My Little Leopard Love

outfit details: // vest (Target) // tights (Target) // jean dress (J.Crew crewcuts - old) // boots (Old Navy)

My little leopard love.

You are getting so big and becoming more and more independent.  Your little brother is your best friend and the two of you are so very close.  Lately you love to lean into me and whisper in my ear "I love you Mommy" ...and that melts my heart every single time.  We spend most Sunday afternoons baking together while Yates is taking a nap and you insist that we wear our aprons - you love any excuse to dress up.  You are a bear to wake up in the mornings, literally.  I have to start nudging you about 30 minutes before your feet even hit the ground.  One of your favorite new foods lately are cold green peas - and fresh mountain apples.  You are so incredibly smart... and a bit sassy, well maybe a lot sassy - and you certainly have an opinion about everything.

I love watching you grow up into an incredible little girl with a big personality.  You are going to do big things in this big world little girl, I just know it, and I am already so proud of you.

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf

Introducing:

Chloe as Little Red Riding Hood.  She's sweet, and innocent but yet sly.  She loves her Granny, cake and... well, sparkly red shoes.

Yates as The Big Bad Wolf.  Because he's always hungry and looking for food.  And he's the cutest big bad wolf I've ever seen.


Picking out their Halloween costumes is something I take way too seriously.  Like their birthday parties, I want it to reflect who they are in some special way- not just something picked up last minute at the store.  This years pick came from our love of reading books together as a family and the characters who reflect their personalities.  So without further ado... 

coming Halloween 2014 will be the story of Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf who stuffed their bellies full of chocolate, lollipops and candy corn while up way past their bedtime.

My Big, Baby Boy

You are almost 20 months, and while I have thought lately about how much fun you are at this age and how much personality you have grown into, I also have been sad because you are growing up too fast.

You call Chloe "ya-ya" ... and I find it absolutely adorable that you came up with your own nickname for your big sister.  You are becoming more confident about the big world around you and love, love, love to socialize.  You say "hi" to almost anyone who gives you eye contact- at the grocery store, at church, at the park, at Daddy's football games - anywhere.  You even flirt with the librarian at the library.  You are so good with people and they instantly gravitate to you.  You have a very special ability to make everyone around you smile, giggle and want to talk to you.  You still won't eat a sandwich, won't even put it in your mouth to taste.  Oh the day you finally take a bite out of a pb&j... you'll never go back.  You think corn on the cob is better than cookies or cake and make "mmmmm" sounds when you eat it.  You are asserting your own independence but are very tenderhearted and will get so upset if I even raise my voice at you.  You still love your blue blanket - the one you received when you were baptized at the same church Mama and Dada were married, Mama was baptized, your Granny and Papa were married, and your Papa was baptized.  So to see you twirl it in your fingers makes me happy - really, really happy.  When I put you to bed you always ask me to "rock-rock" you in your rocking chair and we snuggle while we say prayers, just the two of us.  I look forward to this every day.

Just recently when I tell you "I love you", you say "love" back... in a raspy, deep voice as if you know exactly what it means and you love me too - very, very much.

I am so in love with you, my big, baby boy.  You have stolen my heart and will have it forever and ever.

Lately

Lately ...

We've been busy.  As in, really, really busy.
We only had a few moments during the whole weekend to spend together as a family.  Chloe has had many meltdowns recently wanting Daddy - and at one point even brought tears to my husband's eyes when she was crying for him as he was leaving for work after church Sunday.  It's been rough, and looking at our calendar for the rest of October I've realized that we are going to have a hard time finding a morning or afternoon as a family to even take Chloe and Yates to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  To top it off, this year Halloween is on a Friday night, which means Daddy has a game and we won't be trick-or-treating together as a family.

I'm trying to find the moments in our weeks ahead to appreciate the small things, and to make our time together as a family seem as though it lasts much longer that it really does.  My husband works so hard- and while Chloe and Yates may not understand where Daddy is at this point in their lives, they will grow up to learn and come to respect what he does- and does well.  I wish there were more hours in a day, but for now we will make each moment together count twice, give Daddy lots and lots of kisses, and let him know how much we love and support him.

Friday Night Football

Whenever I explain to Chloe and Yates that we are going to watch Daddy's football game neither one of our children ever complain.  In fact, usually there are shouts of joy and excitement as if I have just told them we are going to get ice cream.  Football games mean they get to see Daddy, of course, but it also means they get to see their friends and play on the football field after the game.  It's our social outing for the week, that's for sure and we look forward to every game win or lose.

Happy Fall Ya'll

I'm usually one to wish summer would never end... 

but this year I'm ready for the crisp air fall morning and nights bring, good mountain apples baked into an apple pie and snuggles on the couch with my little pumpkins.

Fall is the busiest time of year for our little family- with Daddy's football season lasting from summer to winter, in the past our fall months have been a blur.  This year I have a list of things I want to do, and I hope we as a family can accomplish all of them so the warmer months before winter aren't forgotten.

1 // Apple picking.  Apples are my absolute favorite fruit (and quite possibly maybe my favorite food), I have never loved anything more than a fresh Honeycrisp apple in season.

2 // Picking a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch... of course.  But you'd be surprised how hard it is for us to find a free weekend in October to do this as a family.

3 // Baking a fresh apple pie with Chloe from the apples we pick as a family.  And watching Yates eat it, with a side of ice cream.

4 // Making smores.  Outside, with friends.

5 // Seeing the leaves change around our mountain house.  It's hard for us to get up there while Daddy has a game every Friday night, and works every Sunday but I need to see the leaves change.  The beauty of the mountains during the fall soothes me.

6 // Also baking pumpkin muffins for our neighbors and making butternut squash soup.

7 // Keeping up our garden.  I know it's a bit late to plant kale and carrots but I'd love to enjoy them through the fall months.  We still have handfuls of tomatoes coming in, with bell and banana peppers everyday.  Going outside to pick fresh vegetables to eat for dinner every  night gives me so much joy... and I'd love chickens with fresh eggs next...

8 // Date night with hubby.  Seeing that football season means that I don't see my husband, and when I do he's stressed, anxious or worried - I love when I get a night alone with him... relaxed and all to myself.

9 // Family pictures.  I know, I know, I take pictures all the time.  But never of the four of us... all together.  Sometimes I wish time would stand still, and pictures are a way for me to do that, which is why I take so many.  We have never had pictures professionally taken by someone else since before Yates was born.

10 // A fire in our fireplace, on a crisp fall night, with my husband after the kids are asleep.  This could count as date night.

Weekend Recap

It was a good weekend, a really good weekend.  We missed Dada... a lot since he had to work and only saw us Saturday - but leaving early Friday morning and coming back late Sunday afternoon made the weekend a nice and relaxed one.

A few high notes:

1 // Yates and Chloe ate an entire jar of cookies.  I blame that on Granny and Papa.

2 // Yates kept begging for Raisin Bran- we kept telling him "no" he wouldn't like it but finally gave in and guess what... he ate four bowl fulls - who would of thought that one.

3 // Chloe can play a mean game of Scrabble.  Actually Aunt Em can - team Chloe and Mama came in second, Granny came in third... but I bet she won't admit it if you ask her.

4 // We joined the Peace Parade in Boone with Aunt Em on Friday.  So typical, she's a hippie at heart, and well ... so are we.

5 // We ate candy from the candy store... obviously.  Thank goodness for the Mast General Store.  We should probably start to invest in their company - it would be a smart move and help out our candy habit.

6 // Sunday afternoon the kids and I visited an alpaca farm and saw a few animals including roosters... which Yates calls "doo-doos" because they say "cock-a-doodle-doo" ... oh how I love him - so much.

7 // We picked a few flowers for Papa (he just had shoulder surgery) off the side of the road on the way up to Granny and Papa's mountain house.

8 // We spent Saturday afternoon watching football with Dada, and napping on the couch with the cool mountain breeze blowing in back porch.  I imagine that is about what heaven is like.

You were good to us mountains, thanks for a really, really great weekend.


Until next time...