november extras

we had some unseasonably warm evenings this month, which gave us opportunities to make stone soup on the driveway

"momma...moon!"

and this one got insanely happy one night when she found the moon all by herself :)

speaking of that little lady - she decided, all of a quickness, that she'd like to be big and use the potty.

what?!?!?  i am not ready for this!

but, she is.

i wouldn't go so far as to say that she's potty trained, but she definitely uses the potty more often than not....even at daycare in the mornings!

peach was a nightmare to train - so maybe this one will be my easy peasy?

we shall see

one thing is for sure:  she looks darn adorable in itty bitty undies :)

we ended the month with one more birthday hurrah for peach...on the actual day.  we happened to be at my parents' house.  my mom set a special table for her and i made the traditional german pancake.

 these are fun because they puff up huge in the oven and then when you remove the skillet, they fall.

so, it is fun to race to your pancake and try to eat it before it deflates :)

what a month - i just hope i have the energy for all the fun things i want to squeeze in during december!  

our elf is sitting on the kitchen table just waiting for two little girls to wake up and love her.

the advent calendar is ready to go....

holiday memory-making, here we come :)

photo shoot

we had a photo shoot a couple weeks ago....

and the following are my favorites:

all photos taken by my dear friend, kim :)

didn't she do a great job?

considering the mood that tulip was in, i'm very impressed!

thanks, kim for framing up my tribe so beautifully :)

it's beginning to look at lot like Christmas...

oh my goodness - this was too much fun!

i know i can't even put into words how much i loved this day, but i'll try.

i had convinced J that we really needed a REAL tree this year.

i always had a real tree as a kid, but he hadn't.

so, when we got married, we got an artificial tree and i never really minded it much.

but this year, i decided it was THE YEAR to get our lumberjack groove on and chop us down the real deal

there they are - my lumberjack and two eskimo pies

peach sang and shouted the whole way out to the grove

things like....

we're getting a tree and no one can stop us!

i'm so excited for christmas!

get ready everybody because my daddy is gonna' tie a tree on top of our car!

i trailed along behind, checking out trees and giggling to myself.

we traveled up over the hill to the far end of the grove and looked over dozens of trees before settling on just the right one:

a meyer spruce

J got to work while peach screamed, "TIMBER!"

and i wiped poor tulip's nose....she had no idea what was going on, but she was a good sport.

a proud moment for J - his first tree-choppping experience

i'm so glad that i have the ability to whine long enough to get my way :)  it's good for him.

memories...that cost only $34.95...what a deal!

 the very kind guys back at the house stuck our tree in this shaker-do-hickey to get all the dry needles and grass out.

then they bundled it up for us and sent us on our way. 

we tied it to the top of the vehicle and laughed all the way home about how "griswold" we felt :)

i was actually thinking we'd decorate it another day...maybe when tulip was napping.

but Peach was far too excited for that.

so, after supper and a bath, we hauled up the decorations and lights and got busy.  my fears that tulip would destroy any progress we made were put to rest as she eagerly helped us and then went to the kitchen for a snack when she got bored.

there are A LOT of ornaments on the bottom third of the tree this year...i thought about evening it out after they went to bed, but decided that i kind of like it that way.

i love how peach put this ornament front and center.

good call, little lady. :)

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas in our house.

the tree is seriously close to perfect...with only one wayward branch toward the bottom.  J said we could cut it off, but the girls hung like 15 ornaments on it.  it looks funny, bending under the weight of it all. but i think we'll keep it.  i'm happy that they chose that funny-lookin' branch to love up extra special.  i hope it's a foreshadowing of a whole lot of kindness in their lives.

at any rate, the inside is looking christmas-y...and thanks to my persistence, it smells like christmas, too!

wish we'd get some snow to make the outside all gorgeous...but i guess a girl can only hope for so much :)

gobble gobble

these two little turkeys with matching shirts are certainly on my list of things to be thankful for this year

so is tulip....but do you think she would sit for a picture?

we were lucky enough to see my mom's family, my dad's family and J's mom's family over the holidays this year.

geesh - it was a marathon of thanksgivings, but our girls were troopers with all the driving.

it was the first time my grandma and grandpa got to meet mr. T

same for auntie cheryl....so we had to snap a few pics

once again...tulip not cooperating :(

at the end of it all, we're stuffed

with good food and the satisfaction of spending lots of time with people we love.

gobble gobble :)

miracle boy

three weeks ago we received a real-life answer to prayer

for two years, we've been asking the Lord every night for a cousin

i've never prayed this long or this hard for anything

and i'll admit...i was starting to get impatient

even sweet Peach asked me one night, "momma...how many times are we going to ask Jesus for a baby?"

how do you answer something like that?

choke back the tears and tell her that you really believe the baby will come soon...even though there is a part of you that is starting to wonder, too....

but finally....finally...he's here

miracle of miracles...only God could have done it this way

and now, looking back, it is so clear that God knew exactly what He was doing

a sweet reminder that His timing is always perfect

and when you look at that face, the word "perfect" about sums it up, doesn't it?

auntie leah played photographer and while they're not professional, i'd say i did a decent job :)

an early Christmas gift...

how lucky are we?

every time i hold him, i'm still a bit ashamed that i doubted His goodness

but i suppose that's part of being human...

so this Thanksgiving, I bow my head and thank Him for a million things, but this little guy is at the very top of my list.