Look How I've Grown!

Wearing the same pair of shorts...

In August 2006...


and August 2007!

Pictures from Our Visit

Here are some pictures of my visit with Grandma and Grandpa. (You can click on any of them to make them big!) I miss my grandparents, but I think they left at the right time because it's 106 outside right now. Of course, we are staying inside! Thanks for the visit, Grandpa and Grandma!

Grandpa and I are watching Cars in this picture. None of my grandparents would have ever watched this movie without my help!


Great Grandma came by for a fun visit. All of my local grandparents got to see my faraway grandparents at one time or another during this visit.


Great Grandma always brings something interesting for me to see. She thought this slinky should walk down the stairs, but I thought it was for my "tiny little race cars." I also thought that she painted it for me.


On Sunday after church, we took Grandma and Grandpa to see some giant trees. It was a rare opportunity for me to miss a nap, and as you can see, I was very tired.


Here we are admiring the forest.


Mommy and Daddy and I are in this tree. It's not even the biggest one, but it sure is big!


Wow, those trees are tall!


This picture is of me with my new sandbox toys. There are enough toys to share with all my little buddies! You can see in the background that Daddy and Grandpa worked very hard to refill my play area with mulch. Now it's cushy enough to make a fall not hurt quite so much for my buddies and me.


Grandma and I got to play in my new sandbox.


Here I am looking through my sandbox lid as it's leaning against the playhouse.


Last, but not least, here are Mommy and Daddy and I posing with the other members of our family, my vehicles.

More Details on Maggie


Welcome to the world to Maggie Mae, 6 lbs., 12 oz., 18", born at 2:24 p.m. yesterday!

Peachy


Grandma and Grandpa left today, which is a pretty sad thing. But here's a happy thing: they left behind some yummy peaches that they bought at a fruit stand. There's nothing better than ripe peaches in the summer, and that helps us not miss Grandma and Grandpa quite so much. We'll be posting pictures from our adventures soon.

And by the way, a big "hello" to my aunt Shari (and uncle Denny, too.) I had my very first real peaches from a tree at their house when I was a baby, and they are still a yummy treat. Aunt Shari reads my blog faithfully!

Congratulations to Maximus!


Congratulations to my little buddy, Maximus, who became a big brother when his sister, Maggie, was born. All we have so far is a picture-nothing else-but we'll share more when it comes!

Top This TV-from Mommy

If you want to tickle your funny bone and influence the next line of Heinz commerials, click here:
http://www.topthistv.com/vote.aspx

My New Sandbox!

Before I tell you about my new sandbox, here's a picture of a grown-up ladybug with all its spots on. It's a "snuggly little ladybug!"


Today, Grandpa and Daddy converted the area under my playhouse into a sandbox. Message to all my little buddies: come play in my sandbox with me! There's room for everyone! (We saw Ella and Delia and Ms. Jen at Target today and invited them, but you're ALL invited!)

Here's Daddy nailing one of the benches into place.


And here I am scooping my first bit of sand.


Grandpa and I tried out the new bench. It works well!


Here you can see what it looks like with the lattice lid on. That keeps it covered when I'm not playing. Thanks to Grandpa and Daddy for my new sandbox!

Visitors

Grandpa and I have been shooting some hoops today, thanks to the people who used to live in our house and not only left me the playhouse, but also the basketball hoop!


I can dunk it!


I've also been enjoying visiting the ladybugs. The ladybugs are very happy on our squash because of all the aphids. I've been learning a lot about a the life cycle of ladybugs.


Here is a special surprise we found along with the ladybugs: a praying mantis. We're glad to watch all these helpful bugs in Daddy's garden!

Grandma and Grandpa Are Here!

It's naptime for me, but playtime when I get up, because Grandma and Grandpa are here! We picked them up at the airport this morning. They flew into our tiny local airport, where I've never been before, and I'm so happy they're here. I'll post some new pictures when we take some!

Just Me

Here are some pictures of me just being myself.


Only one of our carrot seeds grew this year, and Daddy showed me how to pull it up.


We've gotten lots of little strawberries, though! Strawberries are a favorite treat of mine. And, you can see that our tomatoes (in the background) have done really well.


I told Mommy that I was sleeping in here.


And, here I am, sleeping like a dinosaur with my tail tucked in. As you can see, I even remembered to take off my glasses.

Crane


Today, we had an exciting event next door. Our neighbors had a big tree removed, and they needed a crane to do the job. I got to watch from upstairs at our house in the playroom. What a treat!

A Note From Mommy

Hi everyone,

If you're looking for some interesting stories from someone in a different world, check out Kami's blog over on the right. She is currently in Africa traveling to different countries and volunteering her services to various mission organizations there. Kami is a freelance writer, and she's telling stories that normally would not be told. Right now she's blogging about her daily experiences, and I can't wait to read more about the people she's meeting.

We got to know Kami two towns ago in our community group through our church.

Enjoy!

Samantha

Yesterday when I woke up from my nap, my friend, Samantha, was here. She was here all afternoon until I went to sleep at night. I love having Samantha here when Mommy and Daddy are gone because her whole job is to play with me. She doesn't have to do laundry or work in the yard or clean up or anything like that. Oh, yeah, she also takes care of me.


Samanthat also brought these Lightning McQueens to me. What could be better? Thank you, Samantha!

Jumping

I found a jumping partner!  Aunt Corinne and I played this great game before dinner tonight.  We didn't get to play for very long because everyone was convinced that I was hurting my knees even though they didn't hurt at all.  Thanks for jumping with me, Aunt Corinne!

(The sound you hear in the background is Daddy chopping white chocolate to put in the ice cream he was making.)

A Visit from Ella


I haven't seen my buddy, Ella, in awhile because she's had lots of company coming to see her new sister. But, today, she and Ms. Jen and Baby Delia came over for a visit! I was very excited to see them. We spent some good times playing, and here we are sharing a snack. I hope she'll come over again soon!

"You're Takin' a Ride Toward the Ladybugs."

"You need help drivin'...drivin' that thing."

As you can see, I still have my I/you pronouns mixed up.
Do you like my crazy new hat? I picked it out myself at Once Upon a Child. I guess I only get to choose my own things when they're secondhand.

A Note from Mommy


Before the move, Jeff really enjoyed his weekly opportunity to play Ultimate Frisbee. And after we moved, he really missed it! Several weeks ago, he decided to go ahead and try to gather a group of people to play on Sunday evenings. He spread the word at church and work. We hoped there would be enough people to play. We were thrilled when 12 people showed up!

This picture is of this week's Ultimate Frisbee game at the park a short walk from our house. There have been 16 people there for the past couple of Sundays, and not always the same people, either. Word is spreading, and there are a lot of guys (and a few gals!) who have been wanting to do something like this.

I think of that first Ultimate Frisbee game as somewhat of a breakthrough for Jeff in finding community here, and I'm very thankful. If you'd like to come join this mismatched group of people for a fun game, or join Jonathan and me on the playground, just let us know! Everyone would be glad to have you!

I Love Nonfiction!


And I love Daddy, who took me to the library!

I'm a Mail Carrier

First I put my "mail" in the "mailbox,"


then I open up the "mailbox" and take out the "mail,"


and then I do it again...and again!

(Yes, I must do it with my left hand.)

Climbing at the Park


We are very thankful to have a park close to our house. This is one thing I really like to do at the park. I climbed this high all by myself, although Daddy "spotted" me. Once I got to the top, I didn't want to slide-I just wanted to walk down the stairs.

Tomorrow


Ophthalmologist #2

Here I am with Grandpa showing off the new trick I learned from him. He came over on Sunday night to watch Cars with me. Can you believe he hadn't seen it yet? He loved it as much as I do!

Since this picture opens up the topic of glasses, I'll tell you about my visit to the ophthalmologist today.

My first time at the eye doctor, he had a nice waiting room and nice toys, but when I got scared of the eye drops, he yelled at me, and when I couldn't sit perfectly still to look into his machine, he yelled a little more. Today, we went to a new doctor. Mommy called his office last week and shared with him how we had an awful experience the first time and didn't want to repeat it. So, this new doctor had a not-as-nice waiting room and not-as-nice toys, but he was pretty nice, and so was his nurse. As soon as I got into his exam room and saw all the different bottles of eye drops, I told Mommy that I was all done with the medicine! But, I was pretty brave when it was time for scary eye drops, and I only cried a little. And, nobody yelled at me. So, I think we'll stick with this doctor. Oh, and I got to see lots of little kids in the waiting room who also had glasses. That was pretty neat!

There was lots of good news from this doctor. He said that a lot of kids who have one eye stronger than the other will have amblyopia, but I don't-my eyes are working very well as a team. And, he gave me a prescription for glasses that are a little bit different than the ones I already have, but he says I don't need to use it unless I break these glasses. (Mommy and Daddy are happy to not have to buy new ones again!) And, the best news of all is that I don't have to go back again for a whole year, when I'm three and a half.

All in all, we finally had a pretty good eye doctor experience.

Here is Jack!


Ms. Karyn and Jack are safely home, so now I can show you his picture. We think he looks just like Jamey when Jamey was a baby.

Day in the Mountains

As you might remember, this is Daddy's busy season at work. That means that he's working a few evenings each week and at least a little bit on each Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday was the first Saturday in awhile that Daddy only had to go into work for less than an hour, so we decided to spend some family time together yesterday. We did what might be our favorite thing to do as a family: we went hiking!


We went high enough that Mommy and Daddy were breathing a little hard and lots of flowers were blooming.


Here are some of the pretty flowers we saw.


This was supposed to be a nice picture of Mommy and me, but I just wanted to eat my lunch.


Here I am hiking with Daddy.


Our family!


Here I am driving a motorcycle and watching lots of motorcycles drive by.


Thanks to the nice man who let me drive his motorcycle!