a few randoms of last week.

September has flown by so fast.
Slow down Fall....please.

This girl is growing so much.

Such a big girl. 
Definitely noticing a difference in clothes and shoes in the last two weeks.
We need to go shopping! 

We had a wonderful visit from Aunt Jill and Diana. :)

and this was happening in the kitchen.

which means there are some more little projects complete and now in our home. :)
Look for updates on our DIY page very soon.  We have been working on adding some character to our little dining nook in the kitchen.

and to wrap up last week...
Quinn had visits and play time with her cousins, Auntie Amy, Great Grandma Ginny, and lots of Daddy one-on-one time.  Mommy took a little trip up to Minnesota for a few days...more to come on that in the post to follow.

Happy Monday!

her first bike.

That's right this girl got some new wheels.
Lucky little girl. :)
Grandpa W. came to town with good friends Bob and Diana to celebrate my birthday, and we had a wonderful time!  And this lucky little girl got a very special gift from her grandpa.
I wish I had the "oooohs" and "ahhhhs" on video, but they will be forever in my memory of how excited she is about this bike.  She loves it.

Her mama's back will love it when she starts to really learn how to pedal. ;)

a girl and her first bike.

a happy place.

The other day Quinn and I just had a very blissful happy day.
It made me think a little about my happy places.
ya know, the places that you go or activities that you do that you just can't help but to be happy.

Me, I have quite a few of them.

For instance...
Outside on a gorgeous Fall day, happy place. 
Pumpkin Farms, happy place.
Target, happy place.
you get it.

On this particular day, our day went a little something like this.
Woke up a little early, snuggled with my girl and watched a movie in our jammies...happy place.

House was already all clean from Sunday cleaning...relief and happy place.

Took a trip to Hobby Lobby...craft happy place.

Made a craft game with my girl... happy place.

Played the game together for an hour....using my "teacher brain" happy place.

Baked chocolate chip cookies just because....happy place.

eating cookie dough... do I even need to say it? :)

received birthday cards, a Lowe's rebate check, and a notification of a bill going down (when does that happen?)....good mail happy place.

Todd had a pasta volleyball dinner...didn't have to make big dinner happy place.

wore a cozy sweatshirt and played outside... fall weather happy place.

two chairs arrived for our farmhouse table and we put them together right away...marveled in their beauty happy place.

started writing the 4th chapter of our love story...writing and blogging and sentimental happy place.

ate cookies and milk cuddled on the couch with my husband watching the first fall season premiere tv show...happy regular tv season is back, the DVR is up and running again happy place.

this was my last day as a young 31 year old. :)

What are some of your happy places?

weekend perfection.

I love our weekends together.
This past weekend was all the bits and pieces of quiet weekend perfection.
Lazy times and productive times and snuggle times.
My kitchen is clean, a new project was completed, yard work was done, cookies were baked, movies were watched, football games and on, and on...

I know I am not teaching anymore, but I must say so far the start of this school year has been so nice. :)  I mostly say that because we made a big change in Todd's coaching position.  We are enjoying the benefits of that decision...more time.

Todd took Quinn over to a local Kite Festival for a little Daddy time.
Quinn loved telling me all about it. :)

I worked a little bit on expanding our DIY projects page.
Check it out HERE!

Speaking of DIY projects.
We worked on a little one this weekend.
The whole family helped. :)
You are never too young to be a little creative!

We made a Wood Plank Headboard for the guest bedroom.
You can check out all of the details OVER HERE @ all things DIY!

For anyone who would like to grab a button for our "all things DIY" page:

<div align="center">
<a <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">href</span>="http://<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">allthingssimpleandsweetprojects</span>.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">blogspot</span>.com/" title="all things <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">DIY</span>"><<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">img</span> <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">src</span>="http://i1120.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">photobucket</span>.com/albums/l499/lisw917/alldiybutton200.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">jpg</span>" alt="all things <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">DIY</span>" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

Hope you had a bit of weekend perfection too. :)

and a batch of scotcheroos.

The last few weeks Quinny has had the opportunity to spend time with her grandparents on her daddy's side.  She is a lucky little girl to be so loved.

 

A few weeks ago we celebrated Grandpa's birthday, and I had mentioned that I didn't get to take any pictures.  Thankfully someone did. :)

 

For Labor Day weekend we had Grandma and Derek in town for a visit.  It was a nice quiet weekend.  No visit is complete without a batch of scotcheroos. :) 

And sometimes when grandparents are around...
we are lucky enough to sneak away for a little date night.

 

Todd and I went to dinner and to a Collective Soul concert.  We had a great time!

Todd loves Collective Soul.  They are definitely a band that has way more songs than you think they do.  It was so humid outside that night, so when it rained on us it was a welcome cool relief and fun. :)



and then we came home to a batch of scotcheroos. yum.