Trick or Treat!

It was pouring rain this Halloween, so it definitely made things interesting. Princess Ana didn't want to show up for Halloween so we made a quick divert to becoming a ballerina instead. Paige loved her ballerina outfit because she didn't realize she was "dressed up" at all. Big sister was totally in Halloween mode. "It's Elsa Day!"

Rain let up for a picture. Look at P in the back. She didn't get any candy in her bag, but she was having so much fun!

Best neighbor friends, even in a downpour. Elsa, Snow White, and Batman held hands the whole time.

Happy Halloween!

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No telling

Based on the fall festival parade at the girls school on Friday, there's no telling what Halloween is going to look like.

One of my girls is sooo happy playing dress up and the other is too mad to dress up. 

Not sure if Paige is going to be able to handle her Ana costume tomorrow.

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Go Rice!

Football games with little boo's is just a whole different experience. There's so much more going on than "just" watching a game. :)

Pop Pop had his hands full chasing two little owls around the stadium.

Stadium Chick-Fil-A with Gigi.

Go RICE!

Paige pulling PopPop around the stadium.

Our Crew

Jeffrey and I realized a day late that this gathering was on the day of Mom and Dad's 34th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary!!

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Seared Pork with Roasted Grapes

I went to a Sur la Table cooking class with a friend and learned a thing or two or twenty :). Did you know you say table like "Taub"? Apparently I've been saying it wrong for years. I didn't much care for the instructor but this seared pork tenderloin recipe is pretty much on point. I think the roasted grapes were one of the biggest epiphany's I had in the class. It went something like this "Grapes? I have those. And I roast things all the time. I should do this. Who thought of roasting grapes? why didn't I think of this sooner?"

Don't be shy with the salt and I definitely recommend letting the meat marinade all day or overnight. Enjoy!

As much as an iPhone picture can entice you... look at that herb crust!

Our meal wasn't just meat.

And the girls pretty much didn't touch any of this meal. Mostly because Paige is big time teething right now and is only interested in yogurt and applesauce. No fun.

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Any Guesses?

What is Ross doing in these pictures?

Laundry? That's a good guess, but even this is more chaotic than Ross's laundry pile.

Packing for the ranch? Also a good guess, but this trip he has a spreadsheet packing list and a big hiking backpack....

Ross is prepping for an upcoming 10-day Idaho Elk hunt. So much prep work is required. Roma and I just watch :)

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My Bday

Somehow I missed posting some of these birthday pictures. There's so much classic "Claire" in them.

1. Claire opens my presents, sometimes before I even see them.

2. I ask Claire to smile and she does her most intense grimace

Love these 2 little nuggets so much. Can you tell we're related?! :)

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Special G'parent Time

Hanging out with Gigi and Pop Pop a couple weeks ago. Claire loves to "share" a gatorade with pop pop. haha.

This pictures was a calm in the storm, which was Paige's double ear infection (i.e. both ears) which over the span of a week took 3 trips to the doctor and 3 different antibiotics to finally kick it.

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HOME

Back from Midland.

I hope to get a good blog post in tomorrow- G'night blog-o-sphere!

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Halloween Planning

What is everyone going to be for Halloween?

Claire informed me she wanted to be Spider Girl, but when I googled costumes for her to see, she the mask over the eyes was too scary. So we went to...

Ariel, from Little Mermaid. But, when I showed Claire the Mermaid costumes online she wasn't pleased that you could see feet coming through the tail. "That's not a very good mermaid Mom" And she also says "Ariel has red hair, I don't have red hair Mom" So we went beck to...

our favorite movie right now... Frozen. Claire is going to be Elsa for Halloween. "Look mom, Elsa's hair has golden hair just like mine. we're matching!" :) Little Paige is going to be little sister Anna.

Stay tuned for pictures!

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Nashville

Nashville, also known as, Ladies Trip 2017 has come to a close. Mom and I flew to Nashville for the weekend to visit with my cousin Courtney and her momma. Wine, stories, shopping, eating, coffee, laughing, staying up late... All of the good stuff. Thanks for having us! If only we could have gotten Southwest Airlines to depart on time for us to get home. Four hour departure delays are no fun, but they're a whole lot less fun when traveling with littles and mine weren't with me this trip. Silver lining?

Here's some pictures from our weekend.

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The Ladies

Until Paige gets more consistent with her smiles, here's a "3 generations" picture, minus P:

You can also see my Ariel Little Mermaid birthday cake :)

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Family Pictures

One of the challenges of being our family photographer is actually being in our family photos. Which is why I enlist the experts at least once a year :) Well this year the odds were stacked against us. Our whole family was recovering from a stomach flu and Paige Renae was having major trouble shaking her double ear infections (I mean 3 antibiotics, seriously?). So let's all head to family pictures, halfway sick, while dressed in the cutest fall attire which is entirely wrong for a record breaking HOT October day. Paige cried non-stop for 27 minutes of our 30 minute time block with the photographer. I wouldn't say I cried in the car on the way home, but I was on the edge. 

Fast forward--> The photographer sent over the proofs tonight and the pictures look amazing. I mean she turned lemons into my favorite kind of lemonade. So imagine what she could do with a non-crying baby? Hopefully we'll find out on next years shoot :)

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Cooking with Pop Pop

Say what? Cooking? According to Claire, that's a Yessir. Ross's truck was the "Kitchen" and the water jugs were "coffee" and "milk"...

Love this girls imaginative play! So fun.

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Driveway Fun

No wonder some neighbors stop by frequently ... and other neighbors infrequently :)

Look how happy P looks.

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Pool Days

Who needs to build a pool when you can buy a cheap plastic one, huh?!

Heck, we can even buy TWO pools. One for each girl.

So much "talking" about things.

This was  all "pre-stomach virus" fun at the lake house. We are still trying to shake this bug o'er here.

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