End of September

Ahhhh... it's my favorite time of year. The temperature is starting to drop with just a slight chill to the air. It's getting to be time to start pulling out the jackets in the evening and will soon be time to start raking the leaves out of our yard. I LOVE this time of year. And, to make it even better, Tom and I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary tomorrow. It's amazing to think we've been married that long and to reflect on all the things we've done together with our family in that time.

Two of the best things to come from our marriage are our kids... Ryan and Emily. Believe it or not, Ryan is beginning his sophomore year in high school! He was just 7 years old when I first met him and he's still a very sweet, thoughtful and caring young man. We've had so much fun over the past 8 years and I can't wait to see where the future takes us all.

And then, there's Emily. I drove into my parents' driveway a week or so ago to pick her up after work and found all 3 of them outside "playing". My dad was working on hooking up their camper for a weekend trip they were taking and my mom... well, here's what I saw when I drove in.


We love our hand-me-downs! This awesome car came from my cousin. Emily loves it. As she gets older we can take a panel out of the floor and she can push it along herself. Until then, she loves bumping along on the driveway as Grandma or I slave away pushing or pulling her. Here she is again... and yes, she put the teether necklace thing-a-ma-bob on her head all by herself and still loves to wear it. Maybe by kindergarten she'll find something else to wear on her head.

Here's Emily playing in her mountain of toys. Spencer (the cat) was previously laying in the box in the background between the two of them. He's so good with Emily and allows her to pet him and occasionally hug him. His eyes look a little creepy in this picture... but he reminds us of a regal lion on the prowl. He's walking with that cocky air that cats have and either looks really ticked off or like he's on a bigtime mission! I believe he was on a mission... maybe to get away from Emily as quickly as possible?


The kid loves the camera. She will stop whatever she's doing to look at me while I'm snapping a picture. Sometimes it's hard to get a picture snapped fast enough though because she's a super speedy crawler now and a lot of times starts heading straight for the camera as soon as she sees it.


And, this one... well, I don't know. You can try to figure out what's going on here... we'll enjoy reading your comments! Heheh


Our language skills are getting a little better. She will still answer "Baa" to the question "What does a XXX say?" but now she can tell you what a mower does. (Movie clip to follow soon.) She is starting to try mimicking different sounds that we make. Grandma and I have confirmed that we "think" we've heard her say the following so far... hi, Dadad, RahRah (for RyRy), Yesh (for yes), oh sheesh, and baa.