Friday Favorites #48

Baby Fox is growing up, this magazine of toys came to the house and he spent hours just browsing and fawning over everything...he didn't really care up until this year. Christmas is going to be so much fun.

He even circled the ones that he really wanted Santa to bring.

 



 

A friend posted this article and I just had to share the video. I was choked up the entire time.

 

I might have squealed with delight when I read this article...I cannot believe it! Several sources, here, here and here have confirmed that this is in the works! That last link repeated several times This is Not a Drill...my love for Gilmore Girls runs deep, deep as in I've probably watched most of the episodes several times over. Please don't play with my emotions and please Matt Czuchry come back too!

source

We try to rotate through the toys we have, we aren't always good at it, but we try to be, but we got this out of the garage, it's probably been a good 9 months. 

Favorite picture of the week of the kids. They are just so cute together and you can tell how much they love each other.

 

Even though this is blurry, I still love it!

Linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites

5 Ways to Transition Your Kids To Standard Time

I know we're all pretending to not know it's just around the corner, the dreaded...Day Light Savings Time end, it's time to "Fall" back a hour, go back to Standard time (although we spend more "time" in DLS time than Standard time...click here for random facts about DST). We as adults love this time change, we get an extra hour of sleep and not feel guilty...but the game changer...children. Somehow they didn't get the memo that we're supposed to sleep in. Not only is the sun now rising a bit earlier...our kids are too. So this is five ways to transition you kids to regular time, coming at you the day after Halloween! Awesome, not only are we going to have sugar comatose kids, but grouchy/tired ones at that. So here we go:

| One |

Don't expect it to happen over night, on average it takes my kids 3 weeks to adjust to the time change, either the Fall Back or Spring Forward. Mentally prepare for it to take 3 weeks, as sucky as that is.

| TWO |

Usually the first night I have high hopes, I keep them up a little later, but don't do it, resist the urge, they will not sleep in later, mine always wake up earlier. So I put them to bed at their normal time for that day...but since this time it's going to be Halloween we'll probably stay up a little later than normal anyway...oh well!



Had to have the matching PJ's right?

| THREE |

Morning time is usually when we alter our schedule. Inevitably they are going to wake up early. That first day we let it slide and just get up whenever they do. But the second and third day we slowly start to move the wake up time little by little to the time that it should be. So the first day they'll wake up an hourish early, the second day they might wake up but we don't go get them until 45 minutes early, and so forth. Sometime they'll adjust quicker and we won't need to do the step up, but most times we do.

| FOUR |

I think the most important advice is not to alter their normal schedule the day after. So on Sunday don't say, well they normally take a nap at 11, so let's put them down at 10, because it really is 11. No it's not, it's 10, yesterday it might have been 11, but today it's 10, keep them awake at all costs, sing to them, do what you can, get their internal clock back on track. Yes sometimes it sucks, but just keep at it, they'll adjust, be consistent. Isn't that always the advice?

Same goes for bedtime, keep it normal, the time is the time, don't "adjust" for yesterdays time. If they aren't tired, then they can rest in their room, but put them to bed and do the normal routine.

Don't worry, I moved her after taking this picture, was too nervous that her nose was being squished.

| FIVE |

Don't get frustrated, that they're waking up extra early or that they're going to bed late. Just try to be consistent. If you need to change the bedtime in increments, start out a little later and then back it up from there, go for it. Just decide what you want to do before Nov. 1st, and go with it. Try not to change it up on them mid-way through the week, that just confuses their already confused internal clock. Good Luck with the time change, it sucks up one side and down the other. Hopefully these tips help you with your transition.

Any other tips you want to leave? Comment down below, it might help a fellow reader!


Also linking up with Amanda, for Thinking Out Loud, Vanessa and Penny for Thinking out Loud, Lulia, Stephanie and Sarah for The Ladies Collective, Annie and Natalie for Thoughts for Thursday and Joey and Kristin for Stuff and Things and  Faith, Heather and Daily Momvitity for Mommy Moments

Fall Challenge - Week 3

Happy Hump Day. Another week of Alison's  Style Challenge*, and I have 7 more outfits for you, this time I actually got to wear them...sort of. Some of the days were so hot that I put them on, took the picture and then took it off. But all of these outfits I would and will wear sometime this Fall/Winter.  So let's get to it, since we have a lot of cover.

Day 10

I pretty much followed the challenge outfit exactly, except most people are wearing long sleeves at this point, but I LOVE this shirt I got from H&M (wish I could find it online).

Day 11

Still absolutely loving this  plaid dress*  I wish it came in other patterns, it does come in another color, but it's not really me. I need more patterns in this style dress, hear me Old Navy?!

I wasn't sure if I would like the tights with the leopard shoes, but you know what I think it works, I think it might look a little better if they were my leopard wedges though.

Day 12

I adore this blazer. I actually found it on my very first challenge way back when, just never had the guts to wear it until recently. Now I'm all about it and want to wear it everyday...that it's not 90°+, as soon as it turns 80° I'm all over it.

I also tried with the jacket unbuttoned, I think I like it better buttoned up though, what do you think?

Love this statement necklace with it and I really think it ties the outfit together.

Day 13

My burgundy pants are back from the tailors and they fit like a glove and are SOOO comfy! I forgot how comfy they were. Paired with my favorite polka dot top and a scarf, loving this simple and easy outfit.

Day 14

This day called for a grey cable knit sweater, but since I don't have one, I picked out this purple one instead. Seeing all of these outfits is getting me excited for Fall weather.

Day 15

Again I had to stray because I don't have a blush blouse. Does anyone have one they can recommend? I really want one but the ones I am finding are from websites that I've never ordered from, and I really don't like ordering from online only places. So I picked out this polka dot and striped shirt.

Don't see the polka dots? Look a little closer...sneaky right? As soon as I saw it last year I knew I had to have it!

 

Day 16

Last outfit totally classic right? Jeans, white button down, blazer...perfection in my book. One of my favorites from this week. What was your favorite?

 

Are you participating in the Fall Challenge? Send me some pictures!

 

Previous Challenge Outfits:

Week 1

Week 2

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link and purchase an item - I may receive a small commission.  THANK YOU!Also linking up with Tucker Up, Because Shanna Said So,  On Trend Tuesday, Cappuccino and Fashion, Sydney Fashion Hunter, Pampers and Pearls, Happiness at Mid Life, The Pleated Poppy,Shopping My Closet, Get Your Pretty On, Let It Shine, More Pieces of Me,  Pumps and Push-Ups, A Lovely Little Wardrobe

Show and Tell Tuesday - Show Us Your Costumes

Hello, happy Tuesday. Today I'm linking up with Andrea again for her Show and Tell Tuesday, this time she's asking us about past Halloween's. I've talked about them before, so click on the year to take you to the post, else I'll recap it for you.

I have to be honest with you, before kids, I just wasn't into Halloween...at all! Like never got dressed up, never went to parties, I just hated everything about it. Coming up with costumes, finding them, making them, everything about it. But now, kids are my game changer. After we had Baby Fox, our first Halloween I made our costumes! Ambitious I know.

2011

My mom showed me on the first one, and then I made the other two. For a first time costume sewer I think I did okay.

 

I worked during Baby Fox's naps and on weekends, 1.5 months later I got this:

I think I have a pretty fantastic husband willing to dress up as a bear for me.

2012

We found this cute Dragon Costume at Old Navy so we went as a dragon, a knight in shining armor and a princess.

2013

Again Old Navy for the win, we found the zebra costume and Baby Fox pretty much fell in love with it the minute he saw it. So we went with it. Mini Fox was only 7 weeks old and Old Navy had a cute little Monkey jacket, so we bought that and Mr. took one for the team and wore the bear costume again! I decided to go as a Park Ranger trying to tame her animals.

2014

Last year, again we let Baby Fox lead the way and he wanted to be Spiderman, so we went with it, and made Mini Fox Wonder Woman and Mr. and I were the bad guys. I actually tailored my own costume. I had to buy a men's one size fits all, and Mr. and I wanted the same stripes, so I seamed ripped the sleeves off, cut down the shoulder size and then sewed the sleeves back on. I was pretty proud of myself.

2015

Which brings us to this year...we haven't gone to any Halloween parties yet, but the kids did try on their costumes when they got here. This is them in theirs:

Can you guess what Mr. and I are going to be? This very well might be our last year doing a family theme, so we just bought our costumes and called it a day. You'll have to come back after Halloween to see what we were!

Also linking up with Tuesday Talk

A 5th Annual Pumpkin Patch Outing

Friday I had to get some blood drawn, so here's me waiting in the lobby of the hospital...what else is there to do but take a selfie? Discretely of course so no one sees.

For dinner this one asked for pancakes with syrup, and the other one wanted apple pancakes...so they both got what they wanted. For the record she's a good little cook.

That big one closest to you is the apple one. I just made regular pancake mix and then diced up apples. Of course we had bought the bacon thinking we were going to bring it to my aunt and uncle's last week, so we had to make it before it went bad.

Saturday was morning snuggles while Mommy made breakfast.

This is what Mr. wanted for breakfast, bread/cheese/egg/bacon/egg/bacon/egg/cheese/bread. I'm not even kidding, that's the stack he had on this thing.

Mr. had to study so I took the kids on some errands while he studied before soccer time. Of course Target was on the list of places.

We grabbed some lunch from Chick-Fil-A (my first time ordering/going there), note to self, 4 pieces of grill chicken nuggets is not enough  for the girl, but more than enough for the boy. If she had it her way, she would have eaten hers and his.


OH and I did I mention that it wasn't 100° out? It was more like 84° with some cloud coverage, made they whole soccer thing so much more bearable.

 

I knew you wondered if I took a selfie of us, of course. The girl couldn't be bothered with stopping to swallow her food.

Soccer was good, the kids weren't boiling and Baby Fox got a good run in! Successful day in 3-5 year old soccer.

After naps, we let Mr. study some more and I headed to my parents. It was cute to see Baby Fox in the stroller and Mini Fox holding onto the side...role reversal.

Mini Fox is a super drama queen when it comes to injuries, so my sister put a frozen face mask on her head when she bumped it and we made it a crown. Here Baby Fox is kissing it better for her.

And no princess it complete without her gun.

These kids really know how to play my Dad, he lets them pretty much do anything.

Sunday we headed to the pumpkin patch with friends. We got there first so I tried to get a picture...this is what I got.

 

he really wanted to do this:

Mr. found somewhere we could hang out while we wanted, bays of hay to jump off of? Perfect!

My mom bought this skirt for Mini Fox...when she was 3 months old! It finally fits...so cute right? I found that shirt at Gymboree at the after Halloween mega sale.  Do you see Baby Fox in the background jumping?

Wish I was  a little further away, but he just  jumped when I was trying to get a picture of both of them...I just love that smile that I caught.

Even though it's blurry, it's totally her personality, Ms. Daredevil, doing anything her brother can do.

Our friends got there and we went in, and I tried to get another picture of them...

Our friends daughter was helping Mini Fox across the bales of hair.

The best picture we got of the kids together.

So sad our third friend couldn't join us...she's off having a baby! This is year 5 with this tradition! I can't believe we've been going to this pumpkin patch together for 5 years! Next year there will be 7 of them in there, crazy town!

Our family pictures...not so great, please just let us get ONE photo from our photo shoot next week, just ONE, that's all I'm asking.

Hey she's smiling!

He's smiling...now can you guys just do that together at the same time?!

And then we ended the whole day with hay jumping.

After lunch and naps, I promised the kids we would go to the park, now that it's not a bazillion degrees out. He wanted to ride his scooter and she wanted to ride her scooter too, aka tricycle.

When we got there our friends from down the street were there.

The witching hour...she hit her brother and tried to steal his laptop (aka leapfrog).

Step 1: Time out

Step 2: Talk it out

Step 3: apologize to brother and hug it out.

And then we had ribs for dinner, which were delicious and Mr. ate them before I could get a picture, they were yummy. FYI Stater Brother's has them on sale right now.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Do anything extra fun?!

Linking up with Erin for Weekend Snapshot4, B Loved Boston and Champagne & Suburbs  for Weekending,  and Ashley at A Cute Angle for Monday Madness