Ducks

When we get some free time (and when the ends of all our bread loaves start to pile up) we love to go feed the ducks. The ducks seemed particularly fiesty this day. They had no fear - they were completely willing to walk right up to us - we actually had to keep moving back because the kids were scared of them and to be honest - I was a little intimidated myself. We were glad Raider was with us - we had to make him scare the ducks away for us!!

Guests

Haylie absolutely loves having guests over - she loves any kind of activity rather than sitting around with us doing nothing, but she especially loves people and new friends. Our cousin Grant came to stay with us for a few days and the kids had lots of fun laying out blankets and pillows to watch a movie and... um... jumping off the couch. Who let them do that???

Running of the Bull

In preparation for the local rodeo our city has an event where they march the bulls through the streets and tons of people come out to watch. It was a pretty fun event except for the 150 degree heat outside!!! It really was hot but the kids had a great time playing all together and watching the cows!

Look how hot they all look - poor things!!!

A Dog?

Although we are really not ready to bring another dog into our family, I see that day drawing closer and closer. We recently had my Dad's dog Sydney stay with us for a week and she quickly became Haylie's BFF! Mostly because Haylie could order Sydney around without her fighting back like James. Haylie was glued to Sydney for the 5-6 days we had her - they were inseparable (except for the day Sydney got out of our backyard and Haylie cried herself to sleep - thankfully we found Sydney later). Now that Sydney is back home with "Papa Louie", every couple days Haylie talks about how much she misses her and asks me if we can call Papa Louie to see if Sydney can come for a visit.

Sydney was actually very good for James as well - at the beginning of her stay James would freeze and cry anytime Sydney even looked at him. By the end he was hugging her and kissing her and now he is much more comfortable around dogs in general. Everywhere we go, both of the kids are mesmerized by dogs and I know it isn't long before Haylie starts asking for her very own!

Here's miss Haylie and her best bud Sydney:

Haylie had the funniest way of calling Sydney when she wanted her attention - i guess it was her attempt to whistle. I asked her to do it for the camera:

Growing Up, Growing Organized

Last year I posted this blog entry about Haylie searching through her short drawer and pulling out all her shirts. Well the other day after leaving her alone in her room for awhile I came back to find this. Despite the fact that all of the shirts are still coming out of the drawer that I put them into, I'm happy to see that she's learning some organization skills!

Here's James trying to blend in...

More pictures from 4th of July at the cabin...

Too fun to pass up:

Grandpa makes special pancakes for Haylie:

All tuckered out:
Haylie loved collecting flowers to take back to Grandma and Grandpa:

Fun Times at the Cabin

During the summer we usually get in several visits to Micah's parent's cabin. Hopefully some day the kids will develop fond memories of their times at "the cabin." We headed up there for 4th of July this year - Haylie was counting down the days until she could go "mountain climbing." We hiked to a little lake and there was a huge rock area - Haylie could have stayed there all day climbing the rocks until she got to the very top.

She climbed all this way and kept going much farther:
The kids also enjoyed playing in the mud by the water - not usually something I would encourage but they were having so much fun...
Raider - did his favorite thing all day as well - text messaging!


Our favorite little lake!

No-name Turtle

For Father's Day Micah wanted a turtle, believe it or not. He had been talking about it for months (a couple months ago) so when I went to buy the turtle I figured it would be a surprise and hoped he still wanted it. The day before Father's Day I got the turtle, came home and hid it in the garage It was in a box from the pet store and I put the box down in a corner behind a bean bag chair in the garage. Not more than 30 min after I got home, Micah went out in the garage to get something. He quickly hurried back inside and called me out. He pointed to the corner and said "something is moving over there." I confidently walked over to the bean bag chair and removed it to show the Petco box at which point he looked confused and then pronounced, "A TURTLE!" Yes...no longer a surprise, but he was excited nonetheless.

So everyone asks me, "really, Micah wanted a turtle? why?" Well he wanted a pet for the kids but nothing he really had to take care of. This turtle is perfect. It lives outside full time on the side of the house. We just had to fence it in so it couldn't escape. Every day he throws a piece of lettuce out there and makes sure the water is still full. That's it and definitely our kind of pet!! The kids love it although it is yet to be named. Micah thought he would name it Dodger since it is constantly trying to escape (and he loves the Dodgers). Haylie wants to name it Clown...who knows... Any other good names out there?

Here's some pictures of our turtle and a video of James chatting with it.

Here's the turtle's home. We still need to go out to the greenbelt and bring back some more interesting nature for it...

James loves the turtle. He always wants to look at it. I love how he says turtle...

Not for the Squeamish

This past weekend we decided to take a little day trip to the river. We found a little beach along the way and stopped for a picnic and some swimming. The kids had so much fun and it was SUPER hot out so the water felt nice.

Later this week I was washing Haylie's hair in the bathtub when I felt a big lump underneath her hair. I split her hair apart and saw a big, bug-looking object connected to her head. Micah said it was a tick and I freaked out! Poor Haylie got scared because she saw my face and I was going a little crazy. I had to calm down and we had to come up with a strategy to get it out. Micah told me to you to put a little fire at the tail so he ran downstairs. He comes back with the barbecue lighter and seriously thought he was going to light that thing next to Haylie's head. After I made it clear that would be over my dead body he got some tweezers and began to slowly pull the tick off of her head. It was swollen up as it had been there a few days but it was luckily mostly on the outside of her head. After about 10 minutes or so, and lots of crying by Haylie (she actually did a really great job holding still and letting Daddy rip the bug off of her head), it finally came off, with a little chunk of her head attached. It was truly the grossest thing I have ever seen. I wasn't even going to blog about it because I was so grossed out but I tell you, if I ever go to the river or woods again I am definitely going to check for ticks. In fact, I still feel like they're crawling all over me. YUCK!!