A blessed day

Today is a special Sunday. Our schedules - and likely the stars- aligned and my good friends, Berne with her daughter Graysen, Heather and belly, and Lauren and Gus and me headed out for a beautiful hike in our beloved Pisgah Forest, which is always breathtakingly beautiful in every light and season..we shared good laughs and dispensed some last-days motherly advise to Heather, who, fit as she is, is still hiking - just five days from her due date... I loved every minute of our outing. A special day spent with special women, whom I adore and am blessed to call my friends

...Gus was a picture-perfect little boy, and I'm not just talking about posing for this cute picture in the loopy tree trunk. He napped through the entire hike. Our Ergo carrier rocks!

Make some dough...

Yesterday I decided to "nudge" my sluggish Holiday spirit into gear by forced labor...making batches of cookie dough for our Thanksgiving celebration in Alabama and by listening to an all-Holiday-all-crooner radio station. Gus and I rocked out to the sound of the whirring Kitchen Aid and Bing Crosby all afternoon. Gus discovered how delicious cookie dough is and I reflected backward and forward on the Holidays and what they mean, have meant, and will mean to me...I'm grateful for all of it - this life, it's purpose and the meaning I take from it.

Happy Birthday, Groma!

Alles liebi und gueti zum Geburtstag, Groma! Mir liebet Dich! Und mir freued eus uf eueren Besuch. Mis Mami bached dir denn en Geburtstags Kueche...

Viel Spass und Erholig in Marokko!

Like Father, like son

Whenever someone tells me that my child is cute, I want to say "you should see my husband...he is the really cute one." Yup, I'm blessed with two good-looking guys...

More leaf-ing

I tried to pose Gus lying down in the pile of fall foliage...he would have none of it...

Turning a new leaf (or two-thousand)

I didn't count them, but Gus had an awfully good time scattering them, after I had raked them last week....
All that scattering made him tight in the back...so he did an impromptu yoga session in the driveway for some relief


More scattering, more rest - he knows how to pace himself. Fall is Fun!

Pulli-wunderbar!

Lueg Groma! Ich han min neue Pulli ah. Er gaht mir guet und ich fuele mich sehr wohl und stylish drin.
Danke vielmal fuer's lisme. Ich freue mich uf eueren Besuch. Ich bin fliessig am Swizerduetsch lerne.
(Translation for my non-Swiss-German family and friends: This is Gus saying thank you to his Groma for the hand-knit sweater he is sporting. We're looking forward to their visit and polishing our Swiss-German along the way)

Candy Camera

Voila! Gus' second Halloween (last year he was either black-and-white roadkill, a cow, or a dalmatian, depending on whom you ask). He was a hit trick-or-treating as a train engineer (Lokifuehrer in Swiss-German) and got us enough candy to last through the winter.

Of course having Barney Fife and a smiling prisoner along didn't hurt. We so enjoyed the visit with Granna and Pap.