Phone Photos #11

I ate dinner out with some friends a while back, and afterward we walked in a store that recently opened here called Charming Charlie. They had a lot of cute things, but I was most excited about this candle display. I love these candles (Circle E), especially the Bird of Paradise. My friend Heather bought me my first one (and several since then), but I've never found them for sale here. I've ordered them from the website a few times. I have also had the tulip scent and the baby powder scent (for R's nursery), and both of those were great.This probably looks gross, but it's actually really good. It's an easy dip that's great with blue corn tortilla chips. You just mix a jar of corn relish (by the canned veggies close to the jar of pimiento) and a can of drained/rinsed black beans and chill for a few hours. Lane doesn't like it though, so I ate the whole bowl by myself.This next picture is funny to me. This is Alexee wearing--not by choice--a dress that I made for her. I'd never made a dress before, and it showed. It had several issues, the main one being that I didn't know how to sew the armholes (curved--I'm better with straight lines--and I can't follow instructions from a book AT all) so they were very rough. But (lack of) sewing skills aside, I thought it was a cute little Patriotic dress for July. She told me she didn't like red, and I think she said something like she wanted to "crumble it up" and "give it to a friend". I guess I might not bother with any more dress projects. Had it been pink or purple with flowers it might have been more exciting to her. She obviously didn't even want to try it on, but I made her. ha ha Just one day in the playroom--maybe the day that C learned to climb on the table by himself?
This was the trolley in my mirror as we were leaving the library one rainy day.

Bogart climbed in R's booster seat while we were waiting for R at swim lesson. :)

As we were leaving our house one day, Alexee yelled, "Look, that cloud looks like a 'sree' (how she says three), and that's how old I am!" Good eye.
A hot hot day (and this was about 5:00 p.m.). Alexee was playing a kazoo in the back seat, which made it seem even hotter.
Dixie Cafe's "Little Person of the Week", Rhett Garner! He won the drawing for a free kid's meal and had his name displayed at the soda fountain for the week. We ate there earlier this week to claim his prize. It included a dessert, and he chose a chocolate shake. They were sweet to give his sister one for free, too.

Just cute! :) These used to be R's sandals. They've made a lot of little toddler steps.

These next few are some of the entries from R's Kindergarten journal. He brought the binder home at the end of the school year, but I'd forgotten to look through it. I read some of it yesterday and thought these were all so sweet. The first one is about going to see the "World Famous" (see first sentence) Lipizzaner Stallions with my parents back in March. He said he also got to ride the pony.

I went to eat with him at school on his birthday. It says, "She is going to bring me a balloon". Melts my heart!

About Mother's Day. Again, melts my heart!

I loved this one too!

We bought these at Fresh Market yesterday. I love fresh flowers. I put them on the cabinet where I could take a picture with my sunflower paintings in the background. I never actually finished the one on the left (so I hid it behind the flowers). They're in oils, and I started them several years ago to hang in the kitchen at our previous house. I found them a while back and decided to prop them up on top of the hutch, even though one isn't finished. I doubt I'll get around to finishing it any time soon. I love oils, but they take a long time to mix up and they're messy--I've stained a lot of things (carpet at my old apartment, for example) with them.

I took the kids swimming this morning--only snapped a few pictures.

This one makes me smile.

This afternoon we made a tent in the playroom. Crosby loved going in and out of the door on the right side between the chalkboard and kitchen set. We used the door to the kitchen set fridge, and he could open it himself.
This one is funny to me because of Rhett resting on his cot and the other two standing on the bin of kitchen toys against the wall--you can only see their legs. They were having more fun peeking out over the roof of the tent (should have taken a picture of faces too). It's actually kind-of an accurate picture of the kids' personalities...Rhett being very serious and pretending to do things that you would actually do in a tent, like sleep on a cot. Alexee and Crosby however, just thought of something funny to do and enjoyed it even if it wasn't a true camping activity. I often remind Rhett that it's just pretend, and everyone else doesn't have to pretend according to his script.

Have a great weekend!

Nutritious Breakfast

I usually grab the Cheerios and give Crosby a few to snack on while I get breakfast ready. This morning I reached in the box and screamed. Look what I found inside...a huge plastic ant! After the scream: "RHETT, COME HERE!" He was already laughing, and by then I was too. :) Bugs usually don't really bother me, but I have to admit I was pretty surprised! I'm kind-of glad we "lost" that rubber snake that Rhett won at school because that could have really scared me.

Back-to-school shopping

It's hard to believe school starts in just over three weeks! This morning Rhett and I went back-to-school shopping. Miss Chloe came over to play with Alexee and Crosby so that Rhett and I could have some time to hang out together, just the two of us. :) I printed the 1st grade supply list for him, and he was in charge of reading the items and helping me find them at Target. I was glad that we found everything...no out-of-stock items on our list.

After Target, we went to Children's Place to shop for fall clothes. It will be too hot to wear most of the items for quite a while, but when cooler weather arrives we'll be ready.
And then finally--lunch together at the restaurant of his choice. He said he was really hungry and ordered a hot dog, mac & cheese and a milkshake. We had fun eating together and talking about what the first grade might be like. I love this sweet boy!!!
Registration is next week. We are anxious to find out about his teacher and classmates!

The library was closed

The kids' library DVDs were due today, so we drove downtown to the Main library to return them and make new selections. But the nice, air-conditioned library was closed (at least the children's area was) so we dropped our movies off and walked to a nearby park. It was very hot. They were disappointed about the library, so I felt like I needed to come up with a fun alternative.

Here are the kids in a shady spot:

(I don't know the story on the statue...I didn't have time to read the signs.)With the slides, tubes and tunnels it was like a real-life game of Chutes and Ladders! I couldn't keep my eyes on both of them and stay beside the stroller at the same time, so I was nervous. But they had fun. I would have enjoyed it more had Lane been there to help me watch everyone. They didn't have on swimsuits for the sprinkler park, but that didn't stop them from cooling off! I think Alexee was the only one running through the water in a smocked Easter dress.

Sweet Sixteen

I know I sound like a broken record. But Crosby is SO sweet and SO good and SO happy. Such a JOY. He is 16 months old today. He is doing a lot of cute things, and saying a few words. My favorite new thing that he says is when he answers, "Yesh" to our questions. When he's in the mood to answer, we'll ask him several things in a row just to hear him say yes. It's the cutest little word in the cutest little voice! I've also noticed how he's learning to reason and do certain tasks. Today it rained and he noticed the water pouring off the roof so he went to the window to look. I guess he couldn't see enough through the blinds, so he walked straight from living room window to the back door where he could see better. And a few days ago he picked up a piece of paper from the floor and walked to the bathroom and threw it in the trash can. I told Lane that and he laughed and said, "Wow. Our other two won't even do that."

He seems to love to play ball. He loves to try to throw, catch, roll, bounce, hand it off to someone else, or get Bogart to chase it. He gets so excited and moves his feet really fast when he's about to throw the ball to us, and he laughs and smiles when he runs after it. (Maybe that's what Peyton Manning used to do?)

He also loves tv remotes and phones. That's about the only time he gets mad--when you take a remote away from him. That makes him cry.

In the last month he's gone to one nap a day, and usually sleeps about two hours (1:00-3:00). He sleeps 12 hours straight at night. He still sucks his thumb and sleeps with his little football lovie. I have three of them that I rotate so that he won't develop a favorite (that happened with Alexee and her pink blankies).

He's getting to be a little bit more picky with his eating lately. I've noticed he's not quite as enthusiastic about green peas or carrots now (who can blame him?), and he hasn't been very good about eating turkey and/or chicken. He still likes almost every fruit, and he likes cheese and yogurt and granola bars. When I bring him downstairs every morning he goes straight to the pantry and tries to reach a granola bar.

This was yesterday after church. I bought this outfit at Gymboree last week. I especially loved the back of it...

In case you haven't been around a toddler recently, I'll remind you of what types of things they do:

:)

1. They reach into the grocery cart and find things they can lift and either try to open them/eat them or throw them out of the cart and laugh. Be sure to put the eggs at the very back.
2. They see the pantry door open and make a run for it and see what they can empty out in the floor. Today, it was a whole box of bread crumbs. Alexee came to tell me that he'd made a mess. Notice Bogart helping with clean-up.
3. They open every cabinet door, even those with child-proofing devices, and play with all the things they find...much more interesting than actual toys. (I put this one away though so he wouldn't smash his finger.)
4. They stand on their tip-toes and reach into the "junk drawer" and take whatever they happen to get straight to the dog's water bowl.
5. They wait for the perfect opportunity to slip into the bathroom and either stick their hand in the toilet or unroll all the toilet paper. (As soon as I finish this post I am going to clean the base boards in our bathroom!)

But toddlers are so cute and fun!

Since I forgot to take a picture during his actual first haircut, here's what the back looks like after the cut...no more "baby mullet".

Today, 16 months

SWEET SWEET boy

(he has lots of teeth--I've lost count)

16 months ago today