Growing up!

She is getting so big. She is pulling up and standing on her own. She is still pretty wobbly but getting more and more steady every day! The best part is that she gets so excited about standing up. She takes a big breath and says "whooowhooa!" It is so cute and she will grin and laugh!

She likes it the best when Stevie plays with her!

She is my best snuggler. She likes to play a game where she will put her head on my shoulder and snuggle into the corner of my neck and then she will pop up-right, suck in a large breath so it makes a high pitched noise and laugh. She thinks it is a great game!

Oh Stevie

This was too funny. After church last weekend, we had two of our friends Jo and Sandy come to the house for coffee. They are avid bird watchers just like Nana and they were talking about a new bird they had spotted. Stevie listens to their conversation for a minute and then walks into the kitchen, grabs the bird book, runs back to the living room, sits down, opens the book and starts telling us all about birds. I can't believe this kids memory because he was actually turning to the correct page and telling us about the bird on it. He told us about owls, starlings, grackles, black birds, ducks, hawks and more. It was incredible and funny. He was so serious about what he was saying. We were all amazed...and rightly so sense he is so talented! :)




The animation and the tone he was using was just like how Nana talks to him about the birds. This summer, Stevie and Nana would get up before the rest of us, have breakfast together, and talk about birds. I know that Stevie really misses the time with her now that she and he are in school. But he remembered a lot of what she taught him!

Steve's book for Stevie and Lilly

Ok!!! I finally got this book on my Blog. I have been trying to get this organized for a while now and today everything fell into place. This is mostly for my wonderful mother-in-law, Karen because she has been waiting to see these pictures for a long time!

This is the book Steve made for his kids to help them get through this long and aweful deployment. Steve is quite the artits and Stevie loves this book. It is an on going book because, if you didn't notice, I'm the only one not in it. So Steve has promised to add a few pages. It is in a scrap book, so he can add as many pages as he wants. I know Stevie and the rest of us would be thrilled to get a new page...hint, hint, hint!

I think if you double click on the images, you can see an enlagred picture and will be able to read the words.

I love this book and was so proud of Steve for making it. It was really hard for hin to get started on the drawings becuase it made the delployment real. It made leaving his kid real and that sucked and still sucks. So, way to go Steve for creating something that will be a keep-sake in our family forever (and 2 days...inside joke!) I can't wait to see the new pages that he is going to add!

The Idaho State Fair

Sometimes this blogger is a pain in the butt. Not only has it not allowed me to post in a while but I can't get this picture anywhere else but right at the top of this post. So here it is. Stevie playing in the dune-buggy. I thought this pic would make his Daddy proud!

We had such a great time at the fair this year. It was just Stevie, Lilly and I that went and it was fun!!! We went early in the morning so we didn't have to worry about parking. I think that is the worst part about fairs. We spent the morning looking at animals. Stevie was most impressed with the huge work horses and birds. We have been reading a story about a little duck named Henry and we saw a duck just like Henry. It was fun. We also went into a petting zoo and Stevie touched an Emu, goats, baby pig, and a turtle. Lilly just sat up in her stroller and looked at everything. The rides didn't open up until 1 so we had quite a bit of time to look at the different displays. We went into the 4-H building and looked at all the projects as well as the art work.

Stevie was pretty patient but he really wanted to ride the rides. So we had some lunch, got some tickets and headed over to the rides.

Stevie is too short to ride a lot of the rides and because I didn't dare leave Lilly alone or with a stranger, I just asked different people to take Stevie on some of the rides. This car ride in the picture above was kind of a wild ride. I think he loved it and the girl in the front seat with him was really cute about making sure he was ok and having a good time. I just wish I could have gone with him! Maybe next year!

Lilly had a good time watching and sleeping. She is too cute. I can't believe how much she has grown!

Anything that had to do with Cars, Stevie was all over. This one just went round and round. I don't think he was too impressed. He was expecting to be able to turn the wheel and drive where he wanted too. But I think he had a good time.

This was another one where he was too short to go alone. This large kid was pretty nice and cute to take Stevie... maybe a little old for this kiddie ride? Stevie really wanted to go on this ride because we have been watching Dumbo and he was excited to ride on Dumbo's back!

This green jeep was supposed to be a "Mater" jeep from the movie Cars. Stevie loved it just because it was from the movie. He loved that he got to drive too.

This is inside a train and a very nice Dad took the picture for me. He went on this ride twice! He loves trains.

At the Park

We went to Community Park on Saturday. It looked like it was going to be kind of cool outside, but when we got there, it was hot hot hot. Like 90 degree hot. So we only stayed for about 45 minutes. The kids had a great time. Lilly and Stevie both love to swing. Stevie wanted to help push Lilly and did, until he realized that it would be more fun to swing in his own swing.


This is one of Lilly's baby hats...I didn't realize she had grown out of it. She is growing up so fast. This thing barley stayed perched on top of her head.

Stevie's favorite thing is for me to do an under-dog for him. He loves to go as high as I can get him.

Stevie kept telling me to give Lilly an under-dog too. He was sure she would love it as much as he does.

Stevie did take Lilly down the slide. Not this one because it was too big in my opinion but a littler one. She had a great time. I had to help Stevie hold her at first. He kept wanting to put his arms around her neck and squeeze. Once we got his arms under hers, they went down together about 3 times. After 3, Stevie figured he could go faster without Lilly and didn't want to take her anymore.
They are pretty good together and I am only just beginning to see the ugly green giant come out of Stevie. He is usually pretty sweet and gentile with her. And Lilly will put up with anything Stevie does to her because she loves the attention from him. She adores him! Cute cute kids.

Little Miss

This is our little miss Lilly. She is quite the eater. She loves to taste and try all kinds of different stuff. Stevie had trouble digesting stuff when he was this little. But not Lilly. She has the hang of putting stuff in her mouth, chewing and spitting it back out. So cute. I know this is a naked pic of her, but I had to show of the hams...you know her little chubby thighs. So cute.


This picture you can see what she had for dinner. Some corn, a tomato, zucchini, bread, water, a bean, and I think this is the one where she was chewing on a rib bone too. Oh and don't forget the spaghetti noodles. That seems to be her favorite right now. She loves that she can pick up the noodles and they kind of stick to her hand. So even when she waves her arms around there are still noodles stuck to it when she wants to taste some more. And she gets food everywhere. Including the roll of skin under her chin. We find all kinds of stuff there.

The chair after we pulled her out of it looks like this on a regular basis.

Stevie is just the opposite, he likes to stay clean and it is like pulling teeth to get him to eat a full meal. I don't think we will have that kind of trouble with Lilly. She feels so important when she gets to eat like the rest of us and will throw a fit if you are eating and don't share. She is just a little intense....I wonder where she gets it!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Aug. 20th is Nana's real birthday but we didn't celebrate until a week later. Our schedules were too busy. But, we did celebrate and it was a lot of fun. A nice bbq with friends.

Nana is opening her new mixer. She has already used it several times and we have been eating the rewards.

These are the cookie dough mixers and Nana is teasing Stevie.

Now it is Stevie's turn.

We put 50 candles on her cake and it took Stevie and Nana 3 big breaths to get them all out.

Stevie enjoyed all the frosting all over his face. We ordered a Tres Leche's cake and it was yummy.

Us

Our family minus Dad. We miss him so much. This is right after both kids have had a bath. They are all clean and smell good!

Look at those baby blues!

My Babies!


Stevie D... my best boy!

Dirty Fun!

Lilly got her first taste of dirt. And taste it she did. This first picture is right after she tipped over. The dirt was kind of cold so she is hugging her self. I love it.

They are playing trucks together. Stevie has to kind of drive around Lilly's feet. He is cute with her!


Can you see the dirt on her face? She is playing with it in her hands and in her mouth. Yumm Yumm!

Go googles!

We go swimming up to Heise every chance we get. Stevie is a fish and loves the water!!! This time Papa found some of Ad's old water goggles and Stevie was in high heaven. He thought those goggles were so cool that he slept with them for a couple of days after our trip to the pool.

He can't quite get the pronunciation of goggles and he calls them go googles. It is pretty funny. We could never really get the black ones to work right. As soon as he put his face in the water, they would leak. But the blue ones keep most of the water out. Lilly is trying her hand at wearing them too!