Fall is in Full Effect

It's been a busy several weeks since we were in Atlanta hanging with family. I was out of town for a week in New Orleans for a conference. Shannon and Z were visited by Aunt Julie and Grammy Lanie during my absence. It was a great time for the girls to hang out and spend more quality time together.

As for us, we are all working hard. I am engrossed with work, Shannon is immersed in her studies and Zahra is just simply having a good time. Her language continues to blossom. She is obsessed with the moon lately and we've never even mentioned it to her. Yep, it's the first thing she's really picked up from school that we've noticed. I'm sure there are things we've missed but this seems to be the obvious "we didn't teach her that" moment for us.

For those of you missing her and her wonderful vocabulary, enjoy the videos!

Visiting Aunt Julie in Atlanta

Now that Zahra has more family in the vicinity, we will increase our time spent with them. Julie and Harold and their two kids, Morgan and Emma have moved to nearby South Carolina. Shannon is so excited that her sister has moved close by. We all got together at Grammy Lanie's and Grandpa Larry's place in Atlanta and had a nice weekend just being a family. We ate lots of delicious food and spent time chatting and enjoying the nice weather. Zahra was enjoying the company of Emma and was loving her Aunt Julie and Grammy Lanie time. She even had a conversation with Larry. I'm really glad to see my girls so happy to be with their family. Now we just need to get some of the Cuban side up here for some quality time.

Mama's Birthday

We celebrated Shannon's birthday this past Sunday the third as well. She really didn't turn 27 (oops, did I just type that?) until Monday the 4th but we went ahead an celebrated anyhow.

We invited some friends over and had a nice time. We made a fire out back and ate food and lots and lots of cake! It was a really chilly evening so we didn't hang outside too long. Zahra and I made sure Momma had a great birthday weekend. We made her some special food items like a whole chocolate cake and some chocolate chip pancakes. We bought her some gifts and sang her a song and spent lots of time telling her how much we love her. How's that for some birthday love?

The Pumpkin Patch

It was time to go to the Pumpkin Patch again! Hard to believe it's been a year since we were last at Hickory Nut Gap farms to go find a giant orange pumpkin. But there were on Saturday the 3rd walking around and exploring.

Zahra loves animals so much! She got a kick out of watching the farmer feed the calfs some fresh milk. She squealed with the piglets as they munched some of their favorite weeds and was beside herself with joy when she came upon a horse.

We did a little walking through the pumpkin patch and came away with a strangely tinted pumpkin of orange and green. We also bought some tasty treats fresh from the farm. It was a fun day to be in the mountains and at the farm!

Animal Fever!

Shannon and Z went to the WNC Nature Center this past week. We've been there before many times in the past and usually have a great time. But sometimes the animals are hiding and hard to see. This time, Shannon and Z found that feeding time is the right time to go to a zoo.

The animals were out and about and made for great specimens to photograph. Check out Zahra the Explorer and her animals friends.

It's Cold Again!

So much has happened since our last post.

Big News- Zahra is out of her crib and into her own big girl bed. On Wednesday, Shannon and I decided it was time for Z to try sleeping in a bed rather than a crib. She has been showing signs of wanting her own bed since she saw how fun it was to climb into her buddies' bed not so long ago. Z was also asking to get into her crib to play around so we thought it might be fun to give her the option to do so on her own. We converted the crib to a bed that evening (Ikea furniture rocks!) and it's been a grand success! Z loves getting into bed and sleeps just fine. Of course, Daddy has to lay down next to her on the floor but she is usually out in about 15 minutes or so and then I creep out. She did pick up a nice little shiner on her right eye as a result of a little tumble out of the bed while she was playing around Friday but that's life in the big bed world.

The temperatures have been dipping for a few days now and we are looking at 40's and even upper 30's in the days ahead. So we have already busted out the winter clothing stash. And of course with the Fall weather comes the pumpkin picking. We have a little one growing in the backyard but we may go hunting for bigger ones soon.

It's also Shannon's birthday on Monday so Z and I hatched a little plan to have some nice things for Momma. We baked her a cake today and bought her some pretty flowers and made dinner. We'll have a few more tricks up our sleeves as the weekend progresses.