All Together Again for Thanksgiving!

When my boys were younger and off at camp during the summer, nights never felt quite right. Mamas just want all their babies in their own beds under the same roof at the end of the day. I wonder if this will ever change, because while I may be slightly used to the fact that our oldest no longer sleeps here at home, I certainly don't like it.

But he was home for Thanksgiving weekend and I couldn't have been happier about five whole days together!!!

It has been really hard lately keeping up with sewing and orders, in addition to life in general, but I wanted to have these days as a family without worrying about needing to finish a bunch of things. I worked hard to complete as many things as possible, and then I just worked on stuff here and there when nothing big was going on. #mombosslife I guess! I know there was some drama, because with seven people, how will there not be some drama? But truthfully, I can't even remember the details of any of it now. So my memory is basically just a highlight reel of the whole weekend. Hooray! :)

Caleb, where are you?? ha ha

We had our very own feast at home, and then headed to my parent's house for another meal. Whoa. We'd been hoping to host a family in need for dinner, but it didn't end up working out- someone at our church offered to prepare and serve all of the families who were scheduled to eat with host families, which was extremely generous and thoughtful, but it also kind of left everyone else out of the whole thing. I wanted my kids to be able to participate in something meaningful, too. 

This has been the dreariest fall on record here in NH. It's been awful. I was thrilled to see the sun, even if it only lasted for an hour. By the time the table was all set, the sun was gone. :(

My Mom and Levi- he kind of looks like he's giving her the stink eye, but he absolutely adores her, ha ha.

We had some other service ideas in mind for the weekend, too. We ended up donating sheet sets, blankets, and toiletries to our church for families who stayed right there on the premise for several days, gathered clothes to bring to our local crisis pregnancy center, and gave away lots to a friends of our family who will be now acting as guardians of their three young granddaughters- it's a sad situation, and I hope we can be a help and encouragement to them (they are my parent's age, can you even imagine the transitions taking place there??!!).

And here is what November has looked like so far:

Hopeful that the lighter sky meant sun was coming. Nope. It never even appeared, though this sky was so pretty.

Same here...

WHAT!!?? Blue sky!!??

Some sun!!! I remember that day, that moment, so clearly because dayyyyyysssss go by without even a hint of sunshine. It was cloudy and dark again with twenty minutes. Twenty minutes! I feel like I'm losing my mind. We need sun!!

On Saturday, my in-laws came over for dinner, but we'd already gone from fall to Christmas, and I've been slowly adding more things each day. We were so hoping to get to the tree farm since everyone was here, but Saturday didn't work, and Sunday was miserable and rainy...until about 4:30, when we headed out for our town's tree lighting party, but Ethan was already gone. :(

Thought I had a picture from Saturday night, but they must still be on my phone...

We had to get to the town square early for chorus, and Levi was feeling pretty good about everything. Fast forward fifteen minutes, and he wouldn't let either of us put him down!

For the record, that's my hat. That's supposed to look cute on me. Except it doesn't, and someone had been eyeing it all week and I finally let her take it, and of course it's the cutest thing ever on her. Also, why does she look fifteen here!?

Christmas carols! Santa arrive shortly after, in the firetruck with the sirens and horns blaring, which Levi was totally smitten with. He didn't care much about Santa at first, but then he warmed up and wanted to go say Hi. The line was massive, and I know he would chicken out when the time came, so we walked by him in the gazebo and waved from the outside. Win win. :)

There was hot cocoa and so many cookies! Just a really fun little event for families. I can't wait to get back and take some more pictures, it's so pretty!

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of family and love and gratitude!

Take a Hike :)

Okay, so maybe just a walk. But it's in the woods, so... we'll just call it a trail hike and leave it at that. We brought Levi to this trail for the first time last weekend and he did such a great job! I was thrilled and a little sad, too. My baby is not a baby anymore. And the weather this weekend was crazy! This whole month has just been "off," and it's kind of horrible because this is my favorite month and time of year, and we just haven't been able to be outside to enjoy it very much between the storms and the frigid, gloomy days. So when it's not pouring, we go!!

He maneuvered those rocks with pure finesse :)
Except for maybe once or twice. And then the whole world knew he wasn't happy.

Notice the addition of layers here, ha! Cold and windy, but it did feel really good to be outside in the woods.

Oops, his little face is blurry, but of course they had to find sticks to throw

The stairs leading up here made me puke in my mouth a little. Not a fan. But the view was so neat!

And wouldn't you know, the sun finally popped out about five minutes before dinner. Ugh. Again, at least it wasn't raining.

This is a busy busy week for us... our first official college tours begin with Jonah, midweek of all thing, ha! It just seemed like a better fit than to try to make it happen over the weekend. I'm so excited just thinking about it, even though it isn't that far away. Far enough. :)

Now that I've caught my breath from all the Trick or Treating orders for the shop, I'm starting in on Christmas. I can hardly believe it! I don't even have a sneak peek for you yet, but I;ll try to do that later this week. Hoping we all have a great start to a brand new week!

Fall Fun!

How on earth are we midway through October??!! We haven't had many nice-weather days like we're used to for this time of year, but yesterday was just gorgeous. After church, we headed over to a local apple orchard/farm stand and feasted on cider donuts, which was okay because we climbed up and down stairs to a lookout deck, ha ha. After Levi's nap, we went over to my parent's house to celebrate my Mom's birthday- it's a big one, so I'm taking her off for a little spa afternoon tomorrow for her real day. I'm looking forward to that, and since my birthday is exactly two weeks from her's, I suppose it's like a little early birthday treat for me, too. :) And then last night, Isabelle had basketball tryouts- I could tell she was super nervous, but she's a strong player so I knew she'd do fine. She reported that she made most of her shots and handled the ball "pretty good." Ha ha

Why did my babies go and grow up on me? Whyyyyy? I'm still not used to having just 4/5 around lately. But these four are a good looking bunch, right?

NH may be a small state, but we have so much! Mountains, beaches, crystal clear lakes, seasons, foliage- I have only NOT been here for fall one time in my whole life...my junior year in college when I lived in Spain. I missed the fall colors so much that year!

I had some major zinnia envy. Those blooms were HUGE! I'm definitely planting some of the bigger ones next year.

Levi was revved up for a turn on the big swing, but nope. He lifted one little leg before reconsidering and then ran in the opposite direction, literally saying "Nope, nope, nope." ha ha ha ha ha

That grey hooded sweater slays me. He will be wearing it until he's in high school.

Okay, Monday, let's do this!! I am currently finishing up my VERY LAST Wendy Darling dress and I think that deserves some major celebrating... we'll be heading to the grocery store later, does that count?? ;)

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

Handpicked from my littlest love. #allthehearteyes

We got lots of (much needed) rain over the weekend, but the sun popped out a little bit here and there. Nothing beats playing with Daddy in the backyard.

Poor bug got poison ivy last week and it's fiiiiinally going away. We have no idea how it even happened! You can see some of the spots on his cheek and chest. :(  We also learned that he can drink just fine from a water bottle or a cup- didn't know that before he begged me for mine and I let him have it, ha ha.

She decorated this shirt all by herself for the school assembly. Too bad she doesn't look happy about it, right? ;)

I joined the garden club in our town and helped out with the biggest plant sale fundraiser of the year on Friday and Saturday. I was in HEAVEN surrounded by all those gorgeous colors and blooms. There are so many nice ladies (and some men) there and it always feels good to meet new people doing something you love.

Isabelle noticed two birds flitting around one of our arborvitaes and sure enough...baby birds! I'm always amazed by how quickly baby birds grow. In just a few days they already have little feathers. There are four sparrows. :)

 I wrote on Instagram that all I could think when I carried this to our neighborhood party was Baby's "I carried a watermelon." HaHaHa

 #stripesforever

Someone was living his best life on this hammock at the party :)

It was almost a pool day :) Temps are supposed to soar again so we may have a real pool day soon!

I thought Jonah's last day of work was Saturday night... he got really sick with flu-like symptoms on Thursday and was pretty much out of commission most of the weekend, so it didn't much matter. Then I found out his actual last day is today, soooo we just celebrated a little early. He starts his new job later this week! It was GOOD. Maybe I should blog the recipe?? I've tweaked it a bit over the years and it's always a hit.

Ethan showed him how to squirt himself in the face, and he LOVED it. ha ha ha

 Cutest little helper

Isabelle's whole week is made because I finally let her watch The Greatest Showman, ha ha. I must say, I was VERY conflicted about the movie seeing it the first time, but this second time, I enjoyed it much, much more. Go figure! Hope you had a nice weekend! Anything exciting happen?

I've just listed some more items over at Rose and Ruffle, and you can find me on Instagram @bethanylivs_life