Fall Family Update

Have I ever told you that I love the fall?! I love the cooler temperatures, that it gets dark earlier, the family get together's, and all the holiday's and festivities. We have been staying extremely busy and doing so much I haven't seemed to be able to stay on top of the blog updates. I will do my best to catch up on what we've been up to.

 We took a recent trip to the outlet mall and the girls had a blast on their rides. Hensley kept signing and saying "more"!

 We rode a horse drawn carriage at out local farmer's market fall festival. They had face painting, popcorn, trick or treating, and yummy crepes. Notice my "new to me" ring sling. It's a wrap conversion Girasol. I love the rainbow!

 We visited "Pumpkinville" which is located at the Myriad Gardens downtown. It was set up with pumpkins and kid oriented crafts and games.

 Hensley wanted to walk through this tunnel a million times. She loved it!

 Tae getting a spider bracelet made.

 Playing with pumpkins.

 We won a Sakura Bloom kid sized ring sling from a local diaper and baby store. The girls have been loving wearing their dolls and stuffed animals in it.

 It has been unusually warm this October. We've been spending a lot of time outside playing. It finally cooled off this week and we are looking forward to all the temps in the 70's.

 We got our pumpkins at the farmer's market and carved them out.

 Hensley had a lot of fun pulling out the seeds and saying "gross".

 Tae was actually able to do a lot of it herself this year.

 Hensley had the most fun with the seeds and decided they were better on the floor. She made a huge mess!

The aftermath!

We have been busy with Tae's school work. She's doing her new curriculum, "Five in a Row" and seems to enjoy it. She is also doing an added phonics and math. We have been loving our PE group this year. It has grown a whole lot and her class is fairly large. She has already made several friends this year and looks forward to going every week. She went to the dentist recently and she has her first two loose teeth. She is eagerly awaiting them falling out and for the tooth fairies visit. We are really looking forward to Halloween and going trick or treating. Tae's 6th birthday is coming up and we have a great party planned.

We are all getting in the gear of getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the fun that comes with those holiday's. There are also some family changes coming up that we are anticipating. More on that at a later time. We are truly feeling blessed by the Lord's love and we continue to thank Him for blessing us with this life!

All about the Food!

I haven't been posting my meal plans very regularly lately. It is just a busy time of the year and a lot has been going on. That doesn't mean I still haven't been making some yummy dishes. Here are a few of our recent meals!

 This was Spicy Lemon Paprika Chicken Thighs. This recipe was posted on a group I follow on Facebook. It was SUPER delicious. I served it with sauteed squash and mashed sweet potatoes. 

 We love hot dogs in our family, but most hot dogs are junk meat. Organic hot dogs are so expensive that we only eat them every few months. I made sweet potato hash and fried cabbage with them this night.

 Mexican is one of our favorites to eat. This night I made fajitas with ground beef and then we also had leftover fried cabbage. Yum!

This was another Mexican meal. I put a pork loin in the crock pot with a can of green chiles, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, an onion, and some garlic. When it was done I shredded it and we ate it on tortillas. 

Great Wolf Lodge

We had planned a trip down to the lake house during fall break to finish a few things and we decided to surprise the girls with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. We told Tae we were taking a trip, but didn't tell her where. She was really excited and tried guessing a few times. She thought maybe we were going on another cruise (I wish!). We had fun staying at Lake Texoma for the night. My parents came down and we got both decks cleared off and the ceiling in the entry way fixed. The only big thing left to do is put down the new floors. The girls mostly played outside. We stayed in a hotel in Madill, ate dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and then hung out for a bit the next day while my parents and Aaron finished up.

 Look at this beautiful scenery. One thing we love most about this area is it's beauty. Can't help but thank God for providing this peaceful place.

 We burned some papers while we were there. The girls thought it was fun to roast leaves and sticks. We headed out right after lunch and made the drive to Grapevine. It's only about a 2 hour drive from the lake house. A couple weeks before we left I showed her some of the rooms at the Lodge and asked her which one she liked best. She picked out the cave room and that is what I booked.

 When we got there, they were both super excited to be out of the car and to play around in the room. It was so funny because when you walk in to check in there's a huge glass wall that you can see the water park. Tae saw it and said "aw man, maybe we should bring my swim suit next time we come!". She thought we didn't bring her suit, so I had her search her suitcase "just to see" and her face was unforgettable when she found it in there. She thought she would just have to watch the people swim, haha!

 We went to the water park as soon as we unpacked and played around for almost two hours. Hensley didn't care for getting water in her face and we had a few melt downs, but overall they had a lot of fun. We went to the waterpark every day and even the day we checked out. They have a kiddie pool area with slides and ride on toys, squirters and buckets. They have a wave pool, lazy river (Tae's favorite), huge slides, a pool with basketball hoops and lily pads, and a huge play area with slides, a huge water bucket that dumps, and other things.

 Since we went in October, they were all decorated for Halloween and were doing themed activities. The kids got to do a scavenger hunt and go trick or treating both nights. We also got ice cream in their dessert shop and ate pizza in their pizza restaurant the second night. 

 We went and ate dinner at The Rainforest Cafe the first night. Hensley was amazed by all the animals. We got to sit right underneath the elephants and that kept both girls pretty entertained through dinner.

 Every night they have story time by the clock tower at the lodge. It was really cute and they had their little characters come out and meet the kids.

 The second day we went and played in the arcade. We won enough tickets for Tae to get a few toys and Hensley had a bunch of fun riding in this little ice cream truck!

 I loved that they had little activities set up through out the hotel. Here they are coloring pictures.

 Tae picked out this cute tie dyed wolf from the gift shop. They give you a set of ears when you check in. Since we checked in on Columbus day they were American themed. 

We had a lot of fun on our little mini vacation. Great Wolf Lodge is definitely something every family should try out. There is so much to do inside the hotel, you never get bored. We can't wait to go back and stay again (this time in the camp room Tae says)!

Family Pictures-Fall 2014

My dear friend Cassie recently decided to take a break from photography for awhile, so we made sure to book her before this happened! We had them done in September and the temperatures had been in the 90's. I booked the shoot at 8:30 in the morning to avoid the heat and to our surprise, a cold front came through and it was in the 50's! Hensley also decided she was going to be quite cranky this morning, so she hardly smiled. I did get to do some breastfeeding pictures and they turned out so beautiful. So, it was chilly and we weren't necessarily dressed for the weather (the girls got sweaters at the last minute) and we had some crankiness, but we still got some great shots. Here are some of the photos she took of us.