Halloween with family & friends

We were able to break out the boys' Halloween costumes a few days early this year and head to the zoo for Halloween fun with Mom and Dad as well as the Fairs! It was such a fun night at the zoo and then grabbing pizza afterwards!

Two superheroes in the car! It pained me to buy costumes this year since I've loved making the boys' costumes in the past, but of course Reagan's arrival made the possibility of homemade costumes *very* low. And you know the boys were probably more happy with these cheap costumes than with homemade anyways. ;)

Reid called himself "Dash Dash" which fits him well actually-- in between both the Dash and Jack Jack characters in The Incredibles. He's worn that mask off and on around the house, to the grocery store, etc and I love it! Its so cute.

These two were the only ones who took the time to check out the animals instead of beelining for the candy booths!

^^We made a cardboard shield for Captain America one afternoon and Reid had to have a shield too!

All the cousins!

Jake and Cana were glued at the hip as always and on a mission with Isaac to get from one candy stop to the next as quickly as they could, but Reid hung out with his boring parents every so often. ;)

I love these photos of our family! Cropped well you can't tell we squeezed in between a trash can and a Coke machine to get them because the timing was right and someone was around to take the photo for us. Worth it!

^^Look at that lil pumpkin! She kinda hated it but I loved it.

On the actual night of Halloween, we had our friends the Fergusons over for dinner and trick-or-treating, just like last year! It works out since they live in the country and don't have a neighborhood for trick-or-treating, and its so much more fun for both the kids and parents to have friends to talk with while walking the neighborhood! 

Maybe a costume for a one month old wasn't really worth it since she was in her stroller all night...but it did keep her warm! And its all big enough that it just might fit again next year!

Yep, this pumpkin costume was definitely worth it. Look at her!

This year we wised up and got an early start on trick-or-treating so we were back before it was too dark and cold, and we warmed up with some chili for dinner before breaking into the candy stash. Last year, both of the younger boys ended the night in the stroller but this year everyone powered through, with a few breaks on the stroller in between houses. (We had to stash some of their candy in the stroller because their buckets were getting too heavy which is nuts but you know we've managed to eat it all since then!)

Note to self: get a photo *before* it gets dark and everyone's dying to eat their candy! We had just come inside from walking all over and Jake had already taken off his shoes and mask before I could catch everyone for a picture-- he was ready to dive in to that candy!

a wedding weekend away

This past weekend one of my best friends from high school got married, and I got to fly home to be a part of the wedding. And bonus, my inlaws came into town to watch Jake so I could fly toddler-free (Deric was in Atlanta at a conference). So I lucked out and had a marvelous weekend to myself with plenty of time to catch up with friends I haven't seen in so long, plus a little time on either end of the trip to hang with my parents.

The wedding was unbelievably gorgeous, as was the bride. Cary Anne outdid herself and made everything about the wedding so personal, handwriting the menus and signs on top of the (donut!) cake, DIYing most of the decor, and choosing a beautiful venue that made quite the backdrop. It was great to spend most of Friday and all day Saturday with the bridesmaids as we went from rehearsal dinner to hotel to wedding. Cary Anne was so happy (and impressively calm) all weekend, and I'm sure she's thoroughly enjoying these first few days of married life. 

[photos from Cary Anne's Facebook, c/o her photographer (who I'll link to once I find her info!)]

Back home in Tennessee, Jake was definitely enjoying his grandparents' full attention. Because they can't make it to his birthday party this coming weekend, they threw Jake a party just for the three of them. They sent me pictures and video but I so wish I could have been there to see his reaction to the Thomas the Train balloon, hat, cake and even wrapping paper on his gift. As for his birthday gift, they got him legitimate golf clubs--no plastic rookie clubs here!-- complete with a bag and club head protector-thingies. (I'm perfectly fine with their funding of this rather expensive hobby assuming it leads to a nice scholarship one day.) I'm sure Jake will join his dad, uncle, grandpa and great-uncle on the golf course in just a few years.

As for Deric's weekend, his was much less relaxing than mine or Jake's but he still had a great time with the students in Atlanta. They visited the World of Coca-Cola factory, went out for milkshakes, and swam at the hotel in between enjoying what's always a fun and thought-provoking conference. We all had such good weekends that it was hard to get back into the routine, but we're celebrating Jake's birthday on Saturday so we've got another great weekend coming up!

Color Me Rad

Deric and I ran the Color Me Rad 5K this Saturday with a group of friends from church, and it was a blast! Its much more fun to run when you're being pelted with clouds of cornstarch along the way. Although this was the first 5K Deric and I have run together, we technically didn't run together-- he ran up ahead with our faster friends and I hung back with Melanie and Janine, taking it easy and talking the entire time. Such a fun morning.

The best part of the run was seeing what everyone looked like after all the color. I think purple was the last color we ran through, and then everyone was given packets of pink color after the race, so we all had a good dose of purple + pink to show off. I wish there were more fun races like this-- running just to run won't be so exciting anymore.

I was curious to see how well the color would rinse off when we got home, and it came off surprisingly easy. A few minutes longer in the shower and there were no traces left, which was quite the accomplishment considering Deric's very blue arms. As for our shirts, we rinsed them in vinegar to preserve the color (as directed by the race's website) but unfortunately, not much of the color remained. At least our shoes are nice and bright!

Hopefully Color Me Rad will come back to Knoxville next year and we can do it all over again!

Happy Feet

I cashed in on one of my last birthday presents this weekend. Melanie got me a gift certificate so we could get pedicures together, and we both fully expected to wait until some time in April before pretty toes were necessary... but then summer came three months early. With it being consistently in the 80s lately, we got our pedicures sooner rather than later.

(The last pedicure I got was with Courtney when she was graduating from high school and I was in eight grade. That was approximately ten years ago.)

(I wish I could get a pedicure every week. If I was rich and famous, I'd have someone blow dry my hair every morning while I got a pedicure. Multi-tasking!)

Anyways, it was perfect. They even gave me a Coke which was icing on the cake. The only drawback: my feet are way too sensitive and ticklish. I had to keep a death grip on my knee to stop my reflexes from making me kick the technician in the head. It didn't stop my feet from jumping a few times though... but what can ya do? I tried my best to stay still, although the technician probably wouldn't believe that. She didn't smile much.

Can you see that death grip and my grimace/laugh?

So now my feet are fancy and smooth for the first and only time of this spring/summer, thanks to Melanie!

Perfectionists Don't Make Good Painters

For Christmas, my mom gave me a coupon to an art class at a local studio, Spirited Art. I went on Monday with my friend Katrina, and it was so much fun! I learned a lot about painting, but I also had plenty of time to talk with Katrina.

When we arrived at the studio, we had some time to look at all the paintings that have been done by... people... I don't know. The staff, other newbies like us, Monet, Van Gogh? Whoever it was, the paintings were impressive. As was the huge color wheel made from paint chips. (I bet that was so much fun to put together.)

You chose your class based on the painting you want to do. There was a full wall calendar set up so we could preview the upcoming month. (Katrina's done the Knoxville skyline you see on the 18th and her painting was amazing!)

When class started, we began with the outline of the painting. The girl teaching the class had traced these out for us to save time. Can you see the faint pencil marks?

I took pictures in between each step of our painting so that I can remember later how we did this. I've never done a painting that required blending or layering colors, so this was all new to me.

Even in the beginning stages, I struggled with my tendency to be a perfectionist. The first thing I noticed when I got the canvas? The lines to the door and the porch aren't straight. For the rest of the night, that bugged me. And as we brushed our gold paint over the canvas, I tried so hard to make the strokes even and the amount of paint balanced. (Clearly, that didn't happen.)

With every step of this painting, I worried and I stressed that it didn't look "right". Not only were the lines not straight, the shading on my porch didn't look like a real porch.

As I painted the horizontal lines to create the wall, I struggled to make those lines perfectly straight and even. But I didn't have time to do anything about my imperfect lines before the teacher moved on to the next step, so they stayed as-is.

Blending quickly became my worst nightmare. Was there too much gray? Not enough gray? Did it blend into the brown? Did it look realistic? Again, (and thankfully) the teacher moved to the next step before I could make my painting worse by trying to fix it.

With each added color, I asked those same questions: too much gray? not enough? Sometimes to myself in my head, sometimes out loud to Katrina. Every time I asked, she assured me that it looked great. And then she'd ask me if her painting looked okay, to which I would respond-- "It looks great!"

(This is why you need friends when you try new things.)

(You should have seen me when I was directed to put blue on my porch. "Blue?! Who's porch is blue?!" But then I told myself to shut up and I did it.)

This painting was good for me. I've always wanted to learn to paint an actual picture. The paintings I usually do are words-- easy, one color, perfectionist-driven paintings. Paintings that take me months as I tediously make every line perfect. Paintings that aren't messy or smudged in any way, but are also boring in that respect.

I tried, one night, to make myself "just paint". Take a blank canvas and some paint and go to town. See what happens.

It was not good. I ended up painting a pattern of straight strokes in different colors. That was as 'free-spirited' as I got.

So this painting was good for me. It was good in that I learned some techniques for painting, but it was better for me in that I was forced to create this painting quickly. There was no time to fix lines, no time to make even strokes. No time to be perfect. Just enough time to paint. Just enough time to add 'burnt sienna' to the wooden walls before moving on to highlights in the top corner of the door.  (We were not actually rushed, mind you. The class lasted 2.5 hours. But for me, this was warp speed.)

After this class, I feel like I've accomplished something. In a very small way, I've relaxed those perfectionist tendencies I have. I've made myself come to grips with the fact that this painting is far from perfect, but I can still love it. That I don't have to make something perfect in order to be proud of it.

I'm trying to make this realization come about in other areas of my life as well. My house doesn't have to look perfect in order to be a home. My cooking doesn't have to be perfect in order to cook for others. My relationship with God doesn't have to be perfect in order to teach middle schoolers about Him. I don't have to be a perfect person before I have kids so that I can be the perfect mother (crazy, but sometimes I find myself striving for this). On the same note, Deric and I don't have to have the perfect relationship in order to one day be good parents.

God isn't looking for perfect. He knows it is impossible for me to be perfect and I'm thankful that He doesn't expect it from me.

All He wants is for me to do my best with the resources He's given me, and He'll do the rest.