A few things my girls taught me today...

1. Sitting back and enjoying the ride is the most important lesson anyone can learn. Housework, and shopping can wait, but spending time with your family/kids gives you memories to last a lifetime.

2. A sweet smile in the morning from a precious new baby is the best pick-me-up, no matter how little sleep you got the night before (due to that same baby waking every 3 hours to eat!)

3. The best way to get the wrinkles out of a 4 year-old after a too-long bath is to iron them out :P (according to my sweet daughter Kayla!)

4. There are a few essential things one needs when photographing an 8 week old baby... a high-speed camera that takes lots of pictures really quickly, in order to catch all those cute facial expressions... Patience, because babies are not the best models...an assistant to help place the baby, make her happy, and move out of the way quick enough so the photographer can capture the moment! I have a new found appreciation for baby photographers after playing photographer tonight!

Here are a couple of the pictures I took tonight of Evalynn... I think I did a pretty good job for being an amateur and working with a mediocre camera!

Sleeping for the first few photos...but then
She was not so happy about her pictures being taken
Finally got a few good ones of her awake, this is my fav!!

Fall Festivities!

I love the fall! The crisp air, leaves changing, pumpkin carving, baking, family, friends, hot chocolate, and snuggling up under a nice warm blanket. These are just some of the things I love about fall!

We went up to Murray Family Farm two weeks ago with my mom, Grandma K, to go apple picking, and get some pumpkins. We had an awesome day, filled with laughing and lots of fun!

We picked out a few pumpkins for carving, although Kayla wasn't able to get this HUGE one, we found a nice sized one for her! We shopped around in the store, and bought some fruit, before sitting down to have some lunch. After lunch, we went on a hay ride and got to pick our own little pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. We got to paint some pumpkins with funky faces, and designs, and then we picked apples to our hearts content!

The day was long, but we had a blast. We picked a total of 30 lbs of apples, which we will be canning, making apple butter, apple pies, spiced apples, apple sauce, and who knows what else! We are also planning on making a trip back to the farm in May to pick berries! I think we have found a new family tradition!

And this is what we brought home with us!

Where does the time go?

Wow, life creeps up on me and I don't keep up. I am going to attempt to stay a little more active with my blog, but no promises.

Since my last post, our little angel was born. Evalynn came into this world after a short, calm labor and delivery on September 2nd. Life has been wonderful, yet exhausting with a newborn in the house again. It is really amazing how well a woman can manage on little sleep, and the demands of a 4 year-old and an infant.

Now that we have welcomed our sweet baby into our family, and life is settling down (a little bit, at least), we have one more big event to prepare for... Chris and I are planning our wedding, actively! Yes, we have actually been "planning" since February, but it has been pretty minimal. We decided on our colors, the venue, and the ideas of what we want, but the real planning has been put off until now. But, now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and get a little dirty.

Today was one of those jump in and get dirty days. My sister, mom and I went to the local bridal shop to find bridesmaids dresses and my mom's dress. We had a terrific day together, shopping and chatting. It was a special day because my big sister is my maid of honor, and my mom is walking me down the aisle. I was able to spend some great quality time with two of the most important women in my life, which is something that doesn't happen often enough.

These next five months are going to be hectic, overwhelming, and exhausting, but it will bring us to a very special day, the day I get to marry the love of my life. I have loved this man for a long time, and I am ready to be his wife.