Friday Favorites!!! Halloween Hunters Edition ;)

Don't forget, if you link up with us, grab our graphic below and then link up with either me, Erika or Narci (or all of us!).

First up on the agenda are my new FAVORITE pair of shoes for Griffin.  Teeny, tiny hot pink baby Hunter boots.  

They are ridiculous and unnecessary and completely awesome ;)

They looked so cute with her Halloween shirt and she kept pointing to them and giggling.

Hahahaha ;)

Next up is a new FAVORITE polish.

 It's "A Woman's Pragueative" by OPI and I received TONS of compliments when I wore it last week.

 Another pic of the polish in this pic of me holding Luke's hand after church when I saw that he had written Luke + Abby = Heart on it.  FOR REALS?!?!?! hahaha  I told him he could love Abby in a Christlike, friendship manner - but that was IT!. ;)

Abby is (obviously!) one of his FAVORITE friends in his class and on Monday night I met up with some of his friends moms at a painting class where we painted chevron monogram canvases.  I made mine to go in my classroom (hence the crazy colors) and we had so much fun!

And just in case you're curious, I wore my FAVORITE jeans and Toms Booties to go paint ;)

On Tuesday Griffin wore my FAVORITE vest to Miss Lisa's house ;)

... and apparently wanted to do one of her new favorite things... KISS everyone. hahaha

I take A LOT of pictures (duh!), but I think this one might be my FAVORITE from the week.

Curly Sue!

On Tuesday night one of my FAVORITE students ever invited me to her last home Volleyball game.  It was Senior night and so of course I went - and it turns out that she actually acknowledged me in her little speech!  It was seriously the sweetest.  And totally humbling and a moment I'll treasure forever.  Griffin tagged along and she had a BALL playing with the cheerleader's pom poms...

... and the cheerleaders ;)

Another FAVORITE pic from the week??? This one...

... if only y'all could have heard the GIGGLES!!! hahaha

 Last... a friend and co-worker shared THIS BLOG POST with me and I wept.... like REALLY wept and then reread it and wept again.  It is so so so good and was by far my FAVORITE thing I read this week.  Here's an excerpt to entice you into reading it ;)

And yet there is The Ache.

Always The Ache, right underneath my lungs, in the pit of my gut, the ache of what that means and the grief of moving on, of love, of knowing: No more babies. No more nursing quietly in the night. No more flour sack of milk-drunk baby bliss. No more gummy smiles. No more tiny diapers. No more baby clothes. No more crib. No more baby wearing. No more new baby smell. No more of the millions of moments that knit your heart so completely to another small soul.

The season of having babies – the one that so radically changed me – is over. I’m okay with that. Most days, I’m even very happy about it, relieved perhaps. It’s an intense season of life, make no mistake. We’re ready for this new season, looking forward with anticipation to new things. Other days, it’s hard.

I know we like to pretend like we can have everything all at once. It’s a nice illusion. But there are transitions in our lives: times for certain seasons and times when those seasons end. Are we happier for pretending that we can have everything anytime we like? Or are we better when we acknowledge the end of one chapter of our lives, grieve and sing and give weight to the passing of it, and move forward? To everything, there is a season.

... Right now, the Ache is for no more babies in my life. This was a beautiful time in my life, please notice that it’s changing.But the Ache changes and grows as we move through our years, I imagine, perhaps in proportion to the life we live, the love we gather and give. Someday, I’ll miss these very days, talk about them with the same language, perhaps.

And in another few years, the blink of an eye, I’ll be sitting in a house, alone: the laundry will be done at last, the house will be clean – and it will stay clean, and the floors will be quiet, no one will be asking me for anything at all, my time will be my own, and I will feel the full weight of The Ache for which I’ve been holding vigil at last. 

It’s simply the Ache of time passing, because this is what time does, and our souls are noticing the passing of a season, and it’s okay. It’s okay to let it Ache. It means we’re living and it means we’re loving our life as it stands, loving it enough to notice a transition away.

Grab some tissues and then go read it HERE.  

Anyway, I hope y'all have a fantastic Friday and a fabulous weekend.  I'm volunteering at Pumpkinville and have a special service opportunity planned for Sunday afternoon - can't wait!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   PS - If you're linking up to us, PLEASE link to an actual Friday Favorites post. If you link to a bunch of your recent posts that have nothing to do with Friday Favorites I'll have to remove your link.  SORRY!  Just trying to keep the link-up fair and fun for everyone!!! Also, this post contains affiliate links, which just means that if you click on a link and purchase what I've linked to, I'll receive a commission. Thank you for reading and for supporting my blog!  Love y'all!

Sweet and Sassy

Today I have some sweet for you.... and then some sassy.  You'll just have to wait and see ;)

First up, the sweet.

Last week we had a teacher luncheon and there was a pumpkin sheet cake there that I was convinced was baked by angels and sent straight down from Heaven.  It was moist and flavorful, but not too "pumpkiny".  The icing wasn't too thick or sweet and I ate at least three pieces.  I sent out an email to the mom who I predicted had brought it in and my suspicions were confirmed.  She texted me the recipe and I counted down the days until the weekend when I'd have time to make it.   Y'all can thank me later for this... I SWEAR it's the best cake ever.

First up, I combined a 15 oz can of pumpkin with 1 cup of vegetable oil and two cups of sugar.  Next time I think I'll use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce and see what happens.  

Next I beat 4 eggs and mixed them in with the pumpkin, oil and sugar...

While the mixer was going, I combined 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp salt.

I combined the dry ingredients with the wet and greased a 9x13 pan with Pam spray...

30 minutes at 350 and my house was smelling SPECTACULAR!

After the cake was completely cool, I beat together 5 tbsp of softened butter and 3 oz softened cream cheese and then added in 1 tsp vanilla until it was smooth.

Then I gradually added in 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar and beat it until combined.  After that I turned my mixer on high and added in milk a tbsp at a time until the icing was fluffy and "spreadable".

I iced the cake...

and immediately cut a piece.  I mean....

Super, super, super YUM!!!  Go grab a can of pumpkin and GET TO IT!!!

Now for the sassy....

My love of all things Halloween runs DEEP and dressing GG for the theme is at the top of my favorites list.  I love buying pieces specifically for Halloween, but I think I love mixing and matching items to create fun and funky little outfits for her even more.

The pants are from the Appearel Tree set that she wore to Pumpkinville last Saturday, the dress is a $5 H&M find, the jacket is GAP via consignment and the headpiece and necklace came with the cutest Halloween top EVER (yet to be debuted).

The toes! The teeth!

  

Hope y'all have a sweet and sassy day!!! :)

Freshly Picked Review and Giveaway

I have something super fun for y'all today!  Freshly Picked is an AWESOME moccasin company with a great story behind it and I was PUMPED when they offered to send me two pairs of moccasins to review.

(Sidenote: how awesome is it that they have a printable size chart so you can make sure you order the perfect pair?!?!)

It was the Friday that Spring Break started and I was already on a "vacation high" and so when I found this box on my doorstep I was literally over the moon :)

I picked out the heirloom style for G (which is sold out now) and it was love at first sight.  The leather is thick, but still super soft and pliable and I could tell right away that they were great quality.

Mason's are the Swimming with the Sharks color and I knew he'd be able to wear them all the time.

He immediately put them on and we were off to a great start. :)

Mason is my kid who NEVER wants to wear shoes.  Ever.  He pulls off his shoes the minute he walks into his sitter's house in the mornings and we've never picked him up from Sunday School with his shoes still on :)   

He wore them to the Perot Museum for an entire morning and loved them...

And when we picked him up from Church today he STILL had them on! :)

He's hopped in them....

... mowed the driveway in them...  

 ... given me the "stink eye" in them...

 ... and been as "cooperative as ever" while wearing them :)

He's literally worn them every day for the last two weeks and this is what they look like...

 

... the color has worn off of the bottom and I LOVE it.  I love seeing his little footprints in the moccs and I have every intention of keeping these so when he's wearing big teenager shoes I can pull them out and cry :)

I've had a couple of questions on Instagram about whether or not I let him wear them out and whether I'm concerned about him stepping on something and hurting his feet and the answer is YES he's worn them everywhere and NO I'm not super worried.  He literally pulls off his shoes everywhere we go and these are the only option he's left on consistently.  LOVE THEM!

 Griffin has worn her pair all the time as well - and the timing is convenient since she is trying soooo hard to walk!  I've bought G TONS of cute shoes (and shoes that ARE NOT cheap!) and this is the only pair she can't pull off.  And truthfully, she really hasn't even tried to pull them off.  They're snug, without being tight (she's a chunker!) and I've never had to trace my steps back through Target to retrieve a lost shoe :)

Hers are getting teeny little footprints on the soles as well and again, I'm obsessed.

I will most definitely be a repeat customer of Freshly Picked and already have our next pairs picked out.  I think their current pairs will last them through Spring/Summer... so the next pairs I'll order will probably be "Fallish" colors like these...

(walnut // red rock suede)

But these colors are so fun as well!!!

(radiant orchid // golden rod)

So........ if you'd like to win a pair of your own, follow me on BlogLovin and then enter below!  The winner gets to pick any pair in any size! WOO HOO!

a Rafflecopter giveaway