Hello Monday {14}

{Hello Monday}

{hello getting up bright and early}

{hello chilly weather and cloudy skies}

{hello shower}

{hello yummy oatmeal and banana for breakfast}

{hello quiet time}

{hello schoolwork until about 12:15ish}

{hello texting with a friend while eating lunch}

{hello more schoolwork}

{hello visiting with a neighbor}

{hello cleaning up the house, washing dishes, etc.}

{hello spending time with some friends and eating tacos for supper}

{hello relaxing for a little while with the rest of the family}

{hello cozy bed and much needed sleep}

This post was inspired by my sweet friends, Sarah-Anne and Lisa Leonard. If you want to participate in {Hello Monday} too, then please give credit to Lisa in your post. She is the first one to start this weekly blog series.

What is YOUR Opinion??

Okay, ladies. I need a little help, if you don’t mind.  Katie (my older sister) and I share a bedroom and we’re about to buy twin beds and get rid of our full bed.  The only problem is that we’re having trouble deciding on what kind of headboards to buy…This is what our bedroom looks like right now, but we’ve been trying to change the design a little over the last couple of months to more of a “Paris/ vintage” style.   We have two different ideas for the headboards, but we aren’t sure which one to get… 

That’s where you come into the picture.  Should we go with a white tufted headboard like this one… …and make it look a little more elegant and have more of a “Paris” look? 

…or should we go with the more traditional look and buy one of these iron/ wood headboards? 

We found these comforters last night for really cheap online and we’re thinking of adding lots of pillows to each bed to add some more color. This is kind of our inspiration board…not sure about the light blue, though. We’ll see what happens. We would love to hear what you think!  Thanks, ladies! :)

A little of this and little of that….

Get ready for a super random post, people.  I’ve got a few things that I’ve been meaning to mention to all of you, so I thought I would just put everything into one random post.  Those are always fun, right? ;)

{1} Have you signed up for this super awesome blog event, yet?  This is probably one of the top 10 cutest things I have ever heard of-- Much Love, illy and Sandy from Sandy a la Mode are hosting a "Cold Hands, Warm Hearts" event! The short of it? Swapping gloves & other goodies with other lovely blogging ladies! I signed up just a few minutes ago!  Who knows?  Maybe, we'll be partners…

Click HERE to read all the details and sign up!  The sign up sheet is filling up really fast, so you better hurry!

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{2} Lilla Rose is having a 30% off sale of thirteen retiring flexi-clip and bobby pin styles right now!  It would be a great time to start stocking up on a few Christmas items, don’t you think? Click on the "Retiring Styles" tab on the website HERE, then 30% markdown to see all that are on sale.

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{3} The beautiful Ashley from Bramblewood Fashion is hosting a Fall Fashion Challenge!  It starts on November 6th and goes through November 12th.  You should check it out HERE!  It looks like a lot of fun! I think I’m going to try and participate…but, we’ll see what happens.

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{4} It’s absolutely beautiful in my neck of the woods right now!  Speaking of woods, I went out into the woods the other day with some friends and took a walk.  The trees and everything back there were so pretty!  I’ll try to post some more pictures in the near future of our fun afternoon, but for now…here is a little teaser.

Have a beautiful day, lovelies!  I hope you enjoyed my random little post… :)

Homemade Apple Pie? Yes, please!

I am so sorry, but this post will probably make you hungry.  I’m just warning you.

The other day, Andrew and I had the brilliant idea to make a homemade apple pie with the apples we brought home from Virginia. 

We went online and found a recipe for homemade crust too…after we found out that we were out of frozen pie crust.  We had a blast making it together.  Andrew cut up the apples (and basically mixed up most of the filling recipe) while I was over on the other side of the kitchen rolling out pie dough.  I felt like Betty Crocker afterwards.  It was so fun! There you have it… our first homemade apple pie.  What do you think?

I really wish I could offer you a slice, but it’s all gone.  It was so good.  ;)

Okay, I’m done.  Have a lovely afternoon!

Happy 15th Birthday, Moriah!!

For those that do not know…

It’s my beautiful friend, Moriah’s birthday today!! 

Happy birthday to you, friend!  I hope you have a wonderful day filled with lots of fun, family, and memories!  I love you so much, girly.

{We recently went to see Courageous together.  It was so good!  If you haven’t watched it yet, you NEED to go watch it.  It’s a great family movie. }  

Thank you so much for being such an encouraging friend to me and for always having a “listening ear” no matter what.  Also, you can do anything that you put your mind to…with God’s help.  Can’t wait to see what He has planned for you in this next year of your life.  Oh, and did I mention that you are beautiful inside and out?  :)

Head over to Moriah’s blog and wish her a very special 15th birthday!

She is FINISHED with Cosmetology school!!

Yes, yes, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‎Katie, I am so proud of you. Congratulations on graduating from cosmetology school today!!!!! You did it!!!! I love you so much and can't wait to see what other awesome things God has in store for the rest of your life! Keep working hard and...don't stop being fabulous! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

♥ ♥ ♥

Also, with your awesome cosmetology skills, well..you're going to make all the ladies look beautiful. Just sayin'... Let's celebrate! :) :) :)

Leave some comment love for my sister, if you feel like it. We are so excited for her big news!!  She has worked so hard the past year and a half at school and this is a huge accomplishment! 

P.S. Thank you for all of your sweet notes, emails, and prayers for me.  I am feeling much better now, less stressed, and it has turned out to be a good week.  Thank you so much for being there for me, everyone!

Hello Monday {13}

{Hello Monday}

{hello wake up time}

{hello new busy (and really overwhelming) week ahead}

{hello quiet time and breakfast}

{hello huge laundry pile waiting for someone to start tackling it (anyone, want to come help fold it?)}

{hello warm sunny day}

{hello schoolwork, lunch, and more schoolwork until 2:00ish}

{hello gorgeous new pink and green scarf from a friend}

{hello dentist appointments for the whole family}

{hello running errands}

{hello supper and loads of dishes to be washed}

{hello encouraging texts, reading Bible verses, and talking to a friend}

{hello sweet bed}

This post was inspired by my sweet friends, Sarah-Anne and Lisa Leonard. If you want to participate in {Hello Monday} too, then please give credit to Lisa in your post. She is the first one to start this weekly blog series.

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P.S. Soooo... it hasn't been the best day and I am already feeling overwhelmed for this week with school and things that need to get done.  It's hard to keep pressing on when you don't feel like doing much... I haven't been sleeping very well the past few nights, so that isn't helping.   

I'm missing all the long talks I had with mom when I was feeling this way too... Also, I think I'm finally coming to realize that I need to learn how to let go of some things that (in the long run) really aren't that important at the end of the day.  Just be praying that everything will go a little more smoothly this week and that I will figure out how to manage everything in my day a little better (without adding more stress to the situation).  Prayers please?  I love you all...  

Lord willing, I'll be back with another giveaway soon.  Also, I'm very sorry that I haven't posted in awhile.  I'll try to do better, but I'm not feeling very creative in the "writing posts" area of my life right now.  You can pray about that too, if you want. ;)

xoxo, 

Em

Virginia Trip- The Lackey’s House

We had an absolutely amazing trip up to Virginia.  It’s one of our favorite places to go on trips.  It was mom’s absolutely favorite place to go too, so it was a little difficult being there without her, but in the end…we had a great time.  I just had to keep reminding myself that she is in a much more beautiful place and she is so happy.  It’s still hard doing family things without her, though.

We started the trip on Friday afternoon after Katie got home from school (she is going to be a cosmetology graduate in a few weeks!) and Daddy got home from work.  We left the house later than we had planned, but it was okay in the end.  We were all anxious to get on the road because it takes us about 6 hours to get to the Lackey’s house.  And that’s without getting stuck in traffic.

Ready for the drive to VA on Friday... :)

   

    We got stopped a few times on the highway because of traffic, but we actually did do a pretty good with our time, and got to their house earlier than we had planned that night.  We stayed up late that night talking and the boys (Colton and Andrew played a board game) before heading to bed.We got up pretty early on Saturday morning, ate some breakfast, and started getting ready to go out for awhile.  Colton (Andrew’s friend), had football practice early that morning, so we had to wait for him to get home before going to our first destination for the day.

 

Once Colton got back home, we all loaded up in the cars and headed to a local farmer’s market near their house. We always like to get a bag of delicious Fuji apples before we leave town.  It was super busy that day; they were having some type of festival or something, so we got our apples (and apple cider doughnuts) and went to the next destination.

   

Mrs. Marci, Katie, me, and Scott (one of the boys in the family that is my age) all went back into town and did a little shopping, and the rest of the crew, (Mr. Fred, Daddy, Andrew and Colton) went the opposite direction to do some other things in town. 

We also tried an awesome new frozen yogurt shop that opened up a few weeks ago while we were in town.  Scott had heard a lot about it, so we decided to give it a try before going back to their house.  I didn’t have my camera at this point, so I don’t have any pictures, but that was some of the best frozen yogurt that I’ve ever had in my life.  I’m not kidding.  Sweet Frog’s is so good!

{via}

Isn’t their logo so cute?! The shop was absolutely adorable as well. :)

After we went to Sweet Frog’s, we headed back to their house because Scott had to go to work.  We ate some lunch and stayed around the house for a couple of hours, and then Mrs. Marci decided that she wanted to take me and Katie downtown to one of her favorite little shops…It was a “simply charming” boutique for sure… ;)

 

Did I mention that we were blessed with some amazing weather while we were up there?  It was so pretty!  The boys came along with us, but they went the other direction (yet, again) and went to an antique car show with the dad’s down the road… This is where we found them after we came out of the shop.  They’re so silly when they get together.  Wait, until you see the other pictures I got of them… ;)

   

After we left the little shops downtown, Daddy suggested that we go to another farmer’s market to try to find some of his favorite apple cider.  They didn’t have any at the other one we went to that morning, so we drove a few miles to the other one closer to the Lackey’s house.  They had the most beautiful orange mums surrounding the parking lot, so I snapped a couple pictures while everyone else was walking to the building. 

      

Oh, these boys…  I told you they were silly… ;)

        

                 Haha… Colton the Creeper, perhaps? I had no clue he was behind me when Andrew was taking these pictures.

                           

These next pictures are absolutely hilarious and show exactly how crazy Colton and Andrew are when they are together... Life would be boring without them. :)Bahahaha! Please notice Colton's shoes... (above) :)

                           

         

Saturday evening was filled with football, capture the flag, and cooking out on the grill for supper.  …and we watched a movie that night.  ;)

        

Sunday morning we had to get up pretty early, pack up, eat breakfast, and get on the road, so we didn’t do a whole lot.

   

The boys did end up finding a small amount of time for a game of Stratego and throwing some football before we left.  ;)

      

I hate goodbyes…especially saying goodbye to the lovely land of Virginia…And the Lackey family.  ;)Thank you for such a fun weekend, Lackey’s!  We had a blast and can’t wait for next time! ;)

       

“For the beauty of the earth, For the glory of the skies;…”

 

      

We came through this area at night when we were going up there, so I was snapping pictures left and right all throughout the drive down the mountains.  Sarah-Anne started texting me at this point and I quickly texted her back saying that I was in the middle of having a huge photoshoot in the mountains.  Haha.  It’s a photographer’s dream to have such a beautiful place to take pictures.  ;)

         

“You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” -Nehemiah 9:6

                

Sooo, there you have it! Our trip to Virginia.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures!