Smelling the roses..

(This 'cheese' business NEVER gets old- ha!)

Good-bye 20's...

...and hello 30's. Today is my BIG 3-0 (why do they call it that anyway??) and despite my best efforts to be down about getting older, my wonderful family and friends have managed to make this a great day for me by calling, sending e-mails, cards, etc. with sweet birthday wishes. I always feel so lucky to be surrounded by such great people! Thank you, all!

The weather has been kinda gloomy for the most part, which seemed very fitting for the day. I have always known that I would have a hard time reaching this milestone and it has been a little tough... I mean, how many women like getting older? I am really noticing the wrinkles/laugh lines around my eyes and stray grey hairs popping up and I think I have seen more doctors this year than I have over the past 10 years. I have had my annual female check-up (because I had to), an appointment to check my cholesterol (to make sure I wasn't on the verge of a heart-attack), an eye exam (to make sure I didn't have some sort of tumor due to headaches and eye stress- no tumor, just an increase in prescription), an ENT appointment (to make sure I didn't have some sort of tumor due to horrible ear pain- no tumor, just chronic ear pain), an emergency room visit resulting from a gallbladder attack (and now I have a scheduled gallbladder removal in December.. fun!) and an MRI for a benign spot on my liver. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I still have to see an orthopedist for back pain and a periodontist for bone loss on a tooth. Yeah.. getting older isn't proving to be fun at all. Although, I have been saying that I would rather get old and celebrate more birthdays than the alternative. So, if my 30's manage to be half as good as my 20's, then I suppose I'm looking forward to it. :-)

The beautiful flowers my Dad sent me:


The beautiful rainbow through the gloom:


My beautiful, messy boy after eating birthday chocolate covered strawberries and bananas:


(I'm not sure why Travis was trying to get him to say 'touchdown,' but Tyler just wanted his picture taken. haha)

Our new toy

Our new toy to get us out of the house~ I actually haven't ridden a bike in 10 years, but we've really enjoyed being out in the beautiful weather we're having.

Sleeping

Is there anything more precious than a baby sleeping??

Sooo sad...

Here is a collection of Tyler's first pictures that HE took~






And here is what happened when I took the camera away from him~

Race for the Cure

Sadly, we were not able to participate in the race this year because I was sick. I was really looking forward to Tyler being involved in this event again, even though he has no understanding about it right now. I think it's never too early to be involved in great charities and hopefully, it's something that he'll enjoy doing later in life. We wanted to thank Kiyo, Edna, The Silkenson's and The Warmington's for donating towards Tyler's goal and supporting our team!

Happy Halloween!

Among all the ghostly goblins, there was this absolutely ADORABLE little longhorn football player!





Our first trick-or-treating experience was so fun! We invited my mom and Travis' parents over to go out with us. Of course, this was more for us than Tyler, but he did enjoy it, especially once he realized he was getting candy! I know my little boy all too well and predicted what would happen: that once he saw candy in his bucket from the first house, he would only want to eat that candy and not go anywhere else. And that's exactly what happened! We had to take a candy break by the road and Daddy and Tyler shared a piece of chocolate. haha.















First house- our sweet neighbors across the street, Steve and Diane, and their dog, Bodie (Cooper's best friend).







Tyler actually gave this nice lady a piece of his candy- so sweet!


Neighborhood buds- with Jacob as Elmo


with Trace, the golfer


Heading back home to check out the loot