It's Fall!!!

Well, we are coming into the lovely fall months here in South Carolina, which so far means the temperature is cooling down to the low to mid 80's and we are getting rain maybe once a week. As all of you from Oregon are enjoying the rainy season already, I'll take the warm weather anyday! It does take some getting used to, but we are working on it.

Several weeks ago we decided to take a day trip to Ashville, NC. This is where the Biltmore Estate is. Although we did not see it as you can not see it from the road and we weren't ready to pay the large sum of money to tour it. I'm hoping Craig and I can go up to see it for our Anniversary in December. We walked around downtown and visited all sorts of trendy little shops and had lunch. It is a very artsy community. It actually reminded us a lot of downtown Portland. We were actually on a mission to find bedding for our guest bedroom, but we struck out again. We are going for a rustic cabin theme and I am having a hard time finding any bedding to fit that decor. Ashville is in the mountains, so we thought it might be a good place to start. Oh well, we had a good time anyway.

The girls are doing great. Kaylee is into her third week of acting class and is really starting to enjoy it. In fact, she and I acted out one of her books tonight before bed. She was doing a character and everything. It was fun. (Just for Grandma Didi, the story was Morris Has a Cold). School is going very well and we have our first conference next week. PTA work is keeping me very busy. We are into our second fundraiser of the year so I have lots of things to do. It is a great way to spend my "free" time and I enjoy getting to know the teachers and people at the school. I guess I'll stick with it until Kaylee starts to be embarrased of me (which will probably be very soon)!

Morgan is doing wonderful things. She is using her walker for long walks and does a great job with it. She can even run! It's a great combination of going a little faster and lifting her knees more, but it is so fun to see. She is also learning to take more and more steps on her own. She has to be reminded sometimes that she can do it, because at this point she is used to cruising and she feels safe doing that. This morning at physical therapy she walked by herself for over 10 steps and she walked about 15-20 steps here at home this afternoon. We took Morgan in last week to see her nutritionist. Morgan weighed just over 26 lbs, which puts her just below the 14th percentile for weight. Her height is in the 25th percentile. Since these numbers looked so good, we were able to discuss a plan for weaning her from her tube feedings. We are switching her to a new type of soy formula that has more calories per ounce so that we can feed her less volume, but she will still get the same amount of calories. We are moving from three feedings of 6oz during the day time to two feedings of just over 4oz. She is still getting her continous feed at night. She has only tried this new program for a couple of days, but we are already seeing an improvement in her eating at lunch and dinner. We will go in every six weeks to have her weighed and check her progress. As long as she continues to grow and gain weight then we will cut a little bit more out each time. Her nutrionist thought is all went well, she may be totally off the tube in about a year! We were very excited about that. She would be about 3 1/2 which is about the same age that Kaylee was able to have her tube removed. So things are looking very good for Little Miss Morgan.

Craig is becoming a quite the joiner and is the Vice President of our Home Owners Association. I think he will enjoy his new role and it is helping us to meet some more people in our neighborhood. He hasn't been riding his motorcycle as much as he would like, but he did just do is own install of an additional gas tank that he is very proud of. Now when he rides he can go forever before he has to stop to get gas. In fact, he'll probably have to stop to go to the bathroom before he needs gas. :)

I'm still doing my volunteer work at the hospital and PTA. That is enough to keep me busy. We are all getting ready for Halloween and I will be posting those pictures after the big day. Next week we are driving up to Cincinati for a long weekend. We will get to visit Holly, Chris and Brian. I'll be sure to post pictures of our trip when we get back.

This isn't much, but I do have a few pictures of the girls here. The ones with both girls standing up are the first ones I have with them able to stand together. You can see how big Morgan is getting next to Kaylee. They are very good together, except when Morgan starts beating on Kaylee. I don't know what it is with younger siblings, but it's the same thing I had to deal with with my little brother. There are also some pictures of the kids playing at the park at our friend Bess' birthday party.

Enjoy!