Harvest Happies!

I LOVE fall decorations...pumpkins, gourds, leaves, scarecrows - I love it all!! And, I always leave all fall decor up until the day after Thanksgiving. I just kind of feel like Thanksgiving gets passed over, and it's such a very special day that we need to be reminded of how very blessed we are. (I'm going to be doing some posts about Thanksgiving each week, so stay tuned!) I LOVE Christmas, and all the decorations...but, they don't go up until Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Powell house!

I love to decorate outside. If you remember from the post "Little Happies", it just makes me smile to pull into the driveway, and is a "little happy" in my crazy world! This is my front door wreath -

I keep my flowers and ferns from the summer alive and healthy as long as possible. These are the ferns I wrote about back in the summer:

I just take out what flowers have died out from the summer plantings, and add pumpkins, gourds, and mums in it's place.

Because of the terrential downpours we've had this season, I wasn't able to do a fall scene with hay out in the yard. So, I just had my scarecrows on my porch:

Besides my outside decorations, I like to decorate inside as well. This is in our den:

I add leaves, pumpkins, and sunflowers to any nook and cranny I can find to fill!!

And, in the kitchen:

I even decorate our hallway!

Well, hope you enjoyed the tour!!

It's Fall Y'all...and I love it!!

Cooler weather, beautiful colors, football, pumpkins, hayrides, candy corn, apple cider...what's not to love about Fall?? It is without a doubt my most favorite time of year. It's a season of excitement, and somehow a little nostalgia for me.

This week has been completely about the season too. The week started out with my class going to Tate Farms. If you have never experienced a trip to Tate Farms, you're missing out!! It is a HUGE farm that has fields as far as you can see full of pumpkins, but also cotton fields, sunflower fields, and livestock.

My class and Gina and Kim's children and their parents at the "Pumpkin House". Kim found a pumpkin!

Gina, Me, and Kim with some of our children.
Tyler LOVED the pigs...

...and, the llama LOVED Gina!!!

Then, Wednesday we dressed in our Halloween costumes.

We dressed up as babies!

LaShanne as Dorothy, and Cindi as a Clown.
Me with my precious little girls - Gracie, Marissa, Natalie, and Miranda...are they not ADORABLE??!!


The Tech School put together a Halloween Carnival and party for our children. They did a GREAT job - they even paired a high school student with each child and took them through the games!

And, the week ended on Saturday - Halloween is such a fun day at our house!! We live in a very large neighborhood, and have LOTS of Trick or Treaters. Both of our families come and we have the best time eating (of course), giving out candy, and our 4 favorites doing a little trick-or-treating themselves!!

Carolyne was Snow White
Kailey as Ariel

Kenedi as JoJo

And, of course, Sam was Buzz Lightyear!! Oh, and my mama...as herself. :)

Valerie getting ready to chow down on some soup!

It was a FUN week!!! Hope everyone else had a great Halloween weekend! Stop back by tomorrow - I'll be sharing my fall decorations...and, you better believe there's lots of them!

A New Look!!

I was ready for a change around here!

What do you think about the new look????

Leave me a comment and let me know!

A Weekend at Mt. Vernon

I know, I know, I know...I am becoming a major slacker in my blogging!! I promise I'm trying to get it together, and keep you up to date a little better. Just stick with me!!

So, last weekend we pretty much spent the entire time at our second home - Mt. Vernon.


Saturday was our annual Fall Fest and we had a blast!!


(Side note: Yes, all the signs were made with the Cricut. If you know me very well, you know my love for the Cricut. But, that's another post for another time!)

We had all sorts of carnival type games, and had inflatables for the children. It was a little chilly, but the kids didn't care - they had the best time!!

And, the adults had about as much fun as the children!

Toby and Brad

Rachel and Jason - this picture just makes me laugh every time I look at it :)
Greg and Amber

Then, Brad shared with the children and youth by using a pumpkin to tell about Jesus. It was really good, and the children were so attentive. I feel in my heart that seeds were planted, and am just sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for one of our sweet babies to surrender their life to the Lord!!

After a yummy chili and hotdog supper, we had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows. It was perfect for how cold it was outside!!

We ended the night with a hayride - 2 trailers full!


I love the fall, and the atmosphere that comes with the season! The Fall Fest is such a fun church wide activity, and we all look forward to it!

Then, on Sunday, we had Pastor Appreciation Day. Let me just tell you -

Brad and I are SO BLESSED!

Our Mt. Vernon family always goes above and beyond to show their love and appreciation for the work that Brad does, and it always brings me to remember how the Lord brought us to Mt. Vernon three years ago. We left a ministry that our hearts were so attached to, but just knew the Lord was calling us to serve elsewhere. How BLESSED we have been to heed to His calling at Mt. Vernon...we would have missed out SO MUCH on what He has for us!!!! We refer to our church as our family, because that is what they truly are to us. We love them, worry about them, pray for them, laugh with them, rejoice with them, hurt for them, and cry with them as much as we do our own families.

Besides the numerous cards, phone calls, and text messages sent throughout the month to tell Brad how much he was appreciated, they also gave him some very special gifts. One was a beautiful hand drawn illustration of the church done by a local artist.

Another gift I had a little bit of a hand in - I was asked to write a poem with a theme of God's calling into the ministry, from a child long before he knew he would be in the ministry. The poem was framed with a photo of Brad when he was 3 years old.

And, lastly, the church gave him a money tree for seminary expenses.
Aren't they amazing??!!??

Oh, and don't think I was forgotten!! Oh, but no - I received a gift card to do a little shopping!! They know me all too well :)

I told you - we are are SO BLESSED!!!

Well, that was our weekend - full of fall fun, full of family, full of love, and full of blessings!

I had lots of Halloween fun at school this week...I'll share about it very soon!

Sand, Sun, and lots of Fun!!!

This week is Fall Break, and I was soooo ready for the break! I have a great job, and really enjoy it, but things have been so INSANELY busy that a break was desperately called for! Valerie and Robby always go to the beach during Fall Break, and we decided that we needed to go too! Unfortunately, Brad had to stay home this trip due to school, work, and church...never seems to be any rest for him these days. So, Valerie and Robby, Carolyne and Sam, Mama and Daddy, Lori, and myself all headed down to Gulf Shores on Friday. We had planned to stay Friday through Tuesday, but my sweet Daddy surprised us with an extra day, so we didn't come home until Wednesday. The first few days were cold...I mean REALLY COLD! Like 50 degrees and majorly windy cold - the kind of weather that you only want to have when visiting the mountains snuggled up by a crackling fire! But, we made do by going SHOPPING!! I got lots of pretties, and got some Christmas shopping done! YEA! But, the rest of the time was absolutely beautiful, and perfect temperatures.

I took this picture the first night we were at The Beach Club. My daddy says the redder the sky, the colder the weather. I don't know if that's just an old wives' tale, but it definitely was C-O-L-D that night!!!!

Monday - Wednesday was soooo beautiful!!
Carolyne loves the beach...if given the chance, she would definitely live right on the beach! She plays from the minute she steps foot on the sand, until everyone else is ready to go in. Such a beach bunny :)
Sam flying his kite!
Papa and Carolyne playing in the ocean!
Sam "cautiously" loves the ocean...he wanted so badly to be in the water, but only if someone was holding his hand. Very tightly. HA! But, he absolutely loves playing in the sand :)Lori soaking up the rays! Sam and Carolyne enjoying a train ride at the park.
My mama and daddy - LOVE THEM!Valerie enjoying the bumper boats - haha!
Sam and Robby making sure everyone got soaked that rode a bumper boat!

At the beach or not, we of course had to watch Biggest Loser Tuesday night! Of course, we watched just after we had ate steak, potatoes, and, um...s'mores. Please don't tell anyone of our shamefulness.

Packing up to leave. It's always so sad leaving the beach.

Lori and I stayed on the beach until it was dark on our last day. We watched the sunset, and it was absolutely beautiful!

The beach does something to my spirit that I can't explain. It's a place of respite for me. The sound of the waves, the occasional splash of water on my feet while sitting at the edge of the shore...it just brings peace to me, and draws me to "Be still" (Psalms 46:10) - physically, mentally, and spiritually. Such a place only exists because of its Creator. Thank you Lord for such a gift!