A Grateful Heart

Table is Set

Excited for her uncles to arrive

Our Thankful Tree

Close up of Thankful Tree

Charles and Pen getting pumpkins ready for dinner

My Cuties

The Girls

The Gerber Baby?

Happy

Pecan Pie - it was SOOO yummy!

Charles at the computer

Charles at the computer

Tom hanging with the girls on the couch

The guys with the girls

Dinner

Pie Time!

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little quieter this year than in years past. And it was a good thing. My brothers came over and we had a really nice day. We listened to music and danced, we laughed, ate a ton of food, watched movies and had pie.

We have much to be thankful for this year, despite the fact that in so many ways it has been a hard year. At the top of the list this year our new and beautiful baby daughter joined our family, slipping safely and peacefully into the world and into our hearts and lives. I wanted to help Penelope understand what "thankful" is, so we made a thankful tree and hung it on the wall in the dining room. We wrote things we are thankful for on the paper leaves. I think maybe we will do one every year. It is a nice thing to see what everyone added. Big things, like a safe home birth, and smaller but also important things like warm tea and nap time, mixed in with the names of family and friends we love, and also the regular things we do every week together. And yesterday I was thankful for a happy day with my family. I was thankful for good food, for our cozy home that will keep us safe and warm all winter, for my sweet brothers who kept me smiling all day, for my beautiful babies that are my joy, and for their daddy, my mate, who I love so much. All day long I was very aware of how truly blessed I am, and so thankful for it.

Outside in November

Leaf Jumping Action Shot

Joy of Leaves

Our Rakes

Bittersweet Sky

Penelope Hiking

Beautiful Winter Grasses

Milkweed Pod

Milkweed seeds cupped in her hands

Milkweed taking flight

Fascinating

Fuzzy Hands

Daddy and Girls

Old Fence

Shadow of Flowers on Bench Leg

Golden Splendor

Beautiful, Happy Baby

Penelope at the End of our Hike

We have had some beautiful days this month. We have tried to spend as much time outside as possible. I really love the fall best for hiking and walking. I love the colors, the smells, the crispness in the air. And as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing better to do with small people than to bring them outside to places where they can run wild with no worry of cars, go far ahead of the grownups with no fear of loosing them, laugh and yell and be crazy with nobody saying "shhh!" And then to find their own quiet self and really get lost in a magical discovery, for Penelope on the hike pictured here it was milkweed that caught her attention. The time before it was wild raspberries. Soon there will be snow and we will be able to look for animal tracks on our walks!

Haloween - a month late!

Pig as a Spooky Ghost

Carving Away

The Whole Gang

Violet Being Captivated by Pumpkin Carving

Violet Peering into the Pumpkin

Funny Baby

The Wild Beauty of Fall Outside the Window

Proud Pumpkin Carvers

Halloween Dinner

Darling Baked Pumpkins

The Pink Flying Unicorn Trying to Navigate the Steps While Trick or Treating

Penelope's Pile

Penelope Choosing her Totem Animal of the Year

Steve Reading from the Totem Animal Book

Halloween was such fun this year. I meant to post these pictures so long ago,but then after a bunch of weeks went by I decided to forget it. But then while getting ready to do a Thanksgiving post I rediscovered these and decided they really are cute and I'd just put them up anyway.

Pen was very into Halloween this year, and rather fascinated by the (not to terribly) scary aspects of it as well. She was particularly curious about skelingtons (skeletons) and they will forever be skelingtons to me now, just as pumpkins will always be pum pums (Pen's word for them at 1 year).

I had planned to make Pen a costume, but fairly late in the game Pen changed her mind and we ended up buying the pink flying unicorn at a 2nd hand shop. I made Pig a costume instead. There was lots of excitement leading up to the big day. After our dinner we headed out to trick or treat and it was so much fun, for a bit I felt like I'd suddenly been plopped right into a Norman Rockwell scene. Penelope tired out much to soon, Steve and I both wanted to keep going. But we came home and helped Pen go through her loot. Then we all chose our animal totem cards, and Pen chose the horse randomly, which is really interesting because she has been totally obsessed with horses since September. Steve and I both chose Beaver randomly and separately, which is weird. The last picture is of Steve reading what the beaver card means, but I've forgotten just what it was. I'm already looking forward to next Halloween!

Quote of the Day

"My curly locks like to just lie on top of my head unhindered" - Penelope, in response to her mother's plea for her to put her hood up on a walk this morning.