Category Archives: holiday

Halloween twenty thirteen

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So. Halloween.

Let me just say that every year for me since having kids it’s been the same. Living in the country is great for so many things but in Halloween night it makes trick or treating a touch difficult. I rush out the door of work to go get the kids them rush into town. Grab a quick dinner with friends before we rush out to trick-or-treat in hopes to be done and have the kiddos in bed close-ish to their bed times. Just thinking about it gets me on the brink of being overwhelmed. Then the rushing begins. Tensions are kinda high. Then the trick or treating starts and all the anxiousness is gone, kids are having fun and all is right with the world. Last night was no different.

All in all we had a pretty great time. We went with the same friends we had gone with last year. Ry was of course super into it. Reese shocked the heck out of me and was also super into it. Well, in her own way. She wanted to be right up in the mix with the big kids. If you didn’t let her walk up the driveway on her own she’d get all sorts of upset. It was hilarious. And absolutely adorable.

Reese was a dinosaur. The costume she wore is one my mom made almost 20 years ago for my cousin. Rylee was a clown again this year. The same exact costume as last year because apparently the face paint job I did last year was inadequate and she wanted to do better this year.

These were the best pictures I could get but it’s a night I never want to forget.

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Punkin’ Guts

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Part two of Halloween overload comin’ atcha. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever posted this much Halloween in one week. Not to mention I’ll be back Friday with actual Halloween photos.

Reese was super into pumpkin carving. She thought the fact we put plastic down on the floor was super cool. She thought sticking her hands in the pumpkin was cool. She thought throwing the guts in the trash was cool. Pretty much pumpkin carving was coolest thing to happen to her thus far in her 15+ months of life. She only tried to eat said pumpkin guts once.

Rylee thought it was gross, then of course after her pumpkin was cleaned out {by me} she said “oh it wasn’t that bad.” To her credit, her pumpkin was particularly slimy.

On an unrelated note: trying to get these two in a decent photo together is proving to be a…challenge.

I didn’t edit a single one of these photos, looking at them more, I probably should have because the lighting is kinda wonky, but then again I don’t actually care that much. Anyway. DSC_0750 DSC_0752 DSC_0754 DSC_0761 DSC_0769 DSC_0771 DSC_0772 DSC_0774

And no. I don’t have a single photo of the finished pumpkins. I mean, come on, what am I…put together?

Pumpkin Patchin’

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Saturday we hit the pumpkin patch with some friends. Both girls were super into it and I remembered to bring my “big camera”. Rylee was off pumpkin hunting out in the middle of the field so most of these photos are of Reese, but holy cute., amiright!?

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She was SO excited about the pumpkin she found…don’t worry, we made sure to get her a non-rotten one.DSC_0713

Watching all the big kids in the field…still holding on to that pumpkin.DSC_0719

Oh hey look! Another one!DSC_0729

While Ry poses with her find, Reese is trying to load hers into the cart.DSC_0731

Daddy’s girls…DSC_0732

Family shot!DSC_0734

This was the first year we’ve been to this particular farm. The one we have gone to in the past {not counting Albertson’s} is the most popular one in our area so it’s always packed. This one is closer to our house and we were the ONLY ones out there. I definitely see this one being in our future.

Tomorrow I’ll post some photos of the carving…

Happy Taco Tuesday!

Wordless Wednesday: Easter Sunshine Babies

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I don’t have the words today…partly because I wrote a lot of them yesterday and partly because I’m way too excited about my trip to Arizona {!!!!} to concentrate on…well…pretty much anything. So today, you get a few more photos from the Easter Egg Hunt we hosted on Saturday.

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Reese & Loretta {Et from Ot & Et} were chummin’ it up sharing their eggs.

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Reese seemed to enjoy her first time hanging in the grass…and also enjoyed trying to move in on her sister’s loot!

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Crazy kids be crazy.

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Sweet Miss Etta. She really is the sweetest girl

Hooray for spring!!

Unfinished Easter

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Growing up, every Easter was the same…there would be Easter decorations set out. Even an Easter tree made with blooming branches of the dogwood tree from our backyard. We dyed eggs a couple days before. My mom made us Easter dresses. My dad bought us all corsages to wear. Easter morning baskets were hid and my dad sent us on a scavenger hunt, complete with rhyming clues to find our goodies. There’d be our dyed eggs, some candy and one or two other age appropriate things. We’d all pile in our car and head to church. After church there would always be a big family dinner.

As long as my childhood memory goes back, that was our Easter. And looking back, I loved them. I loved our family traditions.

My mom had her ish together. Or at least in my eyes she did.

My dad rocked the rhyming clues. Even if he did reuse them every couple of years.

I feel like my Easter this year is still kind of…unfinished.

Even with the best of intentions, we never dyed eggs. And I’m not even kidding, I think this is the first year I’ve never dyed eggs…even through college we’d dye eggs because my brother is 10 years younger than me. Don’t get me wrong, I had every intention of dying eggs with Rylee. I boiled our eggs up on Thursday night with plans for dying on Friday. Then Friday came and Rylee was misbehaving so we opted to dye them on Saturday between our Easter party and going to my uncle’s house for dinner. Then when I was cleaning up from the party I went to pull something out of the refrigerator and the entire bowl of boiled eggs fell and cracked. All 11 of them. In a rush I boiled a few more. But we never had time to dye them. So there we were, left with nearly 20 hard boiled eggs and not a single one of them were dyed for Easter.

I hardly even decorated for the holiday. Rylee set our her little Easter village that my mom gave her last year and other than that, this is was the extent of our decorating…

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Easter morning came and the Easter bunny hide some stuffed eggs for Rylee to find and hid the girls’ baskets.

The only photo I managed to get of either of the girls was a blurry iphone pic of Reese.

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I found myself getting annoyed that rylee was taking so long to hunt her eggs. Then it was a rush to get ready for church where I put Reese in one of Ry’s baby dresses and Rylee wore one of my favorite dresses of hers that my mom made…then paired it with a blue zip up hoodie and a St. Patrick’s day headband.

Dinner was really good, dessert was fantastic and we spent a ton of time playing outside. All in all it was a great day but we ended the day not even seeing some of our family. To me, that left it…kind of weird.

I want so badly to pass on the family traditions I loved so much as a kid that I hold so close to my heart as an adult.

And yes, I realize we threw an awesome Easter Egg Hunting Party with all of our friends that Rylee will likely remember for years to come. But I just can’t help but feel maybe in my “who cares, this is gonna have to be good enough” attitude, I failed my girls just a little bit.

Maybe I just need to realize that the traditions I loved so much growing up won’t be the same traditions we have for my family. Maybe it will get easier as they get older? As we settle in to our own Easter traditions?

One thing is for sure, no matter what the holiday, my girls will now they are loved and they are important, just like my parents did for me.