A morning date with the Treadmill to try to make some progress with my running.

I keep telling myself, one day at time, I know one day I will be back to running 50+ miles a week.

Emmy and I visited the library, I am so into Emmy pink, crushed velvet high tops!

Cannon’s entire class walked out wearing these little crowns that they made, it was the cutest.

And in peak adulting I was excited to pick up this larger Corckpot, we have a small one but with the kids eating more and holiday meals coming up we needed a bigger one.

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What recently had reminded you that you aren’t young and cool anymore.

We are trying to stay on top of things for the holidays so I took the kids to Target to look at toys. The idea was that they would look for things to put on their wish lists, if they found something they liked I would take a picture for them.

They basically started pointing to everything begining me to take pictures.

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It got so ridiculous that I started pretending to take pictures. So I guess that idea didn’t work. What I do know is that they will be excited about anything they are given =)

After shopping we went to a playground for some fun before school.

This year Cannon’s teacher is super into crafts, and I LOVE how proud he is of his work. He asked me to take this picture of him with it.

We got a tiny bit of rain (it’s been SO dry here) and the kids insisted on going out to play in it. Maybe some of our Oregon roots are in these kids after all!

We decided to visit the pumpkin patch after school on a Monday to avoid the crowded weekends. This was a great idea as it wasn’t crowded at all but we did not have enough time to do everything we wanted to do before they closed.

Now that the kids are older there is so much more they want to do!

They were so excited and loved visiting the patch!

We ran through the corn maze.

And visited the patch.

My parents were able to join us which was awesome, we loving sharing memories with them.

Next year I will be sure to give us more time there before closing!

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In 2020 the didn’t have the cornucopia out so we will have to use a different photo. I can’t believe how much the kids change each year!

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What are your favorite fall family traditions?

A quick drop in from our Sunday. I started the day with a little run on the treadmill, running still isn’t feeling great and it is a bit depressing but I am going to keep working at it….

we spent the morning cleaning and getting things done before meeting some friends at the amusement park.

It was so nice to get together since it’s so much harder now that school is in session.

We spent some of the afternoon in the backyard because it’s been so beautiful. We have had the easiest fall here ever. No storms or snow so the trees are the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Cannon drew this heart for me and I love it so much!

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How was your Weekend?

We are officially in the season of life where we are just getting busier and busier with kids activities.

We spent half of Saturday at the soccer fields, I think Emmy looks so so cute in her gear and Cannon looks so grown up!

After soccer we went to my parents house to celebrate both my brother’s and my birthday, it was nice to all be together after all of us traveling so much during September.

After lunch we put our costumes on and walked over to our neighborhoods Halloween party.

We had so much fun, it was fun to see friends and return after the event didn’t happen last year.

we even won best family costume.

After a crazy day we were ready to go home and rest!

Soaking in all the Halloween fun!

We had a typical day for us, joining friends at a playground, then home for lunch.

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We are loving all things Halloween for the next couple weeks, but also getting some Christmas shopping in. I keep hearing about how supplies will be low and shipping will take a long time, trying to keep on top of things.

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PJs, presents and decorations.

While Cannon was at school, Emmys and I visited the library, I love that they collect all the holiday books in one place.

After we picked up Cannon we went to Costco and it was freezing! We weren’t prepared after a hot week.

I had been eyeing this blanket for Christmas but I was completely sold when the kids were freezing. We opened it up immediately so they could snuggle up while we shopped. I regret nothing!

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Have you started holiday shopping yet?

We started our day out early (for us) and met some friends at a playground at 7:30 to play before they had preschool.

While walking home we stopped at two more playgrounds because the weather was so beautiful. Some people like to pub crawl, we park crawl.

These kids are just the sweetest friends.

Our new bookshelves are doing exactly what I hoped they would. Emmy loves grabbing a book off them and sitting in her chair to read.

The metal bear head needs to move up now, but one step at a time.

The rest of the day was spent running to school, errands and “girl time”

This morning we finally put up book shelves in the playroom that I have thinking about for a long time.

I have wanted to have seasonal shelves so that I can collect all our themed books. We are starting with Halloween books and I love it. My plans for the shelves are:

Jan/February – Love/Valentines Day

March – St. Patricks Day/Spring

April – Easter/Spring

May – Emmy’s birthday theme

June – Cannon’s birthday theme

July – Camping/summer

August – Back to School

September – ????? Not sure about this one yet (suggestions welcome)

October – Halloween

November/December – Christmas

I feel like we are still settling into the school year and it’s been over a month now. Anyone else still trying to get into a good routine? We haven’t had a full/normal school year yet since Covid has disrupted Cannon’s first two years of school. Although drop off and pick up are much more simple since Emmy can stay in the car with car line. I would have loved this the last two years when she was much less cooperative at getting in and out of the car.

We love picking Cannon up and all being back together.

Emmy sometimes falls asleep at pick-up since she so recently gave up her nap.

Cannon had soccer practice in the evening, so Emmy got to hang out with some of her friends. We are unsure about soccer in the spring since we have to give up our weekends. I just really like the idea of the kids being on a team sport.

Do your kids play sports? At what age did they start?

We were a little late getting into our Boo Baskets this year since we were out of town but we dug into them tonight.

**Short side note – I ordered two skull bags but Pottery Barn sent me one that was embroidered with the name Brayden (Sorry Brayden’s family we have your bag). I called customer service and the shipped me a new bag but they had sold out of the skulls. A little sad that the kiddos didn’t get to match but having just one bag would not do.

For their baskets this year we put in come coloring/activity books they can use this month, some stickers, a craft to do, a pop-it, socks, bubbles and some PJs.

This sweet little book didn’t make it into the photo but I LOVE the illustrations.

This activity set will be great for car rides.

Emmy’s basket was pretty much the same as Cannons.

I love making little baskets for holidays:

We make them bins for:

• Valentines Day 2021 Version
• St. Patricks Day
• Easter
• Welcome to Summer
• Back to School
• Boo Bins
• Arrival Baskets – These are similar to the Boo Baskets but for Christmas. We call them Arrival Baskets because they show up with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf. Again these are things we want them to have the entire Christmas season.

** We also did Disney baskets for this years vacation, I think it would be fun to do little bins for any big trip. New toys, books, etc. for the plane or car.

On our trip to Costco this week the kids were excited to see toys out for the holidays. They were excitedly asking for things so we tell them we will take pictures so we can remember to add them to our list. We are going to start buying gifts now because supply chains and shipping are unpredictable this year.

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We did some Halloween decorating

We are all in on the Halloween snacks

What are your favorite fall foods?

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75 Soft activity – 30 minutes on the treadmill