Thanksgiving 2015

We celebrated our second Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, Rory's first Thanksgiving, and the first time Josh hasn't been working on a major holiday since last Christmas on Thursday.  But truth be told, I always get a little sad on holidays, especially when I'm FaceTiming with my family back in California, wishing we could be with them to celebrate holidays exactly as I always did growing up.  It's always hard to be away from all of our family but holidays seem to make it especially challenging.

However, we were so happy to be invited to spend Thanksgiving with my friend Cami and her family this year at their beautiful home in Fitchburg.  We've been very blessed the last two years to have had friends open their homes to us and make us feel like family on Thanksgiving.  Ryan was especially thrilled because she had two little friends to run around with the entire afternoon and even though the only part of the Thanksgiving meal that she actually ate was ice cream, I'd still call it a major success.
Rory was awake most of the day but she was very content to be held and take in all of the action.  She continues to be a relatively easy-going baby.

I failed miserably at taking any pictures of the gorgeous Thanksgiving spread and of course took no pictures of our whole family, but I did manage to get a couple of the girls and I guess that will have to suffice.

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  Two beautiful, healthy little girls.  A full-time job at UMass for Josh.  Great friends.  A beautiful home.  And most importantly, a loving Father who is faithful to meet our every need and loves us unconditionally.

Rory's Nursery

This post has been a long time coming, mostly because it took me an extra long time to finally complete Rory's nursery due to the fact that we didn't decide on her name until she was a day old.  And I'm all about the personalized touches and that's impossible to do without a name!

Her room was initially a huge challenge for me.  I had a hard time feeling inspired to work on it partially because I knew we were moving to a new home around the time I was 27 weeks pregnant and I didn't see the point in doing much until I knew what kind of space I would be working with.  But also because I absolutely loved Ryan's nursery and so I felt like I had already created my dream little girl's nursery.  How could I top that?  I suppose this was the same issue we had in naming Rory, we had already used our top girl name.  Ha!

I wanted Rory's space to be all her own but I also planned to use almost all of the furniture from Ryan's nursery and Ryan's crib bedding.  So initially, all I could picture was Ryan's room with all of the same stuff.  However, I knew I had seen this stunning pink peony wallpaper from Anthropologie while I was pregnant with Ryan.  The problem was we were apartment living at the time and I knew we would be moving for residency so I didn't see the point in investing in wallpaper for a short term amount of time.  I started thinking that perhaps I could use the wallpaper as an accent wall for Rory's room.  Around the same time, Josh and I went to the Brimfield Antique Fair.  I was kind of searching for something that stood out and and could be my inspiration piece for the nursery and sure enough, I came across the most adorable refinished mint dresser.  I knew it would go perfectly with the wallpaper should I decide to buy it and from there, Rory's pink, mint, and gold nursery was born.

Rory's room is my (second) dream room.  It is completely different than Ryan's room, even with the same furniture and bedding.  I could sit in there for days on end and for me, her room is what I imagine heaven feels like.  It is dreamy and peaceful, utterly beautiful and whimsical all at the same time.  And it really was such a joy to create.

And not to toot my own horn, but I submitted her nursery to Project Nursery's website and it was nominated for one of the best nursery's of November.  If you feel so inclined, please consider voting for her nursery to win!  Also, if you are interested in knowing where most of the pieces in the nursery are from, you can view the room HERE and find links to many of the items.

The Leaves Have "Fall"en

And it is so bittersweet.  On one hand, it's such a blast to play in the leaves, aside from the fact that Ryan recently had a tick crawling on her which I'm sure came from rolling around in them.  But, on the other hand, it means that the trees are now bare and winter is sure to be here soon.  While the holidays are literally upon us and that is truly exciting, I also know that snow, heaps and mounds of snow, is coming.  And once it's here, it won't be gone until April.  But fall, fall is STUNNING in Massachusetts.

Somehow I moved from one extreme to another living in Southern California most of my life where "winter" is defined by 50 degree weather and a little bit of rain but for the most part it's sunny and warm 9 months out of the year to the North East where it is the exact opposite.  Winter is never-ending it seems and a 50 degree day after months and months of snow seems like a good time to go sun-bathing!

But, let's not get too depressed just yet.  We've still been enjoying the mild fall weather and clearly, we've all been taking full advantage of the fallen leaves because let's face it, we Californians have missed out on this our entire lives so we may have an unhealthy obsession with all things Fall.

It's no wonder that so many family members want to come visit us during the fall months so that they can experience the beauty themselves.  We had my Mother-in-Law Denise out here last week visiting us and she sure enjoyed playing in the fall foliage with Ryan as well.

We even have a fall leaf playground in our own backyard!  Which means that I probably need to buy a rake and consider cleaning up the "toys" someday soon as I'm told once the snow hits it will turn them all into mush and apparently that is even less fun to clean up.

But, we'll enjoy them for a few more days, and maybe I'll find a few more photo opportunities since I obviously didn't take enough pictures in them this year. :)