Mid-July Sunshine

This post is all over the place, but hey what's my blog for?

There are many wonderful u-pick farms here. I had been wanting to try one out, but wasn't sure if Zuri would stay close enough for me to focus on picking and her. So the ladies went to the lavender farm when Grandma Wright and Aunt Heather came up for a visit. It was lovely and smelt oh so wonderful.

Dad V. let me borrow his D3 which made for some great photos.

Zuri's been loving the out doors plus it was a nice warm weekend. Even with sunscreen she got a little toddler tan.

My Nana made all us grandkids handmade bears before she passed away. I recently found mine and Zuri loves her. It's fun to see her cuddle and tote it around so much. I admire Nana's skills much more then I did when I was younger. It is really impressive how well the bears are made.
Zuri's 'smile' face is probably terrible looking to other people, but it still makes me laugh every time.
Chris was working on the tractor and of course she loved having a ride.

Kenny Chesney sing-a-long? How sexy.
This was my latest project. I bought an entire panel of fabric on sale at wal-mart when we first moved into the upstairs of the house in Virginia... It ended up only being something like 18 bucks at the time and I thought I'd use it for curtains there. Well it's kind of a punchy pattern so it wasn't going to work in a living room for us. I've just been waiting for some thing to do with it. I finally figured it out.

Our closet. Wonderfully huge and incredibly exposed.

I was thinking I'd just find some sheets at good will or something and make a curtain. This worked much better. I didn't have to buy anything new. mission accomplished. (pardon the crapy photo quality.)

Skip to a little bath time enjoyment. I love the mini-beard.

Zuri occasionally will eat her bubbles when she first gets in the bath. It's gross, and hilarious

a little giggle

a little veggie licking.

She just started dancing randomly the other day and running around. I got a kick out of it. Filming kind of stinks because if she sees the camera she'll quit what she's doing to come look at herself. No, she's not narcissistic at all.

A Domestic Engineer

I never really wanted to be a working gal when I grew up. I had no idea what I could really do as a career and I knew I wanted to be able to be home with kids cause I just figured I would be married early on in the game.

Lucky for me, that's actually happening. I got married at 19, had a wee babe at 21, and was able to stop working at 22. Then I just kept moaning about finishing school. Well that happened too. So now what do I do with all my time? Cause I have a lot of it.

My brother-in-law, Tyson, has stated that a 'stay at home mom' is a domestic engineer. I've always liked the sound of that much better. It makes one sound much more awesome. I now declare myself: Awesome.

Zuri and I have managed to keep ourselves entertained throughout the days now and I'm so so grateful that the weather is so nice and calm here that I actually like being outside now. For example, I did some weeding this morning while Zuri ran around in the grass. I think my current goal is to get the area around the house looking pretty. Yes, pretty. As in plants and flowers to take care of. Strange if you know me. I don't typically take on such an idea.

Here is my question to you. I know ZERO about gardening. Any suggestions on what to do? When's the best time of year to do it? did I miss my shot and should we just do bark chips for the rest of the year? I don't want to do anything crazy or that involves lots of money cause....well not quite there yet. And I also don't want to spend all of my time working on it. It's a smaller space so I thought it might be manageable for a beginning like me. Any suggestions would be wonderful.

Hope you're having a lovely July.

FHE

The lovely view from the yard.

If you know Chris and I well enough then you know we have never done family home evening. Shameful, we know. As much as my parents tried to make FHE happen every week when I was home it ended up being a nice big fight fest with each other. (It's hard to get that many people to enjoy being around each other when they have other things they want to do. By that I mean me, I was a terrible culprit against Monday nights. I'm awful)

This means that I've never really considered doing FHE with my own little family. Here's how it happened. I saw a commercial with someone eating a s'more. hmm....s'mores. Who doesn't love a good fire roasted treat? Chris said we should do that for family time in our own fire pit in our yard (got one of those now, sweet!)

It started with me being grouchy (by grouchy I mean a total evil pregnant woman) so I guess it started off like it did in the old days, but once Chris got the fire going and Zuri was running around with Kelso and his new buddy Paisley we were ship shape.

I definitely didn't plan a little lesson or anything, but gotta start somewhere right?

A recent face

Kelso and Paisley

The same reaction to 'smile"

Having a small airport right next to us makes for up close landings/take offs

She towed this marshmallow around all night without taking one bite.

Guacamole chip-face

Happy Summer!

It has been an eventful few weeks! I said I'd provide pictures when I got the internet and low and behold it really happened!

The family reunion and the 4th of July were full of:

car and tricycle rides

lots of swimming and playing by the water
and dancing.
Alicia and Weston
The can-can?
She's gotten a bit of sun
Hailey is the queen of fun activities
Bubbles with Eddie

cracks me up how her skirt flips up when she wiggles her hips, I mean walks.
There were also grueling horse shoe matches between Chelle and Brig

A nice view of Mnt. Hood from the grand Farm house.
Yep, that's a water balloon
A much more distraught Weston

Balloon chasing
"Where'd it go?" from Zuri when the balloon popped. It was very sad.
Kelso hates water, but he tolerated hanging by the pool.
And Zuri has put on everyones shoes but her own.
A small bundle of cousins
Sponges make great pool toys
Moose
Grandma and Weston

And the beautiful balloon arch....that died shortly after from windy weather. It was pretty cool though
There you have it. A nice few weeks.