Biter Biscuits

I decided to see how Captain Drools would do feeding himself. He of course loved it. Why in the world do these things have to be so so so very messy. I had to bath him after this. He had it everywhere, but he sure did like it. I do think though I could give him anything and he would love it. He hasn't meet a food he does like.

Family Fun Fest

My dad is an avid runner and loves to run in races. His favorite race to run in is the US 10k classic which is held on Labor Day. They hold a festival on Saturday and Sunday with lots of things for the kids to do. The kids and I went with my parents on Saturday. (We missed Jason though, but he is back to coaching cross country so he was at a race.) There were a lot of vendors giving away a lot of free stuff as well as a very large kids area full of games and inflatables. Layla enjoyed herself as always. She loves bossing her Pappy around and I think he enjoys it too. They are a sight to watch together.

Here is sweet little Tanner. He loves to just sit in the stoller and watch everything.

Layla and Pappy playing a game.

This was so funny for me to watch. He just moved the see-saw up and down with his hands. Then Layla would move to the side he was on and order him to go to the other side and "do again". Layla wanted to get in the fire truck, but Pappy had to get in too. Layla is reaching her hand out to tell him to get in.
Here is Tanner. Always just so sweet. His daddy is not very happy about him wearing this shirt though.

Leaving the festival. We had so much fun.

Mommy I have a hat I need to cook!

So, I found this hat and apron on the dollar aisle at Target (which is my FAVORITE place to look for toys and things for Layla). I came home and gave her the hat and apron. She insisted on wearing it at that moment and told me we had to cook. So I had to find something to make. We made a corn dip which my friend Wendy makes. It is super yummy. Anyways....Here is Layla in her cute little apron and hat. (And yes she is naked remember that whole potty training thing).

This is Layla crying after I told her it was time to put the food in the oven. She hates that part. She just likes to stir. Poor baby! Isn't this pitiful.

Fantasy Football 2008

The men in my family have been obsessed lately with fantasy sports. They played fantasy football last year along with fantasy basketball and baseball. This year they have talked the ladies into playing with them. On Sunday everyone came over to our house and we had a live draft. I, of course, really didn't know what I was doing so I printed a list of NFL players that I found on the internet and picked my draft choices by going down the list and picking whoever was next . I guess I have a good team. I really have no idea. We had a wonderful time together and it was so much fun to see how really into it everyone was. Jason has been researching this stuff all summer. He came with all of these print outs. He had told me from the start of all of this that he wasn't going to help me. Luckily, after I pointed out to him that every elses husbands were helping them he decided he would help me too. We had such a wonderul time as you can tell. Here is a picture of the draft board that Jason bought for the special occasion.

We asked Jason to explain to us about how to get points and win, but we weren't listening so he stopped.
Here is Jason, Naomi, and Luke during the draft.

Here is the board with all of our pics.
My brother Mark got a new smoker and decided to bring it over and cook us some ribs. Look at the rain. Luckily, we were able to cook in the garage. However, my house still smells like smoke from the ribs.
Don't these ribs look so yummy!
After a long day of hanging out and our football draft we all set down to eat together. We had such a great day. We really missed Ruthie though who wasn't able to come. It is never the same without her!
I think this is going to be a lot of fun to play. Jason and I have talked football all weekend and it has been suprisingly nice. It is nice to find something we can do together. I am looking forward to the season.

Baby Trey's Shower

This summer was such a busy summer with baby Trey and Luke and Naomi's wedding that we decided to delay our family baby shower till today. We thought that it was a good idea. The theme of our shower was Come And Meet Baby Trey. I thought this actually turned out very well. It was nice to be at a shower were the baby actually got passed around and loved on. I absolutely love giving showers. My sister and I always have so much fun talking about them and coming up with ideas. I love getting to be creative too. I decided to make my second attempt at a diaper cake and I was proud of it. We used it as the center piece on the table where all of the food was. It is really easy to make. The hardest part is decorating and finding what looks good where.

We tried really hard to get some good pictures of the kids together. It is very difficult to get everyone to look at the camera all at once. Layla only wanted to look at baby Trey. She loves holding him and she didn't want anyone to take him away from her. I had to tempt her with something in order to get her to put him down. She loves being a cousin and she is so very bossy with Tanner and Trey. During the picture taking (there were lots of cameras) Tanner was trying to move and Layla stuck her arm out and stopped him. She loves telling everyone she is the boss. I have visions of the three of them playing together when they are older and Layla telling them what they are going to do and both of them doing whatever she says. I love it!

It's back to work for me!

This last week has been so incredibly busy for me. I started back to work on Monday. I have been ready to back. I love this time of year. I love meeting all of my kids and learning all of there little personalities because they are all so different and by the end of the year I have grown to love each and everyone of them so very much. But anyways....the reason I actually was writing this was to say that my days of swimming and lounging by the pool are over. It is back to the real world of a working mother. I was really sad to drop Layla and Tanner off at my parents, but I knew they were going to have fun and probably not miss me to much (because Layla hates for me to take her home). She loves going to their house though. Mom had gone out a bought her her very own pair of scissors which she has talked about none stop all week. She is obsessed. Luckily, we all survived the week, however my house is a total wreck.

Annika Sorenstam

I really don't know that much about golf. I have been to the driving range a couple times in my life and I have played putt putt a few times. When we were on vacation we thought it would be fun to take Layla to play putt putt...little did we know that she would become obsessed. We have been home a little over a week and we have gone to play putt putt already and gotten her some plastic clubs. She plays with them every day. Both times we have taken her to play she has cried when we have left. Her form is not even close to being right and she cheats from time to time but she is actually a pretty good putt putt player. She scored a 4 on several holes (that is without cheating). I think if we had kept her score she would have beat me.

Swimming

Those of you that know Layla know that she has several different fears that we are working through. This summer she has loved being in the pool and "swimming" with you holding on to her close and tightly. I am proud to say that we have finally gotten over that fear. Layla has started to try to swim on her own now. I am so very very proud. On the second day of trying to swim by herself Layla was in the pool with Ruthie and asked Ruthie to take off her "swimmies" because "I can swim" I told Ruthie to take them off. She did very reluctantly and let her go...Of course she sank to the bottom. Ruthie picked her up and after a short little cough Layla said in a very sad little voice...."I can't swim". It was so adorable. She is doing a great job swimming with her swimmies though. To bad the summer is almost over.

Is she ever going to wear panties?

My goal for this summer was to get Layla potty trained. I guess I am about halfway there and I only have one week left before I have to go back to work. Layla doesn't have any accidents while we are at home, but there is one problem...... She must be naked to go to the bathroom. If I put pullup on her or panties on her she will pee in them. If she is naked she will go to the bathroom by herself and everything. She doesn't have one accident. So, we spend all of are time at home naked. Hopefully we will be able to move on to clothes soon!

Just some of my beach pictures

We went to Gulf Shores Alabama last week and we had the best time. Here are just a few of the 200 pictures I took. I was looking at the last night and realized majority of the pictures are of Layla with a few of Tanner thrown in there. We had the best time. I knew that it was going to be a lot of fun since this seems to be the time that Layla is really discovering new and exciting things. It has been a year since we have been to the beach.

There were many things she enjoyed about the beach. The first one was the crabs. It was pretty amazing watching her catch the crabs. She was really good at it. They move so very fast and I don't think that I could catch them. At one point a crab or bitty bitty crab as she called it pinched her and she refused to put it down. Every morning when she woke up she asked me if we could build a sand castle. So that is how she spent majority of her time. When it came to the ocean she wanted nothing to do with it. She continued to tell everyone that the water was gross (it had lots of seaweed in it on the first day she saw it). She also was really worried about "The Ocean's comin." She refused to put her feet in it. The only way she would go out into it was if someone was holding her. Another part of the vacation which I think was her favorite was putt putt golf. It was the first time we have taken her to play and she never got bored the whole time we were there. All she wanted to do was play golf. She even cried when it was time to go. She asked everyday after that if we were going to play golf. I think Jason and I are going to take her again to go play soon.

Feeding the fish at the oyster house.
Tanner in his seat while we are all playing golf. Poor guy.



I brought one of my beach hats for Layla to wear and I love the pictures I took with the hat on.

Tanner sitting in the sand for the first time.

Jason and Tanner on the beach the last night we were there.

Layla looking at her bitty bitty crabs.

Tanner with his daddy's fish hook smile.
Tanner sucking his thumb.

More beach pictures!

My Aunt Monica is a wonderful photographer and she posted a lot of pictures of our trip also on her blog. If you would like to check out more of the beach trip pictures....look on the side under blog list and click on My Aunt Monica.