it's been awhile... a lot has happened in our lives since my last post.

*we live in texas now and have been here for just a bit over a year

*we have made a ton of friends here which has been a huge blessing... and it's been nice living near my sister, brandi, kelly and james... love them!

*all the kids have been surfing competively and doing great - tyler has been killing it, tannyn got third in her first contest and tayli got fourth in her first contest!

*texas summers suck - so HOT!

*dan fishes a lot since there is rarely any surf

* ty went to bali on a missions trip this summer - we are beyond proud of him and his love for Jesus and others

* in february we found out we are expecting!

*in june we found out we are are expecting TWINS! one of each...boy and girl..

*i'm due at the end of october but hoping they come a few weeks early... my belly is HUGE!

(you can see tons of pics on instagram - user name: kassibacquet)

*i'm planning a home birth and have the most wonderful mid wife, chris duffy, whom i completely trust and respect... we love her assistant, ashley, as well. they are awesome!

*tyler just turned 15, tayli turned 5 in july and tannyn is almost 8!

*dan and i celebrated 9 years of marriage on august 9th

so much change has happened and i'm sure if i put my mind to it, i could write a book! but i have total pregnancy brain and can't think of anything else... but i wanted to update you all on our lives. i'm not sure if many of you still check my blog, but if so, let me know if you would be interested in me keeping up with it from here on out - i'm sure i'll have a lot to write about over the next few weeks until the arrival of the twins and, of course, after they come.

looking forward to this journey...

kass


*all pics are from my iphone/instagram...sorry for the bad quality



five month hiatus... and probably a bit longer

i really didn't think i would blog again any time soon... i'm surprising myself right now. a lot has been going on in my life in the last five months...

january:

we couldn't afford living in our home in laguna anymore so we moved to lompoc (just north of santa barbara) to live with my mom and step-dad 

got the kids situated in their new schools

got ourselves situated with our new life

february:

dan's little sister got married

our armada got repossessed (so that makes two cars taken from us)

dan's grandma goes into the hospital and is put on life support.. all her organs were shutting down and she had sepsis but praise God she made it through and now is well

dan got offered a job in houston, texas by my brother in law and moved in with him, my sister and their kids

march:

the kids and i adjust to dan being gone

we send a car package to dan for his thirty-first birthday

tyler places third for the WSA in morro bay and gets a trophy

we miss dan terribly

i become obsessed with HAR

arpil:

the kiddos have spring break

i celebrate my thirty-first birthday

friends and family love up on me

we go to burlingame (san fran) for my nieces birthday and have fun with family

we start paying off debt

may:

we pay off both of our cars 

we pay off our credit cards

we are slowly but surely coming out of debt

the kiddos and i have gone three months without dan

my mom, gran, aunt and i go to an antique fair in nipomo that was featured in country living mag... i was so excited but turns out it was over crowded and everything was priced way too high. i had better luck at the antique mall in arroyo grande

i'm still cleaning and cooking (my moms house) as payment for letting us live here

ty ranks 11 overall for the WSA in his age division - we are so proud

tannyn is in alice in wonderland with the local theater group and plays a flower - i made the flower head pieces

memorial weekend i fly out to visit dan... it was such a nice reunion... got a lot of quality time in, hung out with brandi, kelly and jacob, looked at houses, stayed with my sister and her fam, went to galveston, fished at dan's secret spot and just had a great time.... 

june:

today... 

missing dan, kids last day of school is tomorrow - taking them to the beach after, summer round up at santa barbara bowl with christina and kim on friday, some possible camping, maybe a road trip to san fran to see my brother, my sis in law and kiddos, still obsessed with HAR, and praying and praying that we find a house (and a car) so we can move in july

so there is a little run down of what's been going on (i i left a lot out) for those of you who are still interested in reading my blog. once we move, i may just be making a come back!

he's such a stud

wow, it's been a while... 

we've had A LOT going on here... a lot of changes are in the works in my life and i'll have to update you all with a post some time in the near future but right now i just wanted to take this time to brag about tyler - today he was photographed surfing at our local beach, salt creek. the photos are here if you would like to see them - he's such a stud and i'm so proud!!

        

 his photos are 16-25 and 42

happy new year!

kass

*it is driving me insane that the photo isn't centered but blogger is being lame... sorry.

until i can get the darn blog figured out

thank you all for your kind words and for all your advice on the blog...

i'm so not computer savvy so most of what you guys mentioned was pretty foreign to me... so i'm going to have dan read all the comments and help me figure it out this weekend sometime.

thanks so much for your love my friends... i have the best readers!

if you want to keep up with the goings on in my life (until i can get the darn blog figured out) feel free to follow me on twitter (although, i don't tweet that often anymore) or find me on facebook... just make sure you send me a message so i know you're a BacWoods Fern reader!

AND

if you're in need of a super quick and easy costume idea for yourself or your child, i just posted the easiest project on my facebook page... a hand sewn felt mask - check it out. easy, fun, free and you can get the kiddos involved!

i hope you all have a bootiful halloween weekend

xo,

kass

one and done

well guys, i had a post all planned for you but blogger is being lame and telling me that my storage for photos is full and that if i want to add more photos i need to purchase more storage... what the heck?! i don't have the money to waste on this (sadly) so therefore i just might be ending my blog...  since i HATE writing a post without a photo in it... and i'm not a fan of using other peoples photos... bummer. 

so on the day of my one year bloggiversary i just might be calling it quits

one and done

UNLESS

any of you can tell me how to get around this... i'm not sure how to delete the photos that are already in storage to make room for new ones (and yes keel, i tried what you said and didn't work) - have any of you come across this? and if so, how did you go about deleting photos?

we'll see if i continue this adventure or not...

i've enjoyed the ride, 'meeting' you and interacting with you via the web... it's been fun. thanks for a fun year my readers and friends.

till next time

xo,

kass

fall decor

you may or may not have noticed these little pumpkins in the previous post...

i wanted some fall decor, found this tutorial and decided to try it out.

they were fun to make but they would have been more fun if i had had the proper tools... i ended up chipping a chunk of my tooth pulling the needle while making the lines on the pumpkin.. that's the last time i pull a needle using my teeth!

so this morning i noticed daniel staring at me with a really ugly expression... he proceeds to reach for my hair as if he was going to get some fuzz out of it or something.

this is what happened next...

daniel (in a really disgusted tone): "you have a gray hair!" 

me: "ahhh don't pull it, i love my gray hairs!" 

daniel: "but it's nasty... it's so long"  

me: "don't touch me! leave it alone!" 

daniel: "ewwww that's just gross"

bummer, my plan was to just go gray naturally... guess that isn't happening anymore!

the fam and i are headed to santa barbara to see my dad tomorrow. my aunt from wisconsin is in town and my brother and his family will be in town from san francisco. we'll be celebrating my dad's 61st birthday. i love going up north and seeing my family! on sunday tyler has another WSA (world surfing association) contest in ventura so we'll be there bright and early for that. 

speaking of surfing, at our old local spot where my boys would surf (surf beach in lompoc, ca) there was a fatal shark attack on a sponger (body boarder) - scary! he was a twenty year old UCSB student... so sad. whenever we go up to lompoc to stay with my mom, my boys always surf near there... now it makes me more nervous than it normally does. ugh. 

my prayers go out to that boys family.

okay, that's about all...

oh wait...

happy birthday dad!

my dad and my sisters daughter, edyn, the summer before last

you are the BEST dad ever and an amazing big papa. i love you more than you know!

xo,

kass

joy laughter love

homemade banner made last year for tannyn's birthday

six years ago i delivered you

with my own two hands

after fourteen and a half hours of labor

with no drugs

and since that day

you have brought me so much 

joy

laughter

love

i feel so blessed to have you as my daughter

and i love you more than you will ever know

happy birthday my sweet and precious Tannyn Farrin!

tannyn, age 4

i love you mucho mucho grande!

xo,

mom

all its glory

 what fall looks like in california... well at least in my backyard

remember in this post how i mentioned my mossy tree stump? well, there it is in all its glory - i love looking at it while sitting on my patio having my morning quiet time and drinking my coffee.

it's been rainy here the last few days but let up for an hour so i took advantage and trekked up the hill to get these photos - stupidly i wore flip flops and got my feet covered in mud... 

today is the last day of tannyn being five. my little girl is growing up so fast.

xo,

kass

fall fun

this past weekend we took the kids (and tannyn's friend) to the pumpkin patch -

here are a few photos of the kids, dan and i having some fall fun. 

(1. scary man 2. the girls pretending to be scared 3. jump house fun 4. giving dan a titty twister 5. mock boy fights 6. skipping)

 tannyn loved her crown... and it fit perfectly!

(present time at tann's family party this past sunday)

today is my kind of day... pouring rain and magnificent lightening and thunder - perfect fall weather if you ask me! 

enjoy this lovely day

xo,

kass

*all photos edited using picnik

inspired

 i had to step outside to get better lighting... it's dark in my house today due to fog and drizzle (which i love)

i got inspired by a post over at elsiemarley - she made a pretty birthday crown for her daughter so i thought i would do the same for tannyn. mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty as hers did... but i'm hoping that tannyn will like it. tannyn turns six next thursday so this weekend she has a friend staying over for a sleepover and we're going to take them to the pumpkin patch (at tannyn's request) on saturday then on sunday we're having a family birthday for tannyn at our house where i'll give her the crown - i hope it fits!

what are your plans this weekend?

xo,

kass

ps. thanks for all the compliments on the new hair - you guys rock and totally made me smile!

new do

thanks so much for all the kind words from the last post... isn't it nice to realize that the little things in life can bring so much joy?  

tayli and i are watching Babies right now... have any of you seen it? we are so privileged in this world we live in... i'm in awe of the mothers in this film. it makes me realize more than ever that material things just don't really matter...

on another note, i hijacked my sons camera and was able to get a couple of photos of my new haircut. a couple of weeks ago i cut a couple of inches off my hair (i've been doing my own hair for years now) but i wanted to go shorter, so my mother in law came over and cut a few more - this is the shortest it's been in three years and i love it.

okay, that's all i've got for now... 

enjoy your tuesday!

xo,

kass

oh, i've gotten a couple of emails from readers... and i've lagged in a response - sorry! i'll try to get to it today - i appreciate getting emails - thank you!

finding joy

random photo: crab we found last weekend at the beach

dan's on commission only with his new job and it's hard on us financially, we have no health care, we have one car that works, tayli broke my camera, i've had a cold and have been soooo tired the last couple of weeks... but despite those little things that are not particularly great, i'm still finding joy in some little things... 

i'm loving this weather we're having right now... it's been drizzly and cloudy the last couple of days and it's raining today - pure bliss

i had a nice quiet time reading my bible outside on the patio with the rain falling around me this morning

the mossy tree stump in my yard makes me happy - if tayli hadn't broken my camera i would take a photo of it to show you... it really is so pretty

i made a super yummy, super easy mac-n-cheese last night

(if you want the recipe let me know)

reading books with the girls after tann gets home from school

watching the girls sing and dance and practice their swan princess moves

finding out that tyler is texting a girl that he likes while under his covers when he's suppose to be sleeping

(he's growing up so fast)

my nightly jogs with ruca dog and enjoying the beauty in my neighborhood

playing solitaire on dan's ipad and having him get jealous that i win almost every game while he can barely win one

coffee and alone time while tayli naps

at home movie dates with dan my man almost every night

since my camera is broken and as of right now i can't afford a new one, you can expect random photos on my blog that have nothing to with what the post is about (i'm a fan of using all my own photos... no weheartit for me) and probably some wordier posts... 

i hope you are enjoying this week and finding joy in the small things

xo,

kass

love it

our homemade calendar 

i love october... so many birthdays, fall weather (hopefully), and halloween

love it

what do you look forward to in october?

xo,

kass

just that much better

when i'm not feeling well or am having a bad day...

 my bright colored little kitchen nook

fun colors make it just that much better

xo,

kass

what happens

when mama's not feeling well...

this is what happens

 the girls outrageously messy room (and this is not even half the mess!)

the girls watching big top pee-wee in our messy living room

hoping your weekend is cleaner and healthier than mine is starting out to be!

xo,

kass

oh, tyler has another WSA contest this sunday - praying he advances and gets in the top twenty!

delish

 grilled chicken with lemon basil pasta

find the recipe here

i usually eat a lot healthier than this but i was craving something super tasty and hearty and this meal sure filled that craving - delish!

*i ended up adding garlic, not using cream and i used organic whole wheat pasta

try it, you wont be disappointed!

i'm heading to santa barbara with the girls in the early afternoon to meet my dad for some shopping, picking up dan from his training for his new job, meeting back up for dinner with my dad and step-mom and then driving up to lompoc to stay with my mom and step-dad. saturday we'll be heading over to my granny's where she is planning on feeding us dinner and her famous lemon meringue pie for dessert. i can't wait to see my family, i miss them all so much all the time. on sunday we are meeting up with our wonderful friends kim and jeff and then heading off to our friends wedding at the santa barbara zoo. a fun-filled yet busy weekend.

what are your plans for the weekend?

xo,

kass

tall ships

this past weekend was the tall ships festival in dana point. 

we had been seeing signs around town and thought it sounded like a fun thing to do as a family... 

we listened to some music, spotted captain jack sparrow (tannyn was very excited about this), checked out the awesome ships, saw pirates mingling throughout the crowd...

watched a cannon fight between pirates and the british - i screamed when they set off the first cannon it totally took me by surprise... 

 and let dan take a photo of me in my cozy nautical sweater and admired how gorgeous the ocean looked with the green mossy rocks.

how was your weekend? what did you do?

xo,

kass

hangout spot

dan nailed a few planks of wood into one of the many trees on our hill so that the kids could have a hangout spot. i'm just hoping no ticks live in this tree because the kiddos seem to like it there...

maybe one day we'll build them a real treehouse.

enjoy your weekend my friends

xo,

kass