October & November | 2015

"Anne thought those Friday evening gipsyings over the autumnal hills in the crisp golden air, with the homelights of Avonlea wrinkling beyond, were the best and dearest hours in the whole week."

-L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I have spent many an hour over the last couple of months "gipysing" my way around with a camera in my hands and smile on my face with old and new friends, but while I love to get out, I love to come home.

We've been on a great many adventures this fall - here is a little recap of our October and November...

A trip to Fontanelle Forest, the Henry Doorly Zoo, and Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Lincoln Children's Museum

Hall Family Photo Attempt No. 13

Hall/Kahnk Family Photo Attempt No. 146

Hall/Kahnk Family Photo Attempt No. 756

A winner, if I do say so myself :)

birthday cupcake

Someone turned ONE!

Can't wait to share his post soon. Milo, you are growing up too fast.

Uncle Pat built us a new deck!

We sold our hot tub, pushed the stair line back, decided on rails instead of benches, and exposed all of the concrete we had. It is wonderful. And of course when your uncle who is a Kahnk builds it, it's pretty much perfect and going to outlive your house. "Solid" doesn't even come close enough to describing this thing. More like "immovable." The inspector said it was the best one he'd ever seen. !!! Thanks, Uncle Pat! We love it!!

squirrel

Alice is quite the builder herself which she gets from both the Kahnk and the Hall side. Last year we got her a little set of Tegu blocks (colorful wooden magnetic ones!) and when asked what she built, she told her daddy it was a squirrel. It's probably the best one you could possibly make with these things, too! She should be in charge of creating the manual of animals to build.

Kind of super proud of this.

Alice's Second Book

Another thing I'm crazy proud of? Alice the Author.

Alice will draw a collection of pages, dictate to me what they are, and then insists on turning them into a book. Her imagination and drive in this is something that surprised me because I never once suggested it - it was completely her idea.

Post to come on her first two books :)

Papa Bear

Playing with letters :)

We have been very hands off when it comes to "teaching" Alice. We sing and talk and read and I answer all of her questions, but we have never really sat down with the objective of "teaching." Alice wanted to write a birthday card to Papa Bear so I spelled it out for her and she asked to copy it. Good eye, Alice! This is one of her first attempts at writing ("drawing") letters.

tight rope shenanigans

I really don't know where she gets her ideas...

Daddy's slide

Maybe she gets them from this guy?

JD has been building things at night for the kids to find in the morning. On the back of this megablock slide was a little compartment to hold the ball for dropping down the chute. So clever!

"Heartland"

Painting commission I did for our local dentist office, Heartland Dentistry, for their foyer.

pocket squares

My sister is so talented! She made a set of these darling little pocket squares for Master Milo and he looks so dapper with a triangle sticking out of his pants. The backing is soft and absorbent, too, so I can actually use them to wipe his nose.

Thanks, Aunt Lynnie!

hot chocolate party

Alice and I love enjoying these in my studio when Milo naps :)

butterbeer

Yes, as in Harry Potter Butterbeer. I found a recipe on Pinterest, so when my sister came over for our annual baking date, she brought the ingredients (including butterscotch sauce from scratch!) and I whipped some cream.

It was everything I had hoped for and more.

tea cup

My Gramma gave me this cup recently and it sums up my early childhood memories of going there. I'll never forget, there was one morning in particular that was early winter, dark, and the sky was still blue like this cup. The cedar treeline at home was dark and jagged against the sky. My dad loaded us into his truck to take us to Gramma's for the day. We got inside and it smelled like cinamon rolls and coffee, it was warm, and the lights in the kitchen were merry. And there were two people sitting at the table, waiting for our little faces to arrive. We ate smores pop tarts. Papa read the paper (and we teasingly poked it every few seconds). Gramma was listening to some commentary on the AM radio. It was love and welcome and cozy.

I love this cup - I'll always think of this memory.

tomatoes

Oh my word, I had so many tomatoes this year! And they were late. Like, producing til November and we finally had to hack them down because it was starting to freeze. Instead of canning in jars, I preserved them in freezer bags and stacked them to save room. We did that for our bell and pablano peppers, too, so now we have a lot of the ingredients for chili!