We've Moved!

After five fun years (and more than 530 posts!) on Blogger, I've hauled over all my content to a shiny new site! (Or rather, my brother-in-law and fellow blogging enthusiast Luke did. Thaaaaaank you, Luke!) You can still follow me, my family, and all of my upbeat thoughts on life here:

glasshalffullness.com

It's still being tweaked and beautified, but I love it so far!

Also, I couldn't find a good photo pertaining to "moving" so here is Cece when she was one and helping us push plants around Home Depot.

Thanks again for reading and I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start!

"Magical" pictures by the Christmas tree

Between the picturesque first snowfall, our TWO Christmas trees, and the nonstop holiday music I play at home, holiday spirit levels are high in our house.

The girls even voluntarily tried on their Christmas outfits and for the first time in history asked me to take pictures of them. Hence, blog post. Cece mostly directed this impromptu photo shoot and also insisted that the lights be off. (I tried to explain that makes it harder to take pictures, but she's a lady with a vision.)

Here's how it turned out:

Kinda, sorta, pinterest-y? I'll try this shot again in the future, I think it could be really sweet.

Cecelia Ray in her holiday glory. I love.

And Rosie in her holiday glory. I may have to send out a secondary Christmas card this year of just Rosie like this.

Then upstairs, Cece wanted a photo series of her holding an assortment of ornaments. So we have about 20 of these types of pictures.

And Rosie wanted to pose with an Easter egg. Because, why not?

And before the evening was over, Rosie had to give me her new trademark pose which will undoubtedly be on her first album cover. Or inside her first book jacket. She has inherited Joe's diva personality and I think she'll go far ; )

Hope you had a great first weekend in December! I'm hoping to post more frequently this month so stay tuned for more Rosie and Cece  holiday adventures!

Halloween 2016

Hi, friends! Last Monday was Halloween and our first time trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. And O M Goodness. What fun the girls had and what an impressive candy haul they brought home! (Thanks, girls!) Cece wanted a mermaid costume this year and Rosie was excited to be Elena of Avalor. The girls let me put long sleeve shirts under their costumes without any fuss which I considered a major win. (I remember being devastated to wear a turtleneck under my princess Jasmine costume one year. I just really wanted to freeze and my mom wouldn't let me. Sigh.)

A few more photos from my phone below:

I can't remember if I've ever mentioned this, but I truly hate carving pumpkins. Like, everything about the process. Fortunately, the girls were happy to just paint their pumpkins this year. Again, thanks girls!!

We started out trick-or-treating by cruising around the neighborhood in our fly new ride. However, the girls ditched the car when they realized it was way faster to run from house to house.

To say our neighborhood was filled with trick-or-treaters is a serious understatement. I had never seen so many kids and parents out celebrating Halloween. It really was a blast and we had a great time with some of Cece's friends from school. I think we stayed out for about an hour and a half and then came home to warm up with hot chocolate, bath time, and the Vikings game ; )

Cece and Rosie also got to hand out candy for a little while after they came home and I think they enjoyed that almost as much as trick-or-treating itself!

Cece has already been asking how many days until next Halloween. I don't blame you girl, this was a great one!

Halloween Candy Houses

Happy almost-Halloween! Cece recently had a four-day weekend and we kept busy for most of it. However, on Monday we relaxed around the house and I managed to facilitate a small Halloween project for the girls.

During the Christmas season, making gingerbread houses is one of our favorite things to do. I figured we could start honing our skills and put a Halloween spin on the candy house idea. Really, all this meant was that I bought some candy corn and dark chocolate frosting. And I then quickly assembled simple structures from graham crackers that we already had in the pantry. (Joe called my construction skills too simple and "Ted Mosby-like" but I don't care. The girls turned them into masterpieces!)

I tried to monitor the candy-eating and frosting-licking, but as you can see, Rosie is totally guilty of sweet consumption (and so stinkin' adorable!). Cece could work on a project like this literally for hours. She was so sweet and thankful that I set this up for them!

I also love how Rosie's house's door is a nod to Olaf the snowman.

As you can see, the girls had a lot of fun and these masterpieces are now centerpieces on our dining room table. (Of course, the smell of frosting was making me crave cupcakes... so I might have baked a whole batch of cupcakes today... whoops.)

Anyways, thanks for checking out our cute candy houses!

ALL the things!

Well, hi! It's been nearly two months since my last post. (As you can see, the above photo is from late summer when Target still thought kids carts were a good idea.)

 We've been staying busy with all things fall and adjusting to Cece's life in kindergarten. I've been taking lots of family pictures and even shot two weddings in the past couple months. Therefore, any time I can manage to get on the computer,  I try to get as much editing done as possible and blogging gets put on the backburner.

However. I've decided to take a little time and just jot down a few things that have happened over the past couple months. (And then finally I can check off "update blog" as it's been on my to-do list for about seven weeks ; )

 

This lovely lake shot is from early September when I flew out to Boston for Labor Day weekend to shoot a wedding in at Camp Lenox in Massachusetts. It was a fun and beautiful weekend to celebrate such Katrina and Aaron, who are a wonderful couple and I'm honored that they asked me to help document their day. 

I managed a teeny tiny bit of sight seeing before my getting on my return flight. I was able to check out Boston Common and even spotted Cheers! Next time I'm out that way, there's about 30 other things I'd love to check out. So, I've made a list for next time because there needs to be a next time!

Also in early September, we made our second trip out to the MN Renaissance Festival. Despite Rosie's pouting face in this picture, our whole family had a blast with the Olsons eating festival food, finding fairies, supervising pony rides, testing out enchanted scrunchies,

Are we magical mamas or what??? My mom says that I can't wear my wench costume all the time. Phooey. I say this is the ultimate ladies night attire.  Til next year, Ren fest!

Now that Cece is living that kindergarten life, I am under new management... the management of Rosie Posie. It's been intense. I've been instructed to make her tacos everyday and also give horsie rides on demand.

Just kidding (a little). Actually, although we miss Cece during the day (as proven by Rosie sleeping on the floor next to Cece's bed at night), I have been enjoying my time with her a whole lot. Not to mention there's no sibling fighting for about 8 hours every day. And Rosie usually takes a nap  which gives me time to do things like shower, make dinner, and edit the occasional batch of photos while there's daylight and I'm not totally sleepy. And Rosie is also probably the funniest person I know, so really, it's been a good situation.

Joe and I even managed a trip to Vertical Endeavors with Rosie one morning while he was off. She's still a ways away from ringing the bell at the top, but she'll get there. Climb on, Rosie Posie!

And we haven't been exactly amazing at trying out new restaurants since we've moved, but we did recently eat at  Sapporo in Hudson. The kids were a little antsy, but all was good once we ordered dessert, of course. Yay for (family) date night!

I've been very fortunate to chaperone a couple field trips for Cece. In September we went to Afton Apple Orchard and picked all the good apples with proper apple picking technique (which we later used to bake apple crisp!). I also accompanied her to the The Phipps Center for the Arts to see the play Mother Goosed. I sure love plays and since I don't think Hamilton is in my near future, this was the next best thing. Not to mention there was great weather that day and we got to have a picnic lunch. That chaperone life is good.

Joe and I also managed to get out for a date night recently. It was to attend Cady and Luke's wedding in Stillwater. Actually I was shooting the wedding. And I made Joe be my assistant (He was an amazing assistant! He carried my things, carried the bride's dress, assisted with my lighting needs. and grabbed me appetizers so I could keep up my energy and strength!)

 

In October, we also celebrated several cousins' birthdays (Elise, Vincent, and Dominic) and we got to do so at the Science Museum! All of the kids had a blast (and so did the adults). The girls especially loved when they got to make mini volcanoes.

So it seems like everyone and their grandma on social media has managed to do multiple fall outings this year from farms to pumpkin patches to grape stomps. Feeling the peer pressure, I took the girls to Axdahl's where we attempted a corn maze (Cece tripped and got muddy and was not happy about it), visited a tiny petting zoo, and got some teeny pumpkins and caramel apples. Boom. Fall y'all.

Just last week, I managed an awesome day-o-fun with Rosie Posie. After accompanying Cece to school for breakfast and the Scholastic Book fair, Rosie asked that we go to Teddy Bear Park. So we spent the morning in Stillwater. After Teddy Bear Park, we walked around, found Humpty Dumpty and the minions, did some window shopping (ok, I bought her a Pegasus), and we had lunch at Leo's (which is an awesome 50's diner and I had the most amazing seasonal salad) . Honestly, one of my favorite days.

We've had many warm October days that were perfect for still playing outside, visiting playgrounds, and even chalking on our sidewalk. Although I've been cooking and baking all of my fall favorites (snickerdoodles!), it really hasn't been oven weather yet. Not complaining over here. Warm October days are the very best kind of days.

I'm going to end the blog post with this picture because it makes me smile every time I look at it! Recently, Rosie has been very specific about who assists her. So, she did NOT want me to put on her socks the other morning, but was totally fine with Cece doing it. Two-year-olds... I tell you.

I'm hoping your fall is going great! If you made it to the end of this, thanks for reading about all the things.

xoxo