October 2008

October has been a great month! Much has happened with our family this month and, with the exception of one 24-hour period when I caught a stomach virus, it has all been positive. We have definitely been blessed. I guess our biggest news this month has been finding out that Mel is once again pregnant. It appears that Bae-Bae is going to be a big sister starting about the time she turns two years old. In fact, baby #2 is due June 10, 2009...just six days before Bailey’s second birthday! Unfortunately, our scanner is acting up so I haven’t been able to scan an image of the first ultrasound, but I will make sure I can post pics of the next ultrasound when we find out the sex of the baby and what he/she actually looks like. We were also lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents visit us here at our house this month. That was fun b/c we got to break the news about baby #2 to them. Finally, Mel and Bailey got to spend a weekend in Atlanta with Paul, Paula, Kenneth, & Meg while I spent a wonderful weekend camping in the North Carolina mountains with a great group of guys. All we did was camp and ride mountain bikes…42 miles of what mountain bikers “in the know” (that does not include me) say are some of the most rugged trails in the Southeast. I believe them. The trails in Pisgah National Forest make the trails at Oak Mountain back in Alabama seem like a sidewalk. My legs (which had to spin the pedals for 42 miles), shoulder (which got into a conflict with a tree trunk at about 15 mph), and hip (which got up close and personal with a large, pointy rock immediately following the aforementioned conflict) will definitely attest to that. Check out a few pics below from throughout the month.

Gan's & Pop's Visit

We spent a lazy afternoon near the mountains of South Carolina at Sue’s Country Kitchen where we all enjoyed some shopping and, most of all, some ice cream, frozen lemonade, and milkshakes. That is Table Rock Mountain looming in the background. It is about 400 ft of vertical granite cliff and, no, I haven’t climbed it.

Here are Paul and Bailey taking a stroll through the shops.

We also visited an eco-friendly house on campus at Furman University in Greenville. While none of us are in the picture I decided to include it b/c of the beautiful scenery from the porch. Furman really has one of if not the most beautiful college campuses I've ever seen.

Gammy's & Papa's Visit

Bailey started Halloween off in early October when Gammy & Papa gave her a plastic pumpkin for trick-or-treating and a new slide. Thanks, Gammy & Papa!!!

Bailey decided to give us all a little show in the front yard to show her appreciation for her new slide. Actually, this is how she shows where her belly button is.

Sky Top Apple Orchard

The following weekend Mel, Bailey, and I went to visit the Sky Top Apple Orchard near Flat Rock, NC. This place was literally perched on top of a mountain and offered some good views of the surrounding area. As you can see, they had plenty of pumpkins for sale, but we decided that we didn’t want one with warts. We joked that the reason their pumpkins had warts and most other pumpkins don’t is that their pumpkins are probably grown naturally; whereas typical pumpkins are probably grown in some bottle somewhere.

Of course, Sky Top Apple Orchard also had plenty of different types of apples that you can pick yourself straight from the trees. We found some Fuji apples that we picked on our own, but the Granny Smith apple trees had already been picked clean. We settled for mixing our self-picked Fuji apples with some pre-picked (but just as fresh) Granny Smiths. Sky Top also has sheep and goats (both of which Bailey was fond of watching but not saying “baa-baa” to) and they sell, among other products, homemade apple and pumpkin butter (I bought jars of both) as well as freshly made apple cider doughnuts (delicious).

Halloween

So, here we are with our soon-to-be jack-o-lantern that we bought…at the grocery store…having just chopped the top off.

Hmm...so this is what pumpkin brains look like.

It didn’t take long before Bailey was digging in and helping. Molly may look interested in what we are doing, but don’t let her fool you. She and Duncan were circling that pumpkin like sharks in the water b/c they liked eating the pumpkin’s innards.

This pic had to make the blog simply b/c of the panda bear on Bailey's booty.

Looking for more pumpkin brains to extract. Maybe the beginnings of a future surgeon? What do you think, Uncle Doc?

Ah...found some!!!


Mom and Bailey celebrating the finished product!!!


After the pumpkin-carving, Bailey decided that playing in the den while wearing her new toboggin was a good idea. Once again, I had to get some coverage of the panda bear booty.

Mom and Bailey after getting Bailey dressed in her crab costume that Mom made for her. Mel did an awesome job on the costume. She had to make it completely from scratch b/c she couldn’t find a crab costume.

Here is Bailey on Halloween evening getting ready to go trick-or-treating for the first time. She had her Teddy Grahams and her juice cup in hand and was just waiting for mom and dad to get things moving.



These next few pics were taken a couple of days after Halloween, b/c due to the time of day and the fact that Bailey had not had supper before trick-or-treating she was a little…well, crabby…by the end of it. Notice the crab legs coming out of the shell as well as the pincers on Bailey’s hands. Nice work, Mel. (Luckily for the Nandina, Bailey did not follow through with a belly flop onto the plant as it appears she is about to do.)

Trick-or-treat!!!

Ava and Quay came up for a visit while we were playing outside. As usual, it took a couple of minutes for them to warm up to each other, but as soon as they did they were in rare form.



Bailey and Ava playing peek-a-boo behind the porch banister.





And, finally, a few words from Bailey. For those of you who are not familiar with Bailey's vocabulary it is currently approaching the depth and complexity of mine. She just chooses to release a few choice words at a time.