Happy Halloween!

A practice costume
Gigi and Madeline
Decided upon a bumblebee for the Fall Festival
Found her like this one day watching TV-I thought she looked cute
Another practice costume. It was too long unfortunately


She is now obsessed with Smarties

No time to post more information about the above-Madeline is sitting in my lap!

Pumpkin Patch

Every time she tried to pick a pumpkin up, she'd say "heaby"-her 'v' sounds like a 'b' but occasionally its right


Desperately trying to implore the donkey to come over to her

We made our way down to Harpersville this past week to pick some pumpkins. As you can see from the pictures, Madeline refused to look at the camera or smile in every picture we took. Her favorite part was the petting zoo, though there wasn't much to pet except a horse and a baby lamb. As we went to each animal's cage, M would tell us what animal it was by imitating the sound it makes-my favorite is the turkey "guba, guba, guba!" I haven't been to a pumpkin patch in many years, and it was a gorgeous day! We had some incredible fresh squeezed lemonade, fresh kettle corn, and roasted corn. M loved kettle corn and kept asking for 'mo.' Then we came home to watch the Tide squeak out another win. As long as they keep winning I guess I'll keep watching no matter how painful.

Visits with Friends

Mary Grace's daughter, Neely
And her other daughter, sweet Sadie, who looks more like MG in pictures than in person if I do say so myself
Our friend Isaac-Madeline can say his name
My BFF Jenny's son, Harrison-M calls him Harry much to Jenny's sh grin
Kissing his sweet head

Lot's of visits with friends the past few weeks!

Race For the Cure

We got to take part in Race for the Cure in Birmingham on Oct. 11. Gail and I walked with Madeline while Lance ran in under 22 minutes. He then came back and found us to finish our walk. There were about 15,000 people out there and it took Gail and I over 10 minutes to cross the start line. Then there were all these people walking slow-if you have ever walked with me you know this is a huge pet peeve. I cannot stand to walk slow-going anywhere. So we hoped up on the side walk in order to walk at a more "reasonable" pace. My mom was in town for the weekend as well so she came out and supported us.

On a related note, Lance and Gail went to Texas for a checkup last week and got some discouraging news. The doctor does not feel like the current course of treatment is going well (she has been treating her cancer with a hormone therapy pill), and they found a very small spot on her liver and one on her abdomen. The doctor feels the best course of treatment now is chemotherapy. She will start this week hopefully. Please pray for strength for Gail. She is a school teacher in Mississippi and lives over there 5 days a week. This is probably going to seriously hinder her ability to work, but she wants to try. She feels better mentally when she works. This, of course, was what we were hoping to avoid, but we know that the Lord is in control. Pray that we would believe that our Father is good and that we would remember our hope is in him, not in anything in this world. Thanks faithful friends and family.

Its the Final Countdown (for me at least)

Madeline loved blowing out the candles and insisted on "Mo" (more, which means "again" to her) until the candles were almost completely melted. She wont have any problems in January blowing out her own two candles.
Since our birthdays are just 5 days apart we shared this awesome Strawberry Cake from Ashley Mac's! Way better than Edgar's in our opinions. This is my friend from college who owns her own bakery/catering business in Bluff Park and about to open a new location in Cahaba Heights! Can't wait Ashley-I've already told people about it!

Found her here eating a snack one afternoon. She could not keep her eyes open for the picture due to the flash. She kept saying "hot" which means "bright" though she is beginning to understand the difference and using "bright" more. So funny how they interchange similar nouns when they don't quite have the vocab to explain.

Had my 29th birthday on Oct. 1. I must say, I'm a little upset about this being my last year in my 20's. I guess I just thought 3o was really old and far away and now its banging down the door. It doesn't help that the "laugh lines" in my forehead have gotten very deep and now stretch across the entire length of it. If only I wasn't so funny and didn't crack myself up-one of my worst traits! Don't worry about me, I'll get over all this (plus there's bot ox). None the less, you are all invited to my surprise 30th birthday party next year. Just let Lance know you want to come, I, of course, am and will continue to be completely unaware of anything.

Then we celebrated Lance's 28th today. Lance, of course, has only improved with age. As I wrote in his card today-I am so grateful to have had my sixteen candles birthday wish come true, and I am married to my own personal Jake Ryan. Minus the porche-still rockin' the Nissan Sentra! Lance you are the most sacrificial husband and loving father. I can't imagine what life would be like if you hadn't shown up on my doorstep 7 years ago and never stopped calling. Happy Birthday!

Roll Tide in the Skybox

Lance and I got to sit in his work's skybox this weekend for the Kentucky game. It was a lot of fun, and probably wont ever happen again! My only complaint was that the game dogs that came at half-time were all 'crout, not enough ketchup and mustard. The rest of the food was incredible, and the game wasn't half bad either.