Sweet Home Alabama

I have a great hubby.  Plain and simple.  He picked up on the fact that I miss Alabama and it had been way to long since we last visited.  So for my birthday last weekend he planned a trip down!

First things first though, we needed a birthday cake!  I made my favorite chocolate cake and he decorated it:)  I was actually just going to frost it all one color (because colored frosting is more fun than white), but when he got home from work and saw my little box of cake decorating supplies, he was inspired! 

And I admit, once I saw him decorating, I thought it sounded fun too.  So I did the green and he did the rest:)

We headed south on Thursday, which was my actual birthday, and since we crossed time zones, I got to celebrate for 25 hours instead of 24!

Friday we spent some time at the preschool, doing a small baking activity and hanging out with some pretty cute kiddos.

I also got to introduce Summer to Devin.  He's in 7th grade now.  I'm just not sure how that happened!  Whatever happened to my crazy, scrawny, white haired preschooler?  He was pretty sweet with her though.  We took him out to lunch and later walked around a pet store to kill some time.  He carried her seat around and talked to her all about the different fish.  Then later when we were taking him home he sat right by her and held her hand while she fell asleep.

She was ready to eat some Mexican food!

The rest of the weekend was spent just spending some good quality time with everyone down there.  Games, fellowship, good food, and cute kids.

Oh, and this was taken soon after she rolled from back to tummy for the first time!

Thanks for such a great birthday, honey.  You're the best!

3 Months!!

Oh me oh my.  Our little punkin' is three months old!  The first couple months didn't seem to go very fast just because she was so fussy.  But now that she's getting better, it's way more fun, it's going a lot faster, and it's feeling hard to believe that three months has come and gone.

Right now she loves her playmat and her swing.  I can lay her on her mat for an hour sometimes before she starts to fuss.  She's almost always super happy and smiley in the mornings.  She doesn't roll over yet, but she rolls onto her side and kind of rolls around on her back.  Enough so that a lot of times she does a 180 in her crib each night.  She's still not a huge fan of tummy time.  She'll do it, and she's not bad at it, but she gets tired pretty quick from it.  She's becoming quite the little babbler!  Talking to the reflection in the mirror on her playmat is a favorite hobby.  So is going outside.  She looooves to be outside.  Sometimes when the evening fussies hit, that's the best solution is to go outside for a walk or something.  

Sleeping through the night has yet to happen.  I tell her a lot of times when I put her to bed that she should sleep for a really long time, all night long.  But she never obeys!  Occasionally she'll do a 7 hour stretch.  Once she did 8 after a particularly busy day with not enough naps.  5 or 6 hours isn't too uncommon, but then again, neither is waking up 4 or 5 times in need of a paci.  She's very inconsistent with her sleep.  I'm looking very forward to the day when she does 10 hours at a time!

I took the picture above a day after her three month mark.  Below is the reality of the actual day:)

And just because I think this picture is really cute...

An Unplanned Reunion

Last weekend I went to IL because I had some family coming in from out of town.  Danny had a lot going on with work and a cousin getting baptized so he stayed home.  What started out as an aunt and uncle from Phoenix coming for a visit ended up being family and friends representing six different states and two countries!  I don't think anyone could have planned it better if they tried.  My mom's side of the family is fairly spread out and that many people being together just doesn't happen anymore.  It was such a special evening!

We had a delicious garbage can supper!

There's never been this many second cousins on that side together before!

The newest babies in the next generation- born in May, June, and July.

We even had special guests from Lithuania!  These two came to the states with a program to earn money for school a couple summers ago and ended up living with people in Roanoke while they were here.  He stayed with my aunt and uncle and she stayed right next door with my uncle's parents.  That summer was the beginning of them falling in love and this summer they got married.  And took their honeymoon to Roanoke!!  It's just that great of a place;)

While I was there I got to transport some pretty fun girls:)

I also just happened to be there for a dear friend's going away party before she moves to Haiti.  It was a great night being with a lot of my old friends that I miss so much.  Good thing I had Danny to come home to or I might have just stayed!

It was a busy weekend, but refreshing to be with everyone again.  But it was good to come back too.

The Lakes

My second year at the lakes has come and gone and it was a dandy of a week!

Lots of boating

Let it be known that I SKIED.  Trust me.  It's a big deal.

Cute kiddos

Crazy kiddos

Getting better at tummy time!

Mini golf

Family picture- I think it's the first one we've taken where I'm not in a hospital gown!

Experiment- what happens when we don't comb her hair after bath time?

Result- hair must be combed down when wet!  No amount of brushing or combing will keep it down if hair is dry.

Corn. And More Corn.

When I as younger I dreaded corn day each year.  The thought of being woke up earlier than normal so that I could help shuck wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow load of corn just did not bring joy to my soul.  As I got older I started finding ways to get out of corn day.  Typically, I was conveniently working during such a time.  But I must be an official grown up now because I decided on my own accord that I wanted to once again participate in corn day.  There's a strong possibility that it's because it gave me an excuse to see my family but we'll just pretend that it's because I'm really mature and stuff.

So last weekend my parents and grandma came out to visit and confirmed that corn day was to be that Wednesday.  So I rode back with them to spend a couple days in IL before Danny came out to join me.  It was a great time!

Summer got to spend lots of time with her IL cousins.

And I got to see my cousins too!  I rode along with Angie for her weekly grocery shopping excursion which we decided required a stop for ice cream at Uncle Bob's.  Which is some of the best ice cream ever!

My trip also included a pool party at my aunt's house with more family.  It had been planned for quite awhile and I had high hopes that corn day would coincide with it because I really really wanted to go.  So I was a little bit thrilled when it did!

Then came the once dreaded corn day.  We shucked and we shucked and we shucked and we shucked.  And then we shucked a little more.  Oh that pile there?  That's about half of what we did.

Even Summer helped out!

She got her ear of corn shucked in record time.  And made friends with the fly who took up residence on her forehead.  

Raising up another generation of kids getting sucked into corn day.  They're not old enough yet to know that it's not really that fun!  Well, maybe it's a little bit fun since you have everyone working together.  Haley did a great job helping fill freezer boxes.  And Laney had the very important job of stacking them in stacks of five.  She took it very seriously:)

We left around 4:00 when the party was still going strong, but we didn't want to get home too late.  About the time we got home (4 1/2 hours later), we got word that they were finally finishing up and that they had done 292 pints of corn.

That, my friends, is A LOT. OF. CORN.  And the reason behind my corn day dread as a child.

But now we have some deliciousness stocked up in our freezer for the next year so I shan't complain!

And the day after we got home we officially hit two months!  I love this girl:)

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Pretty much my whole life I've wanted to go to a baseball game.  I've just never gone.  But last weekend we went out on a date for the first time since Summer was born and we decided to go to a Tincaps game.  Except for that one night it was the Ft. Wayne Octane.  Apparently they have theme nights and that night's theme was "What Could Have Been".  The Octane was the second place choice when the Tincaps were named.  I guess the gas pump was invented in Ft. Wayne or something.  But I thought the uniforms were cooler than the Tincaps uniforms!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun.  Oh, but the girl sitting behind me in the gray and white shirt?  She talked the ENTIRE time!  I can tell you all about her pregnancy, the summer camp she helps with, her insurance, her job...  I really don't think saying she talked the entire time is an exaggeration.  The friend she was with looked a little worn out and bored from all that listening!

While I was walking around trying to decide on what to have for supper (I decided on the classic hot dog and nachos), I was halfway listening to the announcer over the loud speaker.  I heard something that caught my attention while he was naming the starting lineup.  So I looked it up when I got back to my seat and confirmed what I thought I heard.  Turns out the second baseman is from Magdalena!  So we rooted for him the whole game and he ended up being the last batter and pretty much won the game:)  Good job, Luis!

So, like I said before- I had never been to a baseball game before.  So when everyone in the stadium stood up at the same time at one point, I was a little confused.  Turns out that the seventh inning stretch is a literal time to stretch!  Who knew?!?!  Yeah, not this girl!  I always thought it was just talking about a stretch of time during the game:)  We got a good laugh out of that one!

Oh, and just cause I think she's so cute.  I have to put a picture in!  She gets a little mesmerized by the stars on her swing.  I think it's hilarious watching her gaze at them:)

Green Thumbs Have We Not

Oh, our landscaping.  It's a little bit of a nightmare!  You maybe can't see it too well, but we have weeds in our little flower bed that are almost as tall as me!  It's a jungle out there!

But at least we're doing our part in keeping the rabbits of Willowbrook well fed!

And the hydrangea looks great:)

When we bought our house I was all excited because there was a little garden.  But the people who lived here before left it all overgrown and had the dirt filled with sea shells and corks from wine bottles.  (Still haven't figured that one out.)  So by the time I got it somewhat cleaned up, I had lost all motivation to plant anything.  But Danny loves garden tomatoes so I promised him that this year I would at least have a tomato plant.  Want to know what the garden looks like this year?  

Pretty awful.

But I still want a garden!  If anyone loves to garden and wants to help me get started next year, I would take you up on it!  The only requirement is that you are able to teach me on about a first grade level.  And have lots of patience:)

But anyway- a promise is a promise and I was determined not to break it!  So I did the next best thing I could think of and tried the whole "garden in a pot on your patio" thing.  We're not sure if it's the amount of rain, not enough sun, old potting soil in the pots, not enough room to grow in the pots, or a combination of all of the above, but the success has been minimal.  Not a complete failure though!

It's no bumper crop, but we have a few cherry tomatoes that Danny claims are delicious!  We also have a big sandwich tomato plant that looks like it might produce one or two tomatoes:)

And if you remember, we had most of the landscaping around the house chopped down last year since it was about 20 years overgrown.  Time to just start over!

So now this year, we've taken the next step and gotten all the stumps ground out.  We now are proudly displaying random piles of dirt and mulch all around our yard.  I'm sure our neighbors are so impressed!

Oh, and we have met and exceeded one month!  We're actually closer to two now.  We just love our little peanut:)