HAPPY HALLOWEEN...

...from our cute little pumpkin!

We are staying in tonight and handing out candy. It's our first Halloween in our new home/neighborhood, and we have been told that we have quite a few trick or treaters, so I am very excited!

I hope you all have a great and safe Halloween!

FRIDAY NO. 36

Monday is officially Halloween...and I completely forgot about that yesterday afternoon. If you are following me on Snapchat then you saw this, but yesterday afternoon on my way home I decided to make a quick stop by Party City for some stuff for Friendsgiving next month. Everyone and their mother was there and it was a mad house!! Thankfully the aisle I needed to go down was not close to the costume section so I was looking at what I needed when all of a sudden this little boy rounds the corner with a plastic sword. I didn't pay much attention to him until he was about to attack me with it, so I grabbed my items that I needed and quickly started to walk away, Wouldn't you know said child practically chased me down the aisle. I didn't want to cause a scene or I would have taken that sword from him and chased him lol kidding...kinda. Well I get to the register (finally) and his mother comes looking for him...still not sure why in the world she was letting him roam around on his own and act crazy. I would have been spanked if I tried to even attempt to do that to a stranger when I was a child!! So don't make my mistake and go to Party City days before Halloween if it can wait...lesson learned.

Rant over and moving on...Monday night I dropped Matthew and one of his co-workers off at the airport for a business trip. They were working in Pensacola, Florida this week and I picked them back up at the airport last night. I was pretty jealous when he sent me this picture the other night...this was their view at dinner

and that was as close as they got to anything "beach" related. They worked in a conference room with small windows everyday lol. I'm trying to figure out a way that Reagan and I can make it on his next work trip there ;) We are happy to have our Matthew back home, that is for sure!

Monday night after I dropped Matthew off at the airport I ran home and picked Reagan up and we headed to Murfreesboro to watch my sister's softball game. It was the start of their tournaments and sadly they lost which marked the end of their season.

My sister, Mady, stayed with me this week while Matthew was out of town. We got to catch up and got plenty of girl talk in!! I made us potato soup in the crock pot one night and we ate on it for a couple of days. We absolutely love this recipe and I plan on sharing it next week!

I am not a a MLB fan by any means. I actually don't think I've ever watched a whole game on TV nor have I been to one, but reading stories like this one just make me happy! I also know I few Cubs fans so If I had to choose I would root for them ;)

If I had to choose one makeup product to wear everyday it would be concealer every single time. No one needs to see these dark circles under my eye! I am constantly on the lookout for new concealers that 1. Cover well and 2. Last all day. I used to use Boi-ing Full Coverage Concealer but it's such a small amount and I was going through it pretty quickly, and on top of that it wasn't lasting all day. So I switched to It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Anti-Aging Concealer. It covered well too, but still wasn't really lasting as long as I would have liked for it to. After seeing Maybelline's Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Treatment Concealer (whew! That was a mouth full) being talked about so much by other bloggers I decided to give it a try. It's under $10, which is a win in my book any day, so if it didn't work I wasn't out a lot of money. Well I think I have found a winner! It covers well and lasts all.day.long. I love it and I love that I don't have to use my fingers to apply it! And for under $10 you seriously just can't beat that. This is definitely not a sponsored review, although I wouldn't mind if Maybelline contacted me and asked me to do one ;) I'm just sharing my latest obsession! 

One night Reagan was tired and kept whining until I picked her up. It was the sweetest thing and she slept in my arms for a good bit!

Last night was night #5 she has slept all the way through the night!! I still can't believe it, but she's doing great! The other morning I was finishing up getting ready for work and I noticed she wan't playing by my feet like she usually does, so I walked into our bedroom and she was back in her crate dozing off...such a sweet girl!

I hope you all have a great weekend filled with lots of fall fun! It's supposed to be in the high 80's here...wahhh...but you better believe I'll still be in my fall attire...just sweating and acting like I'm not burning up at all ;)

#THECOATSHOME : PAINTING OUR KITCHEN

If you remember from our home tour, when we first moved in our kitchen had awful wallpaper in the kitchen. Matthew and I were not fans of it at all and both agreed it needed to come down asap. Well one afternoon a couple of months after we moved in we decided to start taking it down. Thankfully, it came down very easily, unlike our dining room. We had all the wallpaper down in about 30 minutes and a couple of days later we had the first coat of gray on it. 

When looking at paint colors for our home, Matthew and I both decided that we wanted to paint every room, with an exception of a few guest rooms and guest bathroom, in Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams. We wanted a light and neutral color so that we could add color with decor pieces and not have to change the paint color every few years to go along with new decor pieces that we found and liked.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, I was too busy to get the second coat of gray on the kitchen, but we went over to our neighbors house for something and we were in their kitchen and they had it painted the prettiest color. I loved it. but didn't think Matthew would like it so I didn't say anything. Well Matthew loved the color and said he thought we should paint our kitchen that color or something very similar, and I was 100% on board with his plan, or so I thought. When it came time to pick out the color for our kitchen I kept having second thoughts on the color. I was afraid it was too bold for a kitchen or that I would get tired of it, since we are literally in there everyday. So we went to Sherwin Williams and got two samples. One sample was Sea Salt and the other was Waterscape. I put both on the wall and let it dry and stared at it for a good hour, and eventually told Matthew that I liked both but he was going to have to make the final decision on which color we painted the kitchen, and he chose Waterscape! The Sea Salt was a beautiful color, but it was just a few shades different from the gray we already had and we wanted something a little more than that. So back to Sherwin Williams we went to buy a gallon of Waterscape, and the rest is history. Enjoy the before and after pictures of our kitchen below :) 

Before

After

Before

After

And a couple of more pictures of our kitchen...

(Ignore the painters tape in the hallway ;) I'm hoping to take care of that soon. It will be Agreeable Gray)

We are so happy to have another room checked off our "house project list"! The only thing left to do in the kitchen is to add new flooring and light fixtures, but we aren't even going to think about those two things until later next year. We love the paint, and it really does make a huge difference. We also plan on using this color in one of the guest bedrooms and guest bathroom.

To see other posts in #TheCoatsHome series click, HERE.

WHAT'S UP WEDNESDAY

What we're eating...

I made spaghetti and meatballs last night and tonight we're having potato soup...my fav!

What I'm reminiscing about...

When we used to dress up for Halloween. When we lived in Cookeville we were involved with our campus ministry and we would have a Halloween costume party every year. One year we were minions and the year after that we were Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World.

What I'm loving...

The fact that our 7 week old puppy is sleeping through the WHOLE night. We were waking up 2-3 times a night (which was fine and completely expected) to take her to the bathroom, but since Sunday night she has slept all the way through the night! She's perfect, and fingers crossed she keeps this up!!!! The first night she slept all the way through it about gave us a heart attack when we woke up and realized the other one didn't take her out at all through the night (we have both slept through the other one getting up and taking her out at one point or another). We both jumped up immediately to make sure she was still breathing lol #helicopterfurparents

ALSO, THIS TRAILER...had me in tears and laughing at the same time. I've been re-watching (probably for the 100th time) my favorite episodes over the past couple of weeks to get me pumped for November 25th!!

And this article...100% on everything

What we've been up to...

Playing with Reagan...y'all are going to be so tired of seeing/hearing about her, but we love our girl!! She truly brings us so much joy and always has us laughing about something new that she is doing.

What I'm dreading...

Cleaning out our garage soon. We have done a good bit of cleaning on it here and there over the past few weeks, but we are needing to clean it out completely, so that we can park in there again. It's getting cold in the mornings and I don't want to have to go out and start our cars each morning or scrape ice off of them when we have a garage that our cars can stay in.

What I'm working on...

Painting...I just finished up the kitchen on Sunday, and all that we have left downstairs (that we can do ourselves) is the hallway and second coat on the study. 

What I'm excited about...

So much to be excited about this time of the year...the cooler weather (for the most part lol), Friendsgiving, Gilmore Girls...we are less than a month away friends, Thanksgiving, OUR CRUISE (yay!!) Christmas! I love everything about this time of the year. 

What I'm watching/reading...

We are obsessed with Designated Survivor, This Is Us, the Voice, and of course hockey.

What I'm listening to...

Since it's still too early for Christmas music, I am listening to a mix of things...

What I'm wearing...

I recently bought this shirt from Forever 21 and love it. 

It's a great shirt to transition into fall with, and I can wear it with dress pants to work or my favorite ankle/pixie pants, or I can wear it with jeans for after work or the weekends. I can throw a cardigan or light jacket over it since it's cooler in the mornings and then wear it by itself in the afternoons since it's still a little warm throughout the afternoon. Also, as mentioned the other day, I bought these ankle boots, and I am loving them!

What I'm doing this weekend...

Matthew has to work in Chattanooga Saturday morning so we decided to make a weekend out of it. We are staying with his brother since he lives in Chattanooga. Reagan gets to go on her first road trip and she gets to meet her cousin, Darcy!

What I'm looking forward to next month...

Same as the question up there...Friendsgiving, Cruise, Thanksgiving, Gilmore Girls, being with all of our friends and family, and decorating for Christmas!

What else is new...

We got BOO-ed this past week by some of our friends in our class at church! It was so cute and we got another pumpkin...woo hoo! I'll take all the pumpkins I can get this time of year. Now we get to "Boo" some friends! 

Bonus:  What is my favorite Halloween memory?

One year we decided to meet my best friend at her house and go trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. My dad put a lot of hay in the bed of his truck for a small "hayride" and all of our friends rode around in it in her neighborhood and would jump out at each house. Also, I don't remember this, since I was only a little over a month old, but my mom said my first Halloween it snowed. Crazy to think about that since it's supposed to be 85 degrees this Halloween lol. 

CHRISTMAS TREE SEARCH

This is going to be the shortest post....but I need help! I am wanting a new Christmas tree for our home this year. It's our first Christmas in our new home, and the Christmas tree we used last year is from my college apartment. It's only 6ft and it's tiny! It worked perfectly for our apartment last year but I'm afraid it will look tiny in our new home. Here is our apartment at Christmas time last year. We miss this cozy first home of ours!

So, I am on the hunt for an 8ft pre-lit Christmas tree, and one that's not going to cost an arm and a leg! I have been searching the internet but can't find any good deals. I even tried to talk my parents into giving us their Christmas tree and them getting a new one lol...didn't work out so well. So if you have any suggestions on where to find a good pre-lit Christmas, preferably 8 feet tall, then send them my way! Also, I thought about checking out some black Friday deals when they come out closer to time on Christmas trees, maybe Lowe's and Home Depot will have some good deals that weekend? Who knows! One day we want a 12ft Christmas tree to go in our entryway...but that's for another time lol. Who knew Christmas trees could be so expensive!! 

Here are some tree's that I have been swooning over recently...

I mean just look at this one...I like how full it is, it's not a skinny tree lol. I'm also pretty sure if we had a tree and it looked like this I wouldn't get anything done around the house because all I would want to do is sit in front of the fireplace staring at this tree.

I also know its only October, but I like doing my research to find the best deals, and hate paying full price for anything. Also, TWO months from today is Christmas Day...yay!

WEEKENDING

Friday when I went home for lunch I noticed Reagan wasn't acting like herself and she was having a hard time going to the bathroom. Matthew got home from his work trip that afternoon before I got off and noticed the same thing. We called the vet and asked them if we should bring her in then or wait until our appointment the following morning, and they said it wouldn't be a bad idea to just go on and bring her in. So as soon as I got off I met Matthew at the vet and we waited for an hour an a half since it was considered a "walk in" visit. The vet was great and said she is probably a little constipated due to us transitioning her food. The breeder had her on Purina Puppy Chow and we were trying to transition her to Blue Buffalo for puppies. She also said the Blue Buffalo can be too much for puppies sometimes so back to Puppy Chow it is for a couple of months! The vet took her back for a little more examination and Matthew and I were sitting in the room waiting and we just kinda looked at each other like, "we are going to be THOSE parents" when we have kids one day lol oh well. We were very thankful that everything was okay with our girl! We were pretty worried her sugar had dropped from the way she was acting, thankfully it didn't.

After her vet visit she was tuckered out so we took her home and she fell asleep and Matthew and I ran out for some Mexican. We both had a craving and knew we wanted our favorite Mexican place in town...it didn't disappoint! We came back home and watched the Preds game and went to bed pretty early!

Saturday morning we woke up and planned on going to town to run a few errands that morning but got a call from Sears saying our new refrigerator would be there within the hour, so I made breakfast and we waited on them. We got all new appliances back in February but about a month later the ice machine quit working and we have been going round and round with Sears to get them to fix it, and after a few times of replacing it they just brought us a new refrigerator and took the old one off. 

After that we went to Sherwin Williams so I could get a couple of paint samples for out kitchen. I had it narrowed down to two colors but needed to see it on the wall first. After that we took Reagan on her first PetSmart run to pick out a new toy for doing so well at her vet visit!

Saturday my order from Forever 21 delivered and I was pumped! I ordered these ankle boots and absolutely love them already. I should also mention that these are my first pair of ankle boots. The past few years I just haven't been too big on the ankle boot trend but I tried my sisters on at the end of winter last year and really loved them so I knew I wanted some for this year, and I'm so glad I did! I got them when they were on sale but for less than $30 you can't beat it! 

We had a lazy Saturday which was good after a busy week. The weather was incredible Saturday so I had all the windows open and loved it!

Later that afternoon we went back to Sherwin Williams for the paint color we chose for our kitchen! And I painted Saturday night while the Preds game was on. I finished up our kitchen Sunday afternoon and we love the color. I was so stressed out about which color to do the kitchen and literally couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I made Matthew decide which color we should do and that's the one we went with! I'll share our kitchen soon.

Also, the Preds had a great game Saturday night. They had five players out due to food poisoning from chicken soup they all had in Detroit the day before and still won...5-1 at that! It was such a good game, and my husband was a very happy camper!

Sunday morning we woke up and it was COLD in our house and outside. We didn't realize it was going to get that cold that night so after we took Reagan out we played with her in the living room and started the fireplace up! I am so excited to use that beautiful thing this winter!!

We only had the fireplace on for about 30 minutes before we had to turn it off to get ready and leave for church, but it definitely warmed us up!

After church we came home and had spaghetti and played outside with Reagan for a little bit. Then I worked on finishing up the kitchen before we had to go. Every year our church does a weekend where each class volunteers to do something around the community together. Last year we cleaned a local school's gym and cafeteria and this year we painted playground equipment at another local school. I didn't get any pictures because my hands were completely covered in red paint (and it somehow got in my hair??) but the playground looks so much better now! 

FRIDAY NO. 35

As of 6:15 this afternoon we will have been puppy parents for a whole week. It has been so fun, but so exhausting. We really can't complain though, Reagan is such a good puppy, and she is so stink' smart! She hasn't really had too many accidents inside, if she did it was because we weren't quick enough to get her outside. We got her this puppy play pen to stay in during the day while we are at work. We put her tinkle turf  in there with her on one side of the play pen and she has been using that everyday while we are away at work. We are so proud of her!!!! She hasn't had any accidents in her play pen yet, fingers crossed it stays that way. ;) She goes to the bathroom as soon as we set her down on the grass outside, she's perfect!

I worked it out with my boss that I can come in earlier to take a longer lunch everyday. So I run home on my lunch break and take her out and get mid day puppy cuddles, it is seriously the best thing ever. I so look forward to my lunch breaks everyday even more now. We send Matthew puppy snap chats everyday! 

Matthew's client was closing early the other day so instead of going into the office to work he just worked from home that afternoon and this is the picture he sent me...she fell asleep on his desk while he was working. 

Our favorite part of the day is when daddy gets home from work...

I saw this the other day and it is 100% accurate. I have had to delete pictures on my phone twice this week just to make more storage...I can't even help it!

Matthew had to work in Knoxville yesterday and today, so we are excited for him to come home this afternoon! Reagan keeps walking around the house looking for him, it's the cutest thing!

Since Matthew was out of town last night I decided to take Reagan on her first trip to Murfreesboro! She met her grandparents and aunts! We also introduced her to my parents puppy, Ellie. That actually went a lot better than I expected and I'm hoping they warm up to each other more and more. Once Reagan is bigger we'll let them play together.

This post has officially been all about our girl, but I can't help it. She is too cute not to talk about!

We don't have any plans for this weekend other than Reagan's first vet visit tomorrow morning, and I am hoping to finally paint our kitchen. We are also hoping to work on our farmhouse table some more.

Happy Friday!

6 WAYS TO PREPARE FOR THE HOLIDAYS...IN OCTOBER

Christmas can either be a really magical time of the year or it can be a really stressful time of the year. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it's the latter, and once it's all said and done people are breathing a huge sigh of relief that, "it's over until next year". I never want to have that mentality or way of thinking, so I am doing some things already to help reduce any stress that the holidays might bring, and I am sharing those 6 simple steps with you today!

 1 | Start planning your holiday outfits now.

Growing up we always had Christmas dresses every year. We would have our Christmas pictures made in then and then wear them on Christmas. Well as I have gotten older I don't care to wear a Christmas dress every year, but I do still plan my outfits. Now that we're married I like to color coordinate my outfit and my husband's outfit. I already have our Thanksgiving outfits planned out (we'll also be using these outfits for our fall pictures) and I am almost finished with our Christmas outfits. Don't get my started on how excited I am to one day, coordinate holiday outfits for us and our children.

You don't have to spend a lot of money on holiday outfits, or even get super dressy. You can use something that you already have hanging in your closet, or borrow a piece or two from a sibling or close friend (I am borrowing my sister's adorable ankle boots for our fall pictures). If you do choose to purchase something new for you holiday outfit start looking now! Store have sales all the time, and you can usually find something that you like around 30% off.


2 | Have holiday pictures made.

We are having fall pictures made soon for our Christmas cards. Having our pictures taken early means that I can get them back and get our Christmas cards ordered in a timely manner.

If you don't want to pay someone to take your pictures then ask a family member next time y'all are together, or get with another couple friend and y'all exchange picture taking...you take their pictures and they, in turn, take your pictures (it's a win win for all of you!), or if none of those work for you, then you can simply set up your self timer and get to clicking! Don't stress about finding some beautiful backdrop, use your front porch, fireplace, or even your own backyard. If none of those work for you then look at some local parks near you. We had our engagement pictures, and 1 year wedding anniversary pictures made in state parks, and we had our Christmas pictures made last year in a Christmas tree farm. None of those places charged us to have pictures taken there and we were more than satisfied with our pictures!

3 | Order Christmas cards.

As soon as we get our fall pictures taken and back I will order our Christmas cards. We have already picked out the design, and all we're waiting on is our fall picture to upload to it.

Ordering Christmas cards now is a great way to save money and to mark one more thing off your holiday to-do list!  A lot of companies offer cheaper prices if you order in advance, and it takes the stress off of you about spending even more money closer to Christmas time. You can also avoid any expedited shipping fees, by ordering them early. I love ordering our Christmas cards early, so that I cant start addressing them and writing a little note on the back a little at a time, instead of spending a whole afternoon trying to finish them all so that I can ship them the next morning, There is no such thing as being too prepared, so look around for some sales and cute designs and order them now!

4 | Start shopping for gifts.

I would love to have all of our gifts bought before Thanksgiving, or buy the last few gifts on our list on Black Friday, so that we could enjoy the whole month of December without running around to different stores or paying expedited shipping on things to get them here in time.

If this sounds like a good idea to you then a great way to do this is to keep a physical list in your purse or to keep a list in your "notes" app of the people you are buying for and what you would like to get them, that way if you are out and see something you can reference.your list and cross that item off. Keep an eye out for sales in stores as well as online, search for coupon codes!

5 | Finalize holiday travel plans.

Go on and start planning out your holiday schedule now. Who and where you will be spending the holidays with. Will you be going out of town or staying close to home? If you will be traveling, will you be flying, if so go on and book those flights! Will you need to take additional days off from work or burn some PTO days? If so, go on and plan those and get them approved at work.

Matthew and I are finalizing our holiday plans now. Who and where we are spending what days with. Last year our holiday plans actually worked out really well, so I think we will be sticking to that schedule again this year. It's actually very relieving to know and have holiday travel plans already scheduled out in advance. That way we can avoid any miscommunications and enjoy our time spent with each other and our families!

6 | Plan out your holiday traditions (or decide on which ones you want to start)

I love driving around Christmas  time and looking at Christmas lights while Christmas music is playing in the background. I'm pretty sure Matthew and I have done this every year that we have been together. We have never really planned a specific time to do this, simply because we don't go to specific areas or locations, but if you were planning on going to a certain event or location that has operating hours, go on and plan your trip there.

Do you host a Christmas party or event every year? If so, go on and nail down a date and send a Facebook event to save the date. December is full of tons of holiday events for everyone so throw your date out early to give people plenty of time to plan accordingly. If you are the person who attends a Christmas party or event every year then as soon as you get the invitation write it down, so you don't accidentally double book yourselves. If this is your first married Christmas, or even if this is your 10th married Christmas, look into some new and fun Christmas traditions. You don't have to spend a lot of money on traditions. You could volunteer together somewhere in your town as a Christmas date night, you could get together with a bunch of friends and watch your favorite Christmas movies, spend one whole day Christmas shopping together and grab a lunch at a new place every year,  or make Christmas cookies together and enjoy them and hot chocolate with your favorite Christmas movie and candle going...there are so many ideas out there pick a few and see which ones you really enjoy and would want to do every year as your family grows!

There are six ways to start preparing for Christmas now. We are doing these now in order to reduce any holiday stress and to fully enjoy the holidays together and with our families. How do you prepare for the holidays?

To see other free Christmas binder printables, go here.

10 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

These post are always fun to read, and I have some new friends around here so I thought it was a good time to do one of these posts. Here are 10 quirks you might not know about me...

1 | I have two middle names because my parents didn't think they were going to have anymore kids after me...they ended up having three more daughters!

2 | I have awful vision. I got glasses in the first grade and contacts in the 6th grade. Each year at my yearly visit to the optometrist, they tell me my vision has gotten worse. We actually have to have a small little night light in our bathroom so I can make it to the bathroom in the middle of the night without running into anything. Whenever we are staying somewhere other than our house I have to make sure there is a clear path to the bathroom as well, because if not I will definitely run into it or fall over it. I'm not sure what legally blind is, but my prescription is -7.50 in both eye. Seriously, it's so bad.

3 | I hate cilantro. I know there are people that either love it or hate it, and I am one who hates it! I can't eat anything with cilantro in it, and if we go to a Mexican restaurant and their salsa has too much cilantro in it, it's banned from my list lol.  

4 | I am a morning person, and I have been my entire life. My mom said once I was born she and my dad never had to set an alarm clock anymore because I woke up everyday by 7:00 at the latest. Even now I can't lay in the bed past 8:00 or I'll get a headache. It doesn't bother me too much though, the mornings are my favorite time of the day, and when I have the most energy.

5 | I lived in the same house that I was brought home from the hospital to for 21 years, and loved it. My parents got married and immediately moved in my with grandparents, and for six months they used every single paycheck to build their house. It was a two bedroom, one bath house until I was around 4 years old. Before my sister, Mady, was born my dad and uncle added on to our house, and then before my other sister, Samantha, was born my parents added on again. It is now a seven bedroom, three bath, and three car garage home! I love all the memories that I have made (& still make) at my childhood home.

6 | I hate silence. I listen to music throughout the day while I work, my radio is always on in the car if I am alone or I am talking on the phone to someone, and if I am home alone the TV is on for background noise or I have music or a podcast playing on my phone. When I lived by myself, I used to fall asleep to a white noise app.

7 | I hate cold weather. The only I somewhat like it is between the months of September-December. If I could choose the weather (lol) then it would be summer weather until September 1st - December 25th. So basically, I only like cooler weather around fall time and the holidays. It could be 80 degrees the day after Christmas Day and I would be 100% okay with it. My least favorite time of the year is January-April. The weather is always so dreary and all the trees are dead and ugly. It's pretty depressing.

8 | One of my life long dreams is to build a house to raise our kids in. It might be because I lived in the same house for 21 years, and almost every single childhood memory was made there, and I would love, more than anything, for our kids to experience that.

9 | I hate the word moist. I don't know why, but whenever I hear it I literally cringe. You know when it's really hot outside and your hair is sticking to your neck and you can swear that you feel your makeup running? That's what I think of when I think of the "M" word.

10 | I have a type A personality which means I am a planner by nature. I make to-do list daily, usually multiple ones at that. I love planning things out and thinking ahead about future events or trips, and I can never leave the office on a Friday with any emails left in my inbox. I make sure every Friday morning that if there is anything still lingering in my inbox then I am working on getting that out of there first thing. I also have two planners, a personal planner and a work planner...but recently I just created my own personal planner for 2017 so that it is tailored to me specifically. I may or may not be a little too excited to use it already.

FRIENDSGIVING INVITATION | 2016

Lord willing, we will be marking off an item off of our Fall Bucket list a month from tomorrow! We are planning on hosting our 2nd annual Friendsgiving, and our first Friendsgiving in our new home. We are so excited and have been looking forward to this event since last Friendsgiving. 

Our best friends, good food, football, cooler weather, and games...it's our favorite event to host and we are counting down the days!

Here is our 2015 Friendsgiving invitation and below is the invitation that I designed for this year!

We plan on doing Friendsgiving potluck style again this year. It worked really well last year and we're sticking with it this year. Last year the weather was really chilly and I think it rained off and on throughout the day, so we're hoping for cool but sunny weather this year!

MEET REAGAN

She is a snuggler, tilts her head to the side and gives the cutest looks, hops around, loves to be held and is everything we hoped she would be! Reagan is a six week old Shih Poo, and is absolutely beautiful! Shih poo's are a mix between a Shih Tzu and a Poodle, and they are hypoallergenic, which is exactly what we wanted. I held her the whole way home Friday night and never found any hair on my clothes...this is a good sign!! 

We're learning more and more about our girl. So far we know that she is capable of sleeping a good bit of the night, in her crate (usually only wakes up twice a night...so far at least!! ;)), she doesn't like being alone or loud noises, she's a snuggler, she doesn't like the wet grass, she loves having someone sit beside her while she eats, she loves falling asleep either in a blanket in your arms or laying on my shoulders behind my neck. She is also getting used to the camera ;) Y'all will be so sick of seeing pictures of this little girl by the end of the year! Our phones are already filled with tons of "first time ___ videos/pictures" Needless to say, Reagan's whole life will be well documented! :)

She has already had a tour of her new home, a couple of car rides, explored her new backyard (and loves it!), met one set of her grandparents, and great grandmother, had a ton of pictures taken of her, she's cheered on her Pred's during their game Friday and Saturday night, and had to remind her dad that he can't yell at the TV while she's trying to sleep ;) She is loving her new toys, and is getting used to her puppy playpen, and she loves sitting in between mom's feet while she cooks dinner.

So I should explain her name and how we came up with it. I have always wanted a female dog so when I told Matthew that he went along with it. I told him since he let me pick the gender then he could pick her name. Now if you know my husband personally then you know that he loves Ronald Reagan. He thinks that he was the best president that we ever had, and I agree. There is a Ronald Reagan mural in Cookeville and Matthew loves it. So when he suggested Reagan I could not have loved it more. So yes, we named our puppy after the 40th president of the United States, and we love it! So this week will be full of bathroom breaks, puppy snuggles, and learning what it's like to have a whole new level of responsibility in our life. So far, she's been great! She takes long naps, doesn't mind sleeping in her crate at night and only whines when she has to go potty, and is starting to eat better. We're THRILLED!!!!!

And here are a few outtakes from our little photo shoot Saturday morning

And a couple of pictures from over the weekend...

First meal at home

Cheering the Pred's on Friday night.

 Exploring her new backyard Saturday morning.

Snoozin' in dad's arm's Sunday night

 Snoozin' on mom's shoulder Sunday night.

She is so fun and we love being puppy parents!!