Snapshots From The Christmas Tree Farm.

I told you I would do it Sunday, come hell or high water... and we did.
I just talked about my serious lack of Holiday spirit here if you want to read it.
The Christmas tree was found, cut down, purchased and put up... and I have the pictures to prove it.

First a few pictures with my big girl camera because I have been so bad about getting it out and using it but Sunday I got

a few before I started having trouble with it. Boooo.

It was cold and windy so we found our tree pretty quickly and then headed into the barn for hot chocolate and popcorn.

And a few iPhone photos, of course.

I love this one of Charlotte sizing up a tree and the one of the two of them together.

It was a really dreary day... gray skies and cold. 

No snow this year though which hasn't been the case for the last few years anyway.

The tree is decorated, the Christmas music is playing, I am starting to feel it a little bit more.
A little bit, I said.
Bing Crosby might just end up doing it for me.
Also-- this view with the lights and the smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree doesn't hurt, either.
Sigh.


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New Holiday Traditions + Pie Crust

Today I am going to attempt a pumpkin pie.
A pumpkin pie and my grandma's homemade crust.
I'm nervous.
I'm pretty sure I'll fail... but I'm trying it anyway.


My grandma made the BEST pies and my mom does, too.
I want to learn how to make them with made-from-scratch crust, and for Charlotte to learn to make them one day as well.
I want to make this a new tradition, me and the kids making a pie the week of Thanksgiving...
Maybe getting good enough one day down the road to make a few and deliver them to some of our favorite people.
Maybe? Like way down the road?

This is what I will be attempting this afternoon...
Wish me luck! 

Do you have any favorite holiday traditions?
Or read about any neat ones you'd like to share?
Or just want to begin yourself?

Happy Monday, friends.

Oh, We Know How To Do Sundays

Ahhhh... Sunday afternoons.
They have always been one of my favorite days/times of the week.
Always.
Until they weren't anymore.

In 2005,  when my little Wyatt was just 14 months old, my grandma passed away and it was the end of so many things for me... and for our whole
family I suppose.
So many things that were ingrained in my life, things that were just a part of our schedules and weekends and lives... things I realize now I always
kind of thought would be around... even though I knew they really wouldn't.

In my family Sundays have always been a day to get together.
Ever since I was little we always went down to my grandma + grandpa's house on Sundays, sometimes we went for dinner and lots of times we would
just go for dessert- and if you want the honest truth, for my grandma's homemade pie.
There will never, ever be a better pie maker, although a few of my aunt's and my mom do get pretty darn close.
Peach pie, strawberry pie, apple pie, and for my grandpa, mince meat pie.
And in the Summer, one those hot and sticky days when we were really lucky, when we pulled in the drive and headed to the back door and saw my grandpa sitting
on the back patio in his light blue pant-jeans and his short sleeved dress shirt, sitting in the corner by the ice cream maker, we knew it was an extra-special Sunday.
Homemade, hand-cranked vanilla ice cream.
Not only one of the best things I have honestly ever had the pleasure of tasting, but one of my most favorite childhood memories, my Grandpa Jesse's
homemade ice cream.

When your mom is one of fifteen kids, you have a lot of cousins, you're surrounded by family.
Lots of older cousins, younger cousins and cousins your own age... it is a good thing.
When your mom is one of fifteen kids you grow up LUCKY.
You come from a family of hard-workers, with good values, that knew what the important things in life really were, and I knew from a very young age
that the most important thing is family.
I have been lucky enough to grow up with and near my cousins, who were not only some of my first playmates as kids, but today are some of
my closest friends... much like extra siblings.
That is a true gift from my grandma and grandpa, a gift of cousins and aunts and uncles, that all love me no matter what.

These days,  Sundays look a little bit different... and they are much more few and far between.
The big, beautiful old white farm house where my mom and her siblings grew up is now occupied by my uncle and aunt.
The funky carpet is gone, the walls are painted, floors refinished, heavy old drapes have been removed... but it is still the same.
The attic that all of us kids used to play in on holidays has now been renovated into a full apartment/guest space... there is a huge pond now out back
behind the garage where the old barn used to be.
It's the only place that can hold our family; Christmas Eve with 65+ people really just can't be anywhere else but there....most of our Holiday
traditions still live on in this house, but now with our kids, the next generation of grandkids.
Sometimes it makes me really sad that my grandma + grandpa did not get to see all of us raising our kids, their great-grandkids, but I think they would be
pretty proud of us for the most part.

This is where my family is, this is where my heart will always be, in that big old house, in that small town, in the country, by the fields
and next to the cemetery.
Last time we were all there together, on the day where all of these pictures were taken, we all got together and had homemade ice cream and dessert,
courtesy of that super fancy ice cream maker(above).
The kids swam in the pond, we told stories, chased kids, ate pie, got all caught up with each other...
It was a good day, so good,  the kind where you stay way later than you planned to because it's just right where you know you should be,
and you just can't seem to make yourself leave.
I drove home that night in the Jeep, windows down, through the country, just the kids and I... completely quiet because they were so tired... with a full heart.

Sometimes I like to think about the first time I took Wyatt down to meet my grandma.
It was a Sunday afternoon, no doubt, and by this time my grandpa had been gone several years and my grandma was pretty much completely blind
for quite a while now, due to Diabetes.
I remember taking Wyatt over there to her in the most handsomest little outfit he had,  putting him in her arms and her looking down at him and saying;
"Well, I'm sure he's awfully handsome"(because she couldn't see his face), and giving him a kiss on the forehead.
She told him that she loved him and although my memory is not always the greatest, I knew right in that instant that I would
never, ever forget that moment.

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Hope you are all having a great weekend... Happy Saturday!!

(Filled)With Love

I thought I would show you a little bit of the LOVE going on around here today and 

what I still have in the works for Thursday for my three favorite people.

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But first, let it be noted here, that for me personally, I'm not super into Valentine's Day 

for myself but I do like to make it a little special for the kids. 

I loved  the Valentine's Day parties at school when I was a kid; my very favorite thing was

 making those shoe box mailboxes.  Ahhhh.... the memories.

I made these super easy paper candy-filled Valentine's for the kids today.

I am not the mom that stays up until midnight working on these kinda projects--

 it's gotta be fairly quick and easy..... and I'm in!

Just cut two hearts out of brown craft paper( I just used a paper bag), 

stitch it up most of the way around, add candy +  finish stitching it shut.

Super easy and super cute.

Tonight we are going to work on some special Valentine's for their teachers and grandparents.

Glitter , glue ribbon + tape... all the fixin's for the perfect Valentine.

Thursday night we have Lego Club at school so we won't be doing anything special

 + we won't have a whole lot of time,  but I am going to make my 3 favorite people a special treat.

The kids(and Eric) all love brownies so I am going to make them heart-shaped brownies in these 

cute little tins-- yet another thing we got from Eric's grandparent's house recently.

Uhh... brownies with chocolate frosting + sprinkles? 

They will be so happy when they come home from school on Thursday and see their little 

personal brownies.

Do you have any Valentine's Day traditions you like to do for or with your kids/husband/family?

Any fun crafting ideas?

Favorite Valentine candy? Activities? Meals?

Tell me all about it... I wanna hear!

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Happy Tuesday, y'all, hope it's a good one.

Memorial Day

 I am sitting here on the couch eating an apple with peanut butter (yum)

 and editing some of my pictures from Memorial Day weekend.

These pictures make me happy and looking through them makes me realize once again just

 how lucky I am to have such a big, close extended family. 

I'm sure when my grandma and grandpa were young and having (so many!) kids they never realized 

just how far the roots of their family would stretch. It is truly amazing to me.

I think my pictures probably tell the story better than I can; we had a great weekend.

In case you didn't read here yesterday, we have been going down to my aunt & uncle's 

cabin (aka: The Farm) since around 1980. Every single year since I can remember. 

It is a weekend we look forward to every year.

*{You can see more Farm posts here and here}

Someone said they counted sixteen kids there this year.
 Sixteen cousins and second-cousins (and maybe even third cousins?) although the
 second-cousin thing doesn't matter to me, a cousin is a cousin.
I love that my kids get to spend time like this with their cousins like I did when I was their age.
My wish for them is that they have the bond and strong relationship like I do with my cousins and
 my extended family. I think that is truly one of the greatest gifts we can give our children.

A weekend of spending nearly all day and much of the night outside, pretty much disconnected 

from the "real world" besides our phones and weather radios.

The kids played in the playhouse, in the sand box and on the tire swing. 

They played catch and frisbee and went on rides on the four-wheeler. 

They hiked through the woods and went fishing.

The adults talked and pushed kids on the tire swing, held babies and ate lots of good food.

Maybe a little too much good food. Okay, way too much.

Like these homemade cinnamon rolls Sunday morning.

My little family slept in our tent this year instead of sleeping at my parent's cabin, which is in walking distance from The Farm. There is nothing like sleeping out in a tent, feeling the fresh air, listening to the bugs and outdoor sounds and seeing the stars right from where you are sleeping.

Well, except for sleeping in your own bed the next night maybe.
I could not count the number of nights we tent-camped when I was little, we camped all over
the country in a blue and yellow Coleman tent.

My favorite part of the weekend?

When we all walked out to the field with our flashlights in the pitch dark to watch the

 lightning bug show. Hundreds and hundreds of lightning bugs. 

It was very cool.

***

Thanks for hanging in there with me for all of those pictures.

Kinda ridiculous, right? I actually think I might have enough to still do another post.

Just looking back over these pictures has me convinced I have a tick somewhere on my body.
And it's driving me a little bit crazy.