Grandma Time

Grandma Sherry came to see us on her way home from seeing Great Grandma in South Carolina. It was fun to see them spend time together playing with some of the toys she brought with her for Emma. On Saturday while it was raining cats and dogs outside, we did a little shopping in Hickory and we added a new member to our family - Winnie the Pooh, he's bigger than the dog! Emma loves him...Thanks Grandma!

Pumpkin Picking

One of my favorite things to do in preparation for fall is to go pumpkin and apple picking. Allen's mom was in town last weekend and although it rained and poured all day on Saturday, we were blessed with a beautiful day on Sunday. We piled into the car along with our good friends the Frady's and headed out to an orchard and pumpkin patch that is a few miles outside of Asheville in a town called Fairview. We had never tried this place before, but it turned out to be perfect for the kids to see some farm animals and to go hunting for a pumpkin in their pumpkin patch. Of course, as always, it takes forever to find the perfect pumpkin (can't wait to go cut down our own Christmas tree this year!), but we ended up finding two that we think will be great for carving! Don't you just love the fall?!

Hickory Nut Gap Farms, Fairview, NC

I want to touch the baby calf...

Apple Cider Popsicle, yummmm

this one looks good

Grandma found a winner!

Allen and Jim searching for the perfect pumpkin

8 Months

I've been such a blog slacker lately...I've included some entries from the last couple of weekends as far back as Labor Day. Today Emma is 8 months old - and I have to say that we almost have a walking little girl on our hands! She's definitely mastered crawling, but spends a lot of her time getting up on two feet up against furniture and then lets go for as long as she can free-standing. It's amazing to see how much control she has. She babbles and makes noises all the time and laughs any chance she gets - she's a very happy girl. We are expanding her food intake little by little. I'm starting to get a little adventurous with table foods, but being the paranoid mommy I am, I'm taking it very slow. She holds her bottles all on her own when she eats and has mastered the sippy cup. I've also promised myself that I need to go through her closet and put away all of her clothes that she no longer fits into and need to expand her 9-12 month clothing for the colder months. We're excited to see what these next few months will bring as we get closer to the 1 year old stage! Have a great week everyone!

Morganton Festival

Every September the streets of downtown shut-down for the Morganton Festival. Every corner is lined with people who are there to enjoy the vendors that range in arts and crafts and of course yummy festival foods! The festival is only Friday night and all day Saturday with a headlining act that performs Saturday night - this year it was James Otto. We didn't stay for the music this year only because we didn't think Emma would have the attention span to enjoy it, but we did go with some friends of ours and walked around through the vendors and the kids area. The only "ride" that Allen took Emma on this year was the large slide - we're not sure how much she liked it, but it was fun to watch. I'm sure there will be more to enjoy next year when she's a little older.

Labor Day Weekend

My parents came down to visit for the Labor Day Weekend. The weekend was very relaxed - Allen decided to build Emma a swing-set; it's been something he has wanted to do for a while now and now that the weather will begin to feel like fall eventually, he figured it would be the perfect time. Emma loves being in the swing, she giggles as she swings back and forth probably because of the butterfly feeling that she feels in her tummy. Mom and I did a lot of cooking over the weekend, tried out some new recipes and did a little shopping. It was a good way to spend a 3-day weekend!

The Rollands' Summer Visit

Two weeks ago we had Allen's parents come to visit, which we very much enjoyed. It was a quick weekend, but we made sure to make the best of it by doing some really fun activities. They arrived Friday evening and we decided to go to one of our favorite Italian restaurants in town - the food was delicious. Then we got up early Saturday morning, went out to breakfast and decided to venture to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we went to the Ripley's Aquarium. Allen and I have never been to Gatlinburg, it was on our list of "things to do" eventually, so this was as good time as any to see what was up there. We had heard great things about the aquarium and it turned out to be well worth the slightly long drive it took to get there. Emma really enjoyed walking through it - we were surprised at how attentive she was to everything there was to see; it took us about an hour and a half to get all the way through and since we had gotten up there later that afternoon we decided to go out to an early dinner on our way out of town. There is so much to do up there so I'm sure we'll be back, but we had a great time and look forward to having his family visit again!