Ten.

1. I had a visit last week from my mom and one of my nieces from Kentucky. I hadn't seen my neice in almost five years, and she just turned 18, so you can imagine how much she has changed in that period of time. It was so great to see her, but it made me sad that we are so far away. I seriously want to do a better job of keeping in touch with her. I have totally dropped the ball on that one. I think I got scared when she and her siblings turned into teenagers, I just didn't know how to relate. I got to do a photo shoot with her one day that she was here so look for those pictures later this week!

2. We have finished our "faces of hope" fundraiser calendar for the Isaac Foundation. We are just waiting on the production of them to be wrapped up. we will be selling them for $10.00 a piece almost ALL of the proceeds will go into the therapy funds for giving out scholarships to local families. If we sell them all, then that will be $10,000! How cool is that? If you are interested in ordering one for yourself or for Christmas presents, just leave a comment here or get in touch with me and I will make sure you get a reserved copy! They might go fast, you know?!

3. Dylan is at such a fun, fun age right now. She is really starting to imitate everything we say,in addition to acquiring her own little repertoire of words! I absolutely adore this phase. I guess it's time to clean up our language again! ; )

4. Holland is turning five in a couple of weeks. I can't believe my baby girl is growing up so fast. I know, I know - that's so cliche. It's so true though!

5. I've been selling a lot of the gallery wrapped canvases to my photography clients. They are so, so cool. I don't ever want to part with them. I just want to hang them on my walls even though they aren't my kids or my family! Holland likes them too - I had a big 24 x 30 canvas on our wall of the Goins family and she was so bummed when I took it down. She said, "I love that picture, mommy. I think we should keep it on our wall!"

6. We bought Boden a heating pad to lay around on all day, and he hardly moves from the thing! It is under our steps in this little closed in area that claimed for his abode. He is getting bigger and bigger these days, and he is learning to follow these commands: "sit", "lie down", "stay", and "get on your bed".

7. I am secretly dreading the birthday present component to Holland's birthday party. It seems like all I do is weed through her stuff. I am constantly getting rid of things, and now we are going to get a whole influx of toys, stuffies, and who knows what else. I did tell her that we were going to have to get rid of some stuff to make room for the new stuff, and she promptly went into her room and started collecting a pile of rejects. She ended up with two paper grocery bags full of stuff. Not bad, huh? We just need to do it a few more hundred times!

8. I am enjoying our extended fall her in the Inland Northwest. We are still coasting right along into the middle of November without any snow and not even in the 7 day forecast! That is wonderful! We had such a long drawn out winter (getting snow in April and May) that I still haven't recovered! I do plan to do some winter sports this year though. I have said for the last 3-4 winters that I want to learn to cross country skii, and I just found out that my moms in motion team is going to have a couple of lessons in January. Can't wait for that!

9. I still haven't gotten over my heal injury so I haven't been for a run since August, and I am seriously missing it. I keep saying I'm gonna just take off on a run and see how it goes, but I'm having a hard time finding the time. Maybe this weekend.....

10. We have some new neighbors that live two houses down and Holland has gotten to be really good friends with their five-year-old son, Aiden. (He's the one that's influencing the star wars and legos phase that she is going through right now). His parents came over the day to drop Aiden off for a playdate and we invited them in. And three bottles of wine, lots of parenting stories, and a pizza and breadstix order later - we have a new set of neighbors that we now call "friends". Such fun!

That's all for now!