Where are you Fall?

It sure is weird to realize that it is almost October and to still be roasting at 90 degrees! I have begun to feel excited about the changing seasons and I've been wanting to decorate for Fall and light my pumpkin candles, etc. but it seems pretty pointless in a place where we won't pull the coats out of mothballs until December! Oh well...it is just one year. I will just have to look forward to visits home to enjoy the nice crisp weather!

Can you believe how much our little girl has changed in 1 year? She seems like such a little toddler now! I can't believe it. September 2008. Baby Laurel Anne one year ago!
Talking about Fall...here is a carrot cake I made for Will 2 days ago...sadly it is more than half eaten already!!! Lauren - please try to overlook my sub par decorating skills!

The Laurel Anne fashion show. These are for Aunt Allie! As you can see she will have time to grow into them while we wait for colder weather. Thanks so much for her beautiful birthday presents!

She was really fascinated by the bug on this one!

She REFUSED to wear the hat!

Last weekend we had the great fun of a visit from "Uncle Zach" for the UT/FL game. It was so great to get to spend some time together. As you see, Laurel loved him!

Laurel loves carrying around little baskets of all varieties. Here she plucked the silverware holder out of the dishwasher!

Gainesville Days

We have already had 2 sets of visitors in our little apartment! Walt and Kim Alexander were able to come and spend the night with us on their way to vacation. They were our first FL guests and we had a wonderful time together talking, laughing, and eating Belgian Waffles! It was a short trip, but we packed it with a lot of fun times. Our next visitors were Dad and Mom. We had such a wonderful time all together as always! Dad and Mom are so generous to us. Here are some pictures from their trip:

Laurel getting tickled by Pop! (yes, those are Laurel's pants on Dad's head...)

Laurel really loved Dad and Mom! As you can see, she finally has enough hair to clip a bow straight up...at 13 months :-)
Laurel LOVES reading books! She has recently started getting books and then coming over to sit in my lap and read them. I love it!

This past Saturday we had a wonderful family day at a beach near Tampa called Honeymoon Island. Will found it the night before we left and it was perfect! It is a state park, so it doesn't have any houses or businesses on it. Even on a busy weekend like labor day, you could look down the beach in either direction and see no one! We had such a wonderful time together. I am grateful to Will for wanting to make such special memories on his day off!

Here is Laurel learning birdwatching from her Dad. She loved all the birds.

Once you walked for about 1/2 mile past the parking area this was our view in either direction! It was so beautiful! I can't wait to go back.

We took a walk on the beach and Laurel fell asleep on Will and slept for a long time. Those are such special times and I'm glad Will got to experience it!

Here is Laurel talking to Grandfather on the phone. She has started holding the cell phone to her ear on her own. It is really cute!

Laurel and I before enjoying our picnic lunch (in the shade!).

This is for all the Vols fans...Laurel is remaining faithful to the home team!

We took a little after diner run to chick-fil-a for some ice cream...I think I might have enjoyed it even more than Laurel :-) I don't think it is supposed to work that way!

I recently made some bread that turned into a HUGE loaf. Here is a picture for comparison. I like how Laurel is fingering the cutting board.

Laurel had a really sleepy day recently where every time I turned around she was lying on the ground sucking her thumb. It was really cute! Here she is in the dining room by the trash can.

Here she is in the kitchen.

Laurel has become very fond of waving!

This is what Will has been doing! He wanted a picture of the ridiculous amount of books for his first semester.

The youngest LLM student!

Trepidation!

My wonderful Aunt Allie gave Laurel a lot of adorable clothes for her birthday. I promised to post pictures so she could see how cute Laurel looks, but both times I tried to put her in all the outfits something happened, so here is the first in a series....I will post the rest when I take the pictures.

That is what we have been up to the last few weeks! God has really blessed us in a lot of unexpected ways so far and we know he will continue to be faithful to us while we are here. But we sure are excited about coming home. May can't come soon enough!!!