Pumpkin Cookies & Rosemary Bread...Must mean fall is here!

It's 66 degrees outside, the house smells like cinnamon and rosemary and I'm listening to the crickets outside. I can hear the sound of little boys laughter coming down the hallway as they are trying to listen to a bedtime story in between the tickle fests that are breaking out. I look around and the colors of orange and reds and yellow fill my living room. As a take a sip of my chamomile tea and snuggle a little cozier under my soft blanket I realize that the time of year that I love the most as arrived. Fall! Nothing feels my heart with more joy and contentment than fall. It doesn't hurt that this time of year will always take me back to holding my brand new baby boys or taking a walk at Zona Rosa with a Starbucks in my hand. Since both boys birthdays are in October I always associate fall with the birth of my children. Funny how I can tend to block out the being uncomfortably 9 months pregnant and waddling through Babies R'Us trying to get those last minute things. Nevertheless, fall is my most favorite time of the year and while the weather may yet again change reminding us that it's technically still summer, it's labor day

weekend and I'm making the transition whether mother nature agrees or not.

So today we embraced the fall like weather starting with a trip to church with the windows rolled down. The best part was that I finally got to break out all of the fall/winter scarfs. And just the other day I picked up a new pair of red pumps that I could not wait to pair with my red scarf and thanks to the beautiful weather today was that day.

My amazing husband has gotten the itch to start baking bread which is awesome for everyone. The boys love bread as much as I do and the smell that permeates the house is so welcoming. Thanks to this itch after a wonderful church service this morning we walked into a house smelling of rosemary and Italian herbs....oh and just a little bit of heaven. It was divine and we managed to wipe out the entire loaf between lunch and dinner today.

After lunch we took advantage of having nothing planned and hit the bike trail.

And since the boys didn't get the chance to ride their bikes on the trail we decided that a trip up to the school playground was necessary. Which gave me a great opportunity to take some pictures of my adorable boys.

With all of that we truly were in the fall mood, however, the true mark of fall came when we got home and the boys asked if we could make pumpkin cookies. So with this, the first patch of Pumpkin Cookies, we welcome fall!

And we're back

I just spent a good 10 minutes trying to come up with a catchy title for our first post after a year and a half hiatus, but frankly I've got nothing. :) I'm just happy to be back and posting again. Instead of doing any recap, you can check us out on Facebook for that, we're starting fresh. So drum roll please...here we go.

Christopher is 6 now and started the 1st grade on August 16 and he is doing WONDERFUL! He has already told me that he enjoys it so much more than Kindergarten. I honestly think he is just more challenged already. He had been in pre-school for 3 years before going to Kindergarten last year. He knew how to cut and color and write and everything that he was being taught he already knew. Alexander was bringing home more advanced worksheets from his 2nd year of preschool than Christopher was from Kindergarten. The kid was just plain bored. This year he is LOVING learning. We spend 20 minutes when we get home everyday for homework time, he has yet to have any actual homework from school, but we spend every day alternating between working on using his vocabulary words in sentences and addition. And everyday at some point he works on his reading at home. He is so interested in learning and that makes this mommy's heart very happy. He is still all boy! He loves to run and jump. He is constantly in a super hero costume or disguise. He wants to be an inventor when he grows up and has taken a keen interest in science. Honestly, he has grown into being a big kid and no longer a little boy, but his personality is exactly the same as it was when he was 18 months old. Christopher has always known who he is and has always stayed true to that. And for that we are very grateful.

Alexander is now 4 (almost 5 he'll tell you) and started Pre-K this year. This is his last year at full time daycare before starting Kindergarten next year. He has been the baby for so long that it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that he is almost 5. I'm not sure when that happened, but he still tells me everyday that I can still call him baby if I want to. He certainly knows how to work me. Apparently, not only me though because he informed me after his first week in his new class that he has 3 girlfriends (not including is wife in Columbia). They are all a little older than him and moved to the new class last year and he was quick to tell me that they really missed him and now they just hug and kiss him all of the time. Grreeaat! I think we're going to have our hands full with this little ladies man. He is also doing great at school. He will be more than ready to take on Kindergarten next year, but for now we are just going to enjoy our time with him still being the "baby" for awhile longer

As far as Sean and I are concerned, we are doing great. Sean is still with MGE in their IT department and has taken on a large amount of additional responsibilities in the past year. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary at American Family in June. We both love what we are doing and the companies we work for. Thankfully, both of our jobs allow us enough flexibility for us both to be able to be the involved parents we want to be. And it's given me some more time to focus on my freelance photography. I've been keeping pretty busy with family and children shoots and I do love being able to do that. (*Insert shameless plug: I do still have some openings for some summer sessions before we start booking for the fall! :) )

As a family we stay busy....very busy. Between friends and family get together's, birthday parties, and my crazy need to make sure that we do as many outings as a family that we can, we just run run run. Honestly, this is the first Saturday that I can remember that all of us have been home, and that wasn't the original plan, but "thanks" to a nasty case of poison ivy Sean has gotten we are trying to stay in out of the heat. But since neither of the boys have asked to leave once. Christopher is playing games on his computer and Alex has been building a Lego town for the past 30 minutes I'm thinking that maybe a day at home is exactly what everyone needed.