Fall Recap

Hello December!  It's now December 1 and I've done a terrible job of blogging the last 2 months.  Life has been very busy, there's no other way around it!  And I'm exhausted at the end of the day!  But I really want to try to get back into the blogging groove...it's so important to me to keep documenting our lives.  Since I've been absent the last 2 months, I thought I'd do a little fall recap before we get into the Christmas season!

I've spent lots of time with my favorite girl and I love it!

 

This fall was beautiful with lots of warm days so we played outside alot!

Chris and I went to watch our Razorbacks play all season.  After some really close heartbreaking loses, we finally got to see some great wins over LSU and Ole Miss (even shut out wins!!) and it was so fun to see!!  We are excited to see where our team is headed!  And of course, it's always fun to hang out with some awesome friends during this time of year!

Speaking of football, we took Sara Kate to the University of Arkansas homecoming parade in October.  The parade started later than we thought so we had some fun time running around and playing on the lawn of Old Main.  And of course she loved the parade.  She got some candy and a sweet sorority girl gave her a big 'WPS' bead necklace.  She was in heaven!

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever!  Love it so much!!  The girl, that joyful smile, the throwing of leaves, the lighting, Old Main in the background...Chris captured this moment perfectly!

Of course the end of October brought Halloween!  Sara Kate is still princess obsessed and like every other little girl, she's obsessed with Frozen.  For several weeks she told me she wanted to be Ariel for Halloween and I though, no way!  And like I expected, a couple of weeks before Halloween she decided she wanted to be 'Elsa with the blue dress.'  We bought both costumes just in case she changed her mind, but in the end Elsa won, just like I figured it would!  We even went to a Halloween carnival at our church where she and 2 of her sweet friends were all Elsa!  And they all won the costume contest...so cute!

Halloween night was great.  Sara Kate did GREAT trick of treating.  She loved going door to door, saying 'Trick or Treat' and saying 'Thank you, Happy Halloween!'  We couldn't stay out all night because we had a major cold front come through and it turned brutally cold Halloween night.  Sara Kate kept insisting 'Elsa's don't wear jackets' (haha!) but eventually the cold got to her and she was done for the night.  We had a great night overall. 

November brought a visit to our favorite local corn maze, Farmland Adventures in Springdale.  We ended up going on a Monday night when the school Chris' mom teaches at had a family night.  It was so much fun.  Sara Kate loved running through the corn maze, riding the ponies (which she got to do over and over again since there weren't many people there), feeding the goats, and there was even a hot dog and marshmellow roast.  It was a alot of fun and we're so glad we got to go.

 

 

She was so proud of this corn she found.  In fact, she still has it in her play kitchen in her room.  She 'cooks with it.'  Haha.

 

It seems like the month of November flew by and all of a sudden it was Thanksgiving.  This year we traveled to Memphis to have Thanksgiving at my brother's house.  My parents came and also my aunt and uncle from Alabama came.  It was a lovely Thanksgiving...good food, good company, and so much to be thankful for.

The triple chocolate cheesecake my mom made was Sara Kate's favorite!!  She loved it!

 

The other big thing we did while we were in Memphis was take Sara Kate to the Memphis zoo, which I have been wanting to do for a while now.  We went on Friday while all the crazies were out shopping, ha!!!  I had hoped to go in the morning but it was too cold so we had to wait until the afternoon.  Unfortunately, a certain little girl had gotten very tired by that point and her behavior was less than desirable.  But we made the most out of it and still had a good time.

First time I had ever seen a panda bear...so cool!!!

Fun with Uncle Phil and Aunt Holly at the zoo!

We had a great visit to Memphis and a great visit with my family.  A big thanks to my brother for hosting!  Sara Kate loved spending three nights at Uncle Phil's house!

So that's a little look back at our fall.  It was busy!  

One last thing I wanted to add is I am now 3 months post surgery.  So far everything seems fine.  My energy level has been the last thing to come back but that could also be keeping up with a VERY busy 4 year old.  I'm back to working in the field at work and I'm back to running.  I've even managed to run my longest distances (little over 5 miles) with my best times, with hopes of working up to the half marathon distance by spring...can't completely wrap my mind around that!  I'm on an anti-inflammatory medicine to keep the Crohn's at bay, and I have another colonoscopy scheduled for the end of December...and by the end of December, I mean New Years Eve!  I was less than thrilled to find out that's the way I will be closing out 2014, but I supposed it's appropriate considering the last 6 months have been all about my colon!  Dr. Rogers wants to make sure everything beyond where the stricture was is 'good' since he's never seen beyond that spot in any of my previous colonoscopies (this will make the 3rd in 6 months...ughh!!).  He also wants to make sure the spot where he sewed my colon together is healing up.  As for my stomach, things look like this.  I still have tender spots down, especially low near the big incision, but everything is healed up for the most part.

So that's the latest on me and the family.  We've had a great fall and I'm very much looking forward to the Christmas season with Sara Kate (she is so aware of EVERYTHING).  I think it will be so much fun!  I hope to have lots to write about this holiday season!