the weather in texas is unbelievable this week! after being iced in for two days, it is snowing buckets and buckets. get us back to the california coast pronto, okay??
pumpkin patch 2.0
i think i already mentioned that ava is obsessed with pumpkins, so we have been looking forward to a trip to the pumpkin patch for quite some time now. but better late than never, we ended up not being able to find time until the day before halloween. texas is big into pumpkin patches apparently, but most of them cost $8-10 just to get in, which i think is pretty ridiculous. we did a quick google search and found one in flower mound that has free admission, just $5 to park and all the activities were free. they had bounce houses and a million character cutouts and tractor rides and it was awesome. we went at the perfect time, about 3pm, and beat the crowds. ava's cousins joined us for this little rendezvous and she had so much fun jumping in the bounce house and climbing haystacks and going through the maze with her cousins. she could just sit and watch her older cousins for hours and they are always so attentive and sweet with her and it makes me really happy. one of the major reasons we moved to texas was so ava could grow up with her cousins and it makes me feel really satisfied to see their relationships develop.
our ava is now already dressed in her princess sofia costume and she is ready for some trick-or-treating. i've got some taco soup in the crockpot and i've told david we will watch a scary movie after ava goes down for bed and mind you, i don't like scary movies. but tis the season! and the last day for all things spooky! halloween is the greatest, guys. make it a good one!
(ps. don't let her stink-face in the family photo fool ya. she had a jolly good time and conked out the whole drive home. zzzz)
pss. to see how much ava has changed in just one year, check out our pumpkin patch trip from last year here. (crying inside. where did my baby go?)
texas forever
clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
we started the friday night lights series on netflix when i was pregnant with ava. we were working for the summer in south carolina and david would come home at night and we would eat snacks in bed and watch episode after episode of tim riggins and matt saracen and coach taylor.
i can remember the details of that time like it was yesterday; the smell of the mustella lotion i rubbed on my pregnant belly twice a day, the dingy yellow kitchen lights, the angry rain pounding against the bedroom window. those were dark days, but somehow i always end up loving the hardest seasons of my life. i suppose in retrospect, i can see how they changed me and how i survived them and how in the strangest way, those struggles were beautiful because struggling is beautiful. it means we are alive and feeling and growing and conquering.
since moving to texas, every drive takes me back to that summer. to charleston, to a kicking baby in my belly, to pita chips and cold turkey sandwiches with mustard, to the loud thump of david crushing cockroaches in the kitchen, to the dillon panthers and feeling lost in a world where i didn't belong anymore. i feel that pain and see that time in the wide open spaces and sun-bleached grass of this texas landscape i now call home. it's a reminder of how far this little family has come and how dark days are fleeting and how all our trials are written with tears and kept safe in our hearts and they make our lives that much richer, our stories that much deeper, our sunny days that much brighter.
there is a plan for us. our suffering is never in vain.
that i know for sure. and may these texas sunsets never let me forget it.
if you love cheap thrills like i do, you will totally be down with www.sammydress.com where this floral sweater is from! check out thousands and thousands of unbelievably cute clothing items for dirt cheap my friends!