A Snowy Halloween

I firmly believe it is a right of passage in the Midwest to go Trick-or-Treating in the snow at some point in your childhood. I love how this Starbucks embraced the weather with this little snowman by the pick-up window.

Sydney was an angel. Man, I remember sewing that skirt when I was pregnant with her!

Brigitta was chomping at the bit to wear that red velvet cloak as Little Red Riding Hood. She got the stuffed wolf as a sidekick and was really excited about that as well.

Ireland never gets tired of going as Luna Lovegood. This is actually the same pattern I used for the Little Red Riding Hood cloak which is the same pattern I used for Liesel's Hermione Granger cloak. Ireland has worn this costume to a Harry Potter party for Girl Scouts, to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra play to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and then again for Halloween. I have a feeling she's going to find an excuse to wear it again...

Despite my offers to sew any costume Liesel wanted, she threw this vampire costume together on her own. She made the blood-drip necklace by using marker and a glue gun which I thought was pretty inventive. When she first tried on the wig, she was so surprised at how pale she suddenly looked. 

As soon as humanly possible, Liesel took off to be with friends her own age. I followed the other 3 in the Pilot because I didn't know how long they would last in the cold. Sydney gave up pretty quickly. She was happy to warm up with chili and cornbread and hand out/eat candy with Brent.

Brigitta was WAY more die hard than I thought she would be! She was pretty determined to get the most out of Halloween. This photo is one of my very favorites of her. I love the way her cute, button nose is silhouetted against the dark lining of the hood. I love how the light of the setting sun hit that red velvet and made it look a tad more fiery. I love how her Trick or Treat bag is peaking out of her cloak and of course how she is surrounded by snow. This sums up a Midwest Halloween in one picture!!!

While I think the cloak helped, Brigitta and Ireland really kept warm running from house to house.

Near the end, people just gave them all the candy they had left. Those girls made a HAUL, let me tell you!

The thing about Trick or Treating in the snow is it becomes a Halloween you always remember.

As for Brent and I, well, I'd been planning my costume for a year. Whitney gave me her old Bose headphones for my birthday and my friend Chris is notorious for wearing them on the train so as to have some privacy. I knew I wanted to go as Chris for Halloween so I studied him for a year- the brand of clothes he wore and the teams cheered for and the food he liked. Then I had a slight anxiety attack that it would come across as rude and insensitive and I would end up offending Chris and Lindsey. Especially since Brent had no choice but to go as Lindsey!

Turns out my worry was for naught-they thought it was hilarious too. I probably say this every year, but this was my favorite couple's costume!

Family Photos!

Confession: part of the reason I jumped back into the job market is because I simply could not imagine Christmas without the Christmas card. For the last few years we've had family snap a photo that we ended up using but I felt it was time to get really good photos, with a photographer who knows what she is doing. Photos like that don't come cheap so come hell or high water, I was going to make it happen. Looking back on these, I'm so, so, SO glad I did because I love these pictures and I'm so glad we have them!

This is the one we used for the Christmas card:

This was another one I was really tempted to use on our card but somehow it just didn't look as good as that first one:

Sydney deserves some props because man alive was it chilly during that photo shoot- near freezing temperatures and the sun was going down fast! I brought a couple of quilts to use in the photos which we ended up using to try and keep everyone warm. In spite of that, we were all shivering. 

I know this is a weird thing to say about this picture, but I LOVE how Brent's beard looks in this one! It just looks so perfect and remembering how cold it was, I want to just nuzzle into it. This is definitely another favorite pic.

Our photographer has 3 daughters of her own and she really got some great sister shots:

I still don't understand why people think they look alike- I see so many differences in each of them!

On to the individuals! Poor Sydney was so, so, SO cold and trying to put on a brave face. 

This one really captures her personality I think- happy with a dash of mischievous:

Aside from being in the coldest outfit, I found these shoes last minute at Janie & Jack and they were juuust Sydney's size but not broken in they were definitely tight. They weren't on sale, and it's not like me to put money into something like that but I couldn't help myself. Sydney squeezed into them so I had to request this photo since we were the only two wearing yellow shoes.

Brigitta is in the All-I-Want-For-Christmas-Is-My-Two-Front-Teeth age and her little tongue sticking out of the gap just slays me:

She's been wanting to join Girl Scouts like her sisters for years and years but there wasn't a troop nearby. With Sydney starting Daisies, I hunted one down and just after this photo shoot she had her very first meeting ever and she was so crazy excited about it. We looked a little boujee showing up to a Friday night scout meeting all dressed up...

Ireland can be hard to capture sometimes but I'm obsessed with how her hair looks with that hay in the background:

When the sunlight hits her hair, it looks like spun gold. And this is an honest Ireland smile- humble, thoughtful.

Somehow the camera finds Liesel. I don't know if she practiced posing in a former life or what, but she can take insanely good pictures. I really love how the photographer somehow captured her looking more like a teenager than a little girl like her sisters. She looks tall and sophisticated here:

The speckles on the side of the barn offset her freckles. Lurve!!!

Like I said, I'm so glad we did these photos! Worth every single penny!!! Thank you to Marche Brown Photography.

Tidbits

Driving home one evening I was treated to these huge clouds and a spectacular sunset. It reminded me of The Neverending Story and well, I couldn't help but belt the theme song. 

Speaking of belting songs, we showed the girls the Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Video Version on YouTube and apparently the tune stuck.

Gita decided to try on my boots and loved clomping around in them.

Sydney: TAG!!! You're it *runs away*

*just before Ireland tags her*

Sydney: I'm out of the game!

A soft snow on the trees made for a picture perfect view above our bathtub.

Speaking of trains... about 15 minutes after I mentioned Brent was on the train- probably talking to his friend (whom we call Train Dave to distinguish him from our other friend Dave)
Ireland: Is dad still riding the Dave?
Liesel: *giggling* like a horse *picks up invisible reigns*

I intended to use this to affirm what I love about my girls but it warms the cockles of my heart to see them using it to send messages to each other.

Quick Sunday pic of the girls.

I found this one on my phone a few days after Sydney (apparently) got a hold of it. I love everything about this video. I love the I Can't Believe I'm a Hotdog ditty Sydney coined. I love how her eyes get big in the middle of it. I love when she starts whispering.


Mom and Dad's large tv used to live inside this lovely piece of furniture. However, they've upgraded to a flat-screen and it's really not necessary anymore so I decided to take it off their hands...

...and use it as a costume closet! What we had was way too small and this is the perfect height for those little girls to grab what they want. Now they dress up to their heart's content.

Me: Gita, would you rather have a dog or a baby brother?

Gita: A dog.

Me Would you rather have a dog or a baby sister?

Gita: A dog.

Me: Would you rather have a dog or Daddy with a beard?

Gita: Daddy with his beard.

Ireland helped me with an FHE lesson and she did a fantastic job.

This has become Gita's favorite outfit. She slips it in her rotation about once a week and I have to admit, it's very HER!

Fly Girls

Liesel and Ireland are now Young Eagles! Our local airport gives instruction and free rides to kids ages 8-17. It's only May through October and even then it's first-come, first-serve and weather depending. I put it on my calendar and throughout the summer for one reason or another, we didn't make it. Since this was the last available month of the year, we dropped everything and headed over.

Memo to me: go early next time! I was blown away at how busy it was and how many kids were regulars. One mom even told me she is researching other municipal airports that do the same thing so her son can get more flying time.

Our pilot was really great and his plane was red! Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega was red!

He talked about pitch, roll and yaw. He talked about how the plane still flies even if the engine quits. He talked about what lifts the plane into the air.

When he asked for a volunteer to sit up front, Ireland eagerly threw up her hand. She particularly enjoyed this experience. Liesel got in the plane first.

 Ireland followed.

They both thought those headsets were pretty cool.

 Before they left, the pilot asked if any of us had questions. Even though I didn't think anything would happen in the 15 minutes there were flying to McHenry and back, I asked how we'd contact him, just in case. He said, "Oh I have my cell phone with me!" Right, this is a municipal airport. No complicated technology.

They came back pretty elated.

Liesel said she saw the dance studio and Ireland commented on how it looked like the cars are going so slow.

Now they are Young Eagles! Their names go in a museum (I'm not quite sure which one) and they received a certificate and log book.

Because we were some of the last people there, they also received the last two donuts. Ireland's had a donut hole in the donut hole. Genius!

I've put this in our calendar for May. We will definitely be back!

Tid Bits

Ireland is a bit of a connoisseur of ramen. Brent was at the priesthood session of General Conference and so I took the girls to Epic Deli for a girl's night out. Check out there epic menu here and you can see why it appeals to kids. When Ireland saw the ramen, she ordered it immediately.  

And she was pretty happy with her choice. 

I ran into one of my CrossFit coaches in the Target parking lot and mentioned we need more workouts that focus on abs. She created this WOD just for me!

Oh yeah, that one worked the abs.

Every now and again I feel the need to refresh the aroma in the house and I got a little nutso at Bath & Body Works. This was our fall scent and I LOVE it!

Who wouldn't want their house to smell like pumpkin pecan waffles? YUM!

Usually I'm running around with too many things to do and not enough time but I had to stop and take a picture of the lake we live by because it was so dang beautiful with that blue sky and fluffy clouds reflected on the water.

This verse really caught me during scripture study. I've read it numerous times but that word "preparator" really stuck with me so I looked it up in the dictionary. Turns out a preparator is "a person who prepares scientific specimens or museum displays." It really hit me that the devil is not looking for equal companions in his evil works, he is looking for lives to destroy. It all reminded me of The Screwtape Letters where initally it seems like kind advice from a loving uncle but at the end you realize that is not at all the case. 

My friends invited me to participate in a meal prep and this one is called egg roll in a bowl and the girls loooved it!

After we dropped the girls off at the bus stop (on one of those days when there was no school for Kindergarten), Sydney loved the look of our long shadows and asked me to take a picture. 

Gita fell in love with this neighbor dog named Oliver Twist. His owner told me after Oliver met Gita he would insist walking down our street and would wait in front of our house, refusing to move, in the hopes she would come out and say hi. 

Poor Oliver didn't get to see as much of her once she was back in school!

Brent and I met up for lunch at XOXO- one of the many Chicago restaurants I have wanted to try. We decided to flip for the pistachio crusted churro and oh man, that was insanely delicious!

We don't really allow toys in the bedrooms, just books. Fortunately that has helped the girls to become great readers and I caught Sydney reading by flashlight one evening when she was supposed to be fast asleep.

The list of injuries my daredevil Gita sustains on a weekly basis is very long, but sometimes they end up being a tad more severe. This time it was an elbow that met the ground and scraped her up pretty good.

We sit in the front row at church because 1- no one else wants to sit there so it's always open, 2- as a bit of a germophobe, I like that we get the sacrament tray first (I also like the corner for the water) and 3- I like to know where the exits are. If a crazy gunman stormed the church, we'd be right next to an exit as opposed to stuck in the middle of a long pew with no room to get out. 

The only problem with this well-laid plan is that when the kids are misbehaving, the entire congregation sees it. They also see it when we are about to crack as we discipline them.