happy halloween, and may the force be with you

 

kahree makes everything a thousand times more enjoyable and halloween, we found, was no different. kahree wore her chewbacca costume bravely for two days straight, i wore my princess leia getup a lot less bravely (how DID she keep her dress so white through all that?), and i thought craig was a most handsome hon solo. we did a lot more errands and went a lot more places than we normally do most days and i think it might have secretly been because we wanted as many people as possible to see how adorable kahree was as a wookie. i think i want to wear matching costumes every year. next time, lord of the rings? batman? we'll just have to see.

we celebrated at the church halloween party and with trunk-or-treating the night before halloween and with candies and snuggles in bed waiting for trick-or-treaters the night of. i may have decided to never go trick or treating. we didn't this year because our only excuse is still too tiny for candy but maybe we just won't ever start. i love giving out candy and we love being at home together more than anything right now so i'm entertaining the idea of having harvest parties at home, in costume, on halloween, cooking chilli and having corndog eating contests, snuggling and watching tim burton movies. just thinking about it makes me excited for halloween 2013.

the first pictures are of kahree and me at my new work the day before halloween. i work at a preschool now supervising a playtime group 6-9 hours a week and i really love it. it's the perfect job and although it came out of nowhere and i wasn't looking for anything like it i'm glad it found me. i can take little babyk with me and she gets to play with kids and toys and craig gets a little bit of time to finish his schoolwork in the evening. i don't know how long i'll do it for but right now it's making life a little more crazy and a little more sweet. no matter how much i feel like i'm losing my mind sometimes i'm sure i'll look back on this autumn time fondly, when my puppy was rambunctious and small, when my home was a quaint apartment, and when my daughter was tiny, and snugly, and for a few days, a wookie.

the spice of my life

there really have been days when i've had to carry around both my babies at once. what should be more impressive to you is the amount of poo i've had to pick up while keeping them both alive. some days i feel like keeping them alive is all that i really accomplish but my dear, sweet husband makes me feel like a superhero for doing it. for all the diaper changes and pee-pee accidents that need to be cleaned up. i dunno, marvel probably won't make any comics about it but it's nice enough just to be appreciated by my tiny family. my family is so wonderful to me, especially the way my girls love to play together. occasionally they actually distract each other long enough for me to do something! usually cleaning up their latest mess but i'll take it.

i hope i keep my sanity long enough to hold many more babes on my hips and in my arms. and i hope i haven't torn all my hair out had it pulled out and bitten my little ones by the end of it all. wouldn't that be nice?

in other news, i've been drinking lots of tea, reading lot of kindle books, crocheting one granny square quilt, working on genealogy almost daily, slowly begging to illustrate a children's book and enjoying my new job. life is busy and full and oh so sweet.

in other, other news i've been dreaming with all my heart of adding a dark little baby boy from a distant land to our family. i fall asleep at night thinking about him and wishing for a world where we could afford to adopt no later than yesterday. you think with arms so full i wouldn't be so eager but i don't think my family could ever be too big, honest.

let's go down to the pumpkin patch

this. autumn. is. awesome.

i left for washington determined to hold onto summer because summer 2012 was the best time of my life. there were days and days in a row of such intense happiness that it was nearly painful. but being back on the farm and harvesting vegetables and drinking tea made me 1. want to grow up and live on a farm and 2. come home to oregon and enjoy fall with my tiny family. and it's been wonderful. hot soups, warm drinks, snuggly clothes and blankets, lots of movies in bed and of course outings and adventures. i think we replaced our weekly farmer's market kick with a weekly visit to the pumpkin patch, it is such a magical place.

there are pigs, chickens, sheep, and goats that climb beams in tree. there are delicious donuts and fresh apple cider and flavored candy corn. games and a hay ride. and obviously pumpkins. the first few times we went were mostly for the donuts and cider but this weekend we went in search of pumpkins. Big, medium and small, one for each of us.

i love how kahree always seems to humor us and act like she's having fun when we want her to be. there are so many things that we unrealistically think "oh my gooosh, kahree would LOVE that" when really, she's a baby, what are we thinking? but then her joyful disposition makes it a pleasure to do anything with her, even leaving her in a wagon with a pumpkin. oh that kid, she's a keeper.

p.s. this is what we ended up doing with our pumpkins, painting them to be us while watching james and the giant peach. it somehow just seemed fitting.

splish splash

we don't do bath time all the time in this house but when we do it's oh so delightful. i secretly love when we have a naked baby. kahree still loves the water so much. if only she could keep her toys from floating away from her.