Lumberjess

Our trees are looking pretty bad in the front yard. One of them is a lot worse than the other too. So Jess was cutting down a bunch of dead branches yesterday, and today when he came home from work. Last night he started with the tree in the back yard, since it needed the least done. We were sitting in the grass watching him. Branches were falling all around him, so I told him he should wear a helmet. Paige took it very seriously and went and found her Dora helmet. So he had to wear it while he worked. Haha.
When we moved to the front yard, Cason ran all over the groundcover shirtless, wielding this thing like he's one of the stars of Lost.
Today Karl and Barby came over and did a bunch of stuff in the yard for us. Including my early birthday present from them, which was digging up all the plants right by our front door so we can create a little sitting area there. I've wanted to do that for a while, so I'm really excited. The other part of my gift is some money to get cushions for my bench up there. Thanks guys!

They slaved away in the sun while I sewed and watched from my chair. Ha. Paige was very helpful at first.
Then she said she was too tired. So she hung out in the chairs with me,
and chatted with Grammy.
Cason was pretty helpful too, delivering tools to Grammy and Grampy, whether they needed them or not. He was also really polite, saying "Thank you Grampy." and "Sorry Grampy" one time when he kind of ran into his legs from behind. He was really cute, too.

Lily's Ladybug Party

Lily's birthday party was Saturday. They had it over at our house, so we finally cleaned it! Woohoo! Now I'm determined to keep it that way. Once it gets too a certain level of messy/dirty I lose all motivation to even try and clean. Anyway, her party was ladybug themed, and it was really cute. Veronica said a few weeks ago she had thought about having me make the cake and decorate it, but she decided to do it herself. I'm glad she did, not that I would've minded, but I think she did a really good job. Probably better than I would have. I've discovered baking is my thing, but decorating apparently isn't.
It was a pretty nice day, plenty warm but not blazing hot. We ate outside and the kids played. They had a lot of fun.
Cason went inside and out though, because he was really into the basketball hoop Grammy brought over.
Jess and I were cracking up after he took these pictures of Lily while we sang to her. Woohoo, it's her BIRTHDAY!
Haha.

Also, Great Grama T had her birthday the next day! Happy birthday, we love you!

I Can't Believe How Cool She Is

Sorry if that title is bragging, but I can't help it.

A couple of months ago we were driving home, and Paige was chatting in the backseat. All of a sudden Jess started laughing and said "She talks SO much." I was like "She does?" I hadn't noticed. But then I started thinking about it and she REALLY talks ALL the time. She almost doesn't stop. It's really cute. If she runs out of things to talk about she'll just say something like "Mama.......um.........I.......think....." and just pause a lot to buy time while the thinks of more to talk about. Or she'll be kind of zoning out looking out the windows, but just keeps slowly stringing words together to keep the conversation going. She also plugs the word "only" in randomly, sometimes to start a sentence and sometimes it's just another way to buy some time while she thinks of something to say.

She also really likes to put on little shows for us. This morning she did one for me. I pulled open Microsoft Word as fast as I could and started typing while she talked. So I got this pretty much word for word. The first couple of sentences she was really into it. After that she was sort of playing while she spoke, so she wasn't really even paying attention to what she said. She just wanted to make sure I kept paying attention to her.

I could never REALLY capture the stuff like this that she does, because she's so theatrical about it with her mannerisms and the tone of her voice. I did try and at least put commas and things where she paused for effect. It went like this:

"Hello. (both hands held up in a welcoming gesture for this next line) And welcome to my work. My name is Dr. Toiclett. And today I am drawing things like giraffes and pigs and monkeys and lollipops and forses(horses),lions, bumblebees, tents, keys.

And then. Let me tell you all about my pony. Let me tell you about ALL my animals. This is my project giraffe. And only, I have all kinds of animals in my project. Look, my work is a big building. And only my animals....(loses her train of thought, so she changes the subject) first I am gonna draw giraffe's baby and see how big she is. Watch my work. Watch me mama. Watch this." (Here I finally got the hint and looked away from my typing long enough to satisfy her that I was paying close attention. So she sat back down at her picnic table with her giraffe, pony, and magnadoodle. She put the giraffe down and started tracing the pony, who was playing the part of the baby giraffe apparently. Then she started talking again, while tracing.) "Welcome to my work. And only I am showing how big is the animals. And only this is my project. And only when I was little I was doing my project. Want to see how tall is the baby?" (holds up magnadoodle for me to see) "LOOK! It's 36!" (inches maybe?) "See you later!"

I love her.

Tunic

Lily's birthday was yesterday! She's a 3 year old like her cousin now. Happy birthday Lily!

Now then, Paige modeling her shirt again:
Actually, she tells me it's a "tunic". Haha. She's been writing her name a lot lately. It's pretty dang good actually, and REALLY dang cute. I'll scan one in so I can post it sometime soon.

I've been lazy. I'm UNABLE to clean our house. I can't. But I can bake lots of cookies. And I can quilt. 44 squares so far. 110 to go. While I quilt Cason walks around wearing one rain boot and one of Paige's riding boots. He's a big fan of shoes. Everyone else's especially. He's funny, he knows the difference between boots, shoes, and sandals, and sometimes corrects you if you say the wrong thing.

I'm 22 weeks today. Last night at the park someone asked how far along I am, and then said my belly was tiny. I beg to differ. So far it's pretty much on par with my Cason belly, and that boy was 8 lbs 11.5 ounces.
Oh wait, just looked back, and I think I'm bigger than I was at 22 weeks with Cason. And now I'm terrified.

Rescue Mission

As of this morning Sammy (the tortoise) still hadn't emerged from hibernation. Considering it's been in the high 90s, it was starting to make me pretty nervous. Debbie, (Veronica's mother-in-law) who works for Game and Fish, said we should try and dig around as much as possible under the shed where he'd burrowed.I get out of all hard labor now that I'm quite pregnant, so Jess got to come home from work, eat dinner, and go straight to digging. He probably spent an hour and a half out there, and he finally found him. He could see his shell, so he reached in there and nudged him a little, but nothing happened. We were sure he was a goner. But eventually Jess dug in there far enough and realized he was wedged tightly in the dirt. His burrow must have collapsed on him. He actually had to use a car jack to lift the shed higher for more digging room so he could pry Sammy's shell free from the dirt. He seems okay, and hissed at Jess right away.

So we cleaned him off some and let him soak a while. Then he cruised all over the yard with the kids following him closely and chanting "MARCH! MARCH!" Jess is his hero and Cason is his bodyguard. He followed him around all night, telling me "Sammy. CUTE!" and yelling at Gia anytime she went too close. "NO NO GIA. NO."
Yes, I'm well aware of how healthy and awesome our grass looks. If you need ANY tips at all on caring for your lawn, we're here.

Granny Bob also stopped by during all the commotion with some new clothes for them. Cason preferred to go around in only a pullup at the time, but Paige modeled hers proudly, and it's one of the cutest shirts on her ever.

Tiger

That last post jinxed us apparently. Not more than an hour or two later Paige and Cason had their worst fight ever. It ended in Cason BITING Paige on her side just under her arm. I had looked away to get one of them a pillow, because that's what they were fighting over, and heard her scream. So I didn't see it, but the mark looked like a bite, and when I asked if he bit her he said "Tiger." He was of course in big trouble, but at first he avoided eye contact and giggled. That's his go-to trick for trying to get of trouble, he tries to get us to laugh along. Eventually he realized, told Paige sorry, and gave her a hug. Later today he and Lily were fighting and I saw him totally think about it again, but just before I started to tell him not to even think about it he pulled away. He's never even tried to bite, and now out of nowhere today he's a biter. Hopefully JUST today.
You can't really tell, but after a couple of hours I could completely see teeny teeth marks. After I took this picture she wanted to see it, and then told me "I didn't believe that there were teeth marks."

Happy Morning

Paige and Cason are almost always in good moods when they wake up in the morning. But some days they're both ESPECIALLY happy at the same time. This is one of those mornings. Paige woke up first, so we went to wake Caso up. We sang songs to him until he sat up smiling. He always wonders where Jess is on his first morning back to work. He held his hands up in the air and said "Daddy. Where?" I said "Daddy's at work." He goes "Work? No." Haha. That's how I feel about it.

Now they're in here being so happy and sweet to each other. I just heard a noise and then Paige said "Cason! No, you knocked over my cereal." A second later Cason goes "Surry. Surry." She told him "Oh, it's okay." They're so cute.

Here's how cute:
Paige is SMASHING him up against her so hard she can barely open her right eye. Ha.