Catching Up

So, I think I've decided that one of my new year's resolutions will be to try and get one blog post up a week and since I tend to "break" resolutions by about mid-February...I thought I should start now so that I might get a couple of extra weeks in. lol.    

I seldom make resolutions at the start of the new year but, I do enjoy the fresh perspective that a brand new year gives me and it often motivates me to take a little more action in the areas of my life that I had been neglecting.  Do you like to make new year's resolutions? 

On that note, I am going back in time just a wee bit because if I don't post these priceless images now they will soon fade away in the land of digital file space. 

Daisy wanted to be Belle for Halloween.  She has been a princess every day for the past 2.5 years and then some and I mean that she literally dresses up like a princess almost everyday.  Soooo...I was a little bummed that I couldn't convince her to be Supergirl or Shirley Temple or ANYTHING besides a princess again.  I kept my opinion to myself and made my 3 year old's dreams come true by sprinkling her hair with sparkles and dusting her cheeks with blush.  She was the sweetest princess in the land.  We went to a trunk or treat at my friend's church a week before Halloween and she had a blast!!

A few days later I happened upon a Minnie Mouse costume at a consignment shop.  It was her size and I just couldn't pass it up.  I showed it to Daisy and she said, "it's princess Minnie's dress!"  For that reason alone, she was willing to wear it and I didn't bother to explain to her that Minnie is in fact not a princess.  This way we both win. 

This year we went out a little later to trick or treat.  I think we got out close to 7 and stayed out until close to 9. We had our traditional Martinez/Bailey burritos before hand with Granddad and Beej (Daisy's great grandparents) and then Granddad passed out candy and the rest of us headed out. We treated with a group of neighbors and it was so fun to watch the kiddos go door to door together.  My little girl is getting so much more independent and well, she's growing up. tear. tear. 

 Look how small my baby girl and her friend look sitting up front together.  Sometimes they seem so big until you see them from far away and then you are reminded that they are still so little...I need those reminders from time to time:)

You can't tell by looking at her facial expression but, Daisy really enjoyed the puppet show.  It was her very first puppet show as a matter a fact.  The church did such a great job creating a fun, family friendly Halloween even for the community. 

 this is a terrible night shot on my phone but, I had to post it because it's the only one we got of our neighborhood crew before we set off on our trick or treat adventure.  

We got done trick or' treating around 9 and I put Daisy to bed shortly after.  She couldn't wait to dump all the contents of her bucket out first thing in the morning.  She immediately organized (yes she loves to organize just like her Mommy) the candies and picked her favorites.  Lolipops are always a top fave and her chocolate bars went really quick too.  This kiddo loves chocolate and she didn't get that from me:).

Fall on the east coast is gorgeous.  Growing up in Southern California we didn't experience much change in seasons.  Even after living on the East coast for six years the gorgeous fall colors never cease to take my breath away.  This pretty red leaf came off of the tree in our front yard.  SO red and lovely.

 Daddy and Daisy carved pumpkins together.  I was glad to take a year off.  Carving pumpkins is fun and all but, it's a lot of work and if I recall my hand felt like it was going to fall off after three hours of sawing pumpkins, with a tiny toothbrush sized saw last year.  It was nice to stay inside where it was warm and take pictures while sipping coffee this year. hehe.   

Last year Daisy was not impressed with the goop inside a pumpkin.  This year she was all about it.  I was so proud:).

I have to say that I was really impressed with my hub's pumpkin carvings this year and I thought it was really sweet that he carved the pumpkins with Ariel and Minnie Mouse just to make his little girl happy.  What a Dad:)  See for yourself. Pretty impressive huh.

And She loved throwing leaves around this year.  

 

I got to visit her at her fall school party.  She was so happy to have me there and it melted me to see my little girl in her class acting so big.

she was pretty tuckered out after her party as you can tell:).  Kids look so angelic when they sleep doncha think.  Lately I've been letting Daisy take her nap in my bed to make it more worth her while and more often than not I take a little nap with her and then quietly sneak out when she has fallen asleep.  She may be almost four years old but, she still looks like my little baby when she is napping:).

Now off I go to watch Walking Dead, sip tea, snuggle under a blanket, and work on my photography website.  Good night all. 

Her Second Pumpkin Patch

 Let's face it, the days can get pretty long when we stay home all day with our ball of energy, also known as Daisy.  Both me and my hubby look forward to any opportunity to get out of the house, go somewhere fun and pass an evening with lots of laughter and smiles.  There is a farm not far from our house that sets up a really fun pumpkin patch each Fall.  They have so many different things for kids to do such as pony rides, getting lost in a corn maze, jumping in several bouncers, playing in a giant sand pile, running along giant hay rolls, getting faces painted or munching on a yummy funnel cake to name a few.  It was such a lively family atmosphere and our little bean had such a blast though she was a lot less smiley than usual.

Evidently her two year molars are coming in now. I'm telling you our kid hasn't gotten a break from teething since she was 3 months old and she is not a happy camper.  She has been biting on her cheek all day, tugging on her ear and smiling less and less for my camera (shocking, I know!).  The molars could also explain her early morning wake ups ranging anywhere from 3-6 AM.  Luckily for me Daisy is content to chat in her crib for an hour or so and then she eventually falls back to sleep on her own.  Thank goodness!

Okay on to the fun pictures....

Daisy was the only kiddo brave enough or perhaps crazy enough to climb through this super long tunnel that was under what I can only imagine to be 3 ton rolls of hay.  Honestly it made me really uncomfortable to see her climbing in something that could be crushed by giant hay rolls but, I stifled my paranoia and let her crawl through a few times.  Daddy got this picture and I love it!

I think the sand was Daisy's favorite place.  So many of our parks out here use wood mulch and don't have sand boxes which is so foreign to me.   Daisy loved that there we so many toys to choose from and lots of other kids to stare at and observe while she played. 

Daddy helped Daisy climb on the giant hay rolls and these pictures show the more serious face that she has these days.  I absolutely adore the picture of Daisy and Daddy looking at each other below this storyboard.  I will be framing it for sure!

Daisy was absolutely fascinated by the ponies.  She was content to stand close by and watched them go around and around until Joey and I were itching to move on....and I'm a patient gal so you know we stood there for a long time.  I figured like always I would take pictures with the time I had and the only way I could get Daisy to look at the camera was if I yelled out, "where's Daddy," and then she turned to look for him and "snap" I seized the opportunity to get a picture of her looking in my general direction. lol

Do you see that beautiful turquoise camera purse that I am wearing?  Can I just say that it is very uncomfortable to lug around a humongous camera bag at a pumpkin patch.  Sure, it's super cute and yes, I even got a few compliments on it but, the thing is so dang heavy that I felt like the nerve in my shoulder was being severed. lol.  I really do love my camera purse just not for prolonged use.  I also love that it added a nice pop of color to these shots.  Our family shot below was captured thanks to a very sweet lady who randomly asked if she could take a picture for us.  I love when people notice that a family might need a family picture and offer to capture that for them.  Not to mention she didn't cut off any heads and we are pretty centered.  I cannot tell you how awful most of our pictures turn out when strangers take them for us.  This lady had skills! hahaha

Daisy was uber nervous on the bouncer.  She has never been on one before so the experience was very foreign to her.  Not to mention there were a lot of kids on it at one point and the bouncing got a bit out of hand which is when Daisy climbed towards the exit.  She never cried but, then again she never smiled or seemed all that thrilled.  We'll have to give the bouncers a little more time:)  I can't tell you how old our little girl looked in the bouncer all by herself.  We watched her standing there alone and I swear I felt like she could have been 5 years old and heading off to Kindergarten.  I definitely felt some crazy tugs on my momma heart.

The corn maze was a dud.  Daisy was bored after t-minus 2 minutes and was asking to be held.  Plus she refused to smile.  I think this was when we realized we were going to have to start wrapping up our night. lol.  She sure is cute isn't she.

This was Daisy's happiest moment for the camera.  "Where's Daisy???"   I LOVE this peak a boo picture!!!  I could just eat those chubby little baby hands and seeing her eye trying to peak through the cracks in her fingers just melts me to pieces.  AHHHHHHH.....tissue please.

There she is!!  I love this little peanut so much! 

I still have to post the actually pictures of Daisy and the pumpkins but, this post was getting far to picture heavy so I'll share those next.  Have you been to a pumpkin patch yet this year?  I can't wait to put some pumpkins on our porch!  I LOVE fall!