I LOVE Jamberry. I am so thankful to work for such an awesome company. I also believe in the product that I am selling. I am a busy mom who stuffs cloth diapers, and my wraps stay on for nearly two weeks. Sometimes I change them before I need to. They come in so many fun prints, or pretty solids. If nail wraps aren’t your thing, we have lacquers that are free from the 5 harmful ingredients found in traditional nail polish. Best of all, when you order, you are helping me support my family while getting to be at home with my kids doing what I love.

Our brand new Fall catalog came out today. There are so many fun holiday wraps to choose from! There are so many beautiful wraps. We have a brand new gel kit that you can purchase. Here’s the awesome thing: it uses an LED light instead of the harmful UV, and the lacquers are 5 free!!

Go check it out here: ashleypullen.jamberrynails.net

If you’d like to give them a try, send me an e-mail and I will get a sample out for you to try! If you’d like to see what working for Jamberry is all about, let me know. I’d love to give you some NO PRESSURE information.

I know. This is not really Hallowen. I love Halloween and am dreaming about it. I think it is such a silly and fun holiday. I love this time of year for reasons that I have listed many times. I love to start seeing which places are coming out with Halloween outfits and fun stuff for the kids. Here is a run down of my favorites.

one / two / three / four / five / five

I have girls, so I look for clothes for them. Those adorable pink jammies with black cats are so sweet. They also have bats for boys. So cute.

I love these you’ve been booed cones to hang on your neighbors doors. Our church does a fall festival on Halloween, and I think that these would be fun to put out with flyers about our event.

This has been my favorite Halloween decoration for a while. I always miss the witches hats after Halloween. How does that happen?! Last year I struck gold. I found hats and brooms for around $1 a piece. I cannot wait to put it all together this year. The girls will love it.

I did these donut faces last year. The girls thought that it was hilarious.

There are so many other ideas on my pinterest board. I wish that I could do them all!

Tomorrow is September 1st. That means that I get to decorate for fall. I hold off on Halloween until October. I love pulling out decorations for each holiday. I want my girls to have special memories like I do from my childhood.

Also, if anyone wants to buy this cat pillow for me I would appreciate it. Thanks.

I finished physical therapy on my knee today. I loved it. I feel stronger. It gave me a boost to get started at taking care of my health. I used to love running. It is HARD to get started after taking so much time off. I have been working out three times a week for an hour. I am stronger. I am sore. My body aches from working so many muscles that haven’t been worked in a long time.

I am still awaiting a brace for my wrist. I developed carpal tunnel when I was pregnant with Chloe. It never went away in my right hand. It goes numb constantly. It sometimes has shooting pains. My doctor is getting a brace for me that I have to wear ALL day. That is really not cool… but neither is numb hands..

I also am awaiting more test results. 😉 I feel like a human guinea pig. My arms are constantly bruised from blood work. HA. At least I am getting answers.

This has been such a trying year. I am so glad that we are entering my favorite season. It makes my heart happy. But, I already wrote about that..

I kind of peetered out on posting monthly updates about Harper. Life gets busy when you have three kids. Wowza! She turned one last month, and I figure it’s time to do an update on our sweet girl. I cried a lot the night before she turned one. I still cry a lot. Time is such a thief. I have tried soaking up every minute with each girl, and it just goes too quickly.

Harper is still sweet as can be. She took her first real steps on August 16th. My parents were here and got to see them, which is really fun! She loves to crawl around with herMunchkin snack catcher and eat cheerios. I love this brand of snack cup because the lid twists on. The flaps on top are also harder for her to dump out the entire contents of her cup. Win-win! She LOVES bananas and ate two whole bananas and a chicken breast in one sitting. Kid can eat.

At her one year well visit, she was 19 pounds 2 ounces (10-25th percentile) and 28 3/4 inches long (25-50th percentile). She is a petite little girl, and I love it. The doctor told me to fatter her up. Hmm.. she already eats as much as I do. What else can I do?! haha! She is starting to outgrow her 12 month sleepers, but 18 month are WAAAAAAAY too big. How does that happen?! I guess when you have clothes for 5 years, they shrink? Who knows.

Harper loves her walker wagon that she got for her birthday. She cruises through the house until she bumps into something. It doesn’t take long, but the girls love helping her get un-stuck. She piles toys into it. One day she had a pot and wooden spoon in it. You can’t go anywhere without a pot and spoon. She loves that I keep the door open during the cool days and stands at the door yelling “DA DA DA DA” whenever Scott leaves for work. If Scott isn’t visible, she is just yelling. Our neighbors were out there one day and she kept squawking louder and louder, but I don’t think they noticed her. It was so funny. I told them about it, and now they make sure to look for her now and say hi to her. (They love our girls.. I’m not demanding that of them.) If you didn’t know, our neighbors are our pastor and his wife. AKA Scott’s boss and his wife.

She is also a little mountain climber. I had a kid chair sitting in front of the couch. She scaled it, crawled across the couch, and was happily sitting on the end table when I caught her. She was just drumming away on the lamp with a colored pencil that she found. There is never a dull moment around here.

If I am sitting on the floor, she will crawl up into my lap and sit. She loves to have books read to her and is drawn to anything shiny and sparkly. She gives great big hugs and slobbery kisses. I really could go on and on about her sweet attributes. Girl is getting her molars right now, so she has been a slobbery beast. I feel so badly for her because I know it has to hurt. She takes it like a champ usually, so I shouldn’t complain about it.

I have the best kiddos, even if they are making me CRAZY this week.

The weather in Michigan has been pretty lovely the past couple of days. The weather has barely reached 70 degrees. It’s perfect. I LOVE this weather. I love wearing comfy sweaters and snuggling under blankets, but not needing a coat and feeling my nose freezing off of my face. (Let’s all take a minute to laugh that I just typed noze.)

I love fall. I loved fall before it was cool to love fall. Fall always meant back to school. It meant going to watch football games and watching my now-husband playing football. Now, it is just lovely weather. The air feels crisp. I don’t know how to describe it. You can feel the difference. The leaves start to change colors and there is an array of reds, oranges, and yellows everywhere you look. Apple cider. Pumpkin pie. How could there be any bad?

Oh, autumn. October is my favorite month of the year. We aren’t quite there yet, but we are close. I make myself wait until September 1st to put out my pumpkin decorations. Next comes Halloween, which is just a barrel of silly fun. This is the best time of the year.

I want to live there. If there were a place that autumn lasted year round, I would be moving there in a heart beat.

What is your favorite season? Are you a fall fanatic, or do you prefer hot summers or cool spring? I won’t even go to winter, because WHO would love that?! 😉

If you need me, I’ll be sitting under a blanket reading to my littles.

I have always admired people who know what their style is. They know their body so well that they can dress and look fabulous, even in jeans and a t-shirt.

All that I know is that I love high-wasted denim. I don’t tuck my shirts in. I can tuck the leftover pregnancy pounds and skin into the jeans and my tummy appears flat. I love to be comfortable. I refuse to wear sweats unless I am sick. Modesty is my #1 priority.

I am so over the skinny jeans trend. I like them, but I certainly don’t love them. I love flare legged jeans. I am so happy to see them in stores again. I want to stock up forever and ever so that the next time the skinnies or bootcut jeans come back, I can have my favorites. QUALITY. This is where quality comes in handy. I really want to be able to pull off certain styles. I love bohemian. I love the laid-back feel of it. The fabrics are so beautiful, as well as the patterns, but I feel like I would look silly. When you can’t wear your clothes confidently, there is a problem. Here are some of my favorite looks, all found on pinterest.

I also obviously have fall on the brain, as you can tell by the colors and sweaters. I love fall weather. i love fall clothing. I can’t wait for fall.

I love for my pinterest inspiration to be doable. I hate looking at outfits and seeing outfits that are over the top, and impossible to wear with children. I want to look nice, but still be able to be mom and do all that is required of me throughout the day!

What are your favorite looks? Are you a skinny jeans lover or is there another cut you miss?

And, oh, how I can’t wait.

I miss adventure. My husband and I used to get in the car and drive to various places in our first year of marriage. We would have a day off together and just go. Once we got into ministry, it stopped. He worked 7 days a week, and we couldn’t adventure anymore. I would occasionally reserve a hotel room for a night for us to “get away” from reality. With kids, that is impossible now.

I am not at all complaining about my children. I love them. I wouldn’t trade them. I want to adventure WITH them. We still don’t go on adventures. I am longing for God to say “go” to us. Patience is so difficult.

“Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” Proverbs 14:1

I have been thinking on this verse a lot lately. My attitude isn’t always the greatest. I struggle with many things; especially as of late.

My WORDS have the power to build up my “house” (my children, my husband, etc.) or than can completely tear it down.

My ACTIONS have the power to build up my house or tear it down.

My ATTITUDE has the power to build up my house or tear it down.

The wife has incredible power in her home. As does the husband, but this verse is not talking about a husband. We (women) need to realize the power that God has given us. My attitude has the ability to stear our home down an amazing path full of joy. It also has the ability to stear us down a miserable path.

It is a man’s responsibility to lead the family. I wholeheartedly believe that. A woman is often the one at home with her children most of the day. (Often.. no one stone me if this is not how your life goes) Because of all of this time that we have at home, we have the most power over our children, especially.

I have noticed my girls picking up on my rotten attitude about certain things. Often, it is our home and how often I trip over and run into things because it’s cluttered. I mumbled under my breath something about hating this place. Addi apparently heard me. She got mad at a toy and said “I HATE THIS!!”

Mamas, they hear. They hear even when you don’t think they are listening. Do not be a fool and tear your house down with your words. Don’t be stuck living with the regret that I have. I shouldn’t speak that way at any time. I should be grateful for what we have, because we are so richly blessed.

I do not want to be foolish. I don’t want to tear my house down with my words, actions, and attitudes.

We are starting Kindergarten with Chloe this year. Addison is still young, but so eager to learn, so I am going to be doing some preschool work with her, but nothing too much. Her attention span is pretty short. She is young. It should be!

I am racking my brain trying to think of how to create a functional homeschool space for us. Our house is small, if I haven’t told you that. wink. We have a walk-in-closet sized “bedroom” that most of the toys are in. I have cleaned it up and can use half of the space for homeschool, while the other half would still be play room. I don’t want to set up the space out in our main living area. There would just be far too much clutter. Plus, the TV is in our main living space. I don’t want it to become tempting, or distracting.

Here are some of my favorite inspirations for homeschooling.

This one at Dawn Nicole is set up as a homework command center, but it is perfect for small spaces. I love that everything has it’s own little space. The walls up the side might feel too tight, especially since we will be working on handwriting, etc. I need some room to hover. You know.

This one is just an image that I found while googling. I love that each desk has it’s own color to make the space feel personal. But, it’s totally not necessary. Those desks are perfect. Nothing fancy, but completely functional.

This image.. I have no clue where it is from. Pinterest? That apple clock though. Oh my goodness, gracious! That apple clock is adorable. It makes my former-teacher self very happy!!

I am not a huge primary color fan. But, this room is just so cute. It’s a fully-stocked homeschool room. It really looks just like a little classroom in your home. We had a table like this one that we borrowed from our church for a few months last year. It took up almost the entire space that we have to work with. Otherwise, it would be PERFECT to use. There is plenty of space for all of the hands-on learning that we like to do. There was plenty of space for my papers and books to sit. There was plenty of space for both Chloe and Addison to sit at, and eventually add Harper into the mix.

The only problem, it was HUGE!! I tried it in our living room even. But, it took up most all of the space in there. Where would my kids play?! When I say that this house is small, I do not exaggerate. haha! But, we have a roof over our heads and a warm place to sleep. I am hoping to find some children’s desks for free or cheap. I look at craigslist often.

This is my dream room for homeschooling.

Go check out the full tour! I love this space!!! I love how colorful it is without being overwhelming to the eye. It’s so calming, but still fun. I really can’t even find the words. It’s just lovely.

What are your favorite homeschooling spaces? Do you like the literal classroom look, or do you like to shake it up a little?

I like a little bit of both. Some of the typical classroom with a lot of our personalities thrown in.

My husband and I went on a date. A DATE!! Let me just say that it is our SECOND date since Harper was born. She turned one last month.. That is how often we get to go on dates… Zilch extra money makes for zilch date nights.

It was so much fun. We went to a Japanese steak house. I had initially decided to stop breast feeding Harper because she was waking up a lot at night, and I figured that maybe I just wasn’t filling her belly up enough. Plus, I have to take in more iodine, and that means dairy. So, we had butter covered everything at dinner. It was SO GOOD. We talked and laughed. Then, we did our traditional “let’s go to the bookstore like nerds” and browsed. As usual, we ended up in the kids section of Barnes & Nobel. We brought a Sandra Boynton book “Hey, Wake UP!” and it’s super cute.

We got home that night and took some pictures of us with the kids.

We were dressed up and 2/3 girls were still in their jammies! Makes for good pictures, I’ve heard.

Then, that night I cried myself to sleep thinking of never getting to breast feed again. The next morning I was pumping and “dumping” (really, freezing and marking it as having dairy in case she grows out of the allergy soon). I just couldn’t quit yet. I didn’t feel good about it. I can get iodine elsewhere for the time being.

Anyway, date night was wonderful and fun. It was great to invest in our relationship and have dinner with each other without having to scream to be heard. I mean, sort of. Japanese steakhouses are known for their quiet and romantic atmosphere. *snort* Their food is delicious!!!!!