Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend and we had the best time!  Savannah is at such a fun stage this year for the holidays, she gets so excited everytime she sees a pumpkin patch or Christmas lights (at the store) or anything.  Sydney knows the ropes by now and knows what to look forward to.  We went to Roloff Farms, which has become a family tradition for us.  They have such an amazing farm with way more than just pumpkins.

We took the hayride tour of the property and had fun seeing all the sights.  They have a newly renovated barn for weddings,

an ark that looks exactly like Noah just landed it on Mt. Ararat,

a western town where we got to get out for photo op's,

and a castle.  Yep, a castle.  Sydney almost freaked out when she saw this.  How awesome would it be to have a castle at your house?!

Then we saw the giant chair, which is always fun to get pictures in.

Then we headed out to the pumpkin field and climbed up the big huge pile of hay bales.

Finally, the girls got to pick out their very own pumpkins.  They were so proud of their choices!

They were a little tuckered out after all the activity and hitched a ride in the pumpkin wagon with daddy back to the car.

We had the best time!  I can't wait for Halloween!

Savannah's Surgery

Thank you so much for all the prayers and well wishes for Savannah's surgery.  I am happy to report that everything went really well.  Chris took the day off and came with me for her appointment.  We had to be there ssssoooo early, she was at 6:30am!  Ouch.  She had a really great time playing in the play area before they came for her.  She was stretching out and playing with the computer game they had for kiddos.  Poor baby, she had no idea what was coming.

The anesthesiologist came out to weight her, then he gave her a shot of a sedative.  I knew she was going to get this, it's to knock her out so they can start the IV easily.  I thought she would just fall asleep, but that's not exactly what happened.  They have her the shot and she started to cry like she would if she was getting a normal shot, then she just slowly laid back in my arms and went really still.  It was almost like she was paralyzed or something.  Her eyes were open and staring at me, but not focused, and she wasn't moving.  When I looked down at her for one split second it was like she was dead.  It was the worst part of the whole day, because then I just had to hand her over like that to the anesthesiologist.  He assured me she wouldn't be aware of anything, but it just totally freaked me out.  He took her back and I burst into tears.  I couldn't stop crying because I couldn't get how she looked out of my mind, laying back perfectly still with her eyes wide open.  I had brought a book with me to pass the time, but I couldn't concentrate so I ended up reading out loud to Chris.  It was a good distraction to us both. 
Afterwards the dentist came out and told us everything went really well.  They had to try five times to get an IV in her, but the actual procedure went really well and now her teeth look awesome.  No more areas of crumbling teeth, woo hoo!  They brought her into us and this is how she looked.

You can see the marks from where her eyes were taped shut.  Poor baby.  She had a difficult time waking up, she was really disoriented and it took her a while, but she finally was able to wake up enough and hold her head up so we could go home.  We live less than 5 minutes away, so it was a quick drive home.  When we got home she was trying to walk but she kept bouncing into the walls.  We put her back down to bed and when she woke up she was more like herself.  She was kind of grumpy and super restless all day, so we bundled her up and went to, of all places, Costco.  She loves the Christmas light displays that are out now, so we literally walked up and down aisles of the Christmas lights and she was much happier.  The next day she woke up and was back to normal!  Praise God that she did well, that the surgery went as planned, and that her teeth are nice and healthy now!  Some kids have to have a similar surgery because of poor oral hygiene, and I am so glad that was not the case here because I would have felt really guilty putting my baby through this because I hadn't kept up on tooth brushing.  Now it's over and done with and there's no reason to think her adult teeth will have this problem.  Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!

My Mantle, for Marilyn

In yesterday's post my friend Marilyn left a comment on the halloween garland across the mantle in the background.  She requested some pictures so here you go!  As you know, I love to decorate for any sort of holiday.  I make a lot of my decorations but this year on my mantle I didn't display many that I made.  Not pictured here is a trick-or-treat banner behind the kitchen table and my candy corn decorations that I made last year. 

 The only thing that doesn't quite fit in this picture is the picture of the girls in their Easter dresses above the mantle.  We're going to the pumpkin patch soon and I'll get a picture of the girls to replace it to make it more seasonally appropriate.

I love the ribbon garland, it's so bright and cheerful.  And seriously, that lantern, be still my beating heart!  I like how it looks modern and old fashioned at the same time.  All it needs it a bat or a raven stuck to it.  Maybe next year.

Tow of my favorite decorations are ones I had as a child.  My aunt, who passed away a long time ago, made tons and tons of pottery decorations for every holiday.  She was super crafty and I love having this little ghost and little witch in my house now.  This is the aunt that shares a birthday with Savannah, which I love.

Homework

Sydney has a small amount of homework that we work on almost every day, but every once in a while she will have a special project that she needs to do.  Last weekend she had to work on a Bingo type game with shapes.  We used candy corn for the markers which made it even more fun.  Chris played the game with her and they had such a great time!  Even though Savannah couldn't quite understand the shape part of the game, she got to pick out the pieces and of course help with eating the candycorn!

And yes, they are both in jammies in the middle of the day.  We are a jammies kind of family and if we're at home, we're all comfy!

Wordless Wednesday-My Little(est) Duck Fan

Reception

When I think back to our wedding reception, the first thing I think of is lots of tiny lights and candles.  We had a traditional church wedding and then our reception was at a nearby golf club.  The club had about a million strands of tiny, clear Christmas lights in all the windows.  We had candles for every centerpiece and a tea candle at every place setting.  There were hundreds of little candles everywhere and the whole room was filled with this amazingly beautiful light.  Even though this picture is blurry, I love it because it looks so romantic and you can see all the lights.  Shortly after it was taken it got dark outside and then all those candles were really noticeable.

We had dinner and dancing at our reception and it was so much fun!  It was such a special time for Chris and I as we started out our lives together with family and friends.  It was absolutely perfect.

And I have to leave you with one more picture from that day.  I remember seeing my maid-of-honor Shelley after Chris and I had our first dance and she was all teary eyed.  After we returned home from our honeymoon and I was looking through our photos, I came across this one and burst out laughing:

There's Shelley, looking all emotional, and there's her husband Eric, looking completely BORED OUT OF HIS MIND!  Ha!  Such a funny picture! 

And speaking of Eric and Shelley, today is their 8 year anniversary!  Happy Anniversary you guys!  Thank you for sharing your first anniversary weekend with us for our wedding!  Eric and Shelley are an amazing couple.  They battled infertility for years and finally two years ago welcomed twin girls.  I look at this picture of them and they had no idea at that time the trials and blessings that were ahead.  We have so much fun with them and I love having children the same age as them.  We love you guys!

7 Years Later

Today Chris and I celebrate 7 years of marriage.  I know this isn't long in the grand scheme of things, but it seems like we have been together a lot longer than 7 years!  When we got married it was just before digital pictures were the norm, so while we have beautiful wedding pictures, we don't have many digitally that I can post here.  The pictures below are mostly from my friend Heather, who was one of my bridesmaids.  I think this is the first time I have posted some of these candids!

The morning of the wedding almost all the bridesmaids came to my parent's house to get ready.  We watched Cinderella on this little TV while we were all getting our hair done!  My tiara was inspired by the one Catherine Zeta Jones wore at her wedding.  It was this exact picture that made me want a tiara that was flat all the way across, instead of pointed like a crown.

 I pictured my hair half-up/half-down like Shelby's in Steel Magnolias.  But, when my friend did it that way, I hated it!  So we decided to try it all up and I immediately loved it.  Here is the first attempt, and then the final up-do:

I absolutely loved my wedding dress!  I will never forget the way I felt the first time I saw myself in the mirror with it on and I walked out to show my mom and family friend, Kathy.  All three of us knew it was the one.  It was big, princess-ey, sparkley, and just a total Cinderella dress.  These days the mermaid style dresses are so popular and I have a feeling that if I was getting married now, I would choose a mermaid style dress, so I am SO GLAD I got married when I did so I got to have the big princess gown.

Don't you just love that awful yellow wall color behind me?  This was in the church basement in the room for the bride and bridesmaids. 

So I know this is a random picture, but it's one of my favorites from getting ready.  Melissa's sister Haley was one of my flowergirls and she was in the room getting ready with us.  I was all ready, and my friends had placed a stool under my big ol' dress so I could sit down and Haley asked me a question.  I turned to answer her and somebody got this picture.  I don't know why I like it so much, but it's one of my favorite pictures from that day.

My sister!  She looked so pretty.  It worked out pretty well because her homecoming dance was the same night as my wedding.  Her date came and picked her up at the reception and she was all ready to go, in her bridesmaids dress! 

My mom had to show some of the girls how to bustle my dress for the reception, so there were four of them behind me in this picture, getting very up close and personal with my behind while they figured out the bustle!  I had a little fun with the camera while they were back there.

Here's a funny story that not many people know.  I had the most fabulous shoes to go with my sparkley dress.  They were gaudy and covered with rhinestones...they were perfect!  I took them with me everywhere in the months before my wedding.  Everywhere.  I took them to work and showed them to co-workers and even some patients.  I took them to the bank and showed them to my bank teller.  I even took them to our consulations for the photographer and bakery.  I was super excited to wear them.  These are the shoes:

We got them on...and I couldn't wear them!  All those rhinestones kept getting caught in all the tulle under my dress and it made me trip.  Not exactly what I had in mind.  Thankfully, Melissa had been unable to decide between two pairs of silver shoes for her to wear with her bridesmaids dress and brought both pairs with her.  I put on the shoes she wasn't wearing, which fit perfectly and were also silver and sparkley, and they were perfect!  It was my something borrowed.

And finally, here are some pictures from the actual ceremony.  We got married at 4:00pm and there was a lightly falling rain outside.  There were candles everywhere and it was beautiful.

The wedding was absolutely perfect.  But, if I could go back, I would only change 2 things about that day.

1. I wish we would have sang some worship songs.  Melissa did at her wedding and I intended to, but just somehow forgot.  It was a very spiritual ceremony, so it's not like God was lacking or anything.  If anything, I felt especially close to God that day.  I just wish we had some singing.
2. I would have had a 7th bridesmaid, my friend Emily.  I had been in her wedding and we always said we would be in each other's weddings, but when I got married we were in different places in our lives.  She had been married for a while, and she had kids, and we were just in different places.  Plus, it was already pushing it to have 6 bridesmaids, 7 would have been a bit much!  But, I do wish that she had been in my wedding.  So Emily, someday if Chris and I do a vow-renewal, you are officially invited to be a bridesmaid!

Tomorrow...reception pictures!

Rehearsal Dinner

Tomorrow Chris and I will have been married for 7 years!  I love our anniversary and every year when it hits October I get nostalgic when I remember our wedding.  Tomorrow I'll post some pictures from the wedding, but today, you get to see our rehearsal dinner.  Since Chris and I met at a Duck game, Chris proposed at the stadium, and even had to reschedule our wedding when the Ducks had to move their home opener, it only seemed fitting to have a big, huge tailgate party for our rehearsal dinner.  Of course, this is tailgaiting Wills Family style, so there was no alcohol.  Just friends, food, and fun! 
Here was the room:

We had an awesome BBQ and football style snacks for everyone to eat.  I just remember how loud that night was, everyone was having so much fun!

I wish I had a picture of the invitation to the rehearsal dinner, but on it we said that beavers were permitted but no huskies would be allowed!  There was lots of good natured teasing going on between the fans of the different teams, but we all got along!

That night after the rehearsal dinner my bridesmaids, which included 4 friends, my sister, and my cousin, made me wear this hideous veil and we went bowling!  It was so much fun, just hanging out with the girls.

After bowling, I went home and fell right to sleep.  I remember being worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep and that I would have bags under my eyes at the wedding.  But, I knew that every little detail was ready, back up plans had been made in case something went wrong, and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Chris was the man God had made for me. 

Tomorrow...wedding pictures!