A few family pictures taken by friend Mark Warnick, the budding photographer

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We went out on Saturday and had our pictures taken. Note to self: If planning to do family pics outdoors, do it before the December chill sets in! It was around 20 degrees, so we would take pictures for five minutes, then jump in the car to warm up and go out for more. But Mark had some great ideas and some cool pictures came out of it. I think we'll have these four matted and put in our frame on our wall. Thanks Mark!

The new dress

This is kind of a special dress. It was intended for me when I was Lisa's age and after almost 25 years in the making, it is done! (Those of you who know me well are probably laughing because that's the way most of my projects go) Well, this is special though because Lisa's Great Grammie did the needle work on the apron and collar, Marmee did the sleeves and bodice and I put the rest together. So can you call that a three-generation dress? Anyway-Ryan took a few cute pics this morning when I tried it on her. She kept saying, "Cute!" She likes it a lot.

Feeding the ducks at the Nature Park.

Every visit before this one Lisa has been terrified of the ducks when they approach her, but this time she actually let them get pretty close and had a fun time chasing them around. Maybe it was because she saw the other kids having so much fun.

Happy Halloween!

Today was a fun day of Halloween festivity. Lisa dressed as a cute , little bee. We went to the county library for toddler reading time and had a costume parade through the library and danced to "The Monster Mash". Then we went to a "Trunk-or-Treat" party and Lisa got her stash of candy there. She was pretty mesmerized with everything that was going on, but enjoyed herself very much. Afterward, we visited Ryan at work and he was happy to see us.

Umbrella: 1.00$. Lisa playing in the rain: priceless.

We found this umbrella today for one dollar. It's amazing the things that will entertain at this age. Everything is so new and fun.

Joining the blog force!

So..this is my first attempt at a blog. I'm mostly doing it because my friend Natalie has such a cute blog and I thought I would give it a try. But it should be a fun way to share what's going on with us. This semester has been quite busy for Ryan, probably his most difficult yet, but we have still been finding time to have fun. We all went fishing last weekend. Lisa and I threw rocks in the water and took pictures of all the pretty leaves. She still enjoys being carried in the child carrier on my back and gets very silly at times. Her new thing is to sing all day long about everything she is doing. Even if I don't know what she's saying every time, I know she knows and it sure is cute.