Pumpkin Pickin'

It's becoming a tradition to go pumpkin pickin' in October.  We went last year to a delightful farm in Indiana and had so much fun, we decided to do it again here in Texas.  I saw an ad for this particular farm about 30 minutes from where we live, so we packed up the kids and headed off to Dewberry Farm.  The place was busy!  They had several attractions for all age levels: hayjumps, corn maze, lots of food, pig racing, and a petting zoo.  Pip immediately made a beeline for the pony rides and petting zoo.  She LOVES horses, but was slightly disappointed that they weren't horses- only ponies.  What kid knows the difference?  Anywho, we convinced her otherwise, until she spotted one of the farm workers on a "real" horse and insisted that she be allowed to ride that one.  We humored her and let her pet the horse. 

Here's her on the "fake" horse-y ride

Check out that grin

The "petting" zoo wasn't really "petting" friendly, but enjoyable nonetheless.  You could stick your fingers through the cages and poke the animals (only if there wasn't a sign that read, "No fingers allowed"  which was only on the pig's cage)  Pip loved the baby chicks and apparently one took a liking to her too!

After the pony rides and petting zoo, we walked over to the pumpkin patch.  I suppose the drought didn't help the pumpkins this year because it was basically pumpkins on a lawn- but hey, it worked for us.  We skipped the tractor hayride since I didn't want to leave my stroller in the stroller parking lot.  I tried to set up a cute little pumpkin backdrop to photograph my kids in, but B was sleeping and Pip had too much fun trying to pick up pumpkins.  After a short search, we finally settled on the perfect 12lb pumpkin for my jacked up Jack-O-Lantern (I cannot carve a pumpkin to save my life and yet I try...every year...) and snapped a few pictures.  

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Can I have this pumpkin, pleeeeease?





Is this the perfect pumpkin?

Yep, this'll do!

We picked out little pumpkins for our little "pumpkins". 

Farmer Piper and her little pig

Waiting to ride the ponies.  I commented to Bob that it certainly did NOT feel like Fall.  I think it was like 85degrees (thank goodness for the breeze or we would've roasted) and the leaves haven't even changed.  I'm sad now, but I know come winter when everyone I know is cursing snow, I'll be in shorts and a t-shirt running through the sprinklers!

I decided to dress B in a cute little "farmer-ish" outfit.  I wore this when I was a baby!

Obligatory sister pic- Pip has started taking a special interest in B and wants to take pictures with her and lay on her.  It's cute until someone starts crying. 

House Hunters

After receiving our renewal notice on our apartment and discovering that it would cost us quite a bit to continue renting, we began an abbreviated house search.  Luckily, Bobby and I had already done most of the legwork and selected the homes we wanted to see.  My realtor, Charo (who I LOVE dearly, she's so nice and has a very kind heart), and I set out on a mad dash to find the perfect house.  I told her from the start that my home was in this mix and that we were going to find it.   Due to our short time frame, I agreed to visit the homes during the week and then if I liked them, I would schedule a 2nd tour for Bob.  Our budget ranged from $165-230 and we were willing to do moderate fixing up.  I drove all over greater Houston, navigated the most convoluted interstate system, put an extra 600 (plus or minus) miles on my car, and saw about 20 homes.  We narrowed them down to these 3.



Guess Which House Is Ours?

When I walked into this home, I immediately told my realtor, "This is my house!"  I was overjoyed and quickly called Bob to tell him about it.  We discovered it had already entertained 4 offers and was now looking at its 5th offer, but we were allowed to return for a second visit so Bob could see it.  After we toured it, we found out that the offer had fallen through and that it was still available.    At the very top of our budget, we worried that the sellers wanted full asking price ($229,900).  Could it be...could this be my house?

This home was an interesting one.  It's located in a neighborhood that I wanted to live in, but had already decided that the area was out of our price range (think $250-350,000).  This little gem ( over 3,000sqft/5 bedroom/3full baths) came on the market at $199,900 and our realtor informed us that we could easily get this home for $190,000.  It was a fixer upper- kitchen, bath, carpet, etc.  But at that price and having so much living space, it was hard to ignore.  I saw this home first and didn't get wowed by it, but it still lingered in my mind.  I took Bobby to see it and did another walk through. 

I fell in love...again.  Even more with this one than the house pictured previously.   I started envisioning the new kitchen and wood floors, the girls having gigantic bedrooms, cooking in the massive kitchen with my "cookies and cream" granite.  Could this be my new home?



This home was another rogue addition.  It's in another neighborhood that we discounted due to high entry level, but after crunching our numbers, we discovered that this neighborhood was actually cheaper because of it's low tax rate and no HOA fees.   This home was exactly our style- Craftsmen cute- and fit our budget at $225,000.  However, it was significantly smaller and less grand than the other homes we had seen and were considering making an offer on.  My initial reaction to the home was, "It's a good house."  I could see our family living here, but I couldn't shake that it read a little "townhome-y, apartment-ish" to me.  But I could see us living there and making a few minor changes- mostly change the carpet to wood floors.  The neighborhood was super cute and all decorated for Halloween.  My realtor commented that this neighborhood was like a storybook Christmas village.  Up until this afternoon, we were going to make an offer on this one.



Unfortunately,  NONE of them will be my new home.  And I'm still wiping away the tears.

We crunched numbers, worked and reworked the budget,  prayed and prayed some more.  But, we couldn't make a decision.  The bottom line is: We want a home.  We want those homes.  However, we don't want to stretch ourselves thin and leave nothing for a rainy day and it seems that rainy days like to visit our home often.  I know that had we made a decision to purchase one of those homes that everything would've been okay.   It would've been fine. 

So, we're taking a step back to decompress.  We signed on to our lease until May and we'll resume our house search again in March.   I'm sad.  I can see why people get emotional about buying a house.  You wrap up all your dreams and memories into a home.  And when it doesn't work out, you're left with a lot miles on your car and a few more gray hairs from Houston's interstate system and horrendous traffic. 

Our home is out there 

(and honestly, we've got great taste! I mean, really, did you see those homes?  Talk about nice! I wish you could have seen the inside.  I also never noticed how symmetrical each home is- Can you tell we like symmetry?)

Sisters

My most favorite pictures aren't the ones captured by a professional photographer.  They aren't staged or forced.  The wardrobe might not be matchy-matchy cute. They might even blurry or off center. 

Nope- the photos I love are the ones caught in a candid moment, snapped hastily with a point and shoot.  They have a certain realness to them that can't be fabricated. The ones that show love.  The ones that show my everyday.  The ones I wish I could burn into my memory.   Those are the photos I cherish. 

Today...I snapped a photo of sisters.



B looked so cute and serene laying on the couch.  She moves so much- kicking her legs, stretching her arms.  She'll be rolling around in no time.  I had to capture that last little bit of newborn in her. 



As I was capturing said "newborn-ness", Pip decided she wanted to be the picture too!  This isn't staged.  As soon as she saw the camera go up, she popped into the picture. 

Piper and Weston

One nice thing about going to Colorado is that my dear friend Chelsey just recently moved there.  I know Chelsey from Bloomington.  She was the very first person I met in church and right off the bat she was genuine and friendly. Not only is she super nice and extremely thoughtful, she also has an adorable son, Weston, who is Pip's age. Pip and Weston have been playing together since they were like 9 months old.  Pip loves Weston! Piper was super excited to get to play with Weston and talked non-stop about it for a month.  I was super excited because I needed to see a friendly, familiar face again and feel like I truly know someone again.  The kids were a little confused for a minute, but got right to playing.   I enjoyed talking with Chelsey (and wanted to talk all day, I didn't want her to leave), but Pip was getting tired and Brynn was acting fussy, so the playdate didn't last quite as long as we wanted.  I missed them the minute they got in their car.  Thankfully, we visit Colorado often enough that meeting up with Chelsey and Weston will definitely be on our "to-do" list!

I haven't seen my little girl this happy in a long time.  She misses her friends on a daily basis. 

Cheesy little grins

It was funny watching them get re-acquainted.  It took a minute, but once they got over the "shock" they played like it was old hat

I have a ton of pictures of the 2 of them playing over the last year or so and they always look like this:  the 2 of them exploring.  Too cute!

Playing blocks!

Eating yummy cinnamon rolls

There's nothing like a true friend!

Trip to Colorado

We took a little vacation to Colorado this past weekend.  Our mission was 3-fold:  Brynn meeting her Oma and Opa for the first time, blessing Brynn, and taking Pip on a train ride in the mountains.  We had a fun time visiting and relaxing, though we hardly got to sleep in.  This trip marks Brynn's 1st plane ride.  We counted how many times Pip's been on a plane and discovered:  she's flown a total of 9 trips.  Pip is an amazing flyer, but we worried about our Sweet B (since she cries a lot).  Brynn proved herself to be a fantastic traveler despite some serious snags along the way.  For starters, when we left Houston our plane was delayed 3 hours due to a freak thunderstorm.  Houston hasn't had a drop of significant rain since last October and the day we decide to fly- it thunderstorms.  Everyone was grounded so the airport was extremely crowded and I wasn't prepared to entertain/feed Pip or keep Brynn from losing all composure.  We were the only family on the flight, but the other passengers were (surprisingly) in good spirits.  Brynn did AMAZING!  And, since were the only family, Pip got to go into the cockpit.  The stewardess offered to let us take a picture of her in the cockpit, but we didn't have our camera on hand.  Either way, Pip was extremely delighted and on our return flight thought she could go into the cockpit again.  It was pretty cute- she just waltzed right in like she owned the place.  I had to remind her that she was only allowed if the flight attendants were with her. 





Pip wanted to clean the windows.  She was using just her spit and hands, but (being the good mom that I am) I gave her a wet wipe and a diaper cloth to scrub down the window. 

Brynn and Oma

Pip and Opa

While we were in the mountains, we met up with Bobby's sister's family at their mountain house.  Pip LOVED playing with her cousins and enjoyed swimming in the hot tub.  She went in it without any adults.  I think being around her cousins made her more brave. 

Pip and 2 of her cousins.  After we left, all she talked about were her cousins.  I'm glad that she's at the age where she can remember people and their relationship to her.  Or maybe it's odd for someone her age to know those things, but she's always been very aware of others and how they impact her life.

Not the least bit frightened!

For some strange reason, Pip has been talking about riding in a wheelbarrow.  So when she discovered that Oma and Opa had a wheelbarrow, she wanted to ride in it immediately. 

Pip took quite a liking to her Oma and wanted to do everything with Oma- potty, eat, play, read, sleep, etc. 

I'm glad we were able to carve out a weekend to go to Colorado.  That's one good thing about Bob being out of school- we can vacation anytime not just during the holidays and the fact that we actually have money now to go places- that's always a perk too!

GeorgeTown, CO Railroad

While we were in Colorado, we decided it would be fun to take Pip on her very first, real train ride.  We (the parents) were super excited to 1. be in the mountains and 2. see the aspen change.  We weren't disappointed. 



Going over the bridge.  The panoramic views were spectacular.  We were amazed at the vibrant aspen peeking through the evergreens. 



At one of the stops

Brynn slept for most of it.  Suppose trains aren't quite her "thing" yet. 

Pip wanted to spend all her time with her Oma...and her ticket.  She was tickled pink when the conductor came to punch her ticket.

This is how Pip was for the entire train ride.  I got a lot of "back of the head" shots because she was so enamored with seeing the views and feeling the wind in her hair.

Waiting for the train to depart! For the first half, we opted to stay in a covered train car since it was a bit cloudy.  However, we decided that the open cars offered more viewing pleasure, so we switched seats.  Thankfully, the rain held off.

Mountains and aspen- simply beautiful.  How I'll miss these when I get back to Texas

3 MONTHS!

Time...why are you so quick?  My little babe is already 3 months.  Please slow down.

What is Baby B up to now:

*Brynn is SMILING more and more, but she won't do it for just anybody.  B doesn't give her smiles away, so if you happen to get one...consider yourself lucky.  She is so serious, not sour or grumpy looking.  INTENSE is a better way to put it.

* She's out of most of her 0-3 month clothes.  Some still fit, but the onesies are getting a teensy bit snug on her.  They're like little muscle shirts.  She's in size 2 diapers and has outgrown her cloth diapers. 

*Sweet hallelujah, she's on a schedule! She naps 3 times a day: morning, afternoon, late afternoon.  And she sleeps from about 9pm until 7am pretty regularly. 

*Brynn LOVES bathtime.  I think she's going to be a water baby just like her big sis and mommy.  She likes to play in the faucet and sometimes will slurp water from my hand.

*She's drooling A LOT!  Sometimes I take her out of her carseat and she's covered in drool.  Pip cut a tooth at about 5 months, so it could be teething.

*Brynn eyes my food and anyone else's food.  I've never seen a child do it at such a young age, but if Brynn could grab your food and eat it- I think she would.  She really stares at food, longingly, like she wants to eat it.  But, she doesn't take a bottle.  I've tried, Bob's tried, strangers have tried- she won't take it.  Any suggestions?

STATS:

Weight:  I'm guessing it's around 11-12lbs. 

Height:  I moved my Baby Bjorn to the next height adjustment, so she's probably about 24in. tall

Eye Color:  still blue, a gorgeous sapphire blue with hints of green around the irises. 

Hair Color:  dark brown

Exercises:  Won't do Tummy Torture Time, but she stands on our legs, holds her head up, turns her head towards sounds, and has tried to do a sit-up without us holding on to her arms.