Baseball Girl/Rockford Peach

This Halloween I feel like we totally hit the jackpot age. She loved everything about the holiday. From the spookiness, to dressing up, and the candy of course.

I basically forced this costume upon her (this is the last year I think I can get away with it), and she embraced it quite well. She told everyone she was being a baseball girl and eventually caught on to the whole Rockford Peach thing from League of Their Own. I felt like the costume had to be done since we will only be in Rockford for one more Halloween. Also, I'm not a creative mom or good photographer, so since I made the effort of going to an actual baseball diamond to get pictures, you get to see a whole big photo dump.

The extra fun part about this costume, was she was able to match her good friend Cosette (Cosy) and her sister, Charlotte. I jumped on the Rockford Peach bandwagon when their mom told me her girls were dressing up as one. Also, thanks to my mom for having some domestic skills and sewing this adorable costume while I sat on the couch.

Pumpkin carving was also a highlight. The guts and all. 

I hope this isn't our last year of costume coordinating. I love it for some reason. The umpires were super easy and that's okay. I wasn't about to make my mom sew me or Richard the baseball attire Tom Hanks wore in the movie. 

This was our first year of REAL trick or treating. Every other year it has been too friggin cold to make it worth it. In Rockford they have a whole slew of trick or treating rules. One that you can't forget are the time slots when trick or treating is allowed. Everyone has to be done by 6:30 pm sharp or it just gets too dangerous. And if a house doesn't have a porch light on, you aren't allowed to knock. A little different than Utah. We lucked out and headed down a couple of streets that had a bunch of porch lights on, but I was surprised to see how many people don't turn their darn lights on. The grinches. Henley loved the actual door knocking as did Rich and I and it turned out to be a pretty magical Halloween. Except for the fact that she always chose Laffy Taffy, Smarties or Dum Dum's if they were an option....

Let's pray that she doesn't want to be a princess next year.  I shouldn't have said it aloud, cause now it will for sure happen. 

Attempt

This is a boring post, but it had to be documented so I could prove that I tried gardening. For the past few summers I have really wanted to try planting a small garden. It reminds me of my childhood. I love the fresh veggies...hate the weeding. So my landlords gave me permission to pull out some overgrown plants by our porch to grow whatever I wanted. I started small with some beans, peas, cucumbers, basil, and a tomato plant.  

All was going better than expected (see above) until some unkind bunnies made their way into our backyard and ate everything. I mean, everything. The garden ended up turning into a complete joke because all that has been produced from it is a couple of cherry tomatoes and two basil plants that just started flourishing...in two spots I didn't even plant the seeds. Explain that. 

One of the two cherry tomatoes. This particular tomato was shortly squished by Henley herself after taking this photo. So basically one cherry tomato. Go me.

Bragging Rights

Richard doesn't ever read this blog and he would be totally embarrassed and possibly mad if he read what I'm about to write, but I just don't care. 

He is one guy that has this dad thing all figured out. Before we had Henley he told me that he wasn't much of a "baby man", but as soon as the kid could talk a little and interact he would be much more into the whole parenting gig. He was a superb dad to Henley as an infant, but I can see what he means. He speaks Henley's play language. Always coming up with new/exhausting games and activities, an imagination that never stops and always willing to rough house, he is her king. Seriously her love for him is incredible. Not to mention he has the discipline thing perfected. I swear she respects him much more than me. I appreciate him much more than I express and look to him for a lot of parental guidance. Thanks to him, I think Henley is turning out pretty decent. 

30's Are the New 20's

Last month I turned the big 3-0 and it was one of the best birthdays EVER! I have the best friends and husband a girl could ask for. I get teary and speechless just watching this video and thinking back on the incredible weekend. So grateful.

Everything "P"

 So this has been my view lately and it surprisingly hasn't consumed us like I thought it would. Before we started this whole process I kept wondering when a good time to start would be, but I continued to put it off because I wasn't ready to stay home for five solid days dealing with puddles and such. Just a couple of weeks ago Henley started saying, "Mom, diaper buggin' me" when even the slightest drop of pee was in there. So we both pulled on our big girl pants and decided it was time.

 

We stayed home the first day, set the timer, made a sticker chart...ya know, the works. The next day we ventured out, made way too many trips to the bathroom to make it even worth it but we survived. And truly it hasn't been that bad. Maybe because I was expecting terrible, horrible days.

 

She has really embraced the sticker chart and even earned a trip to the toy store already (rookie mistake by me...I made a chart that was way too small). We are still working on #2, which is happening less and less. Let's just say that when it does happen (not on the potty) it is bad enough that we term them "episodes." Tonight I happened to run to the store after Rich got home. He called me while I was gone to tell me an episode had occurred. He used the word "loaf"....twice while telling me about it. I am still laughing. Partly cause that word is hysterical and partly because I missed it. Does that make me a terrible person?

Our Very First Christmas

So it has been a long time. Let's just say a lot has been going on and my computer is dying the slowest death ever. It moves at the pace of dial-up internet or slower. It is nothing short of painful. 

On a brighter note we had our very first Christmas at our very own home. I was a little hesitant because I have never been away from my family for Christmas, but Rich only got Christmas day off so we really didn't have any other option. To start off the holidays we put up our decorations on Thanksgiving and had Henley open up some new Christmas jammies. She liked them okay, but preferred her old princess ones.

 

This year, the elf on the shelf was a huge deal in our house. Our elf is name Twinkles and Henley was obsessed. She understood the rules of not touching him, but was mostly concerned with where he was every morning. The funniest part about Twinkles is he brought her one single kernel of popcorn every day for her good behavior and she was pleased as punch with it. Not too hard to please.

My parents and little sister Niccole came to visit us in the middle of December, which deserves a post of its own but I'm behind. It made the holidays much more special with them being here for a few days.

 We went to a breakfast with Santa at our local conservatory. Henley really likes to talk about Santa and tell him all the things she wants, which this year was strictly candy. Nothing else, just candy. Should I be worried? When the time came to sit on his lap, she didn't cry, she didn't scream...she did nothing. She completely froze.

 ^^Her and Cosy at the breakfast. She was in a really big phase of screaming "Chhhheeeeessssse" for pictures.^^

For Christmas Eve I debated whether I should make a big, gourmet meal or not. I probably talked about it until I was blue in the face and Richard could no longer hear me talk about it. That's when he suggested we start a new tradition and get take out of our choice. I really liked the idea and went with it. Less work for me. Rich got Taco Bell and I got McDonald's. Next year I think I will go a little bigger and get Red Robin or something. 

 ^^Our Christmas Eve feast. We obviously only eat and dress in the classiest of attire for special occasions.^^

After dinner we did some puzzles and talked about the nativity. Henley just wanted to have the figures jumping and screaming the whole time. However we count it as a success since we at least attempted it.

 Putting out cookies for Santa was her favorite part. She kept talking about he was going to eat them and take Twinkles away. She also said over and over "1 day, 1 day, 1 day for presents."

The next day we woke up around 7:30 and tried to open a few presents. Henley was wayyy too distracted with the fact that Santa had come, left a bite of cookie and drank all the milk. All day she kept running back over to the plate saying "Santa came - yummy cookie." Once we could get her attention we opened a few gifts. Santa brought Henley a kitchen, which she seemed to like okay. She hardly played with it that day, but has liked it more and more with time. I somehow didn't capture a picture of her with her favorite toy, which was and still is a tiny plastic Cinderella that has a couple of dresses that snap on and off.  I got it for free at Kohl's and threw it in her stocking the last second...of course. Thank heavens cause she has played with that nonstop since Christmas.

 ^^My parents stocked her kitchen full. So much food and so many messes.^^

 ^^Crashing after too many gifts.^^

 ^^This little cash register has also been a big hit. The beeping from the scanner is enough to make you go crazy, but she absolutely loves it.^^

As the day was winding down we both tried on our new clothes and she asked Rich to "Ake a pic-cha pease!!" All in all, it was a fabulous day. Henley really picked up on the concept this year and loved every light, decoration and song. We are still singing Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls and talking about some of our tree ornaments. Until next year...