The pink candle

"Momma, can we please light the pink one?" is a common question I have heard from Gracie Ann this Advent season.  She helped get out the Advent wreath a few weeks ago and carefully placed the three purple candles in their spots.  At first she requested another purple, not so sure about the only pink candle.  After a little explaining, she agreed to include it, as unfitting as it may have seemed. 

Every night she asks if it is time to light the pink candle and every night we have had to tell her, "Not yet."  Well, today as we were getting ready to walk into the church, Monsignor asked us if we would like to walk up with the clergy and light the candles on the Advent wreath.  "YES!" is what came out of my mouth!  What a special thing for us to get to do as a family, and I knew Gracie Ann would be thrilled to help.  We got up to the front, and Josh lifted her up to help him light the candles.  As we came around to the pink one, Gracie let out a sweet and happy little "aawww".  I was so excited for her!  It was finally time!

Monsignor's homily was over patience and preparation for the birth of Christ.  It made me realize what patience my little four year old has practiced the past few weeks, and how we are all called to have the excitement of a child.  Even though I don't have one gift under the tree, I am feeling prepared for Christmas day and I think I have a little girl to thank for that.

 

Maxwell's Pumpkin' Farm

I can't stand the thought of leaving this post out since we had so much fun!  I took the girls, along with my friends and their kiddos to Maxwell's Pumpkin' Farm here in Amarillo.  This is just one of those things I hope sticks and becomes a tradition in our family.  We arrived at 9 a.m. and  I finally had to drag the girls out around 1 p.m.  They have everything:  hay ride, pumpkin patch, corn box, giant slides, maze, etc.  And GREAT customer service (thanks Josh for giving me a whole new appreciation for this):)  

My favorite place to take pictures is outside, so fortunately we captured many sweet memories from the day.

Here they are forcing a smile for mom because I just had to have the "hay bale" picture --->

Going down the slide.  Last year, Josh and I enjoyed this slide WAY more than the girls :)

Corn maze!!

Peek - a - Boo!

I love this picture of Claire!  She's so excited to feed the goats :) Or, just excited because all of the other little girls are excited.  Either way, cute pic!

A little nervous to touch it...but I'm pretty sure they all eventually did.

My favorite!  This would have to be the best picture of the day.  #1 - The big kid in this picture is my friend Amy.  Our children FORCED us to get on this thing!  #2 - Totally kidding....this trampoline was hands down the coolest thing I've ever experienced. 

Me and my snug-a-bug getting a ride in the over sized wagon.  Livi didn't want to get in with Gracie, so the nice man told me to get in with her.  I resisted at first, but it didn't take him long to convince me to get in :)

Taking a nice hay ride over to the pumpkin patch.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin, or 2...

 "iiiiiii got it!"

With the perfect picture to end this post.  She could totally be in a marketing add for this place!

This post didn't quite flow the way I had imagined.  There was just so much to do and as usual, I took too many pictures leaving me with decisions of which to post.  I think I could have put a million more, but these are my favorites from the day. 

I have really come to enjoy and appreciate the season of fall.