Magnolia loves elephants and she also has a memory like an elephant so it would only be appropriate that she dress as an elephant on Halloween. She loves this costume and does not like taking it off and how could I argue?

While I didn't make her costume (although I had great intentions of doing so), I did make her candy bucket. Ten minutes before trick or treating I cut half of an empty oatmeal container and covered it in felt, fabric, and glue. It worked out fine and she came home with it filled to the brim. :)

Magnolia's good friends Edward and Charlie stopped by. A giraffe, a tiger, and an elephant...they were quite the jungle collection!

It was the most beautiful Halloween night I can remember. Sunny, nearly 60 degrees and no breeze. Our candles stayed lit in our pumpkins and no coats had to be worn over costumes. I had my front door wide open as I made beef stew, toasted pumpkins seeds, made homemade caramel, and 2 loaves of banana bread! George took Magnolia up and down our street. Apparently she had no problem going up to the doors and said hello and goodbye to everyone. When we ran out of candy and the sun was down, we went for a walk. It was such a nice Halloween and so much fun to see Magnolia enjoy it too!

I took these photos yesterday. She loves to go out to the front porch to see the "man." She's not that scared of him except this was the closest I could get her to him for a photo. We all had our own pumpkins this year and a baby pumpkin for the baby-to-be pumpkin which Magnolia wanted to hold.

Hoping everyone had a very happy Halloween!

Happy 2nd Birthday Magnolia!

You awoke on your second birthday to find a kitchen just for you! You were shy at first and actually stepped back and leaned into your daddy's legs to take it all in. Then you plunged forward and without skipping a beat began to play. You played and you played. You LOVE your very own kitchen. You also got a highchair for your baby and a table and chairs for you! Your Nana & Papa were here to celebrate with you as was your Aunt Mary and cousins Lilah & Sophia. You and Lilah sat your new table and ate your yummy birthday breakfast. I made muffins, bacon, quiche, and fruit...all of your favorites but I think you mostly ate bacon! After breakfast you opened the rest of your presents, it was exhausting, you had a lot of gifts to open! You really love your new baby doll, she's just the right size and she even looks a bit like you. She's your first doll with real hair and I think you really like that. She hasn't left your side since you got her. The rest of your birthday you just played and played with all of your new toys. It was a very cold and windy day so we didn't go out. I had two birthday dresses for you to wear but we never even put one on you, it was so cold! Your daddy did dress you in your tutu and "2" top before he brought you downstairs in the morning. You loved wearing your tutu!

I made you a chocolate cake with pink icing. You sweetly wore your magnolia blossom birthday crown I made for you and sat right up on your chair so you could blow out your candles. We talked and talked about blowing out your candles so you were excited to finally do it. While you didn't eat your cake you did lick the frosting. I think you had a very happy birthday and we just love that we get to celebrate your day with you! You are an amazing gift to us and we couldn't love you any more! Happy Happy Birthday Magnolia! xoxoxo

Tissue paper flowers, origami lights, paper magnolias, pearls and tutus. I've been busy preparing for a someone special's 2nd birthday!

I haven't been on the computer much lately. I've regained a whole lot of energy so I'm busy catching up on about 3 months worth of stuff that needed to get done around here.

I'll be back soon with pictures of Miss M's Birthday!

Have a great week everyone!

Thank you everyone for all of your kind words and encouragement!

Thank you Jennifer for your sweet post!

In other news... We went up to the island this weekend. The leaves were at their peak and it was breathtakingly beautiful! Our floors were in and it was so much fun to walk in and see our house transformed! We're thrilled with how they turned out!

New carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms.

George took Magnolia down to the water Sunday morning to look at some visiting white swans. She was smart and brought the binoculars.

There was a cider pressing party at the Farm Museum on Saturday. While we didn't press our own cider (although I wish we had) we dipped our own caramel apples, fed the goats and bunnies, and took a hayride. It was a great way to spend such a perfect fall day!

Yes, that's right...Magnolia is going to be a BIG SISTER!!!

To my greatest surprise in life, I am pregnant!

While we are just now starting to get excited around here, it has been a rough couple of months. We are guarded and scared and hopeful all at the same time. We have been trying to get used to this surprise...the surprise that I actually got pregnant without any help and getting used to the idea of having a baby this way. We swore never again to a pregnancy. The human mind is amazingly adaptable and we are starting to adjust and switch gears and gain hope. Our past is a long one and sometimes too painful to talk about but I am slowly starting to share it on another blog that I created for this pregnancy. There you may come to understand our anxieties and fears. I am finding it very therapeutic to write on that blog so that's it's sole purpose right now. I'm hoping to witness a change in my state of mind through the next 27 weeks but I know it's going to be long road. Please come along if you'd like. :) Baby Steps

Magnolia and I went to South Bend this past weekend. We met my sister in Milwaukee and drove together, stopping in Chicago to do some shopping. My parents are living in South Bend part time while my dad does business there. We also got to see my aunt, cousins and my brother and his whole family. My dad got us AWESOME seats for the Notre Dame vs. Stanford game on Saturday. We had a blast and Magnolia loved staying with Nana & Papa feeding their dog spaghetti and wearing Nana's lipstick. She cried for me once but Nana told her I was shopping and that was the end of it!
Visiting downtown South Bend Saturday morning. Magnolia wearing her Notre Dame blue and gold. Auntie Emame (Emily) gave Magnolia Jelly Bellies and now they're friends for life.
We stopped at our favorite Italian deli for subs and of course, wonderful cookies and desserts. Here's Magnolia outside picking her cookie out of the box, no surprise...the chocolate dipped one!
Magnolia and her cousin. Ceci. Her other cousins were there too but I didn't get any pictures of them, they were all rough housing, running wild, and having a great time.
Aunt Emily and Cousin Amanda outside my grandparents house. It now sits empty and is on the market but my parents have recently been occupying it while my dad does some business in South Bend. I hadn't stayed there since I was a little girl, it was nice to feel the comfort of my childhood memories. We had such a nice time. As always, thanks Mom and Dad for everything...for watching Mags, for the football game, and for all of the meals and gifts!!! xoxo

Rearranging

If any of you know us well, you know we love to rearrange our house. Well, that's what we've been busy doing lately. Magnolia is slowly moving into a Big Girl Room. I've redecorated our bedroom. We moved our t.v. room and revived our living room. Not only do I like to rearrange but I also like to swap out furniture that we have up north. This, you can imagine can be a real pain but I have an extremely patient and understanding husband who is willing to do this for me. This time I wanted to swap dining tables (mind you, they've already been swapped before). So as we headed up north this past weekend we had our big pine table in the back. We also had new bamboo floors that are being installed up there. It was quick trip, in all it took us 24 hours to drop off the new floors, make the table swap, empty the upstairs for new carpeting (yeah!) and do plenty of eating out and reading in front of the woodstove. It was a wonderfully relaxing 24 hours and I just dreaded coming home. But hey, now I have newly arranged house to live in. :)

Outside the Sunset Resort after our Norwegian breakfast, yum!

Favorite place for fish on the island, Magnolia ate a ton of it and an entire ice cream cone!
The crackling fire lulled her to sleep, it took a while after the ice cream!
It is much more fall-like up there already, I loved it. We stopped at our favorite coffee shop on our way up where they have the best homemade mini cinnamon buns around.
We headed for the marina straight off the ferry for lunch. They have Trivial Pursuit cards to keep you occupied while you wait. Magnolia proceeded to empty them all.