Elgin Pumpkin Festival

I feel like a true southerner! We went to a pumpkin festival in Elgin this past weekend with my brother Sam's family (Jennifer, Samantha, and Jack) and my sister Molly (back from Alaska).

Truth be told, Annie is on the brink of enjoying events like this, I can feel it, but not quite there yet. Everything is just as you probably imagine. There was a bake sale, a hayride, some farm animals, some pumpkins, some face painting, but unfortunately the 95 degree weather robbed it of it's fall festivity for me. I would have rather been wearing a scarf than slapping on the sunscreen.

In any event, we enjoyed some family time! We are really looking forward to going back in December because this place doubles as Christmas Tree farm. We will go to Elgin Christmas Tree Farm and pick out the perfect tree that we would have gotten if we did not intend to use a fake tree "until Annie can fully appreciate a real tree and ask for one herself" (Justin's words). You gotta love my practical man!

Molly, Samantha, and Jennifer!

Annie and her daddy!


Jack and Samantha when they realized they would be riding the train without everyone else!

Samantha taking care of Jack during the crisis!


Annie shaking it for the camera.


Molly and Jackaroo!

Annie's first face painting.

It is a really disturbing-looking hippo.


Samantha got a really cool red butterfly.


Annie in the pumpkins!


These are some of the all-time best pictures of Annie.
She had a major connection with the pumpkins. :-)

High chairs and high heels...

I am a very unfaithful blogger. I tell myself that once Annie picks up the pace with doing new things, I will post blogs about it, but I guess the time just seems to escape me. As I look at the last blog I posted I realize that there are some major things happening.

We started solids.

SOLIDS.

I thought that once I had a baby that ate solids I would feel like a different person. One of those seasoned, capable mothers that really knows what she is doing. After trying to get a step-by-step list from all of my dearest friends, I realized that no one does it the same so I can't screw up too bad. ;-)

By the way... Annie loves her solids. So far she has tried rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, prunes, apples and she has no complaints. I realized that the noises I made when I feed her are what she thinks one is supposed to do when eating. Before the bite is a "Ahhhhh" and once it hits the lips, "mmmmmm."

Here is her first bite of solid food!



Along with our major accomplishment of eating real food, Annie has started to wear high heels like the working woman she is.


The real story: Nonnie (or Judy Lopez, Justin's mom) found these amazing shoes at a boutique by her house. Later, Justin saw an ad on MSN.com that said "Baby high heels... cute or creepy." The verdict is still out...


but Annie loves them. The real question is why she loves them- because they are elegant and beautiful or because they are spongy and feel good on her teeth? Hmmmm... you decide.

What else have we done in the month of September? That might have to be it's own post. Some brief highlights: J and Tata's Birthday on the 8th! J and Sally started an institute through our church focused on urban development! We are really excited to learn from people who know a lot more than us and to channel our passion the right way! We also went to Sea World again with the Gentry Family (read their blog- Gentrified- to find out more about this amazing family). Sally started teaching her women's class, Identify, for the 2nd semester (and I will say, it is going much more smoothly now that I'm not pregnant). I will try to blog more often, but for now, I will leave you with this...