Christmas is Upon Us!

Dan and I attended a retirement party for a co-worker of his last week. We were having such a good time that we didn't make it back up to Round Rock in time for my school holiday party.

In the photo above we have the 'flash ON' photo - harsh lighting to say the least and next we have the 'flash OFF' photo - nice and fuzzy.

The photos have that fun Christmas light haze. This morning on 'Good Morning America' I learned that changing the ISO setting on my digital camera will help crisp up the photos without losing the soft light from the Christmas lights. I haven't had a chance to try this new technique out yet but I'm going to see if it really works.

Note to self...

Okay, today when I got home I made a discovery... It is not a good idea to leave bags of flour and sugar on the counter...as you can see it looked like our boys had a good time while we were at work today!

I'm sure it looked like a bad episode of "I Love Lucy"... There I was vacuuming my little heart out, not realizing that the bag was full and that I was effectively spraying a fine powdery mess out of the back of the machine. Yikes! I hope I didn't ruin my vacuum.

I think the cats must have hid in the bedroom all day not wanting to get mixed up with the crime scene because there were no little feline paw prints among the mess...all canine...I could totally be on CSI! Ha Ha.

The Great Pumpkin

Today Dan and I took Reese and AJ with us for a visit to Red Barn's Pumpkin Festival. We met John, Darby and Eli there mid-morning and then traveled to South Austin for lunch after we had visited all that there was to see at the pumpkin festival. I think Eli really enjoyed all of the people watching, game playing and animal petting that he got to do. I know I enjoyed watching him. Reese and AJ just enjoyed getting out of the house for the weekend :)

Isn't Eli just beautiful perched atop the pile of pumpkins!

Ah, there was a bit of a delay in getting this page posted. Our laptop has been on the fritz and I haven't been able to upload photos from it. I finally have broken down and I'm using the desktop in the guestroom.

Belated Ironman Wisconson Post

Good Morning swimmers! This photo is my favorite shot of the morning. Dan and Steve had just gotten to the edge of the water.

Unfortunately I didn't capture any great bike shots so you'll have to visit Dan's blog to see the professional photos for those photos. I did, however, get some shots of the Perkins Twins while they ran on State Street.

Iron babies hanging out! Alex and Will were such little troopers :) Here we are taking a lunch break while Dan and Steve continued to run, and run, and run.

Mr. Steve Perkins (second place...again? What, was it 6 minutes out of the chute? Well, at least you're bridging the gap.)

Iron Babies at the end of a long day! I'm not sure how they were asleep at this point with how loud everything was at the finish line!

Ah, I finally got my Danno back at the end of a very long day.

I had a fun day running all over Madison, Wisconsin and I was glad to call it a night.

Great Green Goddess!

When I got home from school (work) tonight before going to school (school) for the evening I spent some time in the backyard with Reese and AJ. Check out the beautiful green spider that I spied on a leaf of my Morning Glory vine. The leaf is well over 5 inches across! Makes for a big spider wouldn't you say?

The spider has amazing barbs covering all eight legs! I'm hoping I can identify the specimen by searching online.

Welcome to the world Connor Reed!

Welcome to the world Connor Reed! Congratulations to Becca & Grant! Connor arrived at 2:32 am on Sunday, September 16th 2007 weighing a whopping 8lb5oz and measuring 20 inches!



Look at this proud daddy!

While I'm not actually Connor's Aunt Lisa I certainly felt like a proud aunt cradling little Connor in my arms. He is absolutely beautiful!

Even Dan got in on the snuggle time :) Connor looks so little in Dan's big arms!
Connor's nails are sharp and he scratched his beautiful little face! Becca and Grant put the softest little socks over his hands to prevent additional scratches. You can't tell from the photos but Connor has quite the little head of hair!

School Bells are Ringing.

My first week back to school was exhausting! I'm enrolled in two graduate courses this semester and my course work started the same week as school so I have been extra tired this week. I miss my old team but I'm excited about my new team and what the school year has in store for our class! I won't be posting photos of my students but I wish I could. We have a great group so far.



My sister Missy and her baby arrived yesterday for a visit and we are having such a great time playing with baby Madison. I can't get over how quickly she is growing. Dan and I are dog sitting cousin Boone for the weekend and I'm feeling highly outnumbered by the four legged fuzz balls as there are three dogs and two cats in the house. I do have to say that I'm very pleased so far, all five animals are getting along so I'm not having to close anyone off for safety.



Ironman Wisconsin is this next weekend and Dan is very excited about race day. I'll be spectating and cheering Dan on along side Caroline (Momma Perk) & Laura (Sister Perk) ~ (Sure, I will cheer Steve on as well but not as loudly as I'll cheer for Dan! ;) heehee) and of course the twins (Alex & Will) will be there too. I'm excited about the trip and our four legged kids are excited about spending the weekend with Oma & Opa. Personally, I think Abby & Silas are afraid that we've acquired a third dog and they aren't too happy about it! No worries, cousin Boone goes home tomorrow.



Not much else is going on besides getting back into the swing of my studies, work at school, and of course being newly weds :) Can you believe we've been married SEVEN weeks at this point!