Autumn Leaves

We've been having so much fun in the back yard with all the leaves falling. Who says Fresno doesn't have seasons? And if you're like me, and you don't want to rake leaves all day, all you gotta do is lay a rake out in the yard and invite some kids over. The leaves will be raked. Trust me. Haylie raked. My friend Stefanie's son Evan raked. My friend Erin's daughter Elora raked. And I didn't even have to ask - they just did it! So how do I get them to come in and vacuum for me? hehe...





I sat Anna in the leaf pile and she didn't quite know what to do with herself...


She kept her feet and hands up like that the whole time



Cute cute cute

As always, go see more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/kmetler/November2008

Twilight's coming tonight tonight....

I've been having a bad month...or two...this movie is the light at the end of my tunnel. I know, a little pathetic. But I'm SOOOOO EXCITED!

It only took me a year to finish!

I started this Fall quilt last Fall...then got distracted...then found it again this summer. It's finally done and it's still Fall! Hooray! Now I can display it in my living room before it's time to put it away and bring out my Christmas quilt. My goal is to eventually have a quilt for every season/holiday. At the rate I'm going...well, it'll be a while before that goal is met - so far I only have Christmas and Fall...


Click the pictures to make them bigger so you can see the beautiful leaf-pattern quilting my mom did

She's Hiding Things From Me...

Let me start off by saying that the last couple of weeks have been really good - Anna cut her other front tooth without losing any sleep! Haylie has been relatively well behaved and has been going potty like a big girl. Until...

Yesterday, I saw Haylie go into the bathroom. When she came out she had no panties on. I asked her where her panties were and she said, "Under my bed." I said, "Why are they under your bed?" She replied, "So you can't see them." Sure enough, there they were under her bed with a little skid mark in them. If I wasn't so angry I would have thought it was funny that she hid them, but didn't hesitate to tell me where they were - what was the point??

I just don't know what to do anymore. I even asked the pediatrician about it. He said that there must have been a time that she went poop and it hurt her - so now every time she has to go, she remembers how it hurt and it scares her. So when it starts to come, she holds it back. So a bit gets on her panties then she won't go on the toilet. Then eventually she can't hold it anymore, she goes on the toilet and we cheer and praise and love and kiss and give treats. WHY ISN'T THAT WORKING? WHY CAN'T SHE JUST DO IT? I AM SO SICK OF THIS!

My 100th Blog Post!

In honor of my 100th blog post, I am gonna' make it a doozie. I have fallen a little behind in posting pictures because I've been a little bitter for the last few weeks. Anna has been sleeping through the night again for about a week or so, and I am JUST starting to feel like I've caught up on my sleep. I got to the point where I was barely functioning day to day. Anyway, I have a lot to catch up on so here goes:



This is our family trip to the pumpkin patch - it was really hot that day - there's something wrong about picking out pumpkins in the heat. I'm really starting to love the Fall. I love the colors, and although I don't have a lot of Fall decorations, I am starting to enjoy decorating for the season - and I also love the smells of the season.



Haylie got to go on a field trip with her cousin Tyler's preschool class (Anna and I got to go too)



ANOTHER pumpkin for the porch



Here's Haylie standing with the preschool class. I tell you - she fit right in - she was following instructions and not being shy at all.



They had a little "storytime" at the beginning and here's Haylie sitting with the class. I couldn't believe how well she fit in with those kids who were, for the most part, about a year older than she is. I can't wait to get her into preschool next year - and neither can she! She is always sad when her older friends go to school and she can't go.


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We traveled down to Fallbrook last weekend for my dad's retirement party. 35 years with the fire department! Congratulations Dad! This is a quilt my mom made for him out of his old work t-shirts. Pretty cool, huh?



My brother Jeff and his family were at the party too and he is a falconer. Ever heard of it? Well, he is licensed to keep some wild birds like red-tailed hawks, etc. Here Eric is holding my brother's hawk, Bullet. He was such a beautiful bird. And so tame. My brother had to trap him from the wild and he has only had him about 3 weeks - we could even pet the bird's head and he didn't ever get frazzled by us.



I know I'm a big dork who is moderately obsessed with animals, but I LOVED holding this bird. It was a little intimidating staring him in the eyes at such a close proximity - but soooo cool!



Haylie got to see bunches of cousins. Here she is with her cousin Shea wearing firehats in honor of Grandpa Garry. What you can't see is that they were also wearing Grandma Jo's shoes!


MacGyver strikes again. Eric figured out a way to mount our latptop to the back of the driver's seat of the car so that Haylie could watch movies on the trip. Notice the headphones? That is so she could watch whatever she wanted and WE didn't have to hear it! Eric listened to talk radio and I listened to my iPod. It was quite the setup, I must admit.

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had our trunk-or-treat last night at the church. Here's our buggy little family. I was so upset that there was no costume contest because I gotta say - Eric the beekeeper and Anna the bee were the cutest ones there. They would have taken the gold for sure. I found the bee costume for Anna and loved it - then at 4 a.m. one morning while she was screaming I had the idea for Eric to be the beekeeper. We found the jumpsuit at Sherwin Williams - it is actually a painting coverall - and I fashioned the hat out of a Musketeer hat, some fabric, and some tulle.


Haylie would have been a close second in her ladybug costume. My friend sent me a picture of a ladybug costume several months ago and I thought it was so cute - so I recreated it and made this sucker from scratch! *Patting myself on the back* I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Make sure you go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kmetler/October2008 to see more pictures!

Tag, I'm it...

This is an easy tag that didn't require me to answer 5,000 questions or show you pictures of my dirty kitchen. I like it. I was told to go into my picture file, pick the 4th file, then the 4th picture.

This was taken in April 2006 and is a picture of Haylie's very first ride in her forward-facing carseat. We are in my mom's car because my parents came up for her birthday. She only weighed 17 pounds when she turned one, so technically she should not have been facing forward yet, but I was still driving my 2 door Civic and could not wait any longer to have her turned around! Where has the time gone?



I tag...Kelly, Stefanie, and Jennifer W

The Big Three-Oh

Eric turned 30 today! Happy Birthday honey! We went out to dinner last night and had a quiet little party here tonight. Haylie has been so excited for Daddy's birthday - and couldn't wait for cake! Here's a picture of my boring cake...I had visions of so much more - but in my sleep-deprived state, I totally forgot to get the stuff at the store that I needed, so it will have to wait for another time...


I tried to make a 30 - can you tell?