Happy fall. . . .

I absolutely LOVE fall! Growing up we had pine trees in our yard so I never had to rake a yard, so October 21st was pretty much a first for me. You see, we have a big beautiful maple tree in our front yard & it amazes me how many leaves we have to show for it on the ground. I'll look out of the front window sometimes & the way the leaves are falling to the ground reminds me of snow! It's beautiful. Sometimes I even catch Lilyanah looking out the windows with the gleam in her eye & you can just tell she's amazed.

Anyway, Will & I decided it was time for us to jump into a pile of leaves for the first time. We actually fell back into the pile, not such a good idea to all of you considering it! After our first & last free fall into the leaf pile the real task was at hand. . . . trying to fit ALL of those leaves into our yard debris can. Let's just say Will repeatedly picked me up put me standing in the container so I could jump up & down to fit as many as possible in. It was actually really fun though I was a little disoriented after each time he threw me back over his shoulder & put me back on the ground. As all of you veteran yard rakers know since we did not wait for the tree to be bare we will be raking again this weekend. I actually loved it, there's just something about the crisp air with the sunshine on your face. UMMMM I LOVE IT! After we were done with taking care of the front yard we headed out to Mona & Rick's 30th anniversary party. My mother was a bridesmaid, 8 months pregnant with me. Yeah, which means yours truly is going to turn the big 3-0 this year. But back to the anniversary party, Carrie described her parents as 'a united front'. I loved that; I hope in 30 years that Lilyanah & any other kiddos we may have can say half the things that Mona & Rick's kids said.

This is a picture of Lilyanah & her Mema (Will's mom) on a visit at the end of September. She came to see Lilyanah, us, & our new home (probably in that order), who can blame her!? We had such a nice visit, mostly shopping for house goods & painting the living room. The picture below is of Lilyanah crawling in the living room. See, now none of you can say I haven't posted pictures of our new home! Isn't she the cutest little crawler! She's wearing one of my birthday presents from her uncle Corey last year. Anyway, her mema got her a beautiful rug for her bedroom that she loves to play on, as well as some goodies for us for the house. Thank you again, Linda, for blessing us in so many ways!

And now I must go, we're at Mom & Dad's celebrating my father's 52nd birthday. So I hope you are all well & just a quick question . . . . What do you collect? I'll answer for Lilyanah because while Linda was visiting I got Lilyanah the ornament we'll give her this year & next year out of a collection I'll be getting for her & just hopes she loves--Krinkles from Department 56. It's a very whimsical collection. . . The artist, Patience Brewster, has a wild imagination! Crocodiles wearing high heel shoes & boas, frogs in ballerina tutus. . . . how can you not love that!? I tried to download a picture from a website & am gonna have to talk to my cousin Katie about that 'cause I cannot figure it out! Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you all! ~Wendy.