our thanksgiving tree tradition

ever since i can remember, my family has driven out to the christmas tree farm the day after thanksgiving to cut down our tree.  this year, that friday brought miserable rainy weather, so we delayed it by a day.  that saturday morning, we bundled the kids up, and this year decided to ride in the wagon to the back of the farm to pick out our perfect pine.  we went a little bigger than 12 feet this year, just slightly taller than last year.  this has always been my favorite tradition, and the one i truly look forward to to get into the holiday spirit.  here is this year's tree hunt in photos.

a birthday + an appointment + an anniversary

friday the 13th for some can be superstitious.  it happened to fall this month november on maximus' birthday.  his first birthday celebrated without him here.  our routine is getting more back to normal, but there's still a piece that's missing, and i'm sure we'll always feel that way.  the girls still bring him up, crosby especially.  she likes to tell me what a good boy he was, and how we really miss him.  and how he's up in heaven with God.  just last week, while dropping harper off at catechism, we walked by a framed photo of the pope, and crosby said "is that who took maximus?"  such sweet innocence.  it brought both a smile and a tear.  we miss you, beautiful boy.  happy birthday up in heaven.  hope you're celebrating with lots of rolling in the grass, eating sticks and slurping up vanilla ice cream.

i decided to go with not being superstitious and instead to count on the luck of being maximus' birthday and scheduled our ultrasound for friday the 13th.  things went smoothly and we saw our beautiful little one.  its definitely more realistic once you see on screen everything there is to see.  the heart is fully developed, the legs and arms are moving all around, every organ perfectly intact.  truly God's miracle.  the girls joined in and while they bored quickly, they did really enjoy seeing the baby right up on the screen.  we've just hit our 19th week, the baby is the size of a mango, and the girls are getting more and more excited every day.

november 13th also marked 2 years since my cancer diagnosis.  i will truly never forget that day.  going in just to get the stitches out.  coming out with a whole new game plan and take on life.  we've come a long way since then, and look where we are now, on this beautiful friday, november 13th.  our happy + blessed little family of almost five!

for the birds

it's november 1st, and that means halloween 2015 is complete.  this was the third halloween in our new house, and the third year of chilly rain.  at least this year wasn't sleet and snow and heavy downpours like last year.  despite the chill, the girls had a great time riding in the car from house to house, running up the long driveways, and smiling for candy.

my favorite about this year was that both girls decided affirmatively what they wanted their costumes to be.  harper's favorite animal is a peacock, she had a peacock themed birthday party this year, so of course that meant she wanted to continue and dress up as a peacock.  crosby caught a glimpse of a new disney show that premiered mid-september, and decided right at that moment that she wanted to be owlette from pj masks.  of course that meant that no costume existed for a show that debuted a month before halloween, so mama to the rescue.  i don't know how to sew, so this meant a hot glue gun and a lot of glue sticks.  and because i was making crosby's, i decided to make harper's as well.  it was a bit of a stressor, but it was also fun and to see the happiness on their faces because their costumes were exactly what they wanted meant all that time was totally worth it.

harper's favorite candy this year was a king size hershey's bar.  crosby's was nerds.  mama and daddy like anything that's leftover in the bowl, which meant a ton since we didn't have many trick-or-treaters.

happy halloween!