Thankful

We have spent this month being ever so thankful for the blessings of love and the privilege of family.  Our dear friend Brooke, who is family by choice, took our family pictures this year.  We almost waited too long, the leaves changing color and falling too quickly for us this year.  Luckily, we found a tree that had kept its gorgeous yellow leaves, and those that had fallen stayed piled up below, just waiting for a little girl to jump in.  Although we are not an easy crew - the pouting, the stubbornness, the distractions abounding, the sunglasses - Brooke snapped away and captured some moments that are really, truly our lives.

Thankful for friends...

Thankful for fun...

 Thankful for family...

November Girls!

Alex and I would probably never have chosen to have our kiddos in November - it's not an easy month for a teacher to be out, and I'm not crazy about the birthstone :)  - but that is the month that God saw fit for our beauties to be born.  And so, we celebrated them both this year with the first of hopefully many double birthday parties.

Although we had a much smaller guest list than we anticipated, we had family around us, and love.  That's what mattered most.  Ivy had a good time opening her gifts, and helping Isabella, too.  Isa was just in it for the cake - literally!

Even if we didn't plan it, we are completely and fully blessed by these two borrowed angels.... Happy birthday to our girls!

All Hallows' Eve

We made cupcakes to get in the spooky spirit...

And most of the sprinkles made it on to the cupcakes.... kind of.  :)

We took pictures with pumpkins...

All of our pumpkins...

We trick-or-treated with friends...

Isa was the cutest little chicken who really did cross the road - many times!

I was a stunning Cinderella.

We took our show on the road to visit Aunt Shirley and Uncle Jack...

And then we went to our first trunk-or-treat at our church.  There was an amazing crowd and Ivy had a ball!  It feels nice to be part of a church community that really gets involved.

Isa didn't pick up much candy, but she had a good time, too!

And we tried to get our traditional Halloween shot, but it was a little more tricky this year!

 

 

 

We had an absolutely wonderful fall weekend and I, for one, hated to see the fun and excitement end - except that it doesn't really, because in just 10 days we'll have a ONE year old!  And in 13 days we'll have a party!  And in 15 days we'll have a FOUR year old!  This life is busy, amazing, and richly blessed!