a year in review... part one.

Since I stopped blogging for ALMOST A YEAR, we have a lot to catch up on.  I'll start where I left off, in October of 2015...

We spent about 70% of October playing dress-up and trying to settle on the perfect Halloween costume for Ruthe.  It was not an easy task, because she LOVES to wear fancy dresses and silly costumes!

She could be a doctor, a gnome, or a witch:

We tried out being a ghost, several princesses, and even a dinosaur!!  All before we settled on the one and only...

TINKER BELL!!

Can you even handle how cute she is??  Because I just about died watching her trick-or-treat!  She was actually pretty great walking up to people and doors to get candy, unless there was anything even just the tiniest bit spooky!!  Luckily we went with our friends who have two very brave boys that helped her out!!  We think she really had a lot of fun, aside from not being able to see her feet to go up or down steps!  (And John and I were definitely happy with her candy haul!!)

I am already planning our family-themed costume for this year!!  Haha - yeah.  We're that  weird  cool, I mean cool.  We're cool.

Let's move on...

Thanksgiving means family and friends and football and turkey... and slides.

Because my parents just can't resist spoiling her to the core.  This slide lived in the living room for our entire Thanksgiving trip... and then moved to the end of the hallway through the rest of the holidays so she could enjoy it when we came back for Christmas.  The only other pictures I took of ANYTHING on Thanksgiving weekend were these:
 

Ruthe generally refuses to smile for pictures, unless she can see herself in selfie-mode... which then means you have to be QUICK to snap the picture before she starts making silly faces and trying to lick the screen!!

And she's always willing to help clean up... as long as it means she can make a giant mess in the process!

We truly are thankful for so many things, and having family to spend the holidays with is at the tippy-top of that list.  Since my grandmother passed away so near to Thanksgiving, it's been a bittersweet time for our family to celebrate.  Luckily, we know she's smiling down on us, so glad that we spend it together, because she always just wanted everyone together during the holidays!!

Is two holidays enough for one recap post??  Can I do Christmas and New Year's next time?  Wait... why am I asking you?  This is my blog.  I can do whatever I want!!

Smell ya later!