Our trip to a bird sanctuary in Decatur

For the last six months we have been driving through a beautiful Federal Wildlife preserve on our way to Josh's parents' house in Cullman, Alabama. We finally made the trip out there on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We looked at hundreds of ducks through view finders in the observatory and Jacob brought us to a giant corn field that had been plowed under. It was pretty and cold!

Jacob likes sweet potatoe "french fries"

In our continual quest to find healthy foods that Jacob will eat, Kathy discovered that he liked julienned sweet potatoes baked in the oven to look like "french fries". He ate them at Thanksgiving dinner with ketchup! Everyone else liked them, too, and they were quickly gobbled up.

Casey gets some Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Casey finally got to chow down on some "real" food for Thanksgiving. She did a good job of getting these sweet potatoes down her gullet. And mom had fun, too!

Meeting Great Grandma Woljevac

Over the Thanksgiving holiday which we spent in Alabama Casey and Jacob both got to spend time with Josh's wonderful Grandma Woljevac (Donna) at Thanksgiving. She played with Casey and read a book to Jacob about a little mongoose who gets a spanking and tries to run away from home!

Las Paletas

As some of you know, our favorite place to go for sweet treats in Pittsburgh was a croissant bakery on the Northside in a little town called Millvale. In Nashville we have a new favorite spot: a place that makes Mexican popsicles called "paletas." It's called Las Paletas and Jacob calls it "Lots of Places." He's not far off: it's many flavors are like a world tour, with pistachio, chocolate infused with hot pepper, rose petal, rasberry-pineapple, plum, pumpkin, butter pecan, and chocolate chip cookie. We've never had one we didn't like, and we go there virtually every week. We are putting these pictures into a drawing that Las Paletas has this month; is we win we get 50 free popsicles for one of the kid's birthdays! That would be so great!

Joe and Nancy Visit the Parthenon with us

Joe and Nancy came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving and we made the quarter of a mile trip to Centennial Park. There is an exact replica of what the Parthenon would have looked like before it began to decay, with a huge statue of the Goddess Athena. It's an impressive trip! We got a family membership for the year---so come visit us and we'll take you there!

Red Caboose Park

Last week Jacob and I joined Elizabeth and her kids for a few hours at Red Caboose Park. Even though it was a beautiful day we were one of the only families there! Here is Jacob driving the train!

Showing off Casey in her beautiful radish outfit

Josh has asked me and Casey to come visit him at work for several months, and today I finally got my act together enough to bring Casey to Vanderbilt. I've been watching reruns of the Project Runway, so I was feeling very "fashion forward". I dressed Casey in the beautiful Parisian radish-decorated outfit from Aunt Susie and Cindy for the big event. Casey was also wearing the beautiful hair band from Aunt Lisa. She looked stunning, and she charmed all of Josh's colleagues. We played with her in Josh's office and gave her a tour of the floor Josh works on. Casey made a lot of new friends! It was also Josh's diversity potluck; I brought a batch of Kathy Gregson's chocolate bars and they were a big hit!

Jacob and Casey in the AM

Mornings have been early but fun around our house lately. Jacob gets up around 5:30 or 6:00, and he climbs into bed with me and Casey. I usually hold off from getting up until 6:30, and then Jacob often asks if he can play with Casey. This usually involves Casey trying to touch and grab whatever Jacob is holding, and Jacob devising new and more clever schemes to deny her this privilege. It's pretty fun to watch!

Portrait of the artist as a young man

Jacob asked to paint earlier this week and my friend Elizabeth gave me a great tip. Give Jacob one brush for each color! For some reason I had never thought to do this before, and it worked wonderfully! Jacob made four giant psychedelic paintings which ranged in subject from "a space station" to "a halloween candy bag", "a coconut tree with legs" and "a tomato."

Josh and Kathy have a date at Radnor Lake

Josh and I are often so tired in the evenings that we have to start our nighttime dates with a double espresso. So we tried a late afternoon date, on a Sunday. We caught the last quarter of the exciting Steelers win over the Cleveland Browns at a Vandy sports bar, and then we headed back to beautiful Radnor Lake. As you can see it's finally fall here in Nashville, and we had a deliciously beautiful walk. It was a great date.

Joe turns 31

Joe Gregson, Josh's brother, turned 31 this week. We are LOVING being close enough to the Gregsons that we can celebrate and share all these important moments together. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE! We love you.

Casey clowning around for Dad

Casey still doesn't know quite how to swallow "real" food, but she loves anything that belongs to her brother! Here she is in Jacob's high chair, laughing and playing around while Josh snapped some great pics.

Halloween Night

Jacob was a "Jedi Knight" for Halloween. Actually, I was kind of against the whole Star Wars Halloween theme until I saw the infant Princess Leia costume online. Then it was just too tempting put Casey in this little felt wig and gown. Jacob was the BEST trick-or-treater. He was extremely polite, said Trick or Treat like a champ, and always remembered to say thank you. Casey was a little tired because Casey and I were the helping family at Jacob's school on Halloween Day, but she still got rave reviews from candy suppliers. Josh wheedled a few extra chocolate bars for himself using the cuteness of Baby Princess Leia. Grandma Gregson made the trip up for Halloween, and she made it so fun for all of us! It was a great night!

More Halloween Pumpkin Fun

Here is Jacob next to some pumpkins he carved with Josh. The other two pumpkins are ones that I carved using my favorite new computer program "Me On A Pumpkin". This amazing new program allowed me to make pumpkin carving patterns from photographs of Jacob and Casey. Can you tell which one is which?