Roloff Farms

Many of you have probably watched the show Little People, Big World on TLC. It features the Roloff family, a family with little people parents who are raising their 4 children on their farm here in Oregon. They actually live about 10 minutes from us, so this year my mom and I took Sydney to their pumpkin patch. It was so much fun! There was face painting, a whole lunch area, a hay maze, and a fun pumpkin family house, which had pumpkins set in domestic looking scenes. Sydney had a blast!







Chris, Sydney, and I also went to our annual pumpkin patch trip with Eric and Shelley. We don't get to see them very often, so it has become a nice tradition to go to the patch with them. We always ride the train and the boat, and Sydney always hitches a ride in the wheelbarrow.



We found our pumpkins out in the field, but we had to put one back once we went to check out and Sydney found this one painted up like Cinderella's coach!

Cake Wrecks

I have referenced in the past Cake Wrecks, which is one of my favorite websites to check out daily. It is a website dedicated to funny messed up professional cakes. The lady who started the site, Jen Yates, has become very popular and recently wrote a book about the success of her website. It is a really fun read and I enjoyed it immensely. When Jen and her husband, Jon, came to Portland recently on their book tour, I couldn't miss out. It was such a fun evening, way more than the typical book signing. They had local bakeries make replicas, or "wrecklicas" of famous wrecks from the site, my favorite being the naked mohawk carrot jockey baby.



My mom came with me to the signing and we got a book for me and my sister signed and of course I had to pose for a photo!


And these have nothing to do with cake wrecks, but here are a few cute pictures of Sydney. This top one is her America's Next Top Model pose (and no, I don't allow her to actually watch that show).


Her hair is becoming this amazing white blonde color, I love how it looks in the sunlight.


So one evening Chris was getting ready to take the garbage out, and Sydney decided she wanted to help. She went and got his sandals out of the closet, which he usually throws on to take out the trash, and was trying to heave up the heavy bag when we found her! What a good helper!


Anytime we go to the store now, she has to ride in the kiddy carts. Isn't that precious? Why didn't they have stuff like that when I was a kid?

My Grown-Up Christmas List

Dear Mom and Chris,
Once again it is your favorite time of year...the time when you can sit back and think, "Gosh, what am I going to buy for Dara this year for Christmas? I mean, she is AMAZING and INCREDIBLY COOL and FANTASTIC IN EVERY WAY so I should really get her something to show her how WONDERFUL she is." Well, here it is, my Christmas list, complete with pictures for Chris because, let's face it, he's not going to know what most of this stuff is! (Love you, babe!)

To start off with, I would like a gift card to Merry Maids for a house clean. They advertise, "shake off the burden of house cleaning" and let me tell you, I would like to shake. So please, won't you help me shake?


Second, I would like the Magic Bullet Food Processor. It can be found at Costco and so can I, drooling over it until the nice man comes and asks me to leave.


The next few items are from one of my favorites, Pampered Chef. The most random thing I want this year is the Garlic Press. Isn't it cute? Don't you think I could make wonderful garlic-y meals with it? Doesn't it look like it would be just the right size for a stocking stuffer?

Next is the Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer. Mom, I currently have yours and if you would like it back, then please buy me one.


I would like the Cranberry Appetizer Plates to complete my set of white appetizer plates.


I think that's about it. Of course, I wouldn't say no to some I-tunes money or a Barnes and Nobles gift card, either.

I love you both!
Dara

Photo Shoot

I have the honor of being cousins with a professional photographer. This will really help me as Sydney grows up so I can get all those cute moments of her captured on film. Just in time, too, because I was so tired of going to Portrait Innovations. They are so mean there and they will only do the poses they want to do and not anything that you might want. In other words, nothing original. Katie's business is awesome because she comes to you. To your home, or a park, or the beach, wherever. And she mails you a CD so you can get however many prints you want for dirt cheap at Costco or wherever, you just buy the CD from her. Brilliant! Good bye forever, Portrait Innovations. Here are some pictures from Sydney's most recent photo shoot. Check out Katie's website here.







If we are in any way related, please try to look surprised when some of these pictures end up in your Christmas cards and/or presents!

Taylor Swift

Sydney absolutely loves and adores Taylor Swift these days. She loves all music and sings so many songs these days, but Taylor is her favorite. Sometimes I will let her watch Taylor music videos on YouTube, and there is one where Taylor is wearing a princess dress. Last year for her birthday, Sydney got a princess dress that looks a lot like the one Taylor wears, so Syd likes to put it on sometimes and pretend she is Taylor Swift!


Besides Taylor, Sydney can sing along with my entire Kelly Clarkson Breakaway album, and almost the entire Sugarland album. She also can sing entire songs by Rihanna (who she thinks is cousin Brianna), Dixie Chicks, Chris Brown, Jordin Sparks, Hillsong, and many, many more. Funny girl!

Summer Ketchup

I actually mean summer "catch-up," but how often do you get to make condiment humor? Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from this summer. I am way behind in posting and so here they are. Most of them are Sydney with my sister, Abbie, who was home from college for the summer. We miss her a lot now that she is back at school, and are thankful we got to spend so much time with her the last 3 months. These are Sydney at the beach, the children's museum, playing at the park, and some random others. Enjoy!

Apple Time

Everyone knows I hate the summer. Some people enjoy sweating in hot weather and feeling sticky all the time, but not me. I love the fall. Fall means pumpkins and hay-rides and rain. It means getting up and having the biggest debate of the morning be Dr. Martins vs. Nike's. It means jeans and sweaters and cinnamon and apples! Apples are the best in the fall when you can go to an orchard and buy them. My friend Alisa and I took the kiddos to an apple farm this last week and we all had a blast!



The kids ran around and played in the grass for a while, and there were little piggies for them to look at and a mini-hay maze, too. There was a large apple bounce house that neither Eli nor Sydney would go on, but we enjoyed looking at it! It was strangely reminiscent of James and the Giant Peach, except it was an apple and inflatable!


It was such a beautiful farm, and I'm pretty sure Alisa and I enjoyed in almost as much as the kids did. There was a farm store where we stocked up on apples, apple potpourie, cider, and caramel apples. As I type this, I can smell apples and cinnamon baking as I make apple pie filling. Yum!! And last week I made some apple butter...have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?

A Loss

Most of you know, but just in case you missed the memo, Chris and I lost pregnancy this last weekend. It was very early, only 5 weeks along. I would have been due in May. Actually, I would have been due on the twin's birthday! While we are sad, we firmly believe that God is in control and He has a plan. We have felt His comfort over the last few days, as well as the prayers of our family and friends. We will try again soon. We are really doing well and we are so thankful to have Sydney. She is such a blessing and keeps us very busy. I will post some pictures of her soon. We love you all, thank you for your prayers and love.