Fall in review

I'm hoping to not make this form of blogging the new normal, but you know life is very engaging and at the end of the day (i.e. after kids are in bed, most chores done) shutting my brain off sounds a lot better than doing anything productive. The fall season has happened quickly it seems like so much and many other things but Fall is such a special time. Even more so now that we have little Evie's birthday in November. Since I managed to post another story earlier, let's go ahead today and be productive with another!

October

At the beginning of the month we took our 4th annual trip to Dollywood. Normally you may recall we'd go in April, but this year everyone got crazy an decided to go in October. It was fun, hot and super crowded. Ellie had a blast riding her little rides and Evie even got to join in which was too stinking cute. It was a nice time, Evie screamed for a solid hour on the way home telling us about it : )

 

The next day we celebrated John's grandma (JoJo)'s 91st birthday. Cousins, aunts and uncles galore!

Our little curious monkey turned 11 months. What a mover and shaker we have here. She is so so cute and funny. She's super smiley mostly but when she's not...she's not. lol. She and Ellie are little more interactive but there is plenty of room to grow there.

John and I took a little trip....see previous post :)

I took the girls to our beloved pumpkin patch one day when I got off work early. It was a most glorious day and so quiet there! Amen!

At trunk-or-treat I hosted a fun, little charity event at our church for the kids to play games and raise donations for a food bank. The girls dresses as a cupcake and  troll-clearly homemade but they still looked cute. Success all around!!

On Halloween we went trick or treating in the neighborhood. Ellie requested to be Anna from Frozen again and Evie was a good sport as Olaf the snowman...snowbaby.

November

At the beginning of the month Evie turned 1 year old. We had a lovely little party with family. It was a "woodland" themed party and I think it's safe to say she had a blast. We loved having our family here to celebrate our special Evie girl.

Annual leaf clearing around our wooded home.

November was spent mostly at home, just where we needed to be :)

We did travel to NC for Thanksgiving and finally got to meet baby Reid. What a sweet little boy. It's great to be an aunt. We all also got a kick out of how gigantic Evie looked compared to Reid at 2 1/2 months old. They all be good friends one day...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we took Ellie to see Frozen on Ice which was probably the highlight of her life thus far. It was really good and we all enjoyed it. Besides, it was nice to spent some special time with our oldest gal .

Hopefully we'll see you with a classic December in Review, not skipping the whole winter! Merry Christmas until then. I'm about to enjoy some cocoa and maybe even a fire on this snowy...yes you read right... SNOWY Friday evening!

October in Review

Good evening all! I'm just sitting here relaxing, waiting on a certain baby to show up. Due date is tomorrow...just sayin'.  Before all the baby stuff starts I wanted to go ahead and do a quick review of our October. It seems like there was a lot going on...I was constantly thinking the baby was coming at any time (laugh), scrambling to all the things on my to do list in case of an early arrival (at least I cleared some space early) and trying to do some special "fall" things before we have all things Christmas beating on our doors-which I'm not a fan of early Christmas stuff btw. That should wait until after Thanksgiving at least in my humble opinion.

So here go...

At the beginning of October, as some of you might have seen, Ellie and I took maternity pictures together. It went really well and timely. If you are wondering about John just know I ran the idea by him but he hates pictures...esp. posed ones that he can't attempt to ruin by making faces, etc. So it was completely fine with just Ellie and I. Brooklyn Ash photography did a great job!

Ellie and I have continued on our "homeschool" lessons...still going well I can report. It's very laid back and informal but we both enjoy it most days.

We celebrated Jo-Jo's (John's grandmother) 91st birthday! Its always a good time to pack into her house with all the cousins, aunts and uncles to celebrate. We even got to meet the newest cousin, little Owen!

Ellie got to pick out pumpkins since we couldn't make it to a pumpkin patch over the weekend. Momma was feeling not so great and just wasn't up for it. On the flip side she thoroughly enjoyed visiting the nursery and picking out pumpkins. I tried again to take her last weekend to the patch but she turned me down! Have you ever???

The baby grew....

Ellie got to see the fire trucks during story time at our local library. She HATED the firemen trying on the fire suits and refused to look at them and was on the verge of tears but thankfully she stuck it out and we got to see the trucks afterwards!

We went to see SC Children's theatre puppet show production. This was our 3rd trip to see this group in a year and other show didn't disappoint! Ellie got upset when they were taking the scenes down to switch stories but otherwise all good...I guess she was just really into it.

On the 23rd we hosted my in laws to some dinner (more or less catered) LOTS of treats and pumpkin carving outside. Some pumpkins were great (all but ours LOL) and some got honorable mentions. John was cracking us all up with his efforts. Nothing was going like he wanted and it was pretty hilarious. Ellie colored hers which kept her entertained and made kind comments about all the pumpkins around her. I painted mine like a donut. Go figure.

On my next to last shift, some of my co workers threw a little last minute shower for me. It was a nice surprise. I'm glad this little girl could get some special things just for her.

And....I finished my shifts so I'm on maternity leave!!!

John and I had a night out together and it was so nice. We had dinner and a movie (classic I know) but going out with your spouse and laughing together is good for the soul.

Yay for bathroom portraits 

Lastly we rounded out October we dressing up like Anna from Frozen (duh) and going to trunk or treat at our church on Sunday and going around the neighborhood on Monday night. We didn't stay out long but Ellie seemed to really enjoy herself and stocked up on candy! Also on Halloween in an effort to keep us entertained, we went to the lake in our old neighborhood and had a picnic. It was so beautiful out there and I wish we had gone back sooner!

That's all for now. Hopefully we will be starting the next post off with some baby photos! Pray for us!