{ALL ABOARD THE POLAR EXPRESS / 2019}

I've already shared about our camping in Palestine {here} and visiting the Grinch's Lair {here} so the only thing left to share about this trip is the Polar Express! This was the 5th time to ride the Polar Express in Palestine, TX {for most of our group, at least} and it never disappoints. It's the most magical and amazing evening and I can't get enough of it.

{The Grinch's Lair // Palestine 2019}

We all know that a trip to Palestine is not complete without a trip to the Grinch's Lair! I think this was our 4th visit to the lair, maybe the 5th. Whatever the number might be, it never ever disappoints. Mason looks forward to visiting his favorite Grinch each time we are in the area. It's so fun and festive and the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

{Camping in Palestine, TX // annual Polar Express & Grinch weekend}

This past weekend was our 5th annual trip to Palestine for all things festive and magical! It's literally one of my favorite weekends of the year. Every time I try to explain this weekend the only word I can come up with is magical, and it truly is. From camping in a magical forest to visiting the Grinch's Lair, and then capping it off with a trip to the North Pole via the Polar Express, it really is a feel-good-get-in-the-spirit time! I'm forever grateful for this weekend with my people and for all of the special memories we have made in Palestine, TX.

{Christmas bucketlist // 2019}

It's the most wonderful time of the year!! Making this list made my heart so giddy and oh so happy. I'm sharing today because this weekend kicks off our Christmas season with our annual Polar Express weekend! I love this weekend more than I could ever begin to express. It's so magical and just pulls at my mama Christmas lovin' heartstrings so fiercely! Anyhow, I know it's before Thanksgiving, but we have to schedule this weekend months in advance and this is what seems to work for everyone. So from here on out it's all things Christmas! You've been warned. Here is our 2019 Christmas bucketlist.

{Deckin' the halls // a home tour before the tree}

If you've been around this blog for any amount of time you know that we do the whole Christmas tree farm experience and get a real tree each year. It's a tradition and I am a sucker for a good tradition. Plus, I love to smell a fresh tree every time I walk into the house. And I love how unique each real tree is. I could go on and on. But I won't. You're welcome! ha. Anyhow, we do not get our tree until after Thanksgiving as that's when tree farms typically open for the Christmas season. We just couldn't wait that long to decorate this year! So, we started deckin' our halls a couple of weeks ago. Christmas decor just makes for such a cozy home. I have loved spending the evenings with my people by the glow of twinkle lights!! Anyhow, here's a very rough draft of our "deckin' the halls". I know once we get our tree I will rearrange and add some things.

{DIY Christmas Stocking Name Tags}

I recently met my friend Keri at Hobby Lobby to exchange a few items we are putting together for a giveaway {follow us here for more on that} and to do a little shopping. She mentioned she was looking for some wooden tags to make some DIY Christmas stocking name tags and I knew I had to copy her!! I have been swooning over Julie's name tags for quite some time and have been wanting to make some! So glad Keri reminded me! Is it just me or does anyone else draw a complete blank about all the projects they want to complete once they are actually at Hobby Lobby? Or maybe I get distracted because there is so much to look at! Anyhow, here are my DIY Christmas Stocking Name Tags...

{Frank Kent's DreamPark}

I mentioned in my train post that we scoped out a really awesome park that we wanted to go back to! Well, after lunch that day Nate and I took Mason to find that park! It was crazy packed, but so much fun. A friend told us they call it the Dr. Seuss park and that is such a great way to describe this park.

{FOREST PARK MINIATURE RAILROAD // FAMILY DAY}

Last Sunday Nate's mom planned a family day in Fort Worth. Nate, Mason and I went to the early church service and then met them at the gas station down the road afterward. We started the day off by riding the Forest Park Miniature Railroad. We have lived in the DFW all our lives and have never taken a ride on this train! It was so enjoyable, inexpensive, and lasted over 45 minutes.

{2019 Autumn bucket list // Update two}

Not too long ago I shared our first Autumn bucket list update and today I am back with another update! We are rockin' and rollin' on our list and having so much fun this fall. We are about 72% through our list. Here's a look at what we have done so far...

{Jeep Safari at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center with Texas Jeep Adventures}

This past Saturday we joined Texas Jeep Adventures for a Jeep safari at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center! We were so excited to have Nate's parents join us in our Jeep and we convoyed with another Jeep from our area! We all met at an Expo center not far from the animal park so that we could all convoy over together. If I had to guess I would say there were over 75 Jeeps in total for this event. It was so much fun!!!

{CURRENTLY // NOVEMBER EDITION}

Happy November!! I'm not quite sure where October went, but here we are. Joining Anne in Residence for another round of "Currently". This month we are sharing what we are currently picking, preparing, trying, feeling, following. I love this link-up and enjoy joining in each month. I hope you'll join us as well. 

{BAERTRAX/LONESTAR JEEP CLUB HALLOWEEN PARTY}

This past Friday Nathan and I celebrated 23 years of being together!! TWENTY THREE! And how did we celebrate? By going to a Halloween party that a local Jeep club put on along with a shop owner that is a friend of ours! Mason opted to stay with his Grandparents, so it was a date night for us. We missed him, but enjoyed our time together.

{HALLOWEEN 2019 // TRICK OR TREATING}

Are we over Halloween, trick or treating, and pumpkins? I know the minute we got home from trick or treating I was ready to ditch the pumpkins and bring out the Christmas stuff! Maybe because it was in the 30's here and that's more like winter for Texas and not very fall like! We skipped right from summer to winter! Anyhow, we decided to go Trick or Treating in our town this year and we had a good time! We started early around 5:45ish, but it worked out pretty great for us.

{Mason's got jokes // pumpkin joke 2019}

I shared this on Instagram, but wanted to put it here on the blog so that I can look back on this years to come! This is our family scrapbook after all.

{Pumpkin Patching at Shadow Creek Pumpkin Farm // 2019}

Last Sunday we were able to finally carve out some time to go to the Pumpkin Patch. October was jam packed and a billion degrees. Who wants to visit the pumpkin patch when it's 96 degrees outside? That just doesn't feel right to me. Anyhow, we had declared Saturday, October 26th as our "pumpkin patch day". It was going to be a glorious high of only 64 degrees and just perfect. Only it rained and rained on the Thursday and Friday before so they closed the patch for Saturday. Womp. Womp. We already had plans for Sunday as we were celebrating my Grandma's birthday party at my aunt's house. Monday would have been her 74th birthday and we wanted to celebrate her. We were able to get together with my family for a few hours and then head to the pumpkin patch for a few hours.

{Happy HOWL-oween // 2019}

Taking pictures of my pups gives me such joy! They are just too cute and mostly go along with my crazy antics. I say mostly because Diesel hates the camera and will totally look the opposite direction with his nose in the air! I have to bribe that one with treats. Anyhow, here are our 2019 HOWL-oween pictures of the pups!!

{Fall Festival at church}

This past Saturday was our fall festival at church! We decided to go to the 5:00 service before the festival. It was a special night because Nate's mom joined us for service and then the carnival. My parents, sister, and nephew met us at the carnival. Worship and the message were both amazing as always! We got out around 5:55 and then walked out into the parking lot where the carnival was. The carnival started at 6, but it was already so crowded. Our church puts this carnival (complete with carnival rides) on for the whole community for free. The only thing that costs is the food! There were several food trucks there and everything smelled amazing!!

{Annual Hocus Pocus Movie Night // 2019}

One of my favorite nights of the year is our annual Hocus Pocus movie night! We finally made this happen this past Friday and it was a blast. It was kind of rainy, dreary, and cool outside, so it was the perfect night for watching a movie. We picked up Mason from school, I finished working, and then we started planning our evening.

{Jeepers Creepers}

Decorating the Jeep for holidays is so much fun! My favorite is Christmas with the lights, the wreath, and the reindeer antlers and nose, but Halloween is so much fun too! We mostly only do the Halloween thing for camping or Jeep events. Anyhow, I wanted to share some fun pictures here.

{Halloween Crafts on the porch}

One of my favorite things to do with Mason in the fall is to craft on the porch after school! The weather isn't too terribly hot and we just have the best time together. Anytime I am at Target and scrolling the dollar spot area I stock up on seasonal crafts for just this reason! It's a simple little task that gets us off our phones or video games for a bit and allows us to spend some quality time together outside. Sure, we could do this inside...but there is just something about being outside in the fall.

{Five on Friday // Free Halloween Fonts edition}

Happy Friday! You know I love to find and share new fonts around here. So, I wanted to share some fun Halloween fonts I have come across! Here are five free Halloween fonts I am loving.

{Air Show at Fort Worth Alliance Airport // 2019}

Okay, y'all...we have seriously been living under a rock! This was our first time to ever go to the Fort Worth air show and I can't for the life of me figure out why. We've heard about it a million times, but never pursued anything beyond that! We were blown away by the size of this thing and how fun it was!! We are so glad we were invited to go, otherwise, we may have never gone. Here's a look at our day at the Fort Worth Air Show!

{Weekend Wrap-up // Haunted house, air show, benefit dinner, church and friends}

Whoa! What a busy and crazy week so far. Every time I have come to type up this post I get sidetracked with something else. Anyways, we had a really good weekend full of family and friends. Here's a look at our weekend wrap-up...

{2019 Autumn bucket list // Update one}

It should come as no surprise that we've already started crossing things off our 2019 Autumn bucket list!! Here's what we've done so far...

{DIY // porch pumpkin revamp}

If you have been around my blog for a minute then you know that crafting is my jam! I try to work on at least one project a weekend. I enjoy it and find it therapeutic too. And, what good is all those Pinterest pins if you never put them to use? Right? Last weekend was kind of a weird weekend with me being ill and all. The only craft I had done was making some onesies for my niece that is due in December {and I totally forgot to take pictures}. So Sunday evening I was itching to make something, but I didn't really have anything planned. One trip to my porch changed that! I saw my porch pumpkin I made several years ago and it was in dire need of a revamp...

{Halloween Happenings at Mitchell Resort // 2019}

This past weekend was our 3rd annual Halloween Happenings at Mitchell Resort and we had a complete and total blast. You can see year one here and year two here {side note - oh my gah, my itty bitty 2017 Mason}!! This year my parents and my sister and her family were able to join us as well as our good friends again! I can't even tell you how much fun we had.

{Mason's 2019 Halloween Costume}

Picking out a costume for Mason each year is so fun! I mean, it was a lot more fun when I had full reigns and could dress him in something cute. But, it's also neat to see what he chooses each year. For weeks was determined to get one of those blow-up T-Rex costumes, but that quickly changed when he saw this one...

{Texas State Fair // 2019}

As Hall family tradition holds, we went to the Texas State Fair this past Sunday! We like going on Sunday mornings because they are far less crowded than on a Saturday! And we like to get there as soon as they open so that it's not as hot. But who am I kidding? This is Texas and we were sweating just walking from the truck to the gates. Anyhow, here is our 2019 Texas State Fair trip...

{Three Black Cats // DIY}

DIY'ing and crafting are my jam! A weekend is just not complete for me if it didn't involve crafting of some kind. I am obsessed and find it quite therapeutic. I can't remember where I first saw this idea, Pinterest probably, but I have been wanting to make these for the longest time. I knew that we probably had a piece of wood in the shop I could use and I had everything else in my craft closet to make these three black cats for my porch! So, a couple of weekends ago I did just that.

{4th Grade UIL tryouts}

A couple of weeks ago Mason had try-outs for UIL. He didn't try-out in third grade and regretted it terribly afterward. So, he was more than anxious and ready when it was time for 4th-grade try-outs. Mason tried out for Oral Reading and Spelling Bee! We already know that he made the UIL spelling bee team, just waiting to hear on the oral reading part. I will update this when we find out! Anyhow, Mason came home from school so excited about the try-outs, so it deserved a post!

{Currently // October edition}

Happy October! One of my favorite months of the whole year!!! Joining Anne in Residence for another round of "Currently". This month we are sharing what we are currently arranging, loving, embracing, purchasing, and sharing. I love this link-up and enjoy joining in each month. I hope you'll join as well. 

{Three Things // Fall edition}

It's been a while since I have done a "three things" post. I thought now would be a good time as we are transitioning from summer to back to school to sort of not really fall. Every ounce of my being is ready for fall, but the temps are still in the upper 90s and even reaching triple digits on some days. I am over it. Maybe all of you up north can send some cooler temps down here to Texas? Maybe? Anyhow, here's a three things post.

{This past weekend // Last one in September}

What.a.weekend.it.was. While I love our weekends around here, I am okay with this one being over. It started out with me being sick on Thursday and into Friday and even into Saturday and Sunday. I used a personal day at work on Friday because I was so sick! And then we found out some dear friends of ours died in a motorcycle accident on Saturday. It was just a weekend full of emotions and not feeling well. Anyhow, here's a look at what we did this past weekend.

{Five on Friday // Free Halloween Fonts Pt 2 edition}

Happy Friday! I recently shared 5 free Halloween fonts I love and today I want to share five more! Here are five free Halloween fonts I am loving.

{Target dollar spot haul // fall round up}

Shopping the Target dollar spot {or Bulleye's Playground - not used to that new name yet} is one of my favorite things to do! I especially love it for little touches of decor, coffee mugs, craft projects to do with Mason, etc. I think fall and Christmas time are my favorite times to shop at Target. I can't get over the cuteness! Anyhow, here is my 2019 Target dollar spot fall haul.

{We tried a new church...}

The past two Sundays Nathan, Mason and I visited a new {to us} church. I have really felt the Lord pressing on my heart to give this church a try and, well, we did just that...

{Five on Friday // Free fall fonts edition}

Happy finally Friday! It's been a long week!! Anyone else feel that? Anyhow, since I am font obsessed and have been searching for some fun free fall fonts I thought I would share some of my favorites here on the blog! So here is my Five on Friday free fall fonts edition!!

{Fall Home Tour // 2019}

Fall kicks off my favorite time of year! There is just something special about the "ber" months...those last four of the year!! And my home is my favorite during those months as well. I always start decorating my home for fall in the early days of September so that I can enjoy it for a while. Is it just me, or is fall decor just so warm, welcome and inviting? I love it. With that being said, welcome to our fall home tour...

{Fall porch // 2019}

Decorating my porch for fall is one of my favorite things and I look forward to it each year! I feel like a fall porch is just so welcoming and inviting and well, it just makes my heart happy! Every time I pull up to my home I see my porch and it makes me smile! This year I jumped on the layered rug trend using two rugs I found at Hobby Lobby. And then I just worked my theme around that!

{Board and Brush // Make and Take}

Last Thursday Mason, Michelle and I went to an event at Board and Brush. One Thursday a month all of the shops on the square stay open late (until 8:00pm) for a ladies night. Board and Brush also host a "make and take" event on that night. For $15 bucks you can choose from about 10-15 different things. We have been wanting to try Board and Brush for the longest and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

{Autumn Bucketlist // 2019}

Let me preface this by saying that I know that the actual first day of fall isn't until September 23rd, but I can't help it...it's all fall up in the Hall casa!!! I just love fall so much and like to enjoy it a little longer. It is my favorite season without a doubt and for a plethora of reasons. I love the sweet little fall family traditions that we have made over the years and look forward to them each time fall rolls around. This year is no different. I got so giddy when making this list because these are some of my favorite activities to do with my sweet family.  I just really wish the Texas weather would get the memo and get on board! It usually doesn't start cooling off until late October for us. But, I do not let that stop me from enjoying all things fall. I mean, inside our home is a cool 67 degrees, so that works for me. Here is our 2019 Autumn bucket list {side note, I like the word autumn better than the word fall}.

{FIVE ON FRIDAY // HOCO STYLE}

This week was homecoming week for us! It's always nice to break free from the school uniforms for a week and have fun themed dress-up days. This year's themes were a little different than they have been in the past and we were here for it!

{Let's look at // my calendar}

This is my first time linking up with the "Let's look at" series! This month we are looking at our calendars! It's no secret that I am a paper loving calendar gal. I've tried so many different calendar apps on my phone, but I just can't. I mean, it would make sense to just use an app since I always have my phone on me. But, I am a paper calendar loving fool!!

⛺ 15 CAMPING ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS - PART 2 ⛺

I recently shared 15 activities to do with kids while camping. And I wanted to share 15 more. We love camping and finding new things to do with Mason each time. Camping is one of our favorite things to do as a family. It's such a great bonding time!!

{Hall Around Texas Family Fall Traditions}

Traditions. Oh, how I love traditions. They are my jam, for real. Something to look forward each year and such great memories to look back on! In our family, we have all kinds of traditions for each season. I think our Fall and Winter traditions are by far my favorite, though! Below are some of my favorite Fall-time traditions we do as a family...

{Weekend Wrap-up // College football, Projects, Grandparent's Day}

Happy Monday!! We had such a good weekend mixed with just the perfect balance of going and doing and staying at home. Friday evening we had supper with one of my best friends since the 2nd grade and it was so good for my soul. I ran a few errands on Saturday morning and then we stayed home the rest of the day tackling cleaning and home projects. It felt good to get crafty for a bit. Sunday was Grandparent's Day so we spent the first half of the day with family and the second half at home. Monday came all too fast, but we are ready for a new week. Here's a look at our weekend wrap-up. 

{Five on Friday // Mustache, dove hunting, Grand Friends, On Target Time}

Happy Friday! It's always the short weeks that seem to feel the longest. Am I right? I'm just glad it's Friday!! We have a busy, but good weekend ahead of us and I'm ready to get it started. I love spending time with the ones I love most! But for now, a little Five on Friday...

{Annual camping at Mason, TX // Labor Day weekend}

This past weekend was our 5th annual camping trip to Mason, TX for Labor Day weekend. We have been going every Memorial Day and Labor Day with the same group (plus new additions along the way) since Mason was just four years old. And with each trip, we love it more and more. This trip was a little more special because Nate's best friend (& his family) since he was just five years old was able to join us!! They recently bought a camper and Mason TX wasn't too far from them! We were so ecstatic they were able to join us and hope this was just the first trip of many!

{Currently // September edition}

It's time to link up with Anne in Residence for Currently. This month we are sharing what we are currently making, taking, discovering, consuming, and saving.