Pickin'

Early Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed to Clermont to pick some berries.  As we drove out of the city and started to drive past big open fields I felt a calm and peaceful feeling deep in my heart.  I mentioned to Jordan how sad it is that humans make the earth so much uglier than it is naturally... That we can't even come close to competing with God. 

These big open fields full of trees and wildflowers blowing in the wind literally took my breath away.  I have always thought of that expression as merely just a figure of speech.  A way to describe something as very beautiful... but I literally felt my breath escape me for a moment.  Perhaps it was not just the view, but also spending time with my family all together too that made me feel so much gratitude to God.  For He not only created the beautiful earth but He created each of us individually and joined us together as a family.  There is nothing I would rather do and nobody I would rather be with.  I want to explore this world and see everything that He created from small blueberry patches in Florida to the mountains of Switzerland (although the later may take a bit longer to save up for;)) and I want to do it with these people by my side.  I am a defender of motherhood.  I am a defender of the family. And the older I get, the more I become a defender of our environment. 

 

Pumpkin Patch 2016

This past Saturday we headed down to Clermont to check out their pumpkin patch and we had so much fun.  It was amazing weather for Florida (finally in the 80's) and it just really made it start feeling like fall.

Myra, of course, headed straight for the swings!  Her whole life she has been terrified of swinging but will swing in a "big girl swing no problem"... but in a baby swing (where it has the two sided legs on it) she starts shaking and crying unless max is on the other side of it with her.  

This picture below is actually so sweet and sad at the same time.  This was in the little kids maze that they had made with stacks of hay.  Just on the other side of her there was a little boy that was getting in trouble by his mom and the mom was being really quite harsh with him.  Myra sat down hiding from the situation and was really sad.  It took me a minute to get her to stand up and walk away with me.... 

She eventually recovered and we headed for the pumpkins :).

She loves to squish his face and say, "SQUISH FACE".  

He hates it.

And recently she has been doing it to my thighs too.  And then she tells me I am squishy... hmmmm.  Toddlers are so brutally honest, man! 

I got this purse for her at Zara the other night for an amazing deal and she LOVES it.  She always holds it close to her and says, "It's so special for me!!!!".

She then ran around on dirty, old tractor tires and got SO dirty. 

Her favorite part though... was when she found a centipede and kept yelling "A CATAPILLA.. A CATAPILLA MOM!" and even gave it a kiss. (Insert wide eyed, oh my gosh, emoji).

I love this about her so much.  Maybe because it reminds me of me when I was little?  I always loved playing outside with the neighborhood boys but always carried around a doll (just your average oxy-moron ;)).  A tom-boy but also a good mix with girly-girl.   Myra and I are quite different from each other except for this... She loves to wear dresses and loves all things girly, but man does she love to get dirty and play with bugs too.  I was reveling in her running around in a dress looking that dirty.  SO ADORABLE! hahaha

I love this part too...

Gosh, my husband is cute. I just love that big "Y" on top of his hat. You would never guess he was once a big Ute fan.  Nothin hotter than a man routing for his Cougs. ;)