Lyla Rose

Let me tell you, out of the many things we've been blessed with, easy, compliant children is certainly not one of them.  *Insert all the quotes about strong wills leading to success here.*  I fully believe every bit of that, but it doesn't make the whole parenting gig any easier when you're in the trenches of defiance and attitude and ungodly amounts of energy.  Sometimes it's hard to keep a long term perspective, and on those tough days mostly it just feels like I'm getting everything wrong!

Lyla, our cute little Tasmanian Devil, has always given us a run for our money.  Two was hard, Two and a half was harder, 3 was worse, and 3 1/2 didn't get any better.  When she turned 4 we finally started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I saw someone describe 4 as equal parts frazzled and dazzled, and man was that ever accurate.

Well, now my girl is 4 1/2, and I swear that must be a magic number or something.  We have so turned a corner with her, and all of a sudden I get to spend most of my days just plain dazzled.  There really isn't a better word, she is dazzling to me.  She's bright and cheery and always excited.  She's kind and loving and genuinely cares about everyone around her.  She notices when someone is feeling down, and always stops to see what's wrong.  She buzzes around trying to fix whatever problem her little sister is crying about.  All of that has always been true, but the biggest difference now is that she really tries to be good.  It matters to her all of a sudden.  I get obedience and apologies and a good attitude in her responses (most days.  Believe me, we still have our moments.  Lots of them!) and I know that our hard work is paying off.  For the time being anyways.  :)

Her heart is truly gold, and she makes me so proud.  She's my ice cream sundae with a cherry on top.  It's such a treat being her mama.

The real reason for this post is talk about my new tattoo!  Last year I found the perfect Joy tattoo that I couldn't resist, and immediately felt like a bit of a jerk for having a tattoo for my second daughter, but not my first.  I'd always liked the idea of a Rose, since it's both of our middle names, and finally settled on a wild rose.  Seemed kind of fitting.  :) 

Here are some photos of me and my wild rose, and my wild rose tattoo.  ;)

- K

8th Anniversary Dinner!

We celebrated our 8th anniversary a couple of days ago, and decided to just stay in.  Typically we do the whole dress up and go out to a fancy dinner thing, but this year I couldn't think of anything better than celebrating with the two best little things that have come out of these 8 years.

Lyla has been really into weddings for a little while now.  She gets out my wedding dress and makes me put it on, looks through our wedding album, and sings our wedding song with her dad.  She tells us not to worry because when she gets married she'll either live with us or right next door.  :)

It's so cute to me how much kids love family.  Both of our girls have always been obsessed about having our entire family together.  Each would cry for me from their cribs, and as soon as I showed up they wanted to know where Dada was too.  And when we were all together they'd list off everyone's names with a smile.  Evie still does that, finishing with "mine whole family!"  They just love being together, it's almost all that really matters in their little worlds.

Marriage is tough and wonderful and everything in between.  After having kids it's so much harder to stay focused on each other, but we do our best, and not just for ourselves but for our babies.  Because our marriage isn't only about us anymore, and it doesn't only affect us.  It's really about them too.  We work hard to stay committed, and getting to celebrate with our precious girls - the very best fruit of our labor - was absolutely perfect.  (And also chaotic and messy and mostly gross according to them ;)

Can't wait for a million more years!

- K

 

Ryan brought each of us our own bouquet of flowers when he came home  :)

 

Lyla tried king crab for the first time in Alaska and LOVED it.  So we had to include that in our little feast.  :)

 

 

 

Loving her crab!  I'm pretty sure she had more than Ryan and I combined.

 

Sis on the other hand said "not really like this", which we were thankful for.  More for us!  ;)

 

 

The girls took turns taking pictures with our camera.  Never mind the big spider web decoration in the background...

 

The best we could do for a family pic before my camera died.  Love these people.

Valley SCARE!

We've been wanting to take Lyla and Evie back to Valley Fair one more time before the season ends, so we took advantage of the warmer weather on Sunday and headed out to ride some rides.  With Halloween being around the corner they transformed the park into Valley Scare, complete with a haunted house and creepy decorations everywhere.  If there are two things our girls love, it's riding rides and creepy decorations, so it was pretty much their dream come true.

Lyla went through the haunted house with her dad, which made me a little nervous.  When they came out they told me how she'd looped both arms around her dad's arms, covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes while being guided with dad's hands on her shoulders.  She calmly told me it was way too scary and she was not doing it again.  I couldn't believe how calm she was about the whole thing.  She may have been scared, but she handled it like a champ.  I am constantly impressed with her bravery!

Sis found a candy corn she wanted to take home, and a new found love for posing for pictures.  She couldn't stop cheesing it up with that huge, decorative candy corn.  It was pretty darn cute.  Especially for a girl that typically fights tooth and nail to NOT take a picture.

Sundays are always the best, but this one was particularly good.  :)

- K

 

This carousel is from 1925!

 

 

Look at that pose and smile!  TOO CUTE.

 

 

She may not have looked, but she survived Zombie High School!

 

 

Meanwhile, Sis and I got photo bombed.  ;)

 

 

Had to have one more photo sesh with that big ol' candy corn!

A Day at the Apple Orchard

Fall is here, and I'm loving every crisp aired, leaf changing minute of it.  Fall is particularly good in Minnesota with all the pumpkin patches, Fall festivals and apple orchards they have going on all season.  Last year the girls and I met some friends at a super cute apple orchard, and I knew we had to get Ryan there.  We decided to head out there last weekend, and it was the best day.  The drive out there is so much fun itself.  It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and driving by all the farmhouses and red barns and corn fields and rolling pastures always has our family daydreaming about the little hobby farm we want and all the different animals we'd get.

There was so much to do, and the weather was just perfect.  If only that cool, crisp air wasn't a reminder of the pending doom of winter.  ;)

Here are some photos of our day!

- K