7 months (oops, never posted this...)

*I just went to post a new blog about our little girl being 8 months, and here this 7 month blog sat in list to edit - unposted. Whoops.

A lot has happened in the Hartman house these last few weeks. We have a mover on our hands. Her name is Josephine and she is FAST. And since she feels the need to eat, bite, lick everything she gets her hands on - we're on watch constantly. Which is not a problem. We enjoy playing on the floor with her, and watch her little body move all over the house. I've learned that if I set myself up in a certain spot on the floor, I can keep her in the living room. She's so sweet...she'll come over, play with and climb on mommy - then venture off to her toys and play. Then repeat. Not only is she crawling, she's pulling herself up to standing. There is so much joy in her face when she accomplishes this... She'll be walking before we know it. It is freaking Neil out. He basically refuses to allow her to grow up. And admitted yesterday that he'll be crying, along with me, when we send her off to school. I get choked up just thinking about it. Um. She's only 7 months old, and these are things we're already thinking about. It's sick really.

Some pictures:

*8 month blog coming up soon....

Harry Potter Corn Maze...

...Neil had been talking about this corn maze he heard about for weeks, that's in Edinboro, and we decided that we'd go....as long as it was during the day.
(Okay, let's be honest - I don't like this time of year. Well, I love the Fall weather, leaves changing, pumpkin patches, the smell in the air....what I don't like? Halloween. Scary movies. Anything creepy.)
Anyways. We went. During the day. We did find out hours before we left that it was Harry Potter themed. We almost didn't go. We both don't care for Harry Potter. But since the weather was absolutely beautiful outside, how could we not go? It turned out to be extremely fun! There were 16 mailboxes hidden in there, inside were stickers w/the characters' name on them - and the goal was to collect all 16. Neil's mom Cindy had gone the day before, and found 8. So, we set a goal to at least find 9. Sooo we're competitive...don't judge. We hunted and conquered and ended up finding all 16! Josephine just hung out in the bjorn, and even though she didn't say it - she seemed to have had a good time :)

The entrance (and exit).....and inside the maze...

Finding a mailbox.....falling behind for a photo....

Pretty trees....second-to-the-last mailbox we found....

As you can see in the above left photo, Neil took over wearing the bjorn...
She fell asleep...

Precious.
An aerial view of the maze:

Can you see it?

Munchkin had a bath later that night:

Love her.

Brooke

Brooke came to visit!!!!!!!!!
First, let's discuss the day of pick up. Autumn came w/me to Cleveland and we literally spent ALL day shopping. All. Day. We ate at Cheesecake Factory, which turned out to be a mistake. We ate way too much and spent way too much. It was a good time in the end - of course. I love time spent with Autumn. :)
Well. Brooke ended up missing her flight - not her fault...some sort of mix up w/the terminal... anyways, she didn't get in until 9:30pm. Autumn & I got to the airport about an hour early. Why? Um, because we were exhausted from shopping and we really couldn't spend one more dollar... and we people watched at the airport - that's always fun. There are the strangest people at airports.
Brooke shows up! Yay! We get her bags, get to the car and make our way to Melt. Melt. Yummy Melt. The kitchen closed at 11pm, and we got there at 10:30. So we rushed to place our order. Since the bar didn't close 'til 2am, we were able to just hang out & eat & catch up. Such a good time.
The rest of the weekend was so much fun! Brooke got to meet Josephine, and spend time with her. We had girls night Friday night over at Autumn's. Even though there were some last minute no-shows, it was a great night all around. Girl talk, coffee, snacks. I meant to take pictures of this night, but all I got were pictures of the decorations (photos below). Nice, right?
What wasn't fun? The rain. The non-stop rain. Brooke loved it, but I was getting extremely frustrated. It was perfect Fall weather before she came, and then the day of her arrival - up until she left Monday - cloudy skies & rain. Annoying.
Sunday we headed north, crossed the border to the Canadian side of the Falls. Regardless of the gloom, we had such a great time. Brooke was cold. I, surprisingly, was not.
Pictures from the weekend w/Brooke:

The decor from the Fall party:

Just parked, and we eventually rode this ferris wheel:

Walking to the Falls:

The Falls: