Copper colored hair

The artist at work (= Couldn't resist showing you her pretty hair.

Father's Day

On the porch at our house - the white fencing was a family discussion of some months...We needed something to put up to keep Layla safe when she was out there by herself. This is the only outside space where she can run around with out me there beside her!

I got Tom a DVD on Pixar with all their short films and then the film The Incredibles which is a favorite of his. Jen and I gave Dad the wooden case for the flag that was presented to him at Grandpa's funeral. Grandpa was in the unit that relieved the men at Bastogne. If you've seen Band of Brother's, Grandpa's unit came in to relieve them after that terrible Christmas where they were stuck and surrounded and without adequate supplies for the weather.

More about US

Okay so I wrote a long post about what we are doing these days. ie NOT layla focused and the whole thing was lost.
sorry folks! can't bear to do it all again.
we're good. that's the summary.

Who needs a garage sale??

So while we were out garage-saleing and finding enormous, fancy toys, Tom was making this wonderful creation! He put windows in and little slots so she can grab and close the doors and all sorts of fun things (= She was too interested in the camera to really pose, but we have lots of fun things in the house now!

Loving Garage sales!

Mom and Sue and I went out to our neighborhood garage sale this weekend and just a few doors down we found this WONDERFUL play kitchen for $35! Can you believe! This video is a little long but sweet. She plays with this constantly and says goodbye to it each time I take her downstairs for a nap or for bed at night (= There are all sorts of untensils and pots and pans but I've only given her a few to prevent overload and to keep some things interesting later on. Mom and I were SO excited to find this because she loves to "cook" with us when we are in the kitchen making dinner (=

....How does your garden grow?

Layla is ALL into watering flowers, rocks, feet, and cement these days. Try it some time - its a great way for them to kill some time doing something harmless! I love how serious and intense she is about this sort of thing. She has the same look when she is doing her puzzles - we found the old old wooden puzzles my sister and I had as kids and she's a PRO now!

By the way - we don't keep mom penned up in that cage... we have the cage up to prevent the deer from eating everything. We have about 15-20 deer that live just up the road and eat EVERYTHING in sight if it isn't caged in (=

A Piece of History

This little number was one that I wore when I was a kid in Taiwan. It is already too small for Layla. Mom and dad had oil paintings of us done (very cheap thing there!) and I was wearing this dress in the painting. It was a fun morning to see her prancing around in the same dress that is about 32 years old!!

Popcorn and Ahma

For those of you who don't know, my mom LOVES popcorn. We eat it all the time around the house (= Nothing fancy, just from an airpopper. Anyway, we were munching away one evening when Lj wanted to get involved so mom set her on the island with us all and started to give her popcorn. This happens all the time - Mom decides to give something to Layla to try and eat and we all sort of hold our breath wondering what will happen (= Anyway, she LOVED the popcorn and then proceeded to have some sort of lovey-dovey game with Mom. She calls her Ahma which is a chinese name.

Cousins come to town!

Last weekend we had a good time up in Fort Collins where one of my uncles lives. Clyde and Selva have a really nice home up there and Sarah Louise, baby Deaj, and Dain came into town for a family affair on Daine's side. David, down in the front is moving to Colorado Springs from OH and is currently staying with us. Layla loves to give him BIG hugs. It is quite unusual - she just launches on him and lays still on his shoulder (= Layla enjoyed saying " baby deeeeeeej" all the way home (=