Playing with Baby

Funny Michael

Tummy Time

A Girl Is Baptized, and A Boy Is Blessed

What a beautiful eight-year-old girl...

And a perfectly wonderful 17-day-old baby boy.

I wish we had gotten a picture of the two of them together!  We had all the family in town, so we added a baby blessing on to the baptismal program.  Liffy was pleased to share her special day with her new baby brother.  She loves him so very much.  We all do!

We were grateful that most of our siblings and spouses were in attendance.  We missed Christian and Emily, though!  We were also very happy to have Grandpa Russ and Grandma Loraine there.  The weekend was beautiful, cool for August, and we were able to enjoy the company out in the beautiful backyard.

Our Sweet Arrival

Michael Andrew

10 lb 5 oz

An absolute joy.

We already love him so very much.  Watching the older children care for him only adds to our love for them all.   It's a tub of love around here!

The Clean-Up Crew

I have two children who are terrified of lizards.  One of them tends to walk around on furniture instead of the floor, for fear of stepping on a lizard.  I'll bet you can guess who uses that excuse for jumping from table to sofa to chair!

Yesterday when we came home from Grandma Pickle's house all the kids ran out to the cement to ride their scooters.  Seconds later they came running back into the house screaming like a bunch o' crazies. "A LIZARD ON THE CEMENT!  IS IT DEAD OR ALIVE?!!! IT HAS NO TAIL!  AAAAGGHHHH! WHAT WILL WE DO?"

Fortunately, we have some heroes in the house whose initials are neither M nor D.  Because, of course, M & D are both too busy rolling their eyes at the wimps who are screaming about a lizard.  Puppy (NOT James, ask him) ran to the kitchen where he found not one, but TWO dustpans, marched into the family room, said "I CLEAD UP ISSSS" (translation: I'll clean up the lizard) whereupon Caroline, remembering that she is NOT one of the aforementioned wimps, seized one of the dustpans and they both tromped off to the cement slab with heroic zeal.  Within moments they returned triumphant, Caroline announcing "We threw the lizard into the bush!"  with Puppy echoing "Eesh!" behind her.  "Ip, Ip, Hooway!"  Scooter-riding has been saved!

Denouement:
Drama never quite being over, a few minutes later Liffy was on the couch weeping because she had lost a VERY important heart button  (intended to be a gift for Lauren, so it really was important).  Puppy, assuming she was still upset over the lizard, took her face in his hands, leaned in close and said, "I clead up, kay?  Isss don.  I clead up.  Eesh."  (translation: I cleaned up, okay?  The lizard's gone. I cleaned it up.  It's in the bush.)

It' good to have some heroes in the house. 

I Finished Something!

I made this onesie and receiving blanket set for one of Steve's former co-workers.  He'll probably wear it to a court appearance.  Just kidding -- it's for his baby.  It was fun to make (can you find the matching cars?), but I really wish I could figure out how to do things before the night before.  Also, my zig-zagging could use a little work.  Some people just straight-stitch around the appliques, but I worry about fraying, since I'm not overly fond of the ragged look.  I think I get a little better at this every time.  Maybe someday I'll be impressed by the handiwork, and not just amazed that I actually completed a project.

If You Can't Live at Camp Bullfrog...

This is the girls'  re-creation of a picnic down at the pond.  The white pole standing up at the right has about fifty branches of leaves taped to it-- I think to represent a pine tree.  I'm wondering if the real Camp Bullfrog needs a picnic table down by the pond.  One with benches, so pregnant mommies have somewhere to sit.

Let's do it again for real!

We Had a Great Saturday (Finally!)

Saturdays have been a little rough lately--I've been tired after a long week, Steve just wants to relax, the kids are tired of school and want to PLAY, which means a whirlwind hits our house and destroys it every weekend.  So a couple of weeks ago, even though there was a doozy of a rainstorm, we parents decided to manage our day a little better.  Saturday morning I took the kids to a couple of thrift shops, which they love, and found some great books-including a fairy tale book that I have been looking for since Lauren was 3.  The girls love to go to thrift shops and each found something cheap, but lovely to bring home.  Lunch was Souplantation.  Up, down, up, down, up, down.  Cheap way to feed kids pizza bread, though!

Afternoon took us to the library for a wild animal show.  Among the animals were an alligator, tarantula, parrot and porcupine.  They even had a wallaby!   That was pretty fun.  The star of the show was a screaming hairy armadillo.  So funny!!!  I have never heard of such a thing, but I'm telling you, we were all in stitches.

We then came home and made bread dough sculptures.  I have no idea where the energy for that came from, but there it was, and we made some very fun sculptures.  Here is a sampling:

Lauren hard at work.

The result: a diorama showing a comparison between a wallaby and a kangaroo

Liffy made a pair of ice skates.  The detail was fantastic, too bad it doesn't show very well.

Our exotic animals:  the screaming hairy armadillos, wallaby and kangaroo.

Caroline made a bunny's backside.  Love the fluffy tail.

James made faces and ate bread dough.

Then we ate up all our creations with homemade chicken noodle soup.  The kangaroo and wallaby belong to  Lauren, so they have taken up permanent residence on the library table.  She's giving Mort and his grape bread sculpture a run for their money. 

As I said, it was a great day.