the great pumpkin search...

this weekend we did quite a bit of relaxing, which was very nice. on saturday night we had friends over for dinner. we made an appetizer of hummus and pita bread for the first time, and it actually turned out really well. dan cooked kebobs on the grill that we paired with wild rice. for dessert we had fruit with fruit dip and some yummy cookies provided by leah. on sunday afternoon we went on the great pumpkin search. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a 'pick-your-own' farm, but we still had a great time! mary claire was determined to pick up the pumpkins, most of which were about as big as she is. luckily, dan was finally able to help her find one small enough. we are finally almost ready for halloween. we have purchased plenty of candy, we have picked out costumes, and now we have our pumpkins. the only thing left on the to do list is carve the pumpkins!

finally...

thanks to a new power adapter, provided by my father-in-law, my computer is finally up and running. in other words, i will be back to making posts on a regular basis. quite a bit has happened since my last update, but i will do my best to keep it concise.

mary claire is quite the chatter box. her vocabulary grows more and more each day. she now has eleven teeth, which means she can finally chew just about anything with no problem. she has developed a love for climbing on everything from chairs to kitchen cabinets, which makes me extremely nervous. at the latest pediatrician appointment she weighed 21 lbs and was 32 inches tall. her doctor was very pleased with the progress she has made. she has pretty much caught up with other children her age!

in august, we visited huntsville for a weekend to spend time with dan's side of the family. dan and i also had the opportunity to see several of our friends, which is always great! on friday night, we stayed the night in birmingham while mary claire stayed with her grandparents. that was the first time i had ever left mary claire over night with anyone other than dan....i was a nervous wreck of course! needless to say, they took excellent care of her and i worried myself to death for no reason! dan's dad, doc to mary claire, took us out on his new boat one afternoon where he and dan did some skiing. dan's mom, nana to mary claire, mc and i opted to just watch. overall, we had a wonderful visit!

in september, mary claire and i spent a week at ft. meyers beach with my friend carissa. as i have stated before, mary claire absolutely loves the beach, so we had a blast! we spent all day everyday going from the beach to the pool and back to the beach again. luckily, my obsession with sunscreen paid off and we stayed sunburn free. the trip happened to be the same week as my birthday so i got to celebrate it at the beach...a perfect birthday in my opinion (if only dan had been there too)!

also in september, mary claire and i spent a week in athens, tn/hartselle, al/huntsville, al. we flew into chattanooga where mom, aka 'mams', picked us up and brought us back to her house in athens. we stayed one night and then left for hartselle to do some work on mom and dad's old house to prepare it to sell. on our way to hartselle, we dropped mary claire off in huntsville to spend some time with her grandparents and leave mom and i free to paint without her getting into things. after a couple of days, we picked mary claire up and headed back to athens to spend some time with dad, aka pop-pop. the next day we flew back to orlando, where we have stayed put since. (we needed a break from all the traveling for a while.)

i guess that pretty much hits the high points....i'll be posting again soon.