Catching You Up-- Fall Recap

Well I've been majorly neglecting this blog lately!  (sorry!)

Fall is nearing its end (or at least the fall weather is!).  Jackson's birthday is in just a few days and Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away.  Crazy!  So I thought it would be a good time to do a quick recap of our Fall so far... sooo here comes the bulleted list!

• Jackson gets his first haircut!!! We took him at the very end of August sooo I guess it was still summertime but oh well. He was NOT a fan (cried the whole time)- but he stayed really still and looked adorable (and all grown up!) afterwards!
  
  
   

•   In September we visited not one but TWO pumpkin patches!  We went to one as a family (on a super cold day in September!), then Jackson came along again to another when I took my preschool kiddos there for a field trip.  He had sooo much fun at BOTH!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We had family pictures done in October.  We had them done with my parents in law, sister in law and her family.  I was really happy with them... here's the ones with our family in this slideshow/video:
                                             [[[[ I'm still editing this video... check back soon ]]]]

• Halloween was fun!  Jackson went Trick-or-Treating (for real) for the first time.  My neices came over to trick or treat too.  He had so much fun, though I'm fairly certain he would've been just as satisfied dressing up and going on a wagon ride.  The first half of the neighborhood he didn't want to get out of it. lol!  I was impressed though because he pretty much walked the entire second half of our neighborhood-- had to be still pushing his "waggy" aka wagon though!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• And then on November 4, I got the biggest suprise of my LIFE!  My cousin Stefani (who lives in Europe) came to visit!  Her hubby Bas had to go on a business trip in Chicago and Stefani and the kids came along.  She totally surprised everyone though.  We were supposed to FaceTime that afternoon and she showed up on my doorstep!  It was too short, but we had a great visit.  Now just counting down the ten months before they move back to the states!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

 And now here we are with November half over.  I cannot believe that my baby boy will be two years old in five days.  We've got a lot of exciting things coming up-- his actual birthday, then the Saturday afterwards we are taking him to see Sesame Street Live!  (He will flip lol), then Sunday the 23 is his party!  I'll be vlogging all of these things for sure- and I'll try to blog them as well :)

Hope everyone is doing well (all two of my readers, right? lol-- seriously if you read this regularly leave a comment below! :)).  I'm hoping to be better at updating more often on here!

First trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Today we went to the pumpkin patch with my brother & his family!

Checking out the goats!

Cousin Parker & Jackson on the hayride!

My boys <3 br="" hayride="" on="" the="">

Love! ...also in honor of International Baby Wearing Week!

My big boy!  Already planning on doing this every year.

My family <3 br="">

Love this kid's crazy long eyelashes!

Another cousin photo op!

Jackson was absolutely in LOVE with this tractor!!!

Haha definitely his favorite part-- he cried when we had to take him down to leave!

We had a great time, I can't wait to do it every year with him.  Makin' memories!!!

How are you and your family celebrating the Fall season?

Family Update!

Whooo ok so I thought it was high time for a general family update!

Lots of different stuff so... the bulleted list!

• JOBS-  Ok I'm not sure if I mentioned this on here yet... but I do have a regular part-time teaching job now!  I'm teaching the three and four year old preschool classes at our church.  Pay is less than what I would make subbing regularly but it's STEADY work and I finally get to have my own classroom.  So yay!  Hubby still has his job with the medical supply company and it's going ok.  They've cut overtime and hired a 4th driver so he isn't making as much overtime as he was before (which we unfortunately had come to count on) so that hurts a bit BUT on the flip side it's nice having him home more.  He is always on the lookout for other opportunities though.  AND also I will be starting this Tuesday evening tutoring a 5th grade boy once a week.  I know him from subbing at his school so I think it will be great for both of us.  It'll be a little extra income too and I don't have to be away from my baby that much more (only an hour each week)
  
• FINANCES & WORKING TO BECOME DEBT FREE-  hoookay so I think I mentioned this once but we are doing Dave Ramsay's steps to financial freedom.  We haven't even gotten the first baby step BUT are working toward it.  We are currently trying to sell our Jeep.  Unfortunately at the moment it has been listed for a month and STILL hasn't sold.  We've dropped our price by $500 and still nothing.  So next week we are gonna offer bottom line (what we owe) on it and pray someone takes it!  If not then we are gonna have to figure out what else we can do to get our monthly payment down enough we can have some money left over after bills to actually save.  (We're exploring things like refinancing our current loan for a lower interest rate, possibly trading the Jeep on another vehicle and trying to get the payment down where we need it and then selling our Malibu, or even trading both the Jeep and Malibu for something...)  Anyway prayers in this matter for us are greatly appreciated!!!  I'm really anxious to "get the ball rolling" on our debt snowball so we can be DONE with debt, especially credit card debt!
  
• JACKSON'S FIRST BIRTHDAY is coming wayyy too soon for this mama!  I have started to plan his party though.  I'm going to be doing a couple YouTube vids about it (if I can find the time), but we have decided on a theme (Little Monsters), venue (we are cramming our family and close friends in our house), and date (the 23rd, Saturday after his birthday).  I'm planning on making the smash cake & cupcakes (note- PLANNING... will have to do a trial run beforehand) and doing $5 pizzas and finger foods.  Hoping to keep it low budget (after all, he doesn't really care-- it's basically for me lol!)  I have a board on Pinterest you can follow if you'd like to see my inspirations!
  
• FALL IS HERE!  My favorite season by far!  We are hoping to get away on a little weekend camping trip, either with my brother & his family or just the three of us at some point, just depends on money (blah).  Then we will have Jackson's first Halloween.  I am planning on taking him out in his costume with my nieces (though we won't be asking for any candy ;)).  Then the next thing you know his birthday & Thanksgiving will be here!  I love the Fall weather and pretty leaves... and the fact that it ends with my son's birthday just makes it all that much better!
  
• BABY #2.  Thought I might as well address that now since lots of people have asked me this.  Haha.  So no we are not currently trying for or hoping for another baby ;)  But yes we do want more kids.  Some days when I happen to see a newborn or when I realize how BIG Jackson is getting now, I can feel that baby fever start to creep up.  But then my common sense takes over and while we would welcome another baby if God decided we needed one now-- I would really like to wait a little longer.  Till Jackson is sleeping through the night would be nice for one, and also I think we need to be at least in a little better financial position than we are at the moment.  I'm not going to wait until we are debt free because honestly that's going to take us several years I'm sure.  But it would be good to wait until we are at least able to SAVE money for when I am off work-- because that's when we got into the most trouble with credit cards was when I was on maternity leave with Jackson.  So yeah I'd like to have enough saved up that it will cover my lack of income for at least 8 weeks.  But that being said we actually aren't doing a whole lot now to prevent pregnancy.  Despite breastfeeding, I still got my cycles back at 5 months postpartum (and I hadn't even started Jackson on solids yet at that time!  Lol I felt gipped!) I'm taking ovulation tests and we are trying to avoid my most fertile time (though my cycles are irregular now that I am nursing), and we are otherwise using a particular "method" that isn't exactly super effective.  So there is a chance I could get pregnant now but it's pretty low.  My original plan was to prevent until Jackson turns a year and then we would just not try but not prevent.  That's still the tentative plan but that may change.  I don't think we will be doing that whole "TTC" thing this time though.  We did that with Jackson and it took us a year to get pregnant and it was just stressful and such.  This time we plan to just quit preventing and then when it happens- it happens! 

Alright I think that's about it for this update!  Until later!

My cousins visit!

Wow ok long time, no update!  It's been crazy here so prepare for some mass blog posting in which I will attempt to catch you up!  So the last two weeks in September my cousins were in visiting from Germany!  It was sooo awesome to see them again!  We spent as much time as we could with them while they were here.  Here's some pics that highlighted our visit (aside from getting maternity pics together and my baby shower-- which will each get their own posts!)

At Sweet Apple Farm...

Haha our hubby's being silly

My lil God daughter is growing up!

No we did not steal pumpkins! ;)

Haha love this

Stef and I got crafty and appliqued onesies for our boys! :)  Here are the ones I made!

And finally a visit to the Barlow Fair...

Hannie Jeane is such a poser! lol wanted a pic with the girls ;)  (Also, excuse the pregnant double chin I have going on in this pic!)

Couldn't leave the boys out!

I wish now that I had taken even more pics of things like when we went out for dinner, shopping, etc.  But oh well :)  It was so nice to have them here and it makes me even more anxious for them to move back to the states (hopefully in the next 3 years or so!)  Can't wait to see when our baby boys will arrive (They are BOTH due the same day!!!) and until they visit again, hopefully in late Spring/early summer of next year.

House update & things we're looking forward to this Fall

Hey just a quick house update... heard back from the appraiser yesterday.  The appraisal is accepted PENDING a couple minor repairs (the deck and some peeling paint).  The owners are taking care of them this weekend (we might be helping them too- we offered at least.)  And then I have to call back and schedule a time to have the appraiser come BACK out and make sure it's taken care of-- THEN I'm hoping hoping to get a closing date. 

We're getting anxious to move in!!!



We don't have any major plans this weekend.  Other than possibly helping out at our new house, we're going to work on cleaning our house and hopefully starting to pack some things.  You know, like the stuff you don't use on a daily basis.  We have our guestroom/office junk room that's full of crap that we obviously don't use.  I also may have enough stuff to have a yard sale, or at least share a yard sale with someone.  I'm NOT bringing junk into my new house that's for sure!  It's amazing how much we've accumulated just since we've been married.

I also found out that I will be working in my current long-term job until October 12.  Then I'm back into the pool.  Maybe I'll luck into another long term?



I know we're not even halfway through September yet, but there are lots of things coming up in October we're looking forward to...

Oct ?- Hopefully moving into our house early this month!  Also bringing home our new puppy, Earl.  (My sis in law's dog had pups and we're taking one-- hopefully be getting him about the same time we're moving into the house

Oct 1- WVU game with Brew, and my brother and his wife.  Planning on hanging out with my other little brother since he's going to school there.

Oct 8- Hosting my friend Abby's bachelorette party!  (hopefully at our new house, if we can get moved in by then)

Oct 14- Hopefully taking this day off work and taking my niece Miryan to Build-a-Bear in Charleston.  That's our 4th birthday present to her.  Super pumped, I love hanging out w/that kid!  Haha. I'll probably also be helping out with wedding stuff for Abby's wedding.

Oct 15- Abby's wedding (& Miryan's birthday)

Oct 16- Clogging show at Bob Evans Farm Festival.  Always a fun time. :)






Did I mention Fall is seriously my favorite season?  What's not to love?  Beautiful weather (usually), football, pretty leaves, apple butter, the list goes on....

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ok so it's a day early but I doubt I will have time to post tomorrow... it's a BUSY day!!!

But I'm wayyy behind on my thankful list so here goes... (and I'll go ahead and add one for tomorrow too!)


18- I'm thankful for modern communication (aka email, internet, skype, cell phones, etc.) My cousin Stefani & her new (growing) family is living in Germany at this time and if it wasn't for any of this modern communication stuff I'd hardly ever get to talk to her! But we are able to email/facebook each other, and I can keep up w/her pregnancy through youtube, not to mention now that my new phone has a skype app I can talk to her on the phone!!! :)

19- My house. Yes it's not much, and we don't own it, but it's a HOUSE. I'm fairly certain if we did not have the opportunity to live in this "family-owned" house of mine, that we'd be stuck in some dinky apartment or house in a not so great neighborhood. We are very fortunate to have this home!

20- The amazing Thanksgiving dinners (yes, two) that I get to have tomorrow!

21- Everyday heroes, like police officers, fire-fighters, paramedics, etc. These people often risk everything for the lives of others.

22- Good books. I love to read and nothing beats having a free moment to curl up w/a good book :)

23- Public Education. It gets a lot of flack, but I'm glad it was there for me!

24- Along those same lines, I'm thankful for teachers. More specifically all the wonderful ones I have that inspired me to become a teacher myself!

25- The Seasons that we get to experience here in WV. I know not everyone gets to see snowy winters, rainy springs, hot summers, and cool autumns (with beautiful foliage), and I may complain about the weather, but I'm glad we get all 4 seasons here!



Alllrighty, all caught up plus one day! :)

Plans for Thanksgiving...

We're having the Dean family HERE at my house for Thanksgiving! Yikes! LOL THankfully, Brew's aunt Laura is doing the majority of the cooking, I'm just hosting (lol and making pumpkin pies, cheesy potatoes, and green beans :)

Thennn, in the evening we're going to my mom & dad's for the Greathouse gathering. Two dinners in one day, woo hoo!

Alrighty well I'm off to go finish cleaning! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! ♥

Fall...

So I decked out the blog for Fall! It's my favorite season :) I will work on a different (wider) banner sometime soon!

Don't really have much to update on, so I'll leave you w/a couple things to check out :)

First, the video of our clogging performance at Bob Evans Festival :)

Annd a few Fall-ish pics from TWO years ago (2008) of me & my cousin Stefani!



That's all for now!!! ♥