November. Seriously? Days are FLYING by this fall.

Ayla's volleyball has wrapped up. She really enjoyed playing, but sad to see the season come and go so quickly. It's nice to sleep in a little later too. These days, we are spending a lot of time and energy on Ayla's big room re-do. Her big gift this birthday is a total room re-do. I was picturing HGTV weekend style. Just cranking it out and be done with it, but its turning into every free moment just here and there try and do something. Not as rewarding, but its just real life with a toddler, and 2 working parents. We have made some serious progress, but have a LONG way to go. Yesterday, we successfully assembled and dressed her new bed. She loves it! Hope it all goes this well.

The style started as a french inspired old Hollywood with black and white everything... it has now morphed into just clean, modern, black and white backdrop (furniture) and greens, aquas, little brown and pink color splashes. So out with the barbies, plastic jewelry, and mish mash furniture.... and in with the bedroom suite fit for a teen. Pictures to come.

Jim and I are FINALLY on the mend with this illness. We have never been sick at the SAME time. It was comical, but hard. I thank my immune system for fighting so hard. I started feeling better Thursday-ish, but Jim finally went and got antibiotics to get over the hump. He's back at work today, hope his energy lasts!

Another project I've been working hard at lately is finances. Isn't just about everyone taking a closer look? I think its a wonderful trend for our country. I cringe at the price this has taken from so many, but I think the opportunity is genuine. As much as I love the gas prices coming down, It is great to see so many investigating and investing in more fuel efficient transportation. Even both of my parents have been driving hybrids. Go team! This past year, I started a little bookkeeping work on the side, yet never got around to sharing this new knowledge with our family finances. So I'm doing the heavy work of getting us up to date. Then we can really see our budget clearly and make sure our $ is where we want it to be.

Baby Henry is amazing. Such a blast... always.

He's MASTERED the stairs. He will FLY down them on his belly (feet first) beating me to the bottom every time.

His new favorite food is the dog and cat food. It's foul and dangerous! Those little crunchy nuggets are HARD and just the right size to choke him. We have moved the pet food more times in the last few weeks, the pets can't seem to find it anymore. He seriously pitches major fits when we try and pry it out of his mouth.

The poor child had a serious run in with a pile of fire ants.
We were at the ranch for brunch while celebrating Jane-Ann's baptism. Henry was playing in the grass, I saw the mound near him, and he proceeds to sit and lay down RIGHT on it. I got to him as FAST as I could, but he was COVERED with them. Aside from a few random bites, only his left arm came out with serious bites. Amazingly, he didn't say a peep. He never cried at all! He was more bothered by me whipping his clothes off and swatting at the ants furiously than anything the ants were doing.

Now that the weather is cooling off... we've been spending a lot more time in the backyard.


We have a LONG road to get it running as we'd like (new fence, new grass, landscaping, deck, tree house, trampoline, fish pond...), so hopefully as we examine our finances we can find some $ to start getting things done. For now, we've been enjoying teaching Henry to kick the soccer ball and playing with some of his birthday gifts. His activity center complete with boats and shovels and shade umbrella is a big hit (thanks Jan and Papa!). We haven't added sand yet.. but a few inches of water is a lot of fun. And recently we hung his new swing (thanks Dody!). He's really enjoying spending time out here and having fun activities right here in our own yard!