334/365

Day Three Hundred Thirty-Four.

We went to the kids' museum today with one of Gavin's "bestest" friends.
I'm really hating all these farewell play dates :( But we had fun all the same. Here they were digging for dinosaurs.

I like the pictures I got on my iphone way more than the "real" camera. So here's a few of my favorites.
And I love this one they took together in the photo booth :)

Sigh. That's about all I have to say about today.

333/365

Day Three Hundred Thirty-Three.

We took a late afternoon walk, and the fallen leaves and nearly bare branches seem to emulate my feelings of late. Exposed and well, fallen. One of my dearest friends was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she's 28. It's been a tough thing to come to grips with and I've alternated between angry and depressed, hopeful and determined. Walking with Owen seemed to take my mind off it a little bit, and I was focused on all the beautiful little things :) So many beautiful little things.

332/365

Day Three Hundred Thirty-Two.

Gavin shared his "list" with Santa tonight. (I'll share a picture of it tomorrow- I forgot to take one, but it's a picture of a train and a T-rex, his top wishes for Christmas). Ellie wasn't a fan of Santa again (click to see last year), and Owen was just young enough not to care ;)

331/365

Day Three Hundred Thirty-One.

We took Ellie and her best friend, Claire out today for a "cupcake" date. But the cupcake store had disappeared from the Boardwalk. So we had a chocolate date instead. They were too cute snuggling their Woodstock's that they had picked out at Build a Bear. I'm so sad that we are moving next week and that Ellie's time with her best friend is almost up. I'm even more sad to be moving away from Claire's mama who I consider to be one of my best friends! Yuck! I hate this part of our life!

330/365

Day Three Hundred Thirty.









With all the rain today (yay!) Ellie kept asking for a "brella". Specifically a "PRINCESS brella!" So we went out for a few errands and I finally found a Princess Umbrella for her. I even found a deal on Rapunzel pjs and so she was one happy kid. We went out and jumped in (cold) muddy puddles and she had a blast with her new umbrella. Gavin enjoyed his raincoat, since it was finally cool enough to wear it!

329/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Nine.

Stayed in and snuggled with Ellie for awhile tonight and then got a sweet sleeping shot of (not so) little Owen by the light of his glow worm after he finally went to sleep. I love this one and it was worth the sneakiness to get it. :)

328/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Eight.

Our Thanksgiving in Instagrams...

The parade...

The dog show after the parade (Go Whippets!)

(Gromit and Wallace weren't impressed)

Nothing fancy but this is my favorite food on Thanksgiving (and Owen LOVED it too!)

O had a good but quiet first Thanksgiving...Some snuggle time, a huge dinner (he tried and LOVED everything) and then more snuggling with his blanket at bedtime :)

And then the day ended with yummy pumpkin pie :)

(and a crazy husband).

Thankful for all the little things in our lives that make each day so fun :)

327/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Seven.

Today I bring you...the one where I attempted low-light photography while the kiddos roasted marshmallows or...the picture right before Ellie knocked the grill over and set the backyard on fire (a little)....or the picture before I screamed like a little girl and was glad I have quick reflexes because the falling grill was headed my way (and thankfully away from Ellie) (NOT sure how Ellie managed to knock the grill over but she did and I have never been more scared!)

Marshmallow roasting...always an adventure in our house. PS. Gavin decided after this that he doesn't like roasted marshmallows either, so all that for...nothing. PPS. So glad it rained about 3 inches the other night!! Otherwise we would've roasted the house/neighborhood.

326/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Six.

He could've been helping Daddy house-hunt online...(except that we finally got word that we have a house waiting for us on base!) He really loves to sit in Daddy's lap and bang on the keyboard of his laptop :)

325/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Five.

Little man was pretty tired by bedtime, but he wanted to watch big brother and sister run around crazy before he collapsed into a soft sleepy little heap. He enjoyed watching them dance and be silly before finally giving up for the day.

324/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Four.

We went for another walk tonight before dinner, Gavin said he needed to build his "leaf collection" back up after the yard maintenance people blew his leaves, acorns and sticks off the front porch with a leaf blower :-/ He loves collecting the pretty leaves and acorns and "stores" them on the front porch, he was pretty upset when they blew them away last week so I was happy to let him go find some new ones.

He always gathers too much though (1st picture) and usually asks for help toting it home! For awhile he was pretending the sticks were dinosaur bones because we stopped under a gingko tree (#2) and A mentioned that those trees were around with dinosaurs. So he collected a handful of those leaves (to feed the plant eaters) and then said he found a lot of bones.

And the final pictures are just little things I spotted on our walk, including the beautiful sunset. :) If only it hadn't been 80 degrees it would've been a great fall evening!

323/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Three.

My mostly empty cart at the start of my Christmas shopping marathon tonight. I'm happy to say I'm mostly done. A few more things for other people to get, but mostly done. Now I just have to figure out how to get it to our new house in MS without the movers losing it or the kids discovering it ;)

I also had little dates with the big kids today. Ellie and I hit Starbucks and the com. She enjoyed a snowman cookie and some milk.

and then Gavin and I did a little Christmas shopping for Ellie- he was remarkably thoughtful about picking out presents for her :)

He wore the viking helmet because he told me he wanted to be "safe... just in case".

I rescheduled a family session due to weather and I'm hoping the weather holds out. It's one of my last sessions before the move, and a very special family to me!

322/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-two.

Ellie girl wanted to go skating today when "bicycling" didn't work out. She was pretty hesitant at first but seemed to enjoy it, as long as daddy didn't let go. She's had a hard time warming up to him since he came home, and Owen and Gavin have been fine, and the dogs, well, let's just say they are over the moon happy. Wallace won't let A out of his sight.

321/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty-One.

Home (for good!) just in time for bedtime stories :)

320/365

Day Three Hundred Twenty.

We went for a walk this afternoon to try and wear the big kids out. Owen was along for the ride as usual but did seem to enjoy crunching over leaves and acorns. Ellie wanted to push him around in the stroller. (He's kind of turned into her own personal baby doll these past few days).
Gavin enjoyed running through the leaves and throwing them. After a long walk we ended up at the playground and played until it got dark (and finally, a little bit cooler!)

319/365

Day Three Hundred and Nineteen.

The leaves are steadily falling now, and I'm sure a lot will be gone after this rain storm we've had tonight is over with. The first one is a beautiful tree across the street from our house, and then when I walked back over I found the "heart" colored (it's not really heart shaped) leaf from our crepe myrtle. Just a little reminder to enjoy the small things :)

318/365

Day Three Hundred Eighteen.

Just an iphone snap of a beautiful red tree and perfectly placed tire swing we see everyday on our morning walks to the playground. Today has been busy busy busy!

317/365

Day Three Hundred Seventeen.

80 degrees definitely didn't make it feel fallish, but it sure looks it out in front of our house (though this tree is on the other side of our duplex) :) Our crepe myrtle is a little further behind on the color change.

316/365

Day Three Hundred and Sixteen.

Slowly Louisiana has gotten the message about it being fall, although the temperature went back up today :-/ At least the trees LOOK like it's fall ;)