Pumpkin Patch, Lincoln Birthplace, & Fall Leaves

Sunday the sun finally decided to make an appearance! After 6 days of not seeing the sun, we decided we had to get out & enjoy this great fall weather. So, after church we went to a local farm. They had a small pumpkin patch & maze. Sydney had a blast! There were several kids playing in the maze. She laughed each time any of them would run next to her. Then she wanted to walk the maze, too. It was cute.

After the farm, we headed to Lincoln's Birthplace. Ryan's been wanting to check it out & the day was perfect for it. It was neat, but I have to say that I was disappointed. A lot of what you read says that in that place sits the log cabin that Lincoln was born in. That is not true. It is a replica of what the cabin he was born in would look like. It didn't seem to bother Ryan, but I was disappointed. That area was gorgeous. The air was crisp. So, I can't really complain.

The last pictures are of trees that I took yesterday. You'll see a church in some of them. That is First Christian Church...the church we've been attending. The trees next to the church are some of the prettiest in the area. Hope you enjoy.

My Favorite Time of the Year

I absolutely adore autumn. While living in Texas the last 4 years, I would ache during this time of year because I knew the trees in Kentucky would be turning beautiful colors & I wouldn't be able to see them. I would close my eyes & picture a tree in my front yard growing up. It turned the most beautiful yellow with a dark bark. I would smile every time I came home & saw it when I was growing up. It was gorgeous. So, over the last 4 years I have been pining to see these beautiful trees.

This year I was so disappointed because I thought with the dry summer that we had the leaves would surely fall & not turn the amazing colors they were meant to turn. Luckily, I was wrong! The trees around us are turning magnificent colors. Although it has been raining for what feels like forever, I can look out our sliding door & see the trees out back & smile. I have waited 4 years for this moment & I am loving every minute of it!!

This weekend I hope to get out & about to take some pictures of this area. If I get some good ones, I'll post them.

Sydney's birthday weekend

The weekend started Friday night with Nathan coming in from Nashville. He played with Sydney & watched TV with me until it was time to go pick up a friend, Tricia, at the airport. I expected that he wouldn't want to go (not sure why), but was thrilled to have some sibling time in the car on the way to Louisville.

Tricia was coming for a wedding in Louisville, but I convinced her to stay with us & use our car. She thanked me for letting her do that, but what she didn't realize was that it was purely selfish. It just gave me more time with her. :-) Anyway, her plane ended up coming in late & then it took forever for her bags to come out. Once we finally got home, it was after 1 AM. We all ended up staying up until 2 talking. Sydney decided to join in the action, so although everyone else went to sleep at 2, Ryan and I were up until 3 trying to get Sydney back to sleep.

Saturday morning we visited until the grandparents arrived. I'm still not 100% sure why our 12 o'clock eating time ended up being after 2, but the food was worth waiting for. After eating lunch we sat around & talked before letting Sydney open her presents. She was a good sport even though she didn't really understand what was going on. After presents came CAKE! I was curious how she would react to the cake. She LOVED it!! Mostly, she loved the icing. She couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough. It was cute.

All in all her birthday was a huge success. Although I was a little sad to see my baby days gone, I am excited for this new stage. I see other children who are just a little older than her & am excited to see her get to that stage. I'm not rushing it by any means. I'm still trying to enjoy where she's at right now, but when the time arrives, I will be happy then, too.

Sunday we went to early service so that we could get lunch & get Tricia to the airport on time. After dropping Tricia off, we came back & watched movies while trying not to doze off. My family traditionally took naps on Sunday afternoon...that's a hard habit to break!! Nathan headed back to Nashville late afternoon & I took a nap! How many times can a mom say that she got a nap?! It was nice. Sydney woke up 30-45 minutes after I got good & asleep, so my nap wasn't long, but I got one!

It was a great weekend. I am so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family & friends. Thanks to all for coming & being apart of this day with us. We love you all!

Happy 1st Birthday, Sydney!

Where to start?! One year ago today (ok, tomorrow) was one of the happiest days of my life! At 3:56 PM, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl!! She was absolutely perfect. With a wonderful crowd filled with friends & family, we welcomed her to the world. It was special, so special that I am having a hard time putting it into words. The first few moments when it was just Sydney, Ryan, and me were no short of magical.

Over the next few months, we watched her grow & started to see her happy personality develop. From being scared about her breathing the first few days, physical therapy for her neck, holding her head up on her own, sitting up, crawling, and now trying to walk, this year has been so amazing. God has given us this wonderful new way to love. He has pulled us out of the scary moments & brought us into some really joyful ones.

Tomorrow we celebrate her first birthday & it will be a happy day. We will have both sets of grandparents here as well as her great-grandma, and uncle. Although she will not remember this day, we will be celebrating the new addition that has been given to this family & the wonderful year that we have had with her.

She took steps!

Yesterday afternoon Sydney took 5 steps!! She walked from me to Ryan. Today she's been taking a few & will when we get her to walk back & forth to us. It won't be long until she's running around!! I'm excite. I've been a little slow in coming around to wanting her to walk, but now I think I'm ready. Well..."ready" might not be the right word to use. I am excited. I'll post pictures soon.

Ryan's blog

Ryan finally posted a couple of things on his blog. Check them out.

Disclaimer: some things may not be suitable for children's eyes.

Sydney's stages

Sydney can now officially say: mama, dada, and...no no. Ah...I knew this day would come. I just didn't think it would come before she was 1! I don't think she knows what it means yet, thank goodness, but she says it all the time! In her gibbergabber she'll say "no no mama, no no dada". Although it is a lost cause I'm sure, I'm trying not to say it as much in hopes to delay the meaning of the word. Ha! I know it won't work, but what else can I do?

She talks ALL THE TIME! It's cute. She talks to me, to her food, to her toys, to the tv (whether it's on or off), and to air...I think. It is neat to see her interacting with nothing. I wish she had more interaction with other people...I'm working on that one.

Another thing she's been doing recently is standing. I was convinced she'd be a slow one to walk since she's taken her time on everything else. She's always been content in whichever stage she's in. Should be a reality check to me! It's amazing how much you can learn from a baby! Anyway, she's been pushing herself off of something on the floor & then standing for quite a while. She hasn't taken a step yet, but since she's got her balance already, I'm sure it isn't too far away. I was so anxious for her to start crawling. I think it was because it was the first time that I could watch what was going on in that little brain of hers--see what she thought was interesting. It has been cool seeing things through her eyes. Now on to the subject of walking, I can wait on that one. I have an idea of how complicated my daily chores are going to be once she masters the art of walking!! I'm just now getting use to getting things done in this stage! Do you ever get past the catch-up stage as parents? I feel like as soon as I get close to comfortable, she changes! It definitely keeps me on my toes!

Well, that's the latest on the little one. I welcome any suggestions for the "no no" stage. :-)

Arts Show

This past weekend we went to the St. James Court Art Show in Louisville. It was really cool. If you would have asked me when I was in high school if I would like going to art shows 10 years later, I would have laughed! Now, I really enjoy it. Even with Sydney this year, it felt like a really cool date. We even came home with a few things. We don't have hundreds and hundreds of dollars to get some of the really cool things that we would like to get, of course, but we try to come home with a few inexpensive items. I would much rather spend $20 for an item from the actual artist than $20 at Target for just a decoration for our home. Gradually, we're decorating our home with originals. It's nice.

While we were there, we saw an artist that we bought something from at the Fort Worth Arts Festival! I told him that we have gotten so many compliments on the piece that we bought from him. It really is one of my favorites! He asked which show we got it from & we told him Fort Worth. He told us that is one of the 2 top shows in the country! We felt kind of proud that we had actually gotten the chance to experience one of the best! :-) I do regret not asking him what the other top show was. Oh well.

Overall, this weekend goes up there as one of my favorites! Hope you all enjoyed yours!

Weight issues

My baby girl is almost a year old & I still have not lost the weight I set out to lose. That has me very disappointed in myself. For a while, I kept telling myself that it took me 9 months to put on the weight & now it will take time to get it off. I can't say that anymore. The biggest reason that I am so disappointed in myself is because I have not actively done anything but whine & complain. I have not watched what I have eaten...well, I watched it, I just didn't make sure it was healthy! No, I'm not insanely overweight. I weigh about the same I did when I came home from the hospital--a year later! So, I'm posting this blog to tell the world of my shortcomings in hopes that it will spark me to do something about this failure. I will keep you posted as to whether I develop the discipline that it will take to get my predetermined amount of weight off. Stay tuned...