Autumn Adventures

It's now the eve of December first, and our home is already festive and decorated for Christmas. The rest of the world is also in Christmas-mode, but it is technically still the season of fall, so I wanted to make sure I took a moment to share some of the many magical moments we've experienced.

The weather this fall has been warm and balmy here in eastern Michigan, and we've spent endless afternoons enjoying some of the many wonderful parks with playgrounds.

This year we decided to re-visit the orchard and cider mill we first visited last year. We had absolutely perfect perfect weather this year! After feasting on cider and donuts, we headed to the petting zoo area, which was Makenna's favorite last year.

There is a large pen with medium-sized and baby goats where visitors can enter and pet to their hearts' content. Oh my, these sweet little goats sure didn't disappoint!

Makenna was enamored with these two little ones sleeping in the warm sunshine. She kept exclaiming, "Aww! Little baby twins!"

Our little adventurer loves visiting "the farm." She was fearless when it came to climbing the tire and hay "mountains."

These two have my heart!

As we neared the end of autumn's vibrant colors, Matt and I decided to take Makenna to Wolcott Mill State Park. Pre-Makenna, Matt and I used to love to come here to walk the trails in the woods and let Annbelle run to her heart's content. {We brought Annabelle along with us this time, as well, since it had been a few years since we've taken her here to frolic in the forest!}

Upon arrival, we discovered that the forest floor was covered in a beautiful blanket of golden leaves. Ever the little imagine-er, Makenna started singing, "We're off to see the wizard...!"

It was such such a lovely, picturesque day.

Then came Halloween, and our little movie-lover was delighted to dress up as "Dorothy." She was obsessed with any and all things Halloween this year. We try hard to keep Halloween very non-scary and more about enjoying fall and the chance to dress up. Of course there are lots of people who deck their yards out in scary and gruesome decor, and sadly it becomes impossible to shelter her from this. Thankfully Makenna learned the terms "scary" and "spooky" to describe such things, and she'd tell us certain things she saw were "too scary." Yet they never seemed to truly bother her or cause her alarm, and for that we are very thankful!

Matt's parents came to join us for Trick-or-Treating. They brought along their dog, Diesel, who came along to act as Makenna's "Toto."

Makenna loved being escorted by her "Nana" from house to house.

Here's a house with scary decor. Makenna paused when she saw it and said, "Oh dear." The girl was determined to get candy, however, so she approached the homeowner hand-in-hand with her Nana, while she uttered, "oh dear," a few more times.

Even November brought several unusually warm days. We took advantage of a couple more visits to the zoo and local parks, and one afternoon was even warm enough {in the 70's} that I let Makenna wear a pair of shorts outside!

Now it seems all at once, the last of autumn's leaves have fallen and a permanent chill has crept over the land. We have gathered with our loved ones for a cozy Thanksgiving full of laughter, feasting, and love, and we now are wholeheartedly ready to welcome in the Christmas season.

Stay tuned as I have one last especially splendid piece of news to share with you...we now know the gender of the little one growing inside of me! We were able to share this news with our families over Thanksgiving and I'll announce here shortly!

Stop the Clock

I'd like to devote today's post to the love of our lives, our little Makenna Rose:

We are enjoying her more and more everyday as her personality blossoms and especially as she says new, funny things on a daily basis.

To be honest, I see many qualities in Makenna that remind me of myself. She can be exceptionally sweet and affectionate yet can also be very stubborn. She is a girly-girl who loves to play dress up and play "tea party", but when we go outside or to the park, she's down in the dirt and sand, digging and getting very dirty. I will freely admit that I've tried {and succeeded!} to get her to fall in love with some of my favorite Disney films or favorite musicals: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music.

Makenna loves to perform. She sings and dances every day, so I'd say there's a good chance that dance class will be a hit with her when she's a little older. Even though dance is one of my greatest loves, I won't force it on her if she really doesn't care for it!

Makenna loves books, whether we are reading them to her or she is sitting alone, looking at the pictures. I have fantasies of reading some classics aloud to her as she gets older. I really hope she retains this love of books, or "sories" {stories}, as she calls them.

And it appears she may have even inherited my love of organizing?!?! She's certainly in that toddler phase of dumping toys onto the floor, but we regularly catch her arranging toys or items very precisely to her own liking.

Her own arrangement of treasures

This morning, the two of us went to the park. We enjoyed the swings, slides, sand, and play structures for well over an hour. The sun was out, warming our skin. As I sat on the swing next to Makenna {because she told me, "Mommy, sit. Swing."}, I thought about the sweetness of these precious days together. The days when we can have adventures together all day, just the two of us, before she gets bigger and has to start school. It was such a good reminder to savor these moments, because they go so quickly, and I know all too soon I'll look back and long for this time with Makenna again.

I so often wonder how it is that Matt and I were blessed with such a wonderful little girl. She makes us feel like the luckiest parents in the world. We never could have dreamed of the love, joy, and fun she'd bring into our lives.

Makenna Turns Two

We can scarcely believe it, but our little Makenna Rose turned the big *TWO* this month. Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital?

We decided to forgo a big party this year and have a small, intimate celebration with family. Our home is teeny-tiny, anyhow; eight adults, one toddler, and a small dog make it feel plenty crowded enough!

Both sets of grandparents were present, as well as "Uncle Aaron" and "Aunt Hunter." Temperatures were bitterly cold outside, but we stayed warm and toasty as we celebrated this special little lady of ours.

Like last year, I decided to make a homemade birthday cake for Makenna. Randomly enough, I took a Wilton Cake Decorating course at age fourteen. It was me and about eight other middle-aged women. I loved it! I've kept all my specialty cake-decorating tools since then but sadly have seldom utilized them. I figured if there's any good excuse to put my mediocre skills to use, it's for the birthday of our own child!

In case you're wondering, that's Peppa Pig on her cake, from Makenna's favorite TV program. {It's really rather adorable because it's a British show, so all the little characters have British accents!} I'm pleased enough with how the cake turned out given that I began the process of decorating it at 9:00 p.m. the evening prior to our celebration. However, it's made me itch to put in even more time and effort into future cake/cupcake decorating endeavors.

I utilized the banner I made for Makenna's birthday last year and simply replaced the "1st" with "2nd."

As the party got underway, Makenna was relishing being the center of attention!

It was such a fun-filled, happy event. Makenna loved every moment, as did we! A special thank you to all our families for putting in so much effort to make our little girl feel loved, even if you weren't there to celebrate with us in person!

Recounting Fall, part one: The Family Wedding and Our Tiny Flower Girl

The very last of autumn's leaves have faded and nearly all have fallen to the earth. The brisk and pleasant temperatures have disappeared all too quickly and we have suddenly found ourselves in the midst of what appears to be the onset of winter.

Now here it is, mid-way through November, and I haven't written on my blog for almost two months. But I simply must rewind a bit and share because the past weeks have been absolutely marvelous with the wonderful things filling them. In fact, October itself was downright epic.

I will not begin by backtracking in chronological order, but instead regale you with the single event that helped make October so spectacular: Matt's youngest brother got married! His bride and our newest family member is named Hunter and she is as sweet and lovely as they come.

The wedding was such a fun-filled, loving, and gorgeous event. Hunter especially poured so much of herself into making the details reflect her own lovely style.

I took lots of photos of the details:

Two different flavors of tea bags were inside:

I felt utterly honored and blessed that Hunter asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. {No surprise: I was the oldest one--yikes!} Back in 2008 I was asked to be a bridesmaid to my other sister-in-law, Jennie. How very sweet that both of my sister-in-laws asked me to stand with them on their wedding days!

Me and my lovely mother-in-law, pre-ceremony:

Here is the stunning Hunter, taking a final pre-ceremony once-over of herself. Isn't her dress just exquisite?

A quick photo op:

Not only were Matt and I both in the wedding party, but Makenna was one of the two flower girls. The other flower girl was our darling niece, Cora. If you recall, Cora is only 8 weeks younger than Makenna and having them as flower girls together was absolutely priceless.

We were all holding our breath to see how the girls behaved during their part of the ceremony. After all, this can be a precarious age with boundless energy and the inability to understand the importance of the occasion. We planned to have Hunter's youngest sister pull the girls down the aisle in a wagon. We didn't expect them to drop petals, just sit and look pretty.

The best photos we have currently are blurry iPhone pics, but still cute nonetheless.

{Makenna is munching on puffs as they wait their turn to go down the aisle. We'd sprinkled those in the wagon to help keep them preoccupied!}

{Thanks to our friend, Jalene, for capturing these photos!}

I am happy to report that both girls behaved during their part, and that they just loved being the center of attention! Cora blurted out "Dada!" when she spotted her dad up front and both girls smiled and waved at the guests. Then, when they reached the end of the aisle, Makenna decided to be a real ham and lay down in the wagon and thrust her feet and arms into the air. Of course this got lots of laughs and she loved that. She sat back up as they were being wheeled back out of the sanctuary and Makenna was laughing loudly and covering her mouth with her hands. I know the wedding photographer got a few shots of Makenna's comedic moment and hopefully I'll be able to share those photos soon!

The reception was a blast, as well. The girls loved socializing and dancing. They were both exhausted at the end of it all. {As were we!}

{I heart this photo!}

It was a really lovely, very memorable day!

The entire Perry family is thrilled that Aaron found such a beautiful woman, both inside and out, to join our clan and cherish as our own for the rest of our lives. Congratulations, Aaron and Hunter!