We were happy that daddy got to come! He meet us there after he got off work.
Priss Pot!
Bella LOVED seeing all the princesses dressed up. She would stop and just stare as they passed her. We asked one princess to take a picture with them. You can see how happy Bella was to be sitting next to her. I know what Bella will be for Halloween next year!!!
Going to the Pumpkin Patch has become one of my favorite fall traditions! We have taken Bella and Rylee every fall of their little lives, this year Lucy joined in on the fun. Even though she was very present last year! For the past 2 years, we have been on a week day evening when it was less crowded. But this year we went on the Saturday before Halloween to Old Bakers Farm. It was so much fun. We got the whole festival feel. Complete with vendors selling all kind of goodies and food. Music playing loudly. One big mistake we made was that we VASTLY underestimated how cold it was. The night before it when we went to Boo at the Zoo I wore short sleeve and it was very comfortable. I checked the weather before I left, trusted it...then regretted not bringing jackets and hats. When we got out of the car, I immediately knew that we were in a pickle. I grabbed a blanket out of the back of the car and hoped for the best. Thankfully, we found a vendor selling crocheted goodies. We got a jacket and 2 toboggans...$45 later, the girls were warmer and I felt less guilty.
Bella freezing her tush off and not happy about it!
They loved the big horse!
Rylee and Aunt Lulu
Bella only wanted to be held!
This was her response when we MADE her walk.
my adorable niece, Rylee!
As soon as we are let off the wagon, Rylee had to tee-tee. Lulu & KK snuck her off and helped her squat. She tee-teed on KK's boots. HAHA
These 2 love one another like sisters!
2 pumpkins for his 2 little girls...a sweet sight!
This time of the year is ridiculously busy for us...
Beach Vacation
Fall Family mini-session
visit the pumpkin patch
Halloween
Lucy's 1st Birthday {November 3rd}
Thanksgiving
Black Friday shopping
Bella's 3rd Birthday {December 15th}
Christmas
I am in heaven having all of this fun because the things listed above are some of my very favorite things of the year. However, there is a very fine line between enjoying all of these and being overwhelmed. Why the Lord chose to challenge me by throwing my sweet babies birthdays during the busiest time of the year, I haven't figured out yet. But I really want them to have great birthdays even if they are smashed on the calendar right next to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is absolutely testing my organizational skills! On things for sure...I'll have a lot to share............but NO TIME to share!
My Mamaw is an artist. Before my Papaw went to heaven was her framer. She would paint. He would frame her work. They had a "shop" set up in their basement, travel going from art show to art show. I remember as a child, we would ALWAYS paint with Mamaw. She would give us sturdy mat board scraps, set up some paint and a mason jar of water to rinse our brushes and we would go to town. My Uncle Chris is the only one that got the artistic talent. Unfortunately, I did not.
One of mine and my sisters masterpieces that got framed and has been hanging in Mamaw's basement since 1989.
Bella and I went to Mamaw's so I could cut out some paper for Lucy's party. When I got there Mamaw had set up her desk for Bella's 1st Art Session. Yes, it was just some children books and crayons and some of that famous scrap mat board. But Mamaw knew what she was doing. They talked about colors the whole time and colored. It was a precious sight. She told Bella that next time they could paint together. I can't wait for Bella to experience the same fun stuff with Mamaw that I did. And to be able to sit back and watch the next generation sit at Mamaw's art desk and paint with her almost brings tears to my eyes. It makes my heart happy!
Jacob and I noticed on our vacation last week that she was EXTRA whinny. So much so that we looked at one another and was like "WHAT IS UP?!?!" We are thinking: she's not sick, it's not like she's not used to camping, we are doing lots of fun stuff, she's not getting ignored! She IS 2. I began thinking she never went through a "jealous"-bringing-a-new-baby-in-the-family issues. But what if she just wants more one-on-one attention?!? I can't even tell you when or if we've had a "just the 2 of us day" since little Lucy entered our lives 11 months ago.
Bella had a doctors appointment scheduled today to see an asthma specialist. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for her and I to spend some one-on-one time together and just enjoy the day! My plan was to go by the car repair shop at 7 when they opened, for them to check out a making me insane non-crank issue. Then be at her appointment by 9:30. Do a little shopping at the party store. Get some lunch, eat ice cream and top it off at the park since it was perfect weather.
.............yea, that was the "plan". Now let me explain what really happened...
I dragged myself out of bed when Jacob got up for work around 5:45. Got ready, put my cute outfit on, got the girls up, put Bella in a cute dress for what I kept calling "Our Fun Day"! We left later than planned, (what's new) around 6:30. I dropped Lucy off at Mrs Betty's. I felt a twinge of guilt doing that, but I know I'll have a Fun Day with her one day soon. We excitedly hit the road going to the car shop. About 10 minutes after dropping Lucy off we see a huge smoke cloud and a big fire truck pass us. We point and excitedly talk about what is up ahead.
That's when it happened.....Bella VOMITS 3 TIMES. IN THE HER CARSEAT. IN MY CAR.ALL OVER HER CUTE OUTFIT.GRAPE PIECES AND JUICE ARE COVERING HER. My next thought was to pull over to get to her. So I immediately pull over. Run back around the car, she's crying because she's so grossed out and confused my what just happened. Frankly, I was too! I tried to wipe her up as best that I could and throw grape chunks out of the car. That's when I realized that I was about 4 car lengths behind all the car-on-fire action and everyone that's going 2 miles an hour is getting a great view of this nastiness! Poor baby.
She settles down and now I'm thinking 'ok, how to handle this. It's 7am, we have an entire day planned. There's no turning back now, I'm 30 minutes away from home, we have a doctor's appointment that's 1 hour away from our house. Let's improvise!' I go to Target. Bless it, she was cracking my up walking with her arm stuck WAY out because she was so grossed out and her face had disgust written all over it!
I bought her a shirt, pants, pack of panties, wash rags, 2 hand towels, and Lysol wipes. We headed to the bathroom. I stripped her naked, washed her good, dried her and put her new clothes on. If you were one of those 4 ladies that walked in this morning and got mooned, sorry! I attempt to wipe her carseat the best I can. But we both are a little happier about our "fun day".
Thumbs up
It is now too late to take the car by the shop, so we go straight to the doctor appointment. They wanted to check to see if she had any specific allergies that she should be avoiding. Being held down & 24 tiny pricks in her back broke my heart to see her so upset, but thankfully it only lasted about 30 seconds. We couldn't touch her back for 20 minutes, thankfully they had on Dora to distract her. Good news...NO ALLERGIES! Bad news...allergy test $140 + $50 co-pay + $75 new med = one broke mama!
We leave the appointment to take the car to shop finally. Bella falls asleep as soon as we get in the car. When I get there he tells me that it'll be at least 4 hours before he could even get it in the shop to check it out because there is 3 cars ahead of me. He explains that I should've brought it in 1st thing this morning and they could've gotten to it faster. "Yea buddy, that was the plan. But after my 2 year old vomited in the car and I gave her a sink-bath in Target's bathroom, had a rough doctor visit, we are just now making it here." That left him pretty much speechless. 4+ hours in a tiny waiting area at a car repair shop is not on our Fun Day list. So we leave and meet Daddy, who got off early for lunch. He was SO heart broken that she had a rough morning. We tried to have the most fun after that. No reminding of the bad parts.
Jacob took Bella home, since my car was the one with vomit in it. I have NO IDEA why she did it. She has had no other tummy problems today. I seriously doubt she has car-sickness because she handled out 5 hour beach trip to and from just fine! I spent the rest of the day doing chores, cleaning out my car and carseats <- I hate that job and prepping for Lucy's 1st birthday party that I am excited about!
Our Fun Day really wasn't that fun, but we defiantly tried! We made lemonade with all those lemons!
