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.

twelve gauge

(not a post about a shotgun)

How come when you want to donate blood in high school just to get out of class for an hour (and get a free snack) no one has ANY trouble getting blood from your arm?

How come when you are donating blood in college just to get a free t-shirt (and what lovely fabrications they are) no one has ANY trouble getting blood from your arm?

How come when you desperately want to donate blood to your friend who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments and needs a transfusion in a few short days, and time is of the essence... it takes 3 different tries with a really sharp water hose to get the blood flowing??

:) I'm just being dramatic... for blog's sake... It was not a bad experience and needles don't bother me in the least. I actually think the bigger the needle the LESS it hurts...??? The main thing is we got the blood! It's there in case my friend needs it... and a couple of needles in the antecubital fossa is absolutely nothing compared to what she is having to endure.

And here is my commercial... become a blood donor! I was reminded today how very painless and simple the process is... and it saves so many lives every day. And even if needles do bother you a little bit... you get a FREE T-SHIRT AND A SNACK!

Father's Day 2009

Last year on Father's Day, we had just found out we were expecting a little Curley and hadn't told anyone yet. Beans and the-little-Curley-on-the-way bought dad a BIG TV!

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This year... as the father of 4 month old Curley Q, not just any gift would do... We gave him the gift of TIME!

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A few weeks ago, several things in our kitchen started fritzing (I made up that word) at the same time. OK, so I accidentally "disposed" of a tiny tempered glass bowl in our garbage disposal and broke the disposal. (This is not the first time Kevin has had this little chore to do... but they shouldn't call it a DISPOSE-ALL!! It's so misleading!!)

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Then our dishwasher started leaking... and our sink started leaking... so off to the home improvement store we went. Kevin installed our new dishwasher like a pro... but ran out of time for the new SINK, FAUCET and DISPOSAL.... yes.... we spent a small fortune at Lowe's.... The days came and went, but Kevin was working like crazy and I was "disposing" of everything in the trash can instead of the much preferred sink.

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Although we would have liked to have saved the money on the installation of these items, we preferred to spend Father's Day weekend enjoying our Dad rather than watching him spend his free weekend sweating under the kitchen sink.

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So I hired a plumber while Kevin was at work and had it all installed as a surprise! He liked it.

He's such a good dad... We are lucky girls!

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We spent the actual Day with as many of our favorite fathers as we could!

Here are two peas in a pod...

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With her Pops...

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With her GranStan...

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And with Great-Grandpa in his garden! Leah and I hope we got his still-good-looking-and-gardening-at-93-years-old genes!!

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I don't have the words for a proper tribute to my husband on his first real Father's Day. Watching my favorite person on Earth become a dad has been the greatest thing I've ever experienced! He is the world's greatest dad. Thanks to all the dads pictured above too... for giving him such good examples of how to be a dad and helping him to start on a great foundation!