Look what I did...

I hate running.

Lord, help me.

More July

Okay, next up on our July calendar was a visit from my mom, a.k.a. Toto (hereto forth she will be called Toto). I had a client due in July and my mom came to stay with my girls while I went and doula-ed. Her one week visit turned into two weeks and luckily my client gave birth the morning of the last day she was here. Whew!

My mom is one of those grandparents that if you closed your eyes and didn't know she was an adult, you'd swear there were three children in the room, not two. She rolls around on the floor, plays chase, plays hide and seek, throws toys, makes messes, and...

...plays in the rain.


(Toto, I say all this with love and pride in your grandma-ing abilities. My girls couldn't ask for a better grandma.)

She showed Winnie the art of the splash.



Winnie had a blast getting wet.



She would rear back (kind of like so in the above photo) and make the following face while yelling "Ooooooooo!"



Love it when big sister "helps" little sister. (Me in the background: "Eden! Don't pull Winnie's fingers off!")



Toto also schooled Eden on how to style herself with various hats.



Attractive.

And of course, more prancing and playing in the rain.



I'd say our most adventurous activity involved dressing up as cows and going to Chick-fil-A for free food on Cow Appreciation Day. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I promised a photo of me dressed as a cow. So without further ado...

Moo.

(I am totally holding up the cow tail my mom made for each us that was pinned to my bum.)

Here's our herd.





Notice the tail?



Us at Chick-fil-A in all our bovine glory. (Please ignore the fact that Winnie is guzzling - literally - root beer as fast as she can from my cup. #momoftheyear)

After my mom left, things quieted down, and we returned to our daily routine.

Sitting in toys.


Closing ourselves into dog cages.


We watched our friends' dog Luna (a.k.a. Luna Tuna according to Eden) while they went out of town and I swear Winnie had more fun with the dog cage than the dog (although Luna came in a pretty close second).


(A shame they don't both fit in there - Whoops! Did I just lock the door accidentally...my bad...)



So there you have it. That wraps up July and it's only August 8. Go me for catching up!

Have a great week! Toodles!

On to July (only a month behind)

Alright, it's been 5 days and I'm already posting again, so at least I'm doing better than the last few months. We'll just pretend that it's still July and not August since the photos I'm going to post are all from July.

To continue from where I left off, I started the month off with a sewing project for my friend's little girl.



I love this dress pattern. I've made Winnie a dress like this, and it's my favorite one that she owns. I'm a sucker for full skirted dresses with flutter sleeves. So girly. And proud. :)

For the fourth, the sister missionaries from my church came over and decorated cupcakes like the American flag with Eden. (I use the word "decorate" loosely as mostly Eden just handed them decorations in between shoving them in her mouth.)





Like the festive clothes? I do.



These two ladies have really been a blessing in my life since Kevin's been gone. They visit all the time and help me fold laundry and do dishes and keep me company. I love them.



Later that day, our friends Mike and Jess with their little boy Charlie to grill out and do sparklers.



Eden liked the sparklers till we lit them. Then she ran inside and hid on the couch.



So that was our fourth. Pretty fun this year!

Lately Winnie has been gaga for books. She will pull some books onto our couch and just sit there and look at them. It's one of the things she does that makes me happiest.





I think I'll leave it there because the next group of photos is from my mom's visit in July and there are a bunch, so good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite. I have to go baste a quilt.

July...well, June

I should probably rename my blog to "Sorry it's been a while." My blog has dwindled to one or two measly posts a month. And each post's theme is "Sorry it's been a while" or some variation. As always you have my apologies. I'm not sure I have a good excuse for my absence this month. I'm sure I can come up with something:

* had two clients due to have babies this month (that sounds like a good excuse, right?)
* it's too hot outside (never mind the cooler temperatures from the unheard-of daily rain)
* I'm tired (always a good, honest, useable excuse - applicable to many things)
* I've had visitors (this one is legitimate)
* I'm addicted to Instagram (this one may be the most genuine of all these excuses)
* uploading and editing photos is not my favorite thing (another genuine one)

So you can pick which one you like best. After all, according to my boss in college, I am an excuse muffin. I should live up to a stellar title like that one.

Anywho, at least you're in for a whirlwind of photos today. I won't post them all from the entire month, so that I have some to use for several posts (and I will post, I will post, I will post...)

Rewind the calendar to June for a bit.

Since Kevin's been gone, we've been doing our daily removing of a link on our deployment chain. I'd say we actually do the activity on the link about 1 out of every 20 that we remove. And the ones I do usually involve something like "watch a movie" or "eat ice cream for dinner." Go figure.

So one night we pulled a link that said "movie night with popcorn." So into our jammies we jumped, onto the couch we hopped, and popcorn started flying while Thomas the Tank Engine entertained us.




Eden loved this activity. Winnie loved the popcorn. I loved the amount of effort it required from me.

One of the chain links said to go to the zoo, and luckily that same day someone from church invited us to go along and we had a blast. My favorite part: the 3-hour nap Eden took and the 4-hour nap Winnie took after we got home. That alone is worth the $85 family annual membership fee.




There were 10 kids and 4 adults (3 moms and a grandma). It really was a lot of fun. Despite Montgomery being a pretty lame place to live (though Panama City still holds the "Lamest Place to Live" title), its zoo isn't half bad. It's small, but most of the walkways are shaded (big plus in this psycho heat) and there are a lot of different exhibits. Even one where you can feed a giraffe (Eden was terrified of this but Winnie had a blast).

Eden! Stand like a flamingo!


There is also a great big park at the zoo that is sort of shaded.




The zoo AND a park in one day? Bestill their little beating hearts.



The following may be my favorite photo from our trip.




I think I'll leave it at that. That's a great photo to end on.

More later (I promise...no really, I do.).