The (twenty) 4th of July

Just a few pics from Independence Day... We spent the evening in the country with (a bunch of) our friends from church. Look at that hot little baby!It was BYOS(onicdrink).
Curley Q went on her first hayride!! Nice patriotic shirt there Kevin. You too, little guy next to me.

We sure do go to alot of parties where you have to wear nametags! What's that about?

She fell asleep right before the fireworks started.

Be still my heart... That is my favorite thing in the world to look at!

She woke up about half-way through the fireworks and craned her neck around and tried to sit up and see them!

In the photo above... the icky color of my teeth (which is obviously grossing everyone out) was due to the yummy popcicles we had. You know the giant blue bell rainbow colored ones. YUM! Except they always have red at the bottom... which tastes like cough medicine to me... and you have to end with it! They should really change that around. Start with red and get that out of the way... then all the other colors... then end with purple! mmmmm.... I should really be in charge of all ice cream and ice cream products.

And after 10 pm we packed it in... A really good time.

RULES for new parents

Here are a few rules my friend Laurie sent to me that I think ALL new parents should be aware of.

(By the way... I'm no longer taking any new friends named Laurie, Loree or Lori or any other spelling variant... Its so confusing! I'll keep the ones I've got, but NO MORE.) (Also... no more Amandas, Mandys, Mandies or Mandas)

I confess, I have broken that one...

Come on... everyone has broken that one. Those booger suckers can't stand up to some of the biggies.

That picture gave me the creeps...

When I finally decided to pack away my maternity clothes, I bought this plastic container (in a lovely fuchsia) so I could store them in the top of the closet for NEXT TIME! This picture made me laugh...

And of course, that reminded me of this picture that I took while I was washing baby stuff getting ready for the little Curley's arrival. (I tend to take pictures of weird stuff) I tore this tag off of my new Boppy ...

Everyone, please exercise care with your burning cigarettes and open flames while you are nursing your baby! OK?

skinny dipper

A few years ago when we were looking for a house, we began the process of going over the "must have" and "won't even consider" criteria with our realtor. I say "as long as it has a pool...." and of course my husband says "as long as it doesn't have a pool..." One of us argues FOR A LIVING (I only do it as a hobby) so guess what... we only looked at houses without pools. :( But, a few weeks ago, Kevin finally got us a pool... with built in palm trees!

I know... we're fancy!

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Her patriotic swimsuit didn't even make it to Independence Day.

She grew out of it in June!

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So we tried out another suit... Leah even takes her stopper to the pool!

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She uses her tongue for balance.

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Eventually we lost the swimsuit all together...well...not we...just her.

Beans even enjoyed herself with the-biggest-water-dish-there-ever-was!

VACATION

Anytime I spend the night in a hotel... its vacation. I don't care how close to home I am or how short my stay is... I get excited. So according to my definition of vacation... a few weeks ago we took our first one, as a family of three, to exciting Granbury Texas! For one whole night!

Leah's daddy had some work to do early on a Monday morning and so Leah and I tagged along on Sunday night for his overnight stay. This is the trip from Leah's perspective...

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"Wow... I bet this place has a great pool! I can't wait to go swimming for the first time tomorrow. But it sure is late now, and I'm tired."

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"I'm just gonna grab some Z's over here while mom and daddy talk about how sweet I am and how perfectly I fall asleep anywhere, as long as I have my baby straitjacket. Got to rest up for some swimming tomorrow!"

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"Alright! I love vacation... I'm ready for some fun in the sun!"

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"I saw that big beautiful pool last night and I'm ready!"

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"What?? The pool is closed on Mondays for maintenance?"

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"uhg... and you mean they won't even open it for ME??"

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"Maybe next time..."

AaaaaAAAAA...

June was a big month. Our little Curley Q went on a few more picnics, started staying in the nursery at church on Sundays, visited with many friends, celebrated Father's Day, attended her first big family reunion and even went on a trip!
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But her mama seems to mostly capture close up pictures of this smiley little girl’s face. No documentation of any actual events. Here are a few other highlights from the month of June...

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Not too traumatized after her first morning in the church nursery!

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Lovin' summertime!

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She tried out a few new fashion trends, like this one...

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And this one...

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And some BIG BOWS... Some of my friends insist that little girls MUST have bows on at all times... so here you go! Too bad mama doesn't match them up with the right outfits! :) She hasn't actually worn any out of the house yet... I'm taking it slow...

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She started squirreling away food for winter...

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Made a new best friend... "Shrimp"

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What?? He's not a shrimp, he's a seahorse?

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She started reaching for things alot... I warned her not to take Beans' toys anymore or she'd lose a finger!! :)

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She watched a little baseball...

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Has it become very obvious that I take lots of pictures of her on our unmade bed? I used to make the bed...

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And finally... I began the brainwashing process!! Her first Aggie t-shirt...

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No need to practice those moves Leah... Aggies don't CHEER, we YELL! .

Here she is watching some Aggie propaganda...

p.s.

I think ALOT should be a word... that's why I use it.