Packin' a Picnic

We went on a picnic with K's cousins the other day. I made the sandwiches that morning, and while I was feeding Boo I told K that she could pack the basket. I told her what to put in and where it all was. I got done and came into the kitchen to find the basket quite full.

The list included:

the sandwiches,

chips,

grapes,

strawberries,

bananas,

a whole box of CapriSuns,

chili/cheese dip,

leftover BBQ pork,

three cans of frozen lemonade,

and a Tupperware full of marinara sauce.

I had to explain why I was taking certain items out. She was okay with it but a little sad that I unpacked her carefully chosen basket of food.

Good thing we weren't going camping.

Terrific Three's

I keep reading a lot of things where people are talking about how it's not the "terrible twos" it's the "terrible threes". I must, respectfully, disagree. I am loving three! Three is SO much easier than two!

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In the past two months is seems like we have noticed that all our behavior training is finally paying off. We definitely (definitely!) still have our moments of misbehavior :) but for the most part our Bug is becoming quite the little lady. She has been getting really good about saying please, thank you, excuse me, etc. without prompting. Tantrums are nearly non-existent (although our definition of a tantrum is when she sits down, crosses her arms and pouts...she's never been a screamer, thank goodness). And if we do have a problem she is totally capable of listening to reason and an explanation and then changing her behavior.

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One of my favorite things is that I have taught her some phrases to say in place of other things I didn't like. For example. Instead of saying: "Stop it!" I've asked her to say, "Could you please not do that?" It's so funny when Daddy is tickling her and she is giggling uncontrollably and trying to say that. I also don't like "I know!" (in a disrespectful tone) so instead she says, "Yes! It is!" (in a nice tone:) and my favorite is one Grandma always says, "I don't care for that." in place of "yuck!" It is impossible to make her eat something when she looks at me so sweetly and says, "No thank you, Mommy. I don't care for that."

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She still has a very intense personality, and doesn't always make good choices, but the bad choices are getting fewer and farther between as she gets older. I know I am really strict with her, but I figure she is going to teach Boo, and any future siblings, more than I could ever teach them, just by her actions.

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She is so fun to be around. I love her logic. She comes up with the funniest things, and is always making us laugh. I love this little girl more than I ever thought possible.

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She looked so cute the other day, I couldn't help taking her outside to get some pictures.

Bug makes our world a happier place.

Love that smile.

I don't think I ever did a "favorites" list when Bug turned three, so here it is:

Favorite color: Red
Favorite food: Fruit (any kind!)

Favorite drink: "Lem-ma-made!"

Favorite toy: Koala - must have him at all times!

Favorite place: Noni's and Grandma's

Favorite movie: Boz ABC's

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Loves to:

be outside.

be barefoot.

get dirty!

work puzzles.

read books.

hear bible stories.

sing and make up songs.

hug and kiss her sister.

roughhouse with Daddy.

watch videos of herself.

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Doesn't like:

vegetables.

cleaning her room.

getting in trouble.

strangers.

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Is so sweet and loving with her family. She gives us the sweetest hugs and kisses all the time, and will spontaneously say, "I love you!" I know I'm biased :) but she really is a good little girl!

We are so thankful for three!

Six Months Old!

I cannot believe my little baby is 6 months old already! It has gone by WAY too fast! This morning I told K, "Your sister is 6 months old today!" and she responded with, "Wow! How did she get that big so fast?" My thoughts exactly. How did it go so quickly? I just want a pause button. I want to stay in this blissful state of babyhood for just a bit longer. I love this precious girl so much!

Even when she mocks me while I try to get a cute picture. :)

At six months Boo is:
Sitting up quite well.
Has two teeth.
Loves to "sing" and "talk".
Will sit and listen to us read several books at a time.
Loves her sister to pieces!
Eats 4 times a day (every 4 hours)
And takes 3 naps.
Goes to bed about 8:30 and wakes up around 7:30 or 8.
Plays quietly in her crib until we come to get her.
Is all smiles when we look at her.
Is not a huge fan of rice cereal.
Reaches up when she wants to be held.
Is grabbing EVERYTHING!
And has a really long reach...nothing is safe! :)
And whatever she gets goes straight in the mouth.
And is just SUCH a happy baby!

Oh, time...I wish you would just slow down so I can hold onto these moments a little longer!

We'll just have to do our best to enjoy every minute with our sweet 6 month old little girl!

Giggles

Boo started giggling so sweetly when I was changing her the other day that I had to get a video. Please excuse my silly baby talk, and the fact that I am really close to her face. No one was around so I had to do the tickling AND the videoing. :)

Movin' Dirt

I am SO excited about all the progress we made in the last five days! It seems like all summer we have been working hard and nothing visible was getting done...literally...we've been working on the sprinkler system so even though we've got a lot accomplished you can't actually see any progress. :)

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All that changed this week! My wonderful in-laws came out on Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning things started changing!

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We borrowed a small tractor from a friend to aid in the progress, and boy has it made a difference!

The thing I'm most excited about is my new garden! Most women like to get flowers or jewelry...I could not be more pleased with my five boxes of dirt! Aren't they beautiful?? Okay, okay, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my eye is beholding these and I'm in love. :)

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They are going to be SO nice to put vegetables in next spring. I won't have to be leaning over to weed, AND they are already filled with a mix of dirt, compost, and peat moss...every gardener's dream! Can you tell how excited I am? Oh, AND between each box is a strip of landscaping cloth, covered in several inches of gravel! Yippee!

Okay, back to the yard...this is what our front yard looked like just six days ago. Weedy, bumpy, hole-ey, yucky.

And this is what it looked like yesterday!

Here's Grandpa leveling the lawn in the tractor.

And the finished back yard. Isn't it pretty?

The side yard...smooth as a baby's bottom!

Yeah, I know that everyone else is probably just seeing a yard full of dirt, but these pictures make me so happy! We are finally making some progress, and we are SO much closer to a nice green lawn. I can hardly wait!

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Next step is concrete curbing. A contractor is supposed to be coming today to give us an estimate. I don't know why they can't just tell you how much per foot, but they have to drive ALL the way out here and then tell us. :P We're trying to figure out if it would be that much cheaper to do it ourselves (after we rented a machine and figured out how to use it) or if we should just hire someone and have it done a lot faster.

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I'll keep you posted on these riveting updates about our yard of dirt. I'm sure you are all just chomping at the bit to hear about it. :)

"Yard Work"

Most people's yard work involves mowing the lawn, clipping or pruning, maybe planting a flower or two. Our definition of yard work is a little different. :)

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I forgot about these pictures I took a few weeks ago and our yard looks SO different after the last four days that I figured I'd better get them up to show a better before and after.

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Bug loves all this diggin' in the dirt. She's probably going to be sad when we finally do get an actual lawn. :)

Big piles of dirt are WAY better than soft, green grass...

...at least when you are three. :)

Oh so fun!

So this was our yard just a few short weeks ago. It seems like we've been working on it every spare second. T comes home, we eat dinner, then we go work outside. I've got the blisters to prove it. :P

Stay tuned for all the new developments! I'll be posting pictures at the end of the weekend.

Goodbye Aunt Karen Hello Rice Cereal

Aunt Karen and Noni are currently on a plane. We took them to the airport this morning. :( We were SO sad to see Aunt Karen go after having had a wonderful three weeks with her. I wished I could have just tied her up and made her stay here. :) The girls enjoyed her so much.

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We took middle name pictures yesterday. Four generations with the same middle name!

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Noni and Bug are a little behind in the naming. Although if we went to Texas we could get a bigger group of family together with their middle name. :)

Boo and Aunt Karen really hit it off. Maybe Boo knew she was a namesake. :) They are sure going miss each other!

I wanted Aunt Karen to be here for one of Boo's big "firsts" so we bumped up the "first food" by a week. I know most people give their babies food early on, but I've been waiting till the last minute since Bug's weight-gain problems all started when we introduced solids. I'm hoping that Boo's will transition will be easier. Here's a little video of the first bite. :)

Daddy got her started and then big sister wanted to give it a try. I think I'm going to have to train Bug to feed Boo! It will save me lots of time to let her do it. :)

Not exactly thrilled with the first tastes. :)

I love her expression here. She looks like she's thinking, "What the crud are they putting in my mouth??"

"Okay, maybe it's not so bad."

"Then again..."

"Aww, I'm just teasin'. It was pretty good."

The next morning she was a little more interested in it.

Or maybe it was just b/c Auntie Karen was feeding her. :)

Have fun in Texas Noni! We'll see you soon!

We'll miss you SO very much Aunt Karen! Come back to us soon!

P.S. Can anyone tell me why all my outdoor photos have a bluish tint to them? These have even been edited with the "warmify" button and the rice cereal ones turned out very blue. I'm not sure if it's a setting or what. Any ideas?

Slippin' and Slidin'

Noni and Papa surprised Bug with a slip and slide at their house! She, of course, was thrilled! She wanted to change into her swimsuit and try it out right away. You can see the excitement on her face. :)

The water was freezing since it was coming straight out of the hose which comes straight out of their well. She didn't want to go down until Papa kinked the hose so it wouldn't squirt her.

Ready, set, go!

Here's a little video of Daddy giving her a little help.

For a kid, it just doesn't get much better than a sprinkler on a hot summer day!

Wordless Wednesday

Class of 2000

So I have a TON of pictures in this post. My good friend printed out a whole bunch of her pictures from high school and then scanned them into the computer and I had SO much fun looking at them that I couldn't just choose a few. :) Here is our whole class on our Senior retreat.
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As I mentioned yesterday, we had a graduating class of only 20 so we were all really close. We were also known as the "bad class" so I think we were even closer than we would have been since we felt like we had to stick together. :)

Here's T and I in math class! I'm not sure sure what year this was...I'm guessing Junior year? He'd been going to this school since 2nd grade. I came in 8th grade and by the end of the year we unofficially dating. I say unofficially b/c even though we were labeled a couple he didn't actually ask me to "go out" until the spring of our Freshman year. :)

This is on a choir tour. I think it was Senior year.

I've always liked this picture. I'm at the top left.

And this has always been one of my favorites. This was such an awesome bunch of people to grow up with.

I don't even remember this picture. We look like we are studying in the hall?

There's T, second from the left. He looks so young!

This was at a birthday party that two of the girls had. Their parents rented out a grange hall and we learned how to swing dance! These three girls and I were the Senior cheerleaders. Blue and White! Fight, fight, fight! :)

And another one of my favorites...taken at a fall retreat...I always thought T looked so cute in it. :)

Totally don't remember this one. I think it's from our Senior trip.

And a group photo from that trip. We had such a great time. My mom and T's mom chaperoned this trip along with some of the other parents and one teacher. My mom planned the whole thing. We went to a professional baseball game, a play, and a bunch of other fun things. Great memories!

And here we are ten years later!

Me and one of my best friends.

We had over half of our class come, which I thought was pretty good considering about half now live in different states. The couple on the left is getting married on Saturday and the other couple sitting down are due with their first baby on Saturday!

My other best friends...it's so fun that I still see these girls on a regular basis and now we are watching our own kiddos grow up together!

Some of the guys and T. He's holding one of our friends' little girls. She thought that the bandanna meant this guy was a pirate so she was a little unsure about him. Haha :)

Laughing about old times. :)

Catching up.

We rented a pavillion in park by the lake. It was such a gorgeous day and we didn't know it was going to be there, but there was a concert in the park not more than 100 yards away from us! It was Big Band and quite the production! Tons of people came and were sitting on blankets and chairs. It was a great atmosphere.
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T manning the BBQ.

I brought my yearbooks and it was so funny to look back at all those pictures.

It was also really fun to hear about what everyone has been up to since we graduated.

And especially great to see all our little ones playing together. The next generation!

Here we are...ten years older...growing families...different lives. I can't wait to see what we look like in another ten years! :)