Mama & Noah Currently

Instead of doing monthly updates with all of Noah's stats, I decided to share some things that we are into each month.  You can check out November 2014, December 2014, January 2015, February 2015, March 2015, April 2015, May 2015, June 2015, July 2015, and August 2015.

This is what we've been up to in September 2015...

Wearing

Soludos | "Basketball Shoes" New Balance Sneakers

Eating

Homemade popcorn | Homemade popcorn

Playing With

Fall Decor | Trucks (found much cheaper at Home Goods/TJ Maxx)

Watching

New Season of Dancing with the Stars | "Axel Trucks" aka The Axel Show on YouTube

Working on

My fall front porch | riding his bike

What have you been up to this month???

The Guy Behind the Blog - September Edition

In hopes to share some more random information about Chris, I'm back today for  The Guys Behind the Blog link-up.   This month the questions were reader submitted... so enjoy!  

1 // What's the silliest thing you and your significant other have needed to compromise on?

Probably tv shows when we used to only have 2 Tivo boxes and could only record 2 shows on each box and sadly we'd have 5 shows that we wanted to record at the same exact time.......

2 // If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 must haves would you bring with you?

3 must haves on a deserted island would be Meghan, Noah, and a tv that got great reception.

3 // Talents aside, what is your dream job?

My dream job would be test driver at either the Lamborghini or Ferrari plants in Italy.

4 // What are three things on your bucket list?

Three things on my bucket list are to visit Hawaii, Australia, and to throw out the first pitch at a major league baseball game (as long as I do it and don't choke and miss the catcher).

5 // What kind of date is your favorite to go on with your significant other? (Romantic, fun, spontaneous, etc.) 

My favorite kind of date is eating dinner outside at a local restaurant and enjoying the weather in a relaxed environment.

Weekend Fun!

We had another pretty low key weekend spent at home.  We had a few things on the agenda, but mostly we got to move at a slower pace and really just enjoy ourselves.  Chris worked from home on Friday because of the Pope's visit to NYC.  His boss told him that since traffic was going to be a zoo, that he might as well work from home.  So while Chris worked in his office basement, Noah and I stayed busy running errands, meeting friends at the park, and taking a nice long afternoon nap.  The great part of Chris working from home, was that when he stopped working at 5:30, he was able to immediately hang out with us rather than have an almost 2 hour commute home.  Since it was so nice out, we went for a walk around our neighborhood and had to stop by the rollers and dump trucks.  They are paving some of the condo parking lots and it's one of Noah's favorite places to go... he's going to be very upset when they are finished!  We then came back to find my dad doing yard work at our house (he had been there on and off all day long).  And since Noah loves to help, he grabbed his little rake and got to work :)

We had a nice and slow start on Saturday.  Noah got to play with all his toys with daddy and even did a little painting in the new Paw Patrol book we picked up at Target the day before.  We then got dressed and headed to Noah's hair cut.  They cut it a little shorter than we expected, but know that in two weeks it will look exactly how we want it.  His hair grows fast!  On our way home, we decided to stop by the local bike shop.  Chris had bought Noah a bike helmet, but we weren't thrilled with how it fit.  So we decided to get him fit by a "professional".  The new one we got is great and has a dial in the back to add an even more precise fit.  Noah loved it so much that he wouldn't take it off for the ride home!

construction pjs

Marshall shirt

helmet

When we got home, we didn't even go inside, we went straight out so Noah could ride his bike wearing his new helmet.  This time, we took him to the adjacent cul-de-sac so he would ride in the road versus the side walk.  We then decided to go for a longer ride to collect some leaves and acorns, and once again go visit the diggers.  

The weather was just absolutely perfect, so before heading back for lunch, we found a bench to stop at.  Noah and I played a few rounds of peek-a-boo and just had a really fun and silly time.  I really do love this age!

The rest of Saturday was pretty non-eventful.  On Sunday, I needed to do a return at the mall.  The boys came with me and while I went to Loft, they threw coins into the mall water fountain.  Apparently Noah wasn't a stellar listener, and was a tad wet when I got back.  We planned to head straight home, but Noah talked us into getting lunch at the Cheesecake Factory :)

After nap, we headed over to Chris' parents' house.  Noah got to hang out and play with them before we all went out for dinner.  They got Noah this new t-ball set that will grow with him and he had a blast hitting the ball over and over!  While his grip makes us think he will bat lefty, he seemed to hit it further as a righty.  I guess time will tell what hand/arm he will use in sports.  

Now it's back to reality with Chris back at work.  Thankfully, we don't have much planned today, so we can ease back in slowly.  Have a happy Monday!

Happy Fall Friday!

Happy Fall Friday!  Can you believe it will be October next week!?!  Seriously, where is the time going!? I love fall and I'm so excited for some lower temps.  We had a pretty low key week over here, enjoying lots of lazy mornings and playing at home and outside.  The biggest "events" were getting our driveway re-done (super last minute decision) and going to Noah's back to school night.  We have a pretty low key weekend planned... which I'm super excited for!  Hope you have a fabulous weekend and in the meantime enjoy my "Five on Friday"...

ONE

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that Noah rode a bike for the first time this past weekend.  I had posted on my town's FB page asking for recommendations of what kind of bike to get a 3 year old first time rider.  I got a few comments suggesting either to get a 12 inch bike with training wheels or a balance bike.  Then a fellow mom offered to give me an old 12 inch bike with training wheels for free!  She sent me a picture of it and I immediately arranged for Chris to pick it up.  When he went to pick it up, she offered to give us a Fisher Price trike as well, Chris of course accepted :)  Chris then took Noah out to get a helmet ASAP (it's the law in NJ and we are super safety sticklers).  We were so excited for Noah to test out the bike.  He struggled with turning the pedals and gave up faster than we had expected or would have liked.  After playing outside and contemplating returning the helmet and trying again in the Spring, Noah found the trike in the garage and asked to ride it.  So glad he did, because he did great on the lower bike.  He caught on quickly and rode around all afternoon... he even skipped his nap!

TWO

We have been doing lots of baking the last few days over here.  My mom helped Noah and I make these Apple Banana Oat Muffins last week.  I wouldn't say we didn't like them, but I definitely prefer our Apple Zucchini Muffins!  So we decided to stick with our favorites and ended up making the apple zucchini muffins and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!  Noah is such a great helper!

THREE

Since we love books and celebrating holidays, we of course have to get lots of seasonal books!  We had these Fall/Halloween books from last year and we addd two new ones this year.  While Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins is cute, it's really just the traditional song/rhyme.  The illustrations are good though and encouraged more discussion.  I know lots of people like Room on the Broom, but this was my first time reading it.... and I really loved it!  

Five Little Pumpkins | Room on the Broom

FOUR

I shared some of our new succulents in my Fall Home Tour.  I had seen them on other blogs and in magazines and loved the look of succulents.  I also liked that they seemed easier to care for than traditional plants.  When I saw them at Costco already in these cute pots, I knew I had to get them.  We had them out for a little while when I realized I should research how to care for them.  I know they are "easier" than traditional plants but you still have to do "something" to keep them alive.  I found this article on Pinterest and finally watered them for the first time :)

FIVE

Finally, my mom (who buys the majority of Noah's clothes), brought over Noah's winter coat and some hats for him to try on.  This is one of those thin coats that still provides lots of warmth.  I love a thin coat because of the car seat... bulky ones are so annoying (and apparently not safe).  I love that Noah not only tolerates wearing hats but actually likes them!  Right now, his snow suit from last year still fits, so we are hoping that it will work for our occasional snow excursions.

Coat | Pom Pom Hat | Black and White Hat

I'm linking up with The Farmer's Wife and September Farm for "Oh Hey Friday"!

I'm also linking up with A. Liz Adventures for "Five on Friday".

Apple Stamping

Now that fall is here, I have so many crafts I want to with Noah!  I search Pinterest for ideas and then take a screen shot of the crafts so I have them handy in my camera roll.  And while this might sound crazy, in order to get them all done, I actually schedule them on my calendar.  I figure September will be all about the "fall" crafts and then we will move onto Halloween in October and turkeys in November.  

I loved the idea of using apples as stamps.  You could use this stamping technique in so many different ways.  I've seen people use citrus fruits and you could also get fancy and cut into potatoes and stamp some jack-o-lantern faces!  We kept it super simple and just cut some smaller macintosh apples in half.  We picked quite a few macintoshes at the farm and then found out that they weren't Noah's cup of tea.  So we did the next best thing and used them to craft!  I found the tree template here and printed out a few copies on card stock (I prefer using the thicker paper when painting).  We colored the trees with crayons and then Noah picked out the paint colors he wanted to use for the stamping.  I find it amusing that Noah chose purple instead of the typical fall yellow or red... it really makes his artwork unique!

We did this craft over the weekend and then I found out on Tuesday that Noah did some more apple stamping in school that day!  I asked him if he told the teacher he was a pro... he told me no ;)  When we went to back to school night that evening, we got to see his apple stamping creation...

After collecting our leaves this past weekend, we decided to also try stamping with the leaves.  Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well and we gave up quickly ;)  

So there you have it... another simple craft to do with your children this fall!  And maybe you'll have better luck stamping with leaves :)

Fall Home Tour 2015

Happy First Day of Fall!  It's been a slow start, but we are finally starting to get some fall weather over here as well.  I'm so glad, because it makes all my fall decor feel a little less silly.  Something about having the air on when your house is filled with pumpkins that just doesn't seem right ;)  Anyway, last week I officially started decorating (the downstairs) for fall.  I switched out some of our pillows (though I'd always love to add more) and added lots of orange and yellow all over.  Noah was just as excited to help decorate and kept saying we were "making it Halloween"!  I'll try to keep the "talking" to a minimum and let the pictures speak for themselves.  I've tried to link up as much as I could, but feel free to ask me in the comments if there's anything I missed.  

First up, the living room.  Other than decorating the mantel, I just put a few (real) pumpkins in a dish on our sofa table.  I would love to decorate the sofa table more, but in reality, we use it as a landing pad when we come inside the house.  This wooden bowl has already been pushed aside countless times #reallife.

wooden "bowl" (Target)

mirror (Home Goods)

^^^ isn't that the smallest little (real) pumpkin you've ever seen!?!

candlesticks & flameless white candles (Target)

artificial leaves (Michaels) tied around candles with twine

potpourri pumpkin (TJ Maxx)

owls and artificial stems (Michaels)

vase (Crate and Barrel last year)

gold and white pumpkins (Target)

Next up, the dining room.  We used to have some floral prints hanging above the buffet, but I found that the blue prints made it hard to decorate for the holidays.  I decided to swap them out for this wooden window pane mirror I just found at West Elm.  It was on final sale and I'm absolutely in love!  Thanks dad for spending almost 2 hours hanging it!  I decorated the buffet with a mix of pumpkins I already owned while added a few new pieces.  I had to fold the runner a little bit since it's too long for the buffet.  I bought it for our dining room table when it's fully extended, but until I find another I love just as much for the buffet, it does the trick :)

mirror (West Elm)

runner (Etsy)

pitcher (Home Goods)

artificial stems and garland (Michaels)

ceramic pumpkin (Walmart a few years ago)

Give Thanks pumpkin (Michaels)

gold pumpkin (Target last year)

bronze pumpkin dish (Home Goods)

white pumpkins (Target last year)

I kept the table simple with a bowl full of fake gourds, some succulents, and our normal everyday chargers/place mats.  

basket (Target)

artificial gourds (Michaels)

succulents (Costco)

chargers (Ikea)

While those are the two rooms I focused on, I did sprinkle some fall decor a few other places as well. I hung a wreath on the door that leads to the garage and added a few pumpkins to our downstair powder room.  

wreath (old, can't remember where)

pumpkins... they light up (TJ Maxx)

Also, any tips on how to photograph a toilet in a pretty way???

pumpkin candles (Pottery Barn a few years ago)

succulent (Costco)

While I added a wreath to our front door as well, I'm holding off decorating (and sharing) our porch until I can get some real pumpkins.  I laughed so hard when I saw a picture of how we envision decorating our porch for fall compared to what it actually ends up looking like.  I am so annoyed I can't find the picture, but the reality is just two puny pumpkins randomly placed on the steps and calling it a day!  I hope I can do a little better than that this year, but I'm not guaranteeing anything ;)

How do you decorate for fall?  Do you go all out with the fall colors or just stick to neutrals?