Pumpkin Patch

It's one of our family traditions every year to take a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Honestly, besides our tradition of going to cut down a Christmas tree, this is probably my FAVORITE tradition.  It's so much fun and often when we get some of our best pics of LL.  Here's a link to our visit in 2009 and 2010.

Our first year, we went alone.  The next year, we went with Aunt Laura, Uncle Gino, and Ben.  This year, we went with Oma and Opa.  The past two years, we've gone to the pumpkin patch in Lakeland.  It's super close to our house, and usually completely empty.  That means that we usually spend an hour + just walking around and taking pictures.  This year, we showed up and there was no pumpkin patch!  :(  We really didn't want to drive to Valdosta (far and usually crowded), so we made a few phone calls to find out if there was a patch in Nashville.  There was so we headed on our way!

I don't know that this pumpkin patch is usually like, but to me, it was pretty small.  Don't get me wrong, it was still plenty big, just not as many pumpkins as I'm used to choosing from.  On the plus side, they did have a very small hay bale maze that LL had a BLAST running around in! 

Usually, I (or in last year's case, Gino) get AH-MAZING pictures at the pumpkin patch.  This year, however, is a different story.  LL is too busy and totally knows that a camera is and has no interest in it at all!  So here are the best ones I managed to get...

Trying to be a super strong girl and pick up the big pumpkin!

Didn't really work - haha.

The stinker wouldn't look at the camera!

Crissy - does she look like Stevie in this pic to you?  She does to me!  It's the first thing I thought of!

Recognize her shirt?  It's the same one she wore last year.  :)

Opa helped her pick out a baby pumpkin!

"Show Mommy the pumpkin!"  Fail.

Silly, girl.

Best pic of the day!

They had some huge hay bails?  Rolls?  I dunno.  And randomly a broom stick.

Love this one!

My girl!!

My Monday

Man, has it been a Monday!  These are the days that I wish I could just lock myself in my house for the day!

To start off with, I wasn't feeling so great this weekend.  Tummy issues - probably something I picked up from one of my lovelies at school.  It was pretty not good.  To the point where I even considered calling a sub on Sunday night because I didn't know if I would be able to make it on Monday morning to work.  I didn't, and I went.

After first period (about 8:45), I got a call from The Hubs saying that LL was sick.  I got someone to cover my room and called him back.  He said that right after he had gotten to his mom's to drop LL off, she started complaining about her head hurting and then threw up. 

Grammy called the dr. and got an appointment set up for 1:45.  LL ended up falling asleep somewhere near 10:00 (VERY weird for her!) and sleeping for about an hour.  When she woke up, she complained of her head again, and threw up again.

I left work at 1:45 (it's the earliest I can leave with only taking 1/4 of a day) and drove like a crazy person to Valdosta to try and get there before LL saw the dr.  The dr. said that because she had a runny nose and mild fever last week, it was probably a sinus infection.  Plus, there was a good chance that she had gotten my stomach bug, too.  We got an antibiotic (just in case she does have an infection), a cough medicine, and an anti-nausea medicine. 

She and I came home, I gave her some meds and crackers, and we settled down to watch Monsters, Inc. until daddy got home.  We fed her a bland, early dinner, and put her to bed at 6:30.  She hadn't napped but that hour from 10-11 and was EXHAUSTED! 

After dinner, The Hubs started feeling bad, too, and went to bed early.  What. A. Day.  Here's to hoping that tomorrow is better!

The Honey Bee Festival - 2011

**Sorry for the lack of posting last week.  I have some legit reasons, but I can't really blog about them yet.  I promise that I will as soon as I can.

Well, it's that time of the year again!  One of our favorite traditions is going to Hahira's Honey Bee Festival every year!  Remember last year and the year before?  We've been going long before LL was born, though.  Before we had a child, we used to take Lola.  My, how times have changed - haha.

This year, my sister was down for the weekend, and we also invited Emily and Kye to come along, too.  LL, Ben, and Kye are all really at the perfect age for stuff like this.  They enjoy looking around, can participate in the really fun stuff, and don't have to nap several times a day.  We lucked out this year and the weather was gorgeous.  It wasn't really hot and there was a nice breeze. 

Aunt Laura bought some Honey Straws and LL enjoyed this one....for about 2 minutes...haha.  I think it was just too difficult for her to get the honey out.

She did, however, really enjoy these puppies!  My child is a girl after my own heart when it comes to animals, that's for sure!

Our crew at the Honey Bee (minus Matt - who was taking the picture)

That's my girl!

This was absolutely her favorite part of the whole thing!  She LOVES to ride horses!

Kye enjoyed a ride, too!  His first time ever on a horse, I think?

Climbing up there all by herself like a big girl!

So proud of herself!

Fire truck!

Kye was the only one brave enough to wear the helmet.  It was soooo heavy for him and he just froze like this - so funny!

We found a grassy place to eat and while we were sitting, we saw SO MANY people we knew - including Meghan, Kevin, and Luke!

"Baby Luke" as LL calls him.  What are we gonna call him when he's not a baby anymore??

Trying to get a pic of me and Ben.  You can tell how thrilled he was.  And the port-a-potties in the background probably wasn't the best idea, either.  Fail.

LL throughout the years at the Honey Bee.

 This really is one of my favorite traditions and something that I look forward to every year!