November

November has been a busy month for the Seiters. We celebrated Daddy's 31st birthday at the beginning of the month.  Then towards the end of the month, we decided to take the plunge and get hardwoods in our first floor. The kids and I headed to Atlanta to get out of the construction zone and Matt was able to meet us for a couple of days. We then hosted thanksgiving for my parents and my sisters family. We sure had a full house but loved every minute of it!!! We are so thankful that our kids love their cousins as much as they do.

October

Where does the time go!  I can't believe we already halfway through the fall.  October has flown by! We spent some fun time with family this month.  We were in St. Louis for the UGA vs Mizzou game, and just for good time with family.  We had a great trip, and loved watching Hannah and Ethan interact with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandma and grandpa! We also had a fun couple of nights with the Goforth girls at our house in Huntersville.  They all play well so well together and it was super fun being with them!  Then towards the end of the month, we spent a day at SkyTop Apple Orchard with some friends.  Ethan LOVED eating apples, and Hannah had a great time picking them.  Then we finished our October with Halloween.  We had the cutest little pirate and her sidekick the parrot!

September

September was a bit of a whirlwind for us!  The biggest thing that happened was mid month, Matt and I went on a trip to San Francisco without the kids!  It was really our first time away except for a short business meeting when Hannah was about a year old.  The trip had two purposes, one to celebrate our 5th anniversary (a year late!) since Ethan was born just a few weeks before our real 5th anniversary.  And two, to visit Matt's sister Julie who moved out there last October.  We had a wonderful time!  We spent the first two days by ourselves in San Fran.  We walked a lot, rode trolley cars, and explored the city.  It was a very neat city that had "pockets" that reminded us of other cities we have spent time in.  Triple decker victorian homes reminded us of Boston, tall sky scrapers reminded us of NYC, but those hills and coast line were certainly unique to San Francisco.  We spent one morning at Alcatraz which was really cool.  It's pretty unbelievable that people actually lived there, and more amazing that there were staff houses and children that lived there while the prison was still functioning!  There were pieces of the island that were beautiful, but it really was the most primitive prison you could imagine.  The views of San Fran from the island were incredible.  We rode a tour bus around the city and saw the main sites, and then took little side trips to see the Painted Ladies (which are in the intro to Full House), Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, ate tacos in the Mission, and just enjoyed the city!  Then the third day, Julie picked us up for breakfast and then drove us over the Golden Gate Bridge to some beautiful overlooks and then up to Muir Woods to see the Redwood trees.  We had a fun day hiking and looking at the majesty of these beautiful trees!  From there we headed to Sonoma for 2 full days of wineries!  We had so much fun and enjoyed seeing the process of wine making, wine storing, grape growing, and learning the different flavors you get from valley grapes vs hillside grapes.  It really is fascinating and TOO complicated for me to remember!!!  We ate delicious food and sipped on delicious wine.  While we had a blast, when Sunday came around we were SOOOO ready to see our babies!!!  We took the red eye that night and arrived at home Monday morning just as Hannah was waking up.  We are so incredibly thankful for my parents and the care they took of Hannah and Ethan while we were gone.  They discovered new parks, new restaurants, took a trip to Asheville, visiting the children's museum, and just had fun!  Hannah and Grandaddy even went on a hike in Latta Plantation.

The rest of September was spent recovering from our trip and just enjoying our time together!