It must be fall...

We received some wonderful goodies from the floral shop this week from Chip's parents...big baskets of candy, chips, mixed nuts, apples, oranges, sausage and cheese...thank YOU! As Grandma Karen can see from these pictures, the kids were more than excited to have "Halloween come early". Although Crew just slept through all the excitement. I guess he doesn't have a sweet tooth yet. =)

That little owl on top of the snacks came from a friend along with some other cute things for Crew. We have been so blessed by the outpouring of support and love and care from so many friends and family. Thank you to each and everyone of you! The baby announcements are being made and heopfully will be in the mail sometime this next week.

A little note about the card design... the black & white image of Crew was edited and emailed to me by my fashionista friend, Corinne. I love that photo of him...thanks, Corinne! Next, I found the circus image here at flickr.com. It was just the type of picture I was looking for and I was so happy to get approval to use the image from the designer, Jon Turner. I emailed him earlier this week and told him how much I liked his illustration and he was more than willing to let me use it for Crew's cards. So thank you, Mr. Turner! Yet another reason for me to love the internet. =)

One of the things I remember so clearly about my first pregnancy with Teagan was the night my parents came over and Chip and I had a spread of cards sitting on our coffee table. We were working together on making Teagan's birth announcements and my mom commented on how it was so wonderful to do such a thing but that "you'll never do this for any of your other kids". She also mentioned how my older brother had the most baby pictures taken and memories captured in his baby book and for each sibling thereafter, the photos and baby books were more and more sparse. I remember telling my mom that wasn't going to happen... but I secretly believed she was right.

Well, as it turns out, I not only take more photos than ever (especially since we've gone digital as well as the tragedy of Teagan making me even more of a 'photo-freak'), but our mailing list of friends and family has grown over the years too, so I make even more cards for each baby we've added to our family! I did opt to go simple in my card design this time around. So at least I'm learning a few things along the way.

Lastly...can anyone guess where Chip and Brock are headed right now as I post this blog? Look closely in their photo. Notice the Notre Dame hats. Yep. They're going toSouth Bend, Indiana to watch some football... [Notre Dame vs. Stanford] and take in some of the sights around the campus- including Touchdown Jesus. I don't know who was more excited as the left home this morning- Chip or Brock. I do know that they were happy to be spending the day together. What a great way to kick off the fall! Happy October to everyone reading this today...enjoy the colors, flavors and fun that this season brings.