A Halloween fit for a Princess!

A sure sign that it is fall are the costumes and candy of Halloween!  I actually really like Halloween, I know there are some people who aren't so fond of it, but particularly as a Mom, I enjoy watching the kids get all dressed up and run from house to house with the anticipation of collecting their loot!

One thing Lila loves is to pick out her costume each year.  We get several catalogs in the mail and when they come I give them to her and she will thumb through them deliberately looking for the
P-E-R-F-E-C-T costume!  This year she was a bit torn between Glinda the Good Witch and the Pink Princess you see below!  After much deliberation she settled on the Pink Princess and there were squeals when the costume was delivered!

Our Halloween celebrations began on Wednesday when the girls were able to wear their costumes to dance!  It is always fun to see the studio a buzz with all the kids in their costumes!

Dress up @ Dancers Edge

Halloween landed on a Friday this year, so Lila was excited to incorporate some Halloween orange (with pink, of course) into her uniform attire.  Her school also does a Halloween party in each classroom and then the parents are invited to attend the Halloween parade which each student gets the opportunity to strut their stuff!

All ready to celebrate Halloween at school!

The parade was so cute!  The kids walked through the gym with their classmates.  The oldest kids went first, so we saw our niece, Celia, dressed as the acclaimed Porsche designer Magnus Walker.  Celia is definitely her Daddy's girl.  My brother Jason is a huge car fanatic.  I can only imagine how proud he was that his daughter went as automotive innovator!

Our car girl, Celia, as Magnus Walker - don't know who that is?!
 (click here)

Next in line was our other niece, Ruby!  She was dressed up as a police officer -- she was looking so cute with her uniform and accessories!

Officer Ruby!

The Kindergartners weren't too far behind and before we knew it there was Princess Lila walking through the gym!  She was so excited to be showing off her beautiful costume to all of her friends.

Doing the princess wave!

Every Princess needs to be friends with Bat Girl!

After the school festivities we loaded Lila up and headed to TrueNorth for our annual Halloween party.  Each year a committee puts together a fun filled afternoon for the kids to come and trick-or-treat at the office.

TrueNorth Halloween-style

A quick pic with Grandpa & Laura

Could Mom's work be any cooler?  Coloring, candy, and cupcakes!

And last, but not least, we headed home to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood.  With this being our first Halloween here it was fun to try out a new tradition.  I won't lie, sometimes transitioning from the past traditions are hard on Lila, hard on all of us, but we are trying to be really open minded and are excited to create new memories!

Our new neighborhood has actually really blown us away with how involved (and proud) the homeowners are.  There are so many neat events throughout the year that allow everyone to get together and enjoy being neighbors and Halloween is included in that -- and it didn't disappoint! 

Ready to conquer the neighborhood!

The princess walking through "her" park!

Tradition - walking hand in hand with her Dad - there are some things that Mom just can't touch!

Visiting house after house after house...

A princess and her Daddy!

The neighborhood was decked out with all sorts of decorations and families were out and about to socialize and assist their kids in their quest for candy!  There was even a half way point in the neighborhood where they had set up a fire pit in a drive way with hot drinks to go and soup to warm up on, if you were hungry.  What a fun evening in our new neighborhood!

Success!!!

"FALL" in love!

It is no secret that fall is my favorite time of year.  I love it for many reasons: the color palette, the smells, the temperatures, football, bonfires, leaves, scarves, and many more!  But the main reason it is my favorite season is because of the first weekend in October...our annual pumpkin patch trip and fall decor addition to our house.  This is a tradition that Mike & I have had since we moved into our very first home and one that we have continued with each move and have happily included our little girl in!

Our first home all decorated with pumpkin patch finds!

House #2!  Our cute little pumpkin gets added to the decor!

The first weekend in October had finally arrived!  It was a cool day, so we got all layered up to go pumpkin pickin'!  We couldn't leave the house without a mini photo shoot (Lila is a fan of the camera)!

Pumpkin patch style!

Posing for a picture by the big tree!

Each year we go to a local farm called Bart's to get our pumpkins and have a little bit of fall fun!  Bart's is great because it isn't overdone like some of the more commercial pumpkin patches.  While those are fun, we like the more intimate vibe that Bart's gives off.  There isn't a fee to get in, you come in, you enjoy, and you pay for your pumpkins and off you go!

We've arrived at our favorite spot! BRRRR!!!!  It's cold!

Staking her claim on the pumpkins at Bart's!

It didn't take long and we were off and running!  It isn't unusual for us to have several wagons full of goodies to take home with us!  Mike is such a good sport running stuff back to the truck as we collect.

Taking our loot to the truck!

One of Lila's favorite activities (and the original reason she started taking riding lessons) is the pony rides out at the farm!  This year the pony's name was Ned!

Lila & Ned

Enjoying the ride!

She looks so big up there vs. how little she looks on a big horse!

A quick photo op before loading up the final bits!

A full load!

I have to admit that I was super nervous this year for this tradition.  I wasn't nervous about going to Bart's and having fun, that is a guarantee!  I was nervous about decorating a new porch.  I didn't know how it was going to play out, what would it look like?  Would it look as good as our last house did?  It was like the old house was made for fall decor with the bigger porch!  I truly stressed about this more than I care to admit!  I wanted to be sure that I felt as good about it in the new house as I have in our other homes -- it is my favorite tradition, after all!

Helping Mom place the pumpkins

Poser!

It wasn't too long after we started placing the straw and the pumpkins that it all really started to come together!  We got into a quick rhythm and before we knew it the porch was starting to look like a cozy fall scene -- exactly what I was hoping for!

Including the most important pumpkin of them all!

Welcome fall!

"Fall"-ing in LOVE!

It wasn't until late this summer that I really started to relax and embrace our move.  The moving process was far more stressful than I could have ever imagined, which didn't allow me to really enjoy this beautiful house we had moved into.  In fact, if anything, it really deterred me and made me a bit skeptical.  I have finally had moments where I find myself loving it here the way I envisioned loving it here all those months ago!  Continuing our pumpkin patch tradition and seeing the porch come together so beautifully has only made me FALL more in LOVE!

Meet Tully!

The newest member of the Eddins family arrived on Tuesday, August 12th!  In one of the most spontaneous decisions we have ever made we welcomed a little Boxer/Shar Pei mix, named Tully, into the family!  And the story goes like this...

I am a volunteer on the board of the Cedar Valley Humane Society and I had gotten word that we were getting a large group of dogs in at the shelter from Missouri, many of them puppies.  I have a team of ladies that I work with at the office and we are all animal lovers, so I was showing them pictures of the puppies online.  We decided to take a little field trip to the shelter to go see a particular dog for my co-worker, Jean.  

When we were there, I peeked in on a few puppies that looked very similar to Tag, our male dog who is a Black Mouth Cur.  Black Mouth Cur's are unheard of around here and if you remember Tag's story, it ended up taking Mike all the way to Texas to pick him up.  So, I was a bit enamored with the fact that there were puppies that looked so much like him out at the shelter.  However, this was about my co-worker and her falling in love with a puppy, not about us needing another dog (that would be crazy!)!

Well, we left the shelter and headed back to the office and we were all puppy drunk!  I couldn't stop thinking about these little girl puppies that looked so much like Tag.  I sent Mike a picture via text message and he said, "cute."  I then proceeded to tell him that maybe he should go take a look.  To which he replied, "if I go out to the shelter I won't be able to leave without a dog."  My response was, "go look, I left without a dog, just go see the two dogs (named: Dorothy & Tabatha at the time).  There was a bit more back and forth via text message, but ultimately Mike was headed to the store to get stuff for dinner and to pick-up Lila.  

I head home and pull in the driveway and look over and much to my surprise my family was in the back yard - Mike, Lila, Luca, Tag, and a NEW puppy!  At that very moment reality sunk in.  WHAT?!  We can't have another dog, let alone a puppy!  We are INSANE!  I seriously meant for him to just go look and then he would come home empty handed and we would talk each other out of it!  Nope.  She was there.  Hanging out in the backyard with my family, making herself at home!  

I get out of the car absolutely dumbfounded.  I look at Mike with my jaw on the floor and he says, "surprise!"  I look at him and say, "OH NO!  I think we should take her back."  To which Lila replies, "NOOOOOOOOO!  I LOVE HER!!!!!!"  At that moment I thought, "Uh-oh, here we go.  We are now a family with 3 dogs."  (Is there any concern that we are hoarding animals at this point?!)

In all seriousness, after the initial shock wore off, I was happy to have her.  Part of my volunteerism at the shelter is help animals find forever homes and we are happy to provide that to our sweet little Tully.  We are adjusting to having a puppy in the house again as it has been 10 years since we have done the puppy gig, but she is doing really pretty well.  Luca & Tag have really been so great to her, showing her the ropes.  And Tag has enjoyed having a buddy to rough house with and play tug of war.  

Tully Dot Eddins

Tag as a puppy                                             Tully as a puppy

Her sweet face melting into my hand

Checking out her new yard

Taking it all in

Sweet face!

Three's company!

Big Sister & Little Sister

What's he doing?!

Lila and her dogs!

Herding!

Worn out!

Getting bigger!

She has crawled right into our hearts!

It may be a little crazy to have three dogs, but to be honest, we have played so many decisions recently on the "safe side," and we weren't overly satisfied with how some of the outcomes played out...so we decided that sometimes being spontaneous, and throwing caution to the wind, can be liberating and bring quite a bit of happiness along with it!

Summer Fun!

It feels like we waited forever for summer to finally arrive in Iowa!  Now that summer is officially here we are having a lot of fun enjoying the mild weather and longer days!  We attended the Jones County Fair on July 18th to see Lee Brice & Luke Bryan perform.  TrueNorth sent the entire staff again this year in celebration of our mid-year meeting, so we invited our good friends, the Holub's, to come along with us!  

Lee Brice

Enjoying a fun night out!

Girlfriends! 

The fair never disappoints!  We always hear good music, have fantastic people watching, and there is cold beer!  Now, there always seems to be some type of crazy shenanigan that happens that solidifies the fair will always be something we talk about for years to come...but that is what memories are made of, right?!

Luke Bryan burning up the stage!

"Baby, Do I?!"

Smooch!

That same weekend Lila and I went up North to attend my cousin Alison's bridal shower.  My Grandma requested that the shower be held in her hometown of Lamont, and more specifically, at the coffee\shop that she volunteers at, Common Grounds.

On the road!

Posers!

Ali's shower was lovely and it is always nice to be surrounded by our closest family and friends...and it is a treat to have it just be the girls, it doesn't happen that often!  After the shower Grandma and I took Lila to the Dairy Sweet.  I was born in Lamont and lived there the first four years of my life, not to mention my Grandparents have always lived there, so I have some of my fondest childhood memories at the Dairy Sweet with a crunch cone in hand!

Sharing a tradition!

The first weekend in August found us making the trip up to Guttenberg to spend the weekend with the Hahn's on the river!  To kick off the fun we met on Friday afternoon for lunch at the Riverview Cafe!

Happy to be together!

Riding in style!

We made our way to the cabin to unload the cars and get settled in.  It wasn't long before the girls were begging Mike for a boat ride.  We got the big boat out and went for a cruise up to McGregor and back.  The girls thought it was awesome to be able to go down below in the boat and goof around!

View for the weekend!

Enjoying a "cold one!"

On Saturday my Dad came up to hang out with us.  We ended up getting both boats out and took them to the backwater where it is nice and calm.  The river had spots in the water where it was really low, so we tied up and anchored next to some other boats and enjoyed hanging out in the middle of the river where the adults could touch!

River girl!

Getting in!

Chilling on the tube!

Practicing her swim techniques!

1...2...3...

JUMP!

Sun-kissed!

After a fun afternoon on the water we drove the big boat up to McGregor, Grandpa wanted to take the girls to Paper Moon and to get an ice cream cone - there wasn't any argument from the little girls!

Grandpa's girl!

On the way back the girls asked if they could drive the "ship!"  My heart bursts to see pictures like this because it doesn't feel like it was that long ago that I was driving the "ship" with my Grandpa Smith.  I love that Lila gets to carry on that tradition with my Dad!

Driving the ship!

Hypnotized by the water!

Happy!

Best Buddies!

Nothing quite says summer like time spent on the river!  I am so happy that the girls will have memories of spending time with their Mommy's & Daddy's up at the river.  As I stated above, being in Guttenberg & on the Mississippi River is very special to me, I don't know life without it.  I am happy to extend that to our daughter and our friends!

Other things that have kept us busy this summer...

Riding lessons

Feeding Baby Moo @ lessons!

Frozen Dance Camp at Dancer's Edge

Pool time at Grandpa & Laura's!

The new house has an absolutely beautiful backyard that we fell in love with when we were looking at homes last year.  We moved in, in December, so we were anxious to be able to get outside and enjoy the awesome patio and yard.  We have so enjoyed spending time out there!  Lila even uses it as a stage from time to time!

Enjoying the view!

Dinner on the patio

Summer smiles!

Dance, dance, dance!

Pretty girl!

The road that brought us to the house on Vernon Drive has been a long one, but it truly felt a little more like home when we finally brought Lila's swing set over from the other house!  Ever since the swing set has been here it has been used a ton!  Lot's of laughs and fun from a little girl who was missing her swings and slide!

A little girl is very happy!

We met some good friends at the Kernels game on Friday, August 15th.  It was a pretty special night at the Kernels...Daddy & Daughter night!  We made reservations for the guys and the little girls to attend a princess party at the park!  They walked a red carpet, they were greeted with a flower, met all sorts of princesses, and had cupcakes and punch!  The girls loved meeting the princesses and we all enjoyed hanging out on a nice summer night to watch some baseball!

Pocahontas

Mulan

Cinderella

and Snow White!

Go Kernels!

Lila & Jozie!

It is hard to believe that we are getting close to back to school time.  With it being so wet in June it feels like our summer just started!  We are trying to make the most of the time that we have before fall is upon us and our schedules get busy with two students in the house!