Discovery Playhouse with our BFF's

I have been soaking in my day's off with the girls lately. I know that is my day to catch up around the house, but lately I haven't done much of anything except hang out with them! We met Ashley and her girl's at Discovery Playhouse one day when she got off of school. I didn't get any pictures of the little girl's (fail.). I am really going to try to be better about that! Poor kids!

Classic toddler picture..seriously

This girl cannot STAND the sun to be in her eyes, so she started wearing my glasses. #diva

Friday Favorite's..Advent links!

I am linking up today with Erika and sharing some of my favorite's! I have been searching pinterest for the perfect ideas for an advent calendar for this Christmas season. It is hard to find things that are appropriate for a toddler. I want some of them to be strictly for fun, but I also want some days to be Christ centered and geared towards giving to others. It is hard to explain to a two year old that she needs to pick out a bunch of new toys, but they are for someone else. I just don't think she is old enough to grasp the concept yet, so I am going to keep it very simple this year and do more next year when she understands better. Anyway, here are the top five links that I found and liked for different reasons!

-ONE-

LINK 

I liked this site because it was just a basic list of Christmas activities. I could have probably thought of most of these on my own, but it was nice to have a list to reference. 

-TWO-

LINK

I liked this site a lot, also. It was a little bit deeper than I am planning on doing, but still had some great ideas. As a working mom, I simply do not have time in some of our days to do a bunch of small things each day, but I still loved this concept! 

-THREE-

LINK

I liked this link because it was simple and easy! I liked that they got to draw a new stick out of the jar everyday instead of opening a gift. I don't know if this will really work for my family because I want to be able to choose which activities go on which days. For example, baking cookies needs to be on my off day from work and a coloring page or stickers could be on a day that I work because it is short and something Zetta can do while I am cooking dinner.

-FOUR-

LINK

I LOVED this link! Simple acts of kindness for young kiddos! We will have many of these on our list!!

-FIVE-

LINK

This was a good list as well and had some new ideas on it that I didn't really see anywhere else. Playing with red and green balloons, making a Christmas lunch, and many more!

I hope that someone else get's some use out of these links! It was fun to research and look at everyone's ideas and I can't wait to get started! 

Pumpkin Patch!

After church one Sunday we stopped at a little pumpkin patch on the way to our house. Zetta had the best time, so I knew I wanted to take her to the "big" farm in Jackson. I ended up randomly going one afternoon and my mom came with us! We met our friends Ashley and Mila there, too. These pictures are all out of order, but those girls are the BEST of friend's! It is fun watch their friendship grow as they get older!!

These two..they stole my phone and were taking selfie's!

Is this not one of the cutest picture's you've ever seen?!!

Yes, Nora has a hat (as you'll see below), it looked kind of goofy so I took it off for a picture.

Sam A. Baker

Back in September my family went on our annual camping trip to Sam A. Baker state park! As we get older it gets better and better. The little's start having more fun and us "big" cousin's really start enjoying the time away from the world and catching up! Our youngest cousin is in college this year, so this is the first year where I think we all really felt connected on more of a social level. It was fun just to hang out around the fire after the "adults" went to bed and laugh about anything and everything! That weekend is one of my most favorite weekend's of the year, and I hope the tradition carries out for years to come!

Halloween!

On Halloween, we started out by visiting my grandma. As I get older I just want to spend as much time with my grandparent's as I can. I lost my grandpa 5 years ago on Halloween, and it was just a wake up call that life is short and to spend it with the people that matter most. Moving on..are these not the cutest koala bear's you have ever seen?! 

Instead of a trunk or treat event, our church has "block parties" set up at different member's houses. We stopped by one of those on our way to Jackson and Zetta got to trick or treat at a few houses in their neighborhood as well! 

My parent's were working at their little part-time job and they dressed up too. Aren't they the cutest?!

The Sunday after Halloween we went to a fall festival with Pete's sisters family. Zoey was a koala bear also, so we had to get a photo of all the girls together!! SO CUTE!

November Goals

I have seen a few bloggers post a list of goals at the beginning of each month and then revisit the list at the end of the month and see how they did. I thought about trying it this month and seeing if it held me a little bit more accountable to get my booty in gear on a few things!!

 ---November Goals---

1. Finish reading ONE book

2. Blog at least 2x a week

3. Address all my Christmas card envelopes

4. Workout at least 3x a week

5. Do all my Christmas shopping 

I believe that is a good place to start! All goals that should be fairly manageable, and all enjoyable!! We shall see!