Gardening

Helping Daddy water Mommy's new flowers:


Look! A bug: (3rd praying mantis we've found in the last week in our front yard... Kansas never ceases to amaze me... things actually grow out here)


I got it: (Daddy helped)


See - it's in the cup:


AAAHHH, ATTACK BUG... It's out of the cup! It's out of the cup!


Stan says that Alex recovered well and, in the end, was actually quite proud of the bug for escaping!

*No bugs were harmed in the making of this post.

More Please

Stan sent me a text message this morning:

Alex used a whole sentence. I prompted him to ask please... so he said "more animal cookies please daddy" he added the more and the daddy to his first request.

(and the please)

Of course he got animal cookies. How could I say no?

Cool Dude

Family Fun on the Fourth

We went to Deanna Rose on the 4th of July with some of my cousins who were visiting from out of town.

I got to milk a "cow" (Cousin Scott helped).


There were neat pedal tractors - I tried them all.


I pretended to be a cowboy riding the range.


I almost picked a bison's nose too.


And there were goats just the right size for riding, but Mommy wouldn't let me.


So I just pet them instead.


The kid's garden was fun. We took silly pictures. Do you think I make a good caterpillar?


We counted on stepping stones too.


These are my cousins, Lanie and Jake. We had so much fun playing together this weekend!

It was lots of fun. And then I had a nap.

Fly by

Ok, so life has been more than just a little crazy for all of us... but here's a quick update:

Alex is trying to count to 10. It goes something like this:
two...two...tree...four...five...six...seben...eight...nine...eight...nine...eight...nine...eight...nine... (mommy or daddy interjects in a whisper "10" and Alex proudly and loudly exclaims)... 10!

We hadn't gotten past 1, 2, 3 GO! in our regular routine so he really surprised us. We guess he's picked it up between Drew & Amber and Blue's Clues (his new favorite). But he still doesn't understand that when you ask him how old he is, he's supposed to say "2"... oh well.

Stan was away on business last week so Glenn & Cindy (Grampa & Grammy) were helping extra with Alex. Alex in turn helped Grampa extra.



All power tools are called "loud" or "noisy", not by their actual names. Grampa was playing with a "noisy" and Alex wanted in on the fun. So Alex would "help" by picking up a screw and putting it on the end of the drill for Grampa... how cute are they?! (If that doesn't make your heart melt, I don't know what will.)

And this is an older photo Amber sent me of Drew & Alex - or Dew and Aggie, as they call each other... No, we didn't go buy the matching shirts, it just happened that way. (We did however coordinate schedules so they'd be wearing them on the same day!) No wonder Amber's asked if they're twins:



We also bought a life vest for Alex. He loves being a "guppy"... doesn't matter if it's in the pool or the bathtub, it's all "guppy". He'd take 3 baths a day if we let him! He's also really enjoying the pool. Wednesday night we all ended up in the pool, Grammy & Grampa, GG & Granddad, and Stan, Alex & I! It was such a nice break in middle of the week. I don't think Alex could have grinned any bigger either. He's growing more and more comfortable in the water and we feel a little safer now that we have a nice life vest for him. He might not be any more "water-safe" but he has handles now. :)

This weekend we're helping put in a new fence at Amber's so the boys are safer... it's been blown down and, we think, helped along by some neighborhood hooligan-teens. (sigh) It will be a good ol' fashioned work party! And next week a bunch of family is coming in for some 4th of July fun.

I'm sad I haven't had more time to be domestic, clean the house and straighten up for people. But, I'm rationalizing that they're family and they won't hold it against me either!

So - there you go - you're updated!

Auntie Valerie will be so proud!

We stopped for dinner with the Shacklett's on the way to camp together this weekend. Found a cute little mexican hole-in-the-wall-that-was-super-busy-so-you-know-it-has-to-be-good place.

Alex wanted some chips but noticed that he was missing out - we were all eating salsa - where was his?

He practically drank it!! We kept trying to show him that you're supposed to eat the chip with it but he just wanted to use the chip for a spoon!

Crazy child... Proud Auntie!

My "uh-prise"

Grammy & Grampa bought a swing set for their backyard... well, for Alex really.

Grampa, Daddy, Granddad & Nate helped put it together while I took Alex with me on errands. Everytime he'd get restlest or ask about Daddy I'd tell him that we'd see Daddy later, he was helping with a Surprise for him!

He was so happy to see it and excited to go play that Grammy could barely keep up! He had so much fun, and it's just the right size that he can play on his own - the slide's a little steeper than he's used to but he's adjusting to it quickly. He really loves the "ladder" though - it might even be his favorite part!