Hooray for Fall

First....let me just start this off by exclaiming how unbelievably excited I am that my mom is coming in 1 week!!!!!  I can hardly contain my excitement and am watching the calendar slowly tick the days off one by one.  

Okay...with that out of the way, I will move on.  :)  

Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely abhor summer and ADORE fall!!!!  And we are so lucky to live in a place where we truly get to experience fall in all of its glory!!!  Watch me eat my words some day but while we would love nothing more than to move back west at some point, I could NEVER move back to the Phoenix valley or to Southern California...where you have to travel a couple hours into the mountains to see and experience fall....or any other season for that matter!  Nope.  After living in "4 seasons" locations now for 10 years, I will have nothing else!  :)

Fall in Virginia is everything my desert imagination dreamed it could be.  The crispness in the air, the long shadows, the glorious colors on the trees, the smell of fires in the air...it is all out of some fall postcard!  And then there are the pumpkin patches!  Actual pumpkin patches!!!!  We found Carter Mountain Orchards outside of Charlottesville last year purely by accident and instantly fell in love with its apple picking, pumpkin patches, apple cider donughts (YUM!), and beautiful vistas.  As soon as I knew we would be having little Jeffery, I almost immediately began dreaming of our trip with him to the mountain!

Jeffery is unsure about this outing.

 As I am learning, our plans do not always coincide with Jeffery's plans....or his moods.  :)  He was not the happiest little pumpkin on our outing....though he was the cutest!!!  :)

The cutest little bumpkin in the pumpkin patch!  :)

However, Dave and I both strongly feel that he needs to learn to fit into our family.  We are active people...we love our day trips to battlefields and orchards and that isn't going to change.  Besides, the more he is out and about, the more comfortable he will be in different environments.  We know there will be days where he won't cooperate but we have decided that "the many moods of Jeffery" isn't going to stop us!  :)  The time of hibernating (right after he was born when it was so blasted hot and he was so little) at home is over!  It is time to explore!!  :)

Those undulating mounds in the background....that is what passes for "mountains" out here.    Good grief!  :)

 It was a beautiful day and a great start to my birthday weekend.  We are planning to take my mom there and maybe...depending on Jeffery's mood...venture out into the orchards and do some picking ourselves.  I am just crossing my fingers that they still have their apple cider donughts.  Those alone are worth the trip!!  :)

My birthday was a low-key day....exactly what I needed and wanted.  Dave made a fantastic dinner and got me the beautiful cake in the picture.  Jeffery laughed for the first time (twice!) and Dave gave me a gift certificate for an hour long aromatherapy massage at my favorite massage place.  BLISS!!!!!  :)

As I said, my mom is coming to visit next week.  Sadly, my dad is unable to make the trip and he will be missed but we are all SO excited that at least my mom is coming!!  Their birthday present to me was the cutest idea!!!  They sent me the coupon in the picture below for us to use while my mom is here!  I think it is just her attempt to get us out of the house and have the baby all to herself!  :)  Dave and I will certainly be redeeming this coupon as we haven't had a nice/fancy dinner out in a LONG, LONG time!!!  

I am so pleased my mom is coming because Jeffery is entering a REALLY fun stage right now. He is smiling and babbling almost non-stop when he is awake and he is starting to interact with his toys.  It is too cute to be missed!!!  I've said it before and I'll say it again....I am soooo thankful for Skype video chats.  Two days ago, Jeffery and I spent almost 40 minutes video chatting with my parents and he was responsive to their voices and talked and drooled (the kid is a professional!) and stared at them on the computer and smiled almost the entire time.  My mom is going to be here for 6 days and I think that I will have to double check her luggage when the time comes for her to go home to make sure she doesn't try to take Jeffery home with her!  :)

Starting to lift that head during tummy time!

Sixteen weeks has flown by so quickly.  He will turn 4 months while my mom is here (and yes....there will be cupcakes!).  I can't wait for the upcoming major holidays which will be his firsts and will be more special than any other holidays that have come before.  But for now....we will continue to revel in the glory that is autumn in Virginia!

Jeffery and his giraffe....chillin' in the swing!