Christmas 2013

What wasn't there to love about Christmas this year?!  Since moving to Illinois we had decided it would be best for us and for our families to split the holidays. Thanksgiving with one and Christmas with the other. This year thanks to the Wendorf side coming down to our place in Illinois, the week before Christmas, we got to celebrate with both families! 

It has been amazing to see all the kids start to interact with one another more. Sloane and Ella love to run around chasing after each other, and with the addition of Sloanes new baby doll from Auntie Jacki and Uncle Tony, Ella and Sloane had a blast playing with their babies. 

On the Casey side little Mr. Keegan is such a lover, he loved playing with Sloane and he went crazy over Lola. Something Sloane and him have in common.  Also this year Grandma Casey's Christmas tree became magical! Santa told Grandpa Casey that if the kids were good and said 'abracadabra!' they could turn the Christmas tree lights on and off. If you want to see pure joy and amazement in a child's eyes. This would be the moment.

Also, Santa made an early trip to our house this year since he knew Sloane was going to be at Grandma's. Whether Sloane understood who Santa was or not, she was thrilled to open her gifts. It's moments like these I would love for her to stay this age forever… then she fills her diaper.

Fall Fun

Wow! Not sure where the month of November went, and October and September for that matter too! It's already December and here I am finally getting around to sharing all the fun we had in fall. Fall has always been a favorite time of the year and it's proving to be just as much now with Sloane. I wish I could print a video into a book, because this is the funniest video of Little Miss experiencing crunchy fall leaves for the first time. So random. So innocent. So perfect.

But now for the fun stuff and in no specific order, this was fall and all the fun firsts that came with it.

First Parade, Plainfield Homecoming 2013

Then Grandma and Grandpa Casey came to visit and we did fall projects and went to the pumpkin farm.

 Sloane had a blast in the corn maze, leading us fearlessly around each new corner!

Then it was time to paint!

All of this pumpkin fun lead up to Sloane's first time dressing up for Halloween. Last year we had just moved in two weeks before and Chris was out of town for work, so we hung out at home greeting all the trick-or-treaters. This year we thought it would be fun to venture out to a couple homes. Besides the cold and rainy weather, she had a blast!

Our little peacock!

We aren't done yet! Can you see now why it took so long to share these memories? We were too busy making them!

This look in her eyes is actually out of complete dislike for jumping in the leaves. But she did have fun helping Mom and Dad clean them up.

Lastly, we wrapped up fall with more family time, drinks and big ol' turkey dinner. Better known as Thanksgiving!

 Sloane and Ella started playing together this year, although most of it was parallel they play, they had plenty of partner in crime moments! 

Life Lesson # 3

Take pictures of the food you make. You will capture the love and memories that went into making it and the love of who you made it for. 

Love. Yourself.

Love. Simplicity.

Love. Your. Family.

Love. Color.

Love. The. Unique.

Love. The. Adventure.

Love. Your. Friends. 

Even when you fail. 

Without the failure I wouldn't have found this special little cookie...

Love. The. Unexpected.