rollin', rollin', rollin'

As usual, too much time has passed since we last spoke. Spring has finally showed up & here's how we're celebrating:

going to the park

playing after supper

taking tours of the yard to see which flowers have started budding

raking old leaves from last fall

greeting geraniums that are showing in my planters

crawling

pulling up

standing

walking (with her walker)

writing more letters (It was J today)

learning about the feeding of the four thousand

hating baths (the oldest one)

loving baths (the youngest one)

eating table food almost all of the time (youngest one)

struggling to finish all of her food on the table almost all of the time (oldest one)

having our first sleepover at our house (LOADS of fun)

riding . . . her first trike!

This was a seminal event at our house. We live on an extremely steep hill, so while most parents would have already bought & helped their children use any variety of riding toys, Kate has never had any. We never even had a riding toy for inside the house. She does play with Little Tikes car at Mima's house, but, she was pretty much as inexperienced as they come. I finally decided that we could just let her play in the garage or downstairs in the spare room (linoleum flooring), and that this was the year for the trike. I never thought about the back deck! I had dinner to fix, so she begged to bring it upstairs into the living room. Um, no. But, then she came up with a good solution. Before dinner she was crashing into the chairs & was halting at best. By the time she got back up onto the trike after dinner, she was cruising around on her own personal race trak, round & round the table. It was so fun to see her doing such a big kid activity!

Hey Mom, when can I do that??

It's quite funny, she sits right at the threshold when the door's open, but won't cross over. I don't know if it's the texture of the metal threshold or the rug right outside the doorway, but she will not cross over. . . yet.

Trying really hard to show her pedaling skills for the camera.

Look what Kate stowed in the basket. . . she had been playing church earlier, so they were out on the couch from that morning.

Trike Evangelist

Shh, mom, we're having a chat!

some firsts . . and other miscellanea

First hold. Pure joy on Laurie's face as she got to hold "Ray-ful".

First (ish) smile -- or a moment or two after a smile. She does really well with Josh, and I have gotten a few *real* smiles, as well. I put this down to Josh being WAYYY sillier than I am.

More thumb sucking goodness. She is getting so big & I'm having to adjust straps & things on her car seat & the little pillow in her swing because she's taking up more space.

At a recent family gathering & behind clothes doors. TA-DA!!! Snow ballerinas!

While the older cousins are getting into mischief. . .Laurie finds a baby to mother. She can't wait until she has Rayful to play with!

catching up

My usual shutterbug tendencies have been shriveling up as life gets busier. This results in fewer pics taken, and longer periods between downloading the photos. Today when I sat down for this project, I got a real cornucopia of subject matter. Hope you enjoy!

Time for a haircut! (Sorry, no post haircut pic -- she basically just got a trim, so it doesn't look that different to the untrained eye).

Silly dress-up girls!

Time to put those leotards to use! The girls had great fun at their friend's gymnastics party.

38 weeks (and so the countdown begins!)

All 3 girls!

easter weekend

Saturday was an Easter Egg Hunt at the Johnson's. The girls had a blast. Laurie discovered the treats the fastest & her picture shows exactly what she did -- she sat down & started snacking. Lydia & Kate were much better at finding eggs, and kept calling out the color of the eggs they found.




Suffice it to say, I should never plan to take pics with Kate after church on Sunday. This is NEVER a good time for her. I coerced her to wear her bow for a few pics, but the smiles were not readily appearing. So, content yourselves with ok pics of her & better pics of the adults.




Not perhaps the most beautiful shot, but it captures a little moment, and you can see a different view of my belly. :-) "Where's baby?" "Right there, momma!" (like, don't you know yet?)

around & about

She loves to snuggle in our bed with us, but it's hilarious to see how much space she requires. This morning she told Josh to scooch over (which meant that he practically had to get off the bed). She never does any sleeping, but it's so cute to snuggle with my little girl in the cozy covers.

First thing in the morning, she had lined up all of her "friends" as she calls them.

Lydia & Kate played outside on the playset for the first time this year just last week! It hasn't been used in months & it was starting to feel pretty lonely. I just cannot wait for warmer weather!

interpretations on a smile

One reason I love taking pictures is that some moments that happen too quickly for the mind's eye to register can be captured on film. These images can enrapture us or cause us to giggle. I find this particularly true with children because their expressions can change a mile a minute. Adults have usually figured out what to do when they are in front of a camera. Don't put your finger in your nose, don't blow bubbles, don't look at somebody you aren't dating yet with eyes of adoration & love. You get the picture! Well, this picture captured these cousins in a moment. Even my grumpy child adds some character to the shot! I can't get her to smile these days (for pictures, that is!). Enjoy....

Nathan (4.5 years), Lydia (3 years), Caroline (19 mos), Kate Sourpuss Bailey (20 months)

I can't figure out what this expression is saying. She knew I was taking pictures of her. . . Jennifer, can you fill in here?



She's smiling behind her choc-ate finger licking goodness. She helped Mima make the frosting for the brownies. yummy!

Nathan had a great time in the pool although he didn't enjoy the bigger kid's splashing, so he stayed in the hot tub w/ Lydia most of the time.

Bonus reel:

st. george, portraits

Since I did not get a great shot of our family on our LAST beach vacation, I was especially determined to get one this time. But, as photo shoot doesn't top anyone's list of fun things to do on vacation, it got pushed to the very last evening, and even then I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Jonathan saved the day by becoming our photographer, and then Jen, Ben, & co met me for their photo shoot. We had to do our work quickly, both for the sake of the children as well as our later dinner reservations (more about that later!)









The sun had set lower by the time the Johnson's get to the beach, so some of their pictures came out a bit dark. I have since edited them, but am still trying to work out the best tweakings. I'm completely inexperienced at color adjustment & basically am just going by what looks good! This picture & the picture of the couple w/ the kids playing behind them looked pretty great in my picture editing software, but seem quite light when added here.

The Honeymoon Shot -- still in love after 5 years!

I felt particularly proud of this shot. I think I was inspired by one of Kelley's wedding photos. :-) I didn't bring my telephoto lense on the vacation, but that might have given a different effect, with a blurring of the girls in the background. But, I kind of like it as is -- if only I could get the coloring/brightness/saturation/contrast all correct! (Help Renee!)





I'm having trouble posting photos today, but I persevered. There are a few more that you may like to see, & I will try to load tomorrow. Some of this is for Jen, who hasn't seen some of these yet.

Also in an aside, my first day of school was today & it was great! I will miss this summer though. I think it was my best one yet!

i came home with a potty

So, today was the big day for Babies R Us around here. I've been waiting & waiting for a new BRU that's relatively close to us, and close to other things I go to, to open up! I set that as my date for buying Kate her little potty. So, today, opening day, I went & bought 2 potties & potty covers for public toilets! :-) One potty in the house, one in the trunk. I know we're not really to the point of needing the one in the trunk, but I thought I would put my $5 off coupon to good use. Star94 was there to assist BRU in their Grand Opening & were giving away prizes. They had just about used up all of their prizes, so as we were walking towards them, I saw the lady at the booth putting away their prize wheel (as in spin the wheel to find out if you win a water bottle, t-shirt, or a Little Einstein DVD). I didn't really get the significance of her putting away the wheel until afterwards. We walked up to the booth & asked what they were giving away. She offered us a water bottle & I took it. Lydia noticed the Little Einstein Dvd's & saw that THEY had the same one as she did at home. So, she wanted this one for her 'friend Kate.' I told her her to ask the lady. She did. . .and the lady gave it to us! Hurray for cute kids! Having Lydia & Kate with me helped me swing another deal inside, too. I had two $5 off coupons which you aren't supposed to use on the same purchase (or probably the same day), but the cashier let me split my purchases into two transactions & I got to save $10. So, we came away with 2 balloons, some free chick-fil-a coupons, a Little Einstein CD & 2 potties! Yeah Grand Opening!

st. george, on the water!

Although the beach we were staying at was pretty enough, we got the opportunity to visit a barrier island with the clearest, greenest water -- perfect for snorkeling & keeping an eye out of jellyfish! We rented a pontoon, nothing as deluxe as the one we rented on the Lake Nanta., but large enough for quite a group of us. We didn't think that the younger ones would do well on the boat all day, so we decided to the leave the babies at home with some babysitters on shifts. Jen, Lydia, and I went with the boys in the morning, and we had a blast! We didn't actually brave the ocean, but explored the bay at Port St. Joe. (Apparently, pontoons & ocean waves don't make a good match!) The first place we stopped for snorkeling had clear, green water, and although there was a current, it did not feel like you were swimming in the ocean until your face or eyes dipped in. It was so hot, we practically HAD to jump in just to cool down. Lydia did very well, even when we saw fish & jellyfish in the water. Thankfully, since the water was so clear, we were able to avoid any contact with them. The barrier island was beautiful! It would have been an incredibly romantic place to take a long, uninterrupted walk with gorgeous surroundings, but I was hanging with Jen & Lydia & the boys were all exploring the waters surrounding the barrier island.

We had lunch on the boat.

Do you need a flipper, Josh?

Jonathan was the first to find some photo-worthy underwater life. I had never seen or touched a live sand dollar. The texture was a funny - there were little cilia or something all over so, it wasn't smooth. And, the color itself was a bit surprising. Several people thought they remembered that it was illegal to remove sand dollars, so we didn't bring it home.



Andrew found a largish hermit crab & I wanted a picture of it so badly that I swam back to the boat, got the mesh bag that the scuba gear came in, swam back to fetch the creature, and then back to the boat where the camera was! He very obligingly came out of his shell & tried to high tail it off of the boat.


These jelly fish swam slow enough for me to see them, grab my camera, and take a picture. Unfortunately, none of the other fish (shark, stingray, or dolphin, and unidentified swimming fish) obliged us so well.



We got back in the boat & motored down the shore of the barrier island. We got into several large beds of sea oats (I think) & the boys were brave enough to snorkel even after we had seen a shark & stingray in the area! Though our glances were fleeting, it was definitely very cool to see creatures normally seen in the aquarium right next to your boat! The shark was approximately 2 or 3 feet long, so not that big, but still pretty exciting. The sting ray was pretty big, but booked it pretty fast! Lydia got so hot, we had to get in the water, but the girls stayed right by the boat, looking out for sharks, stingrays & jellyfish the whole time! Not relaxing! The water was much deeper, and was much darker because there was seaweed on the ocean floor, so it was harder to keep a good lookout. Thankfully, nothing happened!

This little girl didn't last long on our trip back to the marina.

Our fearless navigator!

Jen kindly thought to take a picture of Josh & I. We had such a great time that day, I would have done it again the next day!


We met Jenny, Lisa, Kate, Lauren, and Grandma at the marina, and then realized that we were going to be too many people to return back in my car. Unbeknownst to us when we had made the shift plan that morning, the power was turned off at the house for a few hours, and so Grandma, Mima, Jenny, and the girls all had to leave the house. We ended up driving home in Lenny & Jenny's 4runner, with Jen riding in the back cargo area! What an adventure! Lisa & Jenny enjoyed their afternoon on the boat with all of the guys.

On our last day, several of us rented jet skis on the ocean for a half-hour. Man! That was so much fun! Josh & I rode together. It was definitely more fun to drive than to ride. I got less water in my face when I drove for two reasons: I didn't drive as fast as Josh & I was further up the jet ski & that helped. That was the major drawback to skiing in the ocean -- the water in the eyes was killer. I think that if we had to do it again, we'd try to rent on the river. There aren't the waves to ride, but you'd have less of the salt stinging the eyes. Even with salt water streaming down my face, it was tons of fun & definitely worth it. Get this, though. Andrew took Jenny with him on his jet ski. And they both survived!

I love going to the beach & hanging out, but it was definitely fun to do some water sports as well. It just gave some variety to the week & was a way for Josh & I to have a lot of fun together. He doesn't get the same kind of kicks & giggles out of reading at the beach as I do.