Jay quote of the day

Jon:  "Jay are we buddies?"

Jay: "Yeah! We're buddies forever! Like, 20 minutes!"

Prayer tonight:

"Dear Heavenly Father
Grateful for this day.
Help Daddy to be safe and choose the right.
Bless that if someone falls, we will help them up.
Bless that if someone does something wrong we will tell them to either go to their bed or go in the corner for four minutes.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Yes I did build this, Obama.

Pinterest might be the death of me.

Seriously. I am not getting enough sleep for about a month now.

BUT this house is coming together. 

More on my latest craftiness...

My Halloween wreath:

(according to Obama this was built by Michaels and Walmart)

  I re-did the laundry room. 

I painted, cut and hung the shelf, etc

(I spend so much time in here, it might as well feel inviting!!)

And ::drumroll:: 

I pulled from this pile of scrap MDF, borrowed a friend's saw...

And built this entryway shelf from SCRATCH!

Well, according to Obama, Home Depot built it. ;) (NOT.)

Cost me $30 (price of the freaking expensive hooks).

 One last random item while we're talking about my entry way...

 I picked up these candlesticks at TJ Maxx. They're my new fav.

Our trim guy starts wrapping our windows a week from Sunday, then I will start the wainscoting in the dining room. Stay tuned! :)

Pumpkins (and all that comes with them).

We had a fun-filled fall feeling kind of weekend.

Jon has been racking up hotel points, so we took a night and stayed in a super nice hotel right in downtown cda with the boys. It was a fun little "staycation" we all needed together.

We went on a walk and played at a park, went to Red Robin, went swimming, and watched Ice Age 4. 

It was a blast! 

We woke up the next morning, had breakfast and went shooting with my dad to sight in our guns for deer hunting. Bullseye.

Then we quickly hit the pumpkin patch!

Ah, they're so cute. And I don't mean the pumpkins. ;)

We then carved the pumpkins (in the form of wolverine and spider man... very predictable in our house of boyz) and prepared for our {almost} annual adults 

ORANGE AND BLACK PARTY!!! 

THIS was a blast.

I didn't take ONE picture. Was having too much fun! But here's what we did:

-Ate/drank way too many calories in yummy appetizers and hot cider

-played THRICE (halloween themed, of course)

-Split into 3 teams, packed into mini-vans and did a photo SCAVENGER HUNT!

(We felt like teenagers racing around the town with our doors open, breaking all kinds of traffic rules, and stalking graveyards in the night!)

-Mingled, chatted and caught up with all of our amazing friends that we don't get to hang out with as much as we'd like to... such is life that's getting ever busier. 

On a side note, I also went back to a fall brown with my hair.

Cheers to my favorite season!

J-J-J-Jay Boy

Jay boy got a shout out in his weekly letter that comes home to parents in his back pack:

"A big shout out to Jay Erickson who knows almost every single letter!" (of the ABC's)

She told me face to face that he's the top in his class in letter recognition and counting.

Way to go little preschooler!

Meat to Eat

Jon went on his annual elk hunting trip with my dad... and came home empty handed for the 6th year in a row. I know hunting takes a lot of skill, but there is a BIG amount of luck and being in the right place at the right time as well.

Either way, our freezer is almost full:

Thanks to our Pops.

Jon helped pack these quarters on his back and bike them out for miles.

As I have done in the past as well. 

Luckily, our awesome family shares when we help pack out, cut up and pay for processing!

We love our organic, free range, grass fed elk meat! 

Bathroom Re-DO

No, I am not doing a tutorial. ;)

There are tons! That's how I learned how to do this little project I undertook today!

I want to do this board and batten in our dining room, and a certian FRIEND ::wink wink:: had his doubts about me being able to do it. So, I decided to start smaller, with the boys' bathroom.

I measured everything out, and went to Home Depot to grab the goods:

Here is during:

literally watching paint dry! :) My idea of a perfect Friday night. ;)

All done!

 ...in the meantime I refinished the little stool (it was just a natural finish before)

I got rid of the towel bar (I hated it cause it doesn't fit more than two towels!) and added hooks! I love them! So much more room to breathe! (or hang your towels. ;))

 AND 9 hours later...AFTER:

What do you think? Did I prove my friend wrong?!

:) Lie to me if you have to.

House to Home... Still? Really?!

All I know is, it's taking WAAAY longer than I coulda known

to make this HOUSE a HOME.

We've almost been in this house a year.

We worked half our saturday on our back yard "beds" (so they're now not just cement curbing and dirt/weeds. ;)) No pics, but they look a-maz-ing.

Been making stuff and snatching some nice pick ups for our interior, too.

So here we go. 

New Bed frame/bench. First time we've had one for our king bed we've had for, like, 5 of our 7.5 years of marriage. Love it...thank you ikea!

I made this little growth chart board transferred from the wall of our first home and finally, finally hung it up. (beat boxing as I type).

TJ Maxx has been my best decorating friend besides pinterest lately. Re-did my entry to feel a little more classy, baby. Still need to flip that mirror to be horizontal. Gonna throw a  row of hooks belowzzz it too.

Plastic pumpkin + a vinyl e (that wouldn't stick) + mod podge =

my little personalized fall porch loiterer.

...and Jon hates this one.

I took his european mount mule deer, spray painted it all white, painted the mounting plate and bought this cute frame so it would match the "style" of our house (which is not rustic). :) I thought he'd be happy that we could now pull it from the garage, but on the contrary... he says I just "frilly, girlied it up".

I love it. Still deciding where this bad boy's home will be.

...and did you know Costco now frames pictures?! I didn't, until I picked up this gem when I went to print off our new family pictures (thank you cranberry jam photography). Waaaaay cheaper than anywhere else (this is a 27x37" frame), and it came to me just like this. AND I love the silver. It brightens up my life. :)

My hobby lobby impulse buy to get rid of my ever-not-fitting-in stars:

House of Target kitchen rug, that I happen to dig.

My MIL gave me these little pumpkin looking candle doo-daas. I'm not really sure what they are (warmers of some sort.. I'll figure it out) but I happen to love them as a piece of decor in my kitchen corner. :)

...and my new bedroom artwork to go with my new bed! Thanks to my artsy-fartsy sister, Mikin, who painted them! My idea came to life thanks to her! 

We are working on getting all of our windows and stairs wrapped and framed right now (little trim work... little bit a this, a little bit a that)

and THEN

I am totally excited to get going on some board and batten wainscoting projects!
Stay tuned for that!!

And LASTLY... TJ Maxx also hooked me up with this sweet mirror find.
I saw it and looked around and thought, "really? Nobody else wants this?"
Love it.

WELCOME FALL!!
(It's freezing all of the sudden today!)