The Houser Family

Ahhh, another opportunity seized.  I rock at seizing opportunities.

Meet the Houser family.  They were so fun to photograph!

Now are some of my favorites.  I like these because they each have a fun little background story.  They're kind of like bloopers - but not really.

Sometimes, when you're melting down, you just need a pretzel stick.

And it's hard to model for pics when you're holding the world's last rolly-polly.

Checking out their hair in the window.

Don't know what's happening here, but it's funny!

Hey, have you seen my tummy?

Thanks Houser's for the awesome day and the wonderful experience.  I love your family, so much!

Belleview Park

Apparently, when I was a little kiddo, my mom took me (and my sibs and friends and yada ya) to Belleview Park.  It's one of those memories of mine that doesn't match up with reality.  You know the type - where a creek in reality was a class four rapid in your memory.  Yeah, that's Belleview Park for me.

Some of my new mom friends (yay! new mom friends!) and I went to this park last week, and I fell in love!  So, I told one of my besties Bri that she had to come.  And she did.  And she fell in love, too.  And that's the truth.

There's an adorable little train that you can take all around the park.  They take their train rides seriously, and the conductor is legit.  He was clad in overalls and a train man hat.  Do those have names?

We took our girls on the ride and they just loved it.  Andrey now officially says "choo choo"!

Next was a stop at the petting zoo.  This was not Andrey's favorite.  She wanted to be held almost the entire time.  We still got some face time with a pig...

and some goats...

and a donkey.

Here's beautiful Jaimison.  She melts my heart.  Such a sweet, sassy, smart little thing!

Here's a goat, Andrey and Jaimo checking out the pig.  I love it!

Next we found a giant tree, played in the stream and had a picnic.  It was a perfect day!

Jaimo ended up in her undies, which was awesome.  And the girls played and rolled around until they were pooped!  It was a beautiful day, at an apparently not so memorable park, where I made new memories.  I love these people!

Monkey on my Back

This is my blog.  So I can say what I think, right?  I can't tell you have many times I've written something, raw and unfiltered, and never posted it.  I get nervous about making people mad.  But, this isn't for you.  It's for me.  And as selfish as that may be, it's cathartic.  I'll wince when I post this, but I'll feel better too.  It's not directed at anyone in particular, it's just direct.

I've been bothered by people lately.  People who make indirect comments that are little jabs.  Jabs that make me crazy.  I don't know if they know they're doing it...but I think they do.  It revolves around parenting.  And I'm not going to apologize for how I raise my kids.  I like my way.

I won't apologize for staying close to my kid when the other mom's let them wander.  Or for cutting her grapes into quarters, and then quartering them again.  Or for washing her hands before she eats (I mean, really?!).  Or putting sunscreen on again.  I won't apologize for sticking to the routine I worked so hard to establish.  Or for telling her "no".  This is what works for me.

I hear the undertone of friends implying that I'm overprotective.  And I keep it to myself that I think they can be lazy and careless.  (well, until I wrote that I kept it to myself)

So for all you "carefree" mom's who constantly talk about how flexible and relaxed you are - I'm glad you're so proud of yourself.  But I'm proud of myself too.  And I like what I've got going here.

Back off.

...and have a nice day! :)

Backyard Bane

Whose idea was it to buy this house?  This house with endless projects.  Did we forget to look in the backyard before we bought it?  Apparently, we did.

The problem with our neck of the woods, is itty bitty backyards.  They're as common here as humidity is in the rainforest.  And we (the hubs, dog and I) don't like tiny backyards.  But more than our dislike for small yards, is crappy yards.  And crappy, we can fix!  And by we, I mean the guys we hired to do most of the work.

Let's have a gander at what we're working with here.  The previous homeowners built their own, massive Titanic deck.  

We have ugly trees, and slopped lawn on one side.

And rocks and bushes on the other side.

Here's Titanic in all her glory.  Yes, there's a nasty hot tub back there.   And no, we didn't use it.

One day after the rescue team came in and the yard looked like this.  They cut down that huge tree.  We were sad about it until the main man told us it was rotting and slanting - getting ready to fall on top of a poor bunny I'm sure.  See Mr. Pumm out there?  He took to the hot tub concrete himself (and so did my dad).  It was a good way for him to relieve any aggression he was holding in.

And here we are today.  There were three dudes out there all day.  It was 90+ degrees.  They were hot.

It took over an hour for them to get to the root of this bad mamma jamma.  She was a beast!

And that's where we leave it folks.  The rubble and dirt.

Twice the Personality

Mom, my bowl is empty.

Oooh...look at this!

I'm so proud of my stacking abilities. 

What happens when daddy dresses me.

Let me take a 12 second break.

Who me?  I'm so sweet!