Visions of Fall

Ahh...well, it was triple digits all weekend long, but that didn't stop me from finally getting out all of my fall decorations and turning the INSIDE of my house into an autumn oasis!  Each year, I seem to accumulate a little bit more (which is fine by me, since this is my favorite time of year!)...so every year, the house looks just a little different.  It's always fun to figure out just where everything should go, and which things can be placed within the reach of my little grabby-handed twins without ending up damaged (and without the hands getting hurt).  

These are the only things that ended up in the girls' reach: a floral bouquet in a tin vase, and two foam pumpkins that we carved last year.  And while they were enthralled in the beginning and wanted to cart the pumpkins off to play with them, a warning that they might get put away was enough to make Makayla start keeping her sister in check whenever she sees her starting to touch them again!  

It was nice to find a more permanent home for my new fall banner, too (rather than on the blinds in my craft room).  It looks quite nice in the family room over the windows.  

And finally, a gorgeous arrangement on the island.  While it may not FEEL like fall outside, it can at least SMELL like fall inside!

Now I just need some more fall artwork from the kids to finish decorating the walls and windows!!  How do you and your family celebrate the changing of the seasons?  

Touches of Fall

Ahhhhh...that's me breathing a long sigh of relief and inhaling the cool, crisp air which has graced us over the past couple days, especially in the evenings. What a blessing to not have to run the A/C, and to be able to sleep with the windows open again. Yesterday morning, after over 3 weeks of not leaving the house without any children in tow, I finally got some mommy-alone time, and when I returned in the afternoon, I caught up on some much-needed house-cleaning.

My reward was then to pull out the autumn decorations, which kicks off my very FAVORITE time of year!! From September through January is absolutely MY time!! I was MADE for this time of year, I promise you!! It's something deep in my soul which is soothed by and totally responds to the scents, colors, tastes, textures, and sounds of the fall and early winter.

Finally...pics of the house!!!

As you can see, there is still much to be done in the way of decorating...especially in the family room and master bedroom. I also still have to put up Mackenzie's name above her bed, and put up some wall words in the master bath...I have them, just haven't had a chance to put them up yet. Darrell's been working on putting together some temporary bookshelves in the loft, where we will put our books for now. Eventually, we want to do built-in bookshelves in the front room downstairs and make it a library/study/sitting room. But at $16 a pop for the short ones and $24 a pop for the tall ones, we couldn't beat the deal on the temporary bookshelves from Target!!

Mackenzie has her pre-op appointment this afternoon, which Darrell is taking her to. I'll update here later.

Textured Walls and Ladders

I hate textured walls. Hate is a strong word, I know. But I hate textured walls. I don't remember having textured walls growing up. When did textured walls become standard in new homes? And why? Is it to hide sloppy work?

And I'm not so fond of ladders either. I have terrible balance. And a little fear of heights. Although, I guess it's not so much a fear of heights as it is a fear of falling from heights. With my track record, falling from a ladder wouldn't really be so surprising, so I generally try to avoid climbing them if at all possible.

Alas, my weekend was filled with textured walls and a ladder. And some really high ceilings - like 11 or 12 foot ceilings. Well, walls, really...really high walls (in the master bedroom). We painted our master bedroom, kitchen, and family room this weekend. It wasn't really so much fun, but the end result is oh-so-beautiful!! Seriously, though...there is no reason to make a wall that requires like 6 coats of paint in some places. And there was one wall that was so textured that even after 3 coats using the roller made especially for "rough" surfaces, I still had to paint pretty much the entire wall with a brush to get all the little white holes to finally get covered in paint. All while balancing 5 steps up on a ladder. Scary.

I need to put fresh batteries in my camera so I can take pictures for you.

Other happenings over the long weekend...

• I finally got the apnea monitor belt for Makayla on Friday - did I already mention this? I had to go pick it up...grr...but at least we have it. So far, no apnea alarms, just one low heartrate alarm...but I'm thinking maybe the parameters need to be changed since she's older now and they were set when she was a newborn. I think the low HR is set to alarm at below 80 BPM, and I'm pretty sure it's okay for them to go below that while sleeping now that they're older...but I could be wrong. Will be asking the doc about that.
  
• Mackenzie decided she no longer needs to sleep during the day. At all. And she has decided to throw a big 'ole temper tantrum if we try to make her. Which then wakes up Makayla, who is sleeping peacefully across the room. And then Makayla gets whiny b/c she hasn't had a full nap. Really fun.
• I can finally see at least one, maybe two, teeth coming in on the bottom for Makayla!!
• Makayla is now crawling on hands and knees, and the same day she learned how to do that, she learned how to sit herself up and pull herself to standing. Uh oh.
• Makayla has surprised us by continuing to sleep through, or nearly through, the night on a regular basis for about a week now. She occasionally wakes up once, and last night twice (but the first time was thanks to her brother), but overall, I'm totally impressed and still kind of in disbelief!
• Mackenzie is sitting up on her own for a few seconds, before falling over. Progress! She's also gotten good at rocking back and forth on all fours.
• I made homemade baby food for the first time - peaches. So easy - why haven't I done this before now?? Steamed them in the microwave, peeled them, blended them in the Magic Bullet...froze them. Too bad I can't find our old ice cube trays, though...had to re-use some baby food containers.
• My sister-in-law Chrissy and nephew Jake came for a surprise visit this afternoon, which was nice. They got to see the newly painted walls, and it was Jake's first time seeing the new house. Anthony, as always, enjoyed the additional audience!!
• My wonderful, fabulous, fantastic, awesome husband went shopping this afternoon, and came home with......................................................................................................an early birthday present for me. Can you guess what it is????
  

Didn't I tell you he's awesome? Now I have to get some thread and learn how to use it! (And yes, I already took it out of the box, and it really IS a nice, pretty, new sewing machine!) And no, he did NOT buy it at Walmart this time!!

Guess what Darrell found???

That's right!!! He found the camera cord, in one of the boxes still in the garage!!! YAY!!!!! Which means, you get pics today!!! :))))) So, I took some goofy ones of me, b/c I'm trying out some new photography stuff for a scrapbooking challenge I found on a cool blog (check it out - over on the right - pretty paper...). And of course, the kids, and some of the house, even though we're not close to being done with it yet.









See how much tamer the hair is AFTER mommy gets a chance to do something with it???











The blue patch on the wall by the refrigerator is the color the walls will be in the kitchen and family room.









The craft room - as you can see, it's sort of a mess, b/c it's already being used!! :)