What a month!

Here are a couple of pictures of Drew that I took today...his 11-month birthday!

Here's Drew chillin' in the hammock on an absolutely perfect fall day in New Mexico.


A view of some of the "Special Shapes" balloons as they inflate for a Balloon Glow at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

More balloons at the Glow.


Stu and Bryce enjoying the Glow.


My personal favorite...Arabelle the Cow.

Bryce got to meet a Storm Trooper at the Darth Vader balloon. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but it was a very cool balloon.

Well, we've almost made it through October! Sometimes I'm not sure how! The month started out benignly enough...we made plans to attend the Balloon Fiesta, as usual, and enjoyed the amazing weather we've had for the past month or so.

As we posted last time, we have decided to build a new home in Rio Rancho, and we realized that we had better get in gear and start getting this one ready to go on the market. We made a list of "projects", and despite our best efforts, it sometimes seems never-ending! We're painting, organizing, purging, replacing windows and countertops, and still trying to run a household (somewhat sanely) for a family of four. Oh, I also forgot to mention that I decided last summer that October would be a great month to have some surgery. More on that later.

As we got started on all of the home improvements, of course the boys got sick. We've had ear infections, stomach viruses, and now it seems that Drew has developed some as yet undetermined food allergies. Mid-month, I had my thyroid gland removed, because it's had a nodule growing on it for about 8 years. It was a fairly minor surgery (only one night in the hospital) but it still meant leaving Stu on his own with the boys overnight. He did great, and we can't neglect to thank both Karen and my mom, because they both helped us out immensely. What would we do without grandmas?

Now it's almost Halloween, and we're looking forward to finishing up our major projects and getting this house sold! We're also very much looking forward to going to Montana for Thanksgiving. We'll finally get to meet our new niece, Elsa. We can't wait.

Here's hoping everyone has a fun, SAFE Halloween. Enjoy all of that yummy candy. We'll post more soon...let's be careful out there! :)