I've been recapping our year in photos since the very beginning of this blog, but updated it a little last year to focus on the bests we shared in 2017. I was looking back through photos to include in this year's recap post and it, too, was filled with so many of the very best things. What do you say we make this sharing of the bests an annual gig? The Best of January January might have been the weirdest month of my life. After weeks of wondering what in the world was wrong with me, I broke down and took a pregnancy test on the ninth day of the month. I will never, as long as I live, forget the fluffy pink robe I was wearing or how hard my hands were shaking or how I abruptly woke up Josh and Scoop when I swung the bedroom door open. It's funny looking back, because so many of you ...
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Christmas Things | Part One
I haven't taken as many photographs this holiday season as I wish, but now that I'm done working for the year (that feels so good to say!), I'm planning to over-document the remainder of Polly's first Christmas! In an attempt to catch up and share some of my favorite moments of December, so far, here's a photo filled post for your enjoyment. If you've been reading for more than a few Christmases, then you know that we make an annual date around the acquisition of our Christmas Tree. I've probably said this every year, but we always joke about the cars coming from "the city" to our hometown to cut down their Christmas tree on a farm, while we drive into town and buy ours out of a parking lot! We tried tree-cutting one year and the girls hated it and our tree died two weeks before ...
Halloween Fun
Halloween was a two-day event for us this year, but that's what it took to hit all of our favorite places and wear all of our Halloween costumes (yes, there were multiple!). We were super sad that my sister and her family couldn't join us on Sunday, because we hit up a local Trunk or Treat in one of our favorite little towns. Ella indulged me with a few family photos in the costume she wore to a party the night before, but she ditched it before we left and tried to pretend she didn't like trick or treating. Sophie put her cheetah / lion getup together using an old dance costume of Ella's, some long johns to combat the weather and a fun pair of cat ears we found at Wal-Mart. Polly wore a pumpkin swaddle that I bought for Sophie's six month photos, but she clearly wasn't a fan! ...
Homecoming 2018
One of the things I love most about Ella is that she's insanely humble and unassuming. She's beautiful and talented and kind, but she doesn't always realize her own worth. A few weeks before Homecoming at her school, she mentioned that they were voting for Homecoming Class Representatives at school and talking about who she was thinking of voting for. I casually said something about her being the rep and the look on her face was hilarious. I don't think she had even considered that as an option, but she reminded me she was on the Railroad Safety Committee and that she would be riding in the parade with that group of students and that she had other responsibilities that would conflict with being the sixth grade rep. A week or so later, Polly and I were napping when I got a message from ...
I’d Rather Be Reading
This post contains affiliate links, which may result in a small commission if you click through to purchase. I was so thrilled to be chosen as a part of the launch team for Anne Bogel's newest book I'd Rather Be Reading. I got an advanced copy to review, plus lots of fun social media goodies, and it's been so neat to see what other readers had to say about this adorable read. I'd Rather Be Reading than: working, driving, sleeping, folding laundry, cooking dinner, dealing with dramatic middle schoolers, preparing for maternity leave, waiting on baby, checking off my to-do list, grocery shopping, unpacking boxes... basically everything on my list except for snuggling our new baby (NEXT WEEK!). From Amazon: For so many people, reading isn't just a hobby or a way to pass the ...
Being Baptized at Home
Sophie is a talker, a question asker, a truth seeker. She's the girl you pick up from Sunday School, who talks all the way home about what they learned, why it does (or doesn't) make sense, and where it can be found in the Bible. It's been fun to have deep conversations with her as she grows and to watch as Biblical principles start to make sense in her own mind. Back in October, she -- very matter-of-factly -- came home and asked us how many times she had to ask Jesus into her heart before we would let her be baptized. This question is so Sophie and we knew right away that something was brewing deep in her soul. Our church's kids' service, offers the plan of salvation and an opportunity to pray every week, and while she hadn't told us about her decision quite yet, it was obvious it ...
Bumpdate | 36 Weeks
I might only be sharing a monthly bumpdate, but I’m still taking weekly photos to share on Instagram — and to preserve for the baby book — so I figured I would catch up at the beginning of each update post. Here are our weekly photos since we last checked on baby. I am honestly amazed at how quickly this year has flown by - for anyone not paying attention: I have been pregnant THIS ENTIRE YEAR?! I'm getting lots of comments on my body / the belly these days, especially from perfect strangers, and it's always so weird and catches me completely off guard. Everyone has an opinion about how I'm carrying or what we're having or if we planned for this baby (when they see the girls, but WHAT THE HECK?!). Mostly, I just want to not discuss the state of my cervix while checking out at the ...
Showers + Sprinkles
I'm not usually up drafting posts at 3:48 on a Monday morning, but pregnancy does very weird things to your internal clock. For several weeks, I had been sleeping so well, but for the last four or five nights I've been awake for several hours in middle of the night. Baby likes to crawl way up underneath my ribs when I'm sleeping and it causes the worst heart burn. I always wake up feeling like I'm going to be sick and Josh fusses because I refuse to take Tums. I'm not convinced anything would help at this point -- I just feel gross because there is no room left inside this body! I was planning to share these photos later in the week, but I'm currently waiting on a pot of coffee to brew and making a grocery list for tomorrow, so this seems like the perfect time to get a post up. I ...