I wish I hadn't...

... but it's too late now. I accidentally cut Ryan's hair. I was hoping for a short little trim that no one would even really notice, but somehow that's not quite how it worked out. He looks like a toddler with a bowl cut. He aged about six months in ten minutes and I miss my baby!! Here are a few action shots, and yes, I even saved some hair in a little bag for his babybook.

autumn awareness

Ryan and his friend Peyton playing in the grass and leaves

Ryan drinking his milk and flirting with the girls standing behind me! :)

pumpkin party

Friday night we had our annual pumpkin carving contest. Every year we get together with our old Mountain Ridge neighbors and have fun hanging out, eating chili, and carving pumpkins. And this year we actually won the contest, yay! I think it had something to do with our pumpkin involving four live goldfish...

Seaturtle Joe, the winner, laying a nest of pumpkin seed eggs while overlooking the ocean filled with four goldfish

The Andersons, Harpers, Chases, Grahams, & Lovoys

having a GOOD day!

Do you ever have those days were you just feel good? I'm having one today. Nothing huge happened, just lots of little things that have made me smile throughout the day and the more I smile the better everything else seems. Two of the several highlights of the day:

*Today I babysat kids at church and two moms came in to pick up their kids at the same time. This conversation happened as they were walking away with the kids, but still close enough that I could easily hear. To use Crystal's easy to read dialogue format:

Mom 1: Hey have you been to the Wow dinner yet. We went on Friday and I was hoping Amy would be doing childcare and she was and I was so happy!
Mom 2: No, we go on Saturday. Hopefully she'll be there then.
Mom 2 then comes back down the hallway to ask me if I'll be there.
Me: No sorry, I'm not doing Saturday night
Mom 2: Aww, man.

Maybe not those exact words because I have a terrible memory, but pretty close. Anyways, it made me feel good that moms like me and trust me with their kids. That's a big deal to me and I'm honored!

*I'm going to Columbus Georgia in November with Mountain Lake. Our church planting intern is launching his new church in December and we'll be there helping promote it. While I'm a little sad and nervous since I'm leaving Coleson and Ryan (not nervous that they won't be okay, nervous that I won't be!), I'm excited because it's my first world care trip. So anyways, I got my first support check in the mail today with a wonderful and encouraging note! Thank you God for this opportunity not only to help out in Columbus, but to grow and stretch myself and get out of my comfort zone even if only for two days. Baby steps!

Weekend Review

Another great weekend... except for the cold! While I'm trying to convince myself that I like fall, this whole cold weather thing is sure making it an uphill battle for me. Oh well!

*Friday we had lunch at Five Guys with our high schools buds, David and Kelley. They were in town from Tucson. It was great to see them and hang out for a few hours. And Keven even showed up for a bit, crazy!

*Saturday morning Coleson pulled out another winning tennis match (maybe someday he will win in a mere two sets, but I doubt it!)

*Saturday afternoon we watched Georgia beat Vandy, go Dawgs!

*Ryan set a record for the longest continuous spit by a baby. No kidding, he spat for a good 30 minutes and he thought he was the coolest dude ever. Check out a video clip on my youtube.

*Saturday night we hung out with 10th graders and made the most amazing 3-1/2 minute commercial you'll ever see.

*Sunday we celebrated the cold with chili, yum!

I'm smart and I know it!

Ryan is not one to practice or slowly figure something out. He waits until he can do it and then it just clicks and he's off. For example, he never practiced sitting up. There was no period of time where he was wobbly. Nope, he just didn't sit up at all until about 9 months and then he was good. And pulling himself up. One day he did it and literally walked all around his furniture and he hasn't stopped since. I think he simply watches, takes it all in, and then just does it. For example, his newest trick... Something clicked and he can stack all his rings now. And not only that, but he knows he's doing it right and he shouts "yay!" and claps in between rings. This literally started all at once yesterday afternoon. He'd never even clapped before then. It's hilarious and so much fun. I was so happy and we had such a great time playing and clapping. And he showed off for his Daddy when he got home from work and then for Grandpa and Grandma when they came over for dinner. Yes he's cute, and yes he's smart, and yes you'd better believe he knows it!! If you're interested there are two new videos that you can watch on the link over there on the right.

PS, you may have noticed on the video that he flips the top ring around so that the ball side was face up. That's not a fluke! I've tried and I can't get him to put the ring red side up. No matter which way I hand it to him, he flips it ball side up. And if I put it on for him with the red side up, he flips it back over. I think he's going to be a perfectionist...

New look...

Okay, what do ya'll think? Do you like it? I really like the picture of us as the new header, but not sure I'm sold on the layout of the posts. I'm sure I'll keep playing around, but I think it's getting better and I've already spent way too much time on it for one day! :)

Pumpkins!

Friday we took Ryan to Burt's Farm! Since Ryan was so little this time last year, we weren't able to enjoy all the fun of the season. So this was Ryan's first time to the pumpkin patch. We all had a great time. He 'walked' all through the pumpkins which was really cute and we took a hayride. He loved the hayride - we were at the front so he was able to stand up and watch the tractor that was pulling us. He thought that John Deere was pretty spiffy. We had a picnic lunch by the little creek (Ryan had his first cheeto!) and then we picked out a few little pumpkins to take home with us - a blue one and white one! It was super fun. There are more pictures in our photo albums - click on the link to the right.

Focusing on Fall

I really do love fall. I know that may surprise some people, since I don't usually act like it. This time of year, I tend to start my downward spiral into the wintertime blues. While fall is actually a nice time of the year, I rarely enjoy it because I am dwelling on the coming cold. I associate fall with winter and winter with cold, nasty, dead grass and trees and no color, way too much darkness, being sick, stuck indoors, and all sorts of other negative things. But, not this year. This year I am not going to worry about winter and I am instead going to focus on fall and it's positives and take it one day at a time.

I love fall!
I love college football!
I love marching bands!
I love the beautiful colors of the changing leaves!
I love carving pumpkins!
I love the cool mornings and nights and open windows!
I love being a mother and sharing all sorts of new experiences with my son!
I love that we are taking Ryan to a pumpkin patch tomorrow and we're going on a hayride!
I love people watching at the Cumming Fair!
I love thinking about Halloween and trying to come up with the best costume ever for Ryan!
I love spending time with my family!
I love hot chocolate!
I love real wood burning fireplaces!
I love s'mores!
I love my slippers and my XL Mickey Mouse sweatshirt (even though I do have some pride and I'll never leave the house in it!).

One year checkup

Ryan went for his one year checkup on Friday. He's still skinny, but doing great!

19lbs, 6 oz (7th percentile!)
30 inches tall (57%)
head circumference 19 inches (92%, lots of brains!)

He got four shots :( but did pretty good with them. I'm going to start weaning him and he can drink whole milk now. He can eat just about anything except nuts and shellfish.
He'll go for the next checkup at 15 months.

Down Home Country Fun

I love being a Mom! Last night we took Ryan to the Cumming Country Fair. I really love taking him to new places and watching him experience new things. I loved Ryan as a baby of course, but being one is wonderful. He's showing his personality and interacting and living life and it's so much fun. He had a great time people watching and eating a few bites of funnel cake. And he enjoyed the high dive show; it was so neat to watch his eyes as he tracked the divers climbing up and then jumping down. And of course he points and waves.

I also love being part of a community. We went to the fair with the Isbells and that was great fun. And then we ran into probably eight more families we knew. I just love that small town feel and doing life together (mlc catch phrase!). It was a great night!

Amy's Picks

Check out my current favorite book and movie!




Click on watch trailer and you can see it right here on my blog, isn't that cool? I'm amused. :)