December

The holiday season always seems to go by so fast!!  This year was no exception.  It was a December of mixed emotions.  At the beginning of November, Matt's mom went into hospice care, as treatment was no longer effective for her ovarian cancer.  She held on through the holidays and went to be with her Lord and Savior on December 28th.  We are thankful that we arrived on Christmas Day and were able to spend a few days with her, and we are thankful that her suffering is over.  She was a strong woman of faith and I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law.  She was so loving and treated me as one of her own from the beginning.  She was an amazing Grandma and I will always cherish the memories of her interacting with Hannah and Ethan.  Though their memories will be few, I'm thankful for the technology we have today and the many pictures we can share with them over the years.  She certainly has left a legacy of faithfulness, laughter, fun, and delicious recipes!  Though the sting of death is real and hard, the hope we have in the resurrection of Jesus has comforted us all, knowing that one day we will be together again!

We did have some fun times over the month of December and the kids continue to provide us so much joy!  We spent a day in Asheville at the Biltmore House and then church and dinner with my sister's family.  Hannah performed as an angel at the Christmas Pageant at church.  We spent a weekend at my parents for the Branen family Christmas, and while in the Atlanta area were able to see our dear friend's the Frey's and meet sweet baby Owen!  Then my parents came up for Christmas Eve, and we left for St. Louis on Christmas Day. Though our time in St. Louis was bittersweet, we shared some wonderful memories with family.  Hannah and Ethan absolutely adore their cousins, and it was a joy watching them all interact together.  We also had wonderful time with all of Matt's siblings and his dad. It was a time of reflecting on the wonderful life their mom had and enjoying everyone who was dear to her.

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!