Fall camping

I love this super-late blogging because looking at this pictures from last fall are just all the more sweet a little further out. I can just smell that campfire and feel that cool dampness that made Blythe's hair angelic all weekend.

Blythe couldn't collect enough "rainbow" leaves to give us- she just loved all the colors of fall.

Our sweet friends the Fulghums joined us for this weekend, and it was so fun to introduce some favorite friends to one of our favorite places.

I love this one- Grant on the go- he's a week older than the twins, and these kids have grown up together.

This picture cracks me up- I have no idea what we're looking at in this particular moment, but on this trail in the past, we've seen awesome things like frogs, fish, turtles, ducklings, goslings, and a snake. It can be an eventful little trail, and the view always takes me by surprise- just so beautiful.

We've been taking this picture since this time, and this time, and this time. Love the girls growing up coming back to this place!

Skipping rocks, soaking in fall sunshine.

People think camping with kids is going to be such a bear. Sometimes it is. But sometimes you find yourself on a hammock with your husband, a happy baby, and a glass of wine. Love this one.

 This was the morning we woke up to a monsoon. Our tent continues to be a super-tent that if it was ever going to leak, this particular day would have been it. But we were dry as could be. So we battened down the hatches for a warm breakfast cooked by super-dad under under our rain fly.

There was a little coffee (yup, the coffeemaker still comes)...

There was some snuggling...

Then, unpictured, is that the rest of the above rainy day spent on a field trip to Aunt Boo and Uncle Wayne's cabin, which was a mere 30 minutes away... so we sort of cheated on a camping trip... but we were cozy and dry as could be by a fire inside. The rain cleared up just in time for us to come home, tuck the kiddies in, and have a lovely grown-up night by the fire at the campsite! The next morning we woke up to gloriousness.

We celebrated with hot chocolate.

Loved this weekend with these precious friends, loved all the good laughs, great talks, and great memory-making for our kids!

Slip 'n Slide

The day after we got home from their first Auburn game, Jake set up a super-classy slip n slide in our front yard. At first, we were a little unsure about the speed with which we were flying down the hill and towards a sidewalk.

But pretty quickly we decided it was AWESOME and we couldn't get enough.

This one here was the longest hold-out, but once she was in, she was IN.

And the award goes to... JAKE GROSS for best dad-of-girls in history. The guy's got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders as the man of the house with four women, but he makes it look like a cake walk. The women they will amount to has soooo much to do with what this daddy is investing in them. Like super-awesome Sunday afternoon slip 'n slides.

First game!

Sweet friends offered us their tickets to the Arkansas St. game, so we had the beautiful honor of taking these girls to their first game! Abby Jane went to a couple as a baby, but the twins never have. We were all beyond excited. These are the steps where Jake popped the question 10 years ago, and the girls always make a beeline for them!

We ran into our precious friends, Will and Emily, who were in grad school with Jake and realized they were in love when they were at our wedding! They're West coasters now, so it was fun to see them back on the Plains.

We also had the huge delight of getting to hang out with the Yorks that Saturday. These precious folks are so dear to us, and we don't see them anywhere near as much as we wish we did. It was such a blessing to get our little people together for a bit and soak in some sweet time together.

Sweet Em and her lump of love, Ellie- such a heart melter!

Then we made our way over to Tiger Walk...

The girls could have just gone home right then with hearts just overflowing after the next two pictures happened.

Abby Jane took these to school for show and tell the next week. Love our little Auburn girls!

The girls were amazed and completely enthralled by the band. Our seats were just perfect for them getting to take it all in! They had a million and one questions.

Sunset over Jordan Hare... one of the loveliest sights you'll ever behold!

Such a special day sharing such a treasured place with the girls. Little did we know then that we were watching the National Championship team play! Beautiful day, beautiful memories. War eagle!

Lasts and firsts

On the first full week of school, we went up to the lake to get in one of our last summer evening paddles and playtimes. That time of night and time of year on the lake is so special and worth the trouble. We got in a couple after this one, but this one felt really healthy to us in reminding us that our family life as we knew it didn't have to stop when school started.

That week we also had our very first real homework assignment. All 10 minutes of it was really fun to us, and Abby Jane felt very important. Milestones.

Opening day!

A couple of weeks before the opening of football season, before we even had our football decor out, I walked around the corner to see what the twins had been drawing, when they informed me it was the Auburn stadium. They said they had drawn "all the players and people and boy and girl coaches." I think they must have known it was going to be a national championship kind of year.

Some of the spectators.

I had been anxiously waiting for the day we were going to bust out the Auburn spirit, because this precious white house with a red door had formerly belonged to a lovely girl who happened to hang the flag from that other school in the fine state of Alabama. We were very pleased to officially and properly realign this sweet home.

I'm glad I documented my zinnias that day. They grew from seed to over six feet tall, and their vibrancy delighted my flower-loving heart. The pansies I planted in the absence of the zinnias delight the gluttonous deer in my community, so there is a slight ache in my soul when I see my stark-by-comparison winter flower bed. Hadn't counted on losing so hard to the deer, but also hadn't counted on six degree weather, so there you have it. In any case, this picture now makes me think of abundance, between the zinnias and Auburn's beautiful football season.

The ladies on first day of the holiday season we call football. It was a party from sun-up to sun-down around here as we celebrated the beginning of what turned out to be the most staggering, miraculous season in Auburn history!

Finally their turn!

 Blythe and Joy had been excited for preschool for a long, long time. They were sooo excited when it was finally their turn to go to school! That makes two of us.

OK, maybe three. Abby Jane was so excited for them that she insisted that she and Jake go out after bedtime the night before to get special roses to present to the girls on their very first day of school. It was so precious to see the twins get to be extra celebrated after all the hullabaloo when Abby Jane had begun kindergarten a couple of weeks before.

 This was perhaps one of the best days of their lives to date. They were over the moon!

Last year, on Abby Jane's first day of 4 yr old preschool, I told Jake that I just didn't think I'd be able to walk away from dropping off Blythe and Joy the next year empty-handed. Meaning, I was so glad to have a twin in each hand as I dropped off my big girl. Meaning, I needed a baby before Blythe and Joy went to school. Jake's response was that HE would hold my hand. Not quite what I meant. BUT, since then, we have both become truly more than satisfied in our family of five as is, unless God really rocks our world. (I'm even consigning clothes for the first time this spring- gasp!)

BUT THEN came first day of twin preschool, and they walked into that classroom without one glance behind. I broke every cardinal rule about making a quick exit so you don't set off other kids who may be having a hard time or make your kid who was doing fine suddenly stop doing fine. I marched right into that room and grabbed my girls and gave quick hugs and kisses and I love you's.

I made it about 10 feet away from their door when I broke down in nasty big tears, and I am just the ugliest crier ever. It's a darn good thing Jake Gross WAS there to hold my hand because he stood in front of me so I didn't scare all the other little kids and mamas walking to THEIR first days of school. All the sweet ladies we had cheerfully and enthusiastically greeted on our way into the school's faces drastically changed from "so-glad-to-see-you" to "OHHHH NOOOOO blesss your heart" expressions as they saw my giveaway puffy blotchy face. They all said, "Ohh, the girls are going to be just great!" And I said, "I know!! It's just their mama!" And so began preschool.

I quickly acclimated to their two days a week gone, mostly because I never accomplish a third of what I hope to during that time. And they have the most marvelous time with the most marvelous teachers we all just love. But the fact remains that I am nowhere near in a hurry for these girls to grow out of this stage. I am trying to walk through life with kids at home as absolutely as slowly as feasibly possible. Here and there are days that feel like they last ages and perhaps my life expectancy dropped a bit, but my heart is full at the end of each one.