Goodbye forever...

Sort of!!

I made us a new blog address, so trot on over to http://yankeesdownsouth.blogspot.com and catch up with us there!

Yesterday I suddenly realized that I needed to do a blog post but had not taken many pictures lately so I hopped right to work on it!! He was eating pickles at lunchtime and he actually likes them!!! He would make a face once in a while and then chomp back onto it!! So far for actual EATING eating, he's had avacado and banana :).And then last night we grilled burgers outside, so I took a bunch of pics out there :).

He thought the cupholder on the lawn chair was so fascinating!

Woohoo!!! I haven't been able to catch him smiling like this on the camera in a long time!!!

Mmmmmm!!

So y'all may be interested to see what Titus thinks about "normal" food. Last night we gave him some mashed avacado and he smacks for forever after each bite, shudders, and then comes back for more! :) He was so funny to watch! This video was taken right at the end when he was getting a little cranky, but it is so funny to watch! And its scary how much I sound like Anna!!!



Also he and his dad were playing together a few days ago... well, at least Alex was having fun!!

So what's been happening around here lately, you may ask? Heh heh, ok... you may not ask because most of y'all have talked to us recently! Too bad! I'm going to spill my guts anyways and if you don't want to hear it then just skip on down to the pictures :).

There. Now for those of you who are really interested and care about us... well I guess we haven't been doing much of anything :D. Sorry!!! Alex and I have been sick with this cold thingy that is rather annoying. I feel great now, but I still have a cough hanging on that makes people think I'm miserable. Titus is a little sniffley but I'm not positive if he actually has our cold or not.

Don't you love how this mirror stretches out his face? Saturday we went shopping and Titus got some new shoes!

He can get up on his hands and knees now and he just rocks back and forth and scooches backwards, much to his irritation.

I made Christy's Fresh Strawberry Pie for the second time now and Mmmm!! That's some good pie. Alex says its his favorite kind now!

Its extra delicious with whipped cream on it, but we ran out halfway through this pie.

Titus and I went outside to check on the garden last week and its looking GREAT!!!

Oops, that wasn't it! Here it is!! :) You can't really see them but there are little stakes marking where all the tomato & pepper plants are. They're really puny and I figured they'd have a better chance outside than in.

We have one great pepper plant, and here it is!

Here's a caterpillar I found near our back door last week, very similar to the one that gave me a heart attack several weeks ago. I had been sitting on the front steps holding Titus and watching the cars go by when suddenly I felt something hit my neck. I glanced down, and there on my shirt just beside my neck/chest was this caterpillar! I think it must have been skydiving out of the tree or something, because it didn't have wings or anything! Anyways, I very nearly had a heart attack, jumped up and raced inside, dumping Titus on the floor near the door and ripped off my shirt. Then I stood there holding my hair as far away from myself as I could while wondering if it could have gotten tangled up in it while I took off my shirt. Finally I worked up the courage and, still holding my hair up with one hand, I cautiously poked my shirt that was innocently laying on the floor. Sure enough, there it was! Heaving a huge sigh of relief, I released my hair, went and found a different shirt to wear, grabbed my contaminated shirt carefully and shook it off outside. Then I brought it back inside and deposited it directly into the washing machine. Y'all know me, I CAN'T wear something that some creature sat on for that long! Well, not if I know about it! Anyway, it was a while before I would sit on the front steps again too! So that's my story, and here's the little creature that caused it all! Maybe its a cousin or something...

Titus really liked sitting on the grass!! He can sit up almost by himself now.

This isn't an "eew, grass!" look, he was fascinated! ...and had to be prevented from sampling some of it! :)

Anyway, this is all for today- and its definitely all I can handle with one hand while holding a wiggley baby and talking on the phone (well, ok the phone talking thing didn't last too long). Y'all have a wonderful evening and keep your ears peeled... I'm expecting a phone call announcing a new niece or nephew at any moment now!!

Cough hack cough...

Hey!!! I got some new blurry pictures of Titus for y'all... aren't you proud of me? The camera and I don't really get along very well all the time. Hangin' out with Dad!Titus was tired and Alex was just going to sit with him till he fell asleep... and you can see what happened! Usually Alex falls asleep while Titus just lays there and plays or fusses :).

Camera face again!

"Titus, look at the camera!!"

And this was after his shower :).

We had a pretty good weekend. Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and got a headache that kept getting worse throughout the day. I got pretty cranky with Alex, but he's such a patient guy... My crankiness rubbed off onto him and then he apologized for being grouchy! Anyways, we went to a garage sale that the Louisiana natural birth group had as a fund raiser to support breastfeeding, and got some cool stuff!! I found some clothes for Titus and a few books and then somebody had cleaned out their Feature Films for Families videos, so I got some of my favorites!!! Walking Across Egypt, Jacob's Harvest, and several others! All this for $5.50. Titus and I had gone to their potluck lunch on Thursday when they were setting up for the garage sale and had a lovely time. SOOOO many kids!! Titus absolutely loved watching them even though he was hungry and tired- he never fussed! There were 2 babies within a couple weeks of Titus, one younger and I don't know how many older! Our church doesn't have a lot of kids, so he was pretty fascinated. It was a lot of fun. Anyways, where was I? Hmmm, when in doubt, start a new paragraph, right? I was home teached, so that's why I'm so smart! Just in case y'all are wondering :).

After the garage sale we spotted a used book store and browsed through there for a while, then went on to Barnes & Noble and Alex spent the rest of his Christmas gift card on a cool game. Now if y'all haven't had a chance to read "Scrambled States of America", let me tell you that you're missing out. Also "Arnie the Doughnut" is great. I looked through "Do unto Otters" at a bookstore and I have to say that its not as good as the others I've read. We only own Scrambled States of America, so if anyone's looking for a good bday present for Titus... :D Anyways, we discovered the "Scrambled States of America Game" and couldn't resist it. Its pretty fun but would definitely be better with more than just Alex and me.

Sunday night was the Awana Store/end of the year party and next week is the big award ceremony! Of course I was grouchy as all get-out again by last night. Y'know something? You should get sick like crazy and get it all out of your system before having kids, ok? That's my word of advice to people without children! Being sick is bad enough, but then throw in having to take care of a baby in there (especially since he's just recently decided not to sleep more than 3 consecutive hours during the night) and that is definitely not what my rose-colored picture of "marriage and a baby" used to be! Oh well, "this too shall pass".... right? And fortunately should take only a few days at most! Anyway, that is all my whining for the day! I hope y'all are feeling better than I am and having a great week!

Thoughts On Shopping

So how was everyone's weekend? Ours was busy but great (as usual!). Friday we helped out a little at the Spanish service's dinner that they had after their service. Also Carl came down for the weekend :). So Saturday the guys did some work outside- put up our new mailbox, redid the house number sign that was out front, and ran some errands for materials, of course. Men have a reputation for not liking to shop, but I tell you! It is just an excuse so they don't have to go with their wives. Ha ha. When Alex and Carl decide to go to Home Depot or Walmart really "quick" they're gone about 2 hours! That's just fine with me though- I must admit girls are MUCH better shopping partners than guys anyways! Maybe with one exception.... Andrew is actually a handy guy. He hurries me along just enough so I don't waste tons of time on something dumb, he gives honest opinions on clothing and has tolerable taste (my faith in him has been greatly shaken since he purchased a PINK shirt for himself!! *SHUDDER*), and can talk me into buying something that I need but don't feel like spending money on (i.e.: a flute!). Of course there are drawbacks even to shopping with Andrew. His legs are about 6 miles long and he likes to speedwalk. So I either had to force him to slow down, or trot along side him like an eager puppy. We reached a compromise though- I would speedwalk as fast as I could and he would slow down a little... whenever he remembered.

Anyways, where was I when I got off on shopping? Oh! So the guys did a little shopping :). That's ok, they came home with a little charcoal grill which they set up and took the bottom rack off so we could roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire for supper! That was FUN!!! And then Sunday we had lunch at the P's house and that was delicious and fun also!! :D Whew!!! And now its Monday again... much more relaxing, but not nearly as fun as a weekend!

And now for some pictures! I hardly took any this weekend, but I do have the pictures from Alisha, so it won't look so empty. Here's Titus with some of his new toys:

He can roll all over now! I don't think he quite understands his own mobility yet though.

And these pictures are from the Easter egg hunt at Mrs. Marilyn's house last weekend!

Alisha and me working hard!!

Family photo- I think we were too far apart and someone told us to look like we liked each other.

We're pretty good at pretending to like each other though :).

And here's our cute little grill- and proof that some guys DO read directions! ... Well, at least one of them does :).

Anyway, that's all for today! So I'm still waiting for some of you Michiganders to send me pictures or post some on your blogs (for those who have them). So you'd better get a move on!!! :D

What a beautiful day!!!

Wow, it is so sunny and warm and gorgeous out today!! Titus and I went out to hang some laundry and ended up wandering around out in the yard for a while.Here is our garden. The corn is in the back and peas are that bushy-looking stuff on the right side. And in the far back left corner is our small (so far) compost pile.This is my footprints from when I attempted to walk in the garden the day after it had rained.
I gave Titus some little flowers and after trying to eat them...He decided, "Here mom, you can keep them!"Same with the dandelion... except he really wanted to eat it and I wanted to snatch it away before any more ants jumped out of it onto him!
And finally, here's a picture from last night while I was making ravioli for supper.

I must say, this makes me feel less guilty about the lack of pictures on my last post!! And just FYI... the sheets are dry and back inside, and I think there are no bird plops on them! Isn't that just wonderful? I haven't actually dried sheets outside since last summer when I had them washed, dried, and inside and was making the bed before discovering this big blackish streak on the flat sheet. And then it wouldn't wash out!! I had to soak it in bleach first!!! Yuck!!! Anyways, y'all have a wonderful day! With no bird plops! :D

Too busy to take pictures... I guess!

I haven't been taking many pictures lately. Too busy, lazy, forgetful, whatever! You can pick any of the above and it would be true!! :D But... here are a few that we have taken- one with Titus playing with his new favorite toy!!

And this afternoon at lunch he was sitting on his bumbo seat on a chair trying to eat the table! :)

And if you see that little red spot at the top of his nose, that is from sitting there during breakfast and he suddenly leaned forward and bonked his head on the table edge. OUCH!!! But he's such a tough little coot he only cried for a few seconds :). Sometimes hard-headedness comes in handy!

And that's all the pictures I can post on here!! I also wanted to share some great books for y'all if you're interested in some great childrens literature (heh heh). I absolutely LOVE books that are just plain goofy. Forget those boring "cats say meow!" books and get something entertaining, ok? One of our library books is called "The Big Bad Rumor" and is about a goggle-eyed goose trying to tell his friends that there's a big bad wolf coming and he's hopping mad. They keep twisting it and messing it around ("he's shopping mad and wearing a wig?!?") until... but I'd better not spoil the ending for y'all! The other really good one we have is "Five Little Piggies" and tells the story behind each piggy in "this little piggy..." The last little piggy is the best... he is playing with his friends and says "wee wee wee" as he goes running for the house, (it goes through a couple pages with him passing his mom, brother, etc) and races up the stairs to the bathroom and when he comes out says, "Wow, I really had to go! I almost didn't make it!" Hahaha. Sorry, it just cracks me up. So don't neglect to read those if you ever get a chance, ok? OK!!!

And I might have more pictures coming up later on this week when Alisha sends me some she took yesterday (don't forget Alisha!!!). So I will "see" y'all later!!