wow...

Saturday afternoon we got to spend some time with Elizabeth Wiggs and her mom Renee Shackleford. We had a super fun time...it was really cool getting to know Elizabeth and I always love seeing either Mr. or Mrs. Shackelford. I told Mike's mom once that I hope that Mike and I are like the Shacklefords "when we grow up." Elizabeth was soooo patient. We'd had a little bit of a rough day so we were late and frazzled and Miss Autumn was, um, not cooperative. You'd never guess it by looking at the pictures, though!

I swiped two of my favorites from Elizabeth's flickr stream (sorry!) and pretty much the all the rest of my favorites are posted on her blog: elizabethwiggsphotography.blogspot.com.

I love, love, love this one. We've been trying to get this facial expression on camera because it is so hysterical. I call this Autumn's Mike Face or her Grumpy Face. Mike calls it her Intense Look.


This one is so sweet.


Go look at the others! They are awesome!

Thank you so much Elizabeth!! Thank you Mama Lainey and Mrs. Renee for entertaining our little monkey in ways I wish I had on video. :)

Last of the Beach Pics

This past weekend Mike and Autumn went down to Tyler's first birthday party. I'm really sad I missed it but I attended the Gandhi King Conference on Peacemaking on Friday and Saturday. The nonprofit I work for (HEAL) was one of the sponsors. I've been to all the conferences I think since the beginning and this was definitely the best one. Anyway, I'm hoping to get some photos from Tyler's party but in the meantime, here's the last of the beach pics.

You can click on this photo to get to the whole album where there are a few extra pics. These are kind of the highlights. Autumn realllly wasn't impressed by the ocean on Friday. When we went down to the beach on Saturday, she fought her grandfather the whole way! It was sad and funny at the same time. It took her a while to realize no one was going to force her into the water, but she eventually chilled out and had some fun in the sand.

From October 2008

Busy babies at the sea.


This picture seriously cracks me up. I know this is Mike's genetic contribution: the ability to find any shady spot.


I absolutely love how this photo came out.


And, last for the photos that I'm posting, here's the three of us on Sunday before we left. :) We spent our sixth anniversary in the car. lol. We still haven't found a day to go to dinner but we will. ha.

Quick Post

Last Saturday morning, I took a bunch of pictures of Autumn snuggling Lauren's new kitten Bella. Bella was awesome and it was so sweet to see Autumn being gentle. The only thing I was afraid of was that Autumn might come home and try to do the same with Molly but no fear! Autumn didn't try anything crazy so I guess her boundaries with Molly are pretty well set. Ha! Anyway, so many of the photos were good or funny that I just uploaded them all and made a slideshow:-

Weekend at the Beach

Well, I know that everyone has been wondering what the Colleys are up to this weekend, right? Really, though, if anyone is wondering about our weekend it's probably a little more along the lines of, "I wonder what Autumn is up to this weekend?" I know how it is.

Well, wonder no longer:


We're at the beach! Mike's family invited us (Autumn, actually) to come along on fall break. It sounded a bit odd to go in October but the weather and water are really perfect.


This is Autumn's first time at the beach. I knew that she loves sand and hates the pool so I wasn't sure how all this was going to go down.


It went down sad. Ha! I have video of it for my mom and I'll probably post it here. In the photo above she's clinging to Mike like a monkey and whining. Here she is in a less panicky moment:


After we kept her in a water for a bit, Autumn spent the rest of our time at the beach playing with her Mama Lainey and Aunt Lindsay...


...while her cousin Tyler napped in the breeze with Aunt Lauren.


Mike and I threw a ball for a bit while he tried to convince me to actually swim and not wade (I don't much care for water, either) and then we wrapped up beach time with a walk. It was funny, any time the waves would get anywhere near her feet, Autumn would veer away whining. Poor kid!


More to come later!

Meow, Monkeh, Meow

Autumn's main form of communication these days is to meow with various inflections. ::sigh:: This isn't the cleanest video ever because I did it quickly and with a sliced open thumb (it was a bad morning T_T) but hopefully you will smile when you watch.

Ps, in the clips of us at the desk we are looking at the website stuffonmycat.com. And be sure to watch past the credits!

A Day in the Life of Autumn

I had a busy day Friday! I did a lot of exploring. I found out that there's a space under the bed!! And Molly likes to hide there! Mama also keeps her boxing gloves and stuff under there but I think she's going to have to move them because I like to drag them around.


I also played a bunch with Molly's scratching post. Did you know that it makes a really good hide and seek place?


We went outside and I got to stomp around on the golf course for a while. I love stomping on the grass.


I also like stomping on the golf cart path. Sometimes we have to move because people roll by. I like golf carts. The old men laugh because I say, "woooow" when they go by.


We ran a bunch of errands after I took a nap. Look! I have a big girl chair!


We went to the library. We also went to Target--do you like my new shoes?


Outside the library, there's a ramp that I like to walk up and down. Mama only let me walk about 12 times. I was sad when she made me get in the car and go home.


But there's fun stuff at home, too. I like to get mama's aikido and kali sticks. No matter where she puts them, I find them! Mama says it means I am going to be a martial artists but papa says it means I am a hiker.


While mama cooked, I played in the cabinets. I love cabinets.


Mama didn't take any more pictures after dinner because I fell asleep under papa's desk before 7:00. I was just so tired! So, here's a picture of me and papa from a year ago to wrap things up:

From October 2007

Bye-bye!

Do what I have to do, I guess

Mike thinks I'm crazy (what's new??) but I've been putting a winter hat on Autumn to feed her in the mornings. Hey, it makes sense! She's feeding herself her oatmeal and it can get a little messy. As part of breakfast, Autumn also gets fruit and a granola bar that she insists on dipping in my morning cuppa tea because she sees me do it sometimes...now that can get messy. She just forgets that she has hair or something, gets excited, and then smears oatmeal, fruit, and granola all in her hair. I got tired of keeping a fine toothed comb in the kitchen and combing the crud out of her hair before it dries there!