"Its my Woman!"

We were dancing to the music to Annabelle's toy today and James picked up a tiny piece of paper and started dancing with it. He said, "Hey Mom! This is my Woman!" and proceeded to dance with the utmost enthusiasm. So funny! I tried to get a picture of him, but then he realized he was doing something "cute" and got shy.


Its been raining off and on here the past few days. When the sun came out, I let the kids play outside. The puddles were irresistible to Lucy! Her dress was pretty muddy!

Here is Lucy showing off her climbing skills (I think the humidity here helps her hands and feet to be extra sticky)!


Annabelle loves to play outside. Every time she hears the door open, she puts her head down and crawls full speed ahead. When its too rainy or I'm being a mean mommy by making her stay inside, she has finds her way to the window and just watches the kids play. It is pretty cute.


So, I know I must be overwhelming you all with blog posts lately. Bryce is working later these days so my evenings are a little more free. We'll see how long it lasts - hopefully not too long :)

Lousianna Girl Trip

Here is a collage of pictures from my girl trip with Bryce's sisters and mom this year. We had such a good time antique shopping, taking a steamboat ride on a swampy-lookin' lake, shopping, goofing around, movies, eating out, shopping, cute towns, plantation tours, and sleeping in (ok, not really a lot of sleeping in, but I could have because I didn't have the kids with me)! We had such a good time. Thanks to Talana for having her 40th birthday so we could have an excuse to get together!

Memorial Day!

We had such a good Memorial Day yesterday! Bryce joined the Blacksburg community band about a month ago and they held a concert at a retirement community in the morning. They played some beautiful patriotic songs, and it was neat to see all the veterans of war there in uniform stand up when there armed forces song was played. James thought it was a little loud! but it was great!

We spent our afternoon just playing around the house. We just played and had a good time. It was so nice. We ended the day at the Oler's BBQ! The kids had fun playing outside and Bryce and I enjoyed the company. It was a very nice day.

Our Garden

So, this is the garden that we have so far this year~ 3 pots of tomatoes, one pot of strawberries, and one dying pot of a pumpkin plant. The other day Caleb said, "I'll be really surprised if a pumpkin grows out of that!" I will be too, but the other plants seem to be thriving! We yielded our first strawberry yesterday from our strawberry plants. It was really sweet and juicy! We all cut it up and shared it (except for Bryce, sorry honey!). There are more to come though! Our tomatoes have a lot of blossoms right now, and we'll be excited to eat the fruit in about a month still, but they are growing really well! We are still intending on planting some corn and possibly zucchini at the church garden, but just haven't made it over there to plant anything yet! Ahhh, the luxury of having a garden in your own backyard . . . someday.



This other picture is of Lucy trying to mimic a picture of a funny "cool" snapping guy in Caleb's piano book. I thought it was funny. She actually looked really similar!

The Hero of the Year Award goes to . . .

BRYCE!!! Bryce just completed a full week of watching the kids for me so I could take a girl trip on my own with his sisters and mother. I don't think I ever heard one complaint from him about me going, and actually quite encouraged me to go when the opportunity was presented. I even left him with sweet Annabelle who is still nursing, and has never been away from me longer than a day (I don't think). What a brave man! I had such a wonderful trip (pictures to come), and it was so nice to come home to my beautiful children and husband feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the every-day challenges and joys of being a mom. Thank you so much, Bryce!

And while I'm on the subject, I just wanted to brag about my Mother's Day breakfast in bed that Bryce (and the kids) made for me the day before I left. He made egg, bacon, and ham, english muffin sandwiches with orange juice and freshly picked flowers from the neighbors yard. Then the kids all presented me with their home-made Mother's Day gifts. What an incredible start to a perfect day. Thanks, again, Bryce!

Reader for Life

Annabelle re-discovered her bouncy chair that I had sitting at the top of the stairs waiting to be put up into the attic. She was fascinated with getting in and out, crawling underneath the hanging toys on the seat. I was nervous that she was going to tumble down the stairs by doing this, so I moved the seat downstairs for her climbing pleasure. We were all reading scriptures together, so Annabelle grabbed a Peter Rabbit book and settled in to her comfortable new seat, and would not be removed for at least 10 minutes. For those of you who know anything about 10-month olds, its a minor miracle to see one sitting still anywhere for 1-minute, let alone 10! I just thought it was so cute.

Annabelle is eating what we eat (mostly) now, and is able to feed herself what we give her - which makes it easier on me because I don't have to think of a different meal for her to eat, and I can actually sit down and just eat my own meal without trying to feed her at the same time. But, it does make for a bigger clean-up project when she feeds herself! Here is the classic spaghetti example.