October is possibly one of my favorite months of the year, right up there with April (springtime, my birthday) but behind December (Christmas!). I love October because of the weather…which has been fantastic so far…perfect for football and outside activities and fall clothes. October has always been chock full of birthday celebrations for me too… My dad and Chris’s birthdays are both in October, as well as Hannah and Lauren’s birthdays, which are on the 8th and 10th, and, now, our new friend Autumn’s birthday, which is actually on the 9th. I love it when the fall leaves change, and I LOVE what I see as the beginning of decorating season!
This weekend my parents and sister visited us because what better way for my dad to celebrate his birthday than spending it with his oldest daughter and new son-in-law :) This was probably one of the best weekends we have had since moving, because it was completely relaxing and so much fun to entertain people who are genuinely as excited about our new house full of new stuff as we are! Friday night I made chili and broccoli cheese soup (with an amazing recipe I found online…will DEFINITELY be making it again!) and we just spent a relaxing evening watching TV and hanging out.
It is probably safe to say that Saturday was the perfect day for everyone at our house. Chris and my dad spent the. entire. day. planted in front of the TV watching every football game. My mom and I spent the entire morning and most the afternoon decorating the house for Halloween. It was so much fun decorating our house for the first holiday and getting out all the new decorations that I got last year on sale after Halloween, as well as some of the others I have had for a while and that have been handed down to me from my mom and grandmother. Those of you who know me at all and have ever been to my house (or my mom’s house) between October-January know that when it comes to holidays, we go all out. And it doesn’t end in January by any means, because then we still have Valentines, St. Patrick's, Easter…etc. Like birthdays, holidays give us a reason to celebrate and I am always looking for a reason to celebrate something! Here are a few (read: a whole bunch) of pictures of the completed project:
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| My halloween tree. Yes, I have a halloween tree! Black tree with candy-corn colored lights...1/3 of which only work half the time and weren't working for this particular picture, but I'm going to wait til they are permanently out to change them because it's such a pain! |
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| Of course she is! She lives here! :) |
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| I love this wreath my mom got me and this pumpkin-shaped welcome mat. |
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| And the best of all...our fall display! I got the hay bale at the local farmers supply store. You can't really see it, but the broom and the black cat light up with orange light and the cat's head turns back and forth! |
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| Again, you can't really see the lights because I took this in the late afternoon, but we put orange, purple, and green lights in the tree. |
I really can't thank my mom for all her help! I definitely get my "decorator" gene from her, and I might have to have them back up for Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating because decorating your house for the first holidays is so hard! It's like I had all this stuff, and it was a little overwhelming because I had to figure out where all of it would go. She helped so much.
After we decorated, we got to watch Auburn win in a very stressful (to me) game. I hate it when you feel like you are getting your hopes up to possibly be let down! But beating #10 South Carolina was a great feeling and made the rest of the day even more enjoyable. We grilled steaks, vegetables and made sweet potatoes for dinner and continued watching more football. We spent some time out on the patio and enjoyed our new fire pit.
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| Tammy and Greg gave us this as a housewarming gift! We love how the AU glows when we light it up! |
Afterward, we had cake and ice cream for my dad’s birthday. They left the candles because in a couple of weeks I’m just going to switch them around to make a “2-5” for Chris’ birthday!
Sunday we went to a cute “southern home cooking” restaurant in downtown Columbus before my parents headed out. Here are some pics of the fam (too bad we couldn’t get one all together…there would have been no one to hold the camera!)
In other news, we spent the last weekend finishing up the house (for real this time). My parents coming into town was the perfect push we needed to finally finish up some small things, like putting up curtains in the living room and cleaning out the last couple of boxes we had left. We also finished up the guest room:
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| The bedspread was given to us by Chris' great grandmother, MeMa Warren, and the pillows and quilt were hand-me-downs from my mom. The Cam Newton jersey (signed!) was a wedding gift from Dow! We also have a book case and a chest of drawers in there that you can't see. The yucky wall color would have been the color of our whole house if we hadn't painted! We left that room the same, though, because it won't get used very often (we would like it to get used more, though, if anyone would like to plan a trip!!) |
We also went to Lowe's and decided to try our luck at gardening, but we are starting small. I got a kit with 5 pots and seeds for 5 different spices that I can use once they grow (cilantro, basil, etc). Chris got some seeds and this starter tray thing that is divided up into several little squares, and once they grow a certain amount, they can be planted. He got seeds for broccoli, squash, and green onions. We have a little competition going as to who has the greener thumb. I guess Chris was born with a green thumb since he had a grass farm in his family for many years, because he is beating me by quite a lot. I have never been able to keep anything green alive so this is not surprising, but I’m hoping my plants are just waiting for the right day, and then they are going to grow like crazy and surpass his.
No blog would be complete without some pictures of Mason Dixon, so if you don't find them interesting you might as well go ahead and stop reading!
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| "Glamor Shot"...he really is starting to look like a Pomeranian! |
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| After his bath, in his bathrobe! |
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| Mason cocoon... notice what we finally got hung up last weekend behind the kitchen table! Chris' graduation present from me..pictures of us along with our ticket stubs and souvenir pins from last years' SEC Championship and National Championship games. |
Next weekend, we are going to Nashville (also referred to as "Nash-Vegas!) with Meredith and Ryan King. We are so excited and have a ton of fun stuff planned! It's going to be a long weekend so we are looking forward to a mini-vacation. I'm sure I will be posting all kinds of pictures next week!
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