On the first day of November, we had our family photos taken. Really wish we had done one of these sessions when Henry was a firstborn too. Love getting his cute face captured. These photos were done by The Manchiks and there are just way too many good ones to choose from. Here are my faves:

By the time we hit the outdoors, Henry was 99% tuckered out. There was absolutely nothing we could do to get more than half a smile out of him. So yes, he has his little spaced out look in pretty much all the photos. I love them just the same though.

It’s been quite the month over here. It’s had more hardships than I’ve personally ever had so close together and I think we’re all still trying to figure out what just happened. We lost two of our dear friends within three weeks of each other, one of them especially extra close to my heart for he was my cousin and the best friend I had before I married my new best friend. Both deaths were so tragic and unexpected, my husband and I just held each other closer all month because we once again were reminded just how real (and yet unreal) death is. We don’t know what the future holds for us and those we are surrounded by, so we decided to treat life as something that needs to be lived to its fullest instead of getting lost in the things that don’t matter in the end. It’s so easy to make that decision, but so much harder to actually live by it.

God didn’t promise that the way would be easy and that we’d never come across hardships, but He did promise that He would carry us through each one. So whether it be the pains of Henry teething (his two bottom teeth are in) or me being bummed out that my sister and her husband finally moved out into their own place (the place feels so lonely and I swear there’s an echo) — I’m trying to learn to absorb each thing positively and learn new things as I go.

With all this going on, I decided to make a decision about this blog of mine. I think when I became a mama, I started taking on things differently. I find myself getting more emotional about things that didn’t touch me before — and just to clarify, I’m talking about the good emotional here. Having Henry made me look at life as what it is: a miracle. I want to do so much with him.

I know that I promised that I was going to start up blogging regularly again, and I know I did for just a while, but this miraculous life we’re living just keeps reminding me that I no longer have the time that I had before. I do still have 24 hours in my day, but many of those hours are now spent differently than before. So as a result, I just can’t find the time to put together daily posts. Rushing them last minute means they come out just blah and not worth publishing. So instead, I’m going to blog less often, but when I do, it’ll be about things that I love or a good project that I’m dying to share with you all. I’m hoping that since daily isn’t working out, I can at least do weekly, right?

On a lighter note, two weekends ago, we had a lovely time with The Manchiks getting our family photos taken. Both photos below are sneak peeks of the very end of the shoot via Julia Manchik’s phone; Henry was completely tuckered out by this time and didn’t make it into the shot. Fingers crossed for the perfect Christmas card photo; by the time we got around to taking those, we couldn’t get a smile out of him no matter how hard we tried. He actually fell asleep less than 30 seconds after we started our trek home. Poor little guy. I’m sure we have some gems taken of him though, so it was worth it.

I finally started lugging my camera around in my diaper bag because Henry is speed-growing it seems and I’m not about to miss any of it! I have a hard time believing that just two short weeks ago, we were sweating in 90 degree weather. I took a stroll with a couple friends of mine and after five miles in the heat, we were beat and crying out for cooler weather. It was Henry’s last day going barefoot that day. Somehow that’s a milestone, right? Now it’s finally getting chilly and miserably wet. I love the chilly bit. There’s something so cozy about layering up. But when my toes get soaked — I guess those boots weren’t waterproof after all — not so cool.

So hopefully if my camera stays stowed in my bag, you’ll be seeing more of this type of post.

Last weekend we got invited by some friends to join them at Bi-Zi farms for some beginning-of-fall adventuring. So off went Henry on his first pumpkin patch adventure. I haven’t been myself since elementary school, so it was fun getting to troop around some mud and launch some pumpkins. I tried some raw apple cider for the first time — and surprise, surprise — it tastes exactly like an apple. Henry wasn’t too impressed with much. Actually, I’d say he wasn’t impressed with anything except the Ergobaby he hung out in most of the time. So the adventure was really for us grown-ups.

The corn maze was what I was looking forward to the most. I don’t think I’ve ever ever been in a corn maze. At least I can’t remember going through one. We all grabbed maps and decided to race through the maze. My clever husband worked his way backward on the map, found the route, and we just walked our way through it. We weren’t the first ones out, but hey, we felt pretty victorious nonetheless. I don’t think anyone could survive a corn maze without a map!

As part of our entry fee, we all got to take a free pumpkin home. Including Henry. Finding the perfect pumpkin consisted of me just standing there snapping photos while my husband and another friend were scouting. I probably missed out, but hey, at least we have photos.