To me, I hear "Fall" and picture colorful leaves, pumpkins, hot chocolate, hoodies, and lots of cool days spent outdoors. The other weekend we were able to enjoy all of the above, as we visited one of our local favorites - Beasley's Orchard!

 

Have you been? It's tucked away in the outskirts of Hendricks County & is an absolutely delightful little spot to visit in the Fall. During the first two weekends of October, they host the Heartland Apple Festival. It's one of our yearly traditions - and this year, we were able to share it with Autumn for the first time! Both kids had a blast. Hopefully next year, we'll actually be brave enough to tackle the corn maze with 2 kids in tow. =)

 

 

 

 

 

Brady is obsessed with the corn crib! Goodness, I didn't think we'd ever be able to pull him out of there. Put him outdoors with any sort of monster truck or tractor toy, and he's pretty much set for the day. Ha! Once the giant jumping pillow opened up (it took them a while to dry it off), that was pretty fun for him, too. 

 

Even if you missed the festival, a lot of these attractions are staying open for the remainder of the month. Here's what else they have going on this season...

 

 

 

We also love to visit the orchard often to shop their wide selection of apples and other goodies. Fall is the perfect time for homemade applesauce, baked apples & apple bars (here's the BEST apple bar recipe - my mom's version - courtesy of my baby sister's blog).

 

Keep an eye on their Facebook page, too! They always have the best apple and cider sales, and Santa even comes to visit later in the year. =) You should definitely mark your Fall calendars for a trip to this sweet little spot in our neck of the woods!

 

    

One of the many fun projects on my plate right now is handling the design of our new home. We're currently building what we've dubbed "the Modern Farmhouse," slated to be finished in early February. I thought it would be SO fun to share the process & progress on the blog - both to share with friends & family, as well as document it for our own sake. =)

 

Four years ago, we found ourselves struggling with infertility & the "what ifs" of life. We had been trying to start a family for over 2 years & we weren't quite sure what God had in store for us. Yet, what we DID have was a little daydream about someday moving back to the country. And if starting our family wasn't going according to plan, we decided to try & make one of our other dreams a reality.

 

We tallied up our rainy day funds & started our search for the perfect spot, with our eye out for something in northern Hendricks County. Eventually, through a friend of a friend, we stumbled upon the perfect plot & decided to purchase five acres of farmland.

 

 

There we were, doing all we could to keep our mind off babies, and God had a plan all along (and I also can't forget to credit our amazing doctor, Dr. Jarrett!). Upon learning we were finally getting the chance to grow our family, we put together a nursery in our starter home and decided to stick it out in the city for a while longer. All the while, we still visited our little piece of heaven & slowly plotted out where and what we wanted to build, when the right time came.

 

 

Fast forward to Spring 2015 - we've added a baby girl to our family, our small business had outgrown the tiny 8x10 bedroom upstairs, and we had started using our parents' garages for storage. It became pretty clear that our sweet little starter home wasn't going to cut it for us much longer. 

 

We embarked on the search for a custom home builder, and finally settled on JR Lazaro Builders. They have been so incredible to work with - if you're in the market for a custom home, we highly recommend them! After the long, drawn out process of small home repairs, listing and selling our house, moving into a townhouse, and finalizing our new home's floor plan, we finally signed on the dotted line for our new home in early August.

 

The early weeks of the building process were filled with mundane things like tree clearing, surveying, pouring the basement, inspections, and digging the well. Our patience is paying off this month, as things are finally getting exciting! In a matter of 2 weeks, they've framed our entire basement, main level and garage. We can now walk through the entire house and see our floor plan & little dream home come to life. The earlier months of this year were nothing short of stressful....but it's all uphill from here, right?

 

We can't wait to share with you our experiences through the building process, as well as photos and details of our farmhouse design. For now, I'll leave you with these snapshots of it's current progress - we have WALLS! =)

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, my goodness. What a week, month, YEAR it's been already.

 

Fridays are amazing, aren't they? Around these parts, they mean that my husband is only hours away from being home for the weekend. We're talking FULL DAYS of another adult around to help wrangle the littles. I can actually get a peaceful shower, and maybe a moment away from the house ALONE. Even if it IS just to get groceries or grab a quick lunch. Hey, I'll take what I can get. Peace and quiet is hard to come by around here, so I won't be greedy!

 

In case you've visited this website recently, it may have appeared that we were now in the business of selling knockoff Coach bags. I can assure, that's NOT the case! Some lame, sneaky phishing program hacked our site. It took a while to get things switched over (plus some much needed updates added), but we are now back up and running again!! Did you check out that gorgeous new Portfolio section yet? You MUST check it out. Right this instant. Our clients have the best style & the most amazing photographers, and we have them all to thank for all of these lovely photo features.

 

Now that things are all patched up and pretty again around here, I have a long list of things I can't wait to share with you! Check back soon for updates on our new studio, new house, new products, new adventures, and LOTS of freebies for the upcoming holidays.

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a pumpkin patch, a grande Starbucks hot chocolate and a piece of pumpkin bread calling my name. Hellllloooooo, weekend!