Is this real?

Happy Labor Day! Shaun had a 4 day weekend, but we have been so busy we have yet to actually have any lazy days.Friday started out great! Kids went to school, Shaun and I were able to run some errands, and then pick the kids up early to get all cleaned up and pretty for our family photo shoot. On our way home from town I told Shaun,"Look at those clouds. I hope it doesn't rain." Everyone was able to get ready and we actually made it to the spot to meet with the photographer EARLY! Ha, if you know us we are 99.9% never early. Once she arrived she pointed to the sky and I literally told her,"I feel like we just can't catch a break!" The clouds had moved from our house all the way across town to the spot she had planned to take us. So we started out following her and we weren't on the road but 2 minutes before she pulled over. She told us that the location was another 7 miles down the road and she didn't see a break in the clouds. It was our choice to try and get what we could or reschedule. Since we had already rescheduled once, I have surgery coming up that will make my face out of commission for who knows how long, and a move just 9 weeks away we decided to go ahead and try.

Sarah taking some candid shots of my little gingers

The location she took us to was super cute and right up my alley. There was green everywhere and well in our part of AZ you don't see green often. There was a little creek, an old house, a barn (which by the way when I peeked inside had some amazing things I'd love to have in my house), and an old rusty truck sunken into the ground. As if all of those didn't make for beautiful pictures Sarah brought some awesome props! As soon as she opened the back of her car Sam asked her if she brought a camera. Now one might think he was referring to the camera she would use to actually take our photos, but no he remembered that she brought an antique camera when she took our photos two years ago. She had actually brought a different one this time around and wasn't sure if I wanted to have that as a prop since we had it in our last session with her. I told her whatever makes him happy! Not to mention I am slightly a mamarazzi so it works.  The kids favorite was her little wagon that she said was 100 years old. My kids could not leave that thing alone. She also had an older paper umbrella for Kiley. Those props were probably in more pictures than she had planned, but that is the way the cookie crumbles in this family. The clouds stayed most of the time, but I am hoping she was able to get some great shots. She did show me one picture of Sam that melted my heart. He looked so happy and carefree in the picture. Sam hates to have his picture taken and when he is forced to smile you can totally read it all over his body. We still have a little over a week before we meet to see what she got so fingers crossed it is good.

As she would say,"We are fashion girls!"

Saturday marked the start of my family's favorite time of the year. If you guessed college football you are right! Shaun and the kids are Notre Dame fans while I am a loner and root for UGA. This year the Irish were playing Navy in their opening game and the game was in Ireland. How amazing is that? It is except is you live on the west coast. We all woke up at 6 am to watch the game and I remember telling Shaun,"If your team doesn't win you are in big trouble!"

My gingers up at 6am to root on their Irish

They insisted we eat on our Fiesta plates in the color Shamrock.

Thankfully the Irish beat Navy 50-10. Unfortunately the UGA game wasn't broadcast out here in AZ, but I was happy to hear they won 45-23.

A quick pic of me in my UGA Jersey

The local Spirit of Halloween opened up so we headed over there to check out what they had to offer. They were in a new location from last year that was much bigger and wow they had tons of stuff! Some of their decorations actually made me jump. Not going to lie that isn't hard at all. I am the biggest scaredy cat you will ever meet.  Our whole family loves to dress up and decorate. Since the packers will be coming around Halloween this year we won't be able to decorate :( Earlier in the day Sam said he wanted to be Hulk, but once he saw all they had to offer his mind was quickly changed. We ended up leaving with The Amazing Spider man costume for him. The boys went to see that in the theater when it came out so I am sure that is why he picked it. Kiley picked out a witch costume at the end of last year, but now she is saying she would like to be Katy Perry. So currently I am researching whether to buy one or make it for her. I will let you know what the outcome is. Shaun and I also like to dress up. This year though we are having a hard time deciding what we would like to be. Any suggestions? The rest of the night we just relaxed at home on the couch as a family. Those are truly some of my favorite moments in life.

A few weeks ago Shaun had mentioned it was time to buy Sam a new mattress for his bed. This I totally agreed with. The mattress he currently has was Kiley's when she got booted from the crib because he made his appearance into the world. Before that it was my younger sister's mattress for years. We have had it for 8 years and I am sure she had it for at least 5 or more years. So Sunday we decided to head up to Ikea to pick him up a new one. I find it ironic that when we lived in Texas just 45 minutes away from Ikea we hated it, but now that we live 3 hours away we love it. We go at least every couple months. I mean where else can you shop and drop your kids off for an hour of free baby sitting? I am just sad that hour seems to go by so quickly.

On our way up to Ikea we decided to stop and eat brunch at Cracker Barrel. We ended up hitting the lunch crowd which made the wait about 15-20 minutes which in reality isn't horrible. So the hubs and littles sat outside while I looked around in the store. They have some of their Christmas stuff out so I was super excited to look in peace. As I was about to walk outside to sit with the family a worker came up to me and said,"I just have to see your ring."

Let me give you a little back story on my ring. Shaun picked out my original wedding set without any input from family or friends. He picked out a great set, but it just wasn't me. It felt very cookie cutter since it was a 3 stone. When my grandma passed I got her 3 stone wedding set, lots of friends have 3 stone wedding sets, and even my MIL. So after being married about 1.5 years we traded in my original band for a enhancer to change up the look a bit. I also have big hands so dainty little rings don't look good on me. I need something big and chunky! Well after talking to Shaun several times about how the ring was beautiful, but just not ME he agreed that he wanted me to have something I would LOVE. So for the next year or so anytime we were at the mall we would look to see what the store had to offer. I never found anything I just loved until May. We went in to have my 6 month inspection done and while I was waiting this ring caught my eye. I tried it on and thought,"maybe it is too much." Even the salesman made a comment about it being big. His coworker came over though and showed me several ways to wear the ring and I loved the versatility. I decided that I wasn't sold so we went home. That night I dreamed of the ring and the next morning when I told Shaun he said,"well let's go get it!" He knew I had finally found the one. This time we tried a different jewelry store because we had so many problems with the other. We called ahead and they said yes they had that ring. So we drove 1.5 hours to go get it only to get there and it wasn't the one :( I was so heart broken and thought to myself it just wasn't meant to be. I was trying to describe the ring to the sales lady and she literally held up one finger as if to wait. She went to the vault opened it up and came back with 2 plain bands. She asked me if the ring I was looking for went with those and I nodded. She proceeded to tell me someone had just came in days before, but only bought the actual engagement ring. So they went ahead and sized my finger and ordered the ring. A few weeks later I picked it up and have been in love since.

So as this woman is admiring my ring at Cracker Barrel she looks up to me and says,"Is this real?" I was appalled! Even if I thought someone's ring was fake I would never ask them that. So I responded with a,"YES!" and she proceeded to ask me if I had recently got married? When I said no she just looked at me like she didn't believe me it was real. I went outside and told Shaun that if I were dressed in my usual t-shirt and jeans combo I could see how she would think I was lying, but I actually took time to look cute and dressy yesterday. Ironically on our way to Cracker Barrel I instagramed a photo of my ring in all its glory and said,"Sometimes I still can't believe she is mine!"

Honey Boo Boo Child IT IS REAL!!!!

At Ikea we got Sam's much needed new mattress and picked up a couple new Ribba frames for our soon to be behind the couch collection. On our way home we decided to stop by Target (my fave place of all!). Our small town has a Target, but anytime we are in a bigger city I like to stop and check out what they have because sometimes the deals are better or I might something my store didn't have to offer. I was so happy we stopped because I am a lover of clearance and we totally racked up. When we move we like to buy the kids new bedding to help ease into a new surrounding. They love being able to pick out new ones every couple years. We already bought Kiley's a few weeks ago and when we stopped last night we saw the one we had been eying for Sam was on clearance for 50% off. So of course I picked it up for him. We checked around the whole store and saw that the swim wear was marked 70% off. So each kid got 3 new pieces of swim wear. Earlier this summer I hit a huge sale at Old Navy and got everyone tons of swim wear so adding this to their collection I am hoping the whole time we are in paradise they won't need any new ones.  


So that leads me to today....Labor Day. Shaun and the kids are both off today. The day started out with some Krispy Kreme doughnuts we picked up yesterday while we were up by Ikea.

Seasonal Caramel Apple doughnut is to die for! Literally!!!

After breakfast Shaun was on duty and sat with the kids and watched The Pirates! Band of misfits while I got some pinning time in on Pinterest.

Snapped this during the movie! Melts my heart I tell ya.

The rest of the day will be spent dropping off some stuff at Goodwill that we have been able to sell and relaxing as a family before the week starts up. Hope everyone has had a great holiday weekend!

Peace & Love,
Mrs. C