Tiny Talk Tuesday: Toothless Edition

There were several things Elizabeth said this week that made me think, "I'm gonna remember that for Tiny Talk Tuesday." You'll just have to trust me. She's cute.

Elizabeth and I went out to the barn to put the chickens up tonight. Rebekah was already asleep & in bed. I'm not even sure what David was doing. We came back inside to find David in the bathroom crying, blood on his face.

I was on the phone with Aunt Sissy, so I quickly said goodbye just as David started to exclaim in his distress, "Mom! I'm falling apart!!!"

Please don't think that we've never warned him that he would loose his baby teeth. Apparently that just slipped his mind.

After reminding him about his baby teeth and his grown up teeth, and reassuring him that this means he's turning into a big kid, he started to be ok with falling apart... I mean, loosing a tooth.

Upon further questioning, it seems that he was playing on the couch and hit his mouth, knocking the tooth out. It must have been starting to loosen without us noticing. Now that he's asleep, I guess it's time to put on my fairy wings...

It's Hot!

Happy Half Birthday, Elizabeth!!!

Very excited about her day!

Rebekah reading has nothing to do with
Elizabeth's Half Birthday,
but it sure was cute.

Beautiful girl enjoying her day!

"Now take a picture of Lambie"

Cute Little Sister

Handsome Big Brother

I told Elizabeth I would make whatever she wanted for dinner to celebrate her half birthday. She requested peanut butter sandwiches at the park. OK! I started packing the picnic basket and called MawMaw and Grandpa to see if they'd like to picnic with us. Then it started raining... so we moved to McDonald's. And yes, Elizabeth still ate a peanut butter sandwich!

She also requested cupcakes, so we took the cupcakes to McDonald's with us.

Before...

What an adorable cupcake!!!
3 1/2 pink M&M's on board and a sparkly pink star.
(I had no intention of lighting the star,
because we don't blow out candles
or have presents for half birthdays.)

After! Yum!

Then we got to play!!!

David directly overhead

Rebekah disappeared up the slide!
Luckily she ran into MawMaw at the top!

Running around having fun!

Happy Half Birthday, Elizabeth!!!
3 1/2 years old today!

15-months and 3 1/2 years!!!

Rebekah turned 15 months old on Wednesday. There she is with banana on her face (trying to rub some on my camera, too!). She loves her bananas!

At her check-up, she weighed in at 24 pounds, 4 oz (75th percentile) and measured 30.5 inches long (50th percentile). As soon as the dr took out her little flashlight, Rebekah started crying, and I mean wailing! She bawled the whole time as she had her eyes, noes, throat and ears checked. She blubbered through listening with the stethoscope. I don't know how dr heard anything! She stopped crying when the exam was done & I picked her up. Doctor said she looked great, though. She got 3 immunizations in 2 injections. As soon as I laid her down for the shots, she started blubbering again, so much that you couldn't even tell a difference when she actually got the shots! After getting in the car, she was asleep in less than 5 minutes!

Today, Friday, July 9, is Elizabeth's half birthday! Three and a half today! We will be celebrating in some fashion today. She has asked for cupcakes and since I like celebrations, too, I think we'll probably make some this afternoon. : ) This is an outfit she put together - all by herself - a few days ago. Her socks were red and pink, so I think that's how she tied the whole look together. Look out world!!!

I caught the big one!

We went fishing yesterday on the far side of the pond. I caught 4 fish - these 2 bass, a crappie, and a perch.

My shirt says, "My Husband Rocks" because he really does! He took all the hooks out for me! Thanks, Babe!!!

I'm also gonna call this a belly shot - 14.5 weeks. This means the 2nd trimester is here! I'll turn sideways for the next one. And maybe my hair frizzies will have tamed down by then!

Another Massacre on the Farm. I hate snakes.

I hate snakes. I can't think of any reason to like them. I don't care if they eat rodents. The Bible says I will hate them, so I do. I was just talking about this with David & Elizabeth in the car when we got home and found this. This is the chicken snake that got in the chicken nesting boxes a couple of weeks ago. Grandpa came over & chopped it up for me. See the fat part of his body? One of my eggs. I hate snakes.

Last summer we got some guinea keets. They've grown & now serve as the power horses of bug eaters around the place. I bought 10. I have 2 males left. Some were lost to owls, some to coyotes. They're strange, loud birds. But they work hard.

So this year, I got 10 more. Just a few days ago. Aren't they cute??? : ) They stayed inside a few days, but they're already big enough & it is warm enough, that I moved them into a cage that is suspended inside the chicken coop. They've been outside for about 4 days now, I think.

This morning when I went out, I found yet another massacre scene. I hate snakes.

See how fat he is? He has swallowed 3 of the keets. 5 more lay dead. I assume they were squeezed to death. He was stuck inside the cage because his body was too fat to get out, now.

I hate snakes. Dad came to my rescue this time. Dad stabbed the serpent with rebar and a knife and when the snake got his neck through the wires, he found the pruning shears were not nice to him. I hate snakes. When Dad got the slithering beast out of the cage & held him up, he was over 6 feet long... and that was without his head.

4th of July: Kids, Reunion, Anniversary, and Sparklers!

A few days before, David & Elizabeth worked on a little Independence Day book.

We used a potato to stamp some stars. This is Elizabeth's star paining:

The day started off cooking! Getting ready for the annual family reunion. Just about right; I forgot to take pictures at the reunion. It was a small turn out this year, but we had a good time. I especially noticed Momma's absence after lunch as the menfolk ended up outside visiting and the womenfolk ended up around the table inside. That's how it always seems to end up.

For the first time that I can remember, Dad showed up with flowers for me to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary! And he got my favorite color, purple. Very sweet. : ) Friday night we were able to ditch the kids at Grana's and went out to dinner, just the two of us. It was nice. So on our actual anniversary, I cooked dinner for us at home. This scrum-dil-ee-umptious dish is a Pioneer Woman recipe: Summer Stir Fry. Fabulous. You should try it. Garlic, shrimp, zuccini, red onion, anaheim pepper, corn off the cob, served with brown rice. Mmmmm...

After cleaning up from dinner (the kids ate peanut butter sandwiches, boy they missed out), we made ice cream. Dad & Uncle Phillip headed down to the pond to fish. Curt & Suzanne showed up. As it started getting dark, we headed out & started with some poppers. Dad had a small light show of assorted fountains & Roman candles & bottle rockets, then we broke out the sparklers.

Dad & Uncle Phillip had a little fun with big handfuls of sparklers. I don't recommend this.

Mom's "special" sparklers:

Elizabeth was scared of the fireworks and was still nervous about the sparklers until she saw Mom & Dad sparkling too and finally gave it a try. Then she was hooked.

We lit 'em as fast as we could to keep up! We also were able to see the end of the fireworks show in town from our back porch! Rebekah slept through all the fireworks.

I'm gonna complain now.

When David was 2, I taught at Mother's Day Out. I taught the oldest class, PreK age. David's class was right across the hall. Since I was teaching, his registration fee was waived and his monthly tuition was half price. I really can't remember, but it seems like I had to pay about $15-25/mo, and it was deducted from my paycheck and I still came home with a paycheck. This was 4 years ago.

We got a boxholder a couple of days ago from a local MDO program. I know Elizabeth would love going to it. I looked into it. At $140/mo, plus registration fee, plus supply fee, the total for a year comes out to be $1402.50. Yikes!

So I called my friend who lives elsewhere & asked what she paid for the 2 day a week preschool her girls have gone to. Theirs was $75/mo.

While yes, she would love it and I would enjoy a little bit more time with one less kid at home to help, $140/mo just seems ridiculous to me. Am I just behind the times? This is a one-stoplight town - does it not seem expensive to anyone else?

Stars & Stripes

Welcome July

Well, we made it to tomato season and we're on our last jar of salsa that I made last year. This year, I planted more plants because I want to make one more batch to make it last a little bit longer and be able to give some away also. I also wanted to freeze some pasta sauce.

But if gardening went like this every year, I probably wouldn't be a gardener! My tomatoes are having a terrible summer. I have less than half the amount needed for one batch of salsa. I went to the farmer's market yesterday and bought the rest of the tomatoes needed for one batch of salsa. I'll give my plants a chance to grow some more, but I'm probably heading back to the farmer's market for the rest of the salsa, too.

My peppers are doing pretty good, though. At least I didn't have to buy those!