A You're Adorable

Beth had her first dancing-on-the-stage experience today. It was a practice, in her normal dance wear. Never-the-less, she couldn't help but take the spot light with Miss Jodi!

Beth: "Miss Jodi, Am I Adorable?"
Miss Jodi: "Yes, Beth. You are adorable."
Beth: "My daddy says I'm very adorable."

An Apple And Some Floss

On Gabi's 6th birthday, she discovered, to her wonderful excitement, that she had a loose tooth. Now, loose is all relative. It was barely noticeable, but she had been waiting for this for a year! It was, to her, the most exciting and amazing thing.

But, then came the boring part... the wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait...wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait...

Well, you get the picture! In with all that waiting comes the pain... every so often she'd find it hurt to eat a carrot stick. Then it was would hurt to bite a cookie. It was always something different, and with the tooth being in the front, she'd not be able to eat something one time, but have no trouble the next (being that she learned to use just her back teeth for this).

So, as the rest of the family patiently endured the numerous complaints of "when is it going to fall out", she finally let it go and didn't bring it up again..... Until last night! She was eating an apple. A nice, ripe, juicy apple as a wonderful way to tie up her dinner!

Suddenly she exclaims "Ouch!" and then walks to the trash to throw away her apple. It was not finished by any standard (or at least not mine) and I told her she needed to finish it. So she explained that it hurt and she couldn't. As she did this, I noticed blood in her mouth and asked her if I could see her mouth. She came to be telling me her tooth hurt and it seemed more wiggly.

Sure enough, the tooth was about half way unattached. I didn't tell her that, but I did tell her that it would likely fall out sometime this week. I also started think about what kinds of soft food I could send to school for lunch so she wouldn't end up swallowing the tooth if it came out at school!

She proceeded to the bathroom, because she noticed blood on her finger after wiggling it. That's when she noticed it was hanging some and looked crooked. She wanted to know if there was a way we could just "take it out". To which I told her there was, but it might hurt. And Bob added "It will certainly hurt."

She wasn't too interested at that point and decided she'd wait for it to fall out by itself. Evidently, she changed her mind after she'd gone to bed (and me too - since I'm trying to catch up from vacation). She and Dad went in search of something to tie to her tooth. All the while, to my understanding, with a reminder that if the tooth wasn't fully ready to come out that it would hurt when they did it. They found themselves in the bathroom, with the dental floss......I think the picture tells the rest!

Anyway, a very excited and happy Gabi came up to wake me and tell me she'd finally lost her tooth... and it didn't hurt at all! Another milestone marked! She's now joined the ranks for the toothless... and at school, that's a good thing! :)

Grami Cretia's

See... I told you are vacation was busy... crazy schedule!

I mentioned briefly that Peter had gotten sick. He also needed up with this very weird rash. I thought it was just his eczema acting up, but I'm not so sure any more. It's similar, but it also seems different. Still, we're home now and I'll be trying a few things, and if it doesn't tame it, we'll go in and see what the cause might be.

May I also say that housekeeping was great! We just called them up and told them what happened and left the stuff for them. Because there were so many extra blankets and pillows anyway, we told them we didn't need to the stuff back, but they made sure we had clean things anyway!

So, we took the personal items that had been made not so pleasant (which we'd stored out on the deck until time to go to Mom's) and had them washed there! Thank you so much, Mom! (There actually was a washer and dryer in the unit, but it seemed silly to run a whole load just for that)

The kids love to be at Grami's.. and this time was no exception. There were lots of toys to play with (we had left almost everything at home.) and there was Baby Braeden to adore. They spent time with Grami working on their gifts for Daddy, which were given at a cook-out in his honor. They also decorated (very decorated) a chocolate cake for him.

Meanwhile, Erin had come down too, and she and I put together the cake for Kayleen's baby shower. It was fun to be with everyone, even if the party ended up starting three hours late. The girls were especially excited to be with Libby again too!

Tia was in charge of games and had put together a baby bingo and word search. But the excitement came when she brought out the tub of water filled with pacifiers. The original game involved two people go to bob for binkies at the same time and the one who gets it first "wins" or goes on to compete against the winner of the next group and so on. But we're all family... so we let the little kids get in on it too.

Tia even let Braeden have a turn... he was interested in trying to grab them, but then enjoyed playing with the water more. He seemed to be having a great time, so she tucked his toes in, and that ended things... the water was cooler then he liked it!

You'll notice that Peter is not wearing sleeves. Daddy packed the stuff to take to Grami's. He grabbed the outfit, saw that it had built in shorts and assumed it also had built in sleeves. There is actually a shirt that goes with it. But, what do you do when you don' t have extra clothes? So, I took pictures anyway, and laughed at Bob for making the mistake... I think he'll check the clothes better next time. :)

In passing the time, Bob went outside where he discovered a bunch of log chunks that needed to make their way to the back where there was a nice pile set aside. Once they were removed, there was also a bunch ov brush and leaves to dispose of. He had started in with doing all that, and Erin noticed there was something to be done. And much like Bob, she can't sit and do nothing for long, so she was out beside him helping get things done!

In all this stuff that Bob got done between Grami Cretia's and Great Grandma's and Grandpa's, we ended up with some Cherry wood from Great Grandpa and a boat from Erin! Getting the boat home was kind of fun! We picked it up at night and rigged up a strapping of sorts which required several stops along the way back to the resort. But, in the day light, at the resort, Bob set to strapping it right and we had no trouble on the way home! Thanks, Erin for the boat... we're very excited to try it out later this year!

So, although crazy and busy, there was much fun to be had visiting with family and letting the cousins run together! (Grami even had a sand and water table out side which the kids really enjoyed) It was nice to be back after being away for most of a year!

Great Grandma and Grandpa's

A couple of times we made it over to Great Grandma and Grandpa Boone's house. That seems funny to write since they are only my grandparents, but this is as much for my kids as for me, so they know them as their great grandparents.

We had a wonderful time visiting with them. First it was after church, having dinner with them, Grami Cretia, Reg, Kayleen and Libby. It was nice. The kids spent most of the time outside with Grandpa, Daddy and Reg as they found last fall's leaves to jump in, bury each other in, throw at each other and genuinely have a great time. They also spent some time on the old swing set (which was there before I was a kids, I believe... in any case, I swung on it when I was little).

After everyone else had left, we stayed a visited long. As we went walking a little outside, we stopped along the back bank as the train came through... clear down the bank and across a large (old) farm field. Let's hear it for cameras with great zoom! The kids loved to watch the train go by and to hear it too!

Later on, we stopped there as we passed through the area and joined them for lunch. The kids, once again had a wonderful time playing outside. This is where Gabi was throwing and catching with Bob when she caught her first base ball (it was actually a T-Ball). Still, we were all excited for her, and although I missed the actual catch in the camera, you can see how happy she is as she held the ball toward me just afterwards (but after taking it out of her glove).

Again, there was more time playing on the swing set... but the most exciting part... well, one of them... was going on a tractor ride. Grandpa has an older tractor with a little trailer attached. So, with Daddy driving, the kids all in the back (and Grandma with them), I took some pictures and then climbed in myself to down a little way down the hill and back up.

Daddy then took the tractor down the hill and around the corner to cut up a tree that had fallen down. He loaded up the wood and started up the hill with it. Gabi had gone in search of Daddy (in her sock feet), and found herself having a nice ride with the wood when she and Daddy got stuck in the sand part. It only took a few minutes to back up and then find a better place to come around... and just in time.....

The men had come to "spread" the lane and the yard so that the grass might actually grow in better! (It's a new house of only a couple of years) Although the smell is something we recognize, it's not something we are all too familiar with.... we gathered inside and watched for there! Peter was especially excited to see the truck.

Remember how the tractor got stuck in the sandy part? Well, this big truck did too... they have to do and get the tractor to help pull it out! But it gave the boys more time to watch the action!

Peter, being the natural animal lover that he is, found Remi any chance he could get, and then loved her and patted her! :) -- He also loved to go over to Grandma's shelved and pull off the cans of food and then reorganize it for her.

It was a lot of fun!