Fall changes

I love fall. To me it symbolizes change. The leaves are changing color and falling off of the trees, the kids are back in school and endless nights of lessons begin. I love the smell of the crisp fall mornings and the smell of the fall air in the evenings. I love to see the colorful array of leaves spread all over the grass. The girls and I have a fall tradition where we go for a walk one day and collect a whole bunch of leaves and pine cones and different things that remind us of this time of year and we make a wreath out of it to hang on our door. I started doing this with the girlies when Abby and Anne were 1 and 2 and for some reason it has lived on.
Things seem to change so much in the fall. For instance, Abby's feet grew 3 sizes and now I have to get her completely new shoes (oh well another reason to go shopping can't be all that bad). Anne is now reading and writing better than I ever could at that age. Caroline can now speak in complete sentences and almost everyone can understand her most of the time. Dustin . . . well. . . I would love to say that he has grown and changed, but honestly he is the same size as he has been all year and he is just as much trouble. And Lee . . . well. . . . he is twice the size that he was at the beginning of summer. He is only 6 months old and he fits 18 month clothes. . . HE IS HUGE! I think that this is also Kiera's (my cat) favorite time of year because this is when the mice try to sneak into my house. . . . they don't survive long once they cross the threshold of my door because Kiera is on them like . . . well . . . a cat on a mouse! She is awesome and I LOVE having her. . . especially at this time of year!!! And Zeke (my dog) . . . well . . . I know that he would love the fall more if his buddy Max (Jason's dog) could come over more often and play. It's funny, but even though Zeke is surrounded by people all day long, he is never as happy as when Maximus is over. Those two are great little friends!!!
So, while I sit here and reminisce about one of my 3 favorite seasons (yes, I don't like winter at all!!! The only thing good about it is that Christmas is in the winter, but I will save that for another post), my dryer is beeping, Lee is starting to cry, and I just had to get up to answer the door. . . . oh well, I guess that there are some things that never change!