A Happy Anniversary after all

On October 8th, Michael Paul and I celebrated our eighth anniversary. We had big plans to head on back to Chattanooga to celebrate. We were all sick the week before and somehow thought we could tough it out and make it happen. The morning we were supposed to leave we decided to quit fooling ourselves. The trip would have been miserable. We were all still sick. So we stayed home and rested. A rather disappointing anniversary. The joke was of course that the whole time we lived in Tennessee, we would head to the North Carolina mountains to celebrate our anniversary each year. Then when we finally live here and decide to go back to TN, sickness keeps us stuck here. 

But alas, the horrible anniversary has redeemed itself. Yesterday, all the stars aligned. Michael Paul was off work. We are all feeling much better and sleeping better. The kids were in fabulous moods. The weather was perfect. And this week is the peak of fall colors! So in a moment of spontaneity we decided to drive on up to Mount Pisgah for the day. It was beautiful and awesome!

We enjoyed a little hike

Took in the awesome scenery.

And by some miracle managed to get a last minute reservation for a window seat at the mountain top restaurant. The food was great. A cute kid and an awesome view!

So we officially declared it our anniversary celebration. Wow! Eight years. Ups and Downs. Highs and Lows. Sickness and Health. Infertility and now two amazing kids! Traveling all over the country. Job changes. Buying our first home. Selling that house to move to our heart's home. And many leaps of faith in between. When I think about all we've been through, I am amazed it all fits in the span of eight years. In some ways, it feels much longer. And yet even the bad has turned for good. Lots of good. It's been a good eight years. Here's to many more!

Fall Fun by the Fire Pit

It is gorgeous fall weather here. And we enjoyed a bonfire last night. These pics were too cute not to post. Enjoy!

Reuel at 7 months

Well, this picture is actually Reuel at 6 months but I never did a six month post. And I like this picture.

So we joke that Reuel is our little bowling ball. Because that is exactly what he feels like when you are carrying him around. So Michael Paul took him to a bowling alley so we would have a picture of him next to bowling balls. Hilarious, no?

I fear his chunkiest days are behind him. He started crawling a week ago. All his new activity might cause him to start thinning out. But as of now he is still a 20 pound chunky monkey.

 Michael Paul likes to take unflattering pictures of our children that he thinks are hilarious (yes he took the picture above to capture his fat rolls. My mom was horrified he would take a picture of him that didn't include his cute face.) 

Reuel got his first nose bleed. Not sure what caused it. But of course Michael Paul wanted a picture of it. He actually sent this one to his best friend with the caption, "the first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club."

We do actually take cute pictures of our son. Like this one in his adorable little overalls.

oh wait, there's a beer bottle in that picture. Yes, we give our children beer bottles to play with. Both my kids loved glass bottles for teething. And those two bottom teeth finally did pop through!

He battled two horrible colds in the last month (actually we have all been pretty sick this month which is one of the many explanations of my failure to blog regularly). But despite that, he managed to hit many exciting milestones. Teeth, crawling, pulling to standing. This marks the beginning of one of my favorite baby stages. He is so much fun to watch crawling around and exploring.