when do you officially declare something "annual"?

In the fall of 2011, I made a trip to Nashville to meet my niece, Ellie.
In the fall of 2012, I found cheap flights after softball, so Blythe and I flew out on Halloween.
In the fall of 2013, after pushing my flight back a couple weeks due to winning a state championship, I finally made it out to meet my nephew, Wesley. And it was Halloween.
This year  in JUNE when I saw Southwest was having a sale on their fall tickets I took a peek. I thought for sure it would be cheaper to drive, since we now had to pay for Blythe. But I scored A DEAL! And we were in Nashville again for Halloween.

Only picture we got with all 5 together. We always had one napping or crying or pouting or too occupied to stop and take a picture :) 

So I think it's safe to say, after four years, that a fall/Halloween trip to Nashville is an annual thing for our family. And I don't mind that one bit.

Every year I have gone, we have added another baby too.

Mom, Dad: I'm not sure THAT will be an annual thing, so don't get your hopes up.

It was a little chilly crazy cold on Halloween night, which was a bummer. Last year we walked with the three older girls for probably an hour and a half and they loved it. This year Wes and Blythe made it to about 3 houses, and the older girls braved it for about 10. Oh well. They came back and we had hot chocolate and a dance party. #stillfun

We had a tea party with the older girls for lunch one day. Caroline said she needed to teach Blythe how to have a "proper" tea party. I asked her what that meant and she said, "You just have to be polite." At one point during the party Ellie laughed at Blythe and said, "You're funny." And Blythe said, "I'm not funny! I'm a princess!"

Brent sprained his ankle. Of course. Last time he had a bad bike wreck and had neck issues for months. Dan and Brent love each other. Dan and Brent are both athletes. Dan and Brent are both a little more brittle than they used to be/ think they are.

We stayed up to late.
The kids got up too early.
We laughed.
We re-organized the play room!
We wished we had more time.
And as always, we had a fantastic time. Kali and Dan are the best hosts. Their kids are awesome.

Sisters make the best best friends.

And now, here are some pictures for my family.

Dan met up with a friend this night so we headed to the Pumpkin Patch without him. He was missed. Mainly in the kid-wrangling department. 

Oh, hey, look a picture of all four of us [Blythe's crazy face and all!]. And I got a haircut! 

They preferred tea over hot chocolate

she was in heaven. 

an 80's workout girl, a fairy princess, a mermaid, and Clark Kent 

I also took some family pictures for them while I was there. They haven't seen them yet [I've taken a ton of pictures lately and will do one post soon with all of them], but here is a sneak peak. And is it just me, or does my sister get more gorgeous with every child she has?

Kali and Dan,
and Caroline, Ellie, and Wesley,

We love you. We thank you. We can't wait for our next ANNUAL fall trip!

lost in the files

I know it's not October anymore. Trust me, I've been outside. It's definitely not October.

But back in October Blythe and I took a week long trip to visit Kali and Dan, meet Wesley, and play with Caroline and Ellie. 

To say Blythe got some much needed time with her cousins is an understandment. Sheesh! She was loved and squeezed and bossed all over that house! 

It was a great time. And I don't want these pictures to "gather dust," so here are a few I just had to post from our time together. 

After Caroline instructed Blythe on proper bath paint etiquette ["DO NOT put the paint all the way down in the water, Blythe, or it will be RUINED!"], she was ready to roll with it. Ellie just considered Blythe her canvas, and Blythe was happy to oblige. 

Then it was time to go trick or treating. Kali and Dan live in THE BEST subdivision, and this is actually our second time trick or treating with them.

last year - 2012

Blythe enjoyed it more this year, and we may have even gotten the comment that they were the cutest three girls to be seen all night. [To which I respond…uhh, obviously! ;)].

Here was our Doctor, with a for real stethoscope [we don't mess around], Cinderella [who courtesies for a lady we passed when she said, "What a beautiful princess!], and a Bumblebee [who figured out quickly how to dive right in and say "trick or treat", or at least mumble the right syllables, and dig for candy].

they were supposed to be doing silly faces, and apparently a serious face on Ellie is silly….seems appropriate.

Blythe was all over those silly faces

the girls spotted the first trick or treaters of the night! Caroline makes sure to just glance out of the corners of her eye, as to not break character. 

We brought out the duck for one picture. He hung out with his dad and passed out candy…until he passed out. 

My camera acted funny while we were actually out, so this is the only picture I took. We were quite the entourage! 

That is one happy duck! 

It's always a treat* to go visit this crew. I know it will become increasingly more difficult as we add another child, but I hope we always make it a priority. 

Thanks for taking a trip back to October with me! 

*see what I did there? 

my new nephew and a tutorial

He's here! 

He's here!

My newest nephew arrived Wednesday, August 14th.

His name is Wesley Paul.

I love him. 

And don't you just love how people say "arrived", like new babies just show up like a package you ordered from Amazon? Now having delivered my own child, I think that term is a bit flawed, as it does not *quite* include the fullness of bearing a child you carried around helped make for 9 months. 

But seriously, he is awesome and I haven't even met him yet. 

And my sister looks AMAZING, no? 

Wesley Paul, 

my first Carroll nephew,

my seventh overall nephew:

I love you intensely with a kind of "you're family!" love that you will one day understand. I pray for your little life-- that you will be healthy and love Jesus-- and I pray for your family that they will know how to love you well. 

I made Wesley's two older sister's name signs when they were born, and wanted to carry on the tradition. This time I had Pinterest, so I steered away from the traditional paint on canvas and got a little creative…and manlier, in my opinion. 

If you want to know how to do this, it's simple I promise. Either go to Pinterest and type in "string art", or follow these simple steps:

-Find a cool board you want to use. I had a piece of barn board that had a cool knot in the middle. I liked the unevenness of it. I scrubbed it clean, since it had been in an actual barn for many years, and then did a slight white wash over it. I didn't want it to truly look too white, so I kept it faint. 

- Then find a font you like. Type up the name and print it as big as you need it for your board. The thicker fonts will probably work better. 

- Buy some old nails for 50 cents from your local, family owned hardware store. You don't have one of these stores? I feel sad for you. Start nailing! I nailed about 1/2 inch to 1 inch apart, all around the letters. I really liked the look of the rusty nails with the barn board.

-Once all your nails are in snug, tear up the paper. You should be left with just an outline of the letters. 

- Now find a comfy spot, and get out your string. Then get to it! I discovered that it was best to go around the outline of the letter a couple of times before filling it in. Once you've done that, then the "secret", if there is such a thing, is just making a bunch of different paths from nail to nail, as many times as you like. Obviously the more you do this, the more filled in it will be. 

There were a couple of times I thought one nail when with a letter and it didn't and I had to retrace my steps [which is the outlining it first worked best], but otherwise it is fairly fail proof! 

I've seen it done with each letter being a different color, or using multi-colored string. Kali wanted one color, as this was an accent in his room…and because she is a one color kind of person. 

It really was a fun project, and I can't wait to see it up in Wesley's room. But more than that, I can't wait to see him!