Shirley

 

Well, we can’t leave Avery unattended by the water for obvious reasons.  She doesn’t really try to venture into the water on her own (yet) but this slide – she’s all over it.  Climbs right up, slides her feet out from under herself and slides right down.  If someone isn’t there though, she goes under the water.  She thinks its awesome though.  She will go down over and over and over again.  I wish it wouldn’t have been so dang windy or I would have videotaped her.  She was laughing so hard she was snorting! 

 

And here’s Water Boy the II jumping into the water.  He did this over and over again yelling “MOM!  Watch me!  Watch!  Look!” 

 

Here he was yelling at Eric (the original Water Boy)  to watch him.   

And here, I give you………

 

 

wait for it……

 

wait for it…….

 

wait for it……

 

 

 

 

SHIRLEY!!!!!

Isn’t she cute?!?!?!  Lulu and I found her on our walk this evening.  Smallest frog EVER!  She is the size of Lulu’s thumbnail.  Actually, she might even be a teensy bit smaller than that.  

Here’s Shirley relaxing on a paper towel. 

Later, we’ll have Shirley performing tricks and playing dress up.  Stay tuned….

31

Well, it was my 31st birthday yesterday.  Started it out with my favorite way to start the day – a tough workout.  And then moved on to a delicious breakfast of overnight oats and cherry bomb banana soft serve.  Things were clicking right along.  Then Brutus got up.  Dun dun dun!  LOL.   She gave me a special edition of a temper tantrum complete with laying on the floor face down kicking her legs.  All because her mean old mother wouldn’t let her play with the garbage can!  How mean am I?!  Then it was time to pack up all our stuff (always a production)  so we could head to White Earth Lake to celebrate my birthday at my parents cabin before heading up to Maple Lake for the weekend.  Lots of lakes in our lives, I know.  So anyway, packing up the stuff is always kinda tricky, but imagine doing it with NO gate on your stairs to keep your little climber from falling to her early and untimely death!  Luckily, her dad is very crafty and put up a makeshift gate made of a crib mattress and a clamp of some sort.  Clearly, its only temporary.  I need a crib mattress on my steps about as bad as I need a hole in my head.   So I got everything packed up and we were off!  Here are some pics we captured to remember this lovely, glorious day – MY birthday! : )

Oh, what did I get?!  Wait for it…..wait for it……

Some fancy Rubbermaid storage boxes!  Oh dear me!  BEST birthday present EVER!  LOL

And here we’ve arrived at White Earth Lake.  Pictured here is my niece Natalie and my brother Jon.  The first picture I took of him was not appropriate for posting here.  There was a little bird in the picture that was not supposed to be there. 

Eric, Dylan and Natalie on a little kayak  ride.  Is that how you spell kayak?  It looks funny.  Anyway, moving on. 

Avery spent quite awhile on Gma’s lap enjoying the water from a safer distance.  She originally started out in her own floatie, but decided she did not like it.  We thought she might lay her head down and go to sleep b/c she skipped her afternoon nap – but no such luck. 

Dang!  I thought I had captured Nat’s “swimming face” but I guess I missed it!  Its gooooooood.

Jumping off the dock over and over again.  She would get a running start from the end of the dock and then come to a screeching halt when she approached the edge.  Which, probably was good cuz that would be scary having to catch a leaping child!  

31st birthday photo shoot.  Eric is my photographer and I’m never very happy with his work.  There were a few, um, “questionable” shots.  *rolls eyes*

My hubby and my baby!

Cake time!!!  Natalie helped Grandma make it, so she was really excited when it was time to dig into it.  Not that she wouldn’t have been excited regardless, but still.

 

Beauty shot of the cake.  Its called Hummingbird Cake and it was DELICIOUS!  Can’t wait to dig into another piece as my midmorning snack!  

After cake, we were off to Maple Lake (45 minutes from White Earth Lake, so not too bad of a drive!).  We arrived to find U.B. Pimpin’ (the name of our boat) in distress!  Grandpa was walking out to the garage with a crazed look in his eye, so we knew something was up.  We got out to the dock to find this:

Only it was MUCH more full of water before I got my camera.  Had Gpa Danny not noticed that she was sinking (high waves got her), she would have been resting at the bottom of Maple Lake and we would have been attending a funeral today.  I gotta admit that writing a eulogy for her would have been fun tho!  LOL! 

They were able to save her though.  You can all relax now.

And finally, a picture of my little princess.  Despite her little temper tantrum earlier in the day, she really is a little sweetheart.  ; )

Well, that’s it for now.  I better end this and make sure that Avo isn’t eating random crap off the floor.  Ya never know…

Here’s the predicament

HOW do I stop her from going up the stairs????  That cushion (we’d stack two of them on the stairs vertically) you see there used to be our solution until she got too smart for us and just started pulling them down off the stairs.  Now its there as a bumper in case she falls when we don’t know about the breech in security.  A gate won’t work because of the set up of our stairs.  Does anyone have any ideas on what to try next?  I can’t do anything now that we don’t have a stair barrier!  I literally can’t take my eyes off of her now or she is right up the stairs.  Which means no bathroom breaks, no snacks, etc.  Seriously – someone must have an idea!  Please?!

 

She thinks she’s SO big and is trying to learn how to go up and down WALKING, not crawling.

And if when you take her down and try to redirect her attention onto something else – no such luck.  She either starts screaming or laughs and walks back to the stairs.  Help!

  Good thing the cushion was there Av-o!

  

Send comments and suggestions my way please!!!

Just another day on Sullivan Lake

The past few days have been just beautiful outside.  Don’t want to jinx it, but I think summer finally arrived! Avery is continuing to wear one new outfit a day in order to showcase all the lovely things she got for her birthday.  We haven’t repeated in a few weeks!  LOL!  She’s a girly girl!   So I for sure had to document all her pretty things with pictures.  So here they are enjoying the yard and the weather.

She points at EVERYTHING.  She’s getting really good at pointing out things she knows.  I just asked her where her cat was cuz Milly was approaching.  She knew right were her kitty was!

 

She is obsessed with doing whatever Dylan does.  She likes to walk out onto the dock by herself and swats my hand away when I try to hold her hand. 

I just LOVE wet sand.  And dry sand.  Sand is so fun.  (where is my sarcasm font??)

 

What a lovely day for a photo shoot with Avo!  This reminds me of a funny Dylan story.  Lately, he’s been adding an “O” to everything.  Started out with Av-o.  Then Dad-o.  Mom-o.  Gram-o.  Gramp-o.  You get the idea.  Its really catching on!  He is now Dyl-o.  My personal favorite was “pepperon-o” when we were going for pizza the other day.  “Are they gonna have pepperon-o pizza there?!”

Mux loves to hang out outside and likes it even more when we are out there with her.

Avery loves to shovel like her big brother.  And play tractors.  And eat sand.  Oh wait – thats just her. 

Time for a ride on Pontunia the II!

Awww, so sweet!

She’s got her dad wrapped around her little finger, that’s for sure!!

Eric was in the water, so Dylan was making sure he was okay.

  

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty good for taking it myself!

 

Such a handsome young man!

Hey, hey, hey – stay here and pose with your mother!

One of the many “balg eagles” that live on our lake.  Dylan still calls them “balg eagles” and I hope he continues to for awhile longer.  Its just too cute to correct!

Not bad for the point and shoot!  Had I had our SLR with, these would have been even better!  We also would have gotten a great loon shot too cuz there was one RIGHTNEXT to the pontoon who couldn’t have cared less that we were there.  It almost looked like a decoy it was so still!

 

Thats it for now…coming soon – a picture of my latest predicament.