Don't Bother me, I'm Eating

I've been changing the way I take pictures. Instead of one or two from a point in time. I'm starting to do more of a series, so a story can be told. Charlie is so good to sit and play on his own. I throw him a couple of toys and away he goes. This day, he found his way over to Leah's play food and started munching away on a plastic hamburger bun. It was so cute I had to capture it. I did have to shake a rattle to get him to look up at me. He was very intent on getting that bread in his mouth.

Dressing up Leah

I downloaded, finally, the pictures off my camera. I'll have more to post later. I have to do it in shifts or the kids start freaking out!

Leah has proven time and time again that she is not your typical girl. Maybe it's because she has me as a mother guiding her away from "girly" pursuits. Either way, she, when given her own choice, gravitates in the direction of the tomboy. When she plays with her friends, she plays with the boys, she roughhouses like the boys and in true tomboy fashion, she makes the boys cry. While Derek was packing up, Leah found his hat and had to wear it. She has a thing for hats, she'll make anything into a hat, a box, the laundry bag, any bag she can find. Daddy helped her strap the hat on. The thing is so heavy, Leah could barely hold her head up. It was so funny we decided to dress her up more, She donned the gloves and we tried to get her in Daddy's Kevlar vest. It weighs more than she does. She's not to happy with the last addition to her dressing up and decided the hat and gloves was enough for the moment.

Deployment

Derek left today for Iraq. It's a short deployment, thankfully. I'm planning on keeping really busy while he's gone so I can keep my sanity for my children's sake. So far today was a good day. We went grocery shopping and to the park today. Tomorrow we have a breakfast and nature walk to fill our day. I'll try to remember my camera so I can take some pictures.
Speaking of pictures, I do have some from Easter, but as usual they are still on the camera. I'm terrible at downloading pictures. Actually, I'm terrible at taking pictures in general. I'm trying to get better because I know I'll wish I had done so when I'm older and all I have are my memories (hopefully!) to keep me company.

Messes, Birds and Getting Dizzy

Several people have been begging for new pictures. I haven't taken the time to get them up lately and decided there is no time like the present. So here are a collection of pictures from the last couple of weeks.

This is what happens when I get too many toys on the ground and can't see what Leah has left laying around for Charlie to eat. He found her black (thankfully washable) crayon hidden in his blanket and began munching like all babies love to do. Since this incident, I've been much more diligent about keeping things he can't have out of arms reach. Leah saw me loading this picture and pointed at it yelling "MESS, MESS". She's very fixated on seeing messes. It's just too bad she hasn't figured out how to avoid making the mess, or really cleaning it up, but she's great at identifying the mess after it's been created.

This is Charlie at the park. We went down to the Port of Olympia one day to see the boats, play in the park and visit the quilting store near by.
I was surprised this pictured turned out looking so nice. My Mom and I got Leah quite dizzy on this little toy.

A nice lady on the pier gave me and Leah an old hamburger bun to feed the birds. My Mom said the scene reminded her of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and it wasn't far from it. Those birds when crazy when we started throwing bread pieces. Leah thought it was great seeing them come and eat what she gave them. I'll have to remember this activity for the future.

Easter Festivities

We had our first Easter Egg Hunt of the season yesterday. Leah's playgroup held a hunt. It was fun watching her run around the house gathering up eggs. She kept saying "ooo, eggs" over and over again. I think she had more fun opening the eggs and finding the treats inside. Our second egg hunt is hopefully going on this evening, if the weather turns a little nicer. It rained all night last night. We will attend our third egg hunt tomorrow. We could do 4 but I think that's a little overkill. I don't remember ever having egg hunts outside of my family when I was a kid, but they are everywhere here. I will remember, or try to remember to tie my camera to me so I can take some pictures of the egg hunting fun.

I have some great pictures from my Mom's trip but they are still sitting on my camera. We had a great time while she was here. Hopefully we can convince her to come back again soon.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been extremely busy lately, hence no posting for over a week. I've been finishing up all my sewing projects and cleaning house for my Mom's visit. She arrived on Sunday and we have been having a great time so far. Leah is just enamored with "Comma". It's comma this and comma that and where is comma? She almost likes comma more than mama. Right now I think that's great. I've enjoyed the break from her attentions.

Last night, since Derek was suppose to be sleeping "in the field", I hosted a Stampin' Up! party at my home. I swore I'd never get into scrapbooking. I thought it was so hokey, but I've been really enjoying some of the new stuff coming out of the scrapbook world. It's being tailored more towards my designerly mind. So I've been attempting to take up scrapbooking. I'm starting small. I really don't know what all those tools are used for, but I can usually get the look I want making up my own way of doing things. The Stampin' Up! rep is a good friend of mine and we had a blast last night playing around with her products. I'm excited to get some cool stuff and in what free time I have, play around with it all.

Today I'm surprising my mom with a shopping trip to Cabela's. She loves that store and they opened one up just down the road from me. I'm not telling her where we are going, but we should have fun wandering through the store checking it out. I'm sure Leah will love it. She loves going to the store. I'm sure I'll have more to come. No pictures today. I'll try to find some for another day.

Welcome to the family!

I'd like to take a minute and introduce the newest member of my family...

Kaylee Ann

2/28/08

She's pictured here with her 2 year old brother Bryson

I can't wait to meet this little girl and I'm so happy for her safe, albeit quick, arrival. She is my brother Rob and Amy's third child. She's a little bruised, but healthy, weighing in at just under 7 pounds.

The family picture