Boo!

Creative, eh?
My most favorite-est time of year is fall and now with the extra time on my hands and a little thing called pinterest, we Stiff ladies are making the most of it.
Ghost courtesty of this slightly altered tutorial....I skipped nails and used duct tape, lots o'duct tape and Tarjay wasn't selling cheese cloth (at least as far as myself and two testy toddlers could see) so we just used a white sheet.
And the symbolism of the three tiny pumpkins?  Well, yeah, the third is the imaginery child I will apparently never be able to have because my husband is mean.  Sorry Grant.  The truth hurts.
In other news.....while Reese napped, Ryan and I made some super easy (2 ingredients!!!), super tasty pumpkin bread.....I only had Pumpkin Spice Cookie mix on hand so we used that instead of cake mix. And the glaze is delish. Don't skimp.
Granted, I won't ever be confused for a food stylist/photographer, but take my word for it. Yummers.

I'll take 'Pigtails' for $200 Alex...

The answer is "sporting her first set of pigtails"
$200 fake dollars to you if you guessed Reese!

Have pigtail....will hold hands. It's part of the pigtail creed.
Have pigtail....will bear hug.
Have pigtail....will look utterly adorable
Have pigtail....will back my booty up into random car seat on the floor and watch Barney

A 'Make it work' moment....

brought to you by Ryan Stiff.
The other night, dad was out at the Cardinals game so mom wanted some peace and quiet and selfishly attempted to get both girls to bed by 7:30pm.  I can hear the laughter from here.  Stop.  Of course Reese wasn't the issue, my little monkey went down easily.  It was Ryan.  She stalled and stalled and stalled.  I finally thought I had her so I went downstairs, made my hot apple cider, grabbed my blanket and settled onto the couch to watch my beloved Project Runway.  Within 2 minutes, the pitter-patter of feet became more pronounced.  Ryan was at my side all sweet and cuddly (can you say m-a-n-i-p-u-l-a-t-o-r) and asked to lay with me and watch my show.  Honestly, I was too lazy to fight it this time and entrenched in learning the latest challenge so I let her sit with me.  Pass the Kleenex please because who would have guessed my little girl would get totally hooked on the show!  She sat still as can be and watched intently the entire time.  At one point she turned to me and said "mom, is this my show" and I said "no, it's mom's show" and she says, get ready for it, "mom, maybe, maybe it could be my show too?" and of course I said "we could share, it could be our show and we can watch together", she says "yes, yes, our show".  When I would fast forward through commercials she would get all stressed out saying "momma, stop, I want to watch the sewing show, have patience!" --- PS...'have patience' is her latest go-to phrase (clearly I've said that one too many times around here).  So we watched and learned and loved Tim Gunn.  And go figure that when the runway show started, Ryan had her opinions.  "I like that one mom" or "Ohhhh, I don't like those pants".... PSS....she was really not a fan of Joshua's awful plaid pants.
I think I died and went to heaven!

In totally unrelated news because I would like to accompany this post with a picture....an old fan favorite has now become an obsession with Reese.  The kitchen sink.
Have no fear, the butcher block of looming kitchen knives is off limits. No calls please.

The escape artist, child #2

You may remember that Ryan conquered her crib just shy of the 2 1/2 year mark.  Feel free to refresh your memory here and here.  So imagine my surprise when Reese ran for freedom at the 18 month mark.  Granted she is crazy, hence the stitches already, but still.....  Last Thursday morning, prior to the start of our Texas road trip later that afternoon, I selfishly tried to put the little monkey down for a morning nap.  Those precious morning naps are apparently only reserved for days when she is feeling under the weather (like right now as I type this post) and shame on me for enforcing one on a feel-good day.  I heard her babbling away, happily at that, so I let her stay in her crib.  Soon the pleasant chit-chat with her animals turned to a more stern "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy".  I told Ryan we should go up and let her out so she could help us pack - we opened her door only to find Reese standing right there in the middle of her room, grinning ear to ear and greeted us with her uber-friendly "hi mommy".
Oh boy.
Being the good mother, again, I asked her to recreate her escape in hopes that she had used her changing table as leverage and I could buy us some more time by simply moving the furniture around.  Ryan and I grabbed a seat on the floor and we put Reese to work.  The good news?  She couldn't do it a second time.  The bad news?  She wasn't using the changing table - she was using the straight-up-throwing-a-leg-over-the-side method.
Not happy to be a part of the crime scene recreation:
PS - not sure what Mickey did wrong to deserve a death by hanging but there he is...
Remarkable balance
Then the kicker came when her half-dressed sister jumped off the floor and said "Oh no Reese, that's not how you do it! Go down to the dresser, put your leg over and jump on the floor - come on, I'll show you. You can do it!"
We are now five days later and still attempt free so we're crossing our fingers until we have to deal with the toddler bed drama....

Texas State Fair

This past weekend, the Griswalds Stiffs loaded up the car and drove down to Dallas for a whirlwind trip to visit family. First up on Saturday morning was a visit to the Texas State Fair...and, as they say 'everything is bigger in Texas' - the state fair did not disappoint.
Big Tex was there to greet us:
Since we were on a limited time basis to squeeze in everything we wanted to do, we got right to business: corn dog, a few rides, obligatory pictures, adios.
Ryan had to pass the test before we could ride:
And off we went on the big slide...
Success!
Girlfriend started off a little unsure, but by the time we got to the bottom she was loving it and asked immediately to do it again....but at about $10 per ride, she can look at the pictures all she wants.
Next up...carousel
And then we started to get restless, broke and late for our lunch date with Ella so off we went.
Despite driving a total of 19 hours with two toddlers in only 4 days and me battling an obnoxious bout of head cold/allergies, we had a lovely time catching up with all of Grant's family - thank you Ella for being so sweet to all us girls (Grant included...sorry, that was too easy).

Reese

Still adorable.  Still crazy.
This is her classic 'I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to stare you down and smile while I climb up the stairs you don't want me to go up'

Eckerts....revisited

This place is just a little slice of heaven for a nice fall day. We went back to Eckerts farm, but this time the Millstadt location which, simply put, is like crack for kids. And adorable crack at that. Grandma, Grandpa and Jack joined in the fun. Straight out of the gate we stumbled upon the giant pumpkin launch - which is good, clean fun as the farmer loads pumpkins in a giant cannon-type thingy (that's a word) and blasts them out a hundred plus yards into the orchard. Of course he needs volunteers. Of course Ryan had her hand a waving away to be called up on stage. Of course he eventually called her up. And be still my beating heart when he asked her to speak into the microphone and tell everyone her name and she said "Ryan Stiff", only it was at warp speed and one word "ryanstiff" - the poor farmer had not a clue what she had uttered, but he went with it anyway....
Farmer, cannon launch thingy, Ryan with a little hay on her tush soaking in her 15 minutes of fame
Picking our her pumpkin to be launched, doing so with a little sass in her step
Reese was jealous. In case you were wondering.  She kept trying to run up on stage to join her sister so we let her run wild with Jack for a bit:
Petting zoo --- well hello there Reese
I will poke every crevice of your face and you will not attack. Deal?
Apple time
Wagon ride
Getting down to business
Dad gave Reese a little lift so she could get hers...
Then we moved onto the 'jumping pillow' and talk about striking gold - Jack and Ryan were in heaven
Just when it can't get any better, well....why the hell not throw in a camel ride?
These two had perma-grins the entire ride
A little love before we head home....
And that, my friends, is a kick-ass fall Saturday!