An evening out

Wednesday was our three year Wedding anniversary.

We don't like to go all out on gifts but prefer to go out to a super sassy restaurant. Our original goal when we got married was to take a trip every year on our anniversary. The first year we went to Italy, the second we had paid for a trip to Hilton head but refunded it to buy a house and this year, well the thought of traveling with a newborn just scares me! We weren't sure we would be able to venture out to a swanky little spot this year because of the babe. And the idea of not celebrating was slightly depressing.

A lovely couple friend of ours watched Addiston and we were able to sneak away to a romantic dinner in the city. There was no taking turns eating a bite or two between pacifying a baby who doesn't want to be in a bouncy seat. There were no rattles thrown on the floor, dishes to do, nor having to rush through the meal so we can give the baby a bath.

Jared picked the restaurant this year and I had my reservations but it was Delicious. We had a great time and feel so honored that even though we don't have family close, we have friends who are willing to help us out on a random weeknight.

Oh and just because I can...

I wore my wedding dress just for the heck of it!

PUMPKIN FEST

I love family traditions. The little things that are important to those that understand them and everyone else just sort of cocks their head sideways and squints their eyes like hum, ok?
My family has a few, of those little quirks, we hide a pickle in the christmas tree and whoever finds it wins a prize (not to brag or anything, but I am undefeated!) we watch "It's a Wonderful Life" every year sometime between thanksgiving and new years, And we have PUMPKIN FEST. (yes it needs to be in all caps)I know there are more traditions but I'm so blinded by the imaginary bright blinking signs of pumpkin fest that I can't think of them right now.

So, to the point, pumpkin fest is a big deal in my family. It is always the third weekend in October which coincidently is always Sweetest day (a holiday that my husband refuses to admit exists) It is near my parent's house at Minges, a local feed store/farm. We have gone every year since as far back as I can remember. Except that one year where I was pretty stinking sick and my father refused to let me come home from college in fear that I would get one of my niece's or nephews sick (I may still be a little bitter about that). Luckily I had great friends in college and one of them took me home for the weekend where I proceeded to tell her younger brother that I couldn't get him sick unless he kissed me. (I may have been slightly delirious) and that's pretty much all I remember from that weekend, that and jell-o.

Well this past weekend was the annual festival and sure enough it delivered a plethora of fall-pleasures, a buffet of fair foods, an exposition of autumn-themed festivities like pony-rides, story-time, hay mazes, and log sawing contests. We were blessed to have virtually perfect weather, upper seventies, a cool breeze that carried the smell of apple cider and camp fires. It was sensational. There is tent after tent of crafts and baked goods, flower arrangements, handmade trinkets and woodwork. But as my dad always says, "we go for the food" There is tons of food, fair food, wonderful, unhealthy, magical food that when eaten outside standing up I'm convinced doesn't count against your daily caloric intake! Cajun food, fresh grilled corn on the cob, bar-b-que, potato nests, caramel apple's, roasted almonds, cheesecake on a stick, deep fried everything, goetta, and pumpkin cookies. We indulge, we try each others over priced snacks and then when we're stuffed to the brim, we go for a funnel cake.

8 of the 10 grandkids

Well this year, for the first time, after attending this sacred event for 20+ years I talked my oldest niece, Liberty, into entering the pie eating contest. Yes it was after the gluttonous endeavor of sampling everything in sight, but in the true competitive fashion of my family one entry turned into a competition with my nephew, Gabe, vowing to beat his older cousin. And we're off, there was an announcement that one more adult was needed so my sister Beth joined in and haphazardly Jada, and Caleb stepped up at the last minute.

It was awesome.


Slightly disgusting

On the brighter side, the pie was free!


Jared's parents came down for the weekend so our girl had all four of her grandparents under one roof and of course two great grandparents came for a visit as well.

Sunday morning we dedicated Addiston, vowing to raise her in the church, teach her about God and be good stewards of this little miracle the lord has blessed us with. It was wonderful to have our family there to support us and the preacher who dedicated her is basically family himself.



Oh and my favorite picture from the weekend...


I love the traditions that I've grown up with, the ones that will never die, and the newer ones that may fizzle out or may go down in the record books. I love that now I'm the mama and I get to make new traditions and hopefully one day my little one will carry them down to her family.

So that's it, it's fall. Go carve a pumpkin, drink some cider, jump in some leaves, start a tradition, embrace life!

Cream filling

This weekend was bliss.
It took me to a place before the babe was born. Back when I could deep clean our entire shoebox apartment in just over an hour, and had at least four commitments a day, to school, work, volunteering, or another work. Back when Jared and I were still in Ohio and I was way over comitted to a billion different wonderful things, we would have weekends where we were going non-stop, running all over town, keeping afloat only with excess caffeine. This weekend was like that again. The oh-yeah-I need-to-do-that-too kind of busy that leaves you invigorated and wanting to keep going, not that icky kind that makes you dread waking up in the morning.

This weekend was like a big warm donut. The kind with cream filling. When you see it you know you totally shouldn't eat it, or at least you should split it with a friend because lets face it, there's probably a whole weeks worth of calories in one of those bad boys. But in the end you indulge. When you bite in the cream filling inadvertenly oozes out the sides because there's just more in there than it can handle, and whoa is that the good stuff or what?

Friday morning was my first expereince at a Moms group that I absolutly loved. There were about a dozen or so other moms and can I say how liberating it was to be in the company of other women who totally get it if I don't sit down to talk but stand and do the bouncy baby dance to keep her calm. That don't even flinch at the pitiful fake wimpering of a half asleep baby but just smile and nod because they've been there, they know what's up and hey they don't judge if I put the pacifier right back in the kids mouth if it fell on the floor.
Friday night was a mass of food and a redboxed movie (The Karate Kid- which was decent!)
Saturday morning bright and early was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and we did our first 5K as a family.




A small glimpse at the mass amout of people who showed up to participate. It was amazing to see.

Some people went all out!

We did it in honor of my grandma Rosemary who is a breast cancer survivor! We intend to make the race an annual family event. We want to help support the cause and want to teach Addiston and any other children that we have the importance of doing things for others.

To add to that affect Saturday afternoon we helped a family from our church build a pond in their yard.

It was a little gross but mostly fun.

It just goes to show that if you gather friends and have some food that any task can be made into a good time, smashed fingers, frogs and all.

Sunday held church and an afternoon meal with a lovely older couple who have had a wonderful life of serving God and traveling to places I hope to be able to see someday. It was enchanting to sit and chat with them over good food, in the company of friends who passed our little one around sharing the love.
Sunday night while the Daddy was away guess who decided it was time to start crawling?

ok ok so it wasn't as much as a crawl but a get the feet up under her belly and then launch herself towards her toys, but she did it several times consecutively and has repeated the gesture a few times since. So, we're gonna call it crawling.


We have been blessed with great friends and are enjoying everystep of getting into the groove of doing things as a family. We broke record high temps this weekend, 91 degrees in the middle of October, Lovely? I think so! The leaves are changing and the beauty of parenthood never ceases to amaze me. I went to bed with sore feet, scratches all over my hands, and a smile on my face. Nothing on the to-do list got accomplished. The laundry is piling up pretty high and I think we ate out more than we ate in (not a habit we practice). But oh buddy did we live! We met new friends, did things for others and enjoyed every last smudge of life's cream filling!

Storytime

Every morning, sometime between her morning cat nap and lunch we have storytime. Typically we read short sweet toddler books, the one's with cardboard pages and typically a mirror or touch and feel addition. Yesterday I wasn't in the mood for one of the cardboard books and picked an old book of mine. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

The Lorax is a family favorite (slight obsesion) and I hadn't read it in quite some time. It is well worn, the pages stained, the corners bent and the binding makes the perfect sing-songy screech, of a book that has been well loved. It is however rather long for a 3 1/2 month old and I figured that I'd have to put it aside half way through and finish it another day. But in an attempt to appease the child inside of me I busted out the Lorax stuffed animal (I told you it was an obsession) that her daddy bought her for valentines day before she was born. She sat and listened to the whole story and then just looked at me afterward like, what it's over? there's no more? What happens next?

So in the mean time I thought I'd document her interest with her new found friend (who speaks for the trees) The Lorax




Why hello there, what are you doing in my chair?


Mom, look I made a new friend!


I think you belong on my lap


hum, you have a beard


I wonder what your beard tastes like


I don't think I like this


Yepp, I like my fingers better than lorax beard!

Fall has arrived

Yesterday morning we surprisingly woke up to blankets pulled up to our chins, and a bitter chill throughout the house. There was dew on the grass and the perfect gray blanket of clouds slowly parted as the morning grew, as if the day were as reluctant to get out from under those covers as we were. And oh how I wanted one of these,

(a perfect cappucino from a cafe in Rome.) But for now it's a memory, tucked away hopefully to re-appear before too long for I long to introduce my children to another culture, but for now my Mr. Coffee will suffice.

We haven't grown accustom to the southern weather yet so we still had our A/C turned on since, oh I don't know last weekend it was in the 90's. So our heat didn't kick in during the polar plunge of temperature overnight and we awoke to a frigid fifty-something degree house, but still among the scurrying to find thick socks and digging out my favorite sweatshirt, the one with the holes in the elbows, I smiled because FALL has arrived!


I love fall and everything that comes with it. The changing of leaves, the smell of fire, warm apple cider, hot cocoa, pumpkin spice anything, turtlenecks, beautiful scarves, homemade soup, thick sweaters, soft sweatshirts, and my new favorite thing, snuggling with my little girl under my parents old green quilt.

After a few loads of laundry in the morning I realized I was getting hungry for lunch. I wanted something warm, like homemade chicken pot pie or a nice solid pot roast. Nothing was thawed out and I didn't know if the little one would have the patience for me to be chopping things in the kitchen for an hour but after a few minutes of searching for ingredients in the pantry and reluctantly discarding a few recipes we decided on loaded potato soup.

She was patient, watching we scrub and chop potatoes, cube cheese, measure and stir constantly cream and a few magical spices. I pretend I'm rachel ray and she is my audience. I explain everything I'm doing and that when she's big enough she will be my designated stirrer and together we will make all sorts of delicious things. oh how I can't wait till she can be my little sous chef! But for now she just sits and watches me, tounge barely peeking out, as she concentrates on what her mama's doing. She's listening, I'll bet ya, she knows exactly whats going on and she's takin notes.


After an hour and a half of mixing and waiting and stirring and waiting, the soup was ready and it was wonderful, carrying with it the sensation of a space-heater warming me all the way through and confirming the choice to cuddle and read sotries the rest of the afternoon with my baby girl while the laundry sat in the dryer waiting till this morning to be folded.

Today we recieved our first book from Dolly Parton. Yes that's right Dolly parton mailed us a book. In Tennessee you can sign up for this program called imagination Library that Dolly Parton created to improve literacy and your child will be mailed a book every month till they are five years old. So for our first book we have,

A classic! Thanks Dolly!

Oh and by the way tomorrow when we go out, she will totally be rockin these,

I can't wait!