my christmas candles are still locked up tight

And so winter has arrived, with much to do. Six inches of it! Paisley was absolutely thrilled, a little more thrilled than myself, but that's usually what being a toddler is all about. Being thrilled about things that create work for your parents. And while the plus side of our new place is that there is about 60% less snow for us to shovel than our last place (or should I say, for the hubs to shovel), the downside is that we only have a small, old, one car garage with no garage door opener and a tiny driveway on a horrible slope that makes it hard to dig our two cars out of and get them out of the driveway without a good push.

And despite it all, despite the slippery roads and the necessity to give yourself twice as much travel time to your snowy destination, despite the mitten-less fingers that freeze as you scrape windows and buckle seat buckles, I'm not feeling quite as put out about it as I usually am. Instead I'm feeling a little bit...cozy? Dare I say...even a little bit Christmas-y? I am typically one to give an absolute strong "NO" to any type of Christmas ANYTHING before Thanksgiving is over, but this year I'm having a hard time not turning on the Christmas music. I'm trying to find the strength to turn on my chai tea Scentsy instead of pulling out my Christmas tree candles. After playing out in the snow yesterday we came in and started our fireplace and made hot chocolate and cuddled in blankets on the couch, and I was wishing that we had our stockings hung from the mantel with care. Christmas cookies, I want to eat all of you. What's happening to me? What is this place?

Here's Paisley's expression when the snow first started falling on Monday. Maybe it's the pure joy and glee of my child that makes me a little less of a snow grinch this year?

Well all I can say is that hopefully these cozy feelings last, because I'll bet my bottom dollar that we won't be seeing anything but white on the ground until April.

160 kids later, and I still had like ten pieces left

A week late, yes, but I couldn't resist sharing these photos of Paisley on Halloween. She calls this her "fwa fwa fee costume." Fwa fwa fee is Paisley-talk for butterfly, and I sincerely hope that she never learns the correct way of saying that word.

Also. Speaking of toddlers. And learning...we started the dreaded potty training. I'm not going to get into any nitty gritty details here...but I will say this:

For the love of everything, please send help.

Seriously, are there people out there who potty train toddlers professionally?? As their job?!? Because I will hire them. You wouldn't even believe how fast I would hire them.

Anyways. Here's Paisley running around trick or treating with her dad, and handing out candy with her mom! We handed out that candy like a couple of bosses. Our neighbors counted the amount of trick or treaters that we got on our street and it was 160. WHOAA! I went back and forth frequently between handing out candy by the fistfulls (we don't need all this candy in our house!!) and handing out only one piece per kid (oh no I'm running out, only one piece! Only one piece for everybody!!!)

By the way I'm not serious about hiring a potty trainer, however much I would love to be serious about it. Ain't nobody got money for that.

Except maybe celebrities and presidents and royalty and the like.


Just for kicks, here's my Halloween post from last year.

And one from 2011! I guess this blog is getting a little old?

From the mouths of babes + fall

So Paisley has started singing! Little bits. Here and there. This is something that I've been looking forward to ever since she was born over two shortish-longish years ago. Her first song was...wait for it...Baby by Justin Beiber. Ya girl! Such is the life when you are on the Young Life music team and you play the Beibs fifteen times a day in your house so that you can sing his song well enough to lead it in front of a bunch of teenagers who have probably known it by heart since they were 9 years old.

It was just such a special moment for us, my little girl laying on her changing table crooning to me "baby baby nooooo!" My heart.

The second song I ever heard her sing was "Happy birthday," randomly in the kitchen to no one and so, there's that.

Ahh from the mouths of babes.

Anyway. I've been obsessed with taking fall pictures lately. I love it. Every single leaf! Every tree, every giggle of delight from my toddler. I LOVE our new neighborhood in the fall. I LOVE walking through the piles of leaves at the cemetery and reading all the grave stones, some of which are almost one hundred years old. I LOVE that our yard got completely covered with two inches of beautiful, crisp yellow leaves that were raked into the most perfect and hugest of leaf piles. And I also LOVE that our yard is small enough that it only took one lovely Sunday afternoon to get them all raked up and into bags. 

And so I have been taking all. of. the. pictures. Hundreds,  probably! Much to your great relief, I have edited the amount down to a fairly reasonable twelve to be shared in this post. All of these were taken around our yard, local park and neighborhood, excepting the very last one which was taken at my mom's house - my sibs' and my fall stomping grounds of years past.

Happy fall, folks.

Friends are nice

So I logged onto Blogger today to write a blog post about fall and put up all of my crunchy leaves photos, when I noticed that I had started this hiking post and had never finished and so, here we are! We have to keep things in order around here folks, and so fall pictures will be coming next week.

Way back forever ago, all the way back in September! We had my best pal, her husband, and their two little sweetie girls over for an extended weekend. Let me tell you, going from having one toddler in the house to three was quite the entertaining change! The days were filled with hikes and adventures, coffee shops, day trips to Duluth, working out little girl conflicts with great patience, eating snacks, kissing ouchies, and taking pictures of our cute kids. The nights were filled with trying new sleeping arrangements each night, good music, delicious drinks, excellent conversation, and a few games of Settlers of Catan thrown in there for good measure.

Here's a few pictures of a morning trip that we took to Jay Cooke State Park! It was a beautiful weekend weather-wise, so we got lots of that good-for-the-soul outdoor time in.

And now we miss our friends. Come back!

I just love that my best friend has little girls because now our kids will automatically without any choice of their own be best friends and isn't it just great how life works out sometimes?

44/52

The weather yesterday took a delightful turn for the best, creeping into the sunny 50's. We of course took advantage and played in the sandbox, swung on the swing, messed around in the cold dirty water at the bottom of the slide, played in the swing set fort, cried when it was announced that it was time to go in, and used lunch as a successful bribe tactic to eventually wander peacefully into the house. You know, the usual.

43/52

More outside fall pictures! It's getting chilly these days, and the days of huge puffy coats that slip and slide all over the place are upon us.

42/52

This week is kicking my butt and I have a feeling next week will too. But I did find some time to play out in some crunchy piles of leaves with the baby girl, and was able to snap a couple great shots. She wasn't quite as thrilled with playing in the leaves as I thought she might be and mostly just wanted to eat them instead, or swing.

Whatever floats your boat girlfriend!!!

Ren Fest

I went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival last weekend with my mom, brother, sister, and some friends. We go together every year and are always looking forward to it, this year being no different! It rained the first half of the day so things were admittedly a bit glum for a few moments...especially when the rain resistance of my jacket finally breathed it's last and I felt drops of water start streaming down my scalp, neck and back. But we carried on! Warming up with some hot mead we stuck to it, and eventually the rain stopped and it got dry enough to snap some pictures and air ourselves out.

If you are wondering if you are the type of person who might enjoy a renaissance festival, then ask yourself this list of questions:

Do you like people watching? The ren fest is some of the best kind of people watching there is.
What's more, do you like people watching especially those who have dressed up in elaborate costumes?
Or perhaps you like to dress up in elaborate costumes yourself?
Do you like giant pickles?
When someone wearing a horned helmet starts talking to you as if they are from the days of yore do you laugh and ask to take their picture instead of feel annoyed?
Do you like watching small men stand on a ladder that is balanced on a rope that is on fire? While juggling?
Do you enjoy wandering around in shops looking at pottery, art, jewelry, and interesting trinkets?
Do you like watching hilarious shows and skits?

Do you wish you were eating a turkey drumstick as large as your forearm right now?

If you answered no to most of these questions, then it's best if you don't go Minnesota Ren-Festing.

But if you answered yes then I think it's obvious what you need to do.

Huzzah! Drink Hail! Thee, thou and whilst! And all that stuff.

I heart chocolate stuffed croissants

I had brilliant, brilliant plans this summer/autumn of going to the farmer's market every single Saturday to buy my produce, and perhaps more importantly to buy a flaky, delicious, dark chocolate stuffed fresh croissant for breakfast. But life happened in it's usual bustling way and in all reality I only went a pitiful THREE times, although I still have a few more weeks before it closes for the season. Here are some pictures I snapped from the few times that I did go.

The Mill City farmer's market - my favorite of favorites.

After we shop we like to head to the park on the other side of the Guthrie and release baby girl to run free in the long fields of grass. Except instead of running free she usually chooses to inspect the buckles of her stroller for long periods of time. Because, you know. Buckles. We have much to learn from them.