September - Olivia Starts Kindergarten, Beer Sales in Somerset, Grammie's Hip Replacement, Red Hair (!) and Meredith's Wedding

The new school year began for us with Olivia' first day of kindergarten at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  I was a mess!  I thought I was so prepared, but I cried all morning.  Olivia was wonderful - she waltzed right into school like she owned the place and immediately loved it!  Figures.  It took me a while to get used to her going to "real" school versus preschool - she wears a uniform now, has homework every night, takes her lunch to school, dresses for P.E., and goes on field trips.  Ah, I remember the days!  Here are a few pictures of her on the first day!

Lilly had a difficult time with the transition.  Although this picture of her is all in fun, as she tries to keep Olivia from going to school, I think it is a good example of how much she misses her sister.  She can't wait to go to preschool next year - she is so lonely at home!

So excited for her first day!

A successful first day completed!

September also brought the first beer sales in Somerset!  I think hell just froze over!

We spent much of the month taking care of Grammie, who had a hip replacement...

Her mantle decorated with pictures drawn by her grandbabies.

Spending some quality time with the patient!

We also took time to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday!!  We love you Memaw and can only hope we live as wonderful a life as you!

Finally, I stepped outside my comfort zone this month and dyed my hair red!  I have been wanting to do this for years and finally got enough courage to do it - and I love it!  I love my blonde hair, always have, but I wanted to try something new for a while.  This is picture of me with my cousin, Abbey, who is a true "ginger."

My girls, all dressed up for my cousin, Meredith's wedding...

Debuting my red hair for the first time!

Love my hair, but miss how much I look like the girls with blonde hair.  The spring will roll around soon enough...

The Cranfill Clan at Meredith and Eric's Wedding!

August - Celebrating 10 Wonderful Years with My Husband, Spending Time with the Girls, Tucker Turns 1, and the CFF Seafood Splash

August was a BUSY month.  Very busy.  We started it by celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.  Our anniversary is actually on July 27th.  We didn't do anything special or exotic to commemorate it - we just had dinner with the girls at Saul Good.  This is what a 10 year wedding anniversary picture looks like:

I didn't even take a picture of me and Jeremy together.  Figures.

But we did celebrate our 10th by getting away, just the two of us, to a very romantic, relaxing and fun city - Savannah, Georgia.  It was beautiful and just the long weekend we needed.

We did a little sightseeing...

And celebrity watching (Forrest Gump!)

We checked out the Williams-Mercer House (remember?  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?)

We ate a LOT of good food, starting with some homecooking at Clary's (another Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil reference...)

To some more elegant cuisine at 17 Hundred 90 (its haunted!)

We had appetizers at our hotel, the 700 Drayton (very avant garde...)

And drank a LOT of wine at the Old Pink House...

It was wonderful!

Since I took the week off to celebrate our anniversary, but we could only afford a 4 day weekend in Savannah (its expensive), I decided to spend two days with each of my girls.  Here is Olivia on "Olivia Day with Mommy" at the Children's Museum and eating lunch at Sawyers....

Lilly decided she wanted to spend "Lilly Day with Mommy" dressing up as Batman, going to breakfast at iHop, and feeding the ducks at Joseph-Beth...

I think I wore her out :)

August was also an opportunity for us to celebrate my nephew, Tucker - he turned 1 year old!

Isn't this little chunky monkey so cute?!

Finally, we rounded out the month with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Seafood Splash and Spirit Bash.  This year they added a new fundraiser - the Lilly Drink!  For $20, you received a raffle ticket for this beautiful, custom designed necklace (pink, which is Lilly's favorite color!), all you can drink "Lilly" drink, and a custom painted glass.  It was a hit!

Guess who won the raffle?  I think it was rigged!

The beautiful chairwoman, Melissa, and I

Lilly's doctors - Dr. Kanga and Dr. Anstead.

I couldn't complain too much about the night - my "favorite" brother Randy gave me his winnings.  Not too shabby!

What a fun night for a great cause!  We love planning this event and love it even more when we see new faces and old friends join us every year and have a fabulous time!  The word on the street is that we raised more than $30,000 with this event - crossing my fingers we raised even more than that!