Just peachy

I was excited to get 27 quarts of peaches bottled this year, all from my parent's peach tree. I love the feeling of accomplisment after doing something like this. So easy, yet so productive. I love it!

I decided it would be a good idea to get a picture of the peach tree this year. It has been around my whole life but lately it seems to be struggling. My mom is doing her best to keep it alive but I thought I would get some pictures just in case...

This tree is so wonky looking. As the years have gone by, limbs have been hacked away as parts of it have been dying. I guess it would be a better picture if I could remove the neighbor's house but since that's not an option, we'll enjoy this tree in its element.



I brought Livvy outside with me to be my tree model. When I first put her in the tree she was a little nervous, looking around and checking things out.



And after a couple minutes- she was like stop taking pictures and get me the heck out of this crazy tree.

"T"

My little Taylor. He is growing up so fast. He is such a good little boy and I find so much joy having him in our family.

This morning he woke up all cheery (probably because he is off-track from school) and gung-ho to help make breakfast.

He pulled out plates, cups, and forks for himself and the girls.
Opened the pantry and pulled out the bread- popped it in the toaster.
Over to the fridge and pulled out the butter and juice.
Then back to the fridge for some eggs that he then put in a bowl for me to scramble.

And all the while chattering on about how much he loves me and giving me a play-by-play of his breakfast preparations.

After breakfast he followed me up to my room, chatting my ear off, and happy as a little clam. I grabbed my camera and he was more than happy to oblige me with some cute smiles and silly faces. He then helped me take pictures of Livvy covered in marker and then proceeded to walk around the house photographing our day. He absolutely loves to take pictures.

I am grateful for days like today when I am reminded of how sweet my littly guy really is. I love having Taylor around. He is silly, energetic, sweet, fun, and wreaks (literally, on occasion) of boy! I love you T!

It's a hair thang

The last couple of months I have gotten the itch to do more with the girl's hair. I've looked at some hair-do blogs here and there and have been trying some new things. They don't have much hair which is probably the biggest challenge. But hey, we do not accept defeat in this house. And so I say, braid on...

I am surprised and oh so proud at how well they sit still. While I do my thing, we chat about this and that. It really is kind of fun. I let them choose the colors of elastics they want in their hair and that seems to make all the yanking and pulling okay. Afterwards we go over to the big mirror, pull a little mirror out of the cupboard, hold it up, and ooh and ahh over the "do" of the day. It's fabulous.

Saturday was the mack-daddy hair-do day at our house. As Sebastian in the Little Mermaid would say, "this was the pinnacle of my distinguished career." (I think I may spend a little too much time watching that movie...)

I separated Sara's hair into 4 sections, french braiding each section to the middle, where I gathered all her hair into a bun and tacked a little bow on. It was so cute... so cute, in fact, that I had to bring out the camera. And so, for your viewing pleasure- ISN'T IT CUTE? I was dying. I couldn't believe that she held so still. I was proud of her because she had to put her head in all kinds of weird positions to pull it off. No pain, no gain.



We don't do braids in Livvy's hair yet. She doesn't have enough hair. But even more than that, she wouldn't hold still so we don't even try it. However, she does usually hold still and let me do elastic braids in her hair. We've opted to do that a lot lately and have come up with lots of different fun designs. Here is the one we did on Saturday:



Thanks for looking. I love my cute girls! They are so fun.

Tick Tock

I would like to take just a minute to tell you how Livvy spends a large majority of her time...



...in the tub.

She has been known to have 3 baths in a day. And no, that's not every once in a while. It's frequent. Often. Dare I say, daily? If she isn't in the bathtub for something she rubbed, colored, smashed, or spilled on herself, she will be in there just because someone else is. As soon as she hears the water running, she appears from the far reaching corners of the house, running like a wild banshee- clothes and diaper flying, just to get in and take a dip.

Today, of course, was no exception.

I found her behind the lazy boy. This, my friends, is why I purchase washable markers.



Upon closer inspection, I noticed that not only is this a happy place for her to artistically express herself, she is also using this area as a top-secret hideout to stash stolen goods (Raisin Nut Bran and pineapple juice) from an earlier pantry raid. And to incriminate herself even further (as if the marker isn't incriminating enough), she left her basket of toys right alongside the evidence. Gotcha baby!



Isn't she perty?

Not your ordinary corn on the cob

Oh how I love this baby! She always keeps us laughing!

A couple weeks ago we threw some meat on the grill. It was expensive meat so we opted to provide hotdogs for the 5 and under crowd. After bustling to get everything on the table, we sat down. One turn in Livvy's direction and we realized we had dinner and a show. Leave it to Livs (scantily clad at the dinner table, ta boot!) to find an alternative use of her corn skewers.

You only wish your hair was that awesome!

Dance Dance Revolution

Sara started dance this week. She spends 85% of her day running around the house singing at the top of her lungs and twirling around and around and around (makes you dizzy just reading it, doesn't it?). I figure it's time we make this official and get some actual technique intermixed with her love of twirling and spastic body contortions. I opted for ballet/jazz in order to work on her poise and grace. Before her lessons were over, she had already mastered the arabesque ballet position (first time I have ever used that word in my life- you all know my history with dance and coordination- not pretty, which is another reason I started her in dance at an early age- my gene pool isn't doing her any favors).

Dave and I were talking the other day about signing Sara up for dance. I mentioned that I can't do a cartwheel. Never EVER have I done one. I know, pathetic. But anyway, I was saying how I want Sara to do dance and tumbling for a while to get the basics down- learn a cartwheel or whatever. And Dave was like "I never took dance and I can do a cartwheel." Wawawa... Zip it mister.

Before we left to her dance class, we went out in the front yard to snap some pictures. I didn't tell her to pose- she just started throwing poses at me right and left. With Sara it always comes to the point where I have to tell her to just STOP and look at me. No posing. No smiling. Just look. And maybe we get a decent shot.



She was SO SO SO excited to start dance. I stayed and watched her during her first class. She was so cute leaping over cones, holding onto the bar and doing her arabesque, and sliding across the floor like a snake! I was so happy that she was having such a great time. After she came out she couldn't stop laughing. She does this dorky little laugh over and over and over when she gets excited. After her class, she kept cocking her head to the side, posing, and laughing. I really need to record it on the video camera sometime. Absolutely priceless.

And when we got home, you better believe it, she still had some poses up her sleeve.

Spencer turns 3 months old

This little baby of ours is just growing too fast. I am loving every second of him. He is so cute and squishy and good.

Here's the low-down on our little guy:

• He has started kicking. A blanket never stays on him for very long.
• He has also started cooing and jabbering. I love that he has found his voice. It's the sweetest thing in the world.
• He is getting stronger and is starting to use his legs to push against me when I am holding him up.
• He is becoming much more social and loves to be around people. I think he has realized that he is part of a family and wants to be in the mix of things all the time. If I leave the room, baby ain't happy. He likes to sit in his chair and watch me make dinner. He gets pretty offended if we put him in the swing while he is awake.
• He had a cold this past month- it wasn't too bad, just a little congestion. He has a clogged tear in his right eye and most of the cold manifested itself in his eye. Love the eye sludge. We got him an eye drop from the doctor and things cleared up quickly.
• According to Taylor, Spencer says the following words: "up" and "help".
• He is the happiest little guy. He is always ready with a smile. He likes when we run his legs and clap his hands together or cross his arms across his chest. He laughs and we melt.
• He is still sleeping through the night and I lalalalove it! Thanks Spenny.
• Sometimes I call him "Penny" but then I take it back because it seems like a girl name. It just slips out! I've also been calling him "Spenny Spenuel" but the kids let me know that is not his name. Good thing I have these kids around to keep things straight...

Here's a few shots of the little guy throughout the month. He's kind of hard to photograph seeing as how he has no neck.

Here he is showing off one of the many blankets that his grandma has made for him. He is just so chubbers!

He isn't particularly interested in my desire to document his cute little face for posterity. As soon as he catches sight of the camera, all personality turns off and he's like "get that thing outta my face!" My friend gave him this cute little outfit covered in dinosaurs. Super cute! I tried it on him and was taking some pictures. He wasn't having it! He just gave me that "Step down mama- I'm done with taking pictures already" look.

Sara loves to mother Spencer. She plays with him and helps me watch him all the time. Sometimes she plays a little rough and needs to be reminded not to sever his head from his body but we work around that and I don't think he is suffering any ill effects.

The other day I tried to take a few pictures of him with this little hat on. It wasn't a very succesful experience. That said, I love all the pictures I got because they epitomize a photo session with a 3-month-old baby. All his little faces... I could eat him. I love his little round chin and how the rest of his chubby face just pudges around it.