Balancing Bliss

more tricks than treats...

 so i have been in early labor for days now....contractions going on for 11hrs at a time 3min apart and then stopping as soon as i pack my tooth brush... sigh... then nothing...not even at a halloween festival with hundreds of kids that make me climb the wall...not even when 40 of them ran into my ginormous belly...but as soon as i sat peacefully on a church pew in a dress? oh ya...contractions hit to the point i couldn't get up and leave...so.... it's been a tricky halloween...

but it's not about me...it's about my lil' treaters...

introducing; the hippie skeleton, the pizza guy and the lil' witch...

gav is almost too old to dress up so he used his shirt from last year...no complaints here...he through in the 'hippie' twist to it last minute because he thinks it looks cool... mr. blu just loves a box of any kind for halloween...again free and no complaints here... so we cut out a hole in the bottom for his bag of loot to hang from...it was a total hit....luci ...the little designer...she picked out all of her stuff to be made by grammie hey...brian is out with them right now trick or treating while i sit here contracting... fun times...

not halloween without a trip to poppy's

luci's reaction to the 'troll urine punch'.... priceless...

fall happenings....

i may be crafty but i'm not so artistic...i appreciate a pumpkin sitting on the porch...WHOLE... so it's not my fav night of the year but i do understand how it makes kids happy and so we do it... luci was very disappointed to find out that there is NOT pumpkin pie inside the pumpkins ;)

daddy's girl...she pleaded for him to stay home from work and go on her field trip to the pumpkin patch with her...and so he did... and what better reason for new rubber boots?

today was crazy hair day...she was all ponytails and glitter... so cute...so fun and exciting at that age

even a boy who is NOT one of the best workers...(ahem...at all)...what he will do to go to a school dance...the sky is blue...leaves, leaves everywhere.. we came to an agreement....

me? i'm just waiting....

bits of sunshine on this rainy rainy day....

look what the fed ex man brought to my house yesterday!

and it can lay flat like a carriage, it's hood goes ALL the way over, and even has a boot! i'm in love.

thank you thank you jen.... knowing what a stroller girl i am from working at a baby boutique when my littles were just babes, she knew i wanted something i couldn't find at target so she got me a gift card to amazon... did i mention i LOVE it?

and my friend mel got me something to get crafty with until little mina moon comes... it's not complete until i find a bird and a moon to hang from it...tie up some bows and such but i crafted the day away on it yesterday...thanks mel...

now off to bed...i'm just not fighting off this cold and it's wearing me down...

girls room.....

when i started on their room in august i thought i would complete it in a few days... was not so... we did get it painted in august but it has sloooooowly come together... dressers..light fixture... pictures... scrap area... crib...little pink things collected...a few ideas still to do...such as a mobile...a large pink 'M' for mina moon...a moon of some sort is in order...we shall see... right now the bag is packed and i just want HER.

their room...

luci details...

her scrap area, her hook for her ds (her request), all 4 blankets...she could never choose, her new framed pics...some of her artwork and a 'create' one by momma.

handmade goodness...

knitted washcloth with baby foot, baby cocoon...not it's not a hat!, sling, diaper bag, burp cloths and she will be wrapped in lots of homemade blankets...

recycled lovlies...

the story of the dresser again... 6 babies have used it, a goddy light fixture + a can of pink spray paint, clothes rack used by all 4 of my babes, and sisters clothes...they were born 7yrs apart but in the same season... love to use things again and flood the memory...

vanity/changing area....

instead of trying to cram a changing table in somewhere i just decided to use the counter of my vanity in my room to do so...added a few shelves for her things...finally hung up some of my favorite little framed girly things...one being something that hung on my grandmothers wall when i was a little girl... i believed deeply that it was a picture of me...some antique mirrors... tiny diapers... and a not so tiny me... nested and ready...

my tink....

 my lil' girl is home sick today...i had to talk her into it...i miss having a little one home to watch cartoons with...so we are watching the new tinkerbelle movie...nursing our sore throats with hot cider .... soaking up this time that she is still my baby...

remembering past falls....

 today when my screensaver came up there were pics from previous falls...i've been feeling a bit guilty that my photos of this fall are lacking but i have to remember how many i will probably be taking next year of an almost 1yr old by then... i will just have to stroll down memory lane of past falls...

04'

05'

06'

07'

08'

09'

can you imagine the stroll down memory lane i could have taken if only i would have gone digital earlier? i've always wanted to make a halloween scrapbook mini.... now i can just go back to this post and feel like i have...and yes i am aware of how many more pics there are of luci... it happens...

 

chosen....

our little girl has a name...

we wanted to give her a family name...it was important for us to honor brians walker side of the family since he gave up his last name and took mine...he had already told his grandmother that we would be doing so...one day i was soul searching for something to come to me, moments later on facebook i ran across a family member of brian, whom i had never met or heard of but she had posted black and whites which i am a sucker for...and there she was ...MINA... and i knew... because that is also my great grandmothers name....

brians grandmother's sister...mina...i know only a few things about her...she was almost always happy, she had 2 sets of twins plus 2 or 3 other children, she encouraged and supported her daughter to be an artist, people loved her and that is honor enough...looking forward to learning more about her...

my great grandmother mina...i'm just learning about her as a child and young woman... like that she did not have a name until she was 3yrs old...they called her 'baby'...then they said "baby is mighty nice" to her often so at the age of 3 they named her mina nice... yes her middle name was nice...i love it...she did not and changed it when she became an adult... she was a hard worker and raised 7 children...what i remember of her...her house was always SPOTLESS and smelled so good...she was very short and gave big hugs...

and her middle name MOON... after Irena Moon Sade...whose family came over on the Penn ship after being kicked out of England for being Quakers...which i find rebellious and glorious... i have BOOKS of information on her... the whole reason i dove into geneology... i even touched her scrapbook once...

and of course she will have a 2nd middle name as all my babes do but that one is still being 'ironed out' between brian and i... it's a family name with an earthy twist....brian thinks it's a little too earthy for him...did he forget who he married?...

we are just honored to name her after these good, strong women who each have a story....ones i can't wait to share with our little Mina Moon...

 

pumpkin patch 10'.....

it was a quick trip out...no planning of cute outfits (luci is actually wearing the same shirt she did last year...unnoticed), no cooperation from kids with photos, harsh sun and shadows.... we still came home with pumpkins and farm fresh cider....memories were made...

monkey see monkey do...

it's all fun till someone gets stuck...ha!

highly recommend this place to all my local friends...it's in jefferson...take a right after the bridge, follow through curves, pass the LDS church just a bit on the right...big signs...

       $1 any pumpkin any size!

tractor ride is free, great produce, cider is just yum, just good farmers....suport our local farms!

i think we WILL go back for more pics in their orchard...maybe a family photo op?

our very own....

little sleeping beauty....

i could sneak in there and watch her sleep every night.... oh ya

...i do!

a family...

a family i know (and happen to take care of, yell at, get ready, love deeply, scrapbook, and live for everyday) went to the pumpkin patch yesterday....

hope to blog pics after i get kids out the door, 1 boy to the dentist, and so on....unless i get distracted by the sunshine and finally getting those fall bulbs in the ground!

wished i would have gotten one of these again this year... maybe we will go back...