Some Tummy Time!

More of the Farm

This is a shot from their porch out to the tree house that Joe had just started building. There was a swing that Layla loved. She keeps going "wheeee" to tell us she is thinking of the swing (=

Here is baby Roz - she was a real sweetie - very mellow as only the youngest of four could be. She's about 13 months old.
I LOVE this pic of Layla - if you can see it, her eyes are really red and puffy - we both had AWFUL allergies with runny eyes and noses. What a drag. Anyway. I don't know what she was trying to say here (=

The top left here is the kids gleefully jumping to see the goat (= He hops around in quite an unbelievable manner. You can barely see Lj trying to push Baby Roz in the stroller (= She actually did a great job of pushing her around on the grass!

This is in Sue's garden - they have done a GREAT job! We had a lovely salad one evening.

Strawberry Picking!

I Love this last photo of her - even though it is blurry, it just makes her seem like she's thinking something really interesting!

It was a fun day and we enjoyed making jam from all the strawberries! Yum Yum! I can NOT tell you how much better these strawberries are than anything you'd buy in a store. Truly amazng.

We are back and we are sick

Hi folks.
Not saying much. Too tired, head too stuffy and throat too sore to get excited about showing pictures. I have them, they are great, and they are coming. Just not now.

Our Trip to the Country

Layla and I are on a big adventure this week to visit lovely friend of mine from ages past! We are SOOOO excited. As Sue so eloquently described it, "I have a wad of toddlers and basically live in a petting zoo". Layla will have the TIME OF HER LIFE! We may even to get pick berries and "put up jam". Ah. The way my mama grew up!
Anyway. Enjoy the week. I'll be back with wads of photos!!!!

This is where we are going:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=map,+taylor,+MO&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=ZLUHSqWvAaTosgP_nNnWAQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1

If it looks like a bunch of white space on the map with nothing near it, you've got the right place (=

Trying Layouts

Highly irritating. I've been trying different layouts and NONE will let me do anything but print all in a line. Boring. (okay so I've checked and this one worked......)
Anyway. Layla loves to sweep with this little brush. Even the van (=

Learning to Water things!

One of the latest things Lj enjoys is helping mom water the plants on the balcony. After MUCH discussion, we bought the white plastic fencing to keep Layla safe on the balcony when she plays by herself. We don't have a yard, so this is the only place she can run around outside without me two steps behind. Anyway, she's a doll and terribly excited about dragging the watering can around with wild abandon! Note the necklace. She loves that thing.

Layla LOVES it when people pretend to sleep or are napping. She pretty much thinks the options in life are sleeping, taking a bath, and working. Those are her guesses about what everyone is doing (= She can say the word Work, but she snorts and snores for the word sleeping and does the sign for bath instead of saying it.

Anyway, here she is interrupting Jen's nap (= She'll lay so still and content for about 5 seconds and then want up and down again. If you have a blanket on, she'll want to arrange it for you. Love this girl.

TaDAAA!

One of Layla's latest things is to step up and down on this little stool. We must have five stools in this house (we didn't buy them!) and I HIGHLY reccomend it! She likes to use them to look out of the window....drag around for reading in different places...step up and down and say TA DAAA!

Whew! I'm pooped!

http://www.halfpinthouse.com/2009/05/thats-one-busy-baby.html

This is SO funny. If you ever wondered why moms of young kids are so tired......

Lunchtime with Daddy

It has been fun to swing down and pick up Tom from his office for lunctimes together. He is about 4 minutes away at the most. We went to a park the other day.....

Sad Goodbyes

It was with GREAT sadness we said goodbye to Mike and Jen yesterday morning. They did an amazing job of packing and sorting and tossing and so forth. Their trusty, ancient Camry was packed to the gills and they left early Monday morning.

For SURE Layla will miss:
Eating breakfast with Mike Mike every morning
Longingly watching Mike Mike eat blueberries
looking at Mike Mike's big feet
Reading reading reading with Jeje!
Cooking with Jeje
Getting clothes, shoes, coats, books, art projects etc from Jeje (=
Having Jeje giver her baths and put her to bed
Running into their room unannounced to look for something, anything

and so much more )=

WE MISS YOU!

Lately

I haven't been doing hardly ANYthing online lately - Tom has been using the laptop at night which means I can't access any of our photos etc to do any blogging. I've barely been reading email.... Here's a bit of what has been happening around here:

The weather is getting warmer - Layla is stacking her Great Grandpa's blocks higher and higher....I'm always amazed. We have the windows open most days and I love hearing the birds. The birds are building a nest right near the front door so Lj has lots of bird activity to watch. Mom is concerned the racoon will eat the eggs again, I'm hoping the bear will eat the racoon. Yes, the bear is still around, although there was one that was shot last week. It chased a poor pregnant lady off a walking trail and she was then hit by a car in her attempt to get away. Yes, it sounds awful, but actually everything was fine in the end. Except the bear who was shot. (=

Jen and Mike leave next week. We are VERY sad about this. Here is a sweet little shot with "jeje" and Lj cooking. Ironically, JeJe is also the chinese word for big sister, so it is very apropo as a nickname for Jen (=

Layla is enjoying this little move lately (= She has said "two sentences" this week "My Shoes" and "Where Jeje"? That's a big step developmentally, supposedly. She goes in for her 18 month appointment in a couple of days and we'll see how tall she is getting. I know she is getting taller because she isn't needing her pants rolled up as much and her gut is getting a wee bit smaller (=

Tom is still busy with setting up the new parts of DPI. He's hired two great folks to work the new section of the business which will be doing newsletters for people.
Anyway. All for now.

This is a precious moment I caught the other day....Layla was watching videos of herself on the computer and one came up of her and my Grandpa. She started squealing and pointing and saying Hello and laughing. I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day and not sure quite how I had a camera in there...hmm..... Anyway, it was TOO precious. I actually have a video of it, but this is good for now.