It's Here!

Hope you'll come join us tomorrow at the Autumn Craftacular! Looking forward to seeing you there!

Happy Friday,

Bethany

Rio: 2 Months

Happy 2 Months, Rio!

Currently, you love to catch your family's gaze so you can smile and coo at them. You have us enchanted with your pretty face and happy looks. But would you smile for the camera yesterday? Perhaps it had something to do with the shots and fever you developed? (Sorry, little one.) Obviously, you're very opinionated when you don't like something, too! You have a good set of strong lungs. Also a good set of strong legs. You've started rolling from your tummy to your back already! We love you and are excited to watch you as you grow!

See Rio at one month here.

This Guy

This guy works long, hard hours to provide for us... giving me the opportunity to stay home and teach our kids. Something I often don't appreciate enough. Something I sometimes complain about. Still, he gets up and goes... even on the many days I forget to pack a lunch for him.

Sometimes, he adds to his day and takes our oldest boy along to give him opportunity to earn money for dinosaur excavation kits and the such. Teaching him the value of money and the pride that comes from working for something you want.


 And then he sometimes digs a hole in our backyard so the kids can pretend to find the dinosaur at a real excavation site.

Sometimes, this guy wakes up early and takes our early-rising girl out to get donuts for the family.

Sometimes, she begs to have a "camp out" in her room and he squeezes into the couple of feet she leaves for him on one side of her double bed... even though she already crashed out in the five minutes that she waited for him while he got ready for bed. Because he knows if she wakes up in the morning and he's not there she'll be disappointed. Sometimes he whispers under his breath (as he pauses making waffles with her in the morning) that she told him when she woke up that it was the best "camp out" ever... and chuckles as he wonders if she remembers that she'd fallen asleep before he gotten to her room.

Sometimes, he admits that the reason that my littlest boy runs whenever he's in trouble is generational sin. That even though we have no baby pictures of this guy that I finally know exactly what my husband looks liked. And acted like. And sometimes he tells me of all the mischief he got into when he was a bit older. Which makes me sweat. And pray that Cruz gets saved soon.

Sometimes I melt watching this tough guy and his strong hands so gently holding our littlest one. I love how he speaks Spanish to her and I love the smiles he's able to evoke from her.

This guy makes me proud to be his wife when he speaks of how God is moving in his heart. How he feels the Lord guiding him and convicting him. It fills my heart with wonder as I realize how much more incredible I find him now than 10 years ago. That God continues to build our relationship, that God continues to grow him and shape him into a man after His own heart. I love that I've known this guy a quarter of his life. I love that we've celebrated his 30th and now, his 40th birthday together. I can't wait for the next ten years!

Happy Birthday, Jesse. A couple days late. But never the less, I love you!

Hot Dog! {Friday Favorites}

We're back in business... After being without a computer without a week, I feel like I've got a ton of catching up to do, but the break was nice and God allowed our pc to be fixed at a fraction of the cost of buying another.

My biggest guy turns 40! next week and my littlest guy turns 2 a week and a half later... so I've been busy plotting away. (The best I can without internet.) Cruz is in love with dogs, so we're going to have a doggy themed party to celebrate our little guy. Jesse asked for no big party for his fortieth, so I'm trying my best to submit. :) And planning a low key something for the family.

Here's some Friday Favorites to get me inspired for Cruz' special day:

Come Say Hello!

I think I mentioned a while back that I'd wanted to get in on the action of one of the local Handmade/Vintage Market but that it was outside and just a couple weeks after Rio had been born. Yeah, so glad I didn't sign up for that one. It was wet and drizzly all day long. It definitely wouldn't have been a good match for us. But guess what! Not long after that, I found out about another little market that's inside! And I'm gonna be there!

My sister and I are going to share a booth, which is great for me because it'll give me a chance to nurse the baby when I need to. And it's great for you because you'll be able to snag some gorgeous pottery for your loved ones Christmas gifts! I'm very excited you share all sorts of vintage stuff that somehow I just haven't been able to find time to photograph and list online... it takes a good long while just to list an item on Etsy! I have all sorts of super goodies to share with you. In the next few weeks, I'll try to take some sneak peek shots of some of the fun vintage sweetness I have lined up for the market.

In the meantime, here's Craftacular! on facebook. Won't you write this into your calendar on the 27th? Invite a friend or two and make a day out of it! I would just love to see everyone and get to chat. That's my favorite part of markets--seeing everyone and the fellowship!

Papa's Pumpkin Patch

So, apparently our area cannot have enough pumpkin patches...because my mom actually found one that we hadn't ever been to before and, Bonus! It was free! So, no paying $10 a head, plus extra for pumpkins. (With our crew we could have easily paid $100 just to enter the patch we've gone to in the past.) And although the other patch had more things at it, this one had plenty of activities and fewer crowds which meant less waiting in lines for the activities my kids wanted to do! We actually thought we wouldn't need to stay long because we significantly under estimated the amount of things they had to do there, but next year we'll plan to stay longer.

We had a great time and think Papi should join us next year...thanks for taking us, Yaya! (And thanks for the  great photos, Elisabeth!)