Keeping it Real

When Troy and I first got married we started the tradition of getting a real Christmas tree at Christmas time.  At the time we lived in a little apartment in suburban Kansas City and the real tree experience consisted of going to Lowe's, finding one we liked and shoving it into the back of Troy's Honda Civic with rope tied around it. Classy. :) After moving from there we decided to go the fake, pre-lit route.  We liked it okay but then one day while looking through a Midwest Living magazine stumbled upon a beautiful Christmas tree farm right in our backyard.  We haven't looked back since.....from here on out, I think we will be keeping it real.  The experience of finding just the right one, cutting it down and the wonderful smell.  We love it.

So a couple weeks back we made our trip to Dull's Tree Farm to find our tree for this year.

This girl adores her Daddy.  On the way to go find our tree.

Kyla has the tree cart

 Ashlyn is loving it

In front of our tree for this year

Troy getting to work

Freshly cut

Following the tree....

A break for some hot chocolate

 The girls could have played in these big presents for a long time

Lots of trees

Another year and another special day of finding our tree.  Keeping it real.

We are Thankful

We are definitely in the Christmas spirit around here, but still thinking about Thanksgiving.  In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving we made a Thankfulness tree to help us intentionally think about gratitude.  We hung up a tree and cut out leaves and as someone thought of something they were thankful for we added it to the tree.

I loved hearing the things that came to the girls minds, especially Kyla, who was very much thinking about it.  Here is what we were thankful for this year on our thankfulness tree.....

*Lasagna
*Our Grandma and Grandpa's
*Mrs. Jenni's class (Kyla and Ashlyn's class on Wed. nights at church, taught by our sweet friend, Jenni, who the girls adore)
*Kyla
*Aunt Heidi
*Mommy
*Our church
*A warm house
*Food
*Best friends
*Books
*Soccer
*My Blanket (from Kyla)
*the Bible
*Birthday parties
*Mrs. Royal (Kyla's teacher)
*Daddy
*School
*Ashlyn
*Pastor Heather (another person the girls adore)
*Nature
*Aunt Kara and Uncle Dustin
*Mommy

For all of those things and many more we are so thankful.  And, also thankful for our sweet time celebrating Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's, which included.....

Lots of coloring and crafts time

Taking walks on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving.....thankful doesn't even begin to cover how I feel about these two

Kyla helping with setting the table for Thanksgiving dinner

Such a sweet helper

Looking at the turkey....yum

Kyla loved this USA puzzle at Grandma and Grandpa's

 Time for another walk after dinner

Kyla standing at the bus stop that Mommy stood at many years ago

Finding leaves

Kisses from Great Grandma

 And cuddles from Aunt Kara

So much to be thankful for.

Halloween Cupcakes

Even though Halloween was just last week, it feels like it was a long time ago.  Anyway, we are sitting here watching all of the election stuff, so I thought I would put up some of our Halloween pictures.  The girls were cupcakes this year and I think these may be my favorite costumes so far.  It also helps that they were very warm fleece and came with hats because it was a chilly night.

The girls loved Trick or Treating and Troy and I had fun watching them.  This was the first year that Ashlyn really got it, so they walked up to each door together and said their, "Trick or Treat," and then, "Thank you" once they were given their candy.  They both loved it.

Here they are in all of their cupcake cuteness......

Getting ready to go

Sweet cupcake sisters

A little rest in their rocking chairs

Silly cupcake, Kyla

Cupcake cuddles

And cupcake kisses

Happy girl

Daddy and Ashlyn ready to go trick or treating

With my little cupcake girls

 In action

Ready for some more candy

Checking it out

It was a Halloween success with two very happy cupcakes at the end of the night.

Fall Break

Last week Kyla had a couple of days off of school for Fall Break.  I was so excited to have her home and I think the break came at a perfect time for her.  School can make her tired and it was a good time for her to have extra time to rest. Our break got off to a rocky start when we were walking outside on Friday and Troy noticed something was not right.....the pumpkins we had gotten at the pumpkin patch and that were on our front porch were smashed to pieces all over our driveway.  He called me out and we instantly knew what had happened.......probably kids with some days off of school staying up late at night and roaming the streets to smash people's pumpkins.  

Kyla did not appreciate this.  It honestly did break my heart to see her crying, so confused about our pumpkins.  She buried her head into me, asking who did this? It was a mixture of Troy and I trying to comfort her and trying not to laugh at the same time.....she was so mad.  I kept trying to comfort.  We were on our way to lunch and so I told her once we got into the car we would talk about how the Bible says we should handle things like this to which she said through tears, "I bet the people who did this probably don't read the Bible everyday."  (Again, hiding laughter).

Once in the van we explained to her that sometimes people will do mean things that upset us, but that the Bible says to pray for our enemies and those who hurt us.  We told her we would pray for their hearts to realize what they did was wrong and not do it again.  She was still crying and I knew the wheels in her mind were turning.  She kept saying those were the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch and why would someone do that?

While we were at lunch the wheels were still turning and in between eating she would have another thought on the pumpkin fiasco.  Things like....Why did their Mommy let them do this?  I don't think their Mommy was watching them very good.  Do you think they will do it again?  If we get new pumpkins, I want to leave a note outside so they know not to smash our pumpkins.  And my favorite....she said to me, "Who other than a boy could have done this?" and I said, "Well, other than a boy, it would have been a girl."  Kyla's response....,"I don't think a girl would have done that."  I didn't say it out loud, but inside, I had to agree with her.

Anyway, we actually were planning on carving pumpkins the first day of Fall Break, but with no pumpkins that was hard to do.  So, off to Meijer we went to pick out some new ones for carving.

Our smiles are back and we are ready to move on from the smashed pumpkins.  Time to carve some new ones.

Kyla with her new pumpkin

Her first time pumpkin carving.....mesmerized watching Daddy get it started

Checking out the insides

After Kyla got her pumpkin carving started it was time for Troy to work on his....even designing his own carving design.  You can see on his phone what pattern he is working on....the Cardinals may not have made it to the World Series, but he will still show his loyalty through the art of pumpkin carving.

And, now Ashlyn's turn!  What is in there?

We are ready to carve

Two happy faces

The girls with their finished pumpkins

And Kyla was serious about the note....once our pumpkins were carved and on the front porch, she made sure this message was in place

Our pumpkin carving work

All lit up and so far they are all still safe on our front porch.  I think the note worked.

Other fun things from our Fall Break included.....

Eating some of our favorite fall treats.....like chocolate chip pumpkin cookies

Staying up a little bit later to play games

We even got a little school work in.....Troy helped Kyla make a chart to help her with learning to count to 100.  This is something they are working on in kindergarten and Troy knows she can do it.  He is so great at helping with learning and Kyla is getting really close to 100.

We played in the leaves.....

And stayed up late to have a movie night.....Cinderella!

Ready to watch

Snuggled up

And it was great to have Kyla back with us to do some of the everyday things us three girls are used to all doing together. Like going to the library......

And grocery shopping....loved having Kyla with us

Our family is God's greatest gift to me......no matter what we are doing, us being together is my very favorite thing.  We loved our fall break.