Who would have thought Fall Cleaning could be so fun?

Obviously, our kids!

This weekend we were busy storing away our 450 logs of firewood in the backyard & racking up all those leaves that don't stop falling!

Of course, Aubree & Preston found it all to be a blast, they helped us carry the logs into storage & also... gave Garrick a helping hand... or body, racking the leaves! :)

We already had two evenings with the fireplace going, the low on Friday night was 30!!

After Garrick blew all the leaves in the middle of the driveway... HE let them jump on in!!

That's such a "Dad Thing"

Maybe... just maybe, I'd like to be a kid again! :)

After all the leaf pile excitement, I threw the kids in a nice warm bath & Garrick made a fire...

But, because the chaos never ends... the clean kids ran out on the deck & then they were no longer clean again!

Hey...it was good while it lasted! :)

The trees are all sooooo beautiful! I'm glad we live in such a forest-like area! :)



...from back in July!!!

I just found some old pictures & decided to post them anyway. During the summer, Garrick played Softball again, in a league from his work. I tried to go to most of the games, because the kids always enjoy watching the game, cheering & running around.


 Watching Garrick... Who's up for bat!
 And, he got it out of there! Home Run!!!
 And, the crowds went wild...
 Hahahaha!
Best Friends...

 Racing in their new tennis shoes! :)

Sometime in early August, I (me... all alone), took the kids to a NY Jets Training camp practice & we had a blast!! The people, players & staff were all so, so, so nice!!! I was very impressed with the Jets Organization, the facility & surprisingly, all the nice fans.

We went in Gator gear to support our guy, Tim Tebow... We did see him, but the day we went, he wasn't giving out autographs, but I'm glad we had a chance to see him in person! The last time Aubree, Preston & I saw him in person, was back in Gainesville, FL.

The practice field...

 Tebow... #15

 Face/leg painting...

 Corn Hole...

 Some players who gave us autographs & chatted with us... :)

I took a few pictures of Aubree's first week of school, she picks out all her outfits & I think she looks so cute before she goes off to school every day...

Here are a few outfits (before it got cold!).

Well, we celebrated Garrick's BIG 30th Birthday way back in August.... But, I am finally now putting the pictures up. We had a really nice family day, we started out by picking up some deli sandwiches, having a picnic & playing a game of miniature golf, then because it was so HOT we got ourselves some nice tropical smoothies & then went home for a BBQ cookout & a homemade cake... Garrick ALWAYS requests that I make him a (completely homemade) cake on his birthday, this year was one of the more basic requests. Just a homemade yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting. It was simple enough & made it with all organic ingredients... It turned out pretty good! I'm just glad I didn't have to make a German Chocolate again - that cake takes me 4 hours!!! :)

Golfing...

 Right after golfing....

 Someone is getting brave (she was starting to take a few steps)

 Picking some tomatoes to go with our dinner...

Homegrown Tomatoes = BEST TOMATOES EVER!!

 YUM!!!

 Sliders, spinach salad w/ goat cheese, cranberries & candied walnuts + loaded potato skins!

 The three-layered yellow cake w/ chocolate frosting...

 The fam...

 Noooooooo.... I swear, they didn't test-taste the frosting! hahaha!!

Baylee liked it too, her FIRST Birthday cake she's ever tried!! :)

I have been so behind on doing things lately... But I wanted to acknowledge my sweet little ONE year old's birthday too!

A couple days after we celebrated Aubree's 5th Birthday, we celebrated Baylee's FIRST Birthday!

We actually spent it in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware with friends who are like family & all their family - who made Baylee's birthday soooo special! Lot's of singing happy birthday & lots of cake... It was so special!

She officially started taking 5 & 6 steps at a time at 10.5 months old. It took her a month (11.5 months) to start walking around a bit. And then a few days after her birthday everything just clicked & she has been our full-time walker for over a week now! She just cruises all around from the moment she wakes up, to the time she goes to bed.... I'm glad she's mobile & enjoying herself these days!

We took some stats a week before her birthday...

At the time, she was 22 pounds (62nd percentile)

And she was 29 inches tall (40th percentile) - she's our shorty! :)

As far as her solitary kidney goes; she seems to be fine. We are still going to the Urologist for regular ultrasounds of her kidney. Things have changed slightly - her kidney is still swollen, but now it's slightly less swollen & now her ureter (the tubing that goes from the kidney to bladder), is wider & appearing to be swollen. So, when she was first born, she had to have a CAT scan to see if her bladder was refluxing - that's when they inserted the blue dye in through a catheter to see if it would end up being pushed back into her kidney. That test came out negative, unfortunately because that would have been the easiest fix.

So, from that time on... We have been "watching & waiting". She was taken off her daily antibiotics & has since been fine - which is really good! Now, her Doctor says that this is only a result of three things. One was the reflux - which it is not, two is an obstruction & three is anatomy. Her Dr. believes it's her anatomy - but medically, we must rule out an obstruction. So, we will have to take her to the hospital for one final test - he warned that the test is very unpleasant & long! :( It's another catheter type thing & I forget the name of it.. But, I think the word "lasik" was mentioned.

Once that test is completed we will get the results & if, in the small possibility it is an obstruction, then I believe surgery will be necessary, but because it sounds like it could just be her unusual anatomy - then her prognosis would be a life-long relationship with a good Urologist & yearly ultrasounds and tests to make sure there is no kidney damage occurring over the years... I almost hope for the obstruction, because it sounds like a pain in the butt & a financial burden to add another specialist to a list of yearly check-ups, but we will see...

Baylee is still a rough & tough, "Baby Mama" as we call her, she'll call you out in a heartbeat & she's a shot caller... hahaha! She's very vocal, but very sweet & actually, overall she's been the most easy going of all of our children.

She's starting to talk now & says, "Mama", "Mom", "Dada", "Hi", "Bye", "No", Yeah", "Dah" (dog), "Haa" (hot)... can't think of anything else right now.

Okay... Here are some pics of the little gal from last week...

 Little rebel, crawled up on the coffee table & started walking across it...

She's going to give me a heart-attack!!