Aliza discovers MARKERS!

Or shall I say she discovers how to take the covers off and thinks they are the best invention ever! what a nut! She says at least 1/2 dozen words.. her newest favorite is Ywell-OW! Any Uno card will do because that is where she learned it! She actually found a book about primary colors this a.m. and had it turned to the yellow page and brought it to us saying "YwellOW! " Not sure if it is a freak thing or not!?! We have pointed at about every yellow thing in the house and outside and ask her and she loves to reply "Yellow".

Others include: Bubble (bub-bow) Ball, mom and da-da and "buhbye" and lets not forget mommy's favorite: "UHHHHHOHHHH!"

Happy Birthday Party JOSIE

Fun with cousins.. there are 2 mushrats (as my dad calls them) missing from the picture. Namely: Aliza and Will. What fun parties we have at the Farm in Dwight. Josie had a flower for her cake. Everyone really took their time to see which cupcake or slice they wanted to take. There were after all 4 different candies to choose from.:)

Xander get to finally go to LEGOLAND

What LEGOS we saw! We spent the better part of the day at LegoLand and had a blast with our very own LEGO expert. Xander spent his free time building with the lego pieces we could find in the bins and Josie rode a few rides with her daddy. Mommy looked for more cool pieces in different bins to bring to Xander and we ALL chased a bit after the little munchkin. :)

I LOVE this first picture! I am sure you recognize Einstine with his tounge out...YEs he is made out of legos! So funny!

I am so glad Dan bought us discount tickets on the radio auction.. and so glad we actually got to go and bring Xander who seems inpired by the little bits of primary blue, red, yellow, and black. He is an amazing lego creator with the creations he has been turning out lately! Love you Son! The best part of the day for him: when he got to spend all the garage sale money he earned on 3 sets of Legos.

Josie turns 5!

On her Birthday, Josie had a full day of VBS. Then it was sack lunches at our friends house, and then swimming with the Temples. There, she jumped off the diving board at 10 feet and swam to the ladder for the first time without her life jacket! She also was diving under to retrieve toys and practice her "Shark- Fin- Rain-bow" (the crawl illustrated)

We had OREO Pie for supper and went to Barns and Noble for the Summer Reading Contest where she earned her first Fancy Nancy Book. It was a good full day and she slept like a log that night!

Aliza Joins Josie and I for Tea and Toast in the Mornings

Aliza throughly enjoys her Tea and Toast with us now. At even 9 months she was taking spoons here and there but now she loves to have a cup and really drink it herself. She punctuates the sips with "M-m-m-m-m!"

I hope that we can always have toast and tea together and enjoy girl moments. I can't wait to see my girls grow into young ladies & wonder what our "Morning Tea's" will look like. I am determined to always make time for such everyday events.

Will Our Garden Grow?

We have 2 little garden lots at Church. It has been fun but means running there and back to water. Aliza never seems to cherish these trips. Its usually hot and she falls alot and mommy always has her hands busy with water buckets and not time for her. We got back from MN to find all our Acorn Squash fried without water and the other plants looked abit wilted too. we have peppers, tomatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, zuchinni. and butternut squash. We are wondering if any of it willmake it to maturing before frost though at this point. :( OUr garden looks a bit sad.

Baby Pigs, Fun at Uncle Chad's and the Long Ride Home

We took the runt away from the mommy because it was looking like he needed a bit of help to rehydrate and get some extra attention and food. Josie loved it. It stayed in the tub when it wasn't being held. I thnk she would have taken it home if she could have.

We had fireworks at Uncle Chads and then a nice outside lunch before taking off to Grnadma's house to repack and head for IL. We arrived at 2pm. it is easier on Aliza who could usually care less about the video going to keep the other kids entertained. The long road trips are hard on the little ones. BUt it was good to see everyone.

Happy Fourth of July

We all loved seeing the new fillie of Aunt Jen's. he name is DeDee. The mare is Libby for Liberty. All the kids got to ride Ernie and Oakie. Aliza Loved her first ride and was very upset when we would have to take her off and walk away from the horse. Josie wanted to spend most of her time in the barn. It was a good Fourth. Daddy got to help Uncle Cody with the Stairs and we had a lovely laid back BBQ at Cody's too.

Legos and LayLa

Xander is coming up with new creations everyday almost. It is amayzing how his mind works and the vehicles (and in this case the castle) he can dream up.

We also had a BIG puppy here. She was a big sweetheart and all the kids loved her but Aliza was particularly cute with her becasue of the size difference. LayLA was always very gentle and aliza would actually lay on her with her arms around her neck or come and lay her head on the big black lab.

Summer is here and Dog Sitting

Sofie is our little dog we babysit from time to time. this time we are so sorry to say she ended up with a fish hook in her paw. and it needed to be taken out (thus the pink wrap). She was a bit drugged and happy to sit for the afternoon on the bed the kids made her. The next day she was right as rain.