In case you missed this on Monday, I had a lot of fun putting together this orange and black package.

Favorite 3: The Boys, as always

Nolan's favorite thing this week has been TRAINS TRAINS and more TRAINS! Little brother's favorite thing to do is stand up on the train set and knock it over, like a little baby Godzilla :) 

Favorite 4: New Aaron Shust song

We've been listening to my current favorite song, Aaron Shust's "No One Higher" on repeat for a few days. It is so good! I made a little print of it (above), and I can't wait to get it up on our walls! The print is formatted to a 5x7. Just right-click and save to your computer! :)

Hoping you have an awesome weekend!!

You'll find me cuddling this sweet thing :)

Linking up for Friday Favorites with Andrea, Erika, & Narci.

indiana, part two

We are in major cousin-withdrawal here at our house. Nolan had the best time this past weekend, and it’s too bad that we don’t live right next door to these sweet little girls :)  One of our favorite adventures from the trip was visiting their library, which had endless computer games, toys, and even a smart table. On Friday, we were treated with a trip to the zoo—something to cross off our fall bucket list. I LOVE seeing the animals through the eyes of little ones. They were enthralled by all of the creatures, even furry little caterpillars inching along the sidewalk. Dolphins, sharks, walruses, orangutans, lions, giraffes . . . so so fun!

 
See the orangutan on the top right?!


Oh you know, sharing a Diet Coke with Emily :)

 
Four, three, and two (two for a couple more months)


The long way home. Notice how the baby likes to fall asleep holding my hand. Sweet memories :)